Last week I visited Orgatec in Cologne which is the leading international trade fair for the future of work. The fair had an extended programme and lots of exhibitors offering specialist furniture as well as furniture solutions for outdoor areas, hospitality industry and design projects. And I was really curious, as previous fairs I visited where lots of office furniture was presented I thought were quite boring.
Orgatec’s program looked really good though with each of the seven halls offering a focus area and inspiring insights into trends and developments shaping the future of work. I was most looking forward to which brands I would meet at this fair that has a focus on the office! I can honestly say the whole Orgatec experience was amazing. The atmosphere was great with a lively passage with music, food trucks and different exhibitions. The “Work Culture Festival” Organised by the German Interior Business Association (IBA), showed over 100 international speakers, keynotes, panel discussions, workshops and exhibitions.
I was surprised by the collections that the various brands showed. Okay, there were brands that specialized in office chairs only, and very nice ones too I must say. But the amount of brands that showed a wide range in which all aspects of the modern workplace were shown was enormous and it was super fun to see the different innovations. Think of a separate kitchen modules as well as handy gadgets for the flex or home worker. And the most beautiful wooden office furniture and amazing lounge area’s as I am used to see at fairs like imm or during 3 days of design.
Sedeo stool by Humanscale // image Humanscale
Design Tour
There was a lot to see and I was happy to be invited to a Design Tour organised by Orgatec showing us a few of the many brands and their latest collections. The boring gray office that we know from the past seems to be a thing of the past! After the pandemic, the way of working has changed for many people. Working from home is almost completely accepted in many countries and many employees only go to the office a few days a week.
This new way of working requires adjustments on the work floor, people often no longer have their permanent desk. During the Design tour I saw beautiful solutions for this more flexible way of working, such as the Gustav toolkits. Employees come together for meetings and we see spacious lounge areas in the office, like we find in our homes.
During my very first trip back in 2013, a blog tour that I was invited to because of my blogging activities, I was in New York and we visited two companies with the nicest working environment I had ever seen at that time. Everything had been done to offer the employees the most relaxed and fun environment possible. It was anything but gray and boring, plants, colour and cheerfulness prevailed.
Now, 10 years later, this seems to be the norm. Looking around at Orgatec, companies have a wide choice of ergonomically designed furniture, funky modular lounge area’s and home-like options for different meetings. Tables made of wood like we have at home, or like the regular table in the cozy café on the corner, and with integrated power outlets for office use.
If you would like to see more of the tour, including some video’s visit my Orgatec Instagram Highlight, and don’t forget to subscribe sif you haven’t already, much appreciated, thx!
Sedus Rendezvous chair and table with sockets inspired on cafe and library design
Kitchen design by Sedus
New colours at Molo Design
More about the brand on the blog here
Inspired by his love for coffe Pascal Heins designed ‘Spot ‘ for Le klint
Relaxing furniture by Klöber
Tables by Swedish Kinnarps with multifunctional desk dividers
Ending the tour with 2 office chairs! The beautiful chair with a bended twist by Italian Mara Srl above and an office chair prototype in wood and steal by Wilkhahn
Blind Date with Danish Design Makers
Following up my story from Copenhagen where we were introduced to Danish Design makers I had a look at the stand as I really liked the concept! The so called “Blind Date” in collaboration with the Danish Design Makers (DDM) alliance and Målbar brought companies and creative talents together in an unusual way. Twenty design brands from across Europe were invited to submit anonymised briefs on the theme of “reduction”. Lots were drawn to assign each of the tasks to designers whose identities were also concealed.
The creatives had six months to develop a prototype based on the brief and finished designs were presented in the stand of Danish Design Makers.
Written in collaboration with Orgatec
All images by vosgesparis unless stated otherwise
