Watch this space. Five key workplace trends from Orgatec 2014
Orgatec Office Furniture and objects trade show, staged every two years in Cologne, Germany, it continues to offer a unique insight into the changing shape and function of the office. It is this that attracted 50,000 people to Orgatec this year, two-thirds from outside Germany.
There are two reasons for this. Firstly we know that whatever furniture designers are talking about reflects what they are being asked for by their customers. Secondly, because Orgatec only comes around every two years, it makes shifts in workplace thinking more evident than would be the case with an annual event. Hence Orgatec’s long track record and reputation as the European launchpad for genuinely groundbreaking products. Twenty years ago this year the European market was introduced for the first time to the next generation of office seating, heralded by the launch of the Herman Miller Aeron Chair, as well as a new generation of flexible office furniture systems, pioneered by the likes of Ad Hoc from Vitra.
The 2014 vintage Orgatec marked a similar leap forward in a number of key areas. Here are the five key trends marked by this year’s Orgatec from Wellworking’s pointy of view;
Collaboration
The one word on nearly everybody’s lips. This cuts to the heart of what offices are for in the 21st Century now that we no longer actually need them to do a sizeable proportion of our work. Instead, offices are increasingly where we work alongside and communicate with other people. This was reflected not only in the nature of the products on display, but was easily the most common theme on the seminar programme and formed the basis for the displays in the boulevards that linked the main exhibition halls.
Soft seating, meeting booths, ergonomic seating and meeting tables were the most prominent products on display and so desks were largely notable by their absence – with one or two notable exceptions. There were a large number of sit-stand workstations (more of which later) and a number of reminders that how we use worksurfaces now bears more relation to how we have used them throughout time with the exception of the thirty or so years in which they were used as a platform for PCs. From an ergonomic point of view there is little difference between paper and a laptop and paper and a typewriter, hence the decision by Vitra to reinvigorate the 1940s desk products of Jean Prouvé and the stylish and simple desk from Poltrona Frau.
Privacy and peace
Acoustic and visual privacy has been one of the show’s motifs for some time and this year was no exception. What had changed this time around was the focus and nature of the products. Over recent years the issue of workplace acoustics has been dominated by the challenge of cutting down background and distracting noise in open plan offices. This remains an important consideration and office furniture makers have tended to address it with rectangular screens and partitions.
This year’s show also showed an alternative slant on not only how to meet this challenge but also to provide privacy for individuals and small groups of people in the heart of a collaborative space. So, as well as the acoustic booths and meeting spaces (many of which aped both the form and function of the Alcove products designed for Vitra by Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec), there were a large number of chairs with acoustic baffles to envelope the individual away from the din and distraction of their surroundings.
Movement
The collaborative nature of the modern workplace coupled with a greater understanding of the benefits of moving have led to a greater focus on motion in workplace design. Orgatec reflected this both in the large number of sit-stand workstations on show and the way office seating makers were talking about their products.
Sit-stand workstations are becoming increasingly popular in the UK as they are across Northern Europe and North America. Their health benefits are now very well understood but so too are their functional benefits as they adapt to the different tasks that people do during each day. Humanscale were just one of the firms showcasing stylish sit-stand workstations.
Movement is also the watchword for the latest generation of ergonomic seating. Amongst the products on show were those of the three companies in the Scandinavian Business Seating Group – HÅG, RH und RBM. What was interesting about these was how their function was described, in terms of both their ability to encourage movement but also as a ‘work tool’. The language is the same as it would be for equipment such as technology rather than as furniture, emphasising its changing role as something people use rather than merely own.
The collision of worlds
Considering this is an office furniture exhibition, many of the products on show would have been equally at home in a hotel, cafe or other public space and many even had an unmistakeably domestic feel. This is not merely an aesthetic issue, there just as a way of creating a more relaxed feel in an office. It is indicative of a world in which people are used to working anywhere and in which the functional distinctions between categories of place are blurring, eroding and vanishing altogether.
Bisley made this point explicit by branding their concept for the show as ‘Blurred Lines’. Meanwhile Buzzispace, alongside their well-known range of acoustic office furniture, showcased soft seating, lighting and meeting tables that was completely removed from any traditional idea of corporate furniture. Both Unifor and Walter Knoll had stands that could easily pass for hotel lobbies. Johansson and Züco presented meeting tables as dining tables. It is this shift that lies at the heart of the emerging workplace – we no longer distinguish as we once did between the office, our homes and public spaces. They each serve a different purpose for us at times, but they no longer exist in their own bubbles.
The environment
Ironically, this is an important issue precisely because of its current absence. Where once firms would lead on their environmental credentials, these days they are hardly mentioned at all, except perhaps by the flooring manufacturers at Orgatec such as Interface. Perhaps this is because the major manufacturers have each reached largely the same general standard of environmental performance, or perhaps buyers no longer put such a great emphasis on green credentials as buying criteria because they expect it as a matter of course.
Whatever the dynamics of this issue, maybe we are about to see the bar raised and the environment become a deal breaking issue once again. At Orgatec, The European Federation of Office Furniture (FEMB) launched a new environmental standard for manufacturers. It did this coincidentally at roughly the same time as the Building Research Establishment was launching its new BREEAM rating system for office refurbishment and fit-out. As they say, watch this space.
from: http://www.wellworking.co.uk/news/2014/10/30/orgatec-2014-watch-space/
