Office pod
An office pod enclosing a soundproof workspace inside of the pod, and including a front load-bearing frame, a rear load-bearing frame, and a skin layer attached in between the front and rear load-bearing frames so as to provide the front and rear load-bearing frames with cross-dimensional rigidity.
1 . An office pod enclosing a soundproof workspace inside of the pod, comprising:
a front load-bearing frame comprising a door, the front load bearing frame constituting an outermost encircling element of a front wall;
a rear load-bearing frame constituting an outermost encircling element of a rear wall;
a skin layer at both a left-hand side and a right-hand side of the pod forming an exterior surface of the pod, said skin layer attached in between the front load-bearing frame and the rear load-bearing frames so as to provide the front and rear load-bearing frames with cross-dimensional rigidity and providing lateral bracing for the front and rear load-bearing frames so maintain the rectangular shape of the pod, the skin layer comprising sound stopping material; and
a sound absorbing material layer following the skin layer;
wherein the pod further comprises a ceiling structure attached to the front load-bearing frame and to the rear load-bearing frame, and wherein a chassis with cross-dimensional support comprises said skin layers and said load-bearing frames.
2 . The office pod of claim 1 , wherein the skin layer is in between the load-bearing frames in the form of a planar, uniform surface, or in the event the skin layer is formed of sub-pieces, the sub-pieces are generally in the form of a planar, uniform surface.
3 . The office pod of claim 1 , wherein the skin layer is the only sound stopping layer in a sidewall structure.
4 . The office pod of claim 3 , comprising a sound absorbing element formed of said absorbing material layer and an air layer.
5 . The office pod of claim 4 , further comprising an inner liner layer having a higher flow resistivity than the sound absorbing material layer.
6 . The office pod of claim 3 , wherein a total mass of the sidewall structure is at most half of a total mass of any of the front wall comprising the front-load bearing frame and the rear wall comprising the rear load-bearing frame.
7 . The office pod of claim 4 , wherein the skin layer is less stiff than any of the load-bearing frames.
8 . The office pod of claim 4 , wherein the skin layer is directly attached to the front and rear load-bearing frames.
9 . The office pod of claim 1 , wherein the skin layer is also indirectly attached to the front and rear load-bearing frames.
10 . The office pod of claim 9 , comprising a connector connecting the front load-bearing frame and the rear load-bearing frame, and the skin layer being attached to the connector.
11 . A method of assembling the office pod of claim 1 , comprising:
assembling a chassis of the office pod by first providing front and rear load-bearing frames being opposed to each other, followed by connecting the front and rear load-bearing frames by directly attaching right-handed side and left-handed side skin layers to from exterior surfaces of the office pod and to form a cross-dimensionally rigid chassis, and thereafter
attaching further parts of the office pod to said chassis for forming a finished office pod.
12 . The office pod of claim 6 , wherein the total mass of the sidewall structure is at most one third of the total mass of any of the front wall and the rear wall.
13 . The office pod of claim 6 , wherein the skin layer is less stiff than any of the load-bearing frames.