What role do phone booths play in open-plan offices?

Among the trends for the hybrid office at Salone del Mobile 2023, the phone booth stood out as an increasingly valued product. The CH3 team saw designs from Tecno and Fantoni aimed at this use.

What the booth is for

An open environment, whether an open-plan office or a coworking space, encourages collaboration but makes concentration and private conversations harder. The booth solves this: it offers a moment of individual privacy for a call or a video call, and it also accommodates small groups that need to get away from the noise for a few minutes.

Why hybrid work gave it momentum

With the workweek split between home and office, corporate spaces have been reconfigured. Activities that used to happen in enclosed rooms now call for compact solutions within the open space. The booth is one of them: it is installed in the existing space, without building enclosed rooms, and it can be moved when the layout changes.

Other ways to control privacy

The booth isn't the only answer. Fantoni's Panorama system, designed by UNStudio, can be fitted with louvers to control privacy or incoming light at workstations and in collaborative spaces. Combining booths with elements like these gives an open office different degrees of separation, without losing the flexibility the hybrid model requires.

For your company, the practical question is how many moments of privacy the team needs each day and where they happen. The answer guides how many booths the design includes and where they go.