
Steelcase unveiled its Mackinac solution at NeoCon 2018, with a goal to improve workspace planning by eliminating – or at least alleviating – “stressors of the modern office.”
Mackinac’s solutions are intended to better support focus work, collaboration and respite – and achieving all of these things within a compact footprint.
One of the most important elements of the design of Mackinac is its surface material options, which are carefully chosen for their visual and tactile appeal. We spoke with Julie Yonehara, global surface materials designer for Steelcase, about the surface material trends steering the industry today.

But first, a brief refresher on the Mackinac product.
Steelcase outlines what it believes the ingredients of a “fast-paced environment” are:
>Constant context switching – moving from one topic to another, from a broad to a narrow view
>The need to manage and process large amounts of information and filter for relevance
>Shifting from visible to protected environments – with a high need for access to privacy
>Spanning topics and time zones and juggling highly-fragmented schedules
>Highly-mobile work behaviors
>High levels of stress while meeting high performance expectations




As a result of these conditions, Steelcase researchers found that 47% of workers are looking for more comfortable, inviting and inspiring workspaces. Workers are requesting spaces that “encourage movement, posture changes and wellbeing – especially in private offices and executive spaces.”
“The researchers quickly realized that everyone is experiencing greater intensity in their jobs, though perhaps to different degrees or in different aspects of their work,” notes Steelcase.com “As competition speeds up, work is becoming less predictable and the demands for more creative solutions have increased. We’re all dealing with huge amounts of information every day. We’re all spending more time connecting, collaborating and learning with others, but we also desperately need some time alone. Our schedules are as fragmented as a kaleidoscope and we’re more mobile than ever but, regardless, we all need to quickly reset our minds to each new moment.”
“‘We wanted to help people balance intense work with periods of rejuvenation and balance our needs for privacy with needs to connect with others,’” said Bill Bennie, Steelcase industrial design manager, at Steelcase.com.
“Mackinac contains a series of ‘microzones’ – making it simpler for people to shift from individual work to group work and providing the privacy people need to get away for a bit and rejuvenate. The height-adjustable cantilever worksurfaces and shelving towers can combine in a variety of ways to support these different types of work either in a closed office or the open plan.”



Mackinac’s scope is wide, addressing focus work, collaboration among 2-3 colleagues, privacy for rejuvenation, and easy accessibility for learning and socializing – in both a private office or an open floor plan.

“We designed Mackinac as a resident neighborhood that addresses all the modes of work that people are engaged in today and to create smooth connections among all these very different activities and states of mind,” explains John Allen of the Steelcase design team, at Steelcase.com. “As a result, it reduces the time lost going back and forth from one thing to the next, which can ease that frenetic pace a lot of people feel at work.”

Steelcase’s surface materials team focused its material strategy for Mackinac on creating a sense of comfort, peace, coziness.
“We know that creature comforts help build a sense of wellbeing,” said Ms. Yonehara, at Steelcase.com. “So, especially when people are working longer hours and getting pulled in so many different directions, having softer, more textural materials close to your body is really important to your sense of wellbeing.”

In our discussion with Ms. Yonehara, she noted that diversity and choice in materials are also central to Mackinac’s identity.
“People are required to work and live together all in one space for many hours of the day, and so we wanted to show that diversity in styles through a wide range of material options.”
The materials palette includes a wide range of veneers, laminates, glass, textiles, Corian, paints and more – giving Mackinac a chameleon-like ability to change drastically depending on customer need. Offerings for the private office include high-end, luxury finishes, while more public, open plan options reflect a trendier, start-up culture vibe.
“We’re tracking materiality and color trends very closely, looking at market research regularly to understand what’s selling and what’s missing, and to provide for any gaps we find,” said Ms. Yonehara. “Industrial finishes – like blackened steel and raw wood – are on trend, as are more feminine, millennial finishes.”
“We’re also looking at aesthetic trends we can attribute to people coming together as a result of social media. This digital space transcends certain styles and trends, and the way we digest media and images, and our heightened screen-time, has contributed to a lack of tactility. Because of this, we’re seeing the surfaces around us become more textured; it’s our response to technology.”
The driving forces behind Mackinac’s surface materiality – diversity and choice, comfort and wellbeing, and a return to tactility in response to the digital world – will continue to inform the future of how our workspaces look and feel.
