A quiet Nook
Currently, there is a renewed focus on workspace design in the wake of Covid. Pretty much everyone is agreed that workspace has to change, but there is also an assumption that such change will be hugely expensive and disruptive. Nook is helping to re-shape this thinking.
Social distancing places pressure on the capacity of any space. As the flow of employees gradually increases, businesses will be challenged to provide spaces that work both in terms of social distancing and everyday productivity. Furthermore, with greater numbers opting to work remotely, the workspace will start to evolve toward collaboration and social functions.
Nook, a family of personal pods, exists to help make positive changes – to workplaces, to event space, to hospitals, to schools – in fact anywhere where people gather.
Nook’s mission is to help increase personal wellbeing, individual productivity and boost the volume of micro-collaborations (i.e. more small, short meetings). How? By providing a movable refuge for diverse brain-types, a little haven of calm amidst the buzz of busy spaces.
Agile and modular
Having the option to productively utilise more of a building will be important. The fact that Nooks are built on lockable wheels becomes a very valuable proposition. Unused and unloved corners of an office can be transformed into meeting spaces and breakout areas simply by wheeling a Nook into position.
Office behaviours will change too. Commentators expect a big hike in video-calls once office-life resumes – a legacy of lockdown life. So, quiet, semi-private withdrawal space will be at a premium.
Beyond the office
But it’s not just workspace design that Nook is influencing. Nooks were recently installed into the brand-new $multi-billion stadium of American football team the Las Vegas Raiders. These Sensory Nooks are equipped with soothing lighting and tactile surfaces to provide neurodiverse fans with a place to relax and recharge if the atmosphere of the stadium ever becomes too much.
Nooks are also in place at hospitals throughout the UK, US and the Netherlands, helping busy front-line nurses to unwind and take a calming pause from the stresses of everyday care provision.
This is not just furniture – this is furniture with purpose, designed with neurodiversity as a focus but resulting in a solution that works for all minds in a variety of scenarios. If there’s one thing the pandemic has taught us it’s that rigid, fixed ways of doing things can quickly become a burden. When it comes to furniture, it makes absolute sense to find solutions that can flex and adapt quickly to different needs at different times. For many, finding a quiet Nook has never been more important.