Another Country launches furniture designed to make offices feel more like home
Another Country's adjustable Work Series furniture is designed to combat perceptions of the office as "cold and clinical".
The range features wooden chairs and stools, a modular shelving system, and a work desk with integrated accessories. The pieces are aimed at the creative industries but have been designed to be adaptable for a range of environments.
"We frequently customise furniture to meet our clients' needs, so it was logical with our Work series to offer more flexibility as standard," Another Country design director Catherine Aitken told Dezeen. "We looked to design a system that could be adapted for a number of different types and sizes of workplace."
Another Country created the collection to introduce a warmer and more domestic atmosphere to the workplace, while still offering the flexibility that many offices need. The desk can be ordered in a range of sizes, and joined together to make larger workstations or separated for individual tables.
There are also several heights, for those who prefer to work standing up. The desk's cable channel doubles as a home for its accompanying accessories, which include a pencil pot, planter and screen to give workers privacy.
The Work Series shelves can be adapted depending on what they're being used for, and can be either placed side by side or at intervals for displaying plants or other objects. Each shelf is bookended by a brass loop.
"Our Work Series utilises a warm palette of materials and detailing not necessarily associated with office furniture," added Aitken.
"It can be quite cold and clinical, and traditionally work environments have been intentionally different to domestic environments, with different materials, finishes and styling; however, this thinking is now being challenged."
"The work place is rapidly changing and we feel benefits from a softer approach," she continued. "Bringing in warmer materials and furniture that nods towards a domestic environment can be conducive to work."
"Crucially workplace furniture needs to function well, but it can also be furniture that you develop a personal relationship with, furniture that is tactile."
Another Country was founded in 2010 by Wallpaper* founder Paul de Zwart. It's collaborated with several designers, including Ian McIntyre on a set of pewter tableware, and Studio Dessuant Bone to create a stone lamp based on the company's seaside origins.
Furniture designed to bring domesticity to the office has also come from the Bouroullec brothers, who presented the Cyl system for Vitra last year, and Royal College of Art graduate Andrea Mestre, who created a flexible rattan office chair.