Haworth makes it happen

The Orgatec fair returns to Cologne this October. Guests will find Haworth in two places – at the Haworth Warehouse Experience and in Hall 6 of the fair. (Don’t forget to sign up for the Haworth Warehouse Experience – tickets are free, but space is limited!)

The theme for Haworth this year is ‘We Are Makers’. It is a fitting motto that echoes a favourite refrain of Henning Figge, President of Haworth International. 

‘I would say, we as Haworth, we make it happen,' Henning says. ‘No matter what your needs are. You might have preferences for certain brands, for certain products. We will create a space that answers the need of our customers.’

The way we work has changed. The office no longer has a monopoly on where work gets done. People all over the world now work in a more mobile way – and no matter where people work, Haworth aims to meet people there. 

‘We want to be at the intersection of people and space, wherever work happens,’ Henning says. ‘On the go, at home, in the office – we have the right solution.’

Global design responds more to local needs

Having diverse portfolios that respond to local needs and preferences is more important than ever. Henning believes we have seen the end of global design mega-trends – and in his eyes, that is good news for workplaces.

‘I would say design has become more local, has become more reflective of ethnicity, of culture,’ Henning says. ‘And that's very nice to see. And by that, I would say it is becoming more global, because there is not one trend that is kind of dictating the world, and everybody wants to follow.’

After all, Henning says, ‘it’s the plurality of different perspectives that make this world interesting.’  

With the many portfolios available from the Haworth Group, our clients and design partners have the design flexibility and the product breadth to craft the spaces that work best for them. 

‘This is also an answer in terms of diversity of brands,’ Henning says. ‘Customers do not want to have everything from one brand; they want to be able to mix and match. And you need to cater for these tastes and these needs.’

Haworth’s role in designing for neurodiversity

There are many ways of being in the world. As global workplace design becomes more responsive to local needs, designing for neurodiversity has taken an increasingly prominent role in product design. 

‘We are actually learning every day how the workspace impacts neurodiverse people, positively or negatively,’ Henning says. ‘There's a lot that we see and we learn and where we are adjusting and adapting our product solutions, our space design, in order to give an adequate answer to the needs of all the different ways of diversity that are in this world.’

‘As an example,’ Henning says, ‘our two sister brands, BuzziSpace and Hushoffice, they produce and develop acoustic pods. So in the end, of course, acoustic privacy is something that people need… these products answer to this need for neurodiversity.’ 

The topic of acoustics is tightly linked with designing more inclusive spaces. In her book Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn’t Designed for You, Jenara Nerenberg  writes that ‘the topic of sound came up again and again’ in her research. ‘Neurodivergent folks are affected more intensely by sound than neurotypical individuals,’ she writes. ‘The role that hearing plays in our experience of the world cannot be overstated.’

Discover more about BuzziSpace and Hushoffice at the Haworth Warehouse Experience and in Hall 6 at the Orgatec fairgrounds. 

The ‘We Are Makers’ legacy

As a leading workplace manufacturer for over seventy-five years, Haworth has a rich tradition of crafting excellent workspaces. Henning hopes that Haworth’s legacy will be less about the products we make and more about the people we make those products for. 

‘I hope that we will be known, and we hopefully are known, to create workspaces that answer the user needs, whatever they be,’ Henning says. ‘Because they can be very diverse. And, in the end, we are providing a solution to our customer's needs and not a product.’ 

During the week of Orgatec, be sure to drop by Hall 6. And don’t miss the Haworth Warehouse Experience, where you can test our latest products and dive into immersive stories about our latest sustainability initiatives and our newest materials.