Orgatec Cologne 2014: Stylepark – Being Home 4+4

We don’t consider ourselves slouches when it comes to the effort we make in regards of presenting ourselves at Orgatec Cologne, but we do have to doff our ornately feathered caps to the colleagues at Stylepark.

In keeping with their curated “Featured Editions” programme at IMM Cologne where design studios are asked to create an installation around a given design object, for Orgatec 2014 Stylepark asked four designers to create a 12 sqm presentation reflecting their interpretation and understanding of the contemporary “home office”. A request which assumes of course that the “home office” still exists and hasn’t transformed into a “home/office.”

In addition to creating their own installation the chosen four designers were asked to invite a further design studio whose work they are currently enjoying to create an installation, thus eight installations were presented in Cologne: one each from Stefan Diez, Sebastian Herkner, Besau Marguerre a.k.a. Marcel Besau and Eva Marguerre, Sarah Böttger, Ineke Hans, Gamfratesi, Raw Edges and Olaf Schroeder.

Somewhat obviously the views on the nature of the contemporary home office and/or home/office were as varied as the designers contributing and so whereas, for example, Besau Marguerre argued that the best ideas rarely strike at the desk, but can, and do, occur anywhere, Gamfratesi reflected on the need for not just work space but also space for intimacy and concentration while Raw Edges were brutally honest and admitted that for them working from home invariably gets “quite messy.”

We refuse to get to drawn into any discussions as to the pros and cons of the various ideas presented, must however note that Stefan Diez’s New Order system looked every bit as good in the small scale “Being Home” installation as it did in the larger scale set-up on the HAY stand. And that, and at the risk of sounding overly truculent, most chose their own designs; but not only, or at least not predominately. Especially pleasing was seeing Sebastian Herkner choose Bertjan Pot’s Pit Stop kid’s beanbag in an adult setting, Sarah Böttger selecting Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec’s Uncino chair and Olaf Schroeder’s decision to place Tip Ton by Barber Osgerby through Vitra in his “Parcours” installation, an installation in which he argues that the modern office is a place of movement and that your chosen office furniture must respond to that movement. Making Tip Ton a fairly easy choice.

As we say we refuse to get to drawn into any discussions on the individual installations, so here, in no particular order, some photos. (By way of explanation the ropes in front of the stands are to stop people entering the installations. Look daft in the photos, were effective on the ground….)