Let’s be honest. For a time, you might enjoy the quiet and manage to get lot of work done. But after awhile, your work might start to suffer from a lack of collaboration—the unique human ability to turn connection, cooperation, and ideation into tangible products and solutions.

A recent outdoor installation by Montreal artist Nicolas Baier explores the concept of a workplace devoid of humans. The piece, on display in front of Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, is housed in one-sided glass and features ten Eames Aluminum Group Chairs surrounding a conference table—all rendered inert by reflective nickel. Baier encases the stereotypical artifacts of a meeting—a water bottle, a coffee cup, a pair of glasses—in mirrors.

You may wonder how such a lifeless sculpture commemorates the anniversary of a community icon like Place Ville-Marie, a place populated by people for the past fifty years. But Baier’s piece achieves just this; it reminds us just how important human connection is.

What if someone sculpted the objects in your office in nickel, turning everything into a mirror? What would the scene say about you, your work, and your world? Nicolas Baier’s “Vanitas,” inspired by the artist’s own office, poses these questions and more.

The installation is like a fun house hall of mirrors eerily devoid of human reflections. Baier houses the sculpture in one-way glass and covers the objects—a computer, a tangle of chords, an Eames Aluminum Group Chair—in mirrors. You can look at the installation and the objects within as you would an exhibit in a zoo, but you cannot see your own reflection.

The mirrors in Baier’s office may not reflect, but they do cast light on a compelling truth. Whether you are an artist, an architect, a designer, or an engineer, your office tells a story about who you are and the way you work.

It isn’t every day a product introduced 53 years ago wins an award. But that’s the case with the Eames Aluminum Group. Its new version, with fabrics and finishes ready for the outdoors, landed the 2011 ICFF Editors Awards in the Outdoor Furniture category. A classic originally introduced in 1958 has returned to its original intent.

It soon moved indoors exclusively, taking up residence in homes and offices everywhere. Then, in 1969, Charles and Ray extended the original design. They added plush cushions, and the Soft Pad Group was born.

By the early 1970s, Charles and Ray were tinkering with the design. They considered adding a pneumatic lift to their chairs, but it was truly a “mechanism,” bulky and unreliable, so they abandoned the effort.

Fast forward to today. Two realities converged that made adding a pneumatic lift the right thing to do. First, these chairs are as popular as ever. Their graceful silhouette sits equally well in retro interiors, elegant lobbies, or hip young offices. Second, lifts have evolved. They’re smaller and sleeker, so adding them could be done subtly. That was especially important to the Eames Office, which played a key role in advancing the addition of the pneumatic lift.

The lift is available on executive and management chair models. It makes them much easier to adjust. Yet, the adjustment paddle, as well as the lift and tilt—with a lock option—visually blend into the chair’s underside. The mechanical lift of the original design remains standard on the executive and management models.

By Randall Braaksma