Work Softly and Sit on a Comfy Sofa
Vitra’s Soft Work modular seating system definitely has a soft touch: you can see it in the cushy, comfy, yet sublimely svelte upholstery; in the inclusive way it incorporates a variety of working styles; and in its intuitive incorporation of power infrastructure and rotating tabletops.
Soft Work—designed by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby—reverses the familiar formulation of the workspace: “Instead of creating a working environment centred around desks with peripheral sofas, Soft Work has developed into a system in which table workstations are focused around a seating landscape.”
The genius therein is making the “Soft Work” central. As work styles evolve, the lines between seating and workstation are increasingly blurred. Soft Work engages this evolution by making the sofa do it all.
In this case, doing it all means integrating arm-mounted desks, cleverly locating pivoting power sockets between seat cushions, and enabling impromptu privacy via pop-up partition screens.
In sum, Soft Work is a forward-thinking approach that recognizes contemporary realities: “The workstation is going the same way as the dining room—the desk has had its day. With mobile technology you need a place to sit occasionally, or a comfortable place to hang out.”
See Vitra to find out more.
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