Workstation has been chosen by Li Edelkoort, former chairwoman of design academy Eindhoven and art director of Designhuis to be shown at the Talent 2009 show in Designhuis – Eindhoven (Netherlands) among other designers graduated this year out of 30 design schools in Europe. The aim of the exhibition is to get an overview of the state of affairs in design education and its future stars. Exhibition lasts between 17th ofOctober and 30 of November and is a part of Dutch Design Week (17-25 October)
During London Design Festival L.O.F.T Workstation could be seen at 100% Futures show in Earl’s Court (24-27 September 2009) I would like to thank everyone who visited my stand during this intensive four days.
(Thanks for your help Veronica! 
L.O.F.T Workstation is a project of a flexible changeable structure, the simple construction of which serves for customization and interaction with workspace according to preferences of a user and demands of a currently performed task.
The structure consists of a few elements: main pillar which serves as a support for the ends of two lightweight rails on which the lighting and slider bars are placed on which supporting legs can be moved back and forward according to a spatial requirements. The rails can be moved around the pillar independently as they are sharing the pivot point at the end of each of them on the slider ring centered at the top of the main pillar.
Pillar, rails and rail-legs are all similarly grooved on the outside and horizontal parts. Those grooves are stabilizing features for accessories, like screens, boards, shelves and lighting, which can be mounted on the structure. Grooves are also a cable management feature which makes it easier to change construction settings without struggling to keep dangling cables in chosen place.
Lighting is a fluorescent, cold strip lighting in line fixtures of 4000 K light, which can be slid, exchanged, added to and removed from the rail easily without multiplying plugs and cables.
The entire structure may be disassembled without using any tools by one or two people. Grooves and openings are designed to be an easy and intuitive way of attaching accessories and adjusting the space with no need to drill the holes in the wall or ceiling or using ladders, by simple wedging, tying, hooking.
This way more functionality can be added, space divided and shrink in the workspace.
Worktop is easy to remove and put aside or hanged on the rail-leg wedged shelf equipped with hooks. Table legs, when not in use, can serve as shelves wedged on the rail legs.
Entire structure is made using simple methods out of beech wood, plywood, powder coated steel, chromed pipes, fabric, nylon straps, and machined acetal elements. The imagination of a user is the limit because versatility of the structure might make it even something else than the workspace if required.
This kind of flexible structure suits space restricted home offices, studios and conversion spaces where adjust ability and keeping elements near each other is essential.
I am happy to invite everyone of you to see an RCA Show (26.06-05.07 2009) London, Kensington Gore, SW7 2EU
You can see there my finished version of a workstation and try it out.
I would like to thank all of You who visited the show and have seen my work and had a chat with me.
Photos of a final piece and of a process will soon be also available on this blog.
Vertical parts before finishing, waxing and assembling.
Pillar during gluing
Steel parts prepared, before powdercoating procedure.
Powernet – strong streachy fabric considered to be used in mid-prototyping.
Prototyping on the functional model.
I am pleased to announce that the feature on my Workstation has been published in June 2009 issue of “ON OFFICE” magazine.
The idea is derived from the round room of Nucleus project. There the frame was separating the space out of other bigger area. The function of every frame is to divide space with imaginary or material surfaces, it also joins the distant parts of the structure making it complete object and enabling function. Here the frame is brought back unlike the previous models where it was reduced to a secondary feature. Now it is back the main feature of the space.
In this attempt to modeling I considered a table as a free element. It is independent from other elements and replaceable with other. This is an idea that contrary to the office or home office environment the table location is not set in stone. I imagine that the by-desk-element is carrying the main load of the electronic devices like printer, external memory, modem, lighting base, emergency power supply and so on. The next attempt, I imagine, is going to be maybe even more flexible and parts of it more independent from each other.
Hilary sees a problem in treating the workstation as an conglomerate of elements influencing/regulating the mental condition of a person using it. She told me that this is a role o an interior designer and an architect. She would like me to think about it as an object in itself, not as something which influences the space of the home interior. Suggested that I should think about the generic function of the desk not how it is perceived by user mentally as a place of work. Her questions are:
- How my former findings inform my brief?
- Why is it designer responsibility to control focus [of a user]?
- Is there a problem that needs solving?
- Are there answers in design?
