How does a company come off of a previous year of major product accolades at NeoCon?
With its Zones furniture collection, Teknion captured the show’s top honor – Best of Competition – along with five other Best of NeoCon 2016 awards. Zones is a collection of furniture bringing together concepts of community, fluidity and wellbeing. Comprehensive in nature, it’s composed of seating, tables, screens, easels, semi-private enclosures, lighting and accessory pieces.
We spoke with Steve Delfino, Teknion’s VP of Corporate Marketing & Product Management, to see what the company has planned for this year at NeoCon following a spectacular year in 2016.
Each year many companies present their points of view, ideas and research by publishing them. Such publications tend to guide the company’s focus in that time period.
Teknion does so in the form of a book – a series of ideas meant to stimulate a loose industry dialogue about what’s happening in workplace design.
This year Teknion’s new book, “Design Does Matter,” will feature a collection of nine authors who believe that the true measure of a space is how it makes us feel.
“It’s not just floor plans and plugging in enough workstations,” said Mr. Delfino. “It’s about walking into a space and knowing immediately how you feel in it, whether that’s calm or energized or comfy and relaxed.”
One author writes about the longevity of an office through its phone booths and mailboxes, while another discusses how the design of an airport terminal can shape the workplace.
PearsonLloyd, Zones’ co-designers, discuss the idea that the primary role of furniture is to connect people. And Suzanne Tick, leading up Teknion’s newly rebranded textiles company Luum, delves into the role of finishes, and how perfectly layering the materials and finishes in a space can create a specific feeling in that space.
This sense of providing people spaces with furnishings that engender clear, true feelings is informing everything happening at Teknion.
“We’re continuing along with our line of thinking with Zones,” said Mr. Delfino. “Zones is not a system – it’s a true collection of furniture. You can apply it to an existing office or create something new. We’re introducing a lot of planning options and more variety. And we’re focusing on changing postures. There are several postures throughout the collection, and we’ve extended that movement even more with a lot of new seating.”
Zones Modular Seating will debut, along with a new form of systems called Expansion Neighborhoods [at press time, images were not yet available]. Expansion Neighborhoods will also focus on offering workers extended movement through a variety of postures.
“Expansion Neighborhoods is based on the concept of planning for a workplace as diverse and dynamic as a modern city,” reads the product description. “With a unique beam framework and robust accessories program, Expansion Neighborhoods creates workstations, collaborative spaces and mixed-use areas in which people can feel comfortable and empowered as they pursue individual and collective goals. Expansion Neighborhoods offers a highly active setting that allows people to move, to gather and to disperse when privacy and focus is desired.”
Studio TK, a brand now in its second year, will introduce five new products, all zeroing in on its core brand identity in social spaces.
The Dual Lounge, designed by Toan Nguyen for Studio TK, has an organic form and relaxed lean-back posture expressing comfort and flexibility. With Dual, Studio TK hopes to capture the flexibility and interconnectedness of typologies in the workplace, where people are shifting from moments of focus to social collaboration to respite, and more.
The name Dual comes from the “duality” of light and dark; the lounge’s base achieves transparency with a partially opaque knit, while the top portion features a contrasting textile upholstery.
Luum will come off its inaugural year in 2016 by introducing Focus In, a collection of textiles meant to address the importance of adaptable products. Advancements in technology are enabling people to be more mobile and more flexible, and their work environments, down to the textiles, must be able to support multiple functions.
“Multi-purpose environments that offer interchangeable work, meeting and social areas are now the norm. The aesthetic and performance qualities of products specified within these fluid spaces require an agility that supports a range of activities.” And as for anticipation and excitement Teknion has enjoyed over the past year?
“I’m really excited about people seeing us as furniture designers again,” said Mr. Delfino. “It’s not just systems and case goods. It’s really about putting together places that make people feel good.”