Between flex office, nomadism, QWL, teleworking and, more recently, social distancing, office furniture and the layout of spaces must accompany the new work organisations while ensuring the comfort and well-being of users. Yann Thevenet, associate director of Cider, an office furniture specialist, and Mathieu Girard, co-founder of the interior architecture and design studio Cocorico, give us their vision of the office furniture of today and, above all, of tomorrow.
Cider has accompanied Wojo since its inception, providing the furniture for the shared workspaces, a partnership that has been strengthened since 2019 with the creation of an exclusive Wojo furniture collection, designed by the Cocorico workshop and manufactured by Cider. This range is now present in all new Wojo spaces. It is one of the pillars of its identity and reflects a common vision of work spaces and how to use them.
Work spaces that are also places to live
“Before, we used to think that life began when we left work, but with the development of sports halls, nap rooms, and social areas in companies, all this is changing. I believe that people should live their lives regardless of where they are, so we are trying to design workspaces that are not imposed,” explains Mathieu Girard, who sees the development of teleworking as an opportunity to design offices that are even more pleasant to live in.
“I see the positive aspects of teleworking, which relieves traffic congestion and eases the organisational burden, but also reduces the sense of social interaction. Well-designed workspaces must remain a priority, because after two or three days of working remotely, one is even more eager to return to the office to take advantage of the new uses it offers, and to maintain or create one’s network. “This concept prioritises the well-being of employees and takes into account the profound changes in the relationship between the younger generations and their workplace.
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The user is at the heart of the thinking on work furniture
“The young people arriving in the company today do not have the same codes and expectations with regard to office space as ours. We have to offer alternatives to attract these new talents without frustrating those who are already here,” says Yann Thévenet.
Mathieu Girard also insists on the “domestication of work spaces”, which involves borrowing materials and colours from the domestic world, and which allows the user to feel good in this environment. “For us, working in a space that meets your needs in a warm atmosphere is a performance driver. We want to offer the same comfort in the office as you find at home, while meeting your needs through well thought-out functionalities” insists the co-founder of Cocorico, for whom the most important thing is to create places where economic necessity should not make us forget that the more we feel good in a place, the more we will deploy the best of ourselves there.
Wojo office furniture collection adapted to new uses
The specifications given to the participants of the design competition organised by Cider for Wojo reflect the constraints that office furniture has to meet today.
We had to look at the possibility of moving the furniture within the spaces,” explains Yann Thévenet. Companies need flexibility, and therefore modularity in furniture. “He also insists on user comfort, for example the importance of having a power socket on the table and not in a corner that is difficult to access or under the table. “The proposal also had to integrate the possibility of separating people either frontally or laterally, a particularly important point with the new problems of social distancing. »
Cocorico’s proposal stood out from the crowd with a set based on a table and a cupboard, with customisable options: partition screens, logo supports, lamps, poufs, sofas, etc. Our table with its characteristic legs is the starting point for the Wojo collection, which we wanted to reflect its image: flexible, warm and clever,” adds Mathieu Girard. In the office world, you certainly need a horizontal surface, but also a place to store your things, especially when coworking. And depending on the individual, these needs will differ: you have to be able to adapt to them. »
And which is in line with a desire to minimise the impacts
The collection designed by Cocorico is manufactured by Cider in Italy, which relies on an industrial fabric that masters the materials and know-how. “Everything is then assembled on site to limit the carbon footprint: dismantled tables take up much less space in transport! The dimensions are optimised to have as few offcuts as possible, and all our products are certified as being of sustainable origin, in an ecological approach. »
What vision for the future of office furniture?
On the furniture side, Cider is finalising the development of a desk unit adapted to videoconferencing, allowing a screen with an integrated camera to be moved around to make it easier to organise video meetings in one’s workspace, without having to monopolise a meeting room. On the design side, the Cocorico workshop insists on the importance of refocusing on the human being and interactions, while proposing experiences to be lived in the workspaces, and invites to think about changes in the long term rather than in reaction to exceptional circumstances
Practicality, flexibility, surprising experience… these are the fundamentals of the Wojo work experience that we invite you to discover in our spaces!
Thanks to
Yann Thévenet, Associate Director and Commercial Director of Cider, whose teams are passionate about understanding the needs of their clients and translating them into effective solutions. Since 1976, the group has been assisting companies, start-ups, SMEs and large groups with their workspace design and furniture renewal projects. Cider is both a publisher and a distributor, which means that it is involved from the design of the furniture to its manufacture, and even assembly on site, in the most responsible way possible, to create spaces where it is as good to live as it is to work.
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Mathieu Girard, co-founder of Cocorico Paris. A multidisciplinary agency, Cocorico offers ingenious and innovative concepts in the fields of interior architecture, design and communication to enrich everyday life and surprise, by placing the human being and the needs of users at the heart of the reflection.
