Balancing Collaboration and Concentration in the Workplace

Published by
Sam Preston
April 8, 2016

No doubt collaboration sprouts creativity and inspired ideas, but there is still value in focused, solitary, strictly productive work.

While workplace design has evolved, and open plan, collaborative spaces have become du jour – singular, focused work has become trickier to carry out.

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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.

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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.

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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