Imagine a world in which you can rent a pop-up office pod in the city the same way you would rent a Citi Bike. Your train has been delayed, or you find yourself with three hours to spare between client meetings, so you pull up your phone, locate the nearest work pod on your app, and bang out some emails. This world doesn’t exist yet, but one designer in London is betting it can.
Like much of the workforce in 2020, designer and entrepreneur Walter Craven was working from his dining table when the idea for a private work pod came to him. Just over a year later, his pods were displayed during the London Design Festival. Designed to cater to a range of activities, from writing emails and making calls to recording podcasts, the work pods can be deployed in a wide array of spaces, such as train stations, hotel lobbies, and even existing offices. For the concept to work, Craven’s company, Make.Work.Space, would need to deploy the pods en masse. But as we continue to seek alternatives to working from home, or the office, or even a loud coffee shop, a single pod in the right place, at the right time, sounds like a good start.