Do office pods need sprinklers? The base build questions a booth raises
A single person acoustic booth is furniture until it has a roof. Then the sprinkler, detection, lining and power questions move into the services package. What the NCC requires, what Framery publishes in its per pod fire safety documents, and the six things to settle before a pod is ordered.
A one person acoustic booth arrives as an appliance. It plugs into a standard socket, it is not fixed to the building, and nobody signs it off. The moment it has a roof, though, it is an enclosure sitting under a sprinklered ceiling, and three questions move out of the furniture package and into the services package. Aviva's loss prevention standard for meeting pods asks for 800 mm between the sprinkler deflector and the top of a pod. Framery publishes an exterior height of 2255 mm for Framery One. On the 2700 mm floor to ceiling height Macquarie University specifies for its own offices, there is 445 mm. The clearance that the insurer's standard wants above a booth is not available on an Australian office floor, which is why the conversation ends up being about a head inside the pod instead.
This is the part of a pod specification that no brochure covers, because it is not about the pod. It is about what the building already has above it, beside it and in its ceiling, and about who carries the decision. The range comparison, the floor areas, the airflow and the weights are set out in Framery One, Four and Six: choosing the right pod for the brief. What follows is everything that happens after the model is chosen.
The clearance that cannot be found above a pod
Start with the arithmetic, because it decides the shape of the argument. Framery publishes exterior heights for the four pods in the range, and they cluster tightly between 2.25 and 2.33 m. The published figures are 2255 mm for Framery One, 2250 mm for Framery One Compact, and 2329 mm for both Framery Four and Framery Six. Options add to that: Framery publishes an extra 30 mm for castors, 65 mm for the air filter and 20 mm for the seismic kit on Framery One.
Against that, two published ceiling heights. The National Construction Code sets a minimum room height, and for Class 5 to 8 buildings the figure is 2.4 m generally and 2.1 m in a corridor or passageway, under clause F5D2(3). Macquarie University's property design guidelines are more generous and more typical of a real commercial floor: the floor to ceiling height throughout office and teaching areas is to be at least 2700 mm, with a minimum 400 mm from the top of the ceiling to the underside of the slab or beam.
| Pod | Exterior height | Exterior width and depth | Clearance under a 2400 mm ceiling | Clearance under a 2700 mm ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Framery One | 2255 mm | 1220 x 1000 mm | 145 mm | 445 mm |
| Framery One Compact | 2250 mm | 1030 x 1000 mm | 150 mm | 450 mm |
| Framery Four | 2329 mm | 2352 x 1292 mm | 71 mm | 371 mm |
| Framery Six | 2329 mm | 2352 x 2632 mm | 71 mm | 371 mm |
Framery also publishes a minimum room height for each model, which is the figure to design to rather than the pod height plus a nominal gap: 2350 mm for One Compact, 2400 mm for One and 2380 mm for Four and Six. Those figures, and the depth each pod needs once the doorway is counted, are tabulated in Framery pods compared: which model, and when a pod replaces a meeting room.
None of those numbers is close to 800 mm. Add castors and a filter to a Framery One and the clearance under a 2700 mm ceiling drops to 350 mm. This is not a criticism of the pods or of the standard. It is the reason the question is always framed the way it is framed on site: not whether the ceiling sprinkler can reach over the top of the booth, because it cannot, but whether a head has to go inside it.
Does a pod need a sprinkler head inside it?
There is no single Australian answer, and anyone who gives one in a sales meeting is guessing. What exists is a chain of published positions, and a specifier's job is to know where each one stops.
What the Code requires
The National Construction Code does not mention office pods. What it does is require that where an automatic fire sprinkler system is installed it complies with AS 2118.1 for all building classifications, under Specification 17 of NCC 2022 Volume One. AS 2118.1 governs coverage and obstruction. Whether a 1.2 m² enclosure with a solid roof, placed in the middle of a sprinklered open plan floor, needs coverage inside it is therefore a question answered by the fire safety engineer and the certifier reading that standard against the floor in front of them. It is not answered by the furniture schedule, and it is not answered by the manufacturer.
What the manufacturer publishes
Framery's position is on its public FAQ and it is worth reading precisely. It states that no fire hazardous materials are used in Framery products, and that KIWA Inspecta, an accredited inspection body, says there is no need to install sprinklers in Framery products. It then adds the qualifier that matters: in special cases where sprinkler installation is required by local fire officials or local regulations, Framery does not provide the sprinklers, install them or take responsibility for the installation.
