Soundproof pods, saddle-shaped chairs, adjustable-height desks and wobble boards were in abundance at Stockholm Furniture Fair last week, as privacy and wellbeing become essential aspects of office furniture design.
With increasing noise levels becoming a major issue in open-plan and shared offices, glass-sided pods of all shapes and sizes were a key trend at the fair.
These ranged from one-person pods for phone calls and quiet individual working to modular meeting rooms that can be erected inside existing offices without the need for building work.
Pods increasingly installed in open-plan offices
"The trend for pod rooms is accelerating all the time," said Johanna Kettunen, COO of pod manufacturer Into the Nordic Silence.
"The reason is that so many companies have open-plan offices and there are not enough support spaces in those offices, so people are not able to concentrate on their work tasks. They need places to collaborate." Into the Nordic Silence showed a number of products at this year's fair, including a pod for taking telephone calls, called Pod Phone, and acoustically friendly modular furniture.
The modular furniture pieces include a curved meeting-area called Point Cup, with high, padded walls upholstered in soft fabric that block surrounding sound, and Cube Solo, a single seat that envelops the worker.
Pod Phone is a pod designed for taking phone calls, by Into the Nordic Silence
"Space needs to be adaptable nowadays because there is a...