Find Enrichers in OVG Real Estate's latest showroom "FFWD"
Real Estate company OVG is showcasing the latest technology in showroom FFWD. The climate can be adjusted per working station, the lighting turns on by the presence of people, hot coffee comes straight from the tap and by having also Enrichers as part of the furniture, body movement is facilitated naturally. Moving at work is not only a pure necessity, it makes people feel more at ease to express themselves: making work eventually more fun.
The Bambata water sofa might be the spiciest piece. Being placed in an open part of the office, people feel like taking a seat while waiting for their appointment. When someone sits next to you, the water in the sofa makes you move as well. It lowers the threshold to start the conversation. A real conversation piece and a surprising way for breaking the ice with visitors.
The Buoy chair makes you move your lower body while being at work. During the build-up of the showroom, one Buoy was taken to the headquarter of OVG to be used by the project manager. Every time she arrived in the morning, her Buoy chair was taken by fellow colleagues. Eventually, it was decided the secretaries could use the Buoy chair since they were at their desk longest. Currently, at FFWD the new range of colours of the Buoy chairs can all be tried out. The metal part of the Buoy comes in matt black, silver, gold and beetle green.
Besides the Buoy and the Bambata, are also installed at FFWD. They literally make you feel like standing on water. The orthogonal shape of the eight designed to keep your knees moving while standing. Nevertheless, at FFWD showroom people tend to run circles on them. As a side effect, tend to release the inner child.
Although Enrichers might be fun, they are mainly designed to stimulate specific parts of the brain. Its furniture design is based on a co-creation session and an intense dialogue with neurobiologist Jenny Morton from the University of Cambridge. Movement is one out of five essential brain regions to be stimulated on a daily basis for achieving environmental enrichment.
An enriched environment is positively influencing the behaviour and brain activity of people, such as increasing neurogenesis (growing new neurons) and improving synaptic plasticity (the ability of synapses to change in function or shape). Environmental Enrichment has been studied within the field of neuroscience since 1947 and is a commonly researched topic on captive animals.
Although there is a number of studies that show positive benefits on the brains of mice living in enriched environments, research within the human environment has rarely been done, let alone applied. By developing products based on environmental enrichment, we - Enrichers - aim to make us benefit this knowledge by bringing it into our daily lives.
Curious to experience what behaviour our Enrichers evoke? Three weeks in advance we can schedule a meeting with you to show you the FFWD showroom at SPARK building, close to Amsterdam Sloterdijk. Feel free to contact us: [email protected]. More information about Enrichers, the products, go to www.enrichers.nl. More information about the FFWD showroom can be found at www.ffwd.ovg.nl.
Enrichers' Moonraker stools at FFWD showroom - photo by Thomas van Schaik
Aliki van der Kruijs' ReFlek table at FFWD showroom - photo by Thomas van Schaik
Alissa+Nienke's Mirabilia wallpaper at FFWD showroom - photo by Thomas van Schaik