Following a workshop led by Camille Blin and Erwan Bouroullec, Master Product Design students of ECAL present projects around the Workbays created by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec and edited by Vitra. Together with new functionalities, these prospective work environments are presented on the occasion of Design Parade Toulon – festival international d’architecture d’intérieur.
With Workbays, which they created for Vitra a few years ago, the French designers Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, who regularly collaborate with ECAL, have developed a micro-architectural system that redefines the working environment and breaks with the typical rigid planning structure of offices. Thus Workbays create distinct areas where individuals or groups can retreat from the general office environment to carry out specific activities. The units come equipped with everything users need: work surfaces, seating, optional storage and power connections. The structure of Workbays consists of slim aluminium profiles and organically shaped wall elements made of pressed polyester felt.
“The ECAL students suggested we devised new typologies for these working environments, adding novel features and supplying them with new accessories”, says Camille Blin, the designer and professor who headed the project. So the Master Product Design students worked for a full semester under the watchful eye of Erwan Bouroullec and invented new structures that call to mind Japanese 0capsule hotels, a prototyping workshop, a gym, a bar, a garden or a resting area.
For each of these spaces, the students created specific and original objects, ranging from Bluetooth loudspeakers to miniature lamps reminiscent of stadium ones, desk pads-cum-bags, a semi-standing stool, a cable-covering carpet, in & out wastepaper baskets, multi socket trays or a desk partition with vases and drawing pins.
A 3D animation film specifically created by TRAUM Inc. presenting these unusual Workbays can also be seen at the exhibition.
