The open plan, also known as the free plan, is an architectural term referring to an interior made up of non load-bearing walls dividing spaces. In this design scheme the structural system is separate from that of the interior walls. This allows for a freedom in design without restrictions on structural loads. The structural loads in an open plan are typically transferred down through columns rather than walls. This allows for visual freedom and spacious circulation.
The first architect that made the open floor plan popular was Le Corbusier in the early 1900s. Le Corbusier made famous his “Five Points of Architecture” and his adoption of the Dom-ino System. The Dom-ino House was his original design in 1914 that featured the open floor plan and exterior skeleton structural system. It was intended for mass residential production as a two story building with six vertical columns holding the steel reinforced concrete slabs. Le Corbusier utilized this system to free the exterior walls to be able to be penetrated with windows able to wrap corners and stretch greater lengths. The Dom-ino system was a model for cheap rapid production for buildings.
One of Le Corbusier’s projects that best featured the open floor plan was the Villa Savoye Poissy. It featured all five points of architecture, by using the free plan to free up the exterior for long spanning windows and introducing more light into the interior. The open plan was utilized rather than load bearing walls, but by having large openings from room to room.
While Le Corbusier was the first to popularize the open plan, another famous architect that followed in his footsteps was Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe. Of MVDR’s work, some his most famous projects that featured the open floor plan was the Barcelona Pavilion, New National Gallery in Berlin, and the Crown Hall building. These projects feature the free plan system allowing for large open expanses. Specifically, the Barcelona Pavilion expresses its open plan with large spans of glass curtain walls opening to the outside blurring the line between inside and out.
Analyzing Le Corbusier and Mies Van Der Rohe’s work comparatively, both of them utilized the open floor plan system. However they each did it in their own way. Mies Van Der Rohe simplified the form and opened up the boundary of the building to be open to the exterior through glass facades. Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye Poissy featured the open floor plan through a variation of methods. He kept the different spaces quite confined yet allowed circulation from one to another to be very easy. While Corbusier might have been the father of the open plan, I believe that Mies Van Der Rohe’s work was more successful.
