Design — 2026

Confluence

An adaptive workstation system: one 120° arc-sector module that scales from a single desk to a six-person conference table, with a user-controlled acoustic screen for shifting between focus and collaboration.

Year: 2026
Discipline: Furniture / system design
Module: 1736 × 1017 × 739 mm
Screen: Echopanel, 450 mm deploy, NRC 0.65–0.75
Materials: Cast aluminium, melamine or solid timber worktop
Status: In commercial development
Context: Design Studio: Innovation, RMIT

Workstations optimise for one mode of use. Work doesn't. People oscillate between concentrated individual focus and open collaboration, often within the same day, and the furniture around them is fixed in one posture or the other.

Confluence answers with a single curved, tessellating module. Alone, it is a well-proportioned desk for one person. Combined, the same part forms pairs, round pods, serpentine runs and a full six-person conference table. No transitional parts, no additional components. The same module, repeated.

A single Confluence module in the silver colourway with both wing screens raised — Plate 02Single module — screens at 450 mm

A single Confluence module seen from above with the screens stowed — Plate 03Single module — screens stowed

The integrated acoustic screen deploys with a single deliberate action. A cut-out in the worktop lets one hand reach over and draw the Echopanel up through a slit; built-in stops define the two operative positions, flush and 450 mm, by feel, without measuring. A full-width aluminium adjuster captures the screen between a welded leg-mount and a tensioning beam, and one M6 hex-key bolt sets the holding friction, recoverable as the panel compresses over time. At 450 mm the screen gives seated visual and acoustic separation while keeping standing sightlines across the room.

The legs are cast aluminium from a single mould, an organic form impossible in bent or welded tube. Slide mounts are welded on after casting, so one common casting serves every leg position despite two different bracket locations.

Close detail of a screen stowed beneath the worktop edge of a Confluence module — Plate 04The screen stowed beneath the worktop

A serpentine run of Confluence modules seen from above — Plate 05Serpentine run — the same module, re-combined

Six Confluence modules assembled into a closed six-person conference table, cast aluminium legs visible beneath the top — Plate 06Conference assembly — six modules, no additional parts

The project was resolved across fourteen weeks of iterative sketching, physical modelling, CAD development and manufacturing-process resolution, with standards-based stability testing and two high-fidelity 1:5 scale models presenting alternative colour, material and finish schemes. It was selected from the RMIT Industrial Design exhibition for commercial development with a Melbourne furniture manufacturer, where it is currently being taken towards a production-ready prototype.