Haworth and healthy workspace design

What kind of impact do our surroundings have on our behaviour, and additionally, how do we react in return? These questions lie at the heart of Environmental Psychology, a research field that studies the transactions between individuals and their socio-physical environments and attempts to identify how we can anticipate a future with healthier and more sustainable environments.

At Haworth, one of the world’s largest office furniture manufacturers, these types of studies are consistently conducted and given serious thought, in the quest to design spaces that have a positive impact on the quality of our work and life. The researchers in the Ideation team – an internal think tank consisting of workplace scientists, designers, ergonomists and analysts – inform the R&D teams who design functional and aesthetic furnishing solutions that meet people's needs for well-being, but also performance and productivity.

Good design is already widely acknowledged as having a beneficial effect on our comfort and mood. Yet how do we conscientiously incorporate beauty into an overall vision of improving our ecological and social impact? According to Haworth, one way is through innovative collaborations with other companies, institutes and creative minds who can share a deeper understanding of how design thinking can facilitate sustainable solutions that are both alluring as well as smart.

Take ‘Oceanic’ for example, a newly developed fabric made entirely from post-consumer recycled plastic. By joining forces with The Seaqual Initiative, a community fighting against oceanic pollution, and textile house Camira, the company can propose a highly versatile and refined material in its fabric’s portfolio.

Rethinking and upgrading our workplace environment is an interdisciplinary exercise which, for Haworth, means merging human and economic interests with awareness, analysis and imagination. This is how the Haworth Collection – a family of brands that showcases the design thinking at the core of Haworth – was born in 2011.

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