25 Quotes on Future Workspace Design from Haworth Collection Designers
A look at what makes great design and where future workspace design will take us.
“[The design] is supposed to give a good image of the company when you arrive and be both ‘simple and warm'”
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“Products must not only be beautiful to look at, but also beautiful to touch, and to use every day”
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“To produce everyday objects for everyone’s use, make things lighter, not heavier, softer not harder, inclusive rather than exclusive, generate energy, light, and space.”
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“We try to take as much design out of the product so that everything that is there serves some sort of underlying purpose”
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“In the past, we always have to follow trends. Now, I think that the real trend is FREEDOM. Freedom for the end consumer to mix different products designed by different designers. So really, I think I can say that the future of design is freedom.”
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“I want to make work come alive by participation. There is a sense of love in a product – a kind of energy… (I think I’m responsible for creating an energy). I try with my designs to make a connection to real life and to contribute to the lives of people. ‘Real’ products should not be done by half measures.”
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“I thought that when I am designing something like an object, I noticed that I am designing an object but trying to design the movement that is related to that object. I noticed that some objects sort of let people move and then people react to objects as well”
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“I want to bring an idea down to its essence without sacrificing what makes it desirable.”
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“The form really needs to follow the story more than a particular style.”
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“In the ’80s and ’90s, the most important thing was to try and create a beautiful shape. Now, to do good furniture design, you have to understand the needs of the end-consumer. But there is always a way to do something new: you can work with different materials, as well as innovative technologies and systems.”
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“We tend to a certain minimum. In French, you say ‘épuré’ (unadorned), which means something which is really light, not too overlayered. We look for a good synthesis in a way, so most of our pieces are quite dense. They try not to use too many shapes or materials, and to be quite radical. Part of the solution is really about taking out everything which wouldn’t be necessary.”
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“I think we will continue to see an increase in alternative spaces and environments, along with more immersive technology. Technology which is connected to more analog methods of communicating will become even more important as the tools and methods of creating become more varied and personal. There is becoming less and less of a reason for the majority of workers to go to a traditional workplace, so places that offer variety and flexibility will become more important to not only workers and employers but also to cities and neighborhoods.”
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“When we first joined Google, we thought we were entering a monolithic corporation. In reality, we had joined a collection of distinct startups, each with its own unique culture and approach. It turned out the only way to effectively build industrial design culture was to build it team by team, project by project.”
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“I can find inspiration for everything anywhere. For me, the most important thing is to always work on innovating and always try to see what’s next.”
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“We already include USB charging ports with all of our new lights so that they can also charge your phone. We’re imagining the day when we can get rid of wires and the lights can be charged via induction. It will allow us to create products that go indoors and out using a rechargeable lighting system. We’ve also started working with (office furniture company) Haworth, who is very interested in how light can be used as a signaling device. In these open offices, how can people signal that they’re available to meet, or that they’re busy and don’t want to be disturbed? Colored light can have more purpose than just a gimmick. We’re also waiting for software standards to develop so that our lights can be upgraded with new features via an app. This way, your light won’t ever become obsolete.”
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“A sophisticated mind will know how to design things that are complex but not complicated. An ignorant mind will design things that are complicated but without any complexity.”
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“People have no problem buying expensive trainers, but they still don’t want to buy expensive furniture. We wanted to use the most efficient way to mass-produce something, and at the same time to create the most beautiful chair, but beautiful in terms of being extremely well-designed. Not too loud, not too shy. Just exactly balanced. A chair that could work in a lot of different contexts.”
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“In America, people were already starting to work everywhere with their laptops and coffee. But in Britain, it was alien to be designing this lobby for people to work in even if they weren’t staying at the hotel. To get the best people you have to have an environment with less formality.”
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“Trusting in the future again, and getting back into experimentation, innovation, and futurism. If you look at the last 25 years – and not just in the design industry – there were years of nostalgia. People didn’t trust the future because it was dark and scary. No one knew what was going to happen. But now, step by step, heads are turning the other way and we are starting to trust the future. We are experimenting and innovating and using new languages. It’s the result of a younger generation that isn’t looking to history books; they want to explore virgin territories.”
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“All analog places – a showroom, hotel, shopping mall, corner store – have to rush because they’re competing with the digital world. In the future, the question will more often be: do I order something on my iPad or do I spend time going to the shop? It will become more and more complicated to make people move. You have to deliver and offer a lot to make people come.”
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“The general idea is that, just like with your iPhone, people can build apps around this sofa which will allow them to adapt it for a longer life. The success of this will be if, in 30 or 40 years people have changed its functionality, it’s still survived rather than just being discarded.”
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“People like to use different styles — maybe a simple table and more decorative chairs. In the past, people wanted to have exactly the same house like their friends’, now they want to have exactly the opposite, they want to live in a home and work in an office that reflects their own identity.”
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“…Mass-production companies are aspiring to be luxurious, and they have begun to copy the codes of luxury, in order to be part of the club. But I’ve also noticed a strange reversal happening, where luxury has, in turn, started to copy the codes of mass production.”
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“For me, architecture and design are the ultimate expressions of our humanity. They represent how we see the world and how we navigate the world. “
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“We are becoming more able to work where we ‘want’ to be and less tethered to where we ‘should’ be. Just as technology is going where people want to be, so too is work.”
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