Our founders - Endrus Arge, Sparry Kivilo and Henri Rüüsak - couldn’t believe how much noise one or two people could make in a small office.
Loud phone calls and noisy conversations travelled fast across an open plan office. How was anyone supposed to concentrate with all that background noise?
Endrus, Sparry and Henri had started their first company – Wallenium – a manufacturer of custom soundproof partition walls. But they realised it wasn’t enough to put a partition wall between you and the sales guy shouting to a customer over a dodgy mobile signal. If you needed thinking space for uninterrupted work, you needed wrap-around soundproofing.
So the founders began playing around with the idea of a soundproof pod.
They needed to create a space where you can escape office distractions for meetings, take phone calls and write reports.
The prototype Silen Space pod
was created and shown off at the 2007 Stockholm Furniture Fair.
Then the global financial crisis struck. Wallenium put R&D on hold and concentrated on keeping the business afloat.
Endrus was sitting in his kitchen in 2017 battling a nasty bout of the flu when he had a breakthrough.
He realised that the core limitation of the prototype was its lack of flexibility. If he could create a space that was soundproof, moveable and adjustable, a huge issue facing open-plan offices would be addressed.
A few days later, and having fully recovered, Endrus presented the initial sketches
to the team and R&D was restarted.
Twelve years after the first concept was born, the new and improved Silen Spaces were unveiled to the world.
Nobody had seen anything like the Silen Space range before. The soundproofing was incredible. People who stepped inside a pod could hardly believe their ears: the noise of the busy trade fair outside the pod just melted away.
And we were offering much more than a cramped “phone kiosk” that felt more like a punishment cell than a place you’d choose to work. The Silen range could be adapted for one person or a team of eight; they could be wheeled into different positions and joined up with other pods.
At the Stockholm Furniture Fair in 2019 we had our toughest test.
A small group of buyers asked Sparry if they could try a pod.
“Thank you,” they said. “We won’t tell you who we are, but we might come back tomorrow.
Sparry followed the group round the Fair, and watched as they carried out the same tests with each of our competitors.
The next day the mystery buyers returned. “We’re from Spotify”, they said. “Your pods provide the best soundproofing we’ve found. We’d like to buy all the units you have on show.”
Today, we create silent thinking spaces for brilliant companies like Amazon, Airbus, Porsche, Ernst & Young, EA Games and Volkswagen Group.
We now manufacture two product lines. Our flagship Silen Space line, with world record beating noise reduction, and our Chatbox by Silen line, offering a high – quality space for concentration on a tighter budget.
All our products are ready for the new reality of working in the post – Covid age. Our spaces have antibacterial coatings and HEPA air filters. Silen pods offer reassurance to people who are anxious about returning to the office. We give you more options for social distancing than ever before.
We’re operating in 39 countries around the world and always looking to expand our network. And the innovation hasn’t stopped. Silen founders and the team are developing new ideas that will help you get the best out of your workspace.
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You. The customer. We have all worked in an environment that does not allow for focus, and we know how damaging it can be not only on your performance, but also your wellbeing.
By moving the noise (or yourself) into the Space, disturbances will be reduced.
Because regaining your focus after a distraction is difficult.
Because we all work better in silence.
With a heavy focus on design and the highest-quality materials. We have a strong engineering and design team who are ruthless in leaving no stone unturned and looking for the most optimal solution.
We know how important silence is in the workplace because our sales team are a very loud group. In fact, they ring a cowbell whenever they close a deal. This is what it sounds like in the office:
