upStage

This NeoCon, Teknion introduces upStage, workplace furniture that borrows the best attributes of a panel-based system and the best attributes of casegoods to create a new typology for the office that offers maximum flexibility and enriched, experience-based design at both the planning level and the level of the occupant.

“What’s different about upStage is the degree to which it offers seamless transformation and control—not to the ‘end-user’, but to people,” says Steve Verbeek, Teknion’s Vice President of Design + Innovation. “We’ve come from a perspective of efficiency, thinking about office furniture as work tools. But there is an emotive quality to it as well that is important.” ​upStage connects individual personalities and personal work styles by allowing people to manage independently their own preferences for acoustic control, visual privacy, movement, orientation, and storage—thus touching on many of the important aspects of worker well-being that are rising to the top of the most current thinking about effective workplace strategy: When workers have some degree of control over their physical environments, they feel empowered, energized, inspired—and therefore more productive.

​upStage manages the apparent paradoxes between the need for privacy and the need to be connected to co-workers in the office. It is based on a simple platform or “stage” that frees people from the constraints of a benching frame or panel, allowing them to build along horizontal or vertical planes to create layered work surfaces and multi-story volumes. An innovative structural solution, the staging unit integrates a full complement of desks, height adjustable tables, cabinets, shelves, cubbies and screens, and serves as a conduit for electrics. Every element simply moves into place and fits together, offering innumerable combinations for a dynamic and collaborative workplace.

“It does not require a tremendous amount of assembly,” notes Verbeek. “​upStage is more like Lego® blocks, with layers of elements that we place upon, beneath, or adjacent to the stage. They are easy to rearrange and relocate without tools.”