by Brianna Crandall — June 26, 2015—Teknion Corporation unveiled two new office furniture offerings at the NeoCon 2015 contract furnishings show last week in Chicago: the upStage workplace furniture system and Livello Height-Adjustable Bench.
upStage workplace furniture system
“upStage connects individual personalities and personal workstyles by allowing people to manage independently their own preferences for privacy, movement, orientation and storage—touching on many important worker well-being aspects that are top of mind in current thinking about effective workplace strategies,” said Steve Verbeek, vice president, Design and Innovation. “When individuals have some degree of control over their physical environments, they feel empowered, energized, inspired—and therefore more productive.”
upStage is based on a simple platform or stage that frees users from the constraints of a benching frame or panel, allowing them to build along horizontal or vertical planes to create layered worksurfaces and multi-story volumes. The innovative structural staging unit integrates a full complement of desks, height-adjustable tables, cabinets, shelves, cubbies and screens. Integrated in the stage, power and data offer choice by allowing the user to locate the plug-in anywhere along the stage or move it up onto the worksurface.
Every element simply moves into place and fits together, offering innumerable combinations for dynamic, collaborative workplaces, says Teknion. upStage easily rearranges and relocates without tools.
upStage manages the apparent paradoxes between the need for privacy and the need to be connected to coworkers in the office. Functioning solid or perforated metal louvers, magnetically mounted fabric screens, and movable, stackable storage elements allow occupants to seamlessly tune their space according to personal preferences or needs for the next task.
The integration of height adjustability allows for sit/stand options throughout the day. upStage also rethinks some of the usual support elements typical to systems furniture. Most notably, storage is repurposed from the box file and file drawer—which have become increasingly obsolete to many users—to a series of 6 in. (15 cm) volumes at the desktop that allow the user to store files flat in an organized and visually accessible manner.
In addition to a wide range of planning scenarios, a rich materials palette gives designers the opportunity to be original and bold, using color and texture to create a more varied and visually inspiring work environment. Myriad options include textiles, wood veneers, translucent and back-painted glass, perforated metal, and a range of beautiful metal finishes.
The launch of upStage coincides with a major launch of new finishes across Teknion. The designer can impact the look and feel depending on the finishes selected and where they are applied. It can be very serious or much more playful, or anything in between, says the company.
Livello Height-Adjustable Bench
“The Livello Height-Adjustable Bench creates benching workspaces that provide each user with individual control of their work and movement. Single or linked, stations create a benching environment that fully supports user sit-stand ranges, technology requirements, and a high level of flexibility to create individual privacy,” says Dannion Smith, director, Ergonomic Initiatives at Teknion. “Not only is this the most height-adjustable bench on the market, it offers an industry-leading three-inch leveling feature, the tallest glass screens, and more power delivery options to a run of stations, addressing today’s most common benching application issues.”
The Livello Height-Adjustable Bench integrates aesthetically and physically with Teknion systems and desking lines, including Interpret, Leverage and District, and is supported in an offering focused on surface details, common datum heights, multiple electrical packages, and two ranges of height adjustability. The Standard Range Electric bench adjusts between 27 to 43 inches (68.5 and 109 cm), and the Extended Range Electric from 22 to 48 inches (56 and 122 cm). It can also be used in standalone applications.
Teknion says it sponsored the first groundbreaking laboratory-controlled study on the implementation of sit-stand workstations, which have become increasingly popular due to their health benefits and improved worker productivity. Those who change positions throughout the workday are at lower risk of developing lower-back pain, cardiovascular disease and even cancer than their sedentary peers, reports Teknion.
The research was conducted by Canada’s eminent kinesiologist Jack P. Callaghan, PhD, professor and Canada research chair in Spine Biomechanics and Injury Prevention at the University of Waterloo’s Department of Kinesiology, in partnership with Teknion. Dr. Callaghan’s research, White Paper on Implementation of Sit-Stand Workstations, available from Teknion, reportedly stands conventional sit-to-stand wisdom on its head.
The big revelation of Teknion’s new study is to reverse the conventional sit-stand wisdom of a three-to-one sit-to-stand ratio. Instead, Dr. Callaghan’s team found, workers should stand for three and sit for one. “Many office-furniture manufacturers offer sit-to-stand products, but Teknion is the only one with a great research team behind it providing guidelines that tell the client how to maximize the health and well-being benefits,” says Smith.
For more information, contact Teknion and see more FM-specific information on the company’s FMLink ad.
