The latest trends in office layout gravitate towards the open-plan office. Albeit promoting communication and the free flow of ideas among the employees, the open-plan offices make it just that difficult to hold a meeting in private.
MIT and Google worked in collaboration to design the Transformable Meeting Spaces, a drop-down meeting crucible that affords you a private place to hold a meeting or discuss things without being constantly interrupted.
The Self-Assembly Lab at MIT and Google teamed up to develop the innovative structure. The design allows for the structure to be pulled down from the ceiling. The Transformable Meeting Space encompasses a 10-foot-wide and 8-foot-tall space that can easily accommodate eight people. Once the meeting ends, the structure can be pushed up, and space may be cleared to return to the open-plan office.
36 interconnected fibreglass rods form the shell of the retractable meeting space. The outside noise is minimised by the felt lining the inner side of the structure while the exoskeleton of the Transformable Meeting Space is made of plywood sheets. Check out the video below for more details:
Does anyone remember the ‘Cone of Silence’ in the old TV show “Get Smart”? So, have we really gone that far?