Ten years of PARCS – The revolutionary furniture range celebrates a major birthday
In 2009, Bene launched a new kind of furniture named PARCS enabled unconventional office layouts, breaking away from established formats and routines. Jointly developed with the London design duo PearsonLloyd, it defined a new quality of office interaction informal, inspirational and communicative. Bene is currently celebrating the 10-year anniversary of this colourful, creative furniture range that quickly became a classic and is now a standard feature of modern office environments. Today’s modern workplace setting is characterised by multi-functional, unstructured office layouts with open spaces that encourage dialogue and teamwork. That hasn’t always been the case. Aloof colour schemes and angular forms were typical for offices in the 1980s and 90s, right up to October 2009 when Bene launched its comprehensive PARCS range, breaking up the severity of traditional office for the first time. New colours, soft materials and innovative forms produced lively, fresh office landscapes that encouraged a new style of interaction. Communication and creativity, collaborating and exchanging ideas became key elements of the modern way of working, and improved the productivity of every organization. PARCS – its name derived from the concept of a “park” – was the result of a two-year research project on “New ways of working”, and was developed in collaboration with the internationally renowned designers Luke Pearson and Tom Lloyd. It promises multifunctional layouts that define different spaces and encourage communication in the office. With the introduction of PARCS, Bene made office layouts more open and more versatile. Rather like a park in a big city, PARCS creates collective zones between workstations in the office, linking and inviting employees to get together. Since the initial launch of PARCS in October 2009, Bene has used it for countless office designs throughout the world – including recent projects for Air Liquid Research, Livit AG, L'Oréal and Multi Media Marketing. PARCS added a new dimension to office interiors: places for relaxation, inspiration and exchange of ideas are seen as essential today. “The new working environment is individual, networked, digital and flexible. As trendsetters in the industry, Benerecognized this ten years ago: with PARCS we presented a social concept where ideas develop in an environment of constant interaction, as opposed to the old industrial model of an efficient office. Ever since, modern office environments have included zones for cooperative work and an inspirational exchange of ideas, alongside spaces for temporary retreat,” says Michael Fried, Executive Board Member for Sales, Marketing and Innovation at Bene, explaining the lasting success of PARCS. He continues: “PARCS was the product of the first collaboration between Bene and PearsonLloyd, and the beginning of an enduring partnership. TIMBA, RIYA, Bay Chair and SETTLE followed, and we are currently working together to develop another new concept.”
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