Alegre Design: “Office furniture design provides extended experiences”
Valencia, October 18th- Alegre Design’s latest designs for workspaces will be launched at Orgatec, from October 25th to 29th in Cologne (Germany), by the international brands that the design studio works with. Designers Marcelo Alegre, Andrés Baldoví y Jorge Paez share their insights on current and future office furniture.
¿What qualities must office furniture have nowadays?
M. A. In the last few years, habits and office spaces have transformed and professional environments have evolved along that same path. So, besides focusing on comfort and ergonomics, office furniture must apply now design and technologies in order to provide extended experiences.
From the very beginning, Alegre Design has specialized in creating physical products that have become market benchmarks, generating value through the design of durable, reliable and elegant solutions, so that the user can perceive and enjoy the product’s characteristics.
In this new context, in which the physical and the digital worlds converge, a new category of office furniture has emerged, one that provides extended experiences, which increase the relationship of the user with the physical object, both before and after its use. This way, it anticipates the users’ needs and improves their future interactions with the object.
¿How does this translate into real products?
M. A. There are new solutions that can adapt to the occupation ratio of spaces and allow workspaces to be reconfigured depending on every-day’s needs. With the extended use of technologies, common shared spaces can be managed more efficiently and flexibly by creating movements inside the office and favoring a more creative work. An example of this is the 430 Galileo collection that combines furniture design with the intelligence storage systems that Spanish manufacturer EUN is known for. In a not very distant future, this technology will also be applied to remote working, thus, fusing it with office work.
¿Which of your new Orgatec products include technical innovations?
A. B.: A good example of our work in user experience is Aria, designed for manufacturer Enova. It is based on a ‘Sit and play’ concept and needs no adjustments. The user just has to sit on it and enjoy. The raw materials and the incorporated mechanisms adapt to everyone’s ergonomics. The collaboration between Alegre Design and Enova has shaken up office seating. Calling on our extensive experience in technology and furniture design, the mechanism is built-in, leaving only the essence of the chair in view, its shape. It has no superfluous parts of pre-existing solutions. A product that stands out for its lightness and its smart and intuitive concept.
J. P. Movably Pro chair is a disruption for the office chair industry. It is based on advanced ergonomics studies with the aim to improve body posture in current offices. It connects the users to their ergonomic needs, and takes care of their health, on a daily basis. The chair’s morphology, function and design creates a new typology of office chairs.
The entire design is supported by a horizontal cylinder-like structure. The backrest and the seat begin from this nucleus and the base is connected, giving it greater stability. The seat is divided into two halves that can be folded down independently or kept in the conventional position. This core houses the gas piston that controls the height adjustable feature of the chair, and the sensor that determines the angle of the seat.
