Would furniture design have evolved this way, had there been no pandemic? We'll leave it to design historians to debate.

Steelcase's Ocular line of conference tables are designed for modern reality, where videoconferencing has become the norm. Whereas pre-videoconferencing tables were always symmetrical in two axis, the designers have now chopped off the screen-facing end.

"Ocular tables were designed to accommodate the increasing need for video conferences in meeting rooms and hybrid collaboration spaces. ?The organic shapes allow everyone – whether in the room or elsewhere – to see, connect and meet better."

"Ocular table shapes were intentionally designed around three key sightlines for people participating in a virtual meeting – people to people, people to screens, people to cameras."

These were co-designed and co-developed with Microsoft.