Tag Archives: office chair

This standing desk chair was designed to encourage healthy spinal alignment while working from home!

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The experimental standing chair is an alternative desk chair that integrates an inclined footrest and cushioned backrest for prime spinal support.

Working from home has turned all of us into amateur interior designers. Whether we’re transforming our bedrooms into hybrid offices or renovating preexisting home offices, at this point we know how we work best. When it comes to desk chairs, the right one makes a difference. With so much time spent sitting down during work, Budapest-based industrial designer Ariel Levay conceptualized an experimental standing chair that allows for dynamic posture adjustments throughout the day.

The experimental standing chair from Ariel Levay won an A’Design bronze award for its innovative simplicity. Describing the inspiration behind his chair design, Levay describes, “We heard a lot about the harmful effects of the sedentary work style to our spine while we spend most of our work time in seats. But sitting causes obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.”

In designing a standing chair, Levay wanted to give sitters the chance to change their standing position throughout the workday to sustain healthy spinal alignment and posture. Resembling the shape of back hyperextension workout equipment, the experimental chair features the main backrest with a cushion where sitters can position their back and recline while working at a desk.

The standing chair incorporates an inclined footrest that allows sitters to comfortably lean back while working. Then, just underneath the chair’s main support cushion, there’s a mid-level footrest where users can prop their feet while sitting with their bottoms entirely on the backrest. Levay designed the experimental standing chair to lessen the load we put on our spines when sitting down and to provide a comfortable alternative to standing in front of high desks.

In his words, Levay says, “The furniture has an ethereal but rigid structure. I wanted it to be static and sturdy, to keep the furniture [natural]. The chair is made up of geometric elements, so I gave [it a] matte black finish for a more serious and elegant look.”​

Designer: Ariel Levay

The Experimental Standing Chair is built with innovative simplicity. 

This office chair’s 5° side to side tilt is designed to support your posture and body’s natural movement!

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Ever since I was a kid, I’ve leaned back in almost every chair I sit in. If I have the room, I’ll tilt back until I hit that sweet spot and let the chair teeter back and forth. Some of us have fidget spinners and some of us lean our chairs all the way back. Designed specifically for those of us who share that same tendency, Seoul-based design firm 250 Design built the 5° Chair, an office chair that can rotate 360°, lean back and forward, and tilt from side to side.

Primarily designed for workers who spend most of their days sitting down in the office or at home, the 5° Chair features cushioning that forms to your body and posture to ensure comfortable sitting throughout the day. The chair’s seat plate cozies up to and hugs your hips for support from the bottom, with added cushion for comfort. Similarly, the backrest plate forms to the shape of your back to bolster your posture and encourage an upright spine. The 5° Chair’s legs are reinforced in the core with angled wave springs that can tilt in any direction, while the chair’s spindle can lean from side to side, 5 degrees from its center point. The rotatability of the 5° Chair allows it to adjust to your body’s natural movement, offering support from every angle.

Designed for people who work in small spaces, the 5° Chair does not feature wheels, compensating for the lack of wheels with a swivel and spindle that can be rotated and tilted in every direction. Embedded wave springs provide the chair with stationary mobility that offers support for your body’s natural ways of readjusting and moving throughout the workday.

Designer: 250 Design

The 5° Chair rotates in every direction and tilts from side to side, 5 degrees from the spindle’s center.

Without wheels, the 5° Chair makes up for that lack with plenty of integrated movement.

Cushioned seat plates hug your hips to support your base when sitting.

The 5° Chair’s height can also be adjusted with a conventional lever.

The backrest’s plate hugs your upper back for spine support.

With a gentle slope, the 5° Chair’s seat plate meets your body’s natural way of sitting.

Embedded alternating wave springs allow the chair to be rotated and tilted in any direction, predicting your body’s movement.

“It is the same as a normal chair when you sit and use it normally, but if you twist your back or change your posture, it will tilt at various angles according to that direction.”

Textured, tight-knit cushions give the chair a refined, minimal look.

“Both sides of the seat plate are made in a shape that holds the hips so that the movement can receive power naturally, so you can stably tilt it with force.”

“This chair is mainly for users who use the chair in a small space, and it is a chair that can receive various body movements when sitting than the mobility of the chair.”

This transforming furniture goes from office setup to home chair by easily unzipping the sides!

