This article is part of our November Design special section, which focuses on style, function and form in the workplace.
More than ever, pods and podlike chairs are necessary refuges in busy work environments.
Today’s open-plan office, where executives might sit shoulder-to-shoulder with underlings, is no longer defined by a desk. Work happens over coffee, or lounging on sofas, or waiting for elevators, or in teleconferences, and too often with headphones. The question is not just how to harness creativity, but where.
Workers still need places where sights and sounds are buffered and secrets kept. And so we have the proliferation of the pod, or its more informal cousin, the noise-damping chair. Islands of privacy in a sea of (over) sharing, they are the ultimate office retreat.
Ayse Birsel, who codesigned the 2018 Overlay system for Herman Miller, a system of panels that are assembled into work or meeting rooms, described pods as a necessary but transitional solution for creating privacy. Offices, she said, have evolved into essentially social spaces, and pods are like “the old, red London phone booths, where you go in and talk for a limited amount of time. A throwback.”
Ripple Effect
Designed by Alain Gilles of Belgium, BuzziBracks is an easy-to-assemble free-standing modular frame system that incorporates acoustical curtains. The frame is aluminum and wood and comes in eight sizes. From $8,415 buzzi.space
Hush Puppy
Designed in Finland, Framery O echo-free booths are for private calls and video conferencing and come in 14 colors. The interior combines layers of metal, birch plywood, recycled acoustic foam and felt and has a loop-pile carpet. From $7,200; frameryacoustics.com
In Here!
The San Franciscodesign studio Mike & Maaike has made a pod chair called Windowseat that frames the user in a sound- and sight-blocking rectangle. The piece is offered in two Kvadrat fabrics, in 75 colors and four trims; all are mounted on a steel frame with a swivel base and come with an optional ottoman. From $5,900, with canopy; haworth.com
Roly-Poly
The rotund form of Armada hugs the user, whether in its high- or low-back versions. The cocoon-inspired armchairs were designed by the London studio Doshi Levien for open offices, lobbies and lounges. The powder-coat finish comes in five colors and a range of fabrics, including vinyl and wool. From $3,620; moroso.com
Chiclet Simple
Vank, a Polish furniture brand, created the Mello collection of booths and chairs with lozenge-shaped lumbar support cushions upholstered in a choice of 75 colors. From about $8,800; vank.pl
Cabin Fever
Ayse Birsel and Bibi Seck’s modular Overlay system for Herman Miller features walls wrapped in textiles, laminates, perforated metal, glass, or wood slats, as well as customizable finishes. From about $350 per linear foot; hermanmiller.com
