The office no longer knows what to be, and Konstantin Grcic reimagines it as a DIY space

Konstantin Grcic has created a new office furniture system, and he’s done it in unmistakable Grcic style. It’s intuitive: each component, through its form, communicates what it’s for and how it’s used. It’s reconfigurable: it can become something entirely different. And it’s adaptable—to the user’s posture and physical characteristics.

It’s called Scout, a family of furnishings designed to support any way of working and any kind of activity. There are tables for standing or seated work, for meetings, workshops, or design studios; when not in use, they fold, stack, and store away. The design stands out for its tubular metal frame—beloved by the Bauhaus, but thicker here—designed to be gripped and moved, as well as colored. It forms the supporting structure (naturally on wheels), but also serves as a handle for accessories like hooks, supports, and pinboards.

The approach is akin to that of a scout camp: “it was conceived as a dynamic tool for today’s work environments—mobile, adaptable, and open. It doesn’t impose a single use, but can be configured flexibly and individually. In a world where work and learning can happen anywhere, Scout adapts seamlessly to every need,” Grcic said.

It was commissioned by Vitra, which has been exploring the workspace since at least the 1960s, when it launched “Action Office,” designed by Robert Probst and George Nelson. Scout enters the catalog alongside Reset, designed by Stephan Hürlemann: a system of walkable structures for reconfiguring the architectural space of offices. Both are part of the “Beta” project, which is less a collection than a vision of the office as a dynamic, evolving space—linked not to progress but to evolution, with a more human and curious sensibility.

Konstantin Grcic

The “Beta” project represents a new chapter in the trajectory Vitra has traced for decades in its exploration of contemporary workspace. In the early 1990s, the “Citizen Office,” curated by Andrea Branzi, Michele De Lucchi, and Ettore Sottsass, was installed at the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein; in 1999 came the “Network Office” by Sevil Peach. In 2006, the space was reconfigured as “Net ’n’ Nest,” responding to the need for retreat areas within open-plan offices; in 2012 it became “Office of Options,” and in 2021 “Club Office,” reflecting a post-pandemic vision of the workplace.

Now, Grcic’s work feels less like an answer and more like a question—indeed, many questions. Scout does not offer a solution to today’s working world, caught in a broader context of social, political, and economic instability; rather, it presents itself as a tool for listening to the ever-growing and increasingly diverse needs of those who inhabit the office.