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Remember the hours we spent commuting every day – to the office, to a favorite restaurant or just to see our much-loved sunset spot? Living in Bombay, my memory of trains is a sensory assault – the people standing next to you, the waft of that balmy air as it wedges it was through the bodies, the cacophony of friends greeting each other, railway public service announcements, and the hawkers selling an assortment of objects. Given the year and a half of living in the isolation and quiet of my home furniture, I don’t think I can step into a train without getting shivers. To give you the feeling of working from the office while working from home, designer Andrew Mangelsdorf created the Commute chair.

The name commute chair might give you the idea that it helps you recreate the journey (maybe it’s a variation of floo powder that transports you while sitting in place), it literally helps create a barrier between your home and workspace. Designing a home office is a luxury not everyone can afford – we often convert our bedroom into the workroom and the dining table into a desk for the day. Commute lets you mentally transform yourself by pulling up the partitions of this ingenious chair. The chair also comes with multiple accessories like a swiveling tabletop and a table light – all integrated to create the perfect desk setup in the form of one simple chair. The chair also has USB ports and holds deep pockets to hold all your knick-knacks that you need during work. The chair’s aesthetics are minimal – fitting into your home, while the beige inner fabric acts as a professional backdrop to those endless Zoom calls.

The transforming nature of the chair comes from the metal zipper that holds the chair’s privacy barriers up. Open up the zip – either from one side only or from both sides and fold the excess over the metal arm, creating an impromptu armrest. The commute chair makes commuting from work to home that simple.

Be it your work time or time to relax, we all need a barrier from distractions that surround us. Keeping this in mind, the commute chair becomes essential for your homes even when the pandemic is over – and life, as we know it, returns to the normal we were used to. Personally, I would love to have the commute chair as a reading nook, use the sides to take away any distractions, and lose myself in the wonderful world of books!

Designer: Andrew Mangelsdorf for DAAPworks 2021

This DIY desk chair doubles as a doghouse and bed to get those little puppies off your lap!

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Simone Giertz, a self-described maker, robotics enthusiast, and non-engineer, has a dog, Scraps who loves to sit on her lap and a desk chair that could be improved because of it. Dogs especially like sitting on top of you when you’re working on less important matters, like your job. Searching up and down Google’s limits, Giertz noticed time and time again that there weren’t any desk chairs on the market designed for people with small dogs whose preferred seated position was located anywhere on their owner’s body. So, in the trailblazing nature of her YouTube channel, she designed her own.

In her uploaded YouTube video, A chair made for needy pets Giertz takes us through the construction of both the chair’s initial prototype and its final form. Using Fusion 360, Giertz created a 3D model of the pet chair. The model features an enclosed crate, the main dog door, footrest, stairs, and roof to also work as Giertz’s seat. Employing CNC milling to construct the chair’s top seat and roof, sidewalls, stairs, and front entryway, Giertz cut vertical ridges along the sidewalls to bend them around the radius of the chair. After mounting the pieces of plywood together to form the prototype’s planned structure, Giertz uses screws to attach them, but the finished prototype saw some improvements.

Giertz turned to CNC milling to construct the chair’s bottom piece, this time formed in two sections to fit onto the CNC bed. On top of the chair’s joined bottom piece, the rest of the CNC-milled pieces of plywood came together. To help Scraps move up and down the chair’s steps with more confidence, Giertz narrowed the distance between the steps and added a railing system to border the chair’s stairs, main seat, and roof.

Increasing the size of the dog house’s main door and solving the trouble that came with bent plywood, Giertz opted for a fuller opening located in the spot where the plywood had to bend around the chair’s radius, leaving less tension in the wood. To see Giertz build the chair from the ground up and paint it a “moldy, vomit color,” as she describes (although I’d like even a moldier seafoam green) – scroll below and be sure to watch the video on Giertz’s YouTube channel!

Designer: Simone Giertz

Using Fusion 360, Giertz created a 3D model.

Using CNC milling, Giertz had her pieces of plywood ready for construction.

To connect the chair’s walls to its base, Giertz relied on peg-and-socket building methods.

Giertz eventually decided on using screws to connect the pieces of the chair together.

To help Scraps feel more comfortable moving up and down the stairs, Giertz thought to add in a railing system.

The final prototype saw improvements for the stairs and built-in railing.

