Workers are back in the office and missing many of the comforts that working from home provides—like the ability to be alone. Returning to busy open-plan offices designed for collaboration is challenging, and workers are looking for places where they can find some peace and quiet alone and away from their desks.

“When you have to work according to your own ideas for 18 months, it is really hard to get used to the chaotic work environment again,” says Ricardo Nabholz, managing partner and creative director of the studio at TPG Architecture.

They’re looking for “solitude,” he said, or retreats where they can relax without leaving their workstations. “It’s the smoke break for the non-smoking era,” Nabholz said. Demand for such spaces is changing workplace design as employers pay more attention to workplace wellness and what amenities employees need to feel mentally healthy and do their best work, he said.

“It’s the smoke break for the non-smoking era.”

Ricardo Nabholz, managing partner and creative director of the studio at TPG Architecture.

Nabholz recently worked on a project with a major tech company, whose name he could not reveal due to nondisclosure agreements, to build a greenhouse-like retreat area in the middle of the office space. It’s about the size of a 12-person conference room, but only designed to accommodate one person at a time. The space is filled with live plants that also cover the walls for extra privacy, and includes a chair. “It’s a place where you can just walk in and close the door and have a moment of solitude and re-center yourself,” Nabholz said.

Because the spaces are designed solely as retreats, there isn’t a big problem with employees abusing the spaces or spending too much time there. “There’s no horizontal surface to set a laptop down there, except on the water feature,” Nabholz said.

For another recent project, Nabholz designed a “quiet car” in an office that resembles a quiet car on a train. It is about the size of a railway carriage and hidden behind a bookshelf. Employees press a button to enter the room, which has a small sofa and a few seats for one or a few people.

Companies are also using furniture design to create places of retreat or at least some kind of solidarity. Half-enclosed chairs with hoods or hidden seating areas are one example. “But we are seeing more and more customers asking for spaces where they have a door that they can close. Ideally, the room is not glazed,” he said.

Spaces for being alone are different from spaces for concentration, like phone booths or libraries, which also place greater demands on workers in hybrid work environments. But libraries can also serve as a space to “be alone together,” similar to a subway or other shared space where social norms are respected to maintain quiet and restraint, Nabholz said.

Employers who create safe spaces are also increasingly trying to accommodate their neurodiverse workforce. Neurodiversity in the workplace is becoming more widely recognized post-pandemic, and more adults are seeking out diagnoses, leading to greater awareness on social media platforms like TikTok.

“For some, it has been difficult to return to this office environment, which is even more stimulating and even more chaotic than the one we left behind before the pandemic,” Nabholz said.

At integrated communications agency Rooster, employees use “MuteBox” conference booths – soundproof phone booths – when they need a place to retreat, says managing director James Brooke.

“Life in an agency can get pretty hectic and it’s important to have dedicated spaces to escape the hustle and bustle,” Brooke said. “For our neurodiverse staff in particular, conference booths with noise cancellation are invaluable to help them focus or block out distracting noises,” he said.

Yet for many workers, an on-site retreat is still a pipe dream. One example is Chris Oatway, marketing coordinator at MattressTek, a mattress manufacturer. He often goes to his car to relax alone, and his colleagues do too, he says. He’s also often the one making small deliveries to suppliers and really enjoys getting in the van and getting away from his desk for a while, he says.

“I know that at least two of the guys here just spend their lunches and breaks in their cars, and one is known to hide in the bathroom,” Oatway said.