Threads, a new app owned by Meta, has quickly gained popularity among interior designers and trade brands as an alternative to Instagram, which has been prioritizing Reels and frequently changing its algorithm. Threads offers a simpler and more authentic social media experience, with a focus on conversation and off-the-cuff moments. While some designers remain skeptical about the app's future, many are hopeful that it can offer a new way to express themselves online.

Fulton Market is becoming a challenger to the Merchandise Mart as a center for design showrooms, with modern glass towers and renovated industrial structures providing more natural light for displaying furniture and other goods. While the Mart still dominates, Fulton Market's popularity with manufacturers and designers was on display during the second annual Design Days event, attracting thousands of industry buyers who browsed showrooms and compared products. The Mart has also evolved, with just one-third of its space now occupied by showrooms, and a recent $75 million makeover adding amenities prized by office tenants.

David Adjaye, a British-Ghanaian architect, has been accused of sexual misconduct by three anonymous women who were former employees at his firm. Adjaye has denied the allegations, but has already faced consequences such as stepping down from ceremonial roles and projects. This is not the first time a high-profile architect has faced allegations, but given Adjaye's stature as a symbol of progress in a not particularly diverse industry, the allegations are significant.

Installnet, a commercial furniture solutions company, won a Top Product of the Year Award from Environment + Energy Leader for Ecoserv, its popular circular decommission program for surplus commercial furniture, fixtures, and equipment. Ecoserv allows companies to recirculate workspace assets in a way that delivers value without harming the environment. Since its start in 2012, the program has diverted over 42 million pounds of waste from landfills, selling some items for reuse or recycling and donating others to over 2,500 non-profit and community groups in the United States and Canada.

Ecoserv’s success captured the attention of the program’s judges, who commended the program for its innovative approach to waste reduction and its ability to upscale its program. The Environment + Energy Leader Awards program recognizes excellence in products and projects that deliver significant energy and environmental benefits.

“Our mission is to help businesses and communities prosper by finding sustainable solutions that scale globally while serving local communities,” said Dale Ewing, CEO of Installnet. “We are honored to receive this recognition in partnership with our customers and service providers. Getting zero done is an audacious but achievable goal.”

Sarah Roberts, Co-President of E+E Leader, emphasized the rigorous selection process, stating, "This year’s entrants had to surpass an exceptionally high bar to qualify for an award, thanks to a seasoned and discerning judging panel as well as stringent judging criteria."

Artist and designer Nick Cave partnered with Knoll Textiles to create a collection of textiles. The collection was launched when his career retrospective was moving from the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago to the Guggenheim in New York. The collection consists of three draperies, three wall coverings, and four upholstery fabrics. The most expensive fabric is nearly $1,000 per yard. Cave wanted to make these textiles accessible to everyone, not just to professional designers or upholsterers. He aimed to provide a certain kind of energy to the collection and to make it look exciting.

Japanese-crafted Ultrafabrics is a partner to global architecture and design brands including MillerKnoll, Steelcase, Kimball, Andreu World and Woodard, offering its 2023 sustainability report as a tool for specifiers to understand where its products stand in the sustainability landscape. By 2025, the company will ensure that at least 50% of all Ultrafabrics products sold to various markets are made from rapidly renewable and/or recycled materials - five years ahead of its original goal. Ultrafabrics has commited to reducing its footprint and aligning with the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5°C by 2030. The brand has introduced sustainable and recycled yarns, TENCEL branded man-made cellulosic fibers, and bio-based resources to achieve its sustainability goal. 70% of the Ultrafabrics portfolio will include recycled and responsibly-sourced resources. One yard of Ultrafabrics fabric contains eight plastic recycled bottles.

“By opening our doors to this independent assessment and creating these goals, it's another tool to empower designers to create with confidence, and that is what this is about. We can make this product, but it’s the designers that are the true pioneers who are building the future. We want them to know, we’ve left no stone unturned in this process to be transparent.  In a landscape of increasingly complex certifications, you can rely on Ultrafabrics to achieve sustainability without sacrificing quality or performance,” said Nicole Meier, Director of Branding at Ultrafabrics.

