d+a | Issue 115 • Apr/May 2020

/ BEST PRACTICE / 94 THESE TWO DESIGNERS DEMONSTRATE HOW THEIR PRACTICE OF GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND WHAT IS REQUIRED OF THEM HAS LED TO POSITIVE RESULTS. BREAKING BOUNDARIES This was born out of research we led while designing London’s Ace Hotel lobby. We noticed how all the soft seating there and in the restaurant was used during working hours, and spotted an opportunity since there was no seating product specifically designed for this use. The result is Soft Work, a platform designed for you to sit for many hours comfortably with a place to plug in your laptop and without balancing it on your knees. We have ironed out many of the problems that come with working informally on a sofa. Technology is integrated, but not embedded, and as a modular, upholstered seating system, you can add to it at any stage. I think we might be the first — or one of the first — to deliver something like this.” Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby, Founders, Barber Osgerby O ur approach to industrial design is a direct extension of our thinking about architectural spaces. We were taught to think about objects in space, as opposed to thinking about objects for the sake of being an object. One of the prerequisites for architecture is to think about experience, how people devise spaces, and how spaces can change over time. With this in mind, we conceived the new modular seating system Soft Work for Vitra (available through W. Atelier in Singapore), as a response to the radical transformations which office structures and work habits have undergone in the last few years. Work is no longer tied to a specific location, leading to the development of new behavioural patterns; our thesis is that the desk has had its day. WORDS LOW SHI PING / PHOTOGRAPHY VITRA & MARK COCKSEDGE “