There’s something quietly revolutionary happening in office furniture, and it doesn’t involve more buttons, levers, or adjustment knobs. LAYER, the London-based design studio founded by Benjamin Hubert, has partnered with Spanish furniture maker Andreu World to create Velo, a task chair that throws out the instruction manual and replaces it with something far more intuitive: material intelligence.
If you’ve ever sat in a high-end office chair, you know the drill. There are usually about seven different levers under the seat, each controlling a specific function, and you’re expected to become an amateur ergonomics expert just to sit comfortably. Tilt tension here, lumbar support there, armrest height, armrest width, seat depth. It’s exhausting before you even start working. Velo takes a different approach entirely, one that feels almost obvious once you experience it.
Designer: LAYER x Andreu World
At the heart of this chair is a weight-activated mechanism that LAYER developed specifically for this project. Instead of requiring you to manually adjust anything, the chair simply responds to how you’re sitting. Lean back, and it flexes with you. Shift your weight forward, and it adapts. The contoured backrest moves in real time with your body, providing ergonomic support that feels less like furniture and more like the chair is actually paying attention to you.
This isn’t some gimmick hiding behind sleek marketing language. The technology here is genuinely clever. LAYER engineered a system that uses the sitter’s own body weight to activate the mechanism, eliminating the need for springs, gas lifts, or complex pivot points that typically make task chairs feel like miniature machines. The result is a chair that looks refreshingly simple but performs with sophisticated precision.
Visually, Velo is a departure from the aggressively technical aesthetic that dominates the office furniture world. Where most task chairs announce their functionality with exposed mechanisms and industrial details, Velo opts for soft, organic lines and a sculptural silhouette. It’s the kind of chair that wouldn’t look out of place in a contemporary home office, which is exactly the point. With more people working from home or splitting time between multiple locations, the old distinctions between commercial and residential furniture are breaking down. Velo was designed for that fluid reality.
You can spec the chair in two main configurations. The mesh backrest version offers breathability and a lighter visual presence, perfect for warmer climates or minimalist spaces. The fully upholstered version provides a softer, more enveloping feel. Both options feature adjustable lumbar support, and you can choose between standard armrests or 4D movement arms that adjust in multiple directions. The base comes in Andreu World’s range of powder-coated finishes, and the upholstery options pull from their sustainable textile collection.
Speaking of sustainability, Velo was designed with end-of-life in mind from the very beginning. The lightweight frame and base are manufactured from recycled thermopolymer, a high-performance material that maintains durability while reducing environmental impact. The chair uses a minimal part count, which not only simplifies manufacturing but also makes disassembly straightforward when it’s time to recycle. The upholstery fabrics are either low-impact or fully recyclable, continuing Andreu World’s commitment to circular design principles.
Benjamin Hubert’s perspective on the project gets at something essential about where design is heading. As he puts it, people don’t want overly technical products anymore. They want intuitive, adaptable things that fit into their lives without requiring a learning curve. Velo strips back complexity and focuses on the fundamental question: what does a chair actually need to do? It’s not trying to reinvent sitting, but it is rethinking how a chair can support the way we actually work now, without making us work to figure out the chair itself.
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