Tag Archives: Workspace

The Bridge desk adds a roof garden right above your workspace for a touch of greenery in the office

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Merging the outdoors with the indoors, the Bridge is a work-desk accessory that adds greenery to your workplace. Quite literally a breath of fresh air when it comes to furniture design, the accessory sits on top of any open desk design, occupying the ‘no man’s land’ in between opposing workstations, and comes with a channel on top that’s designed to house an entire row of indoor plants.

The Bridge builds on the increasingly popular idea of an open office and a collaborative workspace (as opposed to compartmentalized cabin spaces). It’s entirely made from plywood and can be flat-packed to a location and assembled on spot. It uses wooden joineries instead of metal/glue fixtures, and can be assembled and propped onto any open desk, uplifting your current workspace with a neat touch of greenery. The channels are big enough to hold potted plants and they give you the freedom to add plants of your own choice. Since the plants sit in their own planters (instead of directly in the wooden channel), they can easily be watered too without worrying about wood-rot or exposing the plywood to excess water/moisture. Just be slightly wary against dropping water on the expensive computers/equipment below!

Designer: Rowena Potter

The design comes from Rowena Potter, an artisanal designer and a final-year student at Central Saint Martins, London.

The entire design is made using only 1 sheet of plywood board utilizing the simple CNC machining process.

Indoor Pop-Up Privacy Work Tent: Nothing to See Here

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With an increased number of employees working from home in spaces they may not have anticipated being their new office, what’s a person to do to ensure some privacy so they can focus and get their work done uninterrupted? Personally I lock myself in the bathroom. Alternatively, there’s the $120 Sanwa Home Privacy Tent available from the Japan Trend Shop.

Just like a fun sports car, the Home Privacy Tent includes a sunroof. It also features a side window, measures 35″ x 43″ x 59″, and folds up easily for transport in its included carrying case. It’s perfect for telecommuting, gaming, studying, use as a small photography studio, and more. Still, it’s not exactly what I had in mind when I imagined myself with a home office.

So, is a Home Privacy Tent going to be my new Fortress of Solitude? Given that my wife removed the lock from the bathroom door, I’m afraid I don’t have many other options. Are my cats going to constantly try to lay siege to the tent whenever I’m inside? I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to learn they’ve already built a catapult.

[via Japan Today]

These eco-friendly meeting pods use solar energy to power up charging ports so you bring WFH outdoors!

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In recent months, cafes and outdoor workspaces have limited their public amenities to avoid crowding. No more WiFi, the bathrooms are always locked, and time limits for tables are used to control foot traffic. Even still, with pandemic mandates resurfacing, the first taste of bringing our laptops to our favorite cafe to get our work done is hard to kick. Offering their own solution to the unpredictable circumstances of today’s world, furniture studio Duffy London debuted the Minka Solar Pod, an outdoor companion to their indoor office pod.

The Minka Solar Pod operates primarily as an alternative to meeting places and WFH spots like WeWork and cafes with WiFi. Unlike their indoor counterpart, the Minka Solar Pod and its amenities are entirely powered by photovoltaic panels and lithium-ion batteries. Using solar energy for power allows Minka Solar Pods to be placed anywhere, from busy city plazas like Union Square or public grounds like Hyde Park. Designed to be an outdoor working space, Minka Solar Pods come complete with four USB ports for charging and acoustic panels to quiet outdoor noise while amplifying the conversations taking place inside the pod.

Each Minka Solar Pod also accommodates up to four people, which means work meetings that would typically remain indoors could be taken outdoors for some fresh air and a change of scenery. Minka Solar Pods were also built to be weather-resistant, with high-grade walnut and oak veneers finished with powder-coated mild steel. So come drizzle or shine, there’s always an excuse to bring work outdoors. Describing his own inspiration behind the Minka Solar Pod and its indoor companion, Duffy London founder, and director, Chris Duffy says,

“We wanted to design a piece of communal furniture that can meet the needs of the modern working and municipal environment. Indoor or outdoor, our Minka PODs serve as highly adaptable, non-defined spaces that act like mini-hives for human interactions.”

