What’s the difference between an office cubicle and a spaceship? If Tetra-Shed has its way, almost nothing. OK, you still won’t be able to breach the ionosphere before lunch, but the science-fictiony aesthetic and efficient use of space probably will make you think of saucers or pods — or maybe the world’s coolest backyard tent.

That’s not an accident. The cutting-edge cubicle design, which will be available in January 2012, was originally planned as a sort of modular office space for your backyard. The company says that the sheds can be used indoors or out, and recommends a number of different uses for them, including work or play space for homes, exhibition space for trade shows, or new-fangled office cubicles.

Tetra-Sheds are designed to be used singly or in groups of multiple cubicles, and come in a variety of different materials, including copper, zinc, steel, or marine plywood.

The Best Things About Tetra-Shed:

• It looks ridiculously awesome. Forget Sunday night blues: If you had one of these cubicles, you’d probably have Friday afternoon blues, anticipating two whole days of being separated from your space tent.
• The Tetra-Shed actually closes. That’s right: You can shut the door and the windows and seal yourself up entirely in your own little pod. This seems almost too good to be true, and we really have no idea why all cubicles don’t have this option. (OK, yes we do. It’s because we would use it.)The Worst Things About Tetra-Shed?
  
• As this article points out, unless you work for yourself, you might have a hard time convincing the boss to shell out for a fancy new playhouse just for you.
• There’s no information yet as to how much one of these babies is going to cost, but we bet they’ll be expensive. After all, privacy and coolness is never cheap.Images: Tetra-Shed