Open‐plan privacy revisited

Driven by a desire for economy, the open office has been with us since before World War II. However, it was not until the 1960s that largely through the work of a Quickborn (Germany)‐based team of space planners it became an art form, touting all manner of organizational benefits, and flexibility. Though speech privacy was recognized as an issue, there was no systematic approach to resolve it. Against this backdrop, five variables that would affect speech privacy in an open plan were identified and their relative contributions quantified [R. Pirn, ‘‘Acoustic variables in open planning,’’ J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 49, 1339–1345 (1971)]. This work and its impact on acoustical design of the 1970s is reviewed, as are the trends in and the failings of current open‐plan design practices.