The Orgatec trade fair, a major event for companies specialising in office design, which is usually organised in autumn in Cologne, was cancelled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the exhibitors invested a lot of time and effort in preparations, so the German office furniture industry came up with another concept and decided to launch IBA Forum – an internet platform to present virtual showrooms.
– The IBA Forum will not replace the leading international trade fair, but at this point in time it is an optimal solution that will allow us to remain in touch, to illuminate working worlds anew - also with regard to the new normality - and to present innovations – says Corinna Graf, Marketing Manager for the German branch of Nowy Styl.
The virtual showroom was designed by Yana Payanovskaya, an architect at Nowy Styl.
“Based on the information obtained from my colleagues from Germany, who perfectly know the local market, I wanted to create a space where we could successfully and effectively work on an everyday basis,” she explains. “The underlying principle of this design is organising four functional zones – administration, focus, communication, and regeneration. Interestingly enough, these zones are not separated by walls. Instead, I put up light partitions or introduced a specific colour scheme to mark individual zones. This is how all the zones form a single, large open space with special nooks that guarantee a certain amount of privacy,” says Yana Payanovskaya.
The central point of our showroom is the chill-out zone, which can also be used for informal meetings with clients. It is the only zone with strong, vivid colours. In other sections the designer used subdued colours – shades of green, grey and colours of the earth. The showroom is organised on the area of ca. 400 square meters and it includes the reception zone, open space with workstations, suitable places for creative work and brainstorming, a conference room and a canteen.
Depending on the purpose of specific zones, Yana Payanovskaya has chosen a separate set of furniture for each for them. Most of these pieces are new products. The design also includes a handful of bestsellers as well as well-known furniture lines in new look.
New releases include swivel chairs: Xilium, YouTEAM and Viden, desks; eUP and eModel, a wide choice of CS5040 desks and workbenches, multiple versions of MeeThink tables, Naudu sofas, the Tilkka chair and a line of sound-absorbing solutions known as Sileo.
On the other hand, among well-known products you will find Tauko tables, Sand pouffes and partition walls, Tapa pouffes, K40 cabinets or the Formo wall panel, Hexa modular system and Play&Work or Levitate lines, which now gain a new life thanks to the rare finish.
The interior becomes more luxurious and trendy thanks to the products by Kusch+Co by Nowy Styl – Creva Soft Seating, Creva Desk, Lupino, Njord and Colani sofas.
The architect points out that the products and colours have been juxtaposed so as to sport a brand new look or to become a reference to a specific style. The former strategy is employed in the canteen. “We normally try to make the kitchen light and warm. This time, though, we went for the cold palette. Combined with a properly chosen set of furniture, it helped us create an almost exclusive space,” she describes. The same tools and methods were used to create a reference to the unique style of the 1960s, whose echo can be found in the creative zone also known as the “designer’s zone.”
You can explore our Virtual Showroom here. The IBA Forum platform will operate throughout the next year. Feel free to explore it!