In this op-ed, Steve Delfino, Vice President, Corporate Marketing & Product Management at Teknion, discusses a new kind of collaboration in the workplace.
For years, collaboration in the workplace was defined by lounges, cafés, and informal hubs—spaces that encouraged chance encounters and spontaneous conversation. Today, teams seek purpose-driven environments that make assembling for group work seamless. Collaborative areas have often been mistaken for open-concept layouts, which can prioritize socializing over decision-making. Workplaces are increasingly emphasizing performance over atmosphere. This shift has given rise to intentional, technology-enabled environments that bridge structured and informal work, featuring modular, mobile, and adaptable furniture.
Teknion’s Aarea collection, launched in 2024, embodies this change. Designed as a perfect balance between lounge seating and task seating, Aarea’s proportions invite individual focus work and group collaboration alike. Its approachable scale encourages openness, while its ergonomic features keep teams engaged and productive. The chairs’ slimmer, lighter design also promotes user mobility and can quickly be pulled into a collaborative space.
Aarea is more than seating; it is the centerpiece of today’s interactive environment, signaling the shift from casual encounters to purposeful engagement. The products simultaneously offer comfort, drive performance, and embody the future of office seating: efficient, adaptable, and thoughtful in every detail.
Agility Meets Formality
While Aarea anchors collaboration with its balance of comfort and performance, teams also need flexibility. Static rooms stifle the pace of agile workflows, and do not consider in their designs that the journey for each worker looks different throughout the day. While some tasks require focused, heads-down work in smaller, private areas, others require group planning and ancillary space that can accommodate larger strategic sessions.
That’s why Teknion introduced the Routes Collection in 2021 with Pearson Lloyd. Mobile tables, stools, whiteboards, and screens can be rearranged instantly, enabling a group to shift from brainstorming to hybrid presentations without changing rooms. Routes turn furniture into active infrastructure that moves with the rhythm of work.
Moveable, adaptable, and digital furniture pieces like those offered in Teknion’s 2022 Kiosk collection also allow users to easily create individual and collaborative work hubs. Workers can easily transform the same space and the same furniture, promoting change and movement while also empowering employees by allowing them to maneuver each element and create custom locations.
On the other end of the spectrum is the Figure Table. Introduced in 2025, Figure is a high-end wood table, designed by Alyssa Coletti and crafted for formal decision-making. It combines the gravitas of an executive statement piece with discreet, integrated technology that supports hybrid collaboration. Where Routes and Kiosk represent agility, Figure embodies stability, and is a technologically-enabled anchor for leadership and strategy.
Together, Aarea, Routes, Kiosk, and Figure create a layered ecosystem: approachable for team collaboration, flexible for agile workflows, and elevated for executive decision-making.
Balancing Comfort, Focus & Atmosphere
High-performing collaboration spaces also need to be human-centered. That means managing acoustics, integrating technology, and creating an engaging atmosphere.
Teknion’s Tek Booth, refreshed in 2024, adds acoustic balance to open office settings. With integrated lighting, ventilation, and power, it provides a private enclave for calls and one-to-one discussions—a quiet counterpoint to active team zones.
Aarea, however, shows how comfort and performance converge. Neither purely lounge nor task seating, the chairs create an intentional middle ground where teams can lean in, share ideas, and make decisions in a relaxed state without losing proper posture. The lightweight Conference Chair and its swivel tilt mechanism promote changing postures from upright to relaxed for social and formal settings. Aarea Worklounge features a synchro-tilt mechanism with three lock-and-tilt positions that allow for the seat back and cushion to recline at different rates while keeping the user’s feet on the floor. Meanwhile, the Casual Lounge fits in any open setting where a supportive, cushioned seat is needed. The collection’s versatility ensures it works as well for focused individual tasks as it does for team collaboration.
Materiality also plays a key role. Luum Textiles’ Good Vibrations collection, launched in 2024, brings sustainability and beauty into performance fabrics. From the tactile richness of Soft Static to the plush coziness of Super Shearling, the collection demonstrates how fabric and color can energize or ground a space, influencing how teams feel and work. Beauty, in this context, is also performance.
Teknion’s New Products Defining Collaboration
Recent launches capture Teknion’s vision for the new era of collaboration:
- Aarea (2024) — The centerpiece of the shift, balancing lounge comfort with task support. Its proportions invite both focused work and group collaboration.
- Routes Collection (2021) — A mobile toolkit that brings agility and adaptability to team spaces.
- Figure Table (2025) — A high-end wood table that blends formality with embedded technology, designed as the executive anchor for strategy and decision-making.
- Tek Booth (2024 Refresh) — An acoustic booth that balances open collaboration with privacy.
- Luum Textiles’ Good Vibrations (2024) — A sustainable collection of performance textiles where color and tactility shape collaboration.
Workspaces For Meaningful, Interactive Work
Collaboration has entered a new era. No longer centered on lounges and casual encounters, group work now demands purpose-driven spaces that combine comfort, flexibility, and performance. Workers are calling for rooms and zones designed for strategic work, problem-solving, and co-creation to help drive results. Teknion’s latest introductions, led by the versatile Aarea collection, supported by agile systems like Kiosk and Routes, and elevated by the executive sophistication of Figure, illustrate how the workplace is shifting priorities and moving decisively from good vibes to successful outcomes.
With Luum Textiles adding warmth and Tek Booth ensuring focus, Teknion shows how design and materiality merge to define the next generation of collaboration. The future is strategic, flexible, and human-centered, and with Aarea at the center. Teknion isn’t just reflecting the shift; it’s shaping it.
