The tables are turning: MARA

In 2020, the Italian design brand Mara, specialists in the production of high-functioning furniture for work, living, educational and public spaces, celebrated its 60th anniversary. To move it into the next decade, Rome-based illustrator Denny Saurio was commissioned to create an artwork to communicate how the brand, known for its innovative furniture systems, is straddling the increasingly fluid worlds of work and play, with ergonomic products and calm chromatics that are suitable for both home and office environments. Multifunctional tables from the Follow collection, whose heights can adjust and surfaces fold away to save space, are represented with simple lines and geometries, telling the story of a new every-day that brings office functionality to the home and home comfort to the office.

The new framework for Mara’s collections is significant because Mara might not always have been taken for a brand that can readily furnish a home. Founded by Camillo Marchina in 1960, in the middle of the progressive modernist era, Mara’s output embodies the design ethos of that time, embracing simplified form and enhanced function. At first, the Brescia-based production facility’s focus was development, engineering and manufacture for other highly reputed furniture brands, but with growing expertise and ideas of its own, in 1980, Mara started to design and produce its own catalogue of innovative chairs, tables and desks largely for commercial uses.

Today, its portfolio includes tables called Timmy, Argo, Savio and Follow that tilt, fold, stack and roll, rise and fall, and seating that complements these ranges. They are installed the world over in offices, museums, leisure centres, conference halls, hotels and retail venues. Gate Training, a further collection, is designed specifically for schools, universities, and libraries, but also office training rooms everywhere.

Run by the second and third generations of the Marchina family, Mara is showing itself ready to evolve with the market; driving forward new innovative technologies, pursuing ever more sustainable materials and manufacturing practices, and adapting to new societal habits, which have never been more in flux than now, with the adjustments to where we live, work and play that the pandemic has brought. Mara’s illustration fronts a new in-house publication called Perspectives that among other things, defines new layouts for offices in the community and home.

‘The concept of mixed form between the office and the so-called home office is nothing new, but this pandemic has accelerated a process of change towards more flexible, smart and even futuristic forms of work,’ says third-generation director Laura Marchina. ‘One of the main demands is the need to rethink existing environments. Whether for co-working, break areas, conference rooms, common areas or residential environments, with our space-saving, multi-functional and height-adjustable solutions we offer to designers and architects maximum freedom and customisation in the creation of individual or common work landscapes and the freedom to organise spaces efficiently in terms of social distancing and protection.’

Follow is the newest family of sit-stand tables to settle comfortably into a broad spectrum of environments and serve different uses. It comprises a single desk, a double desk, a desk with tilting top mounted on castors and a round meeting version, each conceived to bring the ultimate in ergonomics to working life. Common to all is the pioneering mechanism that allows for height adjustment without the need for gas, electricity or a crank – an innovation that has earned Follow recognition from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, alongside EN527 certification. It’s a technology that is not only smart but sustainable.

‘The “no gravity” capability allows the supports to absorb the tabletop’s weight and easily raise and lower the desk’s height. This is our exclusive and patented mechanical counterbalance system,’ says second-generation director Luciano Marchina, ‘Alternative systems present in the market have limitations or weak points that make the height-adjustable tables unenjoyable. Our Follow desk system can overcome these limitations and promotes a continuous and regular use of the table’s height-adjustable system for maximum benefit against workplace sedentarism’. The sit-stand functionality means Follow can follow your every need and whim, silently and with immediacy, rising swiftly from a sitting height of 680mm to 1180mm when legs are ready for a stretch.

With this sort of boundary-pushing functionality that accommodates all life, easing the way we work, and blending, with its wide palette of colours and shapes, into any environment, Mara proves it is as relevant today as it was at its inception 60 years ago.

© Architonic