Design Stories

Kinesit Met: The anywhere office

28 April 2021
Kinesit Met: The anywhere office

What inspired the original design for Kinesit?

Few years ago, the boundaries between life and work began to blur. A digital revolution was impacting every area of our life, but nowhere more so than in how and where we work. The office had become not a static building or location that we traveled to, but rather, the digital tools we carry. Working from home became a possibility. And our offices were changing, too: more colorful, more intuitive and empathetic.

For this reason, in 2014 we wanted to create a chair that would work in both home and office environments and chose color and lightness as our guiding principle. Kinesit featured strong, basic colors but used in a considered way, exploring and combining the nuances of primary colors situated in a bright, luminous environment to foster a joyful but sophisticated mood.

© Domink Tarabanski, Gerhardt Kellermann

What inspired the design update for Kinesit Met?

In past year, we have seen how we work rapidly change. Many more people experienced working from home – some for the first time. Many of us had to rethink our spaces to accommodate both home and work, giving even more importance to adaptable, flexible furnishings.

 

This year, we are extending our focus for Kinesit Met onto colors and materials. Specially for working from home, we were interested in upholstery in more nuanced, and in shaded colors and textures to contribute to a harmonious work environment – at the office, or at home.

© Ricard Lopez

How did the evolution in the material of the armrests come about?

As we looked at the change in material selection for the upholstery to a more sophisticated and refined palette, we discovered that the white or black plastic armrest didn’t seem to fit. We sought out a different material, one with the capacity of being neutral, but with a defined and noble material quality. So, we started to explore different shades of metal. After exploring different tones, including bronze and blue, we finally chose a dark copper to combine with fabrics in warm terracotta tones for a more harmonious and contemporary expression, plus two shades of satin steel—one bright and one dark—for neutral finishes.

© Salva Lopez

How were the armrests produced?

The first idea was to produce the armrest in anodized aluminum, but the die-casting process requires a certain amount of silicon in the alloy to increase the fluidity of the material’s graft in the mold. However, since the silicon reacts with the anodization, the piece becomes very dark and consequently limits a lot the color range. So, we developed a high-quality paint in different metal shades: charcoal black, space grey and dark copper.

 

These shades work perfectly with the a suggested range of selected upholstery colors that wouldn’t pair well with white and black armrests and bases, and allow to interpret the Kinesit collection from a completely different aesthetic angle making it a softer, more sophisticated, and more elegant expression.