Designer: Duffy London

Clad with powder-coated mild steel, Minka Solar Pods are built to brace the weather.

Minka Solar Pods were initially designed to provide an outdoor workspace for small business meetings or a change of scenery for those of us still working from home.

Outside of work, Minka Solar Pods can function as social meeting hubs for friends and coworkers alike.

Developed in varying structures, Minka Solar Pods embrace the same open-air, collaborative environment.

Each Minka Solar Pod comes equipped with four USB ports and photovoltaic panels to stay powered and charge your devices.

With acoustic panels, Minka Solar Pods quiet the outside noise while amplifying the conversations taking place inside of the pod.

The pod’s high-grade walnut and oak veneers were derived from sustainably sourced forests under the supervision of the Forest Stewardship Council.

Sleek and functional workspaces to boost productivity + revamp your home office!

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Our homes have now become our new office space, Zoom our new conference hall, and our beds are now our preferred spot for taking a lunch break. This is the new normal, and we’ve pretty much adjusted to it. However, the new normal can become dreary at times, and hence it’s important to boost our motivation and productivity through new and improved ideas. Amping up your home office furniture is one such idea that can really rejuvenate your work spirit, and create an environment that is conducive to efficient and productive work. And, we’ve curated a collection of innovative and interesting workspaces that are the perfect home office solutions! These workspaces are the ideal setups to help you reach your ultimate work potential. No more procrastination or boredom in these refreshing home offices!

Nils Holger Moorman has designed ‘der Vorstand’ – a slim wall cabinet that hides a functional home office! The black slender cabinet opens into a multifunctional work setup that creates a space for productivity while respecting your interior layout. The minimal structure features a back wall on wheels that rolls out with a simple pull and just like a pop-up book you get a work desk that comes with integrated bookshelves and top light. The convenient workstation maximizes your floor space and minimizes distractions. The fold-out ceiling creates a sense of a private cabin with essentials. The back wall is mounted on wheels for effortless movement with a magnetic exterior. Every element has its designated place which is a Moorman design principle – from pens to the books, even electronic devices can be charged with hidden cables which helps maintain a clean visual aesthetic.

The transform box is a space-saving platform that can transform into a lot of things, mainly your own manufacturing office, simply by unfolding it! Not only does it function as a workspace with a desk for you to work on with your laptop, but it even functions as a workbench wherein you can build a variety of things! Amped with nifty storage spaces for your tools and other supplies, you can set up Re-SOHKO TRANSFORM BOX anywhere, and get some hands-on work done. When folded, the box is roughly the size of a standard distribution pallet making it extremely easy to move around. Not to mention you can build the portable workspace all by yourself! The designers have shared the schematics for free, allowing you to easily set up and build the DIY box, and also customize it according to your preferences.





A winner of the “Innovation Center” award, the SecretAir is a magical wooden block that transforms right into a completely detailed workspace whenever you need. The design brief for the SecretAir was simple: A high-end home office solution that’s comfortable and practical during working hours, invisible after work. The office space finds a way of being both discreet as well as feature-rich at the same time. The main flap stays closed to keep your important papers and your laptop/desktop enclosed when you’re not working. However, open the flap up and secure it using its built-in magnets and you have a large, customizable workspace that accommodates all your belongings and needs without eating too much into your room’s floor space. As a winner of the “Innovation Center” award, SecretAir’s designer Wouter Myny will receive a prize of $4000 to help build a prototype of his winning design.

Dubbed the House Naka Secret Base Tent, the contraption could be your reading space, solitary workspace for ultra-productive work regime, or simply a place to take a short nap on a stressful day. Having a well-ventilated airy feel, there are ample curtains and meshes to create a peaceful personal space indoors for those kinds of times when you need one. The self-supporting frame of the tent is designed to keep it sturdy over any surface and the fact that it has no base makes it ideal for keeping on the carpet or a soft fabric base anywhere you desire to. Use-case scenarios with the House Naka Secret Base Tent are endless and it all depends on how you want to make the most of it.

