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Promotion: the need for well-considered focus spaces will come to the fore in workplace design in 2024, driven by the uptake of artificial intelligence, according to office pod brand Framery.
Framery says that the increase in AI in the workplace will result in it taking more responsibility for mundane, repetitive tasks, resulting in the need for additional focus spaces in open-plan offices to help support employees’ deep and focused tasks.
“If it happens how it’s expected and AI takes more responsibility for repetitive tasks, the office design should reflect this development and support deep, focused work,” said Tomi Nokelainen, head of Framery Labs, the company’s research and innovation unit.
Framery predicts focus areas will be the key office design trend of 2024According to Framery, while post-pandemic hybrid office design placed an emphasis on the creation of collaborative spaces and “flashy common areas embodying organisational culture”, the next phase of this evolution will centre on creating areas that minimise distraction and allow for focused work.
“It’s noteworthy that employees value focused working spaces beyond collaborative spaces,” said Nokelainen. “With work complexity on the rise, there is a heightened demand for both acoustic and visual privacy.”
The company points to the findings of research company Leesman, which has reported that workers are still choosing to stay at home for solitary work. Leeman’s research suggested that some working activities were “better supported at home” including individual-focused work and planned meetings.
However, Framery says that when employees have the option to work from home, that may not be sufficient to fulfil their productivity needs.
“It can’t be assumed that all employees have the luxury of a dedicated home office room, or are willing to invest in expensive desks or ergonomic chairs,” said Nokelainen.
Office workers value focus areas more than collaborative spaces, Framery research findsFramery, a Finnish brand, was one of the first to enter the office pods space in 2010, creating soundproof booths that drown out external distractions so that employees can undertake focused work or conduct video conferencing calls.
According to Framery Labs’ research, focus spaces are the number one desired perk for employees that would draw them into working in the office rather than at home and they address distractions to focused work, for example, noise.
Only 33 per cent of employees report finding noise levels satisfactory in their workplace and dissatisfaction with noise has the strongest correlation to an employee saying that the design of their workplace does not support their personal productivity.
The pods are soundproof so external noise is not a distractionThis can be especially consequential for neurodiverse people, who constitute around 15 to 20 per cent of the global population and who can have a greater sensitivity to sensory stimuli, according to the brand.
With workplaces becoming more inclusive, the next step will be to design them to function as “a catalyst not a barrier to productivity”, said Nokelainen, with a recognition that different people have different needs.
“There are no one-size-fits-all focus spaces – they can be everything from silent open areas, library-like spaces, private offices or pods,” said Nokelainen. “Each role and industry has their own special needs that must be taken into account.”
The Framery One pod is Framery’s bestselling productThese considerations can be addressed with products like the Framery One, Framery’s bestselling office pod. A single-person workstation for focused work that is also optimised for virtual meetings, it includes soft lighting and adjustable ventilation to help create a personalised environment.
In a closed pod like this, neurodiverse people can apply “sensory integration techniques”, said Nokelainen which means incorporating the sensory tools or approaches that promote calm and focus for them.
There are also multi-person pods like the Framery Q Flow, one of the newest models. It is designed to help enable workers to achieve the “flow” state of mind, where work feels effortless and time switches off, and includes a height-adjustable electric table so that users can shift positions without interrupting their thought process.
The office pods come with Framery Connect, an integrated workplace management tool that supplies detailed data and analysis around how often and when they’re being used.
The pods include the Framery Connect workplace management systemFramery says it prides itself on the quality of its soundproof office pods, as well as having been among the first to bring the product category to the market. The company launched 13 years ago after its founder – Samu Hällfors – devised a solution to address the distraction caused by his boss’s loud phone calls.
“Our founder and CEO Samu Hällfors invented the office pod category in 2010,” said Framery. “Now we have over 200 competitors globally. To ensure we stay the market leader we are relentlessly innovating to engineer the most advanced pod in the world.”
Framery also has a sustainable and responsible ethos and has made a commitment to converting to a circular business model.
To find out more about Framery and its products, visit the brand’s website.
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This article was written by Dezeen for Framery as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
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Promotion: buying office pods instead of building meeting rooms could save companies in the US around $30 billion by 2030, according to research by soundproof booth manufacturer Framery and real-estate investor CBRE.
Post-pandemic working habits are driving a transformation in office layout and design worldwide says Framery.
More people working from home means employers are scrambling to use costly office space more effectively, while the increasing prevalence of video calls has resulted in growing demand for small, acoustically insulated meeting spaces.
The coronavirus pandemic triggered a sea change in office layouts”Office occupiers are investing more and more into flexible spaces and different types of adjustable spaces to meet the demand of flexibility and to attract their workforce back to the office after the pandemic years’ remote working,” said CBRE’s Jussi Niemistö.
A study by Framery and CBRE found that as well as offering options for changing office setups, pods are more cost-effective than constructing new meeting rooms.
CBRE compared the costs associated with getting one-, four- and six-person Framery office pods with the cost of building meeting rooms of equal size in different cities around the world.
The research indicates that many offices will need to be refurbished to accommodate new working demandsIt found that meeting pods tended to be significantly cheaper – with constructing equivalent meeting rooms costing 55 per cent more on average.
Building a permanent phone room in a New York office is 155 per cent more expensive than getting a one-person Framery booth, according to the study.
A separate study by real-estate firm Cushman & Wakefield found that more than 41 per cent of office space in the US is in need of refurbishment in order to support hybrid working by the end of the decade – around 241 million square metres.
CBRE’s research indicates that meeting pods are a far cheaper option than constructing new meeting roomsFramery’s analysis based on CBRE’s research indicated that building new meeting rooms in that amount of space would cost more than $85 billion. By comparison, the same area of Framery pod space could be purchased for around $55.5 billion.
Framery CEO Samu Hällfors also argues that meeting pods reduce office running costs.
Framery claims to have manufactured the world’s first meeting pod”Pods are compact and make better use of existing space,” said Hällfors. “They allow for greater flexibility in rearranging and reconfiguring offices and they can be moved to a new location when needed.”
“That all greatly reduces the lifetime costs associated with running an office, especially in larger cities with high-priced real estate,” Hällfors continued.
Founded in 2010, Framery claims to have invented and sold the world’s first office pod, and its Framery O is the world’s best-seller.
The study looked at costs of building meeting rooms in cities across North America, Europe and AsiaThere are now more than 200 pod manufacturers around the world, according to Hällfors.
“The increasing demand for these office pods isn’t coming so much from management as it is from employees themselves,” he said. “Reimagining the workplace in these innovative, cost-effective ways is what is going to get employees excited to return to the office.”
To view more about Framery and its products, visit its website.
Partnership content
This article was written by Dezeen for Framery as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
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