Broken Plan: Fresh ways to interconnect spaces in an Open-Plan Home

Where does our mental image of a home come from? In Britain, the Romans taught us what a house should look like: a kitchen for preparing food, a dining room for eating, bedrooms for sleeping, and so on. Most of our homes still work that way.

But the 20th century gave us a revolution in architectural thinking. Initially drawing on themes from ancient Japan, geniuses like Frank Lloyd Wright, Gropius, Eames, and Rietveld truly made a break with tradition and explored every possible way to bring integrity, oneness and flow into our homes.

Open plan has evolved. It's no longer an artistic experiment: it has become a functional and highly desirable way to build a better home. However, it comes with its challenges. For safety reasons, the building regulations demand additional fire protection in open plan layouts. This is where Automist Smartscan® comes in. This high-tech fire system enables you to do more with your open plan living spaces, achieving better open plan designs that are passed quicker and easier by Building Control.

While open plan layouts offer a chance to own a more beautiful space within the constraints of your property, the “all-in-one” format has its limitations. With family entertainment often replaced by watching Netflix on tablets and phones, and working from home becoming commonplace, the ideas of flexible and fluid architectural spaces have returned with a bang, winning multiple architecture awards and often carrying a new buzzword, broken plan. This new generation of open plan retains the sense of space, lightness, and togetherness, but gives back some privacy and personal space. It can be tricky to pass through building regulations though, with fire safety of paramount concern. Automist® Smartscan® offers the ideal solution, enabling you a choice of designs, such as these below:

Photo by Griffin Enright Architects	Rooms can be gently divided up by height, with split-level floors or even mezzanines. In this space, colour has also been inverted to enhance the separateness of the raised area.
Photo: ODS Architecture	Sliding and folding doors have been around since at least 12th Century Japan, but are more relevant than ever for creating flexible, useful spaces.
Photo: Stiff and Trevillion	Patterned screens, glass walls and internal windows maintain the connectedness of a space, but allow an area to be set slightly to one side, improving privacy, sound isolation, or both.
Photo: helsingHouse Fastighetsmäklare	Functional features, such as shelving units or a large chimney breast, can separate a kitchen and dining space from a living area.
Photo: Roundhouse	L- and C-shaped rooms are a simple way to reduce sight lines and reintroduce elements of privacy and separateness, while keeping the integrity of the open area.