4 trends that you should know in furniture
4 trends that you should know in furniture
From standing desks to silent spaces, we give you the lowdown on the latest furniture innovations
Office space has never been more in demand in Southeast Asia nowadays. In the Philippines alone, take-up for premium and grade A office spaces has soared to a record 459,000 square metres in 2015, according to KMC Mag Group.
Consequently, the furniture industry is in a ferment, with organisations scouting for the best and most ergonomic furniture from abroad to go with all that space.
Here are four of the trends rocking the furniture industry lately:
Rope furniture
Cords, cables and ropes took center stage at the latest NYCxDesign festival, per The Wall Street Journal. One of the exhibitors this year was Philippine furniture-maker LIJA By That One Piece, whose pendant lights highlighted the archipelago’s rich weaving tradition. Another furniture exhibitor, Harry Allen, co-opted weaving techniques from the country but with modern materials like polypropylene thread.
Sit-stand desks
As more and more organisations become aware of the toll that sitting takes on health and wellbeing, the utility of the sit-stand desk has never been more apparent. Recent research has underscored the benefits of unconventional workstations as opposed to a traditional seating arrangement. In fact, call center workers who use a stand-up desk were found to be more productive, according to research by the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Public Health. This could be a revealing insight in the Philippines, Southeast Asia’s reigning business process outsourcing (BPO) nucleus.
Foldable wooden furniture
Dutch designer Robert van Embricqs had the ingenious idea of creating a slatted slab of wood that folds out into a chair, a table, and even a basket. The secret lies in a complicated network of brass hinges that uphold its wooden beams.
Silent spaces
Urban sprawls begets noise. In such pollution, the need for a silent area to make a call easily arises. Enter the Finnish company called Framery, gaining fame worldwide for assembling ‘silent spaces’ that integrate well indoors.
Read next: This is the most photographed chair in 2015
Source: Property Report