HOT DESKING

OMA and UniFor's new modular office furniture collection works wonders

In 2014, German publishing behemoth Axel Springer selected OMA to design its new Berlin HQ, with a view to create working environments that 'support the cultural transformation towards a digital publishing house'. The custom furnishings for the project, produced by Italian office furniture specialist UniFor (part of Molteni Group), have now been expanded into a fully-fledged furniture collection, unveiled at Fuorisalone 2022.

'Axel Springer wanted a radical reinvention of the office, a place to lure the digital bohemia of Europe,' says OMA associate Philippe Braun, who worked closely with product designer Antonio Barone on the project's interiors. They considered new methods of collaborative work, taking into account different team sizes and uses of space, and devised a multilevel open-plan set-up, with dynamic clusters of desks and breakout areas with partitions, sofas, and workstations.

'We wanted to avoid the trap of "the cool office", widely promoted by American tech companies in Silicon Valley and beyond, explains Braun. 'It was important that we inject a good dose of seriousness throughout the collection, avoiding the whimsical and focusing only on the essential.