Onoffice magazine

Berlin studio Böttcher+Henssler has designed a task lamp made from stained maple for Slovenian lighting company Vertigo Bird. Mantis features LEDs placed in a hollowed out wooden fixture to produce a warm white light. The structure comprises an aluminium tube driven through a stand and a bright blue cable. 

Belgian furniture brand Feld has expanded their Wood Collection to include upholstered versions of the range’s solid oak chair and bench. The new pieces use Polo 2 fabric from Kvadrat – a hard wearing combed yarn textile by designer Anne Gry. The pieces are available in four subtle, earthy tones reflecting Gry’s recent interest in Scandinavian colours and patterns. 

Swedish design trio Claesson Koivisto Rune are poised to introduce a new “integrated surface and seating object” called Isola for Italian furniture brand, Tacchini. A generously sized armchair with built-in table for laptops, Isola is intended for both work and relaxation. It will launch this week in Paris during Maison et Objet 2012.

For all of you lighting buffs out there, it’s time to gear up for the ARC Show 2012 – the UK’s key event for architectural, retail and commercial lighting. Curated by lighting designer Durham Marenghi of Lumitect, ARC will be held from 29 February – 1 March at the Business Design Centre in London’s Islington. Marenghi will transform areas of the exhibition venue with theatrical lighting and contributions from manufacturers…

What makes an office building green? By most standards, it would be energy efficient and have features like ground source heating and cooling, photovoltaic panels and rainwater harvesting. It would probably boast top marks from a sustainability assessment body like BREEAM or LEED. But there is a new, quite literal, facet to the “green” trend emerging; architecture with luxuriant plant life embedded into the design. The latest built example is…

Internet companies are vague and mysterious entities: it can be hard to work out what they actually do. Architects seem to be aware of this too, and when their client’s product exists in web space there is seemingly less to inspire them as a starting point. In the past they’ve adopted a number of approaches, from questionable node graphics to glassy meeting boxes and the obligatory exposed ductwork. Skilfully and thoughtfully…

Corridors really are the workhorses of the office design world aren’t they? While receptions have been sexed up and made multifunctional places to meet, greet, research and party in; canteens are the place you’re most likely to encounter the CEO in these days; and even the humble staircase is heralded as a place of chance encounters and encouraging movement in the office, the corridor has maintained its unremarkable mundanity. At Yarn,…

“We have known each other for a very long time and worked on many projects together,” says Joost Ector, partner at Ector Hoogstad, about his latest client, Rotterdam engineering firm IMd. So it must have felt a little like business as usual when IMd asked the practice to design its new office. In a way it was almost the repaying a favour – the engineers had acted as consultants for…

A group of derelict buildings in Hayes, Middlesex, once the home of legendary record label EMI, is being restored in a joint effort by Studio Egret West, Duggan Morris Architects and Allford Hall Monaghan Morris. The £250m project by Cathedral Group and Development Securities will see the 1927 Art Deco complex updated for offices, residential and cultural space.The Old Vinyl Factory, as it will be called, hopes to celebrate the…

If you haven’t heard of international architecture firm HASSELL yet, that is about to change. Founded in Australia some 70 years ago, it has more than 900 staff and 14 offices in Australia, China, south-east Asia and, as of a few months ago, the UK too. It designs hotels, airports, research facilities, bridges, parks, rail stations and offices, among other things. In China alone the company has 300 staff, working…