The automation of work through AI and LLMs is not a new phenomenon, and while it may cause frictional pain and displacement in the short term, historically it has led to more jobs and prosperity. The Jevons Paradox explains how automation creates new jobs and prosperity by making things cheaper and more efficient, leading to new products and services. While LLMs and ChatGPT are happening much faster than previous waves of automation, the process of integrating them into complex workflows and developing new products and services will take time. Additionally, the error rate of LLMs means that they are useful as infinite interns that can repeat patterns, but still require human oversight. The possibility of AGI, a system without an error rate that can do anything people can do, remains a topic of debate among computer scientists, but for now, we have only another wave of automation and no reason to believe it will be more or less painful than previous ones.

As hybrid work becomes more common, companies are trying to find the right size for their offices and leases. CBRE’s Spring 2023 U.S. Office Occupier Sentiment Survey provides insights into how to make offices more efficient for companies and effective for employees. The survey shows that policies on returning to the office vary between industries and company sizes. Technology companies tend to be more flexible. Outdoor space is a highly desirable office amenity. Companies are looking at flexible solutions, like shared meeting space and flex space, to achieve more agility. There is a move away from individual seat assignment towards a greater ratio of seat sharing. Hybrid collaboration between virtual and physical worlds has also demanded the implementation of technology for videoconferencing and space reservation.

To create engaging and meaningful work conditions, designers and clients must change their terms of engagement on workplace design projects. This includes acknowledging that there are more choices available than just the office, home, coffee shop, and coworking space, designing for personal and social dimensions of work, finding a higher purpose for workplace design projects, and keeping an eye on the ways corporate structures are evolving. Workers should not be treated as research objects, but rather have the opportunity to co-create the working conditions of the next century with humility and respect.

The pandemic accelerated changes in space design for legal workplaces, with firms restructuring leases and reducing square footage. The focus now needs to extend beyond saving overhead to include the impact and effectiveness of the workplace. Well-designed workplaces contribute to personal well-being, career advancement, and job satisfaction. Firms need to intentionally plan the desired outcomes for collaboration, productivity, and culture. The office needs to support interactions that do not work well remotely and incorporate residential comfort and hospitality-design elements. People want a work environment in which they feel engaged and invigorated connecting with their colleagues.

The Tami collection from emuamericas redefines outdoor elegance. With its clean lines and modern, luxurious finishes, the collection elevates hospitality environments, as well as providing a relaxed yet sophisticated seating space in corporate interiors.

Tami’s interchangeable pieces make it effortless to create new seating configurations, allowing for the flexibility that spaces require today. The collection features single, double, and triple lounge seating options, corner lounge pieces, and multiple table options which allows for flexibility in design.

Featuring a comfortable, residential aesthetic, but its durable construction ensures it can withstand even the harshest elements. Made of an aluminum alloy and stainless-steel frame with bamboo slates, the collection is both earth-friendly, durable, and easy to clean.

The Hoom Collection by Encore, designed by Gower + Woolf, offers a consistent look across guest, lounge, and stool variations while incorporating softer, inviting seating options. The collection features a perfectly proportioned frame, plush cushions, and a variety of base options including wood and metal legs. The stools come in bar and counter heights with a built-in footrest and different stylized footrests for each base. The collection is on display at Encore's permanent showroom in Chicago and corporate offices in California.

Magnuson Group has launched KASTA, a waste and recycling receptacle collection designed in collaboration with Gensler. Available in four sizes and multiple finishes, the freestanding modular receptacles can be used independently or ganged together. The receptacles feature chamfered corners and are available in six body colors and nine top colors, with label graphics identifying each receptacle's designated function. Made of cold rolled, powder-coated steel with 86% recycled content, KASTA is 98% recyclable at its end of life and includes an internal rigid plastic liner, bag ring, and adjustable glides.

Design Pool's Swallowtail Farm Collection features 14 patterns inspired by six medicinal plants, integrating nature into healthcare interior design. The collection is printed on EnviroLeather PRINTS, a sustainable, high-performance, less toxic fabric, and is available in harmonizing colorways. Founder Kristen Dettoni believes the collection invites calm, healing, and a connection with the natural world.