Stepping away from ridge-bent plywood, Giertz increased the size of the chair’s entryway to get rid of some of the tension in the plywood.

Finally, Giertz incorporated a railing for the top of the chair and doghouse roof so that she could comfortably lean back.

The finished product includes the fundamental features from the initial prototype, including stairs and footrest.

To enhance the chair’s overall usability, Giertz integrated pull-out drawers into the stairs.

A Handyman’s Tool Belt is the inspiration for this storage-equipped chair design!

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We spend a lot of our time either working on chairs or lazing out on them, so it helps when things are within reach wherever we find ourselves perked up or lounging. I know sometimes when I get in the zone with work, I’ll go to reach for my pen without taking my eyes from the screen only for my fingers to grab air since I couldn’t keep track of where I placed it last. No matter what you do – creative writing, graphic design, coding – if you find yourself sitting for several hours within a day, R2Space created the Tool Belt Chair in order to keep important items within reach at all times so you’ll never lose sight of your ongoing progress.

Inspired by the handyman’s tool belt, R2Space designed the Tool Belt Chair in order to give users an extra boost of storage for long workdays or to help declutter familiar work settings so looking for a lost pen won’t keep you from getting the job done. A semi-transparent, frosted plastic raceway tube frames the back and sides of the chair’s seat. This plastic tubing provides the user with extra space to keep stationary, smartphones, electrical cables, or even actual tools – you name it. The Tool Belt Chair’s design itself is simplistic and clean, offering a natural wood or white oak finish with a neutral-toned, grey cushioned seat so that the chair can be situated in most rooms. The chair only has a top rail, which opens up the entire backside of the Tool Belt Chair in order to give more access to the storage tube that traces the backside of the chair’s seat. Additionally, just behind the cushioned seat, an impression in the chair’s wooden structure provides more storage space for smaller items such as business cards, pens or pencils, and other small stationery items.

The tool belt is known for how much it can carry and how handy it ultimately is for the handyman. While we’re not all capable of fixing broken toilets or dodgy sink pipes, we can all pretend we have the tools for it. Fake it ‘til you make it, right? This sweet, nifty chair design is sure to make the worker bee in all of us feel inspired to keep on working until the job gets finished.

Designer: R2Space

This office chair’s hanging seat uses micro-body movements to maintain your posture during WFH!

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The current pandemic situation is such that working from home is the new normal. Even more so for people who have to sit all day long in front of their PC’s, especially for computer-related tasks. After all, sitting on your normal chair can take a toll on the overall health and elevate niggling problems like back and neck pain. Even if you have an ergonomic chair that supports your body, the freedom of upper body movement is still missing. With this in mind, Tai Matlin and Taiwon Choi of Fellowes have designed an office chair with a hanging seating position that follows the body movements. The hanging seat ensures maximum comfort for the spine, hips, and lower limbs at all times – no matter how long you’ve been sitting!

The unique chair design with patented Omni-Kinetic Suspension Technology for micro-body movement in multiple directions prevents fatigue during long hours of sitting. Keeping in mind the extended working hours Elea chair has a contoured design to support natural spine alignment and the lumbar positioning which all goes well for long-term health benefits. The chair also boasts adjustable tension and balanced support which most of the office chairs simply don’t have. Other than that a lot of thought has been put into the designing of every single little detail of this chair which will leave nothing to complaining. Winner of the IDSA Award, the team says “The seat pan is suspended with steel rods that allow the seat—and you—to freely move while ensuring proper balance and stability. By introducing micromovement into the workday, the Elea Office Chair encourages improved circulation, heart health, muscle, and joint flexibility, and mental alertness. From an executive office to open workspaces, Elea keeps you in flow while you work.”

Elea office chair is constructed from industrial-grade alloy steel rods and the cast aluminum frame which both works in tandem to distribute the overall body weight for enhanced durability. Also, the sturdy build courtesy of the curved chassis ensures the same level of comfort for years to come. This has an overall impact on your physical health as well as mental wellbeing, as you’ll be less stressed out thanks to the comfortable seating position every day of work.

Designers: Tai Matlin and Taiwon Choi of Fellowes

This chair was designed to let you sit cross-legged for better posture and health!

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I always sit with one leg tucked or my legs crossed when I am working because I find it comfortable. I thought I was the only one