Clerkenwell Design Week Recap | Functional Furniture
We are back visiting design festivals and we are so happy about it! As everything slowly but surely returns to something like normal we are staying on the pulse with trends and launches and scouring the latest sources to share with you.
After a year of a pandemic, it's no surprise that a lot of design trends are taking hygiene and privacy into consideration, especially in the workspaces as there is a steep increase in return to offices. Let's take a look at some of the stand-out trends featuring at Clerkenwell this year.
Dividing Panels
We have been hot on screens since lockdown 1, designing our own and supplying them to lots of customers with their desires to be safe and ready for reopening. The trend has not ended and many manufacturers have developed very practical options, from table-top dividers to floor-standing dividers. They are a great way to enable people to sit at closer quarters whilst retaining social distancing, and so help to get the most out of a space.
Privacy Booths
From making private phone calls to having a spot of me time, privacy booths are all the rage in office spaces. They are designed to envelop users in a sound-absorbing cocoon with clever use of materials that soak up all the noise.
Adjustable Furniture
With a return to office spaces, intermingled with hybrid working and work from home, the most sensible option seems to be the uprising of adjustable furniture. From flip-top tables to height-adjustable desks - there are so many incredible design ideas that make life easy and functional. Stackable chairs also ensure that modular arrangements can be made depending on the workforce, and in terms of conference seating, some manufacturers have created easy inbuilt ways to clip chairs together without the need for extra plastic clips.
Hygienic Materials and Technologies
Cleaning is made easier with materials designed for the purpose. Some manufacturers have designed specific fabrics that resist contamination and have specific easy methods of cleaning. An innovative addition is also the installation of virus-killing lights which have been placed in some booths to stop the spread of germs.
Living Walls
Visually, greenery growing up the walls is very pleasing, but it's becoming more obvious how much it can also do for our health and wellbeing. Having plants indoors helps to clean the air and promote a positive mental attitude - this is not going unnoticed in the design world.
Sustainable Materials
Of course, alongside looking green, we are all striving to be more green. Many manufacturers are developing materials that use recycled products from plastic bottles to disused furniture and we are scouting it out.
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