Which Klaro Design system: the bases, heights and spans decoded
Klaro Industrial Design builds its commercial range on four base systems and one height-adjustable engine. The published heights, depths, spans and configurations for COLUMN, OBLONG, TUBE and CONUS, what the range does not publish, and where each one belongs.
Klaro Industrial Design builds its commercial range on four base systems and one height-adjustable engine. The four fixed bases, COLUMN, OBLONG, TUBE and CONUS, are all published at 720 mm. Every height-adjustable piece in the range, from a single desk to a four-position cluster, runs between 665 and 1315 mm with a 25 mm top. Depth and length are where they separate: COLUMN carries 800 to 1800 mm deep and 1200 to 2400 mm long, OBLONG and TUBE both carry 600 to 1800 mm deep and 1200 to 2000 mm long, and all three extend as modular runs rather than longer spans. Choose the base first, then the top.
Klaro is a Sydney studio, founded in 2019 by Alona Klaro and working out of Enmore Road in the Inner West. Geneva specifies the range across Australian projects, and the full catalogue sits in the Klaro Design collection, with the studio's background on the Klaro Design brand page. What follows is the published data, assembled the way a schedule needs it, and an honest account of what the range does not publish.
Four fixed bases, and what actually separates them
The fixed height systems are not variations on one frame. They are four different structural ideas that happen to land on the same working height, and the difference shows up in what shape of top they will carry.
COLUMN, for tops that are not rectangles
COLUMN is the mild steel tube leg system. Klaro describes the leg as "somewhat classical" and the visual language as monolithic, and the practical consequence is a generous top overhang and clear knee space. The part that matters on a drawing is the jointing: Klaro publishes "unique 90/60 joining plates" that, in its words, "allow for irregular-shaped tops to be well supported through the entire area." That is what lets the system carry trapezoidal and angled tops at 90, 60 and 120 degrees instead of forcing a rectangle onto a plan that does not want one.
Stock COLUMN is published at 720 mm high, 800 to 1800 mm deep and 1200 to 2400 mm long, in a black or white matt powder coat. The made to order version moves the height band to 450 to 1100 mm, which is the range that covers a coffee table at one end and a poseur at the other, with depth and length custom and the finish opened up to the Dulux and Interpon standard colours.
OBLONG, for layouts that refuse to sit square
OBLONG is the component system built around a pill-shaped profile. Its published envelope is 600 to 1800 mm deep and 1200 to 2000 mm long, at 720 mm or 1000 mm high, or custom, with castors as an option. The feature worth noting at planning stage is leg rotation: Klaro publishes a wide range of leg stances plus 15 and 30 degree rotation options, which is how a bench run follows a façade or a core wall without the legs ending up at an angle to the top. Stock colours are IRON and PAPERBARK. The base system carries a published 10 year warranty.
TUBE, the round-profile sibling
TUBE covers the same 600 to 1800 mm depth and 1200 to 2000 mm length band at 720 mm high, in powder coated mild steel, stocked in matt white or black and made to order in the Dulux and Interpon ranges. Its published configuration list adds a 120 degree layout to the usual linear, back to back and L shape, which is the one that makes three-person clusters work without a custom top. Like OBLONG, TUBE carries a published 10 year warranty on the base system.
CONUS, a single conical base
CONUS is the odd one out: a rolled sheet steel cone rather than a leg set. Klaro publishes a standard of 720 mm high with a 1000 to 1200 mm diameter top, a 4 mm steel top with melamine and veneer alternatives, and a power access tray with a lid in solid American Oak. It is a meeting and collaboration piece rather than a workstation base, and the integrated soft wiring route is the reason to choose it over a four-leg table of the same diameter.
