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I've lived in all three - relatively small suburban box-of-boxes, sprawling suburban chain-of-boxes and open floorplan. I wouldn't take another house with the last model if it were free.
Because that open space permits one (1) and only one (1) activity that has any audio or distraction component at all. Our first floor was over 1500 sf with a modest collection of partial walls in the center. Watch TV at one end? Everyone else better want to hear it. Play a video game there or at the other end? Better like beep-boop-bam-bash drowning out everything else. Play the Steinway grand in the middle? Bring earplugs.
Cook anything with the slightest odor or fumage? It better harmonize with what everyone else is eating or not eating or whatever... and that's with a 500CFM exhaust system.
Try to have a little privacy for a parental/adult conversation? Don't count on it.
My feeling is that open floor plans appeal to the following people:
People who simply aren't home much (and thus don't need any personal/private space).
People who adore chaos and can't stand quiet - the kind who get the willies if they can't turn on a TV for 'companionship.'
People who don't cook much.
People who don't really have... interests outside of shared time-wasting like TV.
And, of course, people who "entertain" and need a social hall to hold all their dear friends at frequent intervals. Which is often coupled with the other half of an open area... numerous private areas. It's fine if half the house is one room... because Dad has his study/office/man-cave, Mom has her sewing room, the kids have bedrooms as big as the houses we grew up in (along with a small "living room" or the like)... so all that flashy space isn't really the house, but more like an apartment's common areas. Anyone can hang or leave, as they like.
And "flash": like 'gourmet kitchens,' open plans sell houses. O yes indeedy. And I suspect many first-time buyers grow to hate it when their life isn't two plus baby or entertaining or only being home for about three waking hours a day.
I don't like Victorian rabbit-warrens, either. But families and even couples need some division of space day in and day out, year in and year out, unless they either can't stand solitude or have it elsewhere.
I wonder how many divorces have been caused by one partner or the other discovering a quiet living room somewhere else was a luxury...
The bottom line is that open concept homes are fire traps. Underwriter's Laboratories has conducted extensive research on the subject and has proven conclusively that open floor plan interiors create fires that spread faster and are harder for firefighters to control.
Fire trap? No thanks. That's reason enough for me.
yeah, not really covid related, but open floor plan related – for those commenting here that have one –
I just can’t shake the fact that – when cooking – the bacon splatter could conceivably land on the carpet or the sofa. I just…don’t get it.
YES – I know that is not a good or typical example of a floor plan, I mean, poor placement of oven and furniture – but that’s how our neighbor's house is. Blech.
A friend of mine went 'open plan' in a square space about 20 x 25.
Made the place look like a cabin.. with a refrigerator in the living room.
Double-Blech.
My feeling is that open floor plans appeal to the following people
You missed (at least) one:
People who live alone. This is the case for at least two retired / semi-retired single woman in our neighborhood - one large-ish room, easier to clean, easier to secure, easier to find the cat, etc. No problems with privacy or noise, and no need for a wall anywhere.
My feeling is that open floor plans appeal to the following people:
People who simply aren't home much (and thus don't need any personal/private space).
People who adore chaos and can't stand quiet - the kind who get the willies if they can't turn on a TV for 'companionship.'
People who don't cook much.
People who don't really have... interests outside of shared time-wasting like TV.
Don't know where you live but the opposite is pretty much true around here. Open plans are very, very common here.
- People are home a lot in the winter in Montana (including us). I don't know of many people here that like to shelter 'solo' in a closed room by themselves. It's nice to have friends over for a BBQ when it's -10 outside.
- Your second point is simply ludicrous. Are you asserting open floor plans create chaos? It seems like you're simply projecting your own personal tastes. I'll bet you're a hoot at parties too.
- We cook, butcher and can A LOT. Everyday almost. In the winter I may have 4 other families over as we prepare sausages and butcher wild game. It's fantastic I can have 'all hands' available and all in the same areas as we do this. Oh by the way- the farmhouse my family lived in (circa 1880) in Ohio had a massive kitchen with a huge set of pocket doors that opened into a large parlor- we did the same thing back then- dozens of people working to put up food. It's great for community and large gatherings.
- Again, What?!? Montana is an active state- me and my friends spend more time outdoors than most 'in town' suburbanite types.
If you don't want an open floor plan- don't buy one. Your effort to project some 'stereotype' on people based on what floor plan they desire is simply childish and frankly ill-informed blather.
That open plans are common means only that you have a lot of newer, fad/era-driven construction.
Any other conclusions you care to draw are heavily influenced opinion. As are mine.
Well I guess that 1880 farmhouse was just ahead of the curve on the fad 'thing' huh? The entire first floor could be opened up with the pocket doors. Kitchen, parlor and living room. The kitchen was bigger than most peoples garages. It wasn't uncommon to have 30 or more people over when your were making apple butter or butchering hogs.
A friend of mine went 'open plan' in a square space about 20 x 25.
I think 'open plan' applies only to significant square footage. A studio apartment or even a one-bedroom is "open plan" in some sense, but the term - IMHO - generally applies to 1000sf or more with few separations or barriers, sort of a studio apartment on steroids.
Quote:
Originally Posted by roodd279
You missed (at least) one:
People who live alone.
Well, see above. I guess a single/couple who have to have a huge house could live with an open floor plan, yes. But I think you're thinking more of a smaller house with relatively few rooms - IMHO, again, a different case from 3,000sf houses with three interior walls.
I believe there is a reasonable balance. Open spaces of reasonable size with division of the floorplan for different purposes and to allow, if nothing else, some division of life efforts is more sensible - IMHO - than either a warren of small encapsulated spaces or a giant studio layout.
I live alone in a modest-sized house these days, and being able to "exist" in different areas without always seeing my work area, the TV (even off), the exercise gear and laundry nook, etc. gives small, consistent pleasure to my day. (Insert long side op-ed about people who can never get out of sight of their desk, be they student, writer, remote worker or Bill Gates.)
None of the four or so "different areas" is in any way cramped or encapsulated or isolated, other than the MBR when the door's closed, and even then I have a pass-through closet almost the size of the smallest bedroom.
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