As the urbanisation of our society becomes more and more prevalent the search for increasingly effective and efficient ways to use the limited space we have in cities becomes important. One response to this issue is the increase of co-working spaces. These provide highly flexible and efficient space for urban professionals.
Co-working spaces do not only function as office space, however, but also have the potential to become hubs for the fast moving communities they are used by and cater to. The most successful of these spaces encourage crossing paths with others within.
After research trips to dozens of co-working spaces in various cities I decided to focus this project on furniture within co-working spaces. More specifically I set out to create a modular furniture system that would encourage flexible and social workspaces. This manifested itself in shelves and inserts with a variety of functions.
The inserts are all held in place on the shelf with a rail that is recessed into their underside. Born out of the insight that private storage is scarce in current co-working environments locker units that open and close from within the co-working space’s members app were developed. These keep members confidential or valuable belongings safe during meetings or coffee breaks for example.
It is also possible to use Sone against existing walls or room dividers in order to benefit from storage and other features of the system like pull out stools or smaller inserts which can be used for filing and also as laptop stands.
As the system is aimed at co-working spaces globally, the efficient transport and shipping of the product was already a consideration during the design phase. To this end the Steel frame has been designed to be transported flat packed.
The functional design of Sone is complimented with subtle pastel colours. The frame of the shelf is made from welded and powder coated steel. The inserts as well as the shelves themselves are made from painted plywood.
To have a better understanding of the final materiality and to demonstrate the joinery and detail of the final product I made a section model. The frame was made from welded and painted steel whilst the wooden parts were made from painted ply. The cross section of the insert reveals one of the biscuit joints holding it together.
In order to experiment with different use cases and configurations I made a scale model.
This 1:3 scale model made from painted MDF and plastic sections shows an example configuration with lockable inserts along the left side and a variety of open inserts on the rest of the shelf.