BE HUMAN, Ilaria Marelli’s new vision for Manerba

Solutions, not just products: This is why the company appointed designer Ilaria Marelli to head its creative direction. She staged the new Manerba furniture photoshoot in a school, the “Giulio Romano” Art High School in Mantua, the city where the office design brand has its roots, involving students who represent the brightest hope for the future.

Sharing – Vitality – Color – Nature – Physical and Mental Wellbeing

With the new photo-shooting, Ilaria aimed to embodying these values, which speak to new ways of living and working. Each product was carefully integrated to interact coherently with people, enhancing Manerba’s creative expression and its concept of the “gentle total office”—inclusive, attentive to personal wellbeing, and focused on restoring the dimension of collaboration. This project showcases how every combination of color, material, and finish achieves expressive flexibility both in design and aesthetic-relational terms.

Ilaria Marelli and Manerba’s focus on Generation Z, a generation that lives in an increasingly digital world, offers a potential response to the uncertainty and ambiguity of contemporary life. Paradoxically, the more time spent online, the greater the desire for high-quality physical experiences.

In workplace design, ambiguity is not new; for years, the trend of spatial fluidity has shaped design to better adapt to various contexts and the needs of both individuals and groups.

Spatial ambiguity, however, also offers greater inclusivity, giving people the opportunity to take ownership of the spaces they inhabit. Blending and hybridizing spaces and functions place the individual at the center. Approximately 90 percent of people’s time is spent indoors, so the spaces where they live, and work must promote our health and wellbeing.

Design is the thread that connects comfort, personalization, flexibility, functionality, and color, all developed through an aesthetic language that fosters relationships and well-being.

Photo: Federica Bottoli
Styling: Luna Styling Milano
Thanks to: Liceo Artistico “Giulio Romano” Mantova