by Brianna Crandall — July 4, 2016 — Contract office furniture manufacturer Kimball Office unveiled a series of smart ecosystem collections and transformational concepts for the future workplace in Chicago at the company’s flagship showroom June 13-15. The exhibits demonstrated Kimball’s theme for this year, “You Are Here,” emphasizing tomorrow’s workplace, which Kimball says will be created by individuals, events and activities rather than the built environment alone. Kimball’s partnership with ShareDesk technology is highlighted below.
Mike Wagner, president of Kimball Office, stated:
This year, attendees visiting and experiencing our showroom will see significant progress as it relates to the fusion of design and technology immersed into the Kimball Office brand, and our space is representative of where we see the future of work heading. We believe that the commercial real estate industry is on the cusp of massive transformation, and the brands who create the smartest ecosystems, deliver extreme agility, and who optimize effectiveness for people and space will be in an extremely strong position for what is to come next.
Designed by Studio O+A for a third year, Kimball Office’s Chicago showroom focused on how world interconnection is vital to conducting business, and how the brand is re-imagining the workplace experience, transforming the interaction between people and space and enabling work to flow seamlessly in various places. Interactive scenes demonstrated how Kimball Office’s product and technology integration initiatives will help the design community and savvy end-users solve complex challenges in a very fast moving world.
New Kimball products and technology demonstrate smart ecosystems and the coming “massive transformation” in the workplace
Product introductions
Three Design Nodes in the exhibit highlighted new product collections designed through collaborative partnerships with Primo Orpilla of Studio O+A, Pam Light and John Duffy of pl-D and Daniel Korb of xchange Design. Kimball Office’s future-looking featured product collections are designed to meet the needs of new workplace methods and activities such as social, collaborative, focus and learning. Narrate is a new workstation collection designed to be completely flexible while offering a range of solutions such as media integration, height-adjustable options, benching, tables, media carts and other enhanced features.
Narrate is a new workstation collection designed to be completely flexible while offering a range of solutions such as media integration, height-adjustable options, benching, tables, media carts and other enhanced features.
The company also unveiled four new seating collections. The new task chair, Joya, offers an ergonomic and sophisticated seating solution for active work areas. Two new side chairs, Lusso and Splendor, keep design at the forefront of functionality. Pairings, a versatile lounge-based seating system, is a family of components that can easily be crafted together to create formal or informal settings that support today’s work environments that feature spaces within spaces.
Kimball Office has expanded its accessory offering with innovative workplace accessories. Jolt, a new technology accessory collection, includes a USB charging accessory that adheres to any surface (including glass) and provides a connectivity functionality that is a clean and flexible. Jolt also includes a wireless power-charging surface. The company’s workplace accessory product offering continues to expand with the addition of task lighting, which is available in a desk or mounted version.
Partnership with ShareDesk
Earlier this year, the company announced its exclusive partnership with ShareDesk, a global leader in agile workplace technology and on-demand workspaces. In the Chicago showroom, the company revealed a fully integrated app that will allow customers to seamlessly manage the workplace. By utilizing ShareDesk’s mobile and location technologies to power work area vignettes throughout the showroom, customers experienced how this virtual layer transforms the relationship between people and place and provides the ability to seamlessly manage smart, shared workspaces.
Mike Wagner, president of Kimball Office commented, “As real estate costs escalate, and activity-based planning de-tethers employees from assigned workstations, the interior designers and facility managers need new ways to manage these complexities.” The collaboration between Kimball Office and ShareDesk will be focused on helping organizations optimize their real estate utilization, while also improving the effectiveness of the people who occupy the “smart” space.
