Open-plan debate is nowhere near closure ©Panos Pictures/Ian Teh Offices at Canary Wharf, London What is the perfect office environment? If this question were answerable, we would all by now be working in it. But we go on seeking the answer. Open-plan offices remain the norm in the UK and US but have largely died out in northern Europe, according to a BBC World Service programme. That is because when the "co-determination" movement arrived in the 1970s, legislation in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Italy gave workers a say in how offices were designed. Notebook People wanted a door they could open and a window they could shut, which led to cellular office buildings in which almost everyone has a private office, though small teams sometimes share a room. The point about daylight I can understand: I once launched a newspaper from a windowless basement, which was grim for the staff. German-style requirements tend to create a building with separate wings of long corridors, with small offices on either side. There seems little chance of that being replicated in the US or UK if only because of the cost. Open-plan offices began in the US in the late 19th century. They were factory-like, with workers sitting at small desks in straight rows, often facing the same way. Managers had their own offices and the boss had the large corner office. Some are still like that. In the 1960s came a German-inspired movement towards landscaping of open-plan offices, with desks clustered in work zones of different sizes, carpets and pot plants. Most British offices are variants on this. These were intended to promote discussion, but there was also the distraction of overhearing other people's conversations. According to a 2009 review article, 90 per cent of studies looking at open-plan offices linked them to health problems such as stress and high blood pressure. Since the advent of computers, many have found open-plan offices too quiet, with the result that some employers allegedly play "pink noise" from speakers - a hum that makes human speech less discernible. What a dreadful thought. Now we are told young people prefer free-flowing places where they can wander with their laptops. A building in Switzerland offers a choice of sofas, coffee table areas, libraries, recliner chairs and a botanical garden with work tables. I wonder. "Hot-desking," in which no one has a fixed desk, has been around a while and has such a bad name that some US employers have started renaming it "hotelling." I now sit in an office of my own, which has good and bad points: office gossip, for example, passes you by unless you seek it. I have worked in many environments: the most successful were where small teams with a common purpose sat together. But no arrangement suits everyone. Spring unsprung Could this freezing March have unforeseen compensations? In Europe, 1816 was a "year with no summer" in which harvests failed and food riots broke out, caused by a volcanic eruption on the other side of the world. It led many to emigrate. In Germany the shortage of oats to feed horses is said to have spawned ideas that led to the development of the bicycle, writes John Vidal in the Guardian. In Switzerland, the Shelleys and their friends were kept indoors by the "wet, ungenial summer" and wrote stories such as Frankenstein. It would probably take more than a cold month to provoke such creativity, but at least someone is enjoying the cold: apple growers are looking forward to a bumper harvest because the cold is delaying this year's blossoms and protecting the buds until later in the year. Going west? The idea of expanding Heathrow airport westwards from two to four runways, proposed by the economist Tim Leunig, is starting to gain support. Last week The Economist gave its backing. It has come late in the debate but will be considered by Sir Howard Davies's commission on southeast airports. More work needs to be done, but it offers the possibility of almost doubling Heathrow's capacity while reducing the number of people affected by the worst noise. It could make things a bit louder for the Queen at Windsor Castle but quieter for thousands of people who have just the one home. It would be cheaper than a new airport and looks a realistic option, alongside expanding Gatwick and Stansted.