For more than five decades, NeoCon has marked the commercial design world’s annual pilgrimage to Chicago’s Merchandise Mart. It’s the tradeshow pulling in over 50,000 design professionals who trek from every corner of the globe to see what’s next in commercial furnishings.
This year’s NeoCon revealed a clear trend reshaping commercial furniture: modularity isn’t just a design feature anymore, but the foundation of how we think about adaptable, sustainable workspaces. From cardboard package-inspired sofas to customizable geometric shelves, the show floor demonstrated that the future of commercial design lies in pieces that can transform, expand, and evolve with changing needs.
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- Mizetto’s new Cargo sofa, in collaboration with studio ADDI, created what might best be described as sophisticated building blocks for adults.
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- The sofa’s geometric cubes can be arranged and rearranged to create everything from intimate conversation areas to expansive collaborative lounges. Photos courtesy of Mizetto
Mizzeto’s Playful Swedish Design
There’s something immediately compelling about Mizetto’s new Cargo sofa. These Swedish designers collaborated with studio ADDI to create what might best be described as sophisticated building blocks for adults—geometric cubes that can be arranged and rearranged to create everything from intimate conversation areas to expansive collaborative lounges.
The inspiration comes from an unlikely source: tightly wrapped packages. The Mizzeto team took that utilitarian aesthetic and transformed it into something inviting and flexible. The geometric forms can be stacked, scattered, or combined however the space demands.
“Cargo is the outcome of curiosity about how a simple volume can evolve into something more,” says designer Lillqvist Sjöberg. The backrests don’t just provide support—they invite different ways of sitting, leaning, and occupying the space.
The collection echoes Patricia Urquiola’s Tufty Time sofa from 2005, but with a more industrial sensibility. There’s a brutalist quality to the raw materials and geometric forms, yet the overall effect remains surprisingly approachable.
Bulo’s B7 retains its architectural integrity whether standing alone or combined with others, proving that modular systems don’t have to sacrifice aesthetic unity for adaptability. Photo courtesy of Bulo
Bulo’s Geometric Precision
Antwerp-based Bulo took a different approach with their B7 Lounge System, focusing on geometric modularity “distilled to its essence.” The system features straightforward geometric shapes resting on cylindrical bases, creating configurations that feel both systematic and sculptural.
What makes B7 particularly successful is how each piece retains its architectural integrity whether standing alone or combined with others, proving that modular systems don’t have to sacrifice aesthetic unity for adaptability.
B7’s geometry seems in line with the 1980s Memphis Group’s Bel Air chair with less postmodern playfulness. Where Ettore Sottsass and his collaborators used geometry to provoke, Bulo instead employs similar forms to organize and comfort.
Cane-line says “goodbye” to rigid patio sets that look like they escaped from a hotel lobby. Their Mellow series is a curvy piece that can be mixed and matched to fit any outdoor space. Photo courtesy of Cane-line
Outdoor Flow with Cane-line’s Mellow Series
Cane-line’s new Mellow lounge series proved that modularity has fully conquered outdoor furniture design. The series says “goodbye” to rigid patio sets that look like they escaped from a hotel lobby. Instead Mellow’s curvy pieces can be mixed and matched to fit any outdoor space.
Director Brian Djernes calls it “unparalleled flexibility,” and he’s not wrong. Whether you want a quiet reading nook or a space for the whole neighborhood barbecue, Mellow adapts. The sofa’s organic curves are also a refreshing break from the right angles we’re used to seeing outside—but still adapted for the Instagram age, where every gathering needs to look effortlessly curated.
This year Heller brought back Bill Curry’s 1970 Honeycomb shelving, and it still held its own against the backdrop of 2025 designs. Bill’s hexagonal shelves that seemed so space-age back then are perfect for maximizing space in an effortless, chic way. Photo courtesy of Heller
Honeycomb Reborn by Heller
Sometimes the coolest thing at a design show is actually something from decades ago. This year Heller brought back Bill Curry’s 1970 Honeycomb shelving, and it still held its own against the backdrop of 2025 designs. Bill’s hexagonal shelves that seemed so space-age back then are perfect for maximizing space in an effortless, chic way.
The Honeycomb revival demonstrates modularity’s power to transcend eras—what was futuristic in 1970 seems equally progressive in 2025, proving that well-designed systems can adapt to both spaces and decades.
With the Beau sofa, the designers built custom testing jigs to perfect everything from the serpentine springs to the exact foam layering. The result is this massive toolkit of seating options—everything from single chairs to 120-degree corner units—that you can configure into sprawling comfort landscapes. Photo courtesy of Boss Design
Boss Design’s Comfort Engineering
Boss Design’s Beau system caught my attention because it tackles something most modular furniture ignores: actually being comfortable. We’ve all sat on those “flexible” sofas that feel like they’re more interested in looking adaptable than supporting your back.
With Beau, the designers built custom testing jigs to perfect everything from the serpentine springs to the exact foam layering. The result is this massive toolkit of seating options—everything from single chairs to 120-degree corner units—that you can configure into sprawling comfort landscapes.
Momentum Textiles partnered with cork specialists Muratto to create acoustic panels that double as wall art you can rearrange. Their Organic Blocks system lets you mix geometric patterns and linear cork strips to create whatever your space needs both visually and acoustically. Photo courtesy of Momentum
Cork as Sculpture by Momentum
Momentum Textiles partnered with cork specialists Muratto to create acoustic panels that double as wall art you can rearrange. Their Organic Blocks system lets you mix geometric patterns and linear cork strips to create whatever your space needs both visually and acoustically.
Cork has been making a huge comeback in recent years. It was one of the original “high-tech” materials back in the industrial revolution, used for everything from wine bottles to telegraph cables. Now it’s being positioned as our antidote to all those synthetic materials we’re getting tired of breathing in. Even Zaha Hadid recently developed a unique cork wall panel system with the Portuguese brand Gencork.
Turf’s Reed panels are not just dampening sound, they’re building blocks for creating a visual and acoustic environment each space needs. Photo courtesy of Turf
Total Flexibility from Turf’s Experience Center
Turf took the modularity concept and applied it to an entire workspace with their new Experience Center. Instead of just making individual pieces that move around, they created zones that can shift and adapt throughout the day. The Green Lounge energizes, the Groovy Lounge collaborates, and everything in between can morph to match whatever kind of work is happening.
Turf’s Experience Center is a logical evolution of the activity-based working trend that dominated office design in the 2010s. But where ABW often designated specific zones for specific activities, Turf’s philosophy acknowledges that the same person might need different environments throughout a single day, or even within a single hour.
That same mindset extends to the acoustics. Take their Reed panels (pictured above)—they’re not just dampening sound, they’re building blocks for creating the visual and acoustic environment each space needs.
As we look toward the future of commercial design, NeoCon 2025’s showcase suggests we’re moving into an era where furniture success will be measured not by how it looks in a catalog, but by how endlessly it can evolve to meet real human needs.
