Resurrection of the Phone Kiosk

I recently moved to work in the landscape office space in my working location in Turku. Humak University of Applied Sciences' RDI-Centre (Meri) moved recently to Logomo Byrå - centre for creative industries in Turku, Finland and the solution was open office where we all shared an open and spaceous premises.

For me, who comes from a family with seven kids, working in such a location is not problematic at all, but once and a while there is a situation where you would prefer a quiet chat in a phone because of the background noice - or because you want to let others to work undisturbly.

Finnish Framery developed a solution for landscape offices

I happened to be around when Vesa-Matti Marjamäki and Samu Hällfors from a small design company Framery came to install a phone booth designed for landscapes to our premises. It is worth to mention that these start-uppers live with the enterpreneurship spirit. They are not just installers but they also company managers. Sometimes you do not have to be afraid to do some blue collar work either.

Frameryn perustajat toimittavat tuotteet perille asti.

Soft walls, chair and a carpet reduce the background echo away. Sound proof door does not let the voice out. Companies can customise the colours and tape the booth to respond its graphical profile.

I wathced men to istall the booth. It started to take shape. Colourful and playful design bringing up a distant connotation to Habbo Hotel got me curious. I started to talk with the guys.

I got an image of sympathetic young inventors who genuinely were proud of their design and innovation. And the magnificent product it is. Practical design invented for a need and then, succesfully brought to the market.


Over 30% exported

The young enterpreneurs told that already 30% of their production were exported. Clients were some of the famous companies in San Francisco Bay Area. When I heard the names. -Wow, I thought. I promised not to blog the names of the companies. But if you work in the Bay Area, perhaps you've already spotted some?

Phone booths are handicraft from Hervanta, Finland.

It is easy to tell that a major reasons for the succes are that booths are practical and they answer to the real everyday problem in the open office space. In addition, it does not harm that companies can brand how the booths look. When they stand in the middle of the office space they certainly draw the attention of the visitors. Without no exception all our new visitors pay attention to our booth and start to ask questions about it. Booths are seen.

Some of the Finnish clients are Wärtsilä, one of the biggest ship service companies, Nordea, the biggest bank in the Nordic Countries and Alma Media, the second largest media company of Finland (Source: Framery's homepage).

Minäkin pääsin kuviin! Koppi valmiiksi koottuna.

Plug and Play
The door of the booth is tight and the soundproof and echoless office room creates a quiet and peaceful place to talk of your secrets.

Because this there is also an aircondition in the booth. The air moves from the roof towards the exit holes nearby the table. The booth is connected to the electricity - and there is also RJ-plug for the wired internet. Handy if you need to get in to the company servers. Cabling is readily installed to the booth.

Framery's booth in our office space.

Because the booth is handmade design and handicrafts, the investment is relatively big. Buyer have to expect to spent few thousand for it. The company produces several models and they also provide suberbly looking mini negotiation rooms. Have a look, they are gorgeous. Framery's products!


I could imagine these guys winning the Red Herring Top 100, someday. Remember, I was the first one to say this. When I say this, it normally happens - if these guys participate to it.






I have a passion for the booths


In Norway, The National Heritage officials pay for the Telenor, the biggest telephone operator in the country, for the maintenance preservation of around 200 booths around the country. I guess in the UK the tourism keeps the booths alive - they are popular objects for the tourist photographs but when it was the last time you actually saw someone making a phone call from them?


The blogger has a passionate relationship to the phone booths and he cannot walk by without taking a photo first. I have written earlier a entry about the culture historical meaning of the phone booth and how Finnish National Heritage Official's failed to preserve a phone booths in their real environment. They want to preserve DDR-kind of architecture - why not a single phone kiosk. Now, there has been raised a generation which has not seen a phone kiosk in the street environment. Earlier blog (in Finnish, but with cool images :o).