orgatec 2008 - a designer’s view › uploads › orgatec_2008_review.pdf · on the product...

Orgatec 2008 - A Designer’s view

by Roger Carr and David Williams of Radar

Commissioned by JSA Consultancy Services

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Published by JSA Consultancy Services,

3 Field Court, Gray’s Inn, London, WC1R 5EP, England Tel: +44 20 7269 7986 Fax: +44 20 7269 7981 Email: [email protected] Website: www.jsacs.com


By Roger Carr & David Williams ©JSA Consultancy Services 2008 2

I was expecting this year’s Orgatec show to be grim. Each

morning, Radio Four was broadcasting news of the world’s financial markets going into meltdown. Steelcase, Knoll, Haworth, Kinnarps and several other large companies would not be taking part. The outlook did not improve with the weather forecast for the opening day which promised to be ‘cold and wet’. The worst thing about Orgatec is that it always seems to show Cologne as a twilit, damp, cold city, with a pitifully small choice of menu or beverages. The time of year, combined with most of the daylight hours being spent in artificially lit halls, does not help this impression. Finally after eleven shows over twenty-two years, I was really not looking forward to this one.

Entry to Orgatec

The only compensation was the idea of catching a look at and hopefully sitting on, the new Herman Miller chair, Embody. I speak as one whom, despite being at the entire 1994 show when Aeron was launched, did not manage to get into the small area where it was displayed until virtually the last hour of the show, so thick was the throng around the booth, with only a few chairs to fight over. I was pleasantly surprised. The smaller number of exhibitors reduced the number of halls used for this year’s show and with the exception of Hall 10 which was spread over two floors, all were newly built on a single floor, making this a relatively easy show to navigate. With the new Messe design, all of the halls used - 6,7,8,9 & 10 - led off a single Boulevard, which again helped to make life easier for the visitor.. First glimpses indicated that the doom and gloom outside had had no impact on the product choices, size and presentation of the larger stands. Vitra, as always, created an environment to make a beeline for. The centrepiece of the stand was a huge sloping wall, displaying a colourful selection of past iconic products, which formed one end of their space and provided the backdrop to their café.



The ‘Slope’ at Vitra

This seemed a monumental achievement when we were told that only three days had been allowed for stand creation, although we were later informed that the workmen had been constructing it for slightly longer. A different approach was taken by Girsberger. They also had an immense space but they chose to use it to create a large open, sparse, expanse, dominated by over-sized lanterns. This gave a rather opulent, corporate feeling which highlighted the serious attitude and high specification of their product line, or as another visitor put it, ‘it looked like they were only showing five chairs’.

Girsberger stand



The Products In product terms, this was another show which would disappoint those looking for the new, or for ‘entertainment’, gimmicks and novelty. There were few new product launches shouting for attention. Many newly launched products in desking and storage followed tried and true concepts and finish options. It is as if the market has finally reached a level where it can dictate the specification of product to such as degree that, to deviate would be akin to commercial suicide - and few are willing to risk such a fate. Storage In terms of storage units, finely detailed, crisp, boxes with simple flat planes were in the majority. The other item that was apparent everywhere was the one-piece carcase wrap with fine edged profile and radiused corners, box form, used for pedestals and smaller units. This could be a reaction to the form of Apple computers and similar technology products or it could reflect the gradual ‘domestication’ of design mitigating the extreme minimalism of the typical office furniture product. There were no radical storage developments further to the Bite from Bisley introduced at Milan this year, which still remains the most innovative storage product of the year. Ersa Q storage PD ‘Spider Kollektion’ storage (typical of the ‘round edge’ approach)

Another ‘round edged’ pedestal



Desking, Benching & Systems This was a year of ‘pared down’ design. Bench desking represented the main system approach and probably comprised 90% of the table offerings, whilst the majority of leg forms and frames were square or rectangular sections, vertical or slightly angled ‘four legged’ structures being the norm. For desking and storage, white is still the major finish colour, with dark walnut the contrast wood that seems to have found the most favour. Particular concerns, such as height adjustability, user flexibility and space customisation were demonstrated in a variety of products, even products such as bench desking, which if they were introduced as a way of making cost effective ‘space reduced’ working space, are now looking to enrich the working experience once again. Initial ‘user adjustable’ benching products came from Arup’s collaboration with Kinnarps in ‘Bench F’ (not seen at the show due to Kinnarps’ non appearance) and Elite’s Linnea +, (which was well represented at Orgatec on their stand). At this exhibition these were joined by a new bench by Dynamobel.

