Contract furnishings provider, Hightower received multiple awards at NeoCon 2021, including IIDA's 'Best Small Showroom' (under 4,000 sf) and 'Best of Competition' for its newly designed Chicago showroom.
Humanscale welcomes Elizabeth Margles to its Marketing Division in the role of Chief Marketing Officer. Margles comes to Humanscale with twenty years of experience in design, fashion and retail and a background in public relations and advertising.
The exclusive relationship with Kontrol's BioCloud® Technology will provide real-time detection of airborne pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 to help make workplaces safer as organizations return to the office.
Saying that British technology company Dyson Ltd. is committed to research and development could be the understatement of the century. The company spends $8.8 million every week on R&D for new products. It operates a campus in the United Kingdom where 1,500 of its engineers and scientists work on future technology. There, they ably demonstrate the company’s capabilities as a cross-category provider.
Lighting plays a significant role in the built environment, impacting not only ambiance and functionality but also productivity and wellbeing—all of which are vital in today’s resilient workplace. Given the complexity of designing interior lighting schemes, an expert should be engaged for every project, whether an existing facility or an as-yet-built one. In the process of helping clients achieve optimal lighting scenarios, certain concerns come up again and again: how to mitigate glare and brightness and whether LED is the healthiest and most sustainable choice.
Humanscale has previewed its new biological lighting technology through an experiential RE:CHARGE Cafe which hosted over 15,000 people during Salone del Mobile in Milan. Located in the heart of the city's Brera design district, Humanscale debuted this new technology with 'The Dial Table' which enabled visitors to play with the light frequency, changing it in accordance with the time of day to mimic natural light.
Lighting is considered one of the most important factors in ergonomics, but too often this part of an office's design is overlooked, rushed, or sacrificed for style. After a while, you may notice quietly frustrated employees hauling in their own table lights and floor lamps to find the perfect blend of visual accuracy and not-so-corporate ambiance. You may have even been part of a group who hacked together shipping boxes to reduce screen glare from loft windows or overhead fluorescent lights.
American architect Richard Meier has debuted a range of simple white lamps, in keeping with the signature pared-back style of his buildings.
The architect collaborated with his product-designer daughter Ana Meier, as well as lighting veteran Hervé Descottes, to create the Richard Meier Light collection.
A light hangs from the ceiling, but most of it isn’t a light at all.
This is the Cu-Beam Duo, the latest invention out of Dyson. It’s intended to be the commercial light of the future. Sipping on just 90W of power, it can shine light directly onto a table for your work, or directly onto the ceiling for a pleasantly diffused ambiance. Or it can do both at the same time in any mix that you like. And the Cu-Beam Duo can do it for a long time. The light is rated to operate for 22 years without changing the bulbs—the quality of light is promised to never waiver—which Dyson hopes will make the fixture appealing to airports, offices, and other big commercial spaces.
Vipp, Danish purveyor of sleek homeware and chic prefab shelters, has just released a line of five LED lamps characterized by the company’s signature aesthetic of industrial sexy-cool. Made from black powder coated aluminum, the series includes a wall lamp, wall spot (also available in white), desk lamp, pendant light, and floor lamp.
Each lamp features a matte glass diffuser and a shade perforated with tiny dots that allow light to emit from all sides, giving off a nice, calming glow. Its simple shape and monochromatic scheme (except for hardware details, which are done in stainless steel) make it easy to place a light anywhere in a minimalist home without drawing too much attention to itself.
The main driver of the growing interest in wellbeing in recent years has undoubtedly been absenteeism. But workers don’t have to be ‘absent’ from the workplace to hamper productivity. Presenteeism, where employees are present but not productive can also influence the long-term success of an organisation. The interaction between the worker and their work environment has a huge influence on an individual’s wellbeing and overall productivity, with employees’ performance more likely to be enhanced when they are immersed in a comfortable and stimulating environment. This can include all the usual stipulations, such as a well-designed workstation, a comfortable office temperature and carefully considered and appropriate lighting. In fact, improved lighting is an essential element in the overall mix, not only because of the cost savings that their energy efficiency brings but also in the way lighting contributes to workplace wellbeing and people’s performance.
