Designs for a working future at Neocon

The value of face to face was felt once again at the NeoCon show, which took place over three days in Chicago at the start of October. The business of commercial interiors and the new urgency to address waste and sustainable measures may be a serious matter, but there was a palpable giddiness at the opportunity to make real-life connections and conversation after months in the Zoom zone.

Unfolding over nine floors of Chicago’s iconic Art Deco edifice, theMART – the interior design hub of what is arguably America’s most architecturally exciting city, 500 brands, large, small, long-established and emerging were represented. Those with permanent showroom spaces in theMART (eight new permanent residents this year include Kettle and Pedrali) turned over the floor to their latest innovations, while visiting exhibitors were to be found on the 7th floor, offering their responses to new corporate, healthcare, residential, retail, public and hospitality demands.

This was the place to find responses to the more significant contract needs that have come from this extraordinary 18 months the world has lived through; modularity and flexibility taken to new levels (Haworth’s Compose Echo workstations on wheels were notable); biophilia (Buzzispace showed how to nurture busy minds with nature at its Together stand); sustainability (Metropolis magazine sponsored a sustainability lab where designers could pick up a Climate tool kit and take an earth-safeguarding pledge), and cosiness (plumped up seating for professional spaces such as the new Tubular chair at Sixinch USA).

Inclusivity was also a recurrent theme, speaking to new organisational structures that are emerging from the pandemic, and the need to be nimble and inclusive by nature as a business, and offer equally adaptable furnishing solutions. During a stellar talks programme, Frans Johansson, author and CEO of The Medici Group, explored how diversity and inclusion are imperative to the success of an organisations' growth, and the ultimate drivers for innovation, while Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Furniture looked at how cities can be designed to be more inclusive and equitable.

So much for big picture stuff. NeoCon is also the place to pick up more nuanced aesthetic trends, too. There was a very strong case made for commercial interiors embracing the positivity of colour and pattern, as some brands swirled back to 70s psychedelia. Scandinavian Spaces led the charge with their statement circular thrones, Big Talk, that link together to form snaking seating.

The NeoCon awards are a key event during the three days, with judging taking place across 52 categories. The overall trophy – the Best in Competition Award – went this year to a clever office system, Honey, designed by Darran Furniture. Based on a hexagon it can be configured in many different ways, and respond to individual users’ needs, allowing for different working practices, alongside privacy and well-being requirements.

‘Attending NeoCon is like diving headfirst into the gap between where our clients’ spaces are, and where they’d like them to be. There’s a solution for every design problem, even the ones we don’t know about yet.’ says Katie Titi, facility space planner, interior designer, and founder of Katie Titi LLC. And if that isn’t an endorsement for getting back in the mix in person, I don’t know what is.

© Architonic