Dynamobel bench desking & Dublo folding tables

Not specifically a ‘bench’, but with a long span and sharing the same structure for back to back situations, the Dynamobel product divides workers with hard ‘storage’ partitions, using the Hettich ‘Orgatower’ internal system. The work surfaces are adjusted by the user by means of a crank handle, which operates a scissors action device at either end of the worktop. The overall height of the structure is around 1100mm and the whole effect is lightened by the unique ‘wire’ legs that lift it off the floor. The tables that can be glimpsed at the rear of the picture were however much more elegant.



A very tidy low profile mechanism pushes locking pins into the long face of the rectangular legs, which when released can hinge at the table edge, folding flat against the underside of the top. The legs are positioned at right angles to each other running around the table, resulting in an interesting look and not competing for space once folded. The resultant folded table is extremely flat, little more than the thickness of the top. A swing out link piece enables opened tables to be tethered together. These Dublo tables were a very simple but well conceived solution to space saving folding tables, although Dynamobel were only showing them in prototype form and were not sure if they would continue to develop them for manufacture!

Vitra Playns

Vitra produced several new product lines, including their new height adjustable workstation, Playns, designed by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec. This electrically operated workstation can be a back to back pair using the same structure as support, so that runs of these units can be combined to create an easily adjusted ‘bench’. The concept is both that moving position, sitting and standing is good for one’s health and thought processes, but also that the desk will send out signals – if you are sitting you are in concentrated work (or ‘nesting’ as Vitra have decided to term it!) whilst it is possible to collaborate with more people



whilst standing (or ‘netting’). The top area of the desk supports flat screens and file racks, whilst ‘retro’ looking file ‘bins’ are supported beneath the worksurface. Vitra also had another product, which took a quite different spin on privacy or collaboration, quite a simple device, which interestingly was reflected, in a slightly different way by other similar products from a variety of different manufacturers. This was a desk screen on the WorKit desk system. The screen was a small central divider between two workers, using a typical ‘bench cluster’ workstation. However this screen, mounted over the cable access port, was fitted with a sliding mechanism and being only about half the width of the work space, can be positioned to ‘screen off’ a colleague, or open the space between for collaboration/conversation. By moving two screens together or apart, a four-person team can meet or be private. A very simple folded steel top ‘saddle’ element allows the positioning of accessory items over the screen.

Vitra WorKit

This desking range followed the ‘simple squared’ pared down aesthetic currently popular, but was based around a clever little ‘square block’ device, which allowed various leg junctions, beam joints and top supporting brackets to be created, without recourse to many junction parts, holes in leg frames or ‘over sailing’ beam structures. Another system creating a simple, clean crisp appearance without a complicated structural system is ‘Pey’, by Mobles 144, a Spanish company. This works in a similar manner to the Pearson Lloyd ‘Edge’ table, in that the frame runs around the edge of the table, with the tops inset. The ‘Pey’ product is able to achieve various different table forms, from desking, benching, to



clusters and side extensions. The tops are either particleboard or glass and the product can form large conference and meeting tables as well as workstations. Taking an umbilical up the inside of the ‘L’ profile legs provides cable management. The overall effect of the product is a clean, although fairly anonymous, family of tables, probably as simple an aesthetic as it is possible to provide. Indeed there were several products at the show that could only be distinguished from each other by subtle proportional differences, materials and the detailing.

Pey from Mobles 144

Another product which could make the crossover from ‘general office’ to meeting room was Nurus ‘uToo’. This system provided spine walls with either bench style desking or less common peninsular workstations, with support from accessories supported from the central spine.

Nurus uToo



The cable management for uToo was fully lay-in across the top of the wall, by nature of a curved hinging door at the end of the unit, which opened to allow the ingress of cable from a grommet or service floor. The same wall contained storage units below, accessed by sliding doors for shared depth units or file drawers, which used the full depth opening on one side. This ‘wall storage’ element could also be used to create credenzas for executive offices or meeting rooms, which shared the aesthetic. Senator unveiled their new system, Crossover, which was a nicely detailed product using a twin beam to support work surfaces, with a shared extruded leg capable of creating single desks and returns, benches or clusters. This range used desk mounted storage boxes to hold files, the backs of which were perforated, allowing dividers to be positioned at the rear of the unit also, to support files of another workplace at the same time. This also allows light to pass through the units, giving a more open feel than if they were solid units and promoting the use of these as screens.

Senator Crossover



Herman Miller premiered a new bench which was shown with their new storage box and divider product ‘Cubix’. This range of desk storage boxes with various materials available for fronts and backs, including coloured steel panels, fabric and glass is placed on the work surface to form a low rise divider between workers, which is able to store personal items, files or equipment. The sliding divider doors have round through holes and these are locked by the simple addition of a cam operating cylinder lock through the overlapping central holes of a pair of doors. The units can be provided with lower elements providing outlet sockets and shallow drawers, which can also be accommodated in a shallow unit, which is presumably used to support printers, scanners or other electronic items.

