Sprint 1 Notes Jan 24 to Jan 31
We kicked off the collaboration on Jan 24 with a phone call.
We'll spend six hours fleshing out the following three sections, and unpack them at the start of our next sprint on Feb 1.
We want to exit the week with our best guess at blockers in the conceptual design and the BOM.
Are there movable, user assembled, low cost pieces of occupiable furniture that might serve as a reference? If we find that this area is densely populated, we can filter on metal framed, transparent sheeting, user assembled booth-like spaces, as manufactured products.
This section is a little focused, with general inspiration being tracked here.
- Andrea Zittel Wagon Station at dezeen and Art21 video
This section catalogs some direct competitors to PTS. The list below outlines groups and firms that we should track and think of as operating in the same or similar spaces as us.
From Framery's Website: Framery is a pioneer and leading company in manufacturing and developing soundproof private spaces – and the only company in the market solely focused on making them. We always put user experience first to turn efficiency up, and let people bloom. Our clients range from small offices to the world’s leading brands.
Framery is a Finnish phone booth company that focuses on providing quiet spaces for offices. They have a wide variety of pre-designed options, and also a "configurator" which lets potential customers pick styles, furnishings, and finishes. It's a pretty need tool, which allows folks to experiment with variation and understand Framery's offerings. Framery offers an online purchase mechanism as well, although they do not list prices.
From Après Furniture's Website: Spacio Phone Booths® solve office related problems associated with staff looking for privacy in the open plan office. Providing enough space for a single user, Spacio Phone Booths® provide 95% speech privacy for personal calls, Skype video conference calls or a space for uninterrupted work with integrated lighting and air circulation fan. Equipped with the best acoustics on the market, Spacio Phone Booth® offers a quiet space with the option of adding furniture. You can specify your Spacio® with or without small shelf and then furnish it with either a stool or chair. Built in power and data are optional extras.
Apres Furniture is a larger, UK furniture company, that seems to be a whole-saler of office and commercial furniture. Spacio is a specific product inside of their larger operation. Spacio has a commercial feel, but does share some architectural characteristics with some of our ideas for the tectonics of the PTS. Spacio is a break-down metal frame, with inset glass panelling. It encorporates acoustic foam into a panel system which forms the bulk of the wall system.
From the Martela Website's HUSH Page: Discussions stay private in the Hush phone booth. Carefully selected soundproof materials and structural solutions ensure a pleasant and peaceful work environment. Thanks to its carefully considered dimensions, the Hush phone booth can be easily placed almost anywhere, from narrow hallways to lobbies, and against any background. The Hush feels spacious inside because its workstation is placed along the side wall, leaving ample space behind the user's back. Dark interior materials and a taped window add to the sense of privacy. The lighting and ventilation systems are activated automatically when the user steps in.
Martela is another Nordic company specializing in commercial interior design and workspace design. This seems to be their only phonebooth product. Unlike Framery, this booth does not seem to be customizable and seems more restricted to the single user, single workspace use-case. Interestingly, this phone booth was also designed by a Finnish person. Specific dimensions and material information are not available on their website.
From Bosse's Website: The Bosse modul space building-block system impresses with its almost unlimited modularity. The high-quality tubes, connectors and panels form the basis of a system that can be used to create a wide range of different furniture and furnishing solutions. To simplify the planning process, swing doors, drawers and drop doors are available in specified modular dimensions.
Telephone Cube is a specific application of Bosse's (a German company) Swiss-rational, modernist modular space subdivision product. The company manufactures a modular system that can be assembled into "Space Cubes" which define office and workspace for different purposes. Telephone Cube is one such application. Basically, this product is not a designed phone booth, but rather a ready application of a product system that Bosse had.
From Oasis's Website: The Oasis Soft Phone Booth provides the perfect peaceful space for a phone call or video conference, giving you absolute calm, and total privacy. The fully enclosed Phone Booth includes top of the range acoustically absorbent materials, ambient lighting and air circulation fan controlled by a 7” touch screen control interface. With a hydraulic door, they give a silent retreat for uninterrupted focus. This self-contained booth comes upholstered in tactile fabric, with a softly curving design for a homely feel.
