Office furniture is a reflection of the workplace, as interior design directly influences the way office staff interact with each other. For this reason, the headquarters of large companies have exclusive designs that imprint a specific theme, the colors and symbols that are part of their brand identity.
Currently, there is tremendous evolution in office furniture and as companies adopt new practices and work dynamics in the office, new trends are emerging around office furniture and interior designs that reflect this.
There is no doubt that the 21st century office is committed to modern ergonomic workstations that ensure the well-being of the worker. However, it is not easy to collaborate with other colleagues from the isolation of these cubicles, and most of the office furniture is not designed for the relaxed and modern way of interacting that can lead to great ideas.
The era of serious and imposing offices with closed doors is a thing of the past. To address these new needs, new trends are emerging in office furniture, such as hybrid furniture. Hybrid furniture has conquered the furniture design scene thanks to its real and abstract dual function.
An example of this is the Slide Table; it is an unconventional double workstation with a table and a chair, one in front of the other, with a sled base that encourages work and conversation, without looking like a school desk.
Chair-tree, house table, sky cave, mountain-office, the possibilities of hybrid furniture are endless, as many as the imagination of the designers allows. Before, this type of furniture was unthinkable in an office, however, now many choose them to give character to their environment.
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An example; By placing the books and office files in a hybrid furniture such as the stands of a coliseum, the American architect Edward Ogosta creates several spaces at once.
On the one hand, a space to store books or business files, on the other hand, a de facto reading area that also serves as a meeting space for the entire office. Ogosta uses a peculiar mixture of interior and exterior elements in his furniture.
Tree trunks become chairs that offer a respite to the worker, isolated from the rest of the office. The desk table cabins in the shape of a house give a new meaning to the word “home office.”
These hybrids that involve seemingly unrelated pairings are actually similar to multifunctional furniture, only the secondary function is on a more abstract level.
The idea behind hybrid furniture is to stimulate new levels of creativity in its users by providing new experiential possibilities of habitability. Working in an office of this type will surely make one see things in a different way.
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