Custom interior woodworkers who attended NeoCon heard first hand the business case for “adaptive” office furnishings – flexible interior space designs that are suited to make the most of the talent from next-generation workers. Research into the subject, was captured in the report, “Design-Leveraged,”  prepared by journalist Kevin Salwen.

Preferences of younger workers – what kind of environment and amenities they thrive in – helps keep their creative juices flowing. Their proclivity for bits of natural materials injected into a high tech environment – live edge maple tabletops on a steel trestle table body, for example – are setting the design trends for the coming years,

This will profoundly affect material choices and the work that architectural woodworkers are asked to do. For example, much greater use of mixed materials – metal, wood, plastics, glass; more reclaimed woods; healthy, natural finishes, etc.

Unlocking Keys at IWF   

To make the production of such commercial interiors practical requires a different kind of technology, in both materials, and machinery. There is a tendency to conflate technology with equipment. But the new generation of laminates, panel, edgeband,  glues and finishes are technologies just as amazing as the machines that process them. Without new-generation materials, many high-tech machines could not perform. We will cover this at IWF 2014.