They may have a reputation for being cramped, antisocial spaces, but redesigned private office booths are proving to be an unexpected hit.
Small, soundproofed, Scandinavian-designed spaces are part of a design shift that’s helping employers make offices more appealing to a broader range of workers. Modular furniture and adaptable architecture—from huddle spaces and mobile meeting rooms to entire floor plans built with snap-together walls—allow companies greater flexibility to balance large, open-plan offices with space for private work and to accommodate hybrid workforces.
“In the past, there was a desire to have a one-size-fits-all approach: standards, guidelines, consistency and design for the average person doing the average thing,” says Kay Sargent of design and architecture consultancy HOK. “We’re not in that situation anymore. We need to embrace the idea that one-size-fits-all doesn’t fit all.”
Small companies specialising in modular booths, meeting modules or entire rooms have expanded rapidly. Morten Meisner-Jensen, co-founder of modular architecture manufacturer Room, which started operations in 2018, says the company has grown 300 percent in revenue over the past four years.
“There was a huge problem – everyone had moved to open-plan offices and needed peace and quiet to take calls. The phone booth was the solution,” he says. His firm’s client list includes Amazon, JPMorgan and Soho House. “There has been very strong demand.”
The “colossal” growth of this once claustrophobic niche is being driven by a unique combination of factors, according to Tim Oldman, chief executive of property consultancy Leesman.
One catalyst was the pandemic. While some employees found that working from home meant being distracted by children or household chores, others had the opposite revelation: from sheds or studios, “they realised that visual and acoustic privacy was crucial to working more effectively,” says Oldman. When it comes to tasks that require concentration, he argues that the average worker is better equipped at home than in the office.
The same goes for calls. “People have had this extreme level of privacy for so long that it’s created an expectation,” says Anna Squires Levine, chief commercial officer at workspace provider Industrious. “Gone are the days when you can take a phone call out in the open.”
At first, Levine wasn’t convinced that booths were the solution. “It wasn’t clear that people would want to sit in a little booth to take a call.” But when Industrious, which operates 200 coworking spaces in North America, tried them out, they became popular. It has since purchased nearly 3,000 units.
Designing and manufacturing private cabins for workplaces hasn’t been easy, though. When Samu Hällfors started a business specializing in office furniture in Finland more than a decade ago, it took him and his team years to perfect the soundproofing and temperature control needed for the single-person cabins he envisioned. To avoid claustrophobia, the design had to be carefully thought out. “It’s even more complicated when you realize that a small space needs quite a bit of air,” the designer notes.
But the effort gave Hällfors’ company, Framery, a head start as the modular furniture trend began to take off. It took until 2014 for the company to reach revenues of €1 million; five years later, the company reported that it had surpassed €100 million, and by 2023, its annual revenues, with distribution in 74 countries, were about €150 million.
Framery and its competitors benefited from another business shift in the 2010s and 2020s. Fueled by low interest rates and new technologies, the tech startup world grew, demanding more adaptable, short-term workspaces to accommodate rapid growth or failure. Coworking spaces set out to offer a better work environment than others, while also offering greater flexibility for more traditional companies and raising expectations for design.
Real estate group JLL predicts that 30 percent of office space will be flexible in some form by 2030.[Employers] “We would normally move in and sign a 10- to 20-year lease. Now we’re taking shorter leases, so there needs to be more flexible space,” says Gary Helm, founder of London office design studio Obo.
Obo is the UK distributor for OmniRoom – a modular system of aluminium pieces joined together to build rooms of different sizes, made by acoustics specialist Mute. Helm calls it “modular architecture, adaptive architecture”. In the two years to 2023, he says, Mute’s revenue has grown by 230 per cent. “If you need to build some walls, it may only be for a few years, and you may have to change them if you need more meeting rooms after two years.”
Much of the technology behind modular furniture innovations was originally used in facilities for young people with special educational needs, says Nook director David O’Coimin. The company specialises in “huddle rooms” and individual booths that create a more private space in busy offices.
Features such as flickering lights in sensory rooms have been developed for children with autism who can feel overwhelmed in busy environments. Dimmable lighting used to help people with ADHD and dyslexia has been shown to have a “profound effect on the way the brain processes information” in neurotypical people too, says O’Coimin.
Emma Flowers, of Manchester-based interior design firm Jolie, sees increased demand for private workspaces in sectors such as biotech, which she attributes to workers doing more focused, individual work, such as coding.
O’Coimin also says he was inspired by Don’t worrySusan Cain’s 2012 book that argues that introverts need to be taken more seriously and sees her products as helping neurodiverse and neurotypical people alike. “The workplace has forgotten about the quiet mind… The office is often a theatre stage where you’re always in the spotlight,” she says. “If you design with extreme needs in mind, you end up with solutions that are better for everyone.”
The environmental impact and waste generated by rebuilding office spaces make modular systems more environmentally friendly. Traditionally, new occupants can adapt the office space by building drywall walls that they then tear down. Adaptive architecture allows them to move in, assemble the rooms, move them around, and take the walls with them when they leave.
Meisner-Jensen believes this is where the “real opportunity” lies. Room’s new product lines include larger meeting rooms and offices that are delivered flat-packed and assembled “like Lego blocks” to create new floor plans. “They are designed to be assembled and disassembled many times, partly for sustainability reasons.”
Industrious’ Levine says these configurations are still more expensive than traditional architecture, but he believes “it’s very clear that the future [of office design] “It’s much more flexible physically.”
Infinitely adaptable office spaces could ultimately “replace traditional construction,” Meisner-Jensen adds. “You start with a white box and everything in that space is 100 percent flexible… It basically allows you to have an iterative workspace where you can change things based on what matters most: the people who use it.”