Visual separation across an open office, inspired by the communal urban living by Steelcase is the new trending thing in the market. The company accommodates privacy needs and facilitates an innovative work culture. For over 107 years, Steelcase Inc. has helped create great experiences for the world’s leading organizations, across industries. Together, they offer a comprehensive portfolio of architecture, furniture and technology products and services designed to unlock human promise and support social, economic and environmental sustainability.
Constrofacilitator, had a heart to heart discussion with Peter Bockel, Design Manager, Steelcase Asia Pacific. As a design manager, he leads the product design team in Hong Kong, working closely with product development and engineering teams in Kuala Lumpur and Dongguan. Design at Steelcase.
During the discussion, he shared insights on office space market potential and their company’s various services. Here is an extract of the discussion.
- What is the potential of the office space market in India?
The office market in India remains to be the fastest-growing segments in the overall property market, which is witnessing a great demand and investor interest, globally. Factors like favourable policy environment, business expansions and global preference for Indian offices have contributed to the growth. REITs have been a game-changer as well where currently $35 billion worth of office spaces are eligible to be listed under the Real Estate Investment Trust (according to JLL), aiding in the maturity of the market.
However, this trend is also prevalent beyond metros where there is a growing demand for office spaces in Tier II and III where Steelcase India too is working towards tapping this impending demand and setting up Work-Life Centres supporting the office needs in Tier II & III cities.
- Elaborate on Steelcase Sarto Screens?
Inspired by communal urban living, Sarto Screens are the latest collaborative way to create visual separation across an open office by Steelcase which accommodates privacy needs and facilitates an innovative work culture. These screens help in providing privacy while you’re working on your computers and laptops. Collaboration at work is integral in building a dynamic environment but lack of privacy does take a toll on creativity, productivity and wellbeing and Sarto screens are addressing this critical need for greater privacy around workstations.
It is available in different colors and materials with a varied collection available in 5 categories with over 70 different options like Wasabi, Blue Jean, Pepper black and many more vibrant and exotic options that contribute to the appeal of an inviting workplace.
- How much sustainability counts for the company’s services?
We measure progress against our sustainability goals as well as across a broad range of metrics. We look at top-level measures of our sustainability efforts, from growing shareholder value to strengthening employee wellbeing and engagement, from reducing our environmental footprint to amplifying the impact of our community service. The result is an 85.7% employee retention percentage that we were able to garner for the year.
- What are the advantages of Steelcase X Bolia and SiLQ?
Steelcase, a company that has been creating unique workspace experiences through its furniture, technology architecture products and design solutions, recently introduced the award winning portfolios- Steelcase X Bolia and SiLQ.
Steelcase x Bolia:
The Bolia designs use its Nordic heritage to create atmospheres built on warmth, bold and luxurious materials. Born out of its Scandinavian roots, the design perfectly synergises with Steelcase’s effort to foster a sense of comfort by blurring the lines between work and home where people can unleash their best thinking. Together Steelcase and Bolia are transforming offices into creative, inspiring and homely work environments that encourage more informal collaboration, builds a closer-knit community and can improve productivity.
SILQ:
SILQ is a chair that transforms seating design. The ultra-sleek innovation is Steelcase’s answer to bringing comfort in new-age workspaces where people are less desk-bound and seek a comfortable seating that is intuitive to use. With SILQ, Steelcase is set to take its purpose of bringing new solutions for creating places where people want to work, a notch above. SILQ is an inspiration from aerospace, the motion of a high-performance prosthetic leg and sculpture, among other things, that understands how the combination of advanced materials and shape could create a simple system that is incredibly thin, extremely strong and highly responsive.
- Discuss about a few projects?
Backed by its R&D department and insight-led design solution approach, Steelcase is working on bringing in futuristic designs and concepts to India. One of our latest products that we launched is the SILQ chair which is a combination of mechanism and artistry. The chair delivers a personal experience by responding to the unique movements of the body. When we began this journey of creating this seating solution, the idea was clear; we wanted to create a simple chair, more organism than machine. One that operates intuitively and invites the human body to participate in the experience. India continues to be an important market for us and we will look at bringing in some of our global innovations to the subcontinent