Hasta La Ideas

“If the office is no longer spatial, what has it become? Where work and life are conflated, what is the relationship between the office and identity?” These are some of the questions posed by Out of Office, an exhibition exploring the evolution of the office from 1950 to a speculative 2050. Taking place at A/D/O—a fitting venue to explore shifting paradigms of work—and co-curated by Andrea Hill of TORTUGA Living, Alex Gilbert, and Soft-Firm, the exhibition tracks “the feedback loop” between design, technology, and the office.

The show is comprised of four installations. First upon entering, the interactive Water Cooler Talk places the ubiquitous conversation starter next to a live feed from a Slack group to suggest how “the symbolic heart of the office” has shifted, while phrases like “Step away” and “Work smarter, not harder” remind us of the negative repercussions of our always-connected culture.

There’s a sense of what we’re losing in The Supply Closet as well, which showcases an array of office supplies, many of which are now nostalgia-inducing. “It’s rare that we interface with anything other than a computer these days,” the curators told us in a recent interview. “What would it take to reinvigorate our senses and make for more inspiring modes of communication and creation? Can something as simple as receiving a letter in the mail help diminish our digital fatigue? We believe that the manual tools of work can continue to spark productivity even as they become less directly tied to our output.”

The meatiest component is the Evolution of the Desktop, a graphic timeline that tells “an associative story of how the office evolved alongside global events, cultural and political shifts, labor movements, and pop culture,” through the lens of several narrative arcs: from job security to flexibility, hierarchy to horizontality, profit-driven to innovation-driven, control to autonomy, homogeneity to diversity. The cloud-like graphics (likely inspired by Charles Jencks’s Evolutionary Tree diagram) express how “these values overlap and bleed into each other, setting the stage for inventions, emergent technologies, IPOs, and work movements,” the curators say. “It isn’t meant to be a definitive survey from 1920-2050…we intended to create an installation that offered a great deal of information about the evolving office in a single glance.”

Beneath the graphic, a standing desk prototype designed by Robert Propst—the originator of the cubicle furniture system—for Herman Miller in 1963 and SO-IL’s speculative furniture system designed for Knoll in 2014 bookend an array of workplace innovations, “from the curious to the canonical.”

Tucked away in a separate room, the dimly lit space of Wellness 2050 offers a place to rest under the familiar glow of a projection, which shows a bucolic landscape—more or less a stand-in image for wherever a worker would prefer to be. Will conference rooms be transformed into wellness rooms? “With the increasing virtuality of work and nature, spaces for escaping and unplugging from our new reality may be the new normal.”

Each distinct installation expands on the exhibition’s underlying questions and teases out even more strands of thought to chew on—but don’t go in expecting any answers. Ultimately the show hopes to “prompt designers to expand their role in the creation of new, humanistic formats for work.”

What do the curators forecast for the future of office design? “Office design has become increasingly about wearables,” they say. “Building technology will become smarter over time (like a device) and office technology will catch up to the algorithm.”

Ukraine is finding its place on the global design stage with multi-disciplinary studios that blur the boundaries between architecture, interiors and furniture. Here are six studios to watch.

Yuriy Zimenko

Interior and furniture designer Yuriy Zimenko has been active on the Kiev scene for 15 years. Known for his luxurious and minimal style enlivened with moments of colour, he has designed apartments and houses in his home country and abroad.

Zimenko’s furniture designs are defined by their sense of humour. The form of the Roomy Wardrobe Numbers Game is decorated with a series of gold numbers, that thin out towards the top of the piece.

His Op-art furniture range includes a cupboard, chest and coffee table. Each piece has two contrasting layers, a plywood exterior with perforated holes covering a matte black base to provide a striking visual effect.

The collection is inspired by the 20th-century art movement in which geometric shapes take on an optical form.

Balbek Bureau

Headed by Slava Balbek, architecture, interiors and design firm Balbek Bureau also encompasses furniture brand Propro, which primarily caters to offices.

The studio also runs a side project within the company called Tuyvo, which works on design for social good for the surrounding community, such as providing benches for a local park with an integrated solar panel.

Recent projects have included designing the Kiev headquarters of Ukraine-founded software company Grammarly, which occupies the top two floors of a 14-storey block in the city centre.

Balbek created versatile spaces with nooks for private working and a variety of recreational areas, a conference hall, nap pods, and even a soundproof music room. Other projects include Bursa hotel and the Syndicate clothing store in the capital.

Ryntovt Design

Architecture, interior and furniture design studio Ryntovt, based 300 miles east of Kiev in Kharkiv, has been in business for 25 years. Environmental and social responsibility is central to the company’s ethos.

The studio’s furniture is often made from hard wood such as walnut, ash, acacia, beech and oak and plays to the strengths of the particular material.

