Wired UK - 11.2019

POP-UP PRIVACY

MODULAR

On their own, each of

these high-backed,

upholstered seats from

Polish designer Dymitr

Malcew is merely

functional; but when

snapped together, they

form Cave, a circular

workspace that acts as

a buffer to the hubbub

of a busy, open-plan

office. “The idea was

to provide a variety

of scenarios and

settings for various

activities, to create

a sense of privacy

without building fixed

walls,” explains Malcew.

malcew.com

CALMING

The plastic Seedpod

from Leeds-based

Seeds draws on

natural shapes and

is designed to evoke

calm. The capsule

(for up to five people)

is intended to remove

a sense of hierarchy,

while coloured LED

lighting and built-in

Bluetooth speakers

help set the mood

in this fire-retardant,

glass-reinforced pod.

seeds.company

SOLO

Around 65 per cent of

work is still performed

alone, according to

Rapal Oy. The O pod,

from Finnish workpod

startup Framery,

promises an echo-free

individual workspace

in which to focus.

Framery CEO Samu

Hällfors claims

workers using the

O pod “recover from

stress, sleep better,

and exercise more.”

frameryacoustics.com

BLOW-UP

Traditionally found

on the sidelines of

conferences, inflatable

rooms are springing

up in open offices that

need pop-up privacy

says Viktor Nijenhuis,

owner of Dutch

startup QuickSpace.

The structures come

in a variety of shapes

and sizes, have

sound insulation,

and can be up and

inhabited in minutes.

quickspace.eu

MOBILE

Helsinki-based

startup Smartblock

thinks the meeting

space should come to

you – so it put its pod

on wheels. Co-founder

Janne Orava says

its mobile Smartblock

FD pod also has an

intelligent built-in

display that

recognises the source

of any input plugged

into it, so “there’s no

need for a remote

control”. smartblock.fi

082

“The way we hold meetings has changed a lot in the last decade,”

says Pontus Kihlman, executive consultant at Rapal Oy, a workplace

management provider based in Espoo, Finland. Remote, agile working

and hotdesking means formal meeting rooms are increasingly

superfluous. “Oversized meeting spaces tend to be underutilised,

creating a lot of wasted space that could be used more smartly, while

there aren’t enough small meeting rooms or multi-use spaces,”

Kihlman says. His firm found that meeting rooms are filled only to

a fifth of capacity after an analysis of 12,600 meeting rooms across

1,800 offices. In place of these outmoded spaces, consider instead

hatching a pop-up meeting in one of these pods. Chris Stokel-Walker

WORK SMARTER

ESCAPE PODS

ARE LEADING THE NEW

SPACE RACE

Open-plan offices are great

for collaboration – but sometimes you

need a little privacy. WIRED calls

a meeting of micro-rooms to order

ILLUSTRATION: SODAVEKT

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