Oasis is a company specializing in workspace design. Their phone booth emphasizes a tech-forward approach, which they attempt to balance out with a soft and friendly design. It features optional customiziation, both in the finishes, but also in the interior options for furnishings, and technological features, like built-in Skype, File sharing, and an associated app to manage booking the space.
Unlike many of their competitors they give an extremely detailed breakdown of their pricing, which you can download here. The base price for their booth is $14,385, which is at the very least meant to suggest an extremely calculated number. They offer prices for optional features, ranging in cost from $30 to $1,149. A totally tricked out booth costs $17,427. They also place the download of CAD blocks front and center, which suggests that they may be catering to architects and interior designers as a primary market.
From the Loop Website: Each Loop Phone Booth is built by our skilled craftsmen on a made-to-order basis in our shop in Edmonton, Canada. The materials are of the highest quality and have been carefully selected to optimize both sound reduction and sustainability of the product. An occupancy sensor controls the integrated lighting and ventilation system while minimizing power consumption. The interior and exterior finishes can be customized to suit any interior environment.
The Loop is manufactured by a Canadian Product Development Firm. Loop is the least "mass-produced" option on this list (as of writing). Each booth is made to order and offers opportunities to the customer for custom work. An implication of this is that ONETWOSIX Design is actually selling a process for getting a Loop Phonebooth, not the Booth Directly. They do not list their prices, but they do offer a spec sheet with customization options. I'd be really curious to find out how much one of these costs. This group feels like our strongest direct competitor (although their market only partially overlaps with ours).
From the TalkBox website: 70% of all U.S. offices have converted to open floor plans and the number continues to grow. The number of co-working spaces worldwide doubles each year. ... Today's workplace strategies need to combine the benefits of collaborative and open spaces, with employees' need to work in a quiet environment. Our office privacy pods create a win-win for companies looking to boost overall productivity.
Like many of the other booths on this list, TalkBox (located in Boulder, CO) is focused on targeting open office space, and work spaces, not the public sector or cultural institutions. They offer a booth with a sliding door and window, and an acrylic panel finish. They integrate power, light, HVAC, and data into the booth. The interior lighting is dimmable, and the HVAC circulation is adjustable. There's a standing desk inside the booth, as well as a whiteboard. They offer a number of different finishes, but don't offer custom furnishings or dimensions. Their booth weighs 350lbs. Their photography is really bad.
Zenbooth has a marketing website which is independent of their shopify site here. This site catalogs testimonials which are quite interesting to read. ex: We have a truly wide open office concept with only 2 private offices for a company of over 250 people. We have a lot of different sized meeting and conference rooms but they are always in high demand and often over-booked. We have 3 major office locations, often times with individuals needing to video-tele-conference with each other from different locations. We set up the phone booths with hardware that perfectly allows someone to step into a booth and have a video-tele-conference with someone in another office at the easiest of conveniences. We essentially created 8 miniature conference rooms by buying the 8 booths, saving us a ton of time, money, and effort, and best of all everyone absolutely loves them and we can move them or take them with us wherever we go. – Ben M.
Again, ZenBooth certainly seems to be concerned in covering the office and corporate workspace market segment. Zenbooth has two models (Comfort Booth in Maple/Maple and White/Maple, and Executive Booth in Maple/Maple and White/Maple). The compact booth is listed at $4500 andthe Executive Booth is listed at $15000.
ZenBooth's FAQ is quite interesting as well, it provides information about technical specs and shipping. Find that here.
From the Nomad Phone Booth Website: After years of struggling with noise in open offices and taking phone calls in the hallway, we decided to build a private space for the modern workplace. Now, after more than a year in the making, we’re proud to present the Nomad. A soundproof and affordable booth making room for great calls and a better office environment.
Nomad phone booths are market entrants who look like they're about to step in just as we are. Like many of the other items on this list, the booth sports interior lighting, hvac, and an "easy-to-move frame". Nomad offers free shipping, a 100-day trial, and says that it's 'easy to assemble in 20 minutes'. Beyond that, their fixing their price per unit at a $2,995. This is definitely a competitor to watch.
