The biggest decision in an office fitout is rarely the colour palette or the furniture range. It is the layout itself, and the two options most businesses weigh up are open plan and activity-based working.
On a floor plan, they can look like variations of the same idea, yet they behave very differently once people are working in them. Choose the wrong one and your team ends up distracted, frustrated, or quietly avoiding the spaces you paid for.
Here is what each layout involves, what the research says, and how to work out which one suits the way your team actually operates.
What Open Plan Really Means
Open plan removes the walls and partitions between desks so that most or all of your staff sit together in one shared space. It has been the default office layout for decades, largely because it is simpler to design, cheaper to build than a series of enclosed rooms, and gives managers a clear view across the floor.
The thinking behind it is that fewer physical barriers lead to more spontaneous conversation and easier collaboration. What happens in practice tends to be more mixed than that.
The Research on Open Plan Isn’t Flattering
Noise is the well-documented weakness of an open plan office. Research from Bond University found that background office noise increased participants’ negative mood by 25% and their physiological stress response by 34%, measured through skin conductivity, after just 8 minutes of exposure to a simulated open-plan soundscape.
The researchers noted that effects recorded over such a short period would likely be considerably worse across a full working day of constant exposure.
None of this rules out open plan as a choice. It does mean noise and focus have to be treated as a design problem to solve rather than a side effect to accept.
What Activity-Based Working Actually Looks Like
Activity-based working gets rid of the fixed desk. Nobody has a spot with their name on it, and nobody sits in the same place from nine to five.
What the office holds instead is a set of zones, each one set up for a different kind of work, so a person with three hours of concentration ahead of them goes to the quiet area while a team that needs to hash something out takes an open table.
Calls go to a booth. The conversations that are not really meetings tend to land in whatever soft seating is nearby.
Get the mix right and much of the noise problem in a traditional open plan office goes away, because the people who need quiet are not sitting next to the people who need to talk.
Where Activity-Based Working Tends to Fall Short
Activity-based working is not automatically the better option simply because it is newer. It only works when the variety of spaces genuinely matches how your team operates and when staff have both the freedom and the habit of moving around rather than claiming one spot as their own.
Where a business commits to the concept without first checking its team’s daily patterns, the result can be several expensive zones that barely get used while everyone crowds into the two or three that suit them best.
How to Decide Which Layout Suits Your Team
Watch what your team actually does for a week before you commit to anything. If the work is fast and conversational, with people turning around in their chairs every 10 minutes, an open layout with a few enclosed rooms for head-down work will probably serve you well.
A team juggling deep concentration and short meetings usually gets more out of a genuine activity-based setup, provided there are enough of each type of space to go around.
Team size changes the maths.
A small team can usually sort out its own noise problems by talking about them, and one or two spare rooms will cover most of what comes up.
Larger teams lose that. Once enough people are competing for the same quiet corner, the number of rooms has to be counted against the number of people who will actually want one.
A Blended Approach Is Often the Answer
Very few office fitouts need either option in its purest form. Plenty of businesses land somewhere in between, keeping an open floor for the bulk of the team and adding a real mix of quiet rooms, phone booths and informal breakout spaces around the edges.
That gives staff options without the cost and complexity of a fully zoned activity-based fitout. A Gold Coast office fitout specialist can price both versions side by side so you can see what the extra zones are worth before you commit to them.
Talk to Your Fitout Company Before You Commit
Whichever direction you are leaning towards, talk it through with your commercial fitout company before the design is finalised. A plan on paper is far easier to adjust than a finished layout six months after everyone moves in.
A good fitout partner will ask about your team’s real working patterns, walk you through the trade-offs of each option and help you avoid paying for spaces that look impressive but never get used.
The choice between open plan and activity-based working is not about following the newest trend. It comes down to matching the office to the way your team genuinely works, so the space supports them instead of getting in their way.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is activity-based working more expensive than open plan?
Generally, yes, because activity-based working calls for a wider variety of furniture and zoned spaces. The size of the difference depends on how many zones you include and the finish level you choose.
Can open plan and activity-based working be combined?
Yes. Many offices run a blended layout, keeping an open floor plan while adding quiet rooms, phone booths and breakout areas for staff who need a change of environment.
Does activity-based working suit small teams?
It can, although smaller teams rarely need the full range of zones a larger office would. A simplified version with one or two flexible spaces often works better for a small team.
How do I know which layout my team actually needs?
Watch how your team works day-to-day before you decide. Look at the balance between focused work and collaboration, and note how often people already go looking for a quiet spot away from their desk.
Will changing our office layout disrupt daily work?
It can, although staged commercial fitouts and clear planning with your fitout company reduce the disruption significantly. Most teams are able to keep working through the transition.