Herman Miller Cubix



Bulo showed a different approach to desk supported storage and cable management in their Mtoo storage accessories, which clip onto the edges of the work surfaces and the Kei range of products, in which Neopolen, an expanded foamed Polypropylene bead, is moulded into large blocks forming the elliptical sections for a flexible fabric covered screen. The desks used together with this have an interesting cable manager. It is basically a PET ‘pot’ positioned under the work surface to accept the incoming cable feed and sockets, with a glazed ceramic ‘dish’ placed in the top to act as both a desk-top grommet and a desk accessory, such as a paper clip or pen tray. (This assumes that nowadays, smoking is frowned upon in the majority of offices where it is not actually banned)

Bulo Kei

The wild and the wonderful (future office concepts) Orgatec has previously been known for fairly radical ‘experiments’ in office design. This tradition was still being upheld, despite the fairly cautious approach of most companies. K& N were showing their ‘office laboratory’ in the rear of their stand. This ranged from a demonstration of their double glazed demountable wall system, using a mechanical ‘robot’ to position the panels, which are then ‘jacked up ‘ into place, to the ‘Future Lab’ office workstation, which is an experiment in focused reflected light, varying work surface heights and large LED display.



. K&N ‘Future Lab’

Vitra showed examples of the ‘Reset’ experimental products by Jurgen Bay These are areas for concentrated work, which help avoid distractions, allowing the mind to be cleared - ‘Reset’ as in computer jargon.

Vitra Reset.

The first is a small ‘den’ at the top of a set of ladders, like an in-office ‘tree house’. The second, a ‘box’ for working in, which is able to have varying levels of privacy by opening a hatch to the front.



Assuming that one works inside with a laptop or similar, once fully closed, it would be very much like Doug Ball’s ‘Clipper’ from 1994. The Clipper

Jurgen Bay also produced the ‘Ear’ chair for Prooff, a chair which thinks that it is a room. Large extended wings sweep around forming both a visual and sonic barrier, allowing groups of these chairs to be positioned together to give privacy to a group of people, within an open environment.

Ear Chair by Prooff



Seating Seating was the best sector this year for recent launches or new products at Orgatec. The major seating introductions fell into the two camps of opinion over ergonomic principle - whether to allow a multitude of varieties of manual adjustments, or alternatively, to make a chair more intuitive and responsive to the sitter, giving fewer options for user adjustment. These two principles were best demonstrated by the three ‘must see’ task chairs of the show and indeed it was good to be able to test them all within minutes of each other. The ‘big’ introduction of the show, Herman Miller’s Embody, is a hugely radical shift in supportive seating technology. Taking seven years to develop and costing millions in research and tooling, it is just the type of bold move as was the launch of Aeron which positioned Miller as the foremost producer of forward looking seating. Achieving the sort of quantum leap in seating technology, aesthetics and in pure office ‘folklore’ that Aeron represented will be difficult if not impossible, as Aeron managed to make the move from office furniture to social icon, as few products ever have. Aeron was as much a symbol and ‘must have’ for upwardly mobile (and aspiring) office workers as a Blackberry, or before that, a mobile phone (when they were brick sized) or indeed an iphone or the latest Mac Powerbook today. Not many items of furniture cross over into that ‘social consciousness’ We have since been exposed to Mirra, and Celle chairs (staying with Herman Miller!) and it will need a shift in visual stimulation and intellectual challenge for Embody to make as big an impact as Aeron did when first introduced. Having said that, to people who understand the mechanics of sitting, (meaning the vast majority of furniture show visitors) replacing foam with another material (that isn’t mesh!) and remaining comfortable is a tall order. Embody achieves this immediately on the first sitting. I actually now wish that I’d sat on one right at the end of the third day of walking the halls, as by then anything - even a desk top - would have been extremely comfortable. I am sure the Embody would have seemed heavenly. The adjustments are many, but they are relatively simple to use. The ‘soft touch’ rubber adjustment wheels feel great and add to the pleasure of using the chair and I particularly liked the ‘any direction’ toggle for gas height operation. The back recline stage lock paddle is also totally intuitive. The moulded spring system for the seat and back are both unique and cunning and I liked the appearance of the chair from the rear. I felt more should be made of this aesthetic, even though some feel it will attract dust! I was a little disappointed with the breathable air mesh fabric of the seat, because, after Aeron and it’s ilk, seeing through a chair gives a lightness and visually reduces the bulk of the product.