| System | Height | Depth | Length or diameter | Published configurations | Published warranty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COLUMN (stock) | 720 mm | 800 to 1800 mm | 1200 to 2400 mm | Linear, back to back, L shape, irregular tops at 90, 60 and 120 degrees | Not published |
| COLUMN (made to order) | 450 to 1100 mm | Custom | Custom | Fully custom | Not published |
| OBLONG | 720 and 1000 mm, or custom | 600 to 1800 mm | 1200 to 2000 mm | Linear, back to back, L shape, custom, with 15 and 30 degree leg rotation | 10 years |
| TUBE | 720 mm | 600 to 1800 mm | 1200 to 2000 mm | Linear, back to back, L shape, 120 degrees, custom | 10 years |
| CONUS | 720 mm with steel top | Round top | 1000 to 1200 mm diameter | Single conical base with integrated soft wiring | Not published |
All three of the workstation base systems are described as extending to an infinite length through modular bases and tops. Read that as the honest statement it is: the span between legs does not grow, the run does. A 6000 mm bench is three COLUMN bases, not one longer one, and the schedule needs to say so.
One height-adjustable engine, five different bodies
Every sit-to-stand product in the Klaro range is published at the same 665 to 1315 mm with a 25 mm top. That is a 650 mm stroke, which is wide, and it is worth putting next to a system Geneva already has published figures for: Thinking Works Ovation runs 590 to 1210 mm, which our guide to Ovation, Rosie and Okidoki compared on height, load and layout sets out in full. The Klaro band sits about 75 mm higher at the bottom and about 105 mm higher at the top.
That shift is the single most important number in this guide. At the top, 1315 mm comfortably clears a tall standing user. At the bottom, 665 mm is a high seated surface. A system that will not come below 665 mm asks a short user to raise the chair and then live without the floor, which is a footrest on the schedule or a problem at the first workstation assessment. The obligation to get that right is a design and consultation duty under the model work health and safety laws, which WHS and the furniture schedule: what the law actually requires works through.
The differences between the five height-adjustable products are entirely about footprint and cluster logic.
| Product | Height range | Top size per position | Base arrangement | Notable published detail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| COLUMN h/a workstation | 665 to 1315 mm | 700 to 900 mm deep by 1400 to 2100 mm wide | Back to back clusters of 3, 5, 7 or 9, with integrated D-end | Dual motor, 30 mm threshold between tops |
| COLUMN h/a Desk | 665 to 1315 mm | 600 to 1000 mm deep by 1400 to 2100 mm wide | Single desk or one-piece top table | Digital display, three memory presets, timer, USB-C |
| COLUMN h/a Desk Executive | 665 to 1315 mm | 600 to 900 mm deep by 1600 to 2100 mm wide | Desk with return credenza, 500 mm deep by 1800 to 2400 mm long by 530 mm high | USB-A and USB-C on the control pad |
| COLUMN h/a CLOVER | 665 to 1315 mm | 1300 to 1900 mm wide in a cluster of 3; 1100 to 1600 mm in a cluster of 4 | Circular clusters of 3 and 4 | 5 year warranty on parts and labour |
| CONUS h/a | 665 to 1315 mm, or fixed at 720 mm | 600 to 1200 mm by 600 to 4200 mm | Single, double or triple conical base | Same base available with fixed parts |
| CONUS XL h/a | 665 to 1315 mm | 600 to 1200 mm by 1800 to 2400 mm | Double base only | Four motors, 240 kg lifting capacity |
Two of those entries deserve a second look. The CONUS h/a top envelope reaches 4200 mm on a single, double or triple base, which makes it a boardroom table that moves, not just a meeting table. And the CONUS XL height-adjustable table is the only item in the range with a published lifting capacity: four motors and 240 kg. Nothing else in the Klaro height-adjustable range publishes a load figure, which matters more than it sounds. A table that will carry a 4200 mm top, a power box and whatever a workshop leaves on it is a table you want a number for.
The control and safety specification
Klaro publishes the same control set across the height-adjustable family: a digital height display, three memory presets, a timer, and a USB-C charging port on the control pad, with USB-A added on the Executive. On the COLUMN h/a height-adjustable workstation the published engineering detail goes further than most: dual motor drive, anti-collision on both the up and the down stroke with eight sensitivity levels, pre-set or locked low and high height limits, system overheating protection, and a 30 mm threshold between adjacent tops in a cluster.
