In Britain and America a more hierarchical corporate culture has resulted in a different response to Bürolandschaft. The space efficiency and perceived communication benefits of the open plan were retained but the underlying ethos has remained that of the Taylorist office. Many offices have a mixture of cellular offices for senior managers and open plan space for other workers. Both the developers who build these buildings and the companies that occupy them are ultimately responsible to the shareholder rather than to the employee.

Significantly higher rents in London than in other European cities and relatively few regulations regarding space standards in offices has resulted in deeper and more open office plans. The use of compact and efficient American-style open plans developed into the large dealing floors that became popular with financial services firms following the deregulation of the stock market in 1986. A great deal of interaction and urgency characterises this type of work. Deep raised floors were needed to accommodate the large amounts of services needed for the widespread use of the computer in such expansive spaces. Broadgate by Arup Associates in the City of London is a model development of this type. Large scale developments in Canary Wharf from the 1990s follow more closely the American model of the office.

In the UK office buildings are often designed as empty shells that only generally anticipate the organisations that will occupy the future building. It is usual for companies to rent rather than buy their space and therefore building developers dominate the office market. Offices are also often set up in old buildings such as warehouses that may not have been purpose-designed, but offer generously scaled and flexible spaces.

Another trend that became widespread in Britain and America is the out-of-town business park, with its cheaper rents than central city locations. In the UK this phenomenon is often driven by the logic of the cost-cutting management consultant and the increasing mobility of day-to-day office work. Many of these developments have used the increased amount of open space to build shallower plan offices with more contact with the outside. The deep, artificially lit and air-conditioned, plan has been linked to ‘sick building syndrome’ and higher employee absenteeism and dissatisfaction.

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