This section catalogs some inspirations, touchpoints, and references for the PTS. This list is explicitly not composed of competitors, rather it should show us methods of solving spatial or experiential problems that can inform our work.
In the '90s, Japanese architecture studio Atelier Bow-Wow began a project of collecting weird plots and properties in Tokyo, a city in which land is valued so highly that it makes sense to squeeze every usable cubic foot our of a plot. The buildings they've collected give a beautiful overview of vernacular projects that maximize utilization in a tiny or bizarre footprint. PTS is partially about maximizing the potentials of various types of spaces, by squeezing new program functions in with existing infrastructure, and I find it interesting to look at how other people have managed space under constrained conditions. Read an interview Yoshiharu Tsukamoto about Pet Architecture here. Find the first volume here, and the second volume here.
Wajiro Kon was an obsessive cataloguer of the everyday in Japan during the early-mid 20th century. He produced a wide array of drawings that document everything from typical cracking patterns in bowls, to the distribution of cigarrette butts on the streets of Tokyo, to architectural conditions around the city. This article puts it really well: Kon was sensitive to the distinction between how spaces are designed and how they are actually used—the conceived space and the lived space. A big part of the PTS project is about retroactively correcting a documented imbalance between conceived public space in the commons, and public space as actually lived in the commons.
Critical feedback on frame and paneled approach to the structure. Critical feedback on architectural design. What are the areas of complexity that should be reduced? Are there red flags in the conceptual design? Obvious patterns we should be following?
Prepared by Greg Nemes 1-31-18, based on pts-framed-mp-v1.3dm
Note - referring to the Langdell PTS as PTS-1, and what we’re working on now as PTS-2. Is this right? Is there already a simple designation for this?
- How many people?
- In our last meeting, we looked at a design that had two stools inside(not sure if that was meant to show different height options, or to suggest two people might occupy the booth). I think we should critically examine how many people is best.
- PTS-1 can comfortably accommodate two people sitting, but can’t accommodate two people fully using the desk. The structure had to be fairly large to accomodate this. It probably could have been smaller, but would have been a bit less comfortable.
- I think the 3500 price point is going to be challenging to arrive at, so minimizing the volume of the space is valuable from a cost perspective. This Could point to one person occupancy.
- Transparency
- How much transparency is best? Should all 4 sides be transparent?
- From a UX perspective as an occupant, some amount of transparency is desirable, but maybe not too much.
- From a UX perspective as a prospective occupant, a higher degree of transparency is desirable, so you can easily tell whether the booth is occupied.
- Some other thoughts about transparency in the Structure/enclosure section.
- Integration into an existing space
- If our primary market is libraries, at least for now, people will be looking to integrate the PTS into an existing space, rather than being able to design the PTS into a new floor plan. So we should consider what that means for our product.
- Some people may want more than one booth:
- The current design makes setting up 2 booths back-to-back pretty easy from a planning perspective.
- There may be a UX downside to 2 booths back-to-back, in that each occupant would be facing each other.
- The current design makes setting up more than 2 booths back-to-back more challenging. Maybe this is okay, if we think people will typically only want two. But my suggestion would be to talk to as many people as we can about how many they might want, and if they would potentially buy more(that’s the goal, right?) if making a ‘bank’ of 3-5 booths was nice and compact in their space.
- The current design makes setting up 2 booths back-to-back pretty easy from a planning perspective.
- Steel frame:
- A steel frame as the primary structural system seems like a good strategy to me. Offers a way to have a slim but very strong structure.
- Visually, I think it looks a little chunky, especially doubling up the horizontal bars in the middle. All of the steel could be shorter(in the long dimension) and still be quite strong.
- Door
- We should consider having the door be optionally right-handed or left-handed. The frame should accommodate the door being installed in either orientation. A bonus would be if we only needed one design for the door, and it could be installed in either orientation, so the customer does not have to choose ahead of time.
- The door will need a gasket or some kind of seal in order to be soundproof, and this may mean we need a full frame on the door side of the structure, which holds the seal, and is what you attach the door to.
