Out of office

Chesterman by i4Mariani.

“Just like towers that try to save land by providing more space vertically, or even vertical car parks that save street space, office desks should utilise the vertical space. One important issue to consider, and this is often ignored, is to use the vertical space but avoid high panels that disconnect people, and discourage communication and team spirit.”

Ergonomics also continue to guide the evolution of office furniture, as designs take the ergonomic demands of a varied and diversely-shaped workforce into account. ‘Employers have realised the financial and social benefits of ergonomics; these products increase productivity and reduce injuries,” noted Siddharth Peters, managing director of The Total Office.

The need for ergonomic, easily-adaptable furniture is particularly pronounced in the GCC, a multicultural environment that attracts employees of all shapes and sizes. “Different nationalities have different requirements and body types, effectively resulting in people of different heights and weights using the same office. Thus, ergonomics become a challenge,” said Ranjbar.

Story continues below

Advertisement

FEATURED COMMENT Please click here to comment on this article

The shape and support mechanisms of chairs, in particular, continue to come under scrutiny. Dauphin, for example, has introduced the Lordo swivel chair, which moulds itself to the body of the person sitting on it. Supplied by Ofis, the chair provides automatic weight compensation and seat-tilt adjustment, guaranteeing that the pelvis lies in the correct position and that pressure on the thighs is reduced.

“What irritates me about a lot of modern, so-called intelligent, products is that they always try to tell me what to do. This is not my idea of quality of life or convenience,” said Martin Ballendat, the chair’s designer. “The chair should make the person sitting on it feel good, but without forcing them to adopt a specific posture or disciplining them in ergonomics. I think we have achieved that with this chair.”

While chair design attracts most attention, ergonomic considerations are also impacting other elements of the office suite. “In the past, ergonomic furniture just meant comfortable or adjustable chairs. Today, a desk should be ergonomic too – they should be height adjustable. This is an important aspect and really needs to be considered when developing an office. Sadly, it is ignored by many furniture designers and manufacturers,” said  Ranjbar.

Ahrend has responded with its Ahrend 750 desk, which provides height adjustability and allows the user to work while seated or standing. “This is probably the first electrically-adjustable benching/desking system. Designing a good-looking, height adjustable desk is always a big challenge, but both architects and interior designers admire the beauty of this unique system.”

When it comes to the aesthetic of office furniture, designers are becoming more and more demanding, placing pressure on office manufacturers to offer not only choice but the ability to customise, noted Stefano Mariani of Italy’s i4Mariani Group. “We’ve really seen small but significant changes in the requests of designers.

What we’ve seen in recent years is an increasing number of requests to personalise standard production, by changing the finishing of the product, for example. Following the inspiration of the designer or the specific request of the customer, they will ask us to change the wood veneer or the glass finishing and so on.”

The company’s Ares, Paso Doble, Dolmen and Wing lines have proven particularly popular, Mariani noted. “I think that the reason behind the popularity of the Ares and Paso Doble is that they offer a fresher design but also a very wide range of finishings – three different wood finishings, three different metal finishings and 27 colours of saddle leather finishing. Dolmen is our evergreen item; designed 15 years ago, it is still contemporary and fresh.”

While there is little doubt that office design is developing rapidly in the region, with increasingly sophisticated furniture selection, heightened environmental awareness and intelligent space utilisation emerging as the norm rather than the exception, there is still the odd bathroom conversion to contend with, Burnett pointed out.

“The main challenge we face is where companies work out of residential spaces that were never designed for commercial use, and it is difficult to optimise the space usage. For example, we converted a bathroom into an IT room for a client based in a residential apartment, which was certainly not designed for corporate use!”