Today, we would like to present you Floating Office, a project that aims to hasten the arrival of the office of the future and to make the work of tomorrow be more creative and efficient. Do you want to know more?
Some Key Facts about the company
Founder: Philipp Overath, Sigrid Whitmore, Dominik Stetter, Florian von Heißen
industry: furniture
Formation: end of 2017
Background: mechanical engineering, mechatronics, industrial design
Support: Innovations & Gründungszentrum HIGHEST (TU Darmstadt)
Unibator (Goethe Universität)

 
The product itself? A desk, that meets the demands of a future workplace, enables both open communication areas in addition to the traditional individual workspaces. The
Floating Office is the adjustable height desk that, for the first time, allows both
spaces to exist in fluid harmony.
The desk has no legs and is instead suspended by ropes from the ceiling. This
allows the height to be perfectly adjusted for every user, whether sitting or
standing. The desk can also be tilted, which is excellent for reading, writing, and
drafting. Should free space be required for an event, the desk can be raised to the
ceiling in seconds, where it can function as a unique light fixture.
Floating Office supports with its features flexible and forward-thinking work
environments. Integrated outlets and USB ports are within easy reach. Lighting on
the underside gives the desk another major usage when it is raised to the
ceiling, as well as a possible felt cladding for room acoustics.
Height and angle can be controlled directly from the table top or from the
mobile-app; in an office with multiple Floating Office desks, the latter also allows
for an administration of the various workstations, which can be reserved and
automatically set to the user’s preferred heights.
The patentable mechanism for raising and lowering the desk is completely contained within the corpus; all that is required at the ceiling is four fastening points and access to electricity.

How is the business developing? The start concept development phase started in October 2016,0 In a cooperation project of Hochschule Darmstadt and TU Darmstadt, that´s when the concept and a prototype of Floating Office was developed.
In June 2017 the first pilot phase with a non-adjustable version of Floating Office has been started in abideeok! Coworking Space in Gießen.
After integrating the insights of the pilot phase, in November 2017 the LITE version (non adjustable) will be shipped.
The current development of the desk will be finished early in 2018, so that market entry is scheduled for March next year.
More about the project:
Floating Office
Robert-Bosch Straße 7
64293 Darmstadt
info.floatingoffice@gmail.com
www.floating-office.info
https://www.facebook.com/DasFloatingOffice/
More about the team:
Florian von Heißen – holds a bachelor in mechanical and process engineering from the TU Darmstadt and is working on his master’s degree in the same field. He is in charge of marketing and sales, an area that he has experience in from his first startup, the D&F Manufaktur. There he gained the first experience in the furniture industry.
Sigrid Whitmore – holds two bachelor degrees in engineering physics and mathematics from Tulane University and is working on her master’s degree in mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech and the TU Darmstadt . She is responsible for calculations and mathematical modeling in MATLAB as well as designing and managing Floating Office’s website.
Philipp Overath – holds his bachelor’s degree in mechanical and process engineering from the TU Darmstadt and is currently working on his master’s in mechatronics. His responsibilities are product and software development. His knowledge of model-based control systems has been essential for the technical development of Floating Office.
Dominik Stetter – is studying industrial design at the Hochschule Darmstadt. In addition to designing product variations, he is responsible for prototype builds. Through his studies, he has lots of practical experience with model building and creating 3D CAD models in SolidWorks and Rhinoceros.