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Issue 01 The Road Back to the Office

Newspaper
2020
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This magazine is one of four print issues of Vitra’s e-magazine, which were published digitally in the summer of 2020. The magazines are the concept of Vitra CEO Nora Fehlbaum and contain suggestions for new ways of designing offices and domestic interiors in light of the health concerns brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Claiming that the pandemic has ‘fundamentally altered the way we work’, each issue focuses on a different aspect of the changing workplace. Working between disciplines, Vitra leveraged their network of scientists and designers to help inform their design decisions based on empirical evidence from research in public and personal health. Collectively, all four issues contain valuable information on workplace design and serve as a bellwether to the lasting changes in work in a post-pandemic society. 

Issue 01, ‘The Road Back to the Office’, covers both temporary and long-term solutions to offices. Comparing the change to that of airport security following 9/11, Vitra notes increased hygiene standards, contactless zones and team-specific environments as structural changes in the workplace that are likely to remain permanent. In addition to these long-term solutions, Vitra also has measures that can be quickly implemented to make an office ‘corona-safe’ including one-way transit systems, decreasing office density to ensure social distancing, the use of dividers and screens and having teams work in shifts. Open-plan layouts are shown before and after, with examples including Vitra’s Joyn and Tyde products as model workstations. The issue also includes an essay by Alice Rawsthorn on the evolution of the home office and comments on working from home by designer Jonathan Olivares. 

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleIssue 01 The Road Back to the Office (published title)
Materials and techniques
Brief description
Issue of printed E-paper published by Vitra, 2020
Physical description
The magazine cover has an illustration in pastel colours of office buildings, cut through to reveal working spaces within. The image is colourful and playful, with animals including an elepant, giraffe, bear and penguins moving about the office spaces along with humans. Across the top a small yellow plane pulls a banner that reads: 'Getting ready for the new normal', and along a road at the bottom text reads 'The road back to the office'.
Dimensions
  • Height: 26cm
  • Width: 18.2cm
Gallery label
The new normal in the office The Covid-19 pandemic forced lockdowns across the world that meant a large majority of people with office jobs suddenly had to work from home. This promotional publication from the furniture manufacturer Vitra captures the moment when the first European lockdowns eased and many people returned to the office in summer 2020. The e-paper covered new Covid-safe working practices and encouraged ‘blended’ working – both from home and from the office. Printed publication ‘The Road Back to the Office’, e-paper issue 01, 2020 Designed by AKFB with illustrations by Atelier CTJM Published by Vitra, Switzerland Printed paper Given by Vitra AG Museum no. CD.1-2021 The object sits in the 'Automation and Labour' section of the Design 1900-Now gallery opened in June 2021.(17/06/2021)
Credit line
Given by Vitra
Production
The e-magazines were released as e-papers, with a small run of printed copies.
Association
Summary
This magazine is one of four print issues of Vitra’s e-magazine, which were published digitally in the summer of 2020. The magazines are the concept of Vitra CEO Nora Fehlbaum and contain suggestions for new ways of designing offices and domestic interiors in light of the health concerns brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Claiming that the pandemic has ‘fundamentally altered the way we work’, each issue focuses on a different aspect of the changing workplace. Working between disciplines, Vitra leveraged their network of scientists and designers to help inform their design decisions based on empirical evidence from research in public and personal health. Collectively, all four issues contain valuable information on workplace design and serve as a bellwether to the lasting changes in work in a post-pandemic society. 

Issue 01, ‘The Road Back to the Office’, covers both temporary and long-term solutions to offices. Comparing the change to that of airport security following 9/11, Vitra notes increased hygiene standards, contactless zones and team-specific environments as structural changes in the workplace that are likely to remain permanent. In addition to these long-term solutions, Vitra also has measures that can be quickly implemented to make an office ‘corona-safe’ including one-way transit systems, decreasing office density to ensure social distancing, the use of dividers and screens and having teams work in shifts. Open-plan layouts are shown before and after, with examples including Vitra’s Joyn and Tyde products as model workstations. The issue also includes an essay by Alice Rawsthorn on the evolution of the home office and comments on working from home by designer Jonathan Olivares. 
Associated objects
Collection
Accession number
CD.1-2021

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Record createdDecember 21, 2020
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