FURNITURE DESIGNERS RESPOND TO CHANGING WORK LANDSCAPE
Furniture makers are responding to changes in where and how people are working, says EQ3 creative director Thom Fougere, with offices increasingly being designed to feel more like home — relaxed, comfortable and open.
“The landscape of how we work, and even what kind of work, generally, we do is changing,” says Fougere. “And I think a lot of people are seeing that change as well, so yeah, there’s a lot more working from home, and the home is kind of turning into an office, and the office is somewhat turning into a bit more residential home, with those similar comforts.”
Ultimately, Fougere says, people need the same things, no matter where they are.
“They need beauty, they need organization, they need light, they need natural air,” he says.
EQ3 launched its Home Work collection at IDS Toronto in January in an effort to begin the conversation about what the new work environment looks like, with one of the pieces being a re-imagined version of its Novah desk, he adds.
“It’s a very understated desk system,” Fougere says, “and it’s adaptable. It can fit in both a residential and an office environment. It’s modular, it can expand to larger offices and it can also fit one to two in a new start-up in a smaller office.”
Like a lot of EQ3’s pieces, the Novah desk is made to order in their Winnipeg factory, says Fougere, so customers can choose between a more hard-wearing laminated bamboo or melamine, both which are suited for commercial spaces, or a residential grade walnut finish, which is more suited for home environments.
“The bamboo really does warm up an office, with its presence,” Fougere says. “And the walnut just really easily adapts itself to residential.”
Also included in their Home Work collection is an updated version of their iconic Replay sofa, first released in 2001, Fougere says.
“Most of our business is upholstery,” he says. “And we’re adapting some of our upholstery line for more commercial use, commercial contexts. The Replay sofa, which we debuted at IDS (and will be available in stores in a few weeks), we have two versions, one is a home version, it has a deeper seat, some loose throw cushions, and then we have a more shallow version without the throws, which offers a bit more of a commercial seating experience, and can kind of withstand whatever might be thrown at it in a commercial environment.”
The way we work and how workplaces function has changed dramatically over the last decade, adds Maureen Welton, vicepresident of creative and design at online home furnishings company Article.
“The modern workspace is more flexible than ever before and office furniture needs to reflect that,” she says. “There is a convergence be- tween work and life; home work spaces need to be functional and productive and physical office spaces need to feel livable.”
At Article’s headquarters in Vancouver, they’ve outfitted their breakout spaces with “sofas, and living room furniture to enable easy conversion, and meeting rooms with dining room furniture that mimics home,” Welton says, adding that finding that these elements create a “more collaborative environment and community feeling within a space.”
“Working from home is commonplace today, and we’ve expanded our office collection to accommodate that need, and help customers create a livable office space at home,” she says.
One example, says Welton, is Article’s Madera desk, designed by one of their in-house industrial designers.
“We decided to offer the desk to customers so they could create a functional workspace at home,” she says. “The Madera desk has a warm patina, and a modern industrial esthetic. It’ll stand up to heavy use, and it also features a cable management box that hides away all those cords that litter desktops.”