- Probably worthwhile to start looking into architectural hardware companies that could provide some nice concealed door hinges and other hardware like that. Hafele is one to look at, and ‘Hafele competitors’ is probably a good google search too.
- Sides
- Having 4 transparent sides creates some possible issues with the constructibility of the overall system.
- We’ll probably need at least one wall to deliver ‘services’ - electrical, maybe hvac, etc.
- Not necessarily a problem, but you will probably need have some exposed hardware in order to connect all 4 pieces frame pieces, which may be avoidable, or more concealable with some solid walls.
- My suggestion would be to consider a design that has at least 1 solid side, if not 2-3.
- Having 4 transparent sides creates some possible issues with the constructibility of the overall system.
- Roof slope:
- My first impression of the roof slope is ‘huh’. To be frank, I don’t find it attractive, and see some functional issues with it as well. That said, I do think there is great value in a formal gesture that gives the booth an iconic or memorable appearance.
- On the specifics of the slope, something about the proportions feel like they could use some finesse. This would probably just take some time working through different versions of the slope and segmentation of the slope until we found something that looks pleasing.
- Brainstorm: I wonder if two segments would look nice. I could imagine a flat segment about 3/4 of the length of the structure, and then a shorter segment sloping down 30-40 degrees, on the corner. The shorter segment could contain the light source, which might give the roof segmentation more purpose.
- Slight concern that if the occupant is standing, the roof sloping down towards their standing position would be uncomfortable.
- Seating:
- The decision to remove built-in seating -- I think -- is smart. This offers several benefits. First, more flexibility in the interior floor plan. Second, this allows the structure to be more simple if we don’t need to support a bench. Finally, it makes the to stand much easier, and I think some people will appreciate that option.
- Do we provide the stool? If so -- are we making it, or buying it? A nice rolling stool could easily be a few hundred dollars, which seems like a pretty big cost at the price point we’re trying to meet. Maybe the stool is an add-on?
- Desk:
- Like the adjustability concept. A few things to consider with that:
- It would be nice if someone could adjust the desk with one hand(might have a computer or something in their other hand)
- Someone should be able to adjust the desk while their computer and or coffee cup is on the desk without it being dangerous to their computer and or coffee.
- The two above requirements may be hard to meet, and I might suggest the adjustability of the desk is not a core requirement, but a nice-to-have. By the way, do we have somewhere that catalogs requirements vs nice features? That would be nice-to have 😃
- Like the adjustability concept. A few things to consider with that:
- Lighting
- Curious how lighting would fit into this scheme. I wonder if there’s a cool opportunity with small LED strips being routed through the polycarbonate, to create illuminated panels.
Multi-walled polycarbonate around a steel frame might work for us. Are there thoughts/examples of nice corner joining? Interesting alternatives to SABIC/Polygal? Material/manufacturer that might move us away from the kinda looks like an economical alternative to glass thing discussed in our call?
Aluminum T-Slot extrusion is manufactured by a wide range of providers and distributed widely across the USA. It provides a rigid structural system, which is especially well suited to framing boxy volumes but struggles with non-orthogonal corners and connections (although sellers and small companies exist that provide connections and plates to join extrusions at wacky angles). T-slot is high-quality, but typically on the expensive end.
- MiSUMi USA sells extrusion and a number of associated products for connecting and attaching to the base extrusions they sell.
- 80/20 sells structural extrusion and connectors, tie plates, and t-slot ready angle brackets.
- AluFab sells rounded and filleted extrusions, and compatible fasteners.
- Grainger is a reliable reseller of extrusions.
Simpler aluminum extrusion profiles exist as well and are typically cheaper that structural extrusion. These aluminum extrusions are harder to join with fasteners and worse for quick prototyping. Typically, joints in these extrusions are made through a heat welding process, typically TIG. Many, many manufacturers of aluminum extrusion exists and the price of extrusion fluctuates with the price of commodity aluminum. Here's one such manufacturer. Some manufacturers will also work with individuals to produce custom extrusion dies to meet their specific application's needs for a fixed price per extrusion die.
