Keilhauer and Yabu Pushelberg unveil Etta Collection at NeoCon panel

At a NeoCon panel in Chicago, furniture brand Keilhauer and design studio Yabu Pushelberg presented their Etta Collection, a 26-piece line that merges contract seating with hospitality-inspired forms. The talk took place in Keilhauer's new showroom at the Merchandise Mart, featuring CEO Mike Keilhauer, creative director Maggie Keilhauer, Yabu Pushelberg founding partner George Yabu, and Dezeen US editor Ben Dreith. Both firms, founded in Toronto in the early 1980s, collaborated to create furniture for healthcare, office, and hospitality environments. The collection includes sofas, lounge chairs, benches, and tables with sloping elements, sophisticated backrest articulations, and FSC-certified wood. Functional features like wide clean-out gaps and removable seats cater to high-contact healthcare settings. The Working Lounge Chair introduces a new typology blending contract functionality with an elegant folded form. Nesting tables in four sizes and earthy, biophilic materials from Keilhauer's revamped material library unify the collection. The furniture is Certified Carbon Neutral and Greenhealth Approved. Yabu described the collection as 'a softer approach to contract seating,' emphasizing emotional comfort alongside physical comfort. Mike Keilhauer noted the blurring of lines between hospitality, corporate, and healthcare sectors, reflecting workplace flexibility trends.