In the neighbourhood: Joe Gebbia’s modular office furniture for Bernhardt Design

Airbnb co-founder and CPO Joe Gebbia and Bernhardt Design have launched a new collection of flexible furniture for the office and public spaces, unveiled this week at New York’s ICFF.
The ‘Neighborhood’ collection is based on a simple building block, developed with a modular and mobile design solution that allows for endless configurations. Gebbia created a total of 38 unique modules, making it the largest collection released by Bernhardt Design to date.
The modules include high-back designs for extra privacy during meetings, while a series of low-back seats encourage creative brainstorming; ottomans and tables punctuate the collection. All elements can combine to create large landscapes or more intimate settings, with integrated technology and sound-absorbing materials.
‘Neighborhood’ by Joe Gebbia for Bernhardt Design
For the collection, Gebbia drew from his personal experience of frequently moving office in the early days of Airbnb, and the challenges he and his team faced to adapt existing furnishing to different spaces, while maintaining a sense of community and comfort. He was also able to put his product design training to good use – he studied at RISD before launching the company with fellow graduate Brian Chesky – and this collaboration was an opportunity to both reconnect with his design background and to develop a collection close to the Airbnb credo of openness and community.
‘At Airbnb, we celebrate the connections people make every day through our platform; connections with new places, new people and new cultures,’ he says, ‘[The collection] celebrates the beauty of these connections while providing comfortable, flexible solutions for the evolving workplace.’
The idea behind ‘Neighborhood’ is for the collection to not only work in an office, but in any public space, from airports to restaurants. ‘Joe’s idea of using two simple building blocks to create an entire community of flexible products was ingenious,’ says Bernhardt Design president Jerry Helling.
For Helling, Gebbia’s design prowess lies in the details behind the collection, such as the zig-zag stitching on each piece. ‘The beauty of the line is that it can be easily and instantly adaptable by the people using it,’ he adds, ‘rather than relying on an installation team to reconfigure a workspace.’
The ‘Neighborhood’ collection is based on a simple building block
Ottomans and tables punctuate the collection
The modules include a high-back design for extra privacy during meetings
The elements include integrated technology
Gebbia created a total of 38 unique modules, making it the largest collection released by Bernhardt Design to date
INFORMATION
‘Neighborhood’ is on view at ICFF until 24 May. For more information, visit the Bernhardt Design website
ADDRESS
Javits Center
655 W 34th Street
New York, NY 10001
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Rosa Bertoli was born in Udine, Italy, and now lives in London. Since 2014, she has been the Design Editor of Wallpaper*, where she oversees design content for the print and online editions, as well as special editorial projects. Through her role at Wallpaper*, she has written extensively about all areas of design. Rosa has been speaker and moderator for various design talks and conferences including London Craft Week, Maison & Objet, The Italian Cultural Institute (London), Clippings, Zaha Hadid Design, Kartell and Frieze Art Fair. Rosa has been on judging panels for the Chart Architecture Award, the Dutch Design Awards and the DesignGuild Marks. She has written for numerous English and Italian language publications, and worked as a content and communication consultant for fashion and design brands.
-
Meet the New York-based artists destabilising the boundaries of society
A new show in London presents seven young New York-based artists who are pushing against the borders between refined aesthetics and primal materiality
-
Inside a Montana house, putting the American West's landscape at its heart
A holiday house in the Montana mountains, designed by Walker Warner Architects and Gachot Studios, scales new heights to create a fresh perspective on communing with the natural landscape
-
‘You can feel their presence’: step inside the Eameses’ Pacific Palisades residence
Charles and Ray Eames’ descendants are exploring new ways to preserve the designers’ legacy, as the couple’s masterpiece Pacific Palisades residence reopens following the recent LA fires
-
Inside a Montana house, putting the American West's landscape at its heart
A holiday house in the Montana mountains, designed by Walker Warner Architects and Gachot Studios, scales new heights to create a fresh perspective on communing with the natural landscape
-
Peel back this Michigan lakeside house’s cool slate exterior to reveal a warm wooden home
In Detroit, Michigan, this lakeside house, a Y-shaped home by Disbrow Iannuzzi Architects, creates a soft balance between darkness and light through its minimalist materiality
-
Inside the new theatre at Jacob’s Pillow and its ‘magic box’, part of a pioneering complex designed for dance
Jacob’s Pillow welcomes the reborn Doris Duke Theatre by Mecanoo, a new space that has just opened in the beloved Berkshires cultural hub for the summer season
-
A Rancho Mirage home is in tune with its location and its architect-owners’ passions
Architect Steven Harris and his collaborator and husband, designer Lucien Rees Roberts, have built a home in Rancho Mirage, surrounded by some of America’s most iconic midcentury modern works; they invited us on a tour
-
Inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Laurent House – a project built with accessibility at its heart
The dwelling, which you can visit in Illinois, is a classic example of Wright’s Usonian architecture, and was also built for a client with a disability long before accessibility was widely considered
-
Tour this fire-resilient minimalist weekend retreat in California
A minimalist weekend retreat was designed as a counterpoint to a San Francisco pied-à-terre; Edmonds + Lee Architects’ Amnesia House in Napa Valley is a place for making memories
-
A New Zealand house on a rugged beach exemplifies architect Tom Kundig's approach in rich, yet understated luxury
This coastal home, featured in 'Tom Kundig: Complete Houses', a new book launch in the autumn by Monacelli Press, is a perfect example of its author's approach to understated luxury. We spoke to Tom Kundig, the architect behind it
-
Tour architect Paul Schweikher’s house, a Chicago midcentury masterpiece
Now hidden in the Chicago suburbs, architect Paul Schweikher's former home and studio is an understated midcentury masterpiece; we explore it, revisiting a story from the Wallpaper* archives, first published in April 2009