40 ideas for a hybrid and shared office

Like parentheses to enclose a conversation, Paravan creates intimacy in open areas with sound absorbing panels to support focus, concentration, and collaboration. The Paravan collection is a modular language of panels that can be combined to create new expressions to delineate space through simple geometries and elegant curves. Photo Marco Covi

A soundproof partitioning element conceived by Italian-Hungarian designer Andrea Ruggiero, Soundsticks is made from scraps of upholstery fabric modelled into tubes, finished at the ends with caps in recycled aluminium, hung from tracks in linear or radial arrangements.  

Systems are realised with unusual materials that have high acoustic performances and implemented with a patented technology that allows the panel to fold, the Quiet-Bits are a new system of flexible acoustic modules made both for the office and the home. They are easy to mount thanks to the magnetic joints. So, you can build a phone booth and transform it next day into a meeting room.

Zanellato/ Bortotto have come up with this desk of delicate elegance. Slender metallic legs support a top with rounded forms, with a drawer under the top and séparé in fabric or eco-leather. The small room divider can also be used as a notice board for attaching notes and documents with magnets.

Weber designed this system of seating to offer a response to the change taking place in the world of work, where the demand is for flexible places. This notion has given rise to the development of this system of poufs and sofas available with or without backs and featuring shelves and tops in wood.

A project by Pietro Arosio, Intercity is a modular system for creating spaces tailored to any room and need which adapts to the needs of waiting and working environments.. The wide choice of base modules includes upholstered elements with or without back, both straight and curved.

A homage to Pierre Jeanneret, a key figure in the building of Chandigarh, created with maximum respect for authenticity, this chair can be found in various administrative offices in the palace of the Secretariat. It consists of independent elements including the side supports positioned in an upside-down V shape that converses to support the armrest, also in solid wood. The woven seat and backrest, stretched across a wooden frame are elements that are characteristic of the spirit of the area, as is the use of local woods such as teak.

This chair by Radice and Orlandini reworks the lexicon of the well-known typology of the bucket chair. The form is generated by breaking up the mass of the back into three ‘petals’ of minimal thickness: a higher central one and two lower side ones that act as armrests.

Victor Carrasco has come up with a versatile wooden chair for Billiani, Fitt Classic that can be adapted to multiple uses. With carefully-calibrated proportions, the chair consists of a structure in painted metal and body in beech ply, available in a version with an upholstered seat.

Alain Gilles designed these light structures to provide a visual and acoustic shield for open workspaces through metal and textiles. Different heights, textiles, finishes and spatial configuration can be combined to adapt to every need and assembled in clusters.

To respond to the demands for pri- vate areas in open-planned workspaces, Fantoni’s range of acoustic pods has been extended to include a phone booth version. Mini is a bright and comfortable phone booth (l 100 x d 100 x h 228 cm) with a self-supporting structure, that can be moved even when assembled and made up of two blank sides, one fixed glazed and one with a door, covered on the inside with 4akustik sound-absorbing system.

As a homage to the theatre of the same name in Mantua with its perfect acoustics, Malerba have created the Bibiena cabin. Conceived for open-planned and co-working spaces, Bibiena provides private, acoustically-isolated space for team working, private conversations, interviews and one-to-one meetings.

Created in collaboration with Google, the PwC Experience centre in Zurich is an open-planned office that responds to the demands for flexibility imposed by contemporary work prac- tices. The users are able to make rapid changes and easily redefine the arrangement of the spaces. Swiss architect Stephan Hürlemann teamed up with Vitra to look at developing special solutions for this project: the products that they decided to use were the Dancing Walls range of mobile partitions – a system that is easy to move and that can fulfill various functions – and the stools from the Stool-Tool collection designed by Konstantin Grcic – a lightweight and practical multifunctional chair that consists of a stepped platform that can be used for sitting at different heights, with a back that can be used either as a work surface, shelf or seat.

