Most reality shows revolve around one iconic location. The Bachelor has its luxurious Southern California mansion. Survivor has its remote Fijian island. Love Island has its sun-soaked Majorcan villa. Jersey Shore has … the smush room.

For Love Is Blind, it’s the pods. They’re a series of fairly small rooms, each outfitted with a couch, a rug, and a shimmering wall that’s shared with another pod. Singles can hear, but not see, one another as they fall in love. After popping the question, the newly engaged couple see each other for the first time, testing if love is truly blind.

In the video above, Emmy-nominated production designer Dave Edwards takes you on a behind-the-scenes tour of the revamped Love Is Blind pods for Season 8. He reveals how the crew transformed the look and feel from the ground up, making the iconic pods even cozier, immersive, and, yes, romantic. From tweaking the smallest details to crafting every single couch from scratch, learn how Edwards and his talented team elevated the experience for the incoming group of singles.

Want to take a walk down memory lane? Below, Love Is Blind creator Chris Coelen addresses everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the pods since Season 1. Do the singles sleep in the pods? How can they hear the person they’re on a date with, but not their neighbors? And most importantly: Where do you pee in the pod? (Or rather, do pod people pee?) Keep reading for answers to those questions and more. 

Peas in a pod 

Coelen says that when he and his team first pitched the reality dating show, the pods were an indispensable part of the Love Is Blind package. Since the original renderings, slight alterations have been made — for instance, the walls were originally “slightly extended into the floor” — but the original function and spirit of the pods haven’t changed. “We wanted to provide an environment for people where they would literally have no distractions,” he says. “We wanted it to be comfortable and conducive to conversation — a place where they could get cozy with each other.”

Tiffany is so comfortable in the pods, she dozes off.

That idea required a pod design that would feel intimate, despite the contestants being physically separated. For example, Coelen says a lot of questions came up about the blue wall that separates the men’s and women’s pods. How transparent should it be? Should contestants be able to see shadows? Should they know where their future spouse is sitting? Not wanting to give anything away, the team decided to make the wall fully opaque; they then added shimmer to it to make the wall feel like a “living, breathing presence.”

Each pod is soundproofed (“Even if you’re yelling in one pod, you can’t hear it in another”), so the singles chat via a speaker. They’re also each fitted with a glass roof, and Coelen says the studios are tall enough — about 40 feet high — that contestants can look up and daydream. “We wanted it to feel like a place where you’d actually like to hang out,” he says.

Pod prod 

They may look like simple rooms, but construction was tricky. The pods are approximately 12 feet by 12 feet, and there are 20 pods — 10 for men and 10 for women. For Season 1, the pods were built in Atlanta and shot at a studio called Pinewood (now Trilith Studios), which Coelen says was the only place in the entire country at the time large enough to house them. “Next door, they were filming one of the Marvel Avengers movies,” he says, “and we were on a bigger stage than Avengers was!”

After Season 1, the pods were put into storage; for Season 2, despite all the contestants hailing from Chicago, the pods were shipped across the country to film at a new studio in Santa Clarita, California. And even though they’re not the same ones featured in Love Is Blind: Japan or Love Is Blind: Brazil, Coelen says that all pods are created equal. “The pods are designed so that all you’re focusing on are your emotions and your connections, and you’re not really even thinking about the fact that you’re in Atlanta, or Chicago, or LA, or wherever you are,” he says. “It doesn’t matter if I put the pods in Timbuktu; they’re the same pods.”

Life outside the pods 

Once contestants arrive at the premises, Coelen says there’s only 10 days of shooting, which means everyone’s living and breathing that pod life. But what happens outside those four walls — for instance, when a contestant has to go to the bathroom during a date? Coelen says there’s no bathroom in the pod itself, so singles have to go back to the lounges, where there’s a restroom off the gym (that’s right — the gym). And this trip is a (somewhat) frequent occurrence, since the pods are kept fully stocked with drinks — both alcoholic and nonalcoholic — 24/7.

During Season 1, contestants slept on cots in trailers next to the lounges; Coelen says that quickly became uncomfortable, so they got hotel rooms for Season 2. To make sure someone wouldn’t accidentally sneak a peek of their potential love interest, contestants are led to and from their rooms. But they’re allowed to go back and forth to the pods whenever they want. In the beginning, date times are strict (on day one, they’re true speed dates at about 15 minutes long), but contestants can stretch dates longer as the week goes on and even stay up talking until three in the morning. “If I was serious about finding my wife on Love Is Blind, I would probably spend every waking hour that I could talking to the people that I’m connecting with, and that’s what most of them choose to do,” Coelen says.

The pod(d) couple 

Coelen says contestants have the final word on pretty much everything: They’re allowed to discuss whatever they want with future partners and are encouraged to bring in any mementos they think would progress the relationship. For example, he says Kyle brought his mother’s engagement ring to the pods in the hopes that he would find his future wife. They’re also allowed to request any meals or activities they’d like to make it feel like a date in the “outside world.” In the past, contestants have asked for everything from games (like Mal’s Episode 2 game of “Never Have I Ever”) to mini golf to exercise equipment. One of the most memorable requests, he says, came when Season 1’s Cameron wanted to present now-wife Lauren with a tree that his parents grew in their backyard.

“Imagine you walk in and you’re like, ‘Why is there a tree in the pod?’ ” Coelen says. “It’s all meant to bring out and showcase what people find important, what they want to think about, what their values are — who they are, really.”

On day one, everyone gets the chance to know everyone, but a mutual matching system determines who gets a second date. Producers will let singles know if someone’s really interested in them, but it’s ultimately up to the contestants if they’d like to pursue the relationship. What producers don’t say, however, is who’s waiting in the adjoining pod. Contestants are only told the pod number and date time, which can make for awkward moments, like when Shayne mistakes Natalie for Shaina in Episode 1.

And though contestants only have 10 days (around 20 dates in total) to find their future partner, those hours spent together are typically a lot more meaningful than time in the “outside world,” with Coelen describing it as “10 days of 24/7 intensive therapy.” “They talk about the deepest things in every possible way about every conceivable subject. They’re trying to identify every single thing that might be important to talk about before they choose to marry someone,” he says. “After the fact, people have said they know — not just the person they’re engaged to, but multiple people — better than they’ve ever known anyone else. Better than they know their parents. Their siblings. It’s insane. They really do fall in love.”

Nick & Vanessa Lachey Give Us a Tour of the Love Is Blind S3 PodsThis is where the magic happens.