100 Years of IBA—100 Years of Innovation

Few associations can look back on a 100-year history. We do so with pride and with a special thanks to our members! Time and again, they have risen to the shifting challenges and thus not only responded to the constant change in the world of work but also shaped it regardless of all adversity.

Today, the central topics of the association’s work are the change in knowledge work and, more generally, digitalization. This process has just begun. AI, collaboration tools and much more will change the way we work and the demands on the physical environment. This gives rise to new opportunities and tasks that can only be tackled jointly in an industry such as ours that is dominated by medium-sized companies. That’s what we are looking forward to.

One hundred years of association work are of course also a reason for us to celebrate. We did this together with our members on 5 October 2023 in Wiesbaden…

The first written document of our association dates back to November 1923. It was founded as an association of wood office furniture manufacturers in the form of a “professional division” of the German Wood Industry Association. Topics in the early years included quality conditions for office furniture, freight rates, trade fair issues and the export of furniture, which was strictly regulated at the time. In 1984, the manufacturers of wooden office furniture joined forces with steel furniture manufacturers to form the Association of the German Office Furniture Industry (Verband der Deutschen Büromöbelindustrie e. V.). In March 2000, the seating furniture manufacturers, who had been organized separately until then, were added, and the bso Verband Büro-, Sitz- und Objektmöbel e. V. (Association of Office, Seating and Facility Furniture) was formed. The Board of Directors signalled another change in 2016 by renaming the association. Today’s name “Industrieverband Büro und Arbeitswelt e. V.” (German Interior Business Association) stands for the industry’s broad view of the issues of the future.

The German Interior Business Association (Industrieverband Büro und Arbeitswelt e. V.), based in Wiesbaden, is the industry association for the holistic design of office work. It pools the expertise and represents the interests of manufacturers of office and facility furniture as well as acoustic, lighting and other equipment solutions. Employer attractiveness, holistic room design and New Work are also central topics of the online expert platform, the IBA Forum. In addition, the IBA is the conceptual sponsor of ORGATEC, the leading international trade fair for modern working environments.