The most common open floor plan combines the dining room and living room or a family room area, requiring furnishings such as tall shelves or a large table that set apart the unique uses for each space. There are a variety of Open floor plans that demand different decorating approaches. Although open plans do have advantages in fostering ambient awareness and teamwork, a meta-analysis published last year in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Health Management by Vinesh Oommen of the Queensland University of Technology in Australia found that they cause conflict, high blood pressure and increased staff turnover. Let us hope that architects’ next idealistic impulse will be rather more successful.