High-end dimensional lumber is a lower-cost (compared to extruded aluminum) alternative in framing out a structure. A BIG downside of dimensional lumber is that tends to warp across its length, making it difficult to achieve high-precision structures. It's great where the error tolerance is sufficiently high but is useless in high-precision situations. It's manufactured by a number of companies around the country, and is provided in nominal dimensions and lengths (not that nominal dimensions are usually greater than the actual thickness of the lumber once it's surfaced. The nominal thickness refers to the thickness when the lumber is rough-sawn, prior to surfacing). Read more here.
In general, lumber is easier to work than structural extrusions if joints at non-orthogonal angles are required.
Plywood, fibreboard, and laminated timber are all examples of engineered wood products. I'll focus on laminated timber as an option for a structural framing system, whereas plywood and fibreboard are typically used in cladding applications (at least, this is true for raw sheets of ply and fibre). Laminated Timber is typically "cross-laminated" (where the beam is constructed out of layers of wood in alternating grain direction, like plys in plywood), or "parallel-strand" (where the grain in all layers is oriented in the same direction). Both cross-laminated and parallel-strand lumber is more dimensionally stable than dimensional lumber, and exhibits less warming over time. It's also more expensive. Compared to structural extrusions or rolled steel, manufacturing lumber is significantly better ecologically, and requires no fossil fuels in the manufacturing process. Engineered wood is used in green-building projects.
Note that Engineered Timber is usually applied in large, building-scale projects.
In thinking about glazing Materials, It's nice to consider materials which will play nice with the extrusions or framing options we might pursue – Nic
TAP plastics is an established plastics manufacturer, who provides high-quality acryclic and offers cut to size services. Noice reducing plexiglass is a more expensive plexiglass/acrylic variant that offers acoustical damping properties and is available from companies such as ePlastics.
From the Greenhouse Megastore website: The DynaGlas corrugated polycarbonate sheet is lightweight and virtually unbreakable. It is designed to match the specific profiles of metal sheets in the steel building industry. This material is easily cleaned and its non-breakability feature makes this corrugated polycarbonate a tough product for the greenhouse environment. Each sheet is supplied with a UV (ultra-violet) protected surface on one side giving it excellent durability to weathering. With a light transmission of up to 90% for clear sheets, its optical property is almost equal to that of glass. In keeping with the theme of greenhouse glazing materials, this corrugated material is similar in character to corrugated tin but transparent, unbreakable, waterproof, and with significantly higher thermal gain. Distorts, but does not block, views through the material. Corrugated sheets are formed in many different profiles, so the details of the geometry of the material can be evaluated.
Most of the purely acoustical cladding materials are intended for in-wall solutions, or in-joint solutions. If we're committed to a high-transparency unit, we may need to consider glazing with significant dampening properties! – Nic
This is effectively an in-wall alternative to Fiberglass Insulation, which is being directly marketed as an acoustical product. Used in conjunction with an acoustical fabric layer on the exterior of a cladding panel, this sandwich forms a fairly typical acoustical insulation strategy that you'll see again and again in the listed booths above.
This is an in-wall convoluted acoustical foam product. It dampens acoustical waves through absorption and reflection, rather than the purely-absorptive acoustical batting, but it's coefficient of absorption is worse than the batting. We used this product for the interior walls of the Langdell Private Talking Spaces. Acoustical foam comes in many different contour profiles.
Mass-Loaded vinyl is an alternative approach to soundproofing, based on hanging a loosely-held sheet of vinyl inside a wall surface. When a sound wave comes into contact with the sheet, it is able to transfer a significant portion of its energy into the sheet, since the sheet is not rigid and can more easily be perturbed by the energy of the wave. (Compare to throwing a tennis-ball as hard as you can at a gym mat versus a hard wall surface). Soundproof Cow carries MLV, which is available here.
The Green Glue Company offers a noiseproofing glue product which can be applied via a caulking gun in a layer directly to a cladding material. They also offer a "Joist Tape" material which can be used to seal and soundproof individual framing materials to one another or to the applied cladding.
