NEW NORM RENT IT

New normal circular furniture

NORMNORM at Sustainable Ventures. London

Subscription model NORMNORM will plan your space, supply you office furniture, repair it when it gets knocked about, take it back when no longer needed and either fully refurbish it for use elsewhere or recycle it.

Co-founded in 2020 with Inter IKEA Development, the platform has a no-nonsense approach with pre-edited and audited families of furniture responsibly sourced and selected for longevity & eventual disassembly. This is in response to a mountain of office kit finding its way into landfill – around 10 million tonnes of furniture waste is discarded each year according to the European Environmental Bureau – and follows the fashion industry in exploring non-ownership as a viable alternative to always-new.

The limited choice won’t suit everyone but how many tables and chairs do we really need? On the plus side subscription means less hassle for designers leaving more time to sort out the rest of the fit-out, and less pressure on maintenance for clients and facilities teams.

Part of a changing office world where the whole life cycle of furniture guides the business model: Modus design for remanufacture and take-back under their ReWork programme; Senator can recycle both their own and other products.   

And there is a growing market for second-hand furniture from sites like WantDontWant online platform for all things office, Rype Office who research, consult, train, refurbish & sell, and vintage traders Second Sitting. There is a hitch in lack of certainty on what you can get, when, and getting enough of particular product or finish but it’s not impossible with a bit of planning.

Advantages and disadvantages for all options including budget and programme, and perhaps most importantly we need a shift in attitude away from the perfect and most convenient to a degree of compromise.

NORMNORM fully circular furniture