We no longer need desks, say designers Ed Barber and Jay Osgerby, because the office of the future is more of a meeting place than a work environment.
Speaking in a talk at the Vitra showroom in London, the Barber & Osgerby founders said that the office is still relevant, but the desk is not and designers need to be responding to this.
"The desk is a place that you're invisibly chained to, where you're producing widgets for the man," said Osgerby. "It's a remnant of the industrial revolution."
"You don't need to spend 20 grand a year to have a desk that has a photo of your dog on it anymore, but at the same time people still need to come together and have moments of interaction."
People need "moments of intimacy and sociability" Osgerby said that the office of the future is more a space of collaboration, so its furniture needs to be more casual.
"The office now and in the future will only be a place where people come together, a meeting place," he said. "People now need to move around and sit down and come together, to have moments of intimacy and sociability."
Barber added: "This is why we say that the desk is dead, and not the office is dead."
Barber & Osgerby designed the Soft Work seating system to double as a work station
The big advantage of the office, according to Barber, is that technology is unlikely get in the way of productivity.
"While we endeavour to use technology like Skype...