Work meetings during the age of COVID-19 have changed. Despite all of the memes about sitting in a meeting that could have been an email, the acute need for collaborative workspaces remains. The value of in-person collaboration has become that much more obvious with the onset of stay-and-work from home orders and teams of designers across the globe have issued solutions that both address and transcend the immediate needs brought on by the pandemic. The creatives at Room, a design firm dedicated to rethinking the modern workplace, developed their own solution for the changing needs of the modern workplace with their latest modular meeting room design.
ROOM’s Meeting Room is a soundproof and air-ventilated external collaborative pod that can be placed almost anywhere in order to provide a meeting space that works for business meetings or presentations that require privacy. Silent fans located in The Meeting Room’s roof provide silent air-ventilation to keep the air fresh and moving for longer work meetings. Built as a prefabricated office pod, The Meeting Room comes equipped with all the office essentials such as a whiteboard, round table, integrated powerbox for charging, and even storage units like shelves and wooden boxes. The Meeting Room can be placed in any setting from preexisting office spaces to crowded spacious coffeeshops and it requires no construction for assembly. Just like those old phone booths, The Meeting Room provides a soundproof space with 27 decibels of outside noise reduction so that it can operate as a private working space or conference room for confidential matters. The Meeting Room’s powerbox comes complete with 3 AC outlets, two USB-A ports, one USB-C port, two CAT6 data ports, 1 HDMI port, and a camera connection for its Jabra’s 180-degree PanaCast. Additionally, the external pod’s lighting can be adjusted for dimming or brightening to fit different types of collaboration such as presentations or brainstorming.
In-person collaboration cannot be replaced by technological developments or virtual workdays, but while some try and figure out the ways by which it can be, adaptive workplace designs like the modular Meeting Room from ROOM offer a physical means for collaboration in the meantime. Outfitted to be a microcosm of the office buildings we’ve grown accustomed to, The Meeting Room delivers the conveniences that come with them and promotes both the economic sensibility and sustainability that comes with thinking modular.
Designer: ROOM
