Pods are often seen as solitary spaces, that separate the occupant from their colleagues, but the PLN range allows for collaboration, reflection, quick meetings, phone calls or just a comfortable spot to sit and think or work for a while.

Modularity and flexibility are key requirements for the modern office, where more and more spaces need to cater to more than one use. The Keystone system, for example, not only delivers excellent acoustics, but a reconfigurable format that utilizes a list of ‘ingredients’ that can be pulled together to create office seating, desk or even lounge spaces. Whereas pods such as The Lunar Pod Lite or The Short Tail Focus Pod are light enough or supplied on casters to easily move around the office when required.

In a world where employees are in the office less, it is important to provide spaces where people can get together to work on ideas and plans in a more focused way, but away from the formal meeting room – a space which often leads to extended or bloated timeframes.

The Scrum range provides a number of pods specifically designed for collaboration or quick meetings in a variety of formats for between two to four people, including with mounted monitors for clearer communication of key concepts.

Keystone Private Diners are available for either two or four people with either fixed or mobile desktops and the Share Pod offers acoustic properties for four people on comfortable seating and a good-sized worktop.

Although collaboration is an important element of the working day, so too is a degree of separation for focus or individual task work.

The Park range of course can deliver that requirement with the Park Move and Park Connect-1, but PLN’s range includes a number of pods designed with acoustics firmly in mind. The Return Focus Pod and Return Focus Pod Lite, for example, provide a quiet spot in an open space for focused work and the Scrum Isolate gives the occupant a hug with its armchair-like seat and curved walls.

Don’t forget to consider use of room dividers to create your own pods and break up the space a little. Backdrop Screens are a great way to help reduce noise as well as provide privacy when needed. But more practical pieces such as a Mobile Whiteboard or the Roam Mobile Communications Hub will give you multi-purpose dividers.

Having the right pods in place is a great start, but consider the bigger picture. What will go around them. Will you put plants in to soften the edges, have you considered colour and how that might affect the overall look as well as the people who will spend the most time in the space?

Perhaps think about further enhancing the acoustic dampening around pods designed for real focus or close collaboration work by adding a Hush light above.

Whole-space thinking is needed to ensure the changes you make or the new pieces you install truly make the impact they are designed to make.