Turkish furniture brand, Koleksiyon responds to missing originality and a need for a deeper understanding of office furniture. The brand director and designer, Koray Malhan presented at Koleksiyon’s showroom in Istanbul, Turkey, a new portfolio to trade dealers, planners, architects, distributors and a selection of journalists during an exclusive press event. He gave an inspiring presentation in the morning followed by a tour around the showroom where he explained the designs.
“There’s still so much to learn,” Malhan said during his presentation when describing the way the company works.
The new office furniture series, Open Work, began through intensive research on contemporary working culture by Koray Malhan. He questioned the common creation process by inviting architects, planners and specifiers to actively participate in the development stage of workspaces.
We were guided around the showroom and presented the ensemble of products making up the new collection: Oblivion, designed by Koray Malhan; Borges, Tube, Vis and Cap, designed by architects from Venice-based Studio Kairos.
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- Courtesy of Koleksiyon
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- Courtesy of Koleksiyon
We were taken around and inside the wall system Oblivion, a safe haven for employees and a solution for modern offices. Alternative offices within offices are key elements to open workspaces today. Oblivion stretches upwards in a cone form and when we entered the private space, we suddenly felt as if we’d escaped reality. Architects, planners or clients can construct the interior as they wish to make the environment ideal for fueling creativity.
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- Courtesy of Koleksiyon
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- Courtesy of Koleksiyon
“Design is a product of the human mind, like science, thought, art and action.” wrote Prof. Dr. Ilhan Tekeli, urban planner and sociologist, in Koleksiyon’s magazine Rhizome. A bookshelf in the center of the showroom rises three floors tall. Koray Malhan said there aren’t any books on architecture or design on the shelves—the company focuses on arts, sciences, human behaviors and the like “so that industry serves design,” Malhan explained.
He also reemphasized the importance of fine arts and language in the design process during his morning presentation of the brand, a concept he published in Rhizome’s October 2014 issue on “Open Work”:
“This is a modern call for participation, that can be applied in politics as well as in a creative composition, be it in music, literature or even design & architecture. At this stage, rather than designing a product, designing the process of how a product can evolve through active participation becomes the issue.”
The idea of involving more minds into the design process is becoming quite à la mode, more reasonable than fashionable. “It is another time to shift from the mood ‘every man for him’ to ‘all for one and one for all’, designing ‘less for one’, and ‘more for all’,” Faruk Malhan, architect and president of Design Foundation, in Koleksiyon’s magazine Rhizome.
After visiting the showroom, Malhan took his press group to a personal lunch at his friend’s home, a sommelier with greatly appreciated wine, where another friend, a well-known cook, provided us with delicious fish a plenty. From the best olives we’ve ever tasted to exceptional wine to an amazing main dish, our host whisked us back to the showroom for interviews. Watch our video interview below to get additional details directly from Koray Malhan.
To learn more about the goings-on of office furniture this year, take a look at our piece on Workspace 3.0 in our iSaloni special issue.
Sidenote
In cooperation with Danish textile manufacturer Kvadrat, Koleksiyon’s products featured first applications of brand new fabrics by Kvadrat launched at Orgatec. The brand has been at this international trade fair for modern working environments for 20 years, but they consider 2014’s event an important turning point in generating German relationships. The upcoming Orgatec is set for October 2016 in Cologne, Germany.
