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Everyone knows that work and how we do it has changed dramatically since last spring. The giant, global “work-from-home experiment” has become the “maybe it’s time work evolved permanently” movement.
This shift in thinking has meant that nothing, from our desks to our chairs to our living spaces, has escaped being evaluated, updated and adapted to better suit our new day-to-day lives.
That’s why we’re excited to introduce Mav™, a single lounge series, and Astir™, a collaborative work collection of seating and tables. These two new furniture lines were inspired by pre-pandemic trends, but are fit for current workplace dynamics like social distancing. To hear more about each, we sat down for a Q&A with product designers Rick Joutras and Tim Buchenberger from QDesign.
HON: What design considerations went into Mav™?
Rick Joutras: We started off by...taking a look at what “zones” meant in the workplace—and then, identifying the postures, products and aesthetics needed in those zones. One product we saw was missing was a singular lounge chair, something that had a lot of reach in its aesthetic quality and form factor, and worked in a lot of places.
Tim Buchenberger: We were looking at a singular lounge piece, and we felt there were a couple of important qualities this piece needed. It had to be minimal, and also very contemporary in its look and design. It needed to work as a complementary piece. We wanted Mav™ to be adaptable in a variety of different design landscapes.
HON: How can Mav™ help those transitioning to full-time remote work?
RJ: Mav™ is a chameleon. It works not only as a complement to pieces like West Hill™ and Astir™, but is light enough to go into a home office as a work chair or secondary chair. It’s fully upholstered and supportive so it fits at home, and it works in the office as a seat for collaboration or a breakout chair.
TB: One thing I’ve noticed working from home is that you do want to start to outfit the home environment in a different way. Mav™ can do that, and it fits in with the home aesthetic and can act as a work chair even though it doesn’t necessarily look like a work chair.
HON: What were some of the inspirations behind Astir™?
RJ: We wanted to think about how you work at a surface, and then, what is the relationship between the surface and seat? We understood that a lot of lounge and soft seating was probably thought of first, so we turned that around. We built seating around the table.
TB: When it came to seating, a lot of the design decisions were developed around “what is optimal work posture?” Astir™ seating is...meant to encourage a comfortable upright posture. And finally, there’s the modular aspect of Astir™ and being able to group pieces together.
HON: What problems did you want Astir™ to address?
RJ: Are you working at a comfortable height at your computer? Are you not crouching down? Those are questions we wanted to answer with Astir™. The challenge was: how can you create something visually dynamic, interesting, current to the needs and trends of customers, and that resonates with planners and interior designers? It was a true partnership between the design team and HON, understanding how one detail affects the entire process. We really looked at everything, and we think we came up with something of great value to the customer.
It’s important to note that Astir™ offers more than beautiful design and optimal seat height. With a wide variety of configurations, divider screens and the capacity for group or independent work, it answers many of today’s workplace asks: multiple zones for productivity, a safe amount of distance between colleagues and quiet privacy.
Ergonomic and thoughtfully designed furniture, like that in the Mav™ and Astir™ collections, has the ability to transform how teams work, especially now, when so much is changing every day. HON and QDesign have worked hard to deliver solutions that work at home or in the office, supporting good posture and creating more functional spaces. To learn more about bringing Mav™ and Astir™ to your space, please visit hon.com.
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