That last figure is the one to carry into the drawing. Thirty millimetres between tops is what lets two adjacent desks travel independently without fouling each other. It also means a cluster of COLUMN h/a is not a continuous worksurface: there is a 30 mm gap along every shared edge, and anything that was going to bridge it, a long monitor rail, a run of task lighting, a shared return, needs to be detailed for that gap rather than discovered on site.
Specifier's note. Klaro publishes the COLUMN h/a top as Laminex Core Commercial melamine, and then states that other finishes, including Polytec, are "available where GECA certification isn't required". That is a conditional worth reading twice. A late finish substitution on a desk top, the kind that gets made in a colour review two weeks before the order, can take the certification with it. If the project is counting that certification towards a rating or a procurement requirement, lock the top finish at schedule stage and put the certification requirement in the order, not in the email thread. What the certification levels actually mean is in Sustainable office furniture: which claims hold up on a schedule.
What the range does not publish
An honest brand guide says what is missing, because the gaps are where a schedule goes wrong. Across the Klaro product pages read for this guide, the following are not published:
- Load capacity on any height-adjustable product except CONUS XL. No working load, no point load, no distributed load for COLUMN h/a, the COLUMN h/a Desk, the Executive, CLOVER or the standard CONUS h/a.
- Travel speed and duty cycle for the height-adjustable columns.
- Dimensions for HALFMOON in any of its four variants. The page publishes 6 mm mild steel rolled legs, black adjustable feet and 25 mm tops in laminate, melamine or veneer, but no heights, lengths or diameters.
- Acoustic test data for SCORE, the wrap-around workstation screen. The page publishes a fire classification tested to the National Construction Code using AS ISO 9705 and AS 5637, and a panel made from up to 80 per cent post-consumer PET, but no absorption figure and no panel dimensions. A screen without a published absorption class cannot be modelled; what the ratings mean, and what to ask for, is in Acoustic ratings on a plan: what NRC, Rw and dB actually tell you.
- A warranty figure on every page. Ten years is published on OBLONG and TUBE, five years on COLUMN h/a and CLOVER, five years on BASIX storage. The rest are silent.
None of that is unusual for a studio of this size, and none of it is a reason not to specify the range. It is a reason to ask for the numbers in writing before the schedule is issued, and to not let a specification clause assume a figure that nobody has published.
Specifying it with the rest of the floor
A base system is only half a workstation. Klaro publishes the pieces that finish it, and the published figures are worth knowing because they decide clearances elsewhere.
The TRAX_t cable management system is published in two lengths, 1273 mm and 1775 mm, and can be cut to size. It carries four GPO power outlets and a USB point, plus up to two data points per desk, in a tray of 80 per cent post-consumer recycled PET felt with a separate top-tier cableway kept for data. The frame comes in black, white or paperbark with charcoal or light grey felt. Where that sits against a worktop cut-out module, and who installs which, is covered in In-desk power and data: cut-outs, outlets and who installs what.
The BASIX storage cabinet is published at 1200 mm high, 900 mm wide and 390 mm deep, with a Laminex core commercial melamine carcass, upholstered doors and powder coated mild steel legs, and is developed to be manufactured in pairs. That 390 mm depth is shallower than the 450 mm that most commercial storage defaults to, which is useful at the end of a bench run and limiting if the brief includes lever arch files. The depths and clearances that decide it are in Office storage: depths, heights and the clearances nobody draws.
Top finishes follow the same logic as any commercial desk. Klaro's defaults are Laminex Core Commercial melamine and the Polytec Ravine and Woodmatt ranges for a timber grain texture, with veneer, plywood and Forbo furniture linoleum offered as the premium step on made to order COLUMN. How those behave in service, and which wears where, is set out in Commercial desk finishes: laminate, veneer, linoleum and powdercoat compared.
Where each system belongs, and where it does not
The range rewards being used for what it is. OBLONG and TUBE are the general-purpose benching bases: repeatable, stocked in two colours each, and carrying the longest published warranty in the range. Specify them where the floor is a long run of workstations and the budget is doing most of the talking.
