PROOFF's Transportable Office Of The Future
Jurgen Bey, one of the key figures of the Dutch Design movement, has started a new platform called PROOFF to rethink to office. PROOFF, which stands for ‘Progressive Office’, is meant for sharing knowledge and exchanging ideas regarding the improvement of working life and all around it. To realise products, PROOFF works together with national and international designers, students and manufacturers.
One of the PROOFF projects is the Slow Car, which is an office chair, vehicle and mobile office at the same time. Electric cars are often criticised for being rather slow and impractical. However, slow can be good. The Slow Car is a vehicle designed for the campuses of large companies. It’s a vehicle that’s a fully equipped office, which can make the journeys with the vehicle productive. He explains:
“Instead of a car, you start with the office chair. Its already on wheels, but now, you can only move around table. If you give it fuel or charge it, it could move from one end of the building to another. (…) Transportation becomes your office that will move. In this way, you could also develop the outside space as part of the office.”
The Slow Car hosts only one person and its speed can reach up to 40 km/h. It is considered a private space that you travel in. The chair/car has a limited view so that it allows you to be able to concentrate. The designer argues that it doesn’t compete with cars but rather with office chairs. Bey already invented both a car park for Slow Cars and a campus for them to drive on. Click here for more pictures of the Slow Car. What do you think?