Framery & ROOM Pro: Productizing the Huddle Space

COVID-19 has dramatically shifted commercial office priorities as companies delicately balance health and safety with return-to-office plans. Pre-pandemic, there was a trend of open office environments, and there have been many hypotheses shared on how the post-pandemic workplace will look.  

Furthermore, as contractors feel the pressure to accelerate construction schedules, we rely more and more on prefabricated solutions or products. Specifically looking at conference rooms and huddle spaces, many market-ready options exist that offer private spaces within open office environments. HITT has furnished two products, Framery and ROOM, at Co|Lab. Offering a sound reduction of 29 dB, the Framery 2Q product arrived on-site in panels, and installation took roughly seven hours. Similarly, the ROOM Pro product offers a sound reduction of 27 dB and was installed much the same way. Both products will increase huddle spaces within the building and created a podcast recording space for HITT team members. However, long lead times are a hard truth with these types of prefabricated products. Tracking at between 8 – 16 weeks for delivery, this can dramatically affect product selection. Though this product type is panelized, we have yet to find a viable market option for a modular pod that ships fully constructed, as we have seen in bathroom pods for example.  

Through our research in this area, it is clear “soundproof” tends to also have many meanings, but acoustics is one of the most crucial considerations when selecting interior products and materials. We are continuing to test these solutions within Co|Lab to understand the benefits and limitations.