When Steelcase introduced the Modern Efficiency Desk in 1915, (replacing the Wooton Cabinet Office Secretary– a heavy, upright hutch that Bartleby might have used), the new design reflected changing habits in the workplace. The new OFS Brands workstation that debuted last month at NeoCon represents a similar nod to shifting work habits and new priorities.
It’s called “the edge,” and it really is a dispatch from the leading edge of workplace design. Conceived by Primo Orpilla and Verda Alexander and realized by their design team Denise Cherry and Alma Lopez, the edge recognizes that office work has become a far more creative, collaborative and stimulating exercise than it was just a few years ago. A series of colorful, mobile, adaptable components that may be combined in many different configurations, the edge is capable of changing with the workforce that uses it.
Customizing furniture to specific applications is a common practice in commercial interiors, but here that customization capacity is built into the workstation itself. It’s an acknowledgement of how quickly and frequently companies change in the modern economy and a demonstration of how good design can embrace that change.
(Photographs by Jasper Sanidad)
