Im going to disagree with all the grumpy-guts in here 🙂
I love open plan. Yes you need decent ventilation and a little sympathy with how you are using space. It’s also probably necessary to have some quiet space elsewhere.
Our kitchen/dining/TV area is one big 75′ x 15′ space – that’s the joy of building your own place from a barn.
over-hob extraction for when frying, but also MHVR that gives us 1.5x air changes an hour throughout the house, replacing dirty warm air with clean warm air using a heat exchanger.
Admittedly for us, TV isnt the centre of our evening routines and since I’m cooking for the boys it’s usually done for 6pm. Then the kitchen is all quiet.
There is another 15′ x 15′ room at the end of the barn that the boys use to play in and Im planning on walling that off with a stud wall and some large glass doors so that they have a place to raise a riot without disturbing either me in the kitchen, or Mrs S in the office (again linked open plan)