Philips
1979

Nope - this isn't a new retro-hip restaurant. Nor my grandfather's nightmarish vision of what the future would be. And the white vertical shapes aren't Apple iBooks either.

This photograph was taken at Philips' austrian factory in Klagenfurt. The bubbles are to dimish ambient noise and sonic resonances. There were other attempts in Europe and, later on, in Japan at making the human workplace less stressful... but this one is quite striking.

I can't imagine the cost of making that many large rounded plexiglas bubbles - the syndicates must've shouted real loud to get this !

Of course, nowadays, manufacturing is done by machines so it isn't -stricto sensu- manufacturing anymore... And robots don't need plexiglas bubbles as they aren't stressed by ambient noise, repetitive tasks and mean-spirited chiefs.

(are they ?)