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Not Your Average School Lockers: SOMA Transforms the Hybrid Office

03.15.23 | By
Not Your Average School Lockers: SOMA Transforms the Hybrid Office

Three years after the pandemic, we continue to see new, innovative solutions for shifting the typical office space towards hybrid working environments. The latest comes from Pair, an office brand based in San Francisco, who is addressing both storage and workstation needs in the hybrid office. The company recognizes that there are now four types of workers in a world post-Covid: full-time, part-time, hybrid, and temporary. To accommodate an environment that routinely has employees coming in and out on varied schedules, Pair created SOMA, a locker system that defines office spaces while maximizing storage.

yellow locker system rendering

SOMA meets Pair’s three main objectives: 1) fit in hundreds of lockers on a single office floor, 2) accommodate more collaborative meeting spaces, and 3) green spaces. The lockers act as a base for tables and planters, and provide framing for whiteboards. They can be accessed via a keycard which locks/unlocks each unit and allows employees to enter the office, eliminating the need for multiple cards. Unlike traditional storage systems, these lockers aren’t attached to individual workstations, so employees can freely migrate between different floors, visit different cities and headquarters, and still have a place to stow away their belongings.

locker system rendering

locker storage system in modern office

blue locker storage system

interiors of locker storage system

interiors of locker storage system

Pair designed each SOMA locker to have charging capabilities in addition to ample storage for day-to-day items. The locker fronts are made of metal cladding that can be powder-coated in virtually any color to not only match company brand colors but aid in way-finding and space delineation.

man walking past locker workstations

locker storage system in modern office

green lockers in modern office

To learn more about Pair’s new SOMA system, visit madebypair.com.

Photos by Jason O’Rear.

As the Senior Contributing Editor, Vy Yang is obsessed with discovering ways to live well + with intention through design. She's probably sharing what she finds over on Instagram stories. You can also find her at vytranyang.com.