Open plan vs zoned office: is open plan the reason nobody comes in?
Open plan offices were meant to bring people together. Fewer walls, more conversations, a stronger sense of team. For some work, they do exactly that.
But talk to the people who use them and a different picture often appears: back-to-back calls at neighbouring desks, nowhere quiet to think, and a nagging sense that the kitchen table at home is a better place to get things done. If people feel they can work better at home, it’s no surprise when they don’t come in.
What people actually want from the office
In our surveys, people were clear that the office should offer more than desks. When asked which settings they would like to see:
71% wanted spaces for informal meetings
69% wanted meeting pods for Teams and phone calls
68% wanted collaborative and team spaces
62% wanted break-out and relaxation spaces
More broadly, 75% of people believe the future workplace should offer a variety of settings to support different activities, and 68% want areas that focus on team collaboration.
One big open floor rarely delivers that mix.
Where open plan falls short
The rise of video calls has changed how open plan feels. People are looking for private or semi-private spaces to take calls away from their desk, while others want to escape the distraction of calls being made around them.
The effect shows up in how people feel about their workplace. While working from the office, 78% of people told us they feel connected to their organisation and colleagues. But only 57% felt their existing office environment added to their job satisfaction. The connection is there; the environment isn’t always helping.
And people are different. Some thrive on buzz and conversation; others need quiet to do their best work. A layout that only offers one level of noise and activity will always suit some people and frustrate others.
What a zoned office does differently
A zoned office doesn’t mean going back to cellular offices and long corridors. It means planning the floor around the activities that happen there, often called activity-based working.
In practice, that can include:
Team zones with desks for people who are in most days
Touchdown tables near teams for people who come in less often
Collaboration spaces for workshops and project work
Pods and booths for one or two people to take calls
Quiet zones for focused work
Social and break-out spaces where people connect informally
The aim is choice. As we put it in our research, it’s about an environment where people can choose the degree of stimulation and social interaction that works best for them. That matters for everyone, and especially for neurodivergent colleagues who may find a constant open floor overwhelming.
Zoning in practice: CBRE Investment Management
For CBRE Investment Management at One New Change in London, the solution was to introduce a variety of settings to support future activities, with a critical focus on quiet and acoustically controlled spaces.
With headcount expected to grow from around 230 to 330, the new layout shares approximately 120 workstations and 80 alternative collaborative positions, so that around 250 people can be accommodated across the various settings at any one time.
So, is open plan the problem?
Not on its own. Open space is still valuable for teams who work together and for the energy it brings. The problem is open plan as the only option.
If your office gives people nowhere to focus, nowhere to take a call and nowhere to meet informally, they’ll make their own choice, and that choice is often to stay at home. Give them a mix of spaces that support the work they come in to do, and the office becomes somewhere worth the commute.
Talk to us about your space
We start every project by understanding how your people work, using occupancy data, surveys and workshops, then design the mix of spaces to match.
Book a call to discuss your next project.
