Meet Ben and Anna of casetur mechanism who won the work-from-home category of our Next Work Environment Competition with Edgar.T
Anna Halde and Benjamin Halde
Founders and CEOs, casetur mechanism
To celebrate their win, we asked them a few questions about their work and the competition.
WDM: Since the pandemic, what have you been up to / what are you working on?
Anna and Ben: Considering that casetur mechanism specializes in space saving mechanisms for multi-functional furniture we have been using the time of the pandemic to advertise our products further and more intensely. The lockdown that happened globally has shown the need for flexible and space saving furniture and we managed over the last months to get more distributors on board to sell our products in additional and different countries. We also have been more in concept discussions with office furniture companies who historically never looked at the segment “home office furniture” but have amended their strategy in this regard recently.
WDM: What did you enjoy most about the competition process?
Anna and Ben: We were thrilled to work on a furniture concept for a working from home space while major parts of the globe were actually in lock down and would potentially need or at least consider using such a product. Ourselves being in lock down during that time we had to shift our development activities to online design discussion which we had never needed to do before. This definitely created funny and somewhat confusing moments, clearly challenging our ability to virtually explain our train of thoughts and ideas to each other.
WDM: It’s been a little while since you submitted, how have your ideas evolved since you submitted them?
Anna and Ben: Since the submission of our concept Edgar. T we have been looking more into the detail design and finish of our concept, in order to be able to discuss a potential production of the unit with furniture companies. Furthermore, we have spent time to identify specific parts of the concept that can be turned into single mechanical products which we are planning to introduce individually to furniture companies and designers. From an earlier version of our submission concept Edgar.T we have been focussing on one particular mechanical element, which we are exploring to sell directly to endusers. This could lead to a new extended business strategy. But a little bit of refinement is still to be done.
Check out the full Edgar. T submission:
The furniture concept Edgar. T was designed to offer a comfortable work set up within space constraint living environments. The working comfort on one hand is provided by a number of integrated office features such as a desk lamp, a computer screen, a docking station with USB/HDMI ports and electrical sockets for additional devices. The actual desk area consists of an L-shaped arrangement of two large working surfaces, with the additional option to switch to a height adjustable standing desk when required. Edgar. T is equipped with a cabinet with drawers for ample storage of office utensils, as wells as the WIFI mouse, WIFI keyboard and a laptop, when not in use. In addition, shelves within the furniture offer storage space for files, binders, books or simply notes.
All integrated technical and office devices have been designed in black, whereas a light wood finish has been selected for the main furniture to tie in well with current interior trends, since Edgar. T is simply not just a comfortable workstation. All office related features, Edgar. T is equipped with, can be hidden and stowed away, and therefore Edgar. T retracts into a simple wooden sideboard, when not in use: lamp, computer screen and docking station are lowered into the side of the furniture until hidden, for ease of usage supported by gas springs. The standing desk is lowered into the work surface, supported by gas springs. The L- shaped work area is closed and retracted, with a guided movement by the mechanism CM4070. While Edgar. T acts now as a furniture feature in the room, the space previously occupied by the full office capacity of Edgar. T can now be used for living and entertaining purposes, also indicating psychologically to the user that office time has ended for the day.
But even “outside office hours” Edgar. T’s features proof to be useful, while the standing desk may serve as drinks table the computer screen can be utilized as TV. Edgar. T, your multi-functional home office buddy.
View the full Edgar. T submission below. Click on an image to see it full size.
Comments from the judges:
A desk that I would totally buy especially if it came in at an affordable price and utilized sustainable low emitting materials!
I think it’s a nice well-thought-out solution, especially with the integrated 17-inch monitor and the desk light needing multiple monitors. I think that addresses the functional aspect of working from home, which has been a large request from a number of our employees to have additional monitors shipped to their house. So I think that having that integrated grated with the furniture helps keep it clean, simple and tucked away when you don’t need it.
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