No doubt collaboration sprouts creativity and inspired ideas, but there is still value in focused, solitary, strictly productive work.
April 8th, 2016
While workplace design has evolved, and open plan, collaborative spaces have become du jour – singular, focused work has become trickier to carry out.
Japanese design outfit Okamura has found a way to balance collaboration; creativity and concentration with a new workplace furniture set titled Muffle. Okamura asked, if workers’ personalities and work styles are necessarily diverse, why shouldn’t their environments be? Indeed, we all work at different paces, and in different modes, so the ideal work place would be modular and malleable, able to cater to all types.
Muffle configurations include pods, meeting space, screens and workstation applications. Muffle layouts can be customised to suit any work environment with various shapes and sizes available, including two screen heights. The Muffle series also includes a range of accessories, including lounges, tables, doors, shelving and more. Providing sound absorbency of up to 500Hz, Muffle offers a neat solution for a more balanced working environment: space for brain storming and group meetings, without forgetting quite spaces prime for focus and concentration.
Okamura calls this type of holistic environment an ‘Activity Based Workspace’ – and research conducted by the company has shown a notable increase in creativity, as well as motivation and productivity, where such a design has been implemented.
The Muffle range is also available in nine standard hues, as well as a selection of more vibrant colours like Tomato, Huckleberry, Grape and Pumpkin.
Muffle is available in Australia exclusively through UCI.
See Muffle in action in UCI’s recent project for Place Real Estate.
UCI Australia Wide
uci.com.au
1300 824 824
INDESIGN is on instagram
Follow @indesignlive
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
At 3daysofdesign 2026, AHEC’s immersive exhibition traced the journey of American hardwood from forest to finished product.
Aeron Chair’s new shades, Nightfall and Jasper, arrive with a sense of quiet cohesion – no bells and whistles, no loud technicolour; just two timeless, perfectly versatile near-neutrals. But the new hues aren’t just about colour – and their significance is much more profound than their surface-level subtlety might suggest.
In the second instalment of our performance seating three-parter, we turn to DKO’s Michael Drescher and Jacob Olsen to peek behind Sayl’s confident architectural form and explore the ideas of inclusivity, adaptability and freedom to move as hallmarks of what sitting your best actually means.
In the last instalment of our three-part performance seating series, Alex Bain from Architectus explains why sitting well shouldn’t feel like sitting at all and explores an unexpected success metric of the hybrid workplace: the grounding power of emotional support.
Atlassian Central by SHoP Architects and BVN has reached its full structural height, marking a construction milestone for the 39-storey commercial tower in Sydney.
Bean Buro discusses the design of Palatino Hospitality’s Hong Kong workplace, where biophilic design, warm materiality and hospitality principles combine to create a calm retreat within the city.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
The Australian Institute of Architects’ (AIA) 2026 National Architecture Awards Shortlist has been revealed, showcasing some of the country’s best new homes, buildings and community spaces before the winners are announced in October.
Illiana Jones, a graduate at Sam Crawford Architects, reports back from her recent Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarship on autism-friendly design from London to Cairo.