These Office Pods Are Inspired by Tree Houses

In theory, it’s great to be able to brainstorm with your colleagues. But there’s much to dislike about open offices: they zap productivity, they can be loud and full of distractions, and employees clustered in a single space are more likely than sequestered workers to feel the pain of cold and flu season. And sometimes, you just don’t want to smell Larry’s lunch.

Instead of a return to a sea of cubicles—which would require a significant infrastructural overhaul—many open-plan offices are searching for ways to carve out private nooks within a multi-purpose space. FastCo Design describes the process as “hack[ing] the space to make it more functional for all the worker bees.”