“Business and working processes”, explains the designer Egidio Panzera, “the production rationality, creative design have to address a new ‘disorder’. This new model led us to reconsider an archaic typology of relationships and spaces: the market, as a place for economic, cultural and ideas exchange”. Inspired – also in the name – by the famous historic Ballarò market in Palermo, the Bahlara collection of office furniture launched by Faram 1957 identifies discontinuity as new semantic content applied to the world of the office. From this assumption, the collection is free to expand, contract, reconfigure and adapt to new aesthetic and organisational demands, borrowing from the simple system of market stalls the spontaneous aesthetics and functionality that resides in the collective memory

Work just isn’t the same as it was 10 years ago: our tools and our work are mobile and often we head to the office only for collaborations. UniFor has partnered with Studio Klass – who since 2009 joins Marco Maturo and Alessio Roscini – to interpret the changing needs of contemporary workspaces, which are more and more in tune with the complexities of everyday life. The result is Touch Down Unit, a mobile and independent workstation, intended for professionals who, even though a fixed place may not necessarily be for them, nonetheless need an actual space of their own inside their company.

This seat for auditoriums, conference halls and lecture theatres devised by Baldanzi&Novelli is characterised by the design choices oriented towards ergonomics and functionality. The provision of variable spacing and a larger writing tablet extend its applicative possibilities.

Designed by Alberto and Francesco Meda, Flat is a system of sound absorbing panels characterized by a clean and minimal design. Four different shapes, with irregular shapes, allow you to create infinite compositions, as well as pure geometric figures.

Recyclable is one of the key words that embodies the ethical imperatives of respect and protection of the environment that are the order of the day for our manufacturers. Emeco used recycled PET (rPET) to make the 111 Navy Chair in 2010. Since then, they have continued to redesign and improve the material for even greater durability and longevity and now present the On & On collection of chairs and stools designed by Barber & Osgerby, made from 70% rPET – waste plastic bottles that would otherwise end up in landfill, 10% non-toxic pigment and 20% fibreglass for added strength. Despite being both physically and visually light, the chairs in the range are extremely strong and hard-wearing and as such suitable for demanding commercial environments as well as for domestic use, both indoors and outdoors.

The S 260 chair by Delphine Design complies with regulations for contract chairs for conference halls without forsaking aesthetic quality. Its key features include stackability and a mechanism for connecting the chairs together that enables large spaces to be exploited to the full.

The Cluster system of chairs is made up of steel frames, upholstered elements and coloured fabrics. The elements with and without armrests and the seat are frames in cold-foamed steel and it has been selected by Luxy from 424 designs by 350 participants coming from from 126 countries.

With a sophisticated design, the Meeting range of chairs is distinguished by its unique upholstery that covers the structure and enveloping form that makes for an ergonomic seat. The lounge version is ideal for placing in waiting area, reading rooms or spaces for conversation and living.

From the analysis of flexible contemporary workspaces, comes the Ottaedro bookcase for providing customised solutions. The ottaedro refers to the octahedral form of the connection that joins the metal components to make them stable, making it possible to create endless variations.

Result of a collaboration between Pinuccio Borgonovo and Paolo Pampanoni, Bridge is an operating system for offices designed to bring together operational activities and meetings. The programme is open to variable configurations based on specific demands, offering the freedom to work individually, in groups, at desks, at consoles or from soft seating. The basic element of the design is the “bridge”, a trilite wooden panel that supports suspended storage units, desk tops and hook-on acoustic panels while a beam under the top with electrical conduit ensures perfect cabling for every workstation, while acoustic comfort runs through all of these: meeting rooms, phone booths and acoustic corridors have been developed to ensure optimum wellbeing.

Designed by Flavio Caronni and Donato Bonanomi – together in the Caronni + Bonanomi studio – this versatile storage unit stands out for its aesthetic rigour and strong geometric matrix, in a balance of the rational and the practical that leaves no room for the superfluous.

A company specialised in the production of metal filing systems and cabinets for optimising storage, Fantin include in their cata- logue the range of Tivoli units, available in a single size and an extensive range of colours, a decisive asset for adapting such a versatile element to a range of different settings.

If in recent years the world of design and industrial production looked to sustainability as an important objective, today it is a fundamental paradigm. This sensitivity and a clear commit- ment at an ethical level condition the decisions made by Max design who present new eco-friendly versions in the Max collection designed by Christoph Jenni and made from raw materials (plastic and wood) in a second life cycle. The chairs consists of a single shell in recycled polypropylene reinforced with sawdust from recycled wood or fibreglass.

