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2017 / Office Equipment / Furnishings/Modules / Professional

Hive

  • Company
    Studio O+A, United States
  • Lead Designer
    Primo Orpilla
  • Design Team
    Emi Katagiri
  • Client
    Ideapaint
  • Project Link
For years dry erase paint made every office
wall potentially a giant notepad. As users came
to expect the convenience of being able to
write on at least some of their walls, the
impulse to sketch ideas or jot down thoughts
wherever they occur became a reflex. But what
if the walls are not treated? What if the room
must host multiple meetings in a single day?
Primo Orpilla’s new mobile unit for IdeaPaint
gives every room a dry erase capability. It’s
called Hive and unlike regular mobile
whiteboards, it’s an elegant, free-standing
piece of office furniture. As founder of the
furniture design company Orpilla Inc. and co-
founder of the interior design firm Studio O+A,
Orpilla has explored for years the impact of
artful design on functional environments. Hive
continues that exploration by refining a
practical office tool to its humble essence and
producing it with the care of modern sculpture.
Mounted on minimalist white oak legs, Hive
comes in two iterations. The Pivot model
pitches its writeable surface vertically for
typical meeting presentations or horizontally
for standing-height tabletop work. The Hive
model is a fixed vertical version for consistent,
feet-on-the-ground stability. Both models offer
a whiteboard or a birch veneer surface option
and both are reinforced by sturdy powder-
coated metal knuckles. Combining solid
textures of wood and metal with the fluidity of a
blank canvas, each of these mobile writeable
surfaces is potentially a Hive of inspiration and
collaborative creativity.
Photo Credit: Studio O+a