The new office: hybrid and increasingly hospitable

Text by

Johanson - Ph. Andrea Mariani

The convergence between the office and hospitality is becoming increasingly evident. Embodied in designs that are intended to be welcoming and favor leisure

Signals seem to be emerging in the design of office furnishings, showing that the undisputed prevalence of working from home could be coming to an end, favoring a partial return to the corporate domain. But what kind of office should we be returning to ? What are its features, after years of when we were accustomed to home living, more decorative and relaxed? With an absolute convergence of ideas, at the Salone del Mobile.Milano 2025, the exhibitors at the Workplace3.0 all seem to be pointing in the same direction. If we’re talking about a place exclusively devoted to work, this can only be light, open and flexible, informal and reconfigurable. Even its register, its tone of voice - to borrow a word from marketing - will necessarily have to be unthreatening, welcoming, horizontal and inclusive. Forgetting coercion at the desk, now outdated even for the most hardened supporters of productivity to the bitter end, the office will have to be equipped with breakout spaces, where moments of dolce far niente, where we can indulge the joyful absence of active and concrete activities.

The other interesting sign we are recording is the increasingly marked convergence between hospitality and the contract sector. After all, if the office manages to change its skin and become joyful and intelligent, how can we draw a boundary between workspaces and those the interior of a lounge, a museum, or even a hotel? A tour of the exhibitors at the Salone seems to confirm this approach. Following this cue, we are not surprised to find at Infiniti, a Venetian company specializing in office supplies, a bench designed for a museum interior. This is Museum – a significant name – a reissue designed by Giulio Lazzotti of the Giulio bench. Among the brand's novelties for 2025, the Diane chair, by the French designer Ambroise Maggiar, on the other hand, is intended for an outdoor setting. In painted steel, it stands out by its soft, clean lines, with or without armrests, and can be supplemented by a magnetic cushion that also goes well with the needs of the indoor furnishings.

The novelty of Segis, another Italian company specializing in seating, tables and upholstery, is the Plose polypropylene chair designed by Archirivolto. Its forms are emblematic of a certain taste in office furniture (and much else). The linear restraint of the form prevails, but the use of curves, in this case parabolic, provide that injection of grace that makes the product friendlier. The Mara brand renews its collaboration with AMDL CIRCLE and Michele De Lucchi. An evolution of the Typo chair presented at the Salone last year, the Typo Lounge armchair is yet another confirmation of the range of the new office ergonomics, increasingly calibrated towards the possibility of infiltrating our living rooms, both public and private.

The Croatian brand Prostoria takes another step forward on the path that leads towards the informal. Its Aire sofa, new for 2025, is described by its designers, the Spanish duo Ramos Bassols, with a comforting word: freedom, a warning that inspires the vocation of this piece to make itself versatile in any space where it is used. The focus on dematerializing the product, understood as containing the amount of material used with a view to increased sustainability, guides one of the latest products launched by Arper at the last Salone. The Catifa RE 46, yet another reinterpretation of the model designed by Lievore Altherr Molina in 2004, is not only proof of the longevity of good design, but also the careful result of a technological outlook that thins the 100% recycled plastic body, making it more incisive.

At Fantoni, another historic brand in the office sector, Alis, the new collection presented in 2025, is expressed through the stringency of the language of architecture. This system of operative and semi-executive desks, meeting tables, bookcases and storage solutions was designed by the Park Associati architecture studio, with its focus on the structural purity of the pieces and their ability to play with effects of light by the 30° angles of the surfaces. By contrast, the Belgian office brand Bulo stresses organic softness and the care it has lavished on the finishes. The soft and rounded form, which seems to welcome and incorporate those who sit at the desk, becomes – they explain to us at the stand – an opportunity to fit more flexibly into any type of space, breaking the Cartesian order of the grid and adapting to an ideal guided by fluidity.

Returning to the Salone del Mobile in Milan after an interval of more than ten years, the Swedish brand Johanson focuses instead on the graphic character of its seating. This is a style capable of speaking to the younger generations, who find in the abstractness full of character an attitude close to their own style, as the bench in the SKETCH series, a project by Färg & Blanche, clearly shows. Humanscale specializes in ergonomically elevating the office experience. In addition to its historic office armchairs, the company now also offers new sit-stand solutions – increasingly popular as an option to improve well-being in the office starting from mobility opportunities – together with monitor arms, keyboard and laptop systems, oscillating footrests, cable management systems and desk accessories.

Finally, well-being in the workspaces is not only measured by the furnishings, but also by countless details that can make a difference. Among the most original examples spotted at the Salone there are the Bloom acoustic panels produced by Slalom. Their upholstery texture, which includes petals and natural fibers, restores a sense of peace that adapts to the new spirit of office life. Also worth mentioning, in the field of wall coverings, are the increasingly sophisticated proposals presented under the aegis of S.Project, with its newly-created display at the Salone del Mobile.Milano devoted to decorative and technical solutions for interior design. An opportunity not to be underrated, bringing out the continuity that binds furniture to a broader vision of the inhabited space, where what makes the difference is the increasingly technological research into the performance of materials, components, finishes, furnishing accessories and lighting solutions.

Specializing in panoramic windows with a high level of customization, the Protezioni brand offers products characterized by thermal and luminous comfort, regardless of the seasons. Dooor, the company that revisits the folding doors dear in the tradition of Gio Ponti, this year presents a soundproof circular fitting room ideal for retail spaces. Among the companies at the forefront of composite wood design solutions, Alpi presents new collections by Piero Lissoni, Nendo and Estùdio Campana. Specializing in the production of modular systems for furniture, at the fair Dresswall presents the Grids lighting panels, characterized by a graphic personality that fits well into pre-existing interiors. The offerings from Giovanardi focus on sustainability by reusing leftovers from the production of awnings and recovered yarn in its Raytent outdoor furnishings. Also digital printed fabrics, with the recovery of digital prints by the Refelter process, containing felt as padding or sound-absorbing components.

Caimi Brevetti presents its novelty for 2025, an “acoustic divan”, CB SOFA by Claudio Bellini: a solution capable of combining superior acoustic comfort, enveloping relaxation, and ergonomics adapted to office life thanks to the support offered by the high backrest.

The Florentine company antoniolupi presents a washbasin made entirely of Cristalplant®. The minimalist styling of its new offerings further highlights the purity and tactile comfort of the material. The Veneto-based company Oikos has a mission: to enhance the importance of the front door, restoring its leading role, as in the Vela and Synua models presented for the first time at the fair. The Belgian brand Renson, on the other hand, looks to the ultimate form of comfort, relaxation out of doors. Its proposal at the Salone, Amani – winner of the Red Dot 2023 award – is a fully customizable outdoor pergola that allows you to indulge in life outdoors thanks to the configuration of multiple details. The “SensiTerre” collection, designed by Matteo Thun and Benedetto Fasciana for Florim, explores the qualities of clay by transposing them from craft workmanship to architectural expression.