Oodi, the new Central Library of Helsinki, has been defined as “the nation’s birthday present to its citizens.” Designed by the firm ALA_Architects, it was inaugurated on December 5, 2018, the day before Finland’s 101st independence day.

The top floor of the library, dubbed “the paradise of books,” is furnished entirely with more than 350 CF bookcase modules, manufactured by UniFor and personalized to the designs of the architects to meet special functional and compositional requirements.

The interior environment of the top floor is completely open and flooded with natural light from the rooftop skylights and the glazed facades around the perimeter of the building. An orderly arrangement of bookcase modules provided by UniFor delineate the layout and organization of the various functional areas of the library.

Enhanced by clean, minimalist forms and assembly solutions aimed at simplification and high performance in terms of safety and durability, the CF bookcase system (designed by Dante Bonuccelli) consists of aluminum shelving and vertical support panels fixed to each other and to a base in sheet steel. A total of 351 double-sided modular bookcase modules, all of them painted white, were fabricated in various versions and personalized with special equipment and accessories to meet specific project requirements.

This series of office furnishings was conceived as a response to the fluid and dynamic nature of
contemporary work environments, where highly differentiated methods and approaches require greater
flexibility. Characterized by elegant compositional solutions, refined structural details and high technical
and safety performance, these components reveal an unmistakable style expressed in terms of formal
rigor, lightness of form, a judicious use of materials, and careful attention to detail.

Single and small group workstations, round tables adjustable automatically in height, large modular tables for meeting rooms, conferences, flexible public spaces, complementary storage cabinets.

The prestigious international law firm of Covington & Burling has moved to a new location in a strategically positioned complex in the center of Washington DC, with a view of the White House.

In contrast to the imposing structures that surround it, the complex was conceived as a sort of human- scaled urban organism. Its four glass-walled buildings, containing offices, residences, restaurants, and shops, are united by public spaces at street level and aerial walkways at the upper levels.

The firm’s interiors present a streamlined, elegant and functional environment that is quite unlike the stereotypical image of a conventional law firm. The spaces were designed to promote teamwork and collaboration between the various departments and to foster close contact with the firm’s locations around the world. Carefully designed furnishings, a non-intrusive use of technology, and special attention to comfort all contribute to an optimal work environment.

The interiors project encompassed task areas with personalized workspaces, enclosed offices with elegant glazed partition walls, common areas, conference rooms, and various informal spaces such as eating areas and lounges.

Open-space height-adjustable workstations. Characterized by the use of selective materials, refined structural details, and carefully studied combinations of finishes and colors. These workstations offer advanced functional solutions together with rigorously designed forms and restrained and elegant appearance, in which technology is ever-present but never intrusive.

The loadbearing structure of the workstations, in wood, consists of a central element with incorporated cable raceway which is easily accessible and also contains the devices that control the height adjustment of the work surface.