Page 65 - WHERE WE WORK - Schlegelmilch

Moving between places
Figure 2.6 Dedicated focus area in a coworking space
workers also aimed to control digital distractions.
The affordance of privacy also had a social component in the places. For one, some co-working spaces had ‘Focus booths’ or ‘Silence rooms’ (Figure 2.6). In these areas, it was explicitly forbidden to speak with each other. In contrast to malleability, the behavioral norms in the place did not afford the workers to order the place for anything else but focused work. Furthermore, headphones were a means to communicate with others in the place that one did not want to be interrupted. They were not only used to create physical barriers to others but also interpreted as a social one:
“I don’t really want to disturb them [other workers], with headphones and when they work on their laptops [...] It is kind of like an unwritten rule and people just use it, and then you know that this guy is in the zone and you shouldn’t bother him.” (Tim, digital marketeer, #10)
Through these various ways of interacting with the physical and 63