Dynamic and versatile, this chair in technopolymer lends itself to use in different living and working contexts: conceived by the studio Zetass to offer a design solution to the demand for contract chairs, it is also suitable for residential use and for the office.

The 6x6 construction system is developed around a system of connection that allows the structure and components to be easily put up and taken down. Designed by Nicholas Bewick, 6x6 can be used to create open solutions that use frames in natural wood, that can be customised with various finishing materials and accessories, to make up endless spatial configurations suited to any kind of setting.

Light and frameless, Flux is a single or double system of walls that offers options for customisation with curved glass, multi-way angles, technical modules and accessorised solutions. The range includes the versions Flux One – a continuous glazed partition with a guide profile that enables the insertion of plain panels in steel or wood – and Flux Mono – a glazed wall made with profiles in aluminium and a sheet of glass

Daniele Lo Scalzo Moscheri has come up with a semi-executive workstation for CUF - Centro Ufficio Loreto - char- acterised by a floor-standing structure with frames in painted metal and a laminate desktop, with extra-thick profiles available in colours tobacco, ash-grey or crystal.

Interpreting changes in operative practices within the world of work is the challenge that every office furniture system must take on. With the Spazio and Flat System, Rimadesio present two exemplary responses to the demands of the contemporary office: an inter-wall system and a range of accessorised tables. Both developed by Giuseppe Bavuso, these two products can be integrated to provide functional solutions for every operative condition: the glazed partitions of Spazio can be used to articulate the layout of any space, with straight, corner, C-shaped and four-sided solutions, and go from the simple glass wall to more complex systems of sliding panels: the Flat system of tables meanwhile, with its aluminium frame and glass tops, responds to a wide range of work demands with end elements, side elements and an extensive range of fixtures and accessories.

Conceived for encouraging meeting and exchange, open-planned spaces need to allow for moments of individual focus, and doing telephone and video calls. The response from Estel to this need takes the form of Phone Booth, a telephone booth with acoustic insulation above 40 dB, available in a free-standing or wall version.

It is an established fact that inadequate acoustic control in interior spaces creates distraction, lack of concentration, headaches, stress and tension in general. The brand Milleforma makes products for acoustic comfort that offer excellent performance as well as being environmentally friendly, using cotton cellulose mixed with high quality clays coloured with natural earths, without the addition of stains and glues.

In 2017 Mia Lagerman created an installation of large, outdoor containers in Corten® steel for the Cabinet makers' Exhibition that she has now reworked at a smaller scale to create BucketsTM, a set in leather of three desk accessories in the shape of buckets with their own handle, on a tray.

Distributed by Design Republic, Iris vases have a mild yet distinctive expression, created by the soft forms with sharp edges combined with muted tones. The ultra-thin porcelain has been hand- crafted in Japan and left unglazed to create a matt finish that reinforces the vase's understated elegance.

In Linea by Zanon Architetti Associati, the construction elements are combined together, creating horizontal and vertical surfaces that firstly respond to different functional demands and then separate space by becoming supports integrated with lighting systems, fabrics and acoustic panels.

The Trust system designed by Lievore-Altherr-Park for Poltrona Frau uses warm and natural materials such as leather, hide and wood. Conceived for executive offices, Trust consists of self-supporting partitions, containers and desks with an organic shape that create multiple sides to encourage sharing.

The fruit of a collaboration between architect Fritz Haller and engineer Paul Schärer, the USM Haller furniture system is a successful example of engineering applied to industrial design. The programme is based on a spherical joint that enables the creation of infinite modular compositions.

Famous for his prolific production of chairs, Hans J. Wagner (1914-2007) also created other pieces of furniture over the course of his lifetime. One of these is the CH110 desk, part of an elegant range of office furniture that the Danish designer came up with in 1970. The top of the desk is tapered and sits delicately on legs in stainless steel, while the symmetrical drawers feature a handcrafted mortise and tenon joint, with minimalist handles.

A range of executive furniture designed byDorigo Design, X10 is a sculp- tural product made from wood, available in elm, American walnut and ebony, distinguished by its sinuous line that takes the object through time and the side that emerges as the focal point of the collection.