Designed to help maximize space, occupy a small footprint, and more importantly be safe, the Pandemic Work Desk Concept (the name may sound more somber than intended) fits right into a wall, occupying practically no floor real estate. Designed to retrofit into any wall, the Pandemic Work Desk Concept helps turn regular spaces into workspaces. Be it a small room in your home, a coworking space, or just anywhere in a coffee shop… the Pandemic Work Desk Concept is a simple, full-featured working zone that opens up in mere minutes, and folds flat into the wall when you’re done. The clever, foldable work desk comes with a flexible chair and 180° table that gives you space to place your laptop, a couple of desk accessories, and even a cup of coffee/tea by your side.

Pith & Stem describes its DropTop workstation as fully integrated and plug-and-play ready, meaning that it comes kitted out with a pair of 24-inch full-HD monitors and USB/USB-C cables for charging and connecting to Windows and Mac laptops. Beneath these monitors are two storage areas for said laptops or other odds and ends. The workstation itself is made from thick birch plywood that can be finished in either black or white satin, with the front folding down to form a desk measuring 120 x 60 cm (47 x 24 in) that is held in place by custom hinges, which appear to be rather strong.

What appears as a simple computer desk setup turns out to be so much more. For starters, Couto’s workstation setup, “Future of Work,” features a retractable display screen that detaches into a foldable tablet/laptop. The simple OS desktop functions as the workstation base, where files can be created and stored. Then, when Couto needs a tablet or laptop for easy portability, the same files will be made available on the go. In addition to the desktop’s detachable screen, Couto’s design features another tablet that can attach itself to the desktop for an extended display, offering quick file sharing and supplemental portability. Finally, Couto’s “Future of Work” setup comes equipped with VR compatibility, providing a headset that turns into a dashboard where all of the workstation’s appliances are connected.

I can’t begin to say how insightful and innovative Co/Studio’s design is. Small enough to fold up and fit right into your backpack, the Co/Studio gives you more freedom, functionality, and productivity than working in a coffee shop with your laptop. Its nifty foldout design, and the inclusion of a whopping 25,600mAh power bank, means you can turn any table into YOUR table. The pad, a folding ‘yoga mat for your laptop’ provides a great surface to lay your tools out. It opens out onto any surface, giving you a singular place to rest your laptop, phone, wallet, keys, and other belongings. It even folds to turn into an angled stand for your laptop, and if you’re in a particularly crowded space, it works as a partition, letting you set up your own private space for focused productivity. It offers you the ability to ‘set up your workspace’ in a way that’s uniquely personalized, organized, and brings out the best in you.

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Workspaces have been forced to become increasingly flexible environments in order to meet modern styles of work, and for this reason, it’s important for the furniture to be able to adapt as well. This innovative product is neither a wall, shelving unit, or room divider, but rather a multifunctional backdrop for varied and situational use. Chart creates a multitude of functional zones aimed at casual yet practical use and takes into account the user’s privacy and personal space. The outer surfaces can be configured to meet the needs of the workspace as well as allowing the office’s personality to be expressed in the piece of furniture. The upholstered finish conceals the lightweight, paper honeycomb-filled, a framework allowing for the partition to be easily maneuvered around the room to suit the workspace’s ever-changing needs.

Frame CPH, a design team based in Copenhagen, recently debuted LastDesk, a modular desk that you can design yourself to unlock your ideal workspace. The aim was to create a desk that can easily adapt to today’s ever-changing technological and remote working developments. The desk itself is a classic interpretation of Scandinavian design, but it offers a more accessible approach to minimalism through the desk’s modular features. While the frame of LastDesk is as simple a frame as they come, the desktop comes equipped with changeable wooden trays and flat, slate gray slabs that can either provide extra storage for your workspace, a wireless charging station, or a means to rid your workspace of any unnecessary clutter.

This slim wall cabinet opens into a sleek, modern, functional workspace!

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Nils Holger Moorman presents ‘der vorstand’, a slender wall cabinet that transforms into a multifunctional think tank, creating the sense of space whenever users need it. The structure features a back wall on wheels that rolls out with a single pull to reveal a work desk with integrated bookshelves and a top light at the center. The project seeks to provide maximum atmosphere and minimum surface area at the same time.

