The Sofa as an Isolation Unit

Call it pandemic anxiety. During the circuit breaker, we were twiddling our thumbs and feeling nervous about the furniture trade in a post Covid19 era. 

How would the perception of home furniture change? Would there be behavioural modifications to furniture usage patterns? And in a moment of extremity, we wondered if people would see the sofa as a unit not to socialise on but to isolate from?

The Distance is a thought experiment and an attempt to predict that possibility.

As an 'isolation unit', we were concerned The Distance would become overly depressing over prolonged periods of use. So we chose a profile inspired by geometrical shapes and put uplifting textile colours on it. The result is a joyful combination of shapes and colours.

While designed primarily as a single seating element, the single seaters can be configured with multiple units to form bigger sets.

Key to the design is the seater's own set of accessories which include soft cushions, a side table and importantly a divider. The divider acts as a shield to shelter under in a multiple units configuration. As a single unit, the divider can be used as a decorative wing for the side table.

Materials

The material consideration of the Distance was easy.

But first, a little back story: 

Now, with a huge interest in surface hygiene to reduce contact with contaminated surfaces, it is to our delight when we found out one of our core upholstery offerings under the Aquaclean brand was recently awarded an ISO for textile hygiene.

Since March 2019, the full Aquaclean collection comes with standard components of a proprietary surface component - SAFE FRONT® and AQUACLEAN

Why does this matter? The SAFE FRONT® component protects against viruses and bacteria while the AQUACLEAN component limits the penetration of viruses and bacteria into the fabric. 

The recent ISO was awarded from lab results using a feline coronavirus, an envelope virus very similar to COVID-19. When subjected to the SAFE FRONT component, it is found that more 91% of the virus population was reduced after 2 hours of continuous contact. Get the deets here.

That's why we told you the selection was easy. 

The Distance is highly recommended to be upholstered in any Aquaclean collection.These renders of The Distance are done using swatches from the Mystic collection.

As per standard Blafink service, we can help you adjust the ergonomics of The Distance to fit your lifestyle but that's also if you subscribe to this version of a world of isolation.