Many of the pieces have veneers in contrasting timber applied across the surface in decorative patterns to emphasise the different qualities of the wood.

“Eco-design for us is not only the use of natural materials, but eco-sense, eco-love, eco-life in general,” said the studio. “Our furniture is as unique as the structure and the texture of the wood that we use in production.”

Sergey Makhno

Despite describing themselves as primarily an architecture practice, Sergey Makhno also works across interiors and product design.

Makhno started out by designing a cafe for a friend, now his eponymous studio has completed more than 600 projects in 16 countries. The studio has recently been commissioned to design the Ukranian Museum of Modern Art.

Sergey Makhno’s interiors projects tend to have an exposed, post-industrial feel with statement lighting features making a big impact.

Many of their architecture projects have pitched roofs and raised block forms with glazed surfaces for maximum light, with one project including a two-storey bookcase.

The product design branch of the company stretches from its Elephant upholstered furniture with outsize forms to lights with rough, organic exterior surfaces, such as the recent Crust collection, with large-scale shades made from raku ceramics that give a textured aesthetic.

Fild

Kiev brand Fild has designed company headquarters and apartments, as well as home accessories like lights, hooks, trays and shelving. They have even branched out into branding for fashion label Podolyan and jewellery label Samokish, and a local yoga studio and salon.

Established in 2013 by Dan Vakhrameyev and Kateryna Fedorenko, the company opened its first store in December 2016 in a building with a grey facade and bright yellow door, to match the company branding. A few months later they became the first Ukrainian brand to present at the Stockholm Furniture Fair.

“Fild is built on the principles of clean minimalist lines and shapes of objects, in graphic design as well as in interior design,” said the brand. “The team bases their perception on laconic design, convenient application and pleasant textures.”

Faina

Also based in Kiev, Faina is a design brand that Victoriya Yakusha founded in 2014 with the aim to update traditional Ukrainian design and make it better known outside the country. The studio’s office interior has been longlisted for the small workspace interior category in this year’s Dezeen Awards.

“With the feelings of sincere love for my national roots, I decided to make the Ukrainian national identity understandable and recognisable throughout the world,” said Victoriya Yakusha.

“Through my product design Faina collection, I want to reflect the whole life force of energy that has been encapsulated over the Ukrainian land for centuries – as I feel it, in a modern interpretation.”

Unusual materials in furniture design, including clay, wood, willow and flax, are used to make furniture items, with willow woven into lamp shades and clay used for cabinet doors and thick table legs.

Meanwhile, the Ztista collection is formed by covering a metal frame with flax, applied in organic shapes. The structure is then overlaid with a biopolymer coating for a durable, waterproof surface.

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An ironwork bandstand in south London where David Bowie organised and performed at a festival 50 years ago has been given Grade II-listed status.

The bandstand in Beckenham was the centrepiece of a free 1969 music festival organised by Bowie in the spirit of Woodstock.

It took place on Croydon Recreation Ground, where the bandstand sits, shortly after the musician released his first hit single Space Oddity.

Bowie performed from the bandstand stage to a crowd of a few hundred people. It’s also rumoured that he wrote the lyrics to Life on Mars while sitting on its steps.

The bandstand, which was built in 1905, is believed to be the only surviving example of work done by the McCallum and Hope Iron Foundry from Glasgow.

It was given listed status on the 50th anniversary of the festival, which is now held annually, by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on the advice of Historic England.

Bowie, who died in 2016, has been a source of inspiration in the design world since he rose to fame in the 1970s.

The V&A held an exhibition of his most important costumes and set designs in 2013, and his album covers have since appeared on stamps. Bowie’s secret collection of Memphis furniture caused a stir when it went up for auction after his passing.

Popularised by the Victorians, there were once over 500 bandstands across the UK on parks, seaside piers and promenades.

Although live music is rarely performed in public by a brass band these days, contemporary architects are taking up the challenge of re-imagining the sites where they once stood as contemporary arts performance venues.

In Edinburgh, American studio WHY has won the competition to create a new events space on the site of an old bandstand. The Ross Pavilion, which is overlooked by Edinburgh castle, will be a series of undulating roof gardens topping glazed stages.

Images courtesy of Historic England.

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August is rapidly getting over but the innovation is not! Here are the best designs from this month that are already turning heads be it the redesigned Mac Pro concept that sure looks like a more efficient design to a portable, emission-free portable air conditioner to relieve the heat, or even wireless headphones that double as a fashion accessory, just scroll down, have a look and get inspired to create your own innovative design.