That is an honest position rather than an evasive one, but it has a consequence for the programme. Framery publishes a separate fire safety document for each pod, and those documents are installation instructions for fitting a sprinkler head and a fire alarm notification device into a pod that already exists. Framery One's is at version 3.0 dated 4 March 2026, One Compact's at version 1.4 dated 1 July 2026, Framery Four's at version 2.0 dated 4 March 2026 and Framery Six's at version 3.0 dated 6 August 2026. A manufacturer that maintains four separate fire safety documents through multiple revisions is a manufacturer that expects the question to be asked.
What an insurer's standard asks for
The most specific published figures anywhere on this subject are not Australian. Aviva Risk Management Solutions publishes a loss prevention standard, Sprinkler Systems: Meeting Pods, reference ARMSGI1582023 at version 1.2 dated 19 December 2025. It treats pods as rooms, and it is explicit that being enclosed, any fire within a pod may be shielded from sprinkler protection in the location. It then sets thresholds.
| Criterion | Published figure |
|---|---|
| Individual pod floor area at or above which protection applies | 1 m² |
| Grouped pods, combined floor area | 1 m² where pods are located within 2.4 m of each other |
| Louvred roof exemption, open area with louvres open | at least 70 per cent open space |
| Maximum sprinkler coverage above the pods | 9 m² |
| Maximum sprinkler design spacing above the pods | 3.0 m |
| Minimum sprinkler deflector to top of pod | 0.8 m |
This is a UK insurer's risk standard, not Australian regulation, and it should never be quoted as though it were the NCC. It is useful for two reasons. First, a 1 m² trigger catches every pod in the range, so there is no size below which the question goes away. Second, the 2.4 m grouping rule is the one most likely to surprise a layout: two single booths drawn as a pair, 1.5 m apart, are assessed as one object with a combined floor area.
So who decides
The certifier, advised by the fire safety engineer, on the evidence of the particular floor. The consequence for a furniture schedule is that the pod has to be nominated early enough for that advice to be sought, and positioned so the sprinkler option stays physically possible even if it is never taken. Framery One's fire safety document states that where the pod is connected to the building's sprinkler system the required space on each side is at least 500 mm, so every component can be reached for maintenance or replacement. One Compact's version narrows that to the powerwall side, the side where the table is installed, and notes that the extra space applies to rigid sprinkler systems only.
Specifier's note. That 500 mm is not a generous allowance, and on One Compact it is published for the powerwall side, which is the side with the table and no glazing. That is precisely the side most plans push against a wall or into a corner. If there is any prospect that the certifier asks for a head inside the pod, draw the 500 mm before the pod is positioned rather than after. Moving a 357 kg pod 500 mm off a wall once the sprinkler contractor has set out the pipework is a different job from drawing it 500 mm off the wall, and it is the kind of change that gets argued about rather than priced.
Detection and occupant warning stop at the pod wall
The sprinkler question gets the attention. Detection and occupant warning are the ones that actually get missed, because they are nobody's line item.
Patrick Cameron of Code Consultancy Group, writing on BCA compliance for quiet pods and meeting booths on 18 October 2023, lists fire safety measures including sprinklers, detectors and occupant warning systems among the things that need to be extended inside the pod. That is one Australian consultancy's published reading rather than a code clause, but the logic is hard to argue with. A booth with a closed door and 30 dB of speech level reduction is, by design, a place where a building's occupant warning system is harder to hear. Someone taking a long call in a pod with noise cancelling headphones on is the occupant least likely to hear an alarm on the floor.
Framery builds for this. Its fire safety documents publish a junction box and a mounting detail for a fire alarm notification device, specified as a strobe, a strobe horn, a speaker or a speaker strobe, screwed to the junction box with two Phillips head screws. On Framery Six the notification device can be mounted to the front or the back of the pod. The cable lead through is in the ceiling inlet module, and where a jurisdiction requires it, rigid or flexible conduit can be run through the ceiling. One Compact's document adds the instruction to confirm the use of conduits for fire safety wiring with local authorities, and that a sprinkler line or head can only be installed by a qualified professional, with the installation height determined by the sprinkler contractor.
