Employees have slowly but surely made their way back to corporate offices, and it is certainly a transitionary phase where they learn to adapt and settle down in an office space once again. In such a situation, it’s important to add well-designed furniture designs that help them feel comfortable, space, and motivated in their workplace. And adding the right furniture designs can greatly contribute to creating an office that is conducive to motivation and productivity. And one such furniture design that I recently came across is the Work Series II Table by Another Country.
Designer: Another Country
Designed by British furniture brand Another Country, the Work Series II Table is a long and minimal table built by combining timber and recycled plastic, in an attempt to create more sustainable products for office environments. The Work Series II table is a thoughtfully-designed furniture piece equipped with a frame made from eucalyptus wood. A tabletop insert made entirely from recycled yogurt pots by Welsh manufacturer Smile Plastics is fitted into the wooden frame. This creates an interesting material with a terrazzo-like appearance. The multiple flecks from the foil lids add intriguing metallic hints to the tabletop.
“We champion natural materials but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other solutions that are equally valid, maybe sometimes better,” said Another Country founder Paul de Zwart. “You can’t really recycle timber,” he added. “You can obviously reuse it but if you burn it or dispose of it, you release the carbon that’s embedded.” “The workplace has a high turnover of furniture. So inevitably, while we may design for things to last, in an office environment they are unlikely to do so. The amount of office furniture that gets thrown out annually is shocking.” The Work Series II Table is an initiative on the part of Another Country to build workplace furniture using recycled and renewable materials, that have a minimal carbon footprint and do not emit any harmful VOCs. The table can also be easily disassembled and recycled in the future.
Since the tabletops are removable and recyclable, the tops can be replaced, and the frames can be maintained and kept, after five or ten years. Smile Plastics can then buy the tops back, recycle them, and create new products.
The Work Series II table is manufactured using glue, with no added formaldehyde, and is coated using zero-VOC plant-based finishes.
