Workspace Designers Create Innovative, Authentic Furniture
As anyone thinking about re-designing their workplace knows, the available furniture options are seemingly endless. It used to be that whether you were designing a small creative workspace or furnishing a large corporate workspace, the high-end options were defined by the major furniture retailers: primarily companies like Steelcase, Knoll, and Herman Miller. These companies offered well-designed, ergonomically friendly chairs, tables, and other office furniture to the commercial and consumer market.
High-Tech Innovative Workspaces
Fast forward to the internet era, and you notice the landscape has changed dramatically. Companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple continue to up the ante as they compete for new employees. It’s no longer enough to create a comfortable, well-designed office space. Many high-tech company offices and coworking spaces now include open work areas, offices, lounges, cafes, and meeting rooms, as well as a variety of other areas for collaborative work, exercise, and socializing.
All of these creative spaces require furniture that matches the environment. Companies are looking for furniture designers who will create customized, colorful lounge chairs and sofas; tables of varying heights; and furniture made with sustainable materials. In general, they are looking for furniture that is different from the ordinary and can help market the company to prospective employees, clients, and investors. As an important element of interior design, furniture can help define the company’s brand. Creative high-end furniture helps a company market itself as innovative and successful.
New Era of Furniture Makers
All of this demand for customization has created a perfect environment for a new era of furniture companies that are finding success servicing high-tech companies as well as restaurants, hotels, and other industries looking for innovative lounges and workspaces. On the one hand, there are well established businesses like MASHstudios in Los Angeles that have created furniture for companies like Google, Pinterest, and Yelp. There are also much smaller furniture startups achieving success. For example since its founding in Brooklyn in 2004, Uhuru Design has focused on creating furniture by re-purposing materials such as reclaimed wood and other sustainable materials. Uhuru has gained fame by creating furniture for companies like Shake Shack and Adidas, while some of its pieces have been showcased in the Smithsonian and the Brooklyn Museum.
Search for the Authentic
In addition to the demand for innovation, one of the main driving forces behind the small business custom furniture trend has always been the search for “authentic” furniture. In other words, a move away from mass-produced furniture that is made from some unknown material in an unknown place to custom furniture made by a small local business that is using sustainable, sometimes reclaimed materials and creating a low carbon footprint.
Perhaps locally made, handmade, sustainable furniture provides us with reminders of our homes, our pasts, and places away from the virtual world in which we all spend so many hours each day. It is possible that we all feel more grounded when we have references to the actual natural world that we can return to periodically while we work.
Online Creative Marketplaces
And where do most of these furniture startups get their start? In recent years online marketplaces have played a significant role, helping small business entrepreneurs gain a foothold in the market. Creative marketplaces like Etsy and Houzz provide inexpensive marketing for small business furniture makers, allowing them to reach a worldwide audience of consumers seeking both residential and commercial furniture that is handmade, sustainable, and customizable. This marketing environment is a marked improvement over a time when small furniture workshops were lucky to get business contracts through local referrals.
New Workspace Design Trends: Social Distancing, Flexible Furniture, and New Materials
In light of the current pandemic, companies have been implementing short-term changes in their office spaces including increased social distancing in seating, new hygiene measures, plastic dividers, and improved ventilation systems.
Going forward, the focus on hygiene and social distancing is likely to continue for some time even when the pandemic is largely behind us. As such, it may have a long-term impact on office design. Existing large meeting areas, lounges and cafes will likely be repurposed into small meeting areas and private offices. In addition, there will be new demand for flexible furniture such as lightweight tables and chairs that can be easily assembled, sanitized, and moved around to allow for various gathering sizes.
There will also be increased interest in furniture, fixtures, and flooring that incorporate antimicrobial materials, including metals such as copper, brass, and bronzes as well as woods such as bamboo, oak, and cork. Fortunately the custom furniture trend towards sustainable design ties in nicely with the search for antimicrobial office materials.
Home Office Design Choices
If the recent shift towards working from home continues as a long-term trend, the question remains how consumers will choose to design their home office. Chances are, most people do not currently have the ideal home office space. Many people who were forced to work from home due to the pandemic do not have a home office and have been working at their kitchen tables.
If the accelerated work-from-home trend continues, there will be increased demand for home office furniture as people start to invest in creating a better home working environment. It remains to be seen how home consumers will choose to design their new home offices. Will they be looking for innovative, modern furniture or traditional furniture that reminds them of less uncertain days in the past? Will the search for authentic, sustainable furniture spill over into the home office market? Home consumers will have a myriad of furniture choices to choose from. Some will seek bargains at department stores and furniture stores, while others will seek more expensive, creative options at online marketplaces like Etsy and Houzz and high-end furniture stores. In the end consumers will probably make their choices based on a combination of price and design considerations.
It is also important to remember that there is a huge segment of the new work-from-home population that does not have any extra space in their home that they can convert into office space. Many of these people might end up renting a coworking space if their budget allows.
In any case, it is clear the conventional 9-5 work at the office routine will probably not return for many people. Instead their work routine will be some combination of going to a corporate office, working from home in a home office, and/or working at a coworking space. As such, corporate and home office workplace design will continue to evolve as the lines between work and home continue to blur and the workplace becomes more virtual.