Personal workspace assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing workspace arrangements for traveling employees in open facilities lack visibility, privacy, and durability, often being misplaced or damaged due to their structural design and placement, which reduces their utilization and effectiveness.
Innovation Solution
A modular workspace arrangement featuring a lounge chair surrounded by a partial wall structure that provides privacy while maintaining an open feel, with stationary components to prevent damage and a robust design for durability, allowing for intuitive use and visibility from outside.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If hotelling offices are constructed with closed doors and walls to provide privacy, then privacy is improved, but visibility and accessibility are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies glass partitions instead of solid walls to create hotelling offices. The glass material provides visual transparency while maintaining physical separation and acoustic privacy. This allows employees to see through the partitions, reducing the feeling of isolation while still providing necessary privacy for work activities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes the optical properties of glass, which can appear transparent or translucent depending on the angle of view and lighting conditions. This dynamic visual characteristic allows the partitions to adapt between providing visibility and providing privacy based on external conditions.
2Shape
If hotelling offices are placed in out of the way locations to maintain aesthetic appearance, then the overall look and feel of open spaces is preserved, but utilization and accessibility are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
Glass partitions are used to create hotelling offices that can be placed within open spaces without significantly degrading the aesthetic appearance. The transparency of glass allows light to pass through and maintains visual continuity of the open space, while still providing defined work areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates two-way visibility through the glass partitions, allowing people inside and outside the hotelling offices to see each other. This eliminates the need for employees to be in out-of-the-way locations, as the glass walls provide visibility from multiple directions and angles.
3Adaptability or versatility
If movable workspace arrangements are provided to allow flexibility, then adaptability is improved, but durability and resistance to damage are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates anti-tip mechanisms and secure mounting systems that are pre-installed in the hotelling offices. These mechanisms prevent furniture and equipment from tipping or falling during movement or use, addressing safety concerns before incidents occur.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent specifies using durable, easy-to-replace furniture and equipment in hotelling offices. If items are damaged or misplaced, they can be quickly replaced without significant cost or disruption to the overall system.
4Ease of operation
If clear signage is provided to indicate hotelling office availability, then accessibility is improved, but the aesthetic appearance and open feel of spaces are degraded
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses color-coded signs or indicators on the glass partitions to communicate availability status. The colors can be changed or illuminated to indicate whether an office is occupied or available, providing clear information without requiring large or obtrusive signage.
Solution Approach 2:
The glass partitions themselves serve as the signage medium, with information displayed directly on the glass surface through etching, printing, or attached films. This integrates the signage function into the partition structure, maintaining aesthetic appearance while providing necessary information.
Data Source
AI summary
A lounge assembly comprising a lower wall structure including at least first and second spaced apart side walls and a rear wall that together form an assembly space, each of the side walls and rear wall including an internal surface, a seat assembly supported between the first and second side walls, a first coupler mounted to the internal surface of the first side wall, a support arm having an arm length dimension between proximal and distal ends, the proximal end mounted to the first coupler adjacent the internal surface of the first side wall for rotation about a first vertical axis and a tablet member supported at the distal end of the support arm for rotation about a second vertical axis through a second range of motion with respect to the support arm.