Choosing the right furniture is a pragmatic yet highly subjective process – the products you specify will need to work hard for you, but also look great. The same applies if you’re buying a couple of task chairs, a couple of hundred room dividers or a couple of thousand stacking chairs. But there are different considerations depending on the space you’re working in. Perhaps the two most distinct scenarios are fitting out an office and furnishing a home.
Specifying furniture for a commercial interior design or architecture project is a unique process for two reasons: scale and functionality. Scale is a factor because the furniture might have to accommodate hundreds of people working simultaneously. The functional brief for an office fitout can include permanent workstations, hot-desking, meeting rooms, informal breakout zones, public reception areas and more, and all of these elements are required to support the primary objectives of the modern workplace – employee health and happiness, and maximum productivity.
While different businesses have different organisational cultures, there is a strong trend towards flexibility in office fitouts, to allow workers to find the best environment for each task they have to complete – for example, a small room where they can sit in a mesh chair at a simple worktable, or an open space with a combination of armchairs, communal tables, stools and benches, or perhaps high tables and barstools, for team collaboration or casual meetings. Recent research also indicates that many other factors, such as ceiling heights, lighting and colours, views and indoor plants, can optimise worker comfort and performance in different tasks.
It might seem like the modern architect or interior designer also needs to be a psychologist! However, product suppliers are doing some of the heavy lifting in this area. Workstations and office desks are now more commonly available in organic shapes, designed with curved edges to improve ergonomic performance, and height-adjustable desks that accommodate sitting or standing workers are now standard-issue in many fitouts. Ergonomic chairs, filing cabinets and shelving systems are also being designed for maximum comfort and to eliminate unnecessary or awkward movement, while transportable lockers provide mobility and security for workers in hot-desking environments. And then there are new products, such as storage with integrated planters, office partitions and screens that double as interior green walls, and soundproof pods that facilitate spontaneous meetings and phonecalls while minimising disruption of other workers.
The biggest change in Australian residential architecture over the past twenty years has been the emergence of the open-plan living/dining/kitchen space. Where once these functions were consigned to separate rooms, they are now almost universally combined into a single volume, and this applies as much to apartments as it does to new freestanding homes and renovated older houses.
This has made for a much more socially connected home environment, but it has also presented a new set of challenges for interior design. Previously, you didn’t have to worry too much about how your dining chairs or dining table might complement your modular sofa, or whether the shelving in the kitchen might clash with the bookcase in your lounge room! Now they’re in the same room, and they need to work together as an ensemble.
In this open-plan context, furniture also takes on an important role in delineating functional zones, helping people to read and navigate the interior. The dining zone is demarcated by the placement of the dining suite, perhaps with a pendant light above, distinct floor covering below and a sideboard along the adjacent wall. Similarly, the lounge area might be defined by the grouping of a couch, coffee table or ottoman, and media unit. The concept of zoning may sound simple, but when planned and executed well, it brings visual intrigue and character to a room that might otherwise feel featureless and indistinct.
Another important aspect of the contemporary open-plan living space is its connection to the outside. The reorientation of the residential interior to courtyards, timber decks and gardens has given rise to increasingly sophisticated options for outdoor furniture. Ad hoc arrangements of plastic tables and fold-out chairs have been replaced by the idea of “the outdoor room”, where weatherproof sofas and reclining chairs, courtyard tables and garden chairs, outdoor kitchens, planter boxes and more are brought together with the same level of care given to the indoor living space.
So furnishing a modern Australian home takes a bit of hard work, but at least when it’s all done, you’ll still be able to find your bed in the bedroom. It’s the big soft square next to the wardrobe, or dressing table, or between the bedside tables. Turn left at the walk-in robe, you’ll find it.
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