The object of constant style-centered experimentation, office furniture encompasses desks, chairs, armchairs, stools, storage units, bookcases, drawer units and all that is required to set up a workstation. When planning the office furniture it is central that the chosen furniture complements comply with the principles of ergonomics and that they join together the functionality that is typical of such products and aesthetics.
Nowadays the trend is to prefer a space design that is centered upon visual lightness, so to create a space that is free of formal restrains and that encourages interaction and sharing. The desks of most employees are often placed inside a large open plan spaces, while executive offices can become more reserved by using dividing walls, possibly in glass, light to the eye bust designed in order to guarantee full acoustic insulation. In addition the market offers elements that are useful to create partitions within the office space also in the case of open-plan spaces that allow the people working in this area to avert the acoustic disturbance you normally have in a space shared by many people. Office spaces can be equipped with wall-mounted or hanging sound absorbing panels that today are also able to bring in a rather interesting decorative accent to the space. You can also plan for a couple of mobile walls which are suitable to create more private but temporary areas, easy to be adapted to the employees’ every-day needs.
Once the spaces are set and organized, it is time to define and choose the office furniture elements. The desk is with no doubt the central component. In the case of a modern office furniture the choice often includes modular and not too large elements, normally the result of the combination between metal, engineered wood and plastic materials. The next step are office chairs: in order to prove good enough for the day-to-day use at work, the chair should have four key characteristics, that is to say having a swivel seat, a firm backrest and a stable basis, while at the same time being adjustable. In this way everyone will be able to adjust the seating according to their height and to the height of the desk and the work top of the surrounding office furniture. The design of contemporary office chairs allows to reach a high level of comfort without giving up on the aesthetics. The furniture project can then be finished with storage units, bookcases and drawer units for each workstation or to be co-used. The last elements to complete the project are the many office accessories such as coat racks, paper bins, boards, umbrella stands, magazine racks, office carts and desks accessories.
However, single rooms and open plan spaces are not enough to characterize the office space. Every project should also foresee one or more areas dedicated to meetings and possibly the space for a waiting room, if necessary for the kind of activity that is carried out. The meeting room is normally supplied with a large table that can accommodate at least 8 to 10 people; the furniture, from the chairs to the desk accessories, accessible for anyone that will take part to meetings, need to be cared to the tiniest detail. As a matter of fact such a room could often host internal team meetings, as well as meetings with clients, therefore becoming in all respects the business card of the company. Even more, the reception desk and the meeting room will have to have comfortable chairs, arranged in an organized way so to give a good first impression at a glance.
