BlueprintOfficeSuppNovpdf.pdf

FURNITURE

BLUEPRINT

OFFICE

by Niels Diffrient

www.humanscale.com

CONTENT 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 3 32

INTRODUCTION

Much has been written about the blurring

of boundaries between commercial and public

environments: department stores becoming

more like museums; airports functioning

equally as shopping malls, and art galleries

being visited for their restaurants.

The latest crossover environment is surely

the workplace. On first impression, some

of the best examples could be mistaken for

art galleries or even cool bars. Art has been

in the corporate atrium since the 1970s,

but now the best-designed workplaces must

contain specially commissioned, site-specific

pieces, which add up to a bespoke environment

that is not just a corporate investment, but

contributes to expounding the company’s brand.

Executive director of Bene, Thomas Bene,

goes as far as to say that ‘the office is where

corporate culture crystallises.’ Bene was

speaking with Blueprint product editor, Gian

Luca Amadei, who over the page writes about

current developments in workplace and

furniture design.

Amadei describes how designers and their

corporate clients are beginning to focus more

on the human scale and atmosphere of offices,

and not just on technology and ergonomics.

On the following pages you will find some good

examples of this development, many of which

will be on show at Orgatec in Cologne

(21-25 October).

Furniture that would once have been

regarded as suitable for the home or a leisure

environment is now appearing in the office,

as the human values of creativity and play are

emphasised in the search for new ideas. All

of this makes the subject of office furniture,

that was once the dull relation in the design

family, a whole lot more interesting.

WORK PLACE DESIGN

SEDUS

CONNECTION

BENE

BOSS

SPACEOASIS LTD

TECHO

ASSMAN

INTERIORS GROUP

SVEN CHRISTIANSEN

CLARKE RENDALL

PARAPAN

Vicky Richardson, Blueprint editor

BLUEPRINT

KITCHENS & BATHROOMS 2008 BLUEPRINT

PLACE

THE BOUNDARIES ARE SHIFTING

BETWEEN CORPORATE OFFICES

WHICH ARE ALL TO DO WITH

ERGONOMICS AND

TECHNOLOGICAL MATERIALS

AND THE WORK SPACES THAT

FOCUS ON THE HUMAN SCALE

WRITES GIAN LUCA AMADEI

DESIGN

The Vitra Design Museum in Germany,

is currently celebrating the centenary of

the ground-breaking American furniture

designer George Nelson. During his

career as a furniture designer, Nelson

developed and introduced the concept of

the work station and ‘L’ shaped work

desk to the world, furniture which has

radically revolutionised the office.

Nelson for many years collaborated

closely with furniture company

Herman Miller. At one point he even

brought in Italian designer Ettore

Sottsass to work at Nelson’s office

before the former returned to Italy and

started his collaboration with another

innovator of the office environment:

the Italian electronic company Olivetti.

It was in 1969 that Sottsass designed,

with British industrial designer Perry A.

King, the iconic Valentine; a portable

typewriter made of bright red plastic,

which introduced pop-culture to the

office environment.

A number of innovations that

Nelson and Sottsass brought to the

office environment, have stood the test

of time, and moved the design of office

environments beyond a container for

work activity. They have transformed

offices into communication hubs, in

which people are not simply carrying out

repetitive tasks, but are also socialising

and networking. ‘Work and leisure is

no longer the same as it used to be,’ says

Hanns-Peter Cohn CEO at Vitra, ‘we are

Top left: B&B Italia has been

working with Barclays Bank in

rolling out a new design concept

for its Premier Banking division

across Europe.

Above: Net ‘n Nest by Vitra

which contains work by several

designers such as the Bouroullec

Brothers for Swiss company

Spectraseis

BLUEPRINT OFFICE FURNITURE

WORK

Top right: Bene RF partitioning

system used to define a meeting

room at thir Waidhofen an der

Ybbs headquarters in Austria.

Above centre: Meeting and

furniture solutions for Cadbury’s

heritage office in Birmingham

by KI. Designed by Morey Smith

Right: Rimadesio new offices

and flagship store in Giussano,

north of Milan, by Italian

designer Giuseppe Bavuso.

OFFICE FURNITURE BLUEPRINT

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