New Vitra Workplace Furniture: Casual and Sculptural

Swiss furniture maker Vitra recently showcased a number of new products furniture ideas and products for the office at Orgatec, the workplace products show in Cologne. The collection at the show features work from several big names in Vitra’s roster of designers including the Bouroullec brothers, Frank Gehry, and Jurgen Bey. We noticed a light hearted take by the designers on workstations, seating, and storage items.

The Playns desk system from Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec are individual workstations that can be grouped together into clusters. The clever part of the design is that two desks can share a set of legs and a central power and data core. The adjustable privacy panels and storage drawers come in a range of saturated colors which can be mixed and matched.

FOG Office is a design by Frank Gehry for his building on the Novartis Campus in Basle. The system resembles an adhoc assemblage of wooden boxes and beams. Vitra will initially be manufacturing 130 items of this technically sophisticated design before thinking about taking its development further, together with Frank Gehry, and producing a serial product.

Jurgen Bey understands that once in a while everyone needs some time in the office to reset. Bey developed a furniture concept called Reset which attempts to create novel places for concentration in the work world of tomorrow. Reset is essentially a chillout space where someone can experience some quiet and allow some time for focus on new ideas or creative thinking. Frame magazine has a few photos from the show floor of the finished prototype.