Ahrend for example sells them in their space-in-space collection as boxes; Poddie and Mutelabs offer booths; Mikomax and Meinema produce bell booths; the Sound box store, for example, has acoustic phone boxes & meeting rooms and Framery calls them booths, pods and rooms. In short, the diversity is huge.

But does that designation actually matter? And why has it so far failed to have a single product name attached to it? A beer is a beer, right?

History

We go back in time for a moment. In 1968, Herman Miller devised the Action Office 2 (AO2). This allowed employees to find a balance between privacy and interaction in an open office space (Burolandschaft). These cubes or cubicles offered a variety of workstations both sitting and standing. In addition, the walls were customisable. The idea was revolutionary and the name appropriate.

However, the rise of mobile phones and hybrid working changed the perception of the open office landscape. The noise and lack of privacy led employees to modify their behaviour. For example, by putting on headphones. And these adjustments negated the positive features of the open office.

Solutions

The first solution was devised in Scandinavia in 2010. Two employees were bothered by their frequently telephoning boss in their open-plan office environment. He responded and said “Well, buy me a phone booth”. They decided to design a silence room because it was impossible to concentrate while working. Framery was born and introduced the phoneboxproduct aka the phone box. However, this product name still belongs to the original phone box.

Framery’s first telephone booth product is similar to a telephone booth and thus related to the K2, the very first public telephone box. This was perhaps surprisingly called a kiosk (the British and red design; the Kiosk No. 2; K2). In any case, the phone box is at the root of the design whose purpose was to allow someone to retreat or isolate themselves from their colleagues in the office landscape.

Hybrid Working Environment

In the modern working environment, the balance between collaboration and privacy is increasingly important, with productivity going hand in hand with comfort. It is essential to provide private workspaces as well as open, informal spaces for meetings and group work. The underlying idea is to give employees the freedom to choose the workspace they need, when they need it. Which brings us to the volume of product names. Because with the need for a new hybrid working environment, there is no longer just the need for the phone box. After all, you can in fact only stand in those by yourself, or … very cosy in pairs. For that reason, products have since been made for more than one person, so the historical definition of a phone box is actually no longer appropriate.

Definitions

Using just one term for a product is a common practice in branding and marketing. This strategy helps create a strong brand identity and recognition among consumers. But for now, there is no single product name for the collection of small workspaces that lend themselves to isolating yourself alone or with multiples.

A small sample of dictionary definitions (English or Dutch) of the most commonly used words for today’s telephone booth products might shed some light on the matter.

• Phone box: (public) booth from which you can make phone calls = mainly accessible alone
• Booth: a partially enclosed space or small tent at a fair, exhibition or similar event = accessible by several people
• Pod: a small simple building, or a small simple structure within a building, often rounded in shape = accessible by several people
• Box: a small space with walls = undefined accessibility
• Cabin(e): a private room or compartment on a ship or; a small wooden shelter or house in a wild or remote area or; a cubicle or individual work space within a larger office; a screened-off space: shower stall, changing room = accessible alone, but also with several people
• Workspace: the office, desk, etc. where a person works
• Acoustic: relating to acoustics or; designed to control the sound so that you can hear only the sounds you want to hear.

If we try to link the definitions to the products, the Phone Booth speaks for itself. The Booth defines itself as an open, public but secure space. The Pod, unlike the other definitions, identifies with the rounded appearance of a small structure (and, for that matter, with many other things including the shell of a bean). The Box is an indefinite enclosed small space. By contrast, the Cabin(e) has since worked its way up to an upgrade of the 2015 phone box. And is likewise reminiscent of an individual or communal space in which your privacy is secured. And finally, the Workspace which is an all-encompassing term for where people work.

Acoustic says something about the property of the workspace. Only it is difficult to determine exactly what that word says about it. The difference between an electric and acoustic guitar is familiar to most people. But here you are talking about how sound is audible in a room and how it spreads. How that compares with phone box products is a complicated story and we’ll save it for another news item.

So what’s in a name?

It seems that because of the evolution of the open work environment and the phone box product, it has not yet managed to attach a single name to it. All terminologies give their own schwung to the various workspaces in an open plan office. They are the various workspaces for working alone or together. In contrast, there seems to be a need for uniformity. Namely, a small glance at the various websites shows that all sorts of different terms are used to attract the attention of potential clients.

And perhaps a hybrid form of working in which the work environment is adapted to personal needs will emerge in the future; Personality Based Working. In which workplaces are transformed into continuously adaptable workspaces. With or without windows, with or without doors, with or without a desk, with or without an office chair. Then they remain workspaces, but a separate product name is no longer necessary and they have become an integrated part of the office landscape.