These cool looking laptop pods are little workspaces designed to bring together occupants of a 242 unit apartment development in Melbourne, Australia. The pods are placed in a communal area to draw people out of their homes and encourage a sense of community.
Society is an innovative new apartment complex designed by Plus Architecture. With community being the guiding concept behind Society, it boasts coffee shops, restaurants, a lounge, and a "contemplation garden" to help unite its residents. These pods made of stacked laser-cut plywood were designed by Emma Selzer.
Images: Plus Architecture
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Is anyone else growing weary of the whole "pod" concept?
uh, no. (@rexrayfan)
these are really cool--they'd look great on a college campus!
I think it's a bright idea to give people some privacy in public. If you think about their function, these pods are made for work. What results from placing them in communal space is not a social event, but an opportunity for social encounters. Rather than working sequestered in your locked apartment, you choose to work where you have the chance of being interrupted by a friendly hello, as though choosing to study in the library instead of cooped up in your dorm in college. It seems a smart way of bringing people together without much pressure.
I like, but I don't see how this will increase socializing among people. Seems like one would be enclosed in their own little world. It's not like there is additional seat in the pod to encourage a visit from a neighbor.
I love it for the coziness factor, but I do agree that it doesn't encourage socializing. Maybe if the pods were set up in pairs facing each other, it might be better. Either way, I'd kind of love to sit in a pod.
i DON'T see them meeting their projected quarterly sales.
rexyrayfan - AMEN!
Very cool, but no socializing is going to go on here, just as no one would be in a phone booth. Even in a coffee shop with no barriers it seems like everyone with a laptop is just involved in their own world pretty much.
The overall design is quite impressive. Do not know about socializing, but to be left on one's on, very cool.