When The Office Group – a company providing design-led offices and co-working spaces in the UK – struggled to find a stylish stackable chair for their meeting rooms, they teamed up with Danish design brand Menu and Norm Architects to find the perfect solution. Enter the Co Chair, a simple, lightweight design with a minimal expression – unveiled at London Design Festival this week.
Speaking to Els Van Hoorebeeck, head of interior design at The Office Group (TOG), they found that they were looking for something that was beautifully designed but most importantly functional and easy to sit in. Other stackable chairs that they looked at, mainly ones with plastic shells, were either ill-fitting, uncomfortable for use in long meetings or couldn’t fit under the table during cleaning.
TOG needed a chair that would look equally at home in a boardroom or a relaxed break-out space. With more freelancers and flexible working styles, I’ve noticed a blur in the boundaries between home and work – we want our home studies to look more like formal offices and our offices spaces to feel more like our homes. Just look at all the people working with their laptops in the lobby of the Ace Hotel in east London. We want to feel at ease wherever we work. The Office Group has a wide mix of spaces to work from, whether it’s lounge areas and inviting sofas or more private booths for one and in the King’s Cross location, raised platforms with space for three or four people to meet.
The Co Chair was conceived for an office environment but it would also work just as well around a dining table too, thanks to its domestic aesthetic and the use of rich, tactile materials.
Manufactured in Europe, the Co Chair is made of a minimal, black, powder-coated settle frame with a padded seat and a gently angled backrest. The backrest is generous in size so you feel like your back is well supported, while neat, veneer armrests can be added if needed. The result is full of character and distinctly Norm Architects in style.
The seat can be upholstered in a variety of Kvadrat textiles and the backrest comes in black oak, natural oak or dark stained oak. Velvet or a textured knit fabric (seen in these pictures) add an element of richness and tactility.
“It has been a wonderful collaboration where we have been able to openly discuss everything from needs to aesthetics and production between all three parties. All good design starts with a need and, due to the long experience of TOG working with a wide variety of chairs, TOG knew exactly what they wanted from the Co Chair to fulfil their everyday needs in terms of functionality and practicality.”
– Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen, Norm Architects
The Co Chair will be first introduced in five of TOG’s buildings in London. Following its official launch at trade fair Orgatec in October, it will later be available to buy, priced at £269, and £319 with armrests.
All images of the Co Chair courtesy The Office Group, Norm Architects and Menu
