The “pods” grow in the lush office landscape! And the pavilions of Orgatec were invaded by cubes, parallelepipeds, booths and boxes of every shape, material, dimension and configuration, designed to create quiet zones in the dynamic -and noisy- open plan offices.
The Phone Booth archetype coupled with the Meeting Room generating the Office Pod a multitude of freestanding pods with different functions and dimensions, with blind and glazed walls; to accommodate from one to eight people.
They have self-supporting structures (also in wood), squared shapes or rounded corners; glass walls alternate with blind walls, internally and externally upholstered with sound-absorbing materials.
A little bit clumsy, despite a good design.
Despite the efforts in the industrial design, from the architectural point of view they seem to come out by chance, a bit clumsy, not harmoniously set in the open plan offices.
Someone, starting from the phone booth, try to generate a family of interior accessories.
For phone calls, you can also find alternative solutions: why do we have to stand if mobile phone is without cable?
The critical points.
The elements, sometimes not evident, that define the quality are: the possibility to compensate the unevenness of the existing floor; the junction of the structure between ceiling, floor and walls in order to guarantee sound insulation; the same for hinged or sliding doors.
The performances make the difference.
For example, ventilation; ease of assembly; the possibility to move them even mounted; acoustic performances such as to guarantee soundproofing and avoid reverberation, without reaching an excessive sound absorption that creates an unreal acoustic condition; the integration of wiring for electrification.
For example, some smart
models are equipped with IoT technologies to allow the reservations management and automated lighting, ventilation and antimicrobial system.
About Office Pods see also the articles se
:cube by Sedus (upper photo) and Out of the Box ideas at Orgatec 2018.
In the pictures: Sedus (upper photo), Estel, Citterio, MDD, Vetro Space Health, Into, Hush, Framery, Renz, Still Design, Casala, Vetroin, Horreds.
