Published June 10, 2022
SERIES: What's Trending
NeoCon 2022 Preview
Featuring: Allsteel, Dauphin, DIRTT, Ghent, Haworth, Humanscale, KFI Studios, Reseat, MillerKnoll, Turf
The Forum by Mortarr is headed to Chicago, baby! We, along with the rest of the commercial interior design industry, will converge on the city for NeoCon 2022, the industry’s largest in-person gathering of inspiration, ideas, products, and technology. From Fulton Market to theMART, and spots adjacent, here’s what we’re excited for next week.
Company: Allsteel
Showcasing a perspective of how we should and could work next, Allsteel’s focus for NeoCon 2022 is the Evolving Workplace. One of their products on our radar is the Focus Pod by Zilenzio, an easily placed and functional screen with included seat and table. Designed with comfort in mind, it is supposed to provide a calm and snug feeling. Calm and snug in our work environment? Yes, please!
​
See More > theMART, 11th Floor, 1120
Company: Dauphin
Who are we to argue with Best of NeoCon 2022 entrants? And from one of our favorite companies to boot? It’s a win-win. Dauphin’s Cempa Alfresco is an attractive, flexible solution to the needs of today’s corporate and institutional markets. At the center of Cempa ancillary seating is its simple, sculpted seat shell inspired by the smooth contour of a petal. Our fingers and toes are crossed!
​
Company: DIRTT
The global leader in industrialized construction, DIRTT’s system of physical products and digital tools empowers organizations, construction and design leaders to build high-performing, adaptable, interior environments. Do yourself a favor and schedule a personal tour of the Chicago DIRTT Experience Center to explore all of DIRTT’s possibilities. Register here. Learn more about DIRTT here — you’re welcome.
​
See More > 325 North Wells Street, 10th Floor
Company: Ghent
A new Ghent is taking center stage at NeoCon and we couldn’t be more excited to see what they have in store. From prosecco and mimosas in their showroom — 10th Floor, 1060 — to their Hex install on the hallway just outside 1060, to the Pride Party with i+s, to the after-hours celebration at Tunnel Nightclub — Monday, June 13 is Ghent’s day. Stop by and join in the celebration — we certainly will be! And if you’re interested in our Ghent product wishlist check out their Geo Collection. Communication tools, i.e. whiteboards, are typically displayed as large squares or rectangles mounted on a wall for all to gather around. Intentionally designed to elevate communication and break the visual box, the Geo Collection provides a functional art installation for any office space.
​
Company: Haworth
Haworth’s 2022 showroom is re-envisioning the future office — for wherever you might Zoom from. Whether you’re designing your new office or furnishing Social Spaces — indoors or out — explore new workspaces, products (21 new product launches to be exact), materials, and more, from Haworth’s family of brands. Not going to lie, I’m already in love with the Archibald dining chairs (swoon), and the Bola lantern (yes, please to the leather handle and rechargeable battery).
​
Company: Humanscale
We’re going to sit and swivel in the world’s most sustainable task chair. Designed by Todd Bracher and the Humanscale Design Studio, the Path chair is composed of nearly 22 pounds of recycled content, which includes ocean plastic, post-consumer plastic bottles, and post-industrial material. Each Path contains almost 10 pounds of ocean plastic, a majority of which are reclaimed fishing nets, the most harmful of all ocean plastic. The chair also builds on the brand’s pioneering seating technology, which uses the sitter’s weight and form to adjust perfectly to every body — literally every body — without the need to operate complicated manual controls. Swivel with us.
​
Company: KFI Studios
Come for the bourbon (Monday, June 13 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and stay for the HiP award finalists and new brand. And a really fantastic team. One of the products we’re excited to see? Juna, a fun line of outdoor furniture including seating, tables, partitions, and planters. See Juna in KFI’s showroom and at theMART’s Kinzie-Wells outdoor space.
​
See More > theMART — 3rd Floor, 329; Kinzie-Wells outdoor space
Company: Reseat
Introducing your one-stop platform to sell, register, and track the life-cycle of commercial furniture. Reseat is a marketplace and a tool to aggregate and track all of the threads that tell your furniture’s backstory, so that when you’re ready to sell — tomorrow, or 12 months from now — everything is ready to go. We’re excited to learn more.
​
Company: MillerKnoll
MillerKnoll is hosting the company's first Design Days with product launches, exhibits, and events across its brands at the company's Fulton Market showrooms.
As one of the early anchor tenants, MillerKnoll helped shape Fulton Market into a design destination. Today, the company's collective of brands comes together in 70,000 combined square feet of showroom and retail space across locations at 1100 and 811 West Fulton Market. Driven by complementary problem-solving philosophies, the research, insights, and products of MillerKnoll are on display and ready to help customers solve relevant questions around the future of work and home.
​
Company: TURF
Artful acoustics for welcoming spaces … and a NeoCon showroom designed by Forum favorite Elizabeth Von Lehe of HDR. Turf recently rebranded and is officially launching its new color palette, Hues. Since 2016, their team has partnered with the world’s most ambitious architects and designers to create spaces that look and sound beautiful. They say their secrete is simple — they listen. And what they learn informs smarter products, processes, and tools so you can focus on creating, and leave the noise behind. See you and EVL at Turf.
​