As the reality sets in for many workers that they will be trapped at home for the foreseeable future, many have found themselves eager for a suitable ergonomic chair.
A dizzying number of options are available online, from budget options to elegant design models. But one problem is universal: office chairs tend to look, well, office chairs. Despite the prevalence of the residential theme trend in office design (called “resimercial” in the language of the industry) in recent years, it seems that none of the large commercial furniture manufacturers have designed a convincing high chair. performance that combines with the rest of our houses
“It is certainly the most important thing for us right now,” says Meghan Dean, director of auxiliary associations at Steelcase, the world’s largest manufacturer of office furniture. “We have certainly expanded our thinking about what a great looking ergonomic solution is.”
Herman Miller
Many styles today evoke the aesthetics of the Aeron chair, the best-selling $ 1,200 Herman Miller model that has become the icon of office ergonomics. Designed by Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf in the 1990s, the Aeron (also known as the “dotcom throne”) was sold in three sizes and promoted countless adjustable features for lumbar support. It is the best “sitting machine”.
But during the prolonged blockade, the clamor for a support chair that does not look like huge machinery has escalated. This is especially true for those who live in small rooms, without the benefit of a separate home office.
“The idea of what a home office is changing and evolving, but what we do know is that people are much happier and much more productive at work if they feel comfortable,” says Dean. “It’s a great question, how can we design a work chair that looks really good at home?”
The answer, it turns out, is that designing an office chair to look like a comfortable chair is more complicated than it sounds.
A fight between ergonomics and aesthetics.
“You can’t just take an existing chair that works well in an office environment and try to dress it up to be a home chair,” explains Greg Allison, lead design engineer for the ergonomics-focused brand Humanscale. “It is just a different aesthetic and a different size.”
An ergonomic office chair, often called a “work chair,” is designed to keep our bodies healthy for long periods of time sitting. According to standards set by the Association of Corporate and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers, the leading trade organization in the US, an office chair must support a person weighing up to 275 pounds, sitting for eight hours a day, five days a week for a period of ten years or more. (A large occupant chair must support workers weighing up to 400 pounds.)
Allison, who has designed various types of seats, from children’s car seats to high chairs, hospital wheelchairs, and work chairs for various manufacturers, explains that an office chair looks the same way because of its function. Signature details include a wheel base that allows attendees to slide easily across the floor, adjusting levers to accommodate the posture needs of people with various body types, and the tilted “cascade seat” designed to relieve pressure from knees and thighs. Ergonomic chairs also have a space between the seat and the seat back to allow the user to adjust the recline angle.
Even before the pandemic, Allison says there was a growing interest in simpler-looking office chairs. “Visually, people have come to the conclusion that they don’t want to see all of these mechanisms,” he explains. For a work chair to be unveiled early next year, Humanscale made adjustments to take his eyes off the guts and levers of an office chair. It has a “softer look” and a self-adjusting technology that responds to the body position of the model.
But even then, Allison supports the limits of modifying the form. Does anyone want to put it in their living room? No, “he says.” But I think it’s definitely a step in the right direction to make a work chair look good in a home environment. “Other designers have proposed counterpoints to the Aeron aesthetic in recent years, from the chair Vitra’s Pacific or Steelcase’s ultra-sleek Silq model, but at the end of the day, they still read “office.”
Knoll
Professional tips for buying an office chair
Ideally, you should sit in a chair before purchasing it. But since most showrooms are closed or capacity limited due to the pandemic, it is good to do a little comparison before ordering one online.
Alan Calixto, former director of interior design for New York firm A + I, advises buyers to pay close attention to the details of the chair. The wheels, for example, can be soft or hard. Soft wheels are rubber coated and are best for hardwood or smooth tile surfaces, while hard wheels are intended for carpeted floors. “If you make a mistake, it can be problematic and even cause injury,” he says. “If you have hardwood floors and you get hard wheels, for example, you can slide easily. In an office, that can become a demand. “
Should we consider the budget chairs from the office supply catalogs? What about cheap knockoffs? Calixto, who uses the Knoll Pollock executive chair and a Vitra AC5 at home, says paying for a well-made model that comes with a manufacturer’s warranty would be the best long-term investment. “You are investing in yourself and it is something you can pass on to someone else,” he says. Cheap chairs, or “fast fashion furniture,” tend to break and be thrown out after a few years, adding to the nine million tons of office furniture that is sent to landfills each year in the United States. “There is a big philosophical question here about how Americans view design and how much they are willing to spend on it,” says Calixto.
Benjamin Pardo, Design Director at Knoll, says that carefully choosing the color and fabric of office chairs can help address aesthetic concerns. “One of the regrets of an office chair is that it always reminds you of work,” he observes. “Don’t let it be black, unless the other chairs in the room are black.” Favors an armchair designed by Eero Saarinen for your home office.
When you buy a chair, it’s helpful to consider the rest of your room, Pardo explains. Small touches, such as adding a shot to the back of the task chair or specifying a unique upholstery fabric can help. “You can use a print, a pattern, or a plaid on the seat,” she suggests. “I won’t call it camouflage, but acclimatization to a more residential setting is always possible.” Pardo believes that any chair can look good at home, given the correct “collage of objects” around it.
As designers reflect on the ultimate remote work chair, marketers are already finding creative ways to reach customers. Steelcase, for example, recently partnered with furniture retailer West Elm to bring its office products to stores. Herman Miller, Knoll and other manufacturers are offering online discounts on their “work from home” solutions.
Steel case
Calixto also recommends considering smaller furniture manufacturers like the North Carolina family-owned business Davis Furniture, the Italian manufacturer Arper, or the German brand Wilkhahn.
Evolution of the office chair.
The standards for office chairs were developed based on the idea that workers sit at their desks for hours at a time. Now that wellness-minded companies are promoting more active work days punctuated with breaks and walking meetings, some argue that the criteria for what makes an office chair ideal should also be rethought. “At home, who’s really sitting for eight hours?” adds Calixto. “Let’s face it, you’re going to get up for a snack sometime.” To its point, the Steelcase-West Elm partnership demonstrates how chairs used in lobbies or conference rooms (also known as collaboration seats) can work as well as remote worker work chairs, as we rarely stay in one place. during the day.
Pardo agrees that some industry standards follow a defunct image of the typical worker. “Until 1995, the German DIN standard [which the American chair standards borrows from] it was based on women wearing high heels typing on a typewriter, “she says.” We need to dig into that … Rules and regulations are a bit ridiculous. “
Allison, the chair engineer, thinks that the next frontier in the office seats is perched. “It is when you are standing but resting on something at the correct height,” she explains. “From my point of view it will be a chair that you can sit on and it will also allow you to sit in a normal posture.
Each chair design is an answer to a particular problem. Its shape evolves as our ideas about where and how we are working are transformed. “Think of modern mid-century types as [Ludwig] Mies van der Rohe “, he says, referring to the architect whose iconic designs include the Barcelona chair. “They were trying to do the same thing, only in the opposite direction: rethinking chairs designed for the home as work chairs. Now we come back … it’s always about listening to people’s needs at any given time. “
