Healthcare Continues to Make a Statement at NeoCon
Used to be that healthcare was just a second thought at NeoCon — the U.S.’s largest commercial furnishings exhibition held every June at The Merchandise Mart in Chicago. But that has changed.
Make no mistake about it — NeoCon is still mostly about office furniture, with companies like Steelcase, Herman Miller, Haworth, Knoll, KI, Allsteel, and many others showcasing the latest and greatest in systems furniture, seating, casegoods, etc., as well as floorcovering, fabrics, and other accessories for today’s modern workplace.
However, in walking the show — five floors in The Mart totaling approximately 250,000 sq. ft. each — there was plenty of healthcare furniture to be found, a lot from Center for Health Design affiliate members. Many were showing prototypes that they planned to introduce at our Healthcare Design conference in the fall, and many were offering “tweaks” to already successful products. As always, maintenance and cleanability were common themes, as well as attention to sustainability, choice/control, and improved aesthetics. A few standouts included:
Nurture by Steelcase’s brand new showroom on the third floor was hopping. Most interesting was Sonata, a system of workstations/storage/dividers that offers an innovative answer to oncology infusion bays that focuses on the place where all “three” users — patient, caregiver, family/friends come together to spend many hours during the course of patient treatment. Sonata won a well-deserved Gold Award in this year’s Best of NeoCon product design competition.
Herman Miller for Healthcare’s Nala high-performance patient chair also won a Silver Best of NeoCon award. This futuristic really comfortable chair features a permeable seat and back suspension and 10-degree recline to reduce spinal stress and disperse body pressure. A three-degree forward tilt enables entering and exiting the chair with the use of a manual shift control mechanism.
KI introduced the Arissa Collection, a group of bariatric seating. What is unique about Arrisa is that is actually universal — blending form and scale through unique shapes and carefully crafted geometry that allow virtually any user, regardless of size, to sit comfortably. You look at this chair and you don’t think bariatric.
Lots of manufacturers have added heating components to their oncology chairs, but Nemschoff went one step further and also put a massage mechanism in its nicely scaled Serenity 3 chair.
Other notable exhibitors/showrooms: Lees Carpets (part of The Mohawk Group), Tandus Group, Spec Furniture, Wieland, and Interface (where Chairman Ray Anderson showed us his latest ideas for green product manufacturing).
I can’t wait to see what all these companies introduce/show at Healthcare Design conference in the fall!