Using our own spaces – and our Research & Design team - as a testing ground, Vitra’s Consulting & Planning team has build the first Club Office at our head office in Birsfelden, near Basel, Switzerland. People do not come to the office today for individual activities requiring concentration – they come because they have a desire to feel part of a larger whole, because they want to meet their colleagues, and because they seek new knowledge and experiences. The Club’s ‘members’ – consisting of employees from all parts of Vitra and its close external partners – encounter a whole range of different spatial scenarios, divided into a public and a semi-public area. The Club Office in Birsfelden offers numerous different work settings within a small footprint of less than 300 square metres.​

For decades, Vitra has responded to transformations in the workplace with products for changing working conditions – guided by its own research in this field. As a result, many of the products used in the new Club Office already existed in the Vitra portfolio, while others were specially conceived to meet the new requirements. The new developments have in common a demand for flexibility and high quality, which allows the post-Covid office to adapt to shifting needs while signalling value and appreciation to its users.

Often copied but never equalled in terms of style and enduring quality, Alcove was one of the first examples of microarchitectural sofas to provide secluded niches or meeting spaces within open-plan offices.

 

 

Which topics impact office environments, communal spaces or the home, and which processes will influence the future of work? In a series of newspapers dedicated to the world of work and current global topics, we invite designers, architects and industry experts to address these themes.