Product Talk | What Will Define Chicago Design Week 2026 with BIFMA's Steve Kooy and Anthony Serge
Today’s commercial products are being asked to do more than ever before. Joined by Steve Kooy and Anthony Serge from BIFMA, Lauren Brant explores how wellness, modularity, emotional performance, and experiential lighting are shaping Chicago Design Week 2026. Chicago Design Week includes NeoCon at The MART, Fulton Market Design Days at Fulton Market, and the growing ecosystem of showrooms, installations, pop-ups, and activations transforming Chicago into a citywide conversation about the future of design.
Meet Our Guests
Steve Kooy, BIFMA Director of Health and Sustainability
Steve leads BIFMA’s Health and Sustainability programs including standard setting, advocacy, and outreach. Steve has more than 15 years of experience as a sustainability professional in the furniture industry.
Prior to joining BIFMA, Steve worked in sales and business development for Intertek—a third-party auditor, certifier, and test lab. In this role, he worked with global furniture clients to properly test and certify products to electrical, mechanical, and environmental standards.
Steve served as Haworth’s Global Sustainability/Open Innovation Manager for many years as the built environment’s interest in green building flourished. Highlights at Haworth included: creating and driving well-being initiatives, setting sustainable design criteria for cleaner chemistry and responsible supply chains, and pursuing product certifications. WELL and LEED experience includes managing or co-managing LEED certification projects in Asia, Europe, and North America as well as piloting the WELL certification in Shanghai and Los Angeles.
Anthony Serge, BIFMA’s Director of Safety and Performance
Anthony Serge has more than 15 years of experience as a safety and performance testing professional in the furniture industry. He leads BIFMA’s Safety and Performance programs, including the BIFMA Compliant Registry, an industry-wide registry of furniture products conforming to BIFMA safety and durability standards.
Prior to joining BIFMA, Anthony worked as a performance and safety engineer for Underwriters Laboratory and as the Furniture Department Manager at Intertek for 10+ years.
He was a long-time volunteer on BIFMA’s performance standard subcommittees and ISO committees, which he now manages.
He graduated from Western Michigan University with a Bachelor’s in Manufacturing Engineering.
Key Moments in This Episode
1:12 — Why Chicago Design Week 2026 feels different
Lauren Brant introduces the major themes shaping this year’s NeoCon and Fulton Market Design Days, including wellness, adaptability, emotional comfort, and long-term product performance.
4:38 — Products are being asked to do more
The conversation explores how manufacturers are positioning products as strategic tools that support flexibility, acoustics, maintenance, sustainability, and human experience—not just aesthetics.
8:57 — Emotional comfort and experiential workplaces
Lauren highlights product launches from brands like Designtex, Brentano, Allsteel, and HBF that reflect a growing focus on tactility, softness, and creating spaces people actively want to inhabit.
13:41 — BIFMA on what feels different heading into 2026
Steve Kooy and Anthony Serge from BIFMA discuss how conversations around workplace products, wellness, and performance are evolving across the industry.
20:06 — Why modularity is no longer optional
Lauren examines how adaptability has shifted from a premium feature to a baseline expectation across seating, acoustics, outdoor furniture, work pods, and specification technology.
24:18 — Long-term adaptability and lifecycle thinking
The discussion looks at products from Silen, Emuamericas, DEDON, Turf Design, and Configura that prioritize reconfiguration, longevity, and collaborative workflows.
30:27 — Lighting takes center stage at NeoCon
Lauren explores the debut of Illuminate at NeoCon and why lighting is increasingly being discussed as part of materiality, wellness, circadian health, and emotional experience.
34:44 — How lighting shapes perception and wellbeing
The episode dives into experiential lighting installations and how lighting design influences texture, finish perception, mood, and spatial psychology.
39:51 — From ergonomics to movement
The conversation shifts toward workplace wellness and movement-focused seating, including KI’s Cognetic Technology platform and the idea of designing environments that work with the body instead of against it.
44:32 — The future of specification and human-centered design
Lauren, Steve, and Anthony reflect on how commercial interiors are becoming increasingly outcome-oriented, with designers prioritizing adaptability, transparency, wellness, and emotional experience.
48:11 — Final takeaways for NeoCon and Fulton Market attendees
The episode closes with advice for designers and specifiers on how to critically evaluate products, showrooms, and innovations during Chicago Design Week 2026.
Additional BIFMA Resources
Compliant Registry: https://compliant.bifma.org/
LEVEL Registry: https://level.bifma.org/
About the Author
Lauren Brant
Staff Writer, interiors+sources and BUILDINGS
Lauren Brant is Staff Writer for both interiors+sources and BUILDINGS. She is an award-winning editor and reporter whose work has appeared in daily and weekly newspapers. In 2020, the weekly newspaper won the Rhoades Family Weekly Print Sweepstakes—the division winner across the state's weekly newspapers. Lauren was also awarded the top feature photo across Class A papers. She holds a B.A. in journalism and media communications from Colorado State University-Fort Collins and a M.S. in organizational management from Chadron State College.