Photos by Sonny Espiritu
There was a time when offices are divided by floor-to-ceiling partitions and each employee is confined either in a private room or a cubicle. Then companies in the Silicon Valley brought down the dividers, introducing the open-office model—and many industries followed suit.
Open-office floor plan is ideal in many ways: it inspires collaboration, it promotes transparency, and it is more cost-effective on the part of the employer. But working in such environment, where everyone can see what you’re doing, listen to what you’re saying, and smell the food you’re eating, can be distracting and affect work performance. Several studies prove that.
“When we meet with clients, we ask them what they want to achieve in the workplace. Normally they would say they want to achieve brand recognition, engagement of people, retention of employees, and productivity,” Ultra Modular Concepts, Inc. (UMCI) president Milen Batungbacal told Manila Standard. UMCI is a distributor of office partitions and furnishings in the Philippines.
In open offices, employers and employees look for a space where they can work or do things (such as make a phone call) privately as well as a spot delegated to meet and collaborate. Thus UMCI brings Clestra Hauserman’s IRYS.
IRYS is a prefabricated and removable pod with walls, ceiling, and door but is not connected to the building’s structure. This modular system is bringing partitions back, but with more flexibility, as it is easy to set up, transform, and relocate.
IRYS is built from Bridge, another Clestra product, a system of two walls connected by a ceiling—ideal for collaboration. Add the glass walls and you get IRYS.
The pod can be customized depending on the needs of the company. It comes with its own lighting, electrical connectivity, a sliding or swing door, and magnetic walls to hold pens and gadgets. A whiteboard or the Clestra Mediawall (a large high definition screen perfect for presentations) can be mounted inside or outside.
“With Bridge, they have a space where they can collaborate. If they want privacy and they want to isolate themselves, they can go inside the IRYS and close the doors,” Clestra managing director for South Asia Gilles Marino explained during the product’s Manila launch.
Marino said it only takes half a day for four people to mount IRYS.
UMCI founder and luxury car distributor Wellington Soong added that a modular office system, such as IRYS, comes in handy for multinational companies which may have visiting directors or CEOs. He said, “It can be their temporary office. Or if a visitor arrives, you can have a private space where you can talk.”
Early adopters of open-office setup such as banks, insurance, BPOs, and ICT companies are taking advantage of dynamic modular office space solutions, according to Soong.
Aside from Bridge and IRYS, UMCI is also bringing Clestra’s Fizz Box, a soundproof space where employees can talk or make phone calls without being disturbed. Fizz Box comes in several sizes—from vintage London phone booth-inspired model to a curved, more spacious design—and offers a variety of integration options such as cable racks, sound baffle panel, USB ports, electrical plugs, and switches.
“Through Clestra Hauserman’s innovations, UMCI is proudly bringing home the solution to create authentic and inspiring spaces to keep employees healthy and productive,” declared Batungbacal.