Dezeen Magazine

"Storage is disappearing from offices" - Erwan Bouroullec

In this movie filmed at Clerkenwell Design Week, French designer Erwan Bouroullec tells Dezeen he believes offices need new dividing systems now there is much less storage for paper and books.

Erwan Bouroullec Workbays Clerkenwell Design Week 2013
Workbays system by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec

Speaking at Vitra's Clerkenwell showroom at an installation showcasing Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec's Alcove furniture and a new office system currently in development called Workbays, Bouroullec explains that office spaces used to be divided up by storage.

But "storage is disappearing," he says. "We don't have real paper, we don't have real books, not in the quantity that we used to have."

Erwan Bouroullec Workbays Clerkenwell Design Week 2013
Workbays office system at Vitra's showroom during Clerkenwell Design Week 2013

The Workbays system Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec are developing, in which work stations are surrounded by soft fleece walls, is an attempt to re-privatise the working environment, Bouroullec goes on to explain.

Erwan Bouroullec Workbays Clerkenwell Design Week 2013

"Instead of storage, we are creating a number of small enclosures in which you kind of nest, you disappear a little," he says.

"[What] we propose are, let's say, some elements that act as dividers in a way. But they're not as limited as a wall system. They're more about the function that is inside."

Erwan Bouroullec Workbays Clerkenwell Design Week 2013
Erwan Bouroullec, one half of design studio Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec

See all our stories from Clerkenwell Design Week 2013 »

The music featured in this movie is a track called Octave by Junior Size, released by French record label Atelier du Sample . You can listen to more Junior Size tracks on Dezeen Music Project.