COLUMN earns its place where the plan is not rectangular. If the floorplate has an angled core, a curtain wall that runs off-grid, or a breakout that wants trapezoidal tops, the 90 and 60 degree joining plates are the reason to pay for it. On a straight bench run against a straight wall, COLUMN is more base than the job needs.
CONUS and CONUS XL belong in meeting and boardroom settings where the cable route has to disappear into the floor and the table still has to look like one object. They are not workstation bases. The floor box below them needs coordinating before the slab penetrations are set, not after.
CLOVER is a specific answer to a specific brief: a circular cluster of three or four sit-to-stand positions, at 1300 to 1900 mm wide per position in a three, or 1100 to 1600 mm in a four. It suits a team that wants to face each other. It does not suit a floor that is going to be re-planned in two years, because a circular cluster does not re-form into a linear bench.
Good furniture should never fight the architecture. It should feel like it was always meant to be there. That is the line we come back to at Geneva, as Nicholas puts it, and the Klaro range is an unusually direct test of it: four bases that each want a different kind of plan, and only one of them will be right for the floor in front of you.
Made where, and why it matters on a schedule
Klaro designs every piece in its Sydney studio. On manufacture, its published FAQ is specific, and it is worth quoting rather than paraphrasing: “All Klaro products are made in Australia except our height-adjustable furniture and workstation system ranges.” The same page states that all Klaro furniture is designed in-house by the team at the Sydney studio. Klaro's published FAQ is the source.
For most projects that is background. For a project with a local content requirement, a government panel obligation or a rating tool claim, it is a line item, and the exception matters because it lands exactly on the height-adjustable and workstation system ranges that a workplace schedule is mostly made of. Ask for the statement against the specific item, at the specific finish, and keep it with the submission. How government buyers treat that kind of claim is covered in Government furniture procurement: what a panel does not settle.
The short version
If the plan is rectangular and repeatable, start at OBLONG or TUBE and the 10 year warranty. If the plan is not, start at COLUMN. If the brief is sit-to-stand, the whole family runs 665 to 1315 mm and the bottom of that band is the number to check against your shortest user. If the table has to carry real load, CONUS XL is the only item with a published figure, 240 kg across four motors. And whatever the finish schedule says, lock the top finish before the certification claim is made.
Frequently asked
What is the height range on a Klaro height-adjustable desk?
Klaro publishes 665 to 1315 mm with a 25 mm top, and the same range applies across COLUMN h/a, the COLUMN h/a Desk, the Executive version, CLOVER and both CONUS h/a tables. The bottom of that range sits higher than several competing systems, so check it against your shortest seated user before it goes on the schedule.
Which Klaro base systems are fixed height?
COLUMN, OBLONG, TUBE and CONUS. All four are published at 720 mm as standard. OBLONG also publishes a 1000 mm standing height with optional castors, and the made to order COLUMN base covers 450 to 1100 mm.
How far can a Klaro base span before it needs another leg?
Klaro publishes a stock length of 1200 to 2400 mm for COLUMN and 1200 to 2000 mm for OBLONG and TUBE, with depths of 800 to 1800 mm on COLUMN and 600 to 1800 mm on the other two. Longer runs are made by repeating the base rather than stretching it, which Klaro describes as an infinite length of modular base and tops.
Is Klaro furniture made in Australia?
Klaro's published FAQ states: “All Klaro products are made in Australia except our height-adjustable furniture and workstation system ranges.” The same page says the studio designs every piece in-house in Sydney. Ask for the statement in writing against the specific item if local content is being counted on the project.
What warranty does Klaro publish?
Ten years on the OBLONG and TUBE base systems, and five years on parts and labour for COLUMN h/a and COLUMN h/a CLOVER, with extended cover available on request. Klaro does not publish a warranty figure on every product page, so confirm it item by item at schedule stage.
Geneva specifies, supplies and installs the Klaro Design range on Australian projects, and the full catalogue is in the Klaro Design collection. If you have a floor plate and a base system you are not certain about, send the plan and the seated heights you need to clear through the Geneva contact page and we will work it back against the published figures before it goes on the schedule.