No More Bored Meetings

No More Bored Meetings

"Research shows that nearly 80% of European employees derive their motivation from working together and sharing experiences with colleagues." So says the Dutch furniture outfit Ahrend, who used this factoid to inspire their philink office table (which was designed by Belgian architects Jeroen Theuns and Caroline Voet).


Who knows what a similar survey of American workers would reveal–my guess is that a fear of dying penniless and/or moving in with one's parents may rank higher than camaraderie. But perhaps the philink can help: Named after the Golden Section, often represented by Greek letter phi (get it?), the philink is a trapezoidal table with three equal sides and one 90-degree and one 60-degree angle. Get a bunch of philinks together, and they can be arranged into an infinite variety of shapes: triangles, hexagons, snakes, Stars of David, maps of the female reproductive system. What you can't make with a philink is a perfect circle or rectangle, the standard office-table shapes– which is kind of the idea. By thinking outside of the box, the philink aims to encourage even the most antisocial employees to "share experiences," even if it's just lunch.

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David A. Greene
Dave has contributed to Dwell since its inception. He's a CalArts dropout, a former art critic for The New Yorker, and a producer of comedies on TV. He lives in, and writes from, Los Angeles.

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