Redrawing the Cube

Even as workplaces move toward more open seating, privacy remains a top demand among employees. A Knoll study found that 45% say they do their best work in "their own personal space." The top privacy-related gripe: overheard conversation, particularly from cell-phone shouters. So architects are being exhorted to help muffle cubicle babble. Some advocate loft ceilings, others white noise; a desktop gadget called Babble can broadcast garbled recordings of the user's voice to mask real conversation. "To be honest, I see a lot more people just wearing iPods at their desks," says Dennis Gaffney, co-director of workplace design for architects RTKL.

But designers agree that the best way to cap cube chatter is to move it. "To do that," says James Ludwig, director of design for Steelcase, "you need to create spaces for people to go." Steelcase is testing a concept called the Cell Cell, a phone booth fitted with reception boosters. Chatty colleagues might gravitate to the Dyadic Slice, designed for two, or hold brainstorming sessions in the Digital Yurt, whose sensor-triggered lighting oscillates with increased activity.

All that is taking place just as many employers are encouraging a more nomadic work style. At Sun Microsystems in Santa Clara, Calif., workers can pop into interchangeable cubicles, an increasingly popular option called hoteling. With 62% of office workers desiring flex time and 42% longing to telecommute, is the cubicle as we know it dead? "I don't think it should have ever been born, so I would love to say yes," says Alan Hedge, a Cornell professor who studies workplace design. "Technology already allows most of us to work from anywhere, but companies want to retain control." So enjoy your smaller, cooler company cubicle--just don't get too comfortable.

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