Unlike any other sleek wall cabinet, ‘der vorstand’ by Moorman can easily unfold into a small, yet convenient workspace. The fold-out ceiling creates a sense of space, affords light, and connects the essentials: the back wall mounted on wheels with its magnetic exterior and the desk at the center. In keeping with the trusted Moorman ordering principle, everything has its designated place: from pens to the books and the binders, while the electronic devices can be charged with hidden cables. In addition, a curtain can be added to the side and the illumination of the ceiling and workspace can be adjusted to the users’ personal preferences.

‘der vorstand’ was initially designed as a submission to a design competition, and since then this winner model has ventured out on its own as an independent room-in-room solution. The first prototype was developed and built by Moorman’s in-house designers following the ideals of lead designer Nils Holger Moorman. Surfaces and materials are reduced to the basics: solid ash wood and light beige linoleum where hands and eyes rest or work in concentration; black surfaces and quiet restraint where nothing should distract the users. Precise details for storing, cabling, and locking the fold-out mechanism convey integrity and guarantee self-assured performance on the executive level.

‘we are in search of furniture creations based on a special idea. Sometimes absurd, sometimes brilliant, sometimes a detail, sometimes a revolution. Typically a minimalist formal language with a high level of experience – but always with a subtle twinkle in the eye’ shares the Moorman team. When the professional slips into the private sphere, then the convertible ‘der vorstand’ piece comes in to maintain order at home. It helps generate a private space according to occupants’ needs and wishes, or otherwise, it closes discreetly and retreats elegantly into the background.

Designer: Nils Holger Moorman

A DIY movable office that doubles up as a storage space for your tools… and comes in a box!

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With COVID-19, came the new norm that was work from home. Although, at this point in time, work from home is our way of life, and we’re doing pretty well with it. I personally love doing up and revamping my home office whenever I can. I’m always looking out for new ideas to do it, but there was one that I had personally never encountered. Ever heard of a DIY home office that comes in a box?! Yup, me neither. But OPEN SOHKO DESIGN and NOSIGNER designed exactly that in the form of the ‘Re-SOHKO TRANSFORM BOX.’ The transform box is a space-saving platform that can transform into a lot of things, mainly your own manufacturing office, simply by unfolding it!

Not only does it function as a workspace with a desk for you to work on with your laptop, but it even functions as a workbench wherein you can build a variety of things! Amped with nifty storage spaces for your tools and other supplies, you can set up Re-SOHKO TRANSFORM BOX anywhere, and get some hands-on work done. When folded, the box is roughly the size of a standard distribution pallet making it extremely easy to move around. Not to mention you can build the portable workspace all by yourself! The designers have shared the schematics for free, allowing you to easily set up and build the DIY box, and also customize it according to your preferences.

The Re-SOHKO TRANSFORM BOX is truly a one-of-a-kind workspace, that you can build and customize all by yourself. It helps you sharpen and test your crafting skills as well. It’s a multifunctional design that not only functions as a movable workspace but also as a great personal storage space for your tools. The benefits of this innovative design are endless!

Designer: OPEN SOHKO DESIGN and NOSIGNER

This prefabricated cabin with customization for remote working is a must have home office to survive 2021!

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Working from home has forced many of us to rethink our workspaces. While some of us are dying to be back in the office, the rest of us are looking forward to a future home office renovation. Either way, the era of COVID-19 has brought forth some creative home office solutions that might outlast any future mandate. Adding their prefabricated home office design to mix, My Home Office is a standalone workspace situated anywhere with a paved surface for remote, isolated working.

Initially, My Home Office was designed and created by Cosmas Bronsgeest to have a workspace stationed in his family’s yard that could remain a place where he could retreat for quiet and concentration amidst all the chaos of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. The all-season prefab office is clad with FSC-certified larch wood and stands fully insulated with an RC value of 5.4. As currently designed, My Home Office features one larger model that comes equipped with everything from a fold-out bed to a sit-and-stand desk and a smaller model that comes complete with a fixed desk and outdoor lamp.

