Furniture Design Company PLN Group Thinks Wellbeing

West Auckland-based furniture design company PLN Group has created furniture for Apple, Google and Disney to reduce sound and boost productivity – and now it hopes to use design to improve employee wellbeing in offices too, Anuja Nadkarni writes for Stuff.

PLN Group chief executive Blair McKolskey said the company, which designed and manufactured furniture in New Zealand, was better known internationally than in its own backyard, Nadkarni reports.

The 40-year-old company started as a furniture firm, creating designs for luxury hotels like the Huka Lodge in Taupo. But about a decade ago it switched to using design to improve productivity in offices, McKolskey told Stuff.

“We look at a combination of factors, you’ll have one-off anomalies in macro events like Covid-19, but also more predictable patterns like an ageing demographic or changes in technology that are changing the way workplaces operate. We want to make solutions through design for these trends.”

Original article by Anuja Nadkarni, Stuff, November 23, 2020.