Dutch fashion house G-Star RAW and Swiss furniture manufacturer Vitra have collaborated for the second time.
Following the success of their home collection in 2011, their second crossover, Prouvé Raw Office Edition, places the focus firmly on workspace furniture.
Reviving a series of furniture and lighting originally designed by Jean Prouvé, Vitra have adapted the designer’s furnishings to meet today’s office norms and needs, while teaming up with G-Star to develop colours and details.
Several industrial shades of green, leather and fabric upholstery materials pay tribute to the origins of these furnishings. Made of steel and solid wood, the tables, chairs and cabinets in the Prouvé RAW Office Edition bear witness to a bygone industrial age.
The Prouvé RAW Office Edition features 10 different designs, including office chairs, lamps and desks. Authenticated with a special edition label, the furniture and lighting in the Prouvé RAW Office Edition is available now.
You spend such a big part of your life at work so you want it to look pretty!
Architect and property developer Adelene Teh (of Beulah International) is a big believer that staff are the most innovative and productive when happy and relaxed. So with that in mind, she has created a professional yet inspiring workspace, transforming a bare 1960s Melbourne office into a beautiful, New York loft inspired space.
Boasting a mixture of both monochrome and earthy tones, Beulah International’s office features high ceilings, a greenery wall and stunning high double volume windows that saturate the space with natural light. “My vision was to create a space that people love to work in and a space that encourages interaction, team work and communication,” explains Adelene. “This is achieved through the juxtaposition of corporate and residential design characteristics.”
Featuring a curved work station that encourages staff to collaborate and communicate as a team, the kitchen has also been placed in the middle of the office, enabling shared conversations and shared ideas over a meal.
With a distinct colour palette of grey textured concrete, stunning black lines from the framed glazed walls, warm walnut tones throughout the timber wall paneling and beautiful ash grey timber flooring, the homely yet professional feel of the office is complimented by Adelene’s choice of black furnishings, stunning Danish-designed boardroom chairs and a lush greenery wall.
As developers of high-end luxurious developments, Beulah International’s vision of delivering beautiful yet functional spaces is reflected in all aspects of their business, including their office.
Gravity, a luxury members only coworking environment, launched in Sydney early last year. Located in the much sought-after CBD building 50 Carrington, the space was designed by interior designer Jacqui Esdaile of Valmont.
Sydney’s Gravity
Here, home-style furniture in rich tones and textures contrasts against a minimalist interior with polished concrete floors and minted grey walls. Floor to ceiling glass panels conceal private meeting rooms, while a central break-out area homes a high-end mess hall/brassiere.
Sydney’s Gravity
And now Gravity has opened its second office in the heart of Brisbane’s CBD at 140 Creek Street. Recognising the need for a local narrative for Gravity’s second space, Jacqui has echoed the design cues from the Sydney predecessor, whilst subtlety referencing the Queensland culture — that being inherently bright, bold and welcoming.
Brisbane’s Gravity
The aspirational work environment, which features a bright open plan formal reception area, dedicated team meeting rooms and a central break-out kitchen and dining room — all finished with high-specification materials, drop pendant lighting and local Queensland plant foliage — is the first of its kind for the Brisbane market.
Brisbane’s Gravity
Next, Jacqui will be applying the finishing touches to renderings for a Melbourne site, aiming to have each address have its own identity, the way each of our states have.
The home office is often the nerve centre of your home. Whether it’s your primary workplace, an area to pay the bills or a kids’ homework hub, it undoubtedly plays a very important role. It is therefore pivotal that it is an inspiring and functional environment. Officeworks has partnered with one of Australia’s most highly regarded interior architects, David Flack of Flack Studio, to demonstrate how to create a stylish home office look for less, and help Australians across the nation love the space they work in. Here are his top ten tips:
1. Invest in high quality furniture. It goes without saying that it needs to be practical, but injecting a little bit of fun or luxury will be an enjoyable point of difference. Opt for quality that can stand the day-in, day-out of family activity – this doesn’t always mean an expensive price tag either.
2. Cohesion is what keeps a workspace humming along. Aligning all your stationery and accessories to a colour group or style range ensures that your office looks uncluttered, organised and inviting.
3. Always consider texture. Select practical, simple and durable finishes. Layer different textures to create warmth and visual interest – not everything has to match.
4. Lighting makes a big impact on the feel of a room. Adequate task lighting is essential, but overly bright spaces can be an assault on the senses. Wherever possible, let natural light in to create a balanced ambiance.
5. Keep it simple. Reduce the amount of ideas you have for your space – pick the best one and stick to it. A singular vision with repetition is often most effective.