Everyone has been debating the recent cheese-grater edition of the Mac Pro, and I hate to admit that this was one Apple product that I didn’t fancy much. I’d much rather live in a fantasy world and promote the Mac Pro concept by Semin Jun. The CPU is classy and features two parts – the main body and its case. Wrapped in a mesh polycarbonate body, the heart of the computer is encapsulated in a stylish transparent frame. Designed as a wireless sync edition that works with your iPhone, simply place it on top of the Mac and let it sync with your computer and charge at the same time.

evaCHILL provides each user with their own personal microclimate without the release of Carbon Dioxide by using the principle of water evaporation to create moist, fresh and, most importantly, cool air!

Based on patented designs, these conceptual Xbox Cloud controllers give us an idea of what the real thing would feel like. Two controller-halves clip onto either side of the phone, turning it into a handheld gaming console, complete with everything you need to play Xbox’s signature titles. The controllers come in a variety of colors, just like the original Xbox ones, and feature all the keys, buttons, and joysticks, including BOTH the left and right triggers on the top!

Designed for the year 2022, when Lamborghini realizes that the Urus needs an overhaul either because it’s selling like hotcakes, or not selling at all, the Agressivo (a concept SUV by Fernando Pastre Fertonani) is, quite simply put, more tastefully Lamborghini-esque. Agressivo’s demeanor is more in line with Lamborghini’s sportscars, but it comes in the format of an SUV, with wide tires, higher road clearance, and strangely enough, just two doors.

Rather than be confined in a case, where they hide from view, these conceptual earphones sit around your neck, magnetically attached to a chain, giving the earbuds a more fashion-forward approach in a rather direct sense (almost looking like pendants or dog-tags). Each earphone comes with its own sleeve that covers the silicone tip, preventing it from falling off or worse, getting dirty.

LavvieBot S is the smartest litter box and is integrated with IoT functions. It automatically cleans your cat’s litter and refills it from the storage bin. You can check the status of your cat’s business (bowel movements) in real-time via the App ‘PurrSong’. The one thing that you can be assured, is that the refilling of litter will not happen if your cat is in the bin. As the cat enters, the sensors capture the movement and hold-off refilling.

AirFlex Labs is trying to challenge the status quo with their Tech Pants, featuring a fabric that looks like denim and is as durable as denim but is thinner, more breathable, flexible, and comfortable to wear. Combining performance synthetic fibers like Tencel and Polyamide with Japanese 10oz Pima cotton, AirFlex’s engineered fabric combines the best of all worlds. It has an impressive four-way stretch, is breathable, wicks moisture rapidly, resists wrinkles, lasts as long as denim does, and does all this while being 30% lighter than denim.

Titled the Switch UP, the console is primarily handheld, but still retains a crucial feature found in the Switch… being able to game on a larger screen. The Switch UP doesn’t come with detachable joy-cons, making it a little like the Switch Lite that released last month. However, the Switch UP sits halfway between the Switch and the Lite, giving you the ability to play your favorite Nintendo titles on the move, or on your TV! The backpack, called the Clever Dock, fits into a negative space in the controller, integrating with it seamlessly. It works as an extra battery pack for the console, while also comes with HDMI and USB ports, allowing you to plug it to your television or even a projector.

Imagine a smart insulin port attached to your skin, delivering the right dose, and at the right time. At the same moment, getting all information regarding your sugar levels, meds timings and health data, managed and analyzed with the accompanying app. Kite replaces the need to pump yourself with over 30 injections a week, thanks to the soft cannula insertion. It turns any device into a ‘smart’ device and automatically dispenses the accurate insulin dose. Designed to be affordable, a device like this can be very helpful in the lifestyle management of diabetics.

Designed for bespoke comfort, and for unparalleled lightness while running, Nike’s Joyride Run Flyknit literally has a sole that’s filled with multiple tiny squishy spongy beads. Resembling a beanbag for your feet, the Joyride give your feet the same feeling a beanbag gives your body. A cushioned experience that takes the shape of your foot. Engineered to perfection, these beads have absolutely the perfect density, allowing you to run on any surface without feeling the stress on your heels, shins, or knees.

On first glance, you would be forgiven in mistaking this air purifier for a side-table; its confident form and carefully-considered details lead to a product that resembles an item of furniture as opposed to an electrical appliance. Its designer, Jaehyo Lee, recognized that furniture isn’t as simple as ‘one-size-fits-all’; by incorporating a modular design, this friendly air purifier can be transformed to suit the environment it is destined to be placed within and further harmonize with the existing furnishings.

Many techniques and methods are used to remove clothes stains including scrubbing, dabbing and rinsing. It can quickly become an overwhelming task to do particularly for beginners. Metamorphose aims to provide a single but honest process of removing stains effectively, eliminating the unnecessary stress and embarrassment that comes along with one.

View the full project here