While open offices are wonderful for collaborating with co-workers, sometimes you need a little bit of separation to get your work done. Ivan Kasner and Uli Budde took the partition idea and improved upon it for De Vorm by incorporating lighting into it. The AK 2 – Workspace Divider Lamp is made to hang above desks, reading tables, or shared workspaces as a way to add privacy, provide sound dampening, and to light the area.
London-based designer Michael Anastassiades describes his work as “minimal, utilitarian and almost mundane, yet full of vitality one might not expect”. We would whole-heartedly agree. As fans of his lighting for FLOS, we’re also fans of his philosophies. In a 2013 interview, he told us about anonymity and ambiguity: “…In the language of the products there is a certain ambiguity, you can’t really place them in a time period or a type of design. This expresses very much what I believe about design – in the design world or the art world, nothing is new. Everybody wants to claim they’ve invented something revolutionary… The reality is you have to embrace something or reinterpret something that has been done before, but in a very discrete and subtle way, in a new setting or context. This idea of ambiguity is very interesting.”
Italian architect Carlo Ratti has designed a system for an office in Turin that instructs heating, lighting and cooling systems to follow occupants around the building like an "individually-tailored environmental bubble".
Carlo Ratti Associati's Office 3.0 will use a system of sensors to monitor employees as they move around the headquarters of the Agnelli Foundation cultural institution.
You know what they say? A man is judged by the type of lamp he has on his desk. It’s a very popular saying. Gadget reviewer Doug Aamoth tests out the Wasserstein’s Qi Charging Lamp. It’s compatible with a variety of wireless charging Android phones and retails for sixty dollars.
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With a streamlined form factor, these fixtures bring diffuse light to applications including offices, education spaces, retail, and more.
Humanscale® announced that it has acquired Vessel™, an architectural lighting solution from celebrated designer Todd Bracher.
Herman Miller has once again worked with designers Sam Hecht and Kim Colin to create a versatile product with universal appeal. Following on the success of their Wireframe Sofa and the Locale system, their latest collaboration is the elegant Ode Lamp, occasional lighting perfect for almost any setting. With soft curves and a poetic grace, the Ode Lamp’s ring of anti-glare LEDs and spun steel shade creates diffused illumination, drawing people together in a welcoming pool of light.
Swedish firm Tengbom, were hired to create some unique furnishings inside a new building at the Örebro University, which was designed by Juul Frost Architects. Among the many furnishings they designed, are these tables with built-in power outlets, that are lit by multiple whimsical mushroom-like lamps.
For Herman Miller‘s new Ode Lamp, designersSam Hecht and Kim Colin of Industrial Facility considered the tendency of people to gather around light. What’s resulted is a simple, attractive fixture that drops a warm and welcoming “sphere of illumination” that the designers hope will help to draw people together to engage in more meaningful ways, at home or at work. The family of Ode Lamps provides a portfolio of lighting solutions to meet the needs of our customers in the workplace looking for alternatives to harsh overhead lighting.
Since the United States adopted new lighting efficiency standards in 2012, light bulb manufacturers have been racing to develop products that use less energy but perform as well as power-hogging incandescents. For years, the most popular form of alternative illumination has been compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs), but that may change. Today, GE Lighting announced that it plans to halt CFL production by the end of 2016 and will tout light-emitting diode bulbs (LEDs) as the preferred energy-efficient household product.
From photo sensors and occupant sensors to dimmers, the restrictions and guidelines imposed by current energy codes, which mandate the use of costly controls for lighting, can be frustrating for architects, designers, and clients alike. If you pay your own electrical bill—or are at all conservation-minded—you might find consolation in the energy savings or long-term pay back to be achieved, but still, who likes being told they have to spend more?
Good lighting can mean the difference between time for business and business time. That’s why Fluxo is so cool. This unique crowdfunded light bulb can do all the color-changing magic you’re used to but can also cast light in various directions including up at the ceiling and at specific corners of the room. The light is surprisingly compact but features a number of LEDs that can throw light in various configurations. The bulb is controlled via app and lets to choose the configuration instantly by sliding your finger around a representation of the Fluxo.
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