Two details in those documents are the sort that stop an installation on a Friday afternoon. The escutcheon, the trim plate around the head where it comes through the pod ceiling, is not provided by Framery. And fitting a head means cutting a hole in the pod's interior ceiling panel to the size of that head and cutting away the acoustic material behind it. Both are jobs for the fire contractor rather than the furniture installer, and both need to sit in somebody's scope before the pod reaches the floor.
| Item | Published position |
|---|---|
| Electrical supply | 100 to 240 VAC, 10 A, 50 to 60 Hz, plugs into a standard wall socket |
| Power cord supplied | 7 m with every pod |
| Access clearance, sprinkler connected, Framery One | at least 500 mm on each side of the pod |
| Access clearance, sprinkler connected, One Compact | at least 500 mm on the powerwall side, rigid systems only |
| Who may install the sprinkler line or head | a qualified professional, installation height set by the sprinkler contractor |
| Escutcheon around the head | not provided by Framery |
| Fire alarm notification device | strobe, strobe horn, speaker or speaker strobe, mounted to a junction box |
| Conduit for fire safety wiring | rigid or flexible where the jurisdiction requires it, confirm with local authorities |
Linings, and why a pod is not loose furniture
Code Consultancy Group's article also raises the wall, ceiling and floor linings of the pod achieving the required fire hazard properties. This is the one part of the pod question that an existing Journal post already answers in full. NCC 2022 Volume One Specification 7 sets the fire hazard properties of wall and ceiling lining systems, Table S7C4 sets the permitted material groups by building class, sprinklered status and the part of the floor the lining sits in, and the group number is determined to AS 5637.1. Those tables, and what they mean for a product that is compliant on a wall but not overhead, are set out in acoustic panels, screens and rafts: where the absorption goes.
The judgement call for a pod is whether its linings are read as linings at all. A free standing screen is loose furniture and sits outside Specification 7. A full height enclosure with its own ceiling, which a person stands inside with the door shut, is a harder argument to make. Framery's published statement that no fire hazardous materials are used in its products is the right thing to have, but it is a statement about materials rather than a group number tested to an Australian Standard, and a certifier asking the Specification 7 question will want the second thing.
One socket, ten amps and seven metres of lead
The electrical side is simpler than the fire side and it is still got wrong, almost always by drawing the outlet in the wrong place. Framery publishes an input of 100 to 240 VAC, 10 A, 50 to 60 Hz and states that its products can be plugged into a standard wall socket. Every pod is delivered with a 7 m power cord.
Seven metres sounds generous until a pod lands in the middle of a floor plate with the nearest general power outlet in a perimeter skirting duct. The cord is the constraint, and a plug connected appliance cannot be extended with a domestic lead to solve it. Either the outlet moves to the pod or the pod moves to the outlet, and both are drawings rather than site decisions. Where the floor is on a raised access system or has floor boxes on a grid, the pod position and the nearest box want to be coordinated on the same drawing, which is the discipline that applies to worktop power modules and is set out in in-desk power and data: cut-outs, outlets and who installs what. The 10 A figure is worth carrying too: a pod sharing a 10 A circuit with a printer and a coffee machine is a nuisance tripping problem waiting for a Monday morning.
Ventilation is the question already settled
It is the first thing a building services engineer asks and it has a short answer: no duct, no return air path and no connection to the base building system is required, because each pod has its own ventilation and its own supply. The published airflow and power draw figures for each model, which vary by better than seven times across the range, are tabulated in the side by side comparison of Framery One, Four and Six rather than repeated here.
One placement note that is easy to miss: Framery's FAQ advises against placing pods under a low ceiling or under a ventilation pipe with a hard surface. A pod tucked under a bulkhead or hard against exposed services is a reflective acoustic situation as well as a maintenance access problem.
Room height, egress and the approach to the door
Code Consultancy Group's article raises two more things, and both are about the pod as a room rather than as an object. The first is room height: it applies a minimum room height to the pod and says that where a pod's internal ceiling is under 2.4 m, the lower height should be assessed by a qualified BCA consultant or a fire engineer. Given that the tallest pod in the Framery range is 2329 mm on the outside, every pod's internal height is under 2.4 m, which makes that assessment a near certainty rather than an edge case.
