HW
Do you have any evidence that better office
furniture and environments, like the ones you
design, lead to an improved results and motiv-
ated employees?
RB
I don’t think you need evi-
dence, common sense is enough. It’s like with
the Blackberry and iPhone: Both are objects
with similar functions, but the latter leads to
a different approach to working. Did you know
that an office table, like the one we’re sitting
at, should have no 90° angles? Because of the
risk of injury – that’s absurd.
HW
After travelling around the world, have you no-
ticed some differences in office culture? For
example that U.S. workplaces differ from Ja-
panese, German or French?
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sion, and to me the greatest differences come
down to the question of hierarchy versus team-
work. I feel that the idea that everything be-
longs to everyone and that as a team you can
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cantly more common in Northern Europe,
Switzerland and Germany than in Southern
Europe. As always, the pre-revolutionary mon-
archy especially exists in French companies. In
Japan there is an extreme sense of hierarchy
and order. However, this is not so relevant for
us, because we don’t follow different ap-
proaches for the various markets.
HW
What do you mean by that?
EB
For
example,
our
Joyn
Table for Vitra is not a worktable; rather, it
is first and foremost a table. We leave the
paper as blank as possible, so to speak, so
that it offers the user maximum possibili-
ties. One shouldn’t forget that the office
world is changing, and that the furniture will
be there longer than many office concepts.
It must take part in this evolution, not stand
in the way of it.
HW
Do you think that within this evolution the
concept of teamwork will automatically
continue to develop – or in the future will
different office cultures with varying levels
of hierarchy co-exist?
EB
To reach better decisions
in a connected world, you need more know-
ledge, more eyes and more experience at the
table. Therefore, in the long run, the French
and Japanese will discover the benefits of
teamwork for themselves.
RONAN & ERWAN BOUROULLEC
