The rhythm of open offices is great until you need to concentrate or take a video call. The energy becomes noise, conversations drift across the floor, and people end up camping in meeting rooms or wearing noise-cancelling headphones all day. The ad hoc solutions never quite work, and what is missing is a middle ground, something more substantial than a desk but less isolating than a full pod.
Canopy is KFI Studios and Gensler’s answer, a freestanding workstation that behaves like a tiny room inside the open plan. It combines a height-adjustable desk with an upholstered privacy hood, integrated lighting, and built-in power, creating a personal haven for focused work without walling people off. The hood wraps around like a small ceiling and sidewalls, softening ambient noise and blocking visual distractions while leaving you connected to the larger space.
Designer: KFi STUDiOS and Gensler
Arriving in a hot-desking office, you slide into a Canopy bay for heads-down work. The upholstered hood softens the hum of the floor, integrated lighting dials in for your screen, and the sit-stand surface adjusts to your height with intuitive controls and a digital readout. When it is time for a video call, you stay put, tweak the dimmable lighting for a ring-light effect, and skip the hunt for a quiet room.
The fully upholstered hood gives a sense of boundary without feeling like a box. The lower surround can be wood veneer, laminate, or upholstery depending on how much warmth the interior needs. Because the hood interior and exterior can be mixed or matched in different fabrics, designers can tune how enclosed or open the station feels, from soft cocoon to crisp workstation, adjusting for brand or privacy levels.
Integrated power and cable management keep laptops, monitors, and chargers from tangling on the surface. Optional occupancy sensors shut off lighting when the station is empty, a small nod to energy-conscious projects. The use of FSC-certified red oak, CertiPUR-US foam, and low-VOC laminates supports teams working toward sustainability metrics without making a fuss about it or requiring dedicated environmental consultants to justify the choice.
Canopy takes up more floor space per person than a bench, and in very loud environments it will not replace full acoustic rooms. Integrated lighting and sensors add components that need maintenance over time. It is a more premium, infrastructure-like piece that makes the most sense as part of a broader plan for how people move, focus, and recharge across a floor, not just as a random upgrade.
Canopy treats focus as something worth designing for, not just something people hack together with headphones and luck. By giving each person a small, height-adjustable, well-lit, and acoustically softened bay, it brings a bit of architectural calm into the open plan. Sometimes the most effective workplace upgrades are not new tools on the screen but better places to sit and think without everyone else’s conversations becoming the soundtrack.
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