6. Look at beautiful things. Having artwork on the walls makes an invaluable contribution to the feel of a space. A large, striking photograph in a minimal frame can take care of this. Try hanging a print of your own – it’s so easy to do using the Officeworks print and copy services.
7. It’s all in the detail. Small, nuanced touches like indoor plants or fresh flowers, a scented candle, family mementoes, stacks of beautiful books, and loose sculptural objects bring personality and liveliness to a home office environment.
8. Break-out spaces are ideal for re-energising. Doing some work in a different, pleasant spot away from your desk can be invigorating. Even just a feature chair by a quiet window could be the solution.
9. Balance. Strike a balance between personal cues and a professional environment to promote productivity.
10. Music can make all the difference. Wherever possible, try to listen to music that makes you feel inspired and enlivened. Officeworks has some great quality portable speakers that are also visually appealing.
— David Flack of Flack Studio is one of Australia’s top interior architects and alongside Officeworks, is passionate about helping the nation create workspaces they’re proud of.
Here at Interiors Addict we are big fans of Incy Interiors. Their furniture is nothing other than beautiful, so we knew their new workspace wouldn’t be any different. We were right!
Located in an old flour mill in Bathurst, founder Kristy Withers actually stumbled upon the space two years ago, when she used it for a photoshoot. “When we did the shoot, it was a big open space in need of lots of love. It was dirty, freezing and had no internal walls, but it completely made up for the sub-zero temperature and dirt with its rustic charm.”
Jump forward a couple of years and with the Incy Interiors team having to be out of their old office pronto, Kristy couldn’t think of any better space to call home work! “I returned from a trip to China on the Monday and we needed to be out of our old office on the Friday. We already had one of the desks from the recent Life Instyle trade show, so it all started with the desk. We made a decision as a team that the space would have a scandi/neutral theme with copper accents and from there we sat down and figured out all of the elements. 10 days later we had a fully decked out office.”
Clean and clutter free: “I have a severe case of OCD so this is my idea of heaven!” Kristy didn’t realise how important a beautiful workspace was, until she had one. “We have only been here for three weeks and I can already tell the entire team is energised and excited about coming to work and all of the opportunities available to us.”
Primarily used as an office, customers are more than welcome to pop in, say hi and pick up an order. And with Kristy originally having discovered the space for a photoshoot, she is keen to take it back to its roots. “The space is perfect for photoshoots so we are planning on doing them here weekly with the products we will be focused on for that week.”
Having worked in some rather tired looking offices, I can confidently say that working in a beautiful space can make all the difference! And it turns out I’m not alone in this thought, with the fashion duo behind Sabo Skirt, Thessy Kouzoukas and Yiota Karalouka, having recently renovated their own office to create a space that is both beautiful and functional.
Thessy and Yiota
“We all work fairly long hours so it was important for us to have a workspace that is comfortable and inspiring,” explains Thessy. “We find that when our surroundings are beautiful, everyone feels more motivated to achieve better and bigger things.”
Situated in the industrial precinct of Brisbane, the office was bought with the vision to re-model in mind. “The Sabo Skirt aesthetic hugely inspired us,” says Yiota. “We wanted to inject this aesthetic into our daily workspace, including bright colours with clean backdrops. It’s basically a white and gold wonderland with gorgeous feature walls, gold accents, flowers and a full glass wall, which lets plenty of sunlight in and gives us an extensive outlook of the warehouse area.”
Designed by the girls themselves, they chose not to get external help, knowing they understood the Sabo Skirt style best. Aiming to create a comfortable working environment with plenty of natural light as well as a fully functional kitchen, they began the design process by determining what aspects of an office their workspace required and also getting any special requests from their staff. “Once we had a list of what the space needed, we began knocking down walls and bringing everything back to basics,” explains Thessy. “Our decorative vision started with a clean, white workspace and we then added lots of colourful accents. Each corner has its own theme, a different aspect of Sabo Skirt injected into each area.”
With the space very multipurpose, the girls believe their business now runs much smoother, thanks to everyone being based on the one beautifully designed site. “We use the space for all aspects of Sabo Skirt,” says Thessy. “We can see the warehouse through the large glass window, we take Instagram photos in the reception area for our 1.1 million followers and we have our operations and creative teams on site working in the main room. We’re so happy with how it turned out.”
The trend of working from home is growing, whether it be part-time working for someone else or running your own home-based business. Working from home can almost be a pleasure if your work environment doesn’t cause you stress. A home office which is disorganised and cluttered, or has dated décor, can be demotivating, thereby limiting productivity.
If this is the case, what are some ways to reduce that stress by not only increasing the efficiency of your office, but by making your surroundings more attractive so that you want to work there?
