February 4, 2022

Office furniture maker Connection announces move to new £8m head office and factory

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Furniture

In a planned strategy to capitalise upon unprecedented recent growth in sales, Huddersfield-based British office furniture manufacturer Connection is moving to a brand-new purpose-built state of the art building, which will encompass a head office, showroom and manufacturing facility under one roof. Connection have been based at their Dogley Mills home in Huddersfield since their founding in 1997 but after 25 years at the facility required a substantially larger space with the intent to double both manufacturing capacity and turnover. More →

December 7, 2021

What the 21st Century office of the future looked like in the 1960s

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Furniture, Technology, Workplace design

$refraction and the office of the future$ We’re used to hearing people predict what The Office of the Future will look like. It’s been going on for a very long time now and each new generation of commentators on the subject comes up with its own forms of wishful thinking, wild generalisations, distorted conclusions and failures to account for the inherent unknowability of future disruptive technology. The best way of reminding ourselves of these pitfalls is not to look forward, but back. Only then can we see how an image can be refracted and make allowances. More →

October 6, 2021

Phlox – A collection of collaborative chairs and tables inspired by nature

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Furniture

Launched this week at Neocon, the Phlox Collection from Okamura is designed by Rainlight. Taking inspiration from nature the collection of collaborative chairs and tables beckon colleagues to connect with comfort and ease. Phlox was named after the unique Night Phlox flower and inspired by a close-up view into our natural world, welcoming its gentle influence and naturally curved arcs. More →

September 7, 2021

Office furniture specialist Wellworking to create new distribution centre in West of England

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Furniture

Wellworking is opening a new 5,000 sq ft West of England hub in response to growing demand for home and office furniture from companies and individuals in the region. The new centre in Pershore, Worcestershire, will serve customers across the Midlands, the West Country and Wales. Wellworking, which has been rated the best furniture company in the UK for six years in a row by customers on Trustpilot, already has distribution centres in the South of England and in Scotland. More →

June 14, 2021

ISDA’s new City of London office features KI desks, storage & meeting tables

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Furniture, Workplace design

After outgrowing their offices at One Bishop’s Square, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) worked with interior design studio Shaw Studios, and Furniture dealer, Day2 Interiors to relocate to 25 Copthall Avenue/London Wall. More →

June 8, 2021

Bisley presents Quarters: A place to call your own

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Furniture, Workplace design

Bisley, working in conjunction with Anglepoise, presents Quarters, a new collection of booth seating with integral secure locker space and lighting, perfectly placed to meet the needs of the post-Covid workplace. More →

May 19, 2021

The Furniture Makers’ Company announces Design Guild Mark 2021 holders

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Flooring, Furniture, Workplace design

Innovation of materials and creativity remain at the forefront of British design as 27 outstanding submissions from three categories are to be awarded the coveted Design Guild Mark in 2021. The Design Guild Mark is awarded by The Furniture Makers’ Company, the City of London livery company and charity for the furnishing industry, to drive excellence and raise the profile of British design and innovation. It recognises the highest standards in the design of furnishings in volume production across three categories – Furniture, 2D Design and, new for the 2020/2021 intake, Lighting Design. The award is open to designers working in Britain or British designers working abroad. More →

March 24, 2021

Growth in the home office furniture market expected to increase significantly in 2021

by Jayne Smith • Furniture, Home, News

The Covid-19 pandemic had a serious impact on the home office furniture market in 2020, according to a new report, by AMA Research. Despite a move to homeworking, demand for home office furniture is expected to have declined by 8 percent in 2020; however this can be contrasted with the 17 percent fall in the total office furniture market. More →

March 23, 2021

Sustainable office design will not be possible until we are clear about a few things

by Joanna Knight • Comment, Environment, Furniture, Workplace design

Many organisations make bold claims about their zero carbon ambitions. Even if they don’t, most have sustainability statements. Yet the environmental impact of office furniture and sophisticated approaches to sustainable office design seem to be way down the ‘pecking order’. During the last year, we have read considerable commentary about the office – starting with its death but moving onto predictions of the ‘new dawn’ with more versatile and healthier workspaces. More →

March 22, 2021

Stanley Green, protein wisdom and the perils of sitting down ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Furniture, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Each day for 25 years, between 1968 and 1993, a man called Stanley Green would rise early, enjoy a spartan breakfast of porridge and an egg, pack up a lunch of apples and vegetables, strap them along with a placard and some pamphlets to a bike and cycle the 12 miles to Oxford Street from his home in Northolt. There he would share his ideas for improving the physical and psychological wellbeing of the country, based primarily on the idea that the consumption of too much protein led to the moral turpitude he had first encountered in the Navy during the War and which had then infected the whole country. More →

January 4, 2021

Supporting change during the pandemic with Simplicity Smart Lockers

by Kimberley Hutchinson • Company news, Furniture

The way in which we work has changed in a way no one would have ever predicted as a result of last year’s pandemic. Consequently, many businesses have chosen to adopt to an agile working practise. This coupled with the rapid evolution of the hybrid workplace has allowed more employees than ever the flexibility to work from home, many people however still crave that interaction with colleagues, and the ‘corridor conversations’ that cannot be replicated via Zoom and can only happen with workplace collaboration. More →

December 17, 2020

When the chairs took over the world and what it all meant

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Furniture, HR, Workplace design

Of all the things we buy, with the exception of our clothes, furniture is the most intimate, the one item we spend most time in contact with. According to JG Ballard who dedicated himself to understanding our relationship with the world around us, ‘Furniture constitutes an external constellation of our skin areas and body postures’. Whether he would have recognised it as such, Ballard was a pioneer of the principle we now refer to as psychogeography, defined by one of its founders, Guy Debord, as ‘the study of the precise effects of setting, consciously managed or not, acting directly on the mood and behaviour of the individual’. More →