Given the unique technology under the seat of the Embody, I felt it would be good to be able to see more (after all it’s not a lump of foam!) But as a machine for sitting in, it’s going to be hard to beat! Herman Miller Embody

The other camp of, ‘non user adjustable’ chairs was represented by Humanscale’s latest offering from Neils Diffrient. This is Humanscale’s lowest price point chair, an entry-level Liberty, if you like. It was demonstrated in prototype form, not being available until next year. The chair is available in mesh, with similar seam details to the Liberty, a soft pad version and a moulded polymer mesh version (pictured here) which will be easier to clean and is aimed at schools and universities, amongst other users.

Humanscale Diffrient Work Chair



Again, this was a great sit; the back recline angle was a little extreme on these first prototypes, but that will be modified. Both the mesh and the translucent moulded seat and back were extremely comfortable. That the chair will be Humanscale’s ‘entry level’ product is highly significant.

Itoki Spina

Another of the ‘non involving’ operator chairs, the Spina from Itoki has a satisfyingly flexing back, with the most interesting feature being way that the mechanics of the chair seem to ‘roll up the seat when you sit to the front, as you would at a desk. The seat parallelograms backwards, as the back is reintroduced to the small of your back by a series of levers based at the lower part of the back support. The result is that the sitter’s back is supported at all times without any help or adjustment from the user in a quite unobtrusive, yet gently supportive manner. This then adjusts as you lean back or sit deeper into the seat. There are upholstered versions, with a slightly different back make up which are less unusual feeling than the translucent ribbed back, yet providing a very satisfying seating experience. This chair has a more ‘light’ European feel and aesthetic than the Embody, It would be great to have them both! There were also new releases form Sedus, Kokuyo and Interstuhl which were interesting. Sedus had a huge range of their Crossline range on display, which included side chairs, task chairs and high back versions, the chair in it’s task formats was capable of extreme reclining with an X frame at the rear supporting a flexible support structure.



Sedus Crossline Interstuhl had new additions to the Silver range in the form of Silver Sunday, a recliner and arm chair, which could also be fitted with a ‘hood’ for privacy.

Interstuhl Silver Sunday

But the big crowd draw on the Interstuhl stand was the ‘Fit’ chair (Armchair?) This was a flat knitted mesh, stretched over a cantilever tubular frame. The chair is flat and it forms a seat around the sitter’s body.



Interstul Fit

Kokuyo’s new task chair 2000 Series, was another radical approach to seating comfort. The range incorpotaes air cushions in the front and back of the seat and the chair’s back rest, linked together allowing a flow of air which adjustins the form of the seat and back to the movements and position of the sitter’s body. This is controlled by a flow adjustment valve, for personal taste and can also be switched off altogether if desired. Although a chair with controls, its flexible intelligence’ and reaction to the sitter’s posture can be considered an example of the self-adjusting or non involving posture seating family.

The Kokuyo 2000 Series



Wilkhahn were showing a prototype of a new chair, Chassis, which looks to be a promising new product, if the development continues. It is an open frame ‘chassis’ for a side chair, which is bonded to a flexible membrane or leather seat and back. Currently the rear seat rail is a little obtrusive on the mockups, but the concept seems well worth pursuing, to create a classic looking side chair, with an amount of ‘give’ and life in the seat and back Wilkhahn Chassis

Wilkhahn also had a rocking horse on their stand, which looked as if lit could have recently designed - it had the same ‘modern retro’ character of much of the latest products. It turns out that this was a 1958 fibreglass project ‘Rocking Sculpture 201’, proving that a lot of visual styling is fairly timeless, even if trends, details and specific proportions can be identified with specific decades



Rocking Sculpture 201

In terms of business activity, Orgatec seems to have been a huge success. The show was as busy as ever, despite the impending economic downturn - as one designer said to me ‘We’re all in the same boat this time!’ Stands were busy; there was a good reaction to the products and an upbeat atmosphere. If one didn’t know better, one would think that a boom time was around the corner. It was interesting too that, with desking and storage, the products that are already favoured are those that have been developed in response to tough market conditions and high occupancy requirements in competitive situations. Bench desking, a cost effective solution, whilst also at its best a minimalist aesthetic statement, seems to have gone about as far as it could go and is now being reappraised, with solutions for personal storage and privacy. This was seen, for example, in Bisley’s Bite and Herman Miller’s Cubix, as well as in products with adjustment options such as Vitra’s Playns. In seating, lightness and comfort are still a huge priority, although the subtlety of the aesthetic has become more of a critical factor. Roger Carr & David Williams Radar, 15-20 The Oval, Bethnal Green, London E2 9DX. www.radar.gb.com

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