The second is egress. The article's position is that egress from the pods needs to be assessed to ensure the pod complies with minimum widths, and it raises thresholds and door handles alongside it. Framery publishes a doorway of 2040 mm high by 1015 mm wide on Framery One. The approach to that doorway belongs on the architect's plan: a pod that turns a circulation zone into a corridor changes the path of travel on the floor, and the travel distance calculation that follows is the certifier's, done on the final layout rather than the concept. How much of a floor plate circulation consumes, and the published area allowances for a phone booth and a quiet room, are set out in anatomy of a Sydney CBD floor: what goes where and why.
Which edition of the NCC applies to your project
One complication that has arrived this year and will catch out anybody specifying across states. NCC 2025 was published for preview on 1 February 2026, with jurisdictions able to consider adoption from 1 May 2026. They have not moved together. As published by AEC Assistant on 1 September 2026, the position is split.
| Jurisdiction | NCC 2025 adoption |
|---|---|
| Australian Capital Territory | 1 May 2026, with a 12 month transition |
| New South Wales | 1 May 2027 |
| Northern Territory | not adopted |
| Queensland | 1 May 2027 |
| South Australia | Plumbing Code 1 May 2026, Building Code 1 May 2027 |
| Tasmania | 1 May 2027, having applied NCC 2025 from 1 May to 4 June 2026 |
| Victoria | 1 May 2026 |
| Western Australia | 1 May 2026, with a 12 month transition |
For a national rollout of the same pod into a Sydney floor and a Melbourne floor right now, that means two editions of the Code sitting behind one product. The clause numbers cited above are NCC 2022, the edition in force in New South Wales and Queensland. Adoption dates and state variations do change, and the source itself says to confirm them with the state building authority, so check the edition before a clause reference goes into a specification.
What to settle before the pod is ordered
Six questions, in the order they bite. Which pod, and therefore what exterior height and footprint. What the floor to ceiling height actually measures on the floor the pod is going to, not what the lease says. Whether the certifier wants sprinkler coverage, detection and occupant warning extended inside the enclosure, asked in writing and early. Whether the 500 mm access clearance is available on the side the manufacturer publishes it for. Where the general power outlet sits relative to 7 m of cord. And which edition of the NCC the project is being certified under.
Geneva supplies and installs the soundproof phone booths and meeting pods in the Framery range, and the crate dimensions and weights that decide whether a pod reaches the floor at all are a separate question again, covered in will it fit in the lift? The access dimensions that decide a furniture schedule. If a pod is on a drawing and the fire and electrical scope around it is still unassigned, send us the floor plan and the ceiling height and we will tell you which of these six questions is going to be the expensive one.
Frequently asked
Do office pods need sprinklers in Australia?
There is no blanket rule. The National Construction Code requires an automatic fire sprinkler system to comply with AS 2118.1, and whether that coverage has to extend inside a pod is settled by the certifier and the fire engineer for the particular floor rather than by the furniture supplier. Framery publishes that there is no need to install sprinklers in its products, citing an inspection by KIWA Inspecta, and separately publishes a fire safety document for each pod covering how a head is fitted when a local authority requires one.
Does a smoke detector have to go inside an office pod?
Code Consultancy Group, writing in Australia, lists sprinklers, detectors and occupant warning systems among the fire safety measures that need to be extended inside a pod. Framery supports the occupant warning side of that by publishing a junction box and a mounting detail for a fire alarm notification device, which can be a strobe, a strobe horn, a speaker or a speaker strobe. Whether detection itself extends into the pod is a question for the fire services consultant on the project, and it is cheaper to ask it at schedule stage than at handover.
What ceiling height does an office pod need?
Framery publishes a minimum room height for each model: 2350 mm for One Compact, 2400 mm for One, and 2380 mm for Four and Six. Exterior heights are 2250 mm for One Compact, 2255 mm for One and 2329 mm for both Four and Six, and castors, an air filter and a seismic kit add 30 mm, 65 mm and 20 mm respectively to Framery One. Against the 2700 mm floor to ceiling height Macquarie University specifies for its office and teaching areas, a Framery One leaves 445 mm above it and a Framery Four leaves 371 mm.
How is an office pod powered?
From one general power outlet. Framery publishes an input of 100 to 240 VAC, 10 A, 50 to 60 Hz, states that its products can be plugged into a standard wall socket, and supplies a 7 m power cord with every pod. That 7 m is the figure that decides where the outlet goes, because the answer to a pod parked beyond the reach of its own cord is another outlet, not a longer lead.