Open Plan Rant

One of my property porn faves is The Home Show. Where George redesigns people's houses. George does love his open plan "spaces". One of my pet peeves is referring to a room as a space. Just seems a bit too up yourself. But my biggest peeve is when anyone says "the kitchen is the heart of the home". Its not! The idea that we all spend time giving dinner parties, cook meals every day that means we have to spend ages in the kitchen is a myth. I cook EVERY day (except Thursdays - take away night)and I don't spend that long in the kitchen. It doesn't take long to prep the veg, bung it in the oven, put water on to boil. I haven't got to be in the kitchen all the time I'm cooking. I wander in and out. I put stuff in the oven, look at my watch and think "mmn check this in 20 minutes" and go and do something else. I haven't got kids, but kitchens are not child friendly - knives, boiling water, hot ovens. You want to keep the kids well away whilst you're cooking. And kitchens get messy. I don't want to be looking at that mess whilst I'm eating my dinner. When I eat my dinner I want to be watching telly. I eat my dinner, sitting on the settee watching telly and admiring my dining table that I use about once a year.
If you have all open plan than an utility room is a must. You need to be able to shut out the noises of the washing machine and a place to dump all your crud. Perhaps there are really posh noise-less washing machines I don't know about.
And another thing - these spaces are typically wooden floored, curtainless affairs. The acoustics must be awful- echo, echo. And hard to keep warm.
Aah rant over.