The Lavitta line by Finnish designers Timo Mikkonen and Antti Rouhunkoski pays homage to Scandinavian wooden furniture while incorporating new forms using veneered and molded plywood. The chairs and lounge chairs feature legs flowing into the seat and backrest, while the bar stools have a parabolic scarf joint. The line also includes tables and benches.

Family, a new collection of "art furniture" by David Luraschi and Nara Lee, is a playful and exuberant set of six pieces that function like life-size building blocks. The pieces are modular and upholstered in colorful Kvadrat textiles, allowing for limitless compositions and a reflection of the user's imagination.

The Keystone chair by design studio OS & OOS is an unusual, Memphis-esque piece of furniture that uses loose autonomous objects to create balance, with hints of Roman bridge architecture. The chair has no physical connections and is held together only by its weight. Though the design studio is now defunct, the chair is in production by Danish brand Please Wait to be Seated.

Zumtobel has collaborated with Typico to create "TRAMAO," a sound-absorbing pendant luminaire that combines excellent light quality, good sound absorption, and modern design. The luminaire is available in two sizes, 19 different colors, and two looks, with various color temperatures and light directions. The non-woven cover with its felt-like look not only produces a fascinating material quality in the room but also helps dampen sound. The body of the luminaire is available either with an opal appearance or a coffered design, with the latter having a demonstrably better acoustic efficiency in the higher frequencies. The luminaire is made up of a high proportion of recyclable materials, and identical materials are used together as far as possible to make it easier to recycle and re-use them at the end of their serviceable life.

The Alpha QuickFind is a standalone organizational object consisting of five drawers and a sixth pull-out compartment that serves as an index of contents. The drawers are organized alphabetically with user-configurable dividers and letter stickers included. The uneven distribution of letters across drawers is a bit strange, but the thinking is that alphabetizing objects will make them easier to find. The Alpha QuickFind costs $500.

Intension Design repurposed a tripod and a board to create the Tripod Standing Desk, an example of a successful product in a growing market category.

Chat apps provide an additional opportunity for social interaction in coworking spaces. They help workers organize their day according to their personal preferences and friends' schedules, building meaningful relationships along the way. Coworking software can save time for community managers and operators by answering common questions and allowing the community to network independently. While developing in-house software is challenging, the right software partner can keep systems up-to-date automatically. The future of chat apps in coworking spaces is promising, with advancements in generative AI and conversational interfaces making software more efficient and user-friendly.

Ryan Reynolds' production company, Maximum Effort, has a cozy-chic office designed by Michelle Toney to be down-to-earth and flexible. The open floor plan includes movable desks, private offices, and cozy-chic spots for VIP visitors. The L.A. office also features a bar inspired by Reynolds' Aviation Gin label and is meant to be kid and pet-friendly.

Commercial real estate services firm CBRE reports that the average office lease square footage is decreasing, leading to a shift in focus from quantity to quality. And And And Studio redesigned an entertainment law firm's office in California to combine the need for more space with the preference for home comforts, resulting in a 1970s-inspired interior with warm and soft materials. The 22,000-square-foot office was reconfigured to include more offices and communal areas, with a detail-centric approach that may become more common as offices try to appeal to employees in a post-pandemic world.

Dyer Brown designed a modern, industrial workplace for law firm Murtha Cullina in Boston, preserving the existing brand while adding playful touches. The 13,000-square-foot space includes a steel truss in the boardroom, and features vertical steel columns and neutral hues with pops of color. The design team visited Murtha Cullina's Hartford office to learn about the firm's culture and workflow, and crafted a program for roughly 30 employees, including 26 offices, six workstations, conference rooms, huddle space, and a "Zoom room," with a mothers' room, wellness room, and pantry. The kitchen amenity is a centerpiece with a retractable glass wall, natural wood finishes, and contrasting millwork.

NeoCon 2024
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Swiftspace is the leader in flexible, mobile, modular furniture, and we are expanding our network of manufacturer's representatives. The market is demanding flexibility!

With 11 lines of product that can outfit virtually every application in the office: from simple to sophisticated workstations - including private offices with doors, Swiftspace cannot be equalled when providing flexible solutions to the ever-changing needs of the workplace.