Open floor plans once ruled the real estate market—but today, they feel loud, inefficient, and out of touch with how we actually live. Developers cling to them, as they lag behind real design trends, overusing high ceilings, black windows, and copy-paste layouts from proverbial ‘catalogs’. Gross. Open floor plan problems show up fast: sterile, echoey, and dated. Read on to see why we prefer smaller, enclosed spaces.

Florence Knoll didn’t just shape the look of mid-century modern furniture—she hired the people who defined it. Her collaborations with Eero Saarinen led to some of the most enduring furniture designs of the 20th century, and they still show up in our projects today. Mid-century pieces like the Womb Chair, Tulip Chair, and Tulip Table—designed by Saarinen for Knoll—pairs with the Executive Chair, designed by Knoll herself.