From the outside, the cabin’s natural look warms up the yard, and the fully glazed windows offer a peek of what’s inside. The sharp triangular frame borders floor-to-ceiling windows that merge the surrounding yard with the office’s working space for a workday spent close to nature. Inside, owners can work at the unit’s fixed desk, or choose to tack on an additional working desk, fold-out bed, or even a shower and toilet attachment. Depending on your own needs, each unit can be customized as the owner sees fit.

In most cases, due to the prefabricated office’s small size, owners will not need a permit for placement in their yard. Built with a plug-and-play design, once My Home Office is anchored to the ground, owners can power up the cabin by plugging in the supplied power adapter through the cabin’s wall-mounted 240V, weatherproof IP44 socket. And just like that, a new home office awaits.

Designer: My Home Office x Cosmas Bronsgeest

With an attached garden space, My Home Office can be placed in your garden and help it grow.

Inside, a fixed stand-or-sit desk is made available for the workday.

With fully glazed windows, the workday always feels close to nature.

As currently designed, My Home Office features two different models: one larger and one smaller.

Each unit also comes equipped with LED overhead lamps so you can work into the night.

Owners have the choice of adding in more furniture like beds or supplementary desks according to their needs.

My Home Office operates using a plug-and-play method. Simply plug in My Home Office and get to work.

FSC-certified Siberian larch panels line the exterior of My Home Office, providing an external lifespan of 15 years.

This prefab modular home includes an open floor plan + arched ceiling with curved pinewood walls!

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Modular homes have been on the rise. Even if we’re only dreaming, each one of us is searching high and low for our own prefabricated getaway somewhere far away in the woods and modular homes offer a feasible means to create our own dream cabin in the woods. Whether we’d like one for work-related retreats or for family holidays, Woonpioniers, an Amsterdam-based architecture, and design studio has created Indigo, a modular building system that designs homes to replicate one of your dreams.

Depending on the home you’d like to build with Woonpioniers, Indigo’s structure and shape may vary. Recently, Lia Harmsen collaborated with Woonpioniers to design her live-in workspace for sculpting. The finished custom two-floor home measures 861-square-feet and features fixed-end moment building practices that produce a beautiful, curved interior leading from the wall to the ceiling. The fixed-end moment frame of the home offers an open-air floor plan, giving complete access for the building’s interior layout to take shape, leaving behind the spatial restriction of support beams and partitions.

Inside, the topmost section of the pinewood sheets that make up the home’s wall curves and connects to the ceiling, producing beam-like support for the building’s structural forces without the physical need of additional beams. Woonpioniers built the bendable wooden sheets themselves, making small incisions in the wooden sheets until they curved to the desired shape. Below, pigmented concrete fills Indigo’s ground floor while the stairs and the upstairs bedroom is lined with ProFi flooring from solid timber and given a transparent coating for a finished look.

From the outside, Harmsen’s dark-as-night Indigo live-in workspace features floor-to-ceiling windows that cover the whole of the structure’s front and back facades. The abundance of natural light showcases the home’s floorplan, which features a small kitchenette, dining area, living room, and bathroom located below a staircase with integrated storage options that leads to the home’s loft bedroom.

Designer: Woonpioniers

From the exterior, Indigo appears to have a traditional frame, but a closer look showcases curving interior walls.

Indigo’s exterior facades are paneled with pinewood and connect to a metal roof.

The curved walls provide the loft with a cozy frame and an organic placement for the built-in skylight.

From both ends of the loft, Indigo features a triangular floor-to-ceiling window.

The materials used to build Indigo were chosen for their self-regulating properties were responsibly sourced for an overall minimal environmental impact.

The first floor of Harmsen’s Indigo features a small kitchenette and dining area on one side, and a woodfire oven delineates the kitchenette from the rest of the floor plan.

The polished concrete flooring is only found on the first floor and bathroom interiors.

Equipped with integrated staircase storage, Woonpioniers made clever use of the 861-square-feet on which Indigo rests.

The kitchenette’s countertop was built by Lia Harmsen herself.

Across the room from the kitchen, Indigo also features a small living area.

Google finally makes Assistant more useful for your work life

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With many companies becoming more comfortable with letting employees work remotely even after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, it's important that folks have the tools to do their jobs just as well at home. With that in mind, Google is bolstering...