At NeoCon 2017, we noticed a particular trend – privacy. The spectacular rise of the open office helped stoke collaboration. Championed by companies such as Google, the trend spread quickly throughout the corporate world. However, we’re now starting to realize the issues surrounding an open office. In particular, the lack of privacy has led to many feeling disengaged and drained from work.
This backlash has brought us back to emphasizing the importance privacy in the workplace. However, many organizations are hesitant to swing the pendulum fully back to private offices. The values espoused by the open office – improved collaboration and opportunities for collision are still highly valued.
This desire to benefit from both open offices and private spaces has created constraints and pressure on furniture and workplace designers to creatively come up with better solutions. Increasingly, more workplaces are opting for a mix of private, semi-private and open spaces and coming up with creative ways to create privacy in existing spaces.
Visual Privacy
When we think about privacy, we typically think about visual privacy. What you can’t see, you don’t know. Visual privacy involves hiding or shielding people or objects from view.
A number of products being released now focus on creating visual privacy – spaces where others cannot see into. High-back and wraparounds are becoming common elements for seating. For example, Steelcase’s Umami, Teknion’s Zones embody this with large screens and or high backs.
Steelcase Umami
While visual privacy is a huge component of creating a private environment, it is not foolproof.
Acoustic Privacy
Some other manufacturers and designers have taken a different approach, opting for audio privacy instead. Audio privacy reduces or completely cuts out sound. A common example of audio privacy is glass meeting rooms. While others can look in and see the people in the meeting talking, they would not know what the details of the meeting are.
Companies such as the Framery replicate that experience by creating an enclosed, noise reducing space. Others can look in and visually interact with those within the box, but they would not be able to hear what’s going on from outside.
Framery Meeting Pods
Other ways to increase audio privacy are also increasingly being adopted. Acoustic dampeners and sound absorbers are being designed as functional art pieces and can be situated strategically in a space to create sound pockets. Sound masking solutions can also help. They increase the amount of background noise in the workplace, helping mask and cover private conversations.
Designing for Privacy
When designing for privacy, it is key to take into consideration both visual and acoustic privacy. For fully private environments and spaces, you will want to have both. However, to maintain a level of openness or for semi-private spaces, you could reduce and play with the amount of privacy on either end. For example, spaces that are low on visual privacy but high on audio privacy can still convey a sense of transparency in the organization – think clear glass meeting rooms. On the other hand, spaces high on visual privacy but low on audio privacy could be great for solo, focused work, creating small private nooks, where people can hammer away at their work but still feel connected to the rest of the team through sound.
