Trend: Minimalism and precision

Which trends define the category "Offices and Administration," and what kind of furniture will shape the workplace of the future? This year’s salient topics are elegance and aesthetics. According to the jury members Marten Claesson, Florian Hufnagl und Kaspar Kraemer, a new office aesthetic is being established. Above all, an aesthetic of how to solve functional problems, and of how to arrange office furnishings that, by now, are intelligently adjustable. The design of office furnishing can be summarized in what the jury calls “the new old minimalism.” They describe office desks and chairs as "reduced and neatly designed." Clean in every respect and, at the same time, possessing a positive kind of "modesty." The design of office furnishings was generally unobtrusive and would integrate very well into the architecture of any office.

The importance of light governs the trend in the category "Office and Administration": It is the design of lighting that will shape the workplace of the future; architecture and space form a unit. Design innovation in lighting appears in the shape of table lamps or in the form of integrated luminous walls. The jury says that the interpretation and design of lighting produces "examples of new, appealing and finely detailed design;" also with a consistent relation of proportion and material.

Jurors: Marten Claesson, Florian Hufnagl, Kaspar Kraemer

You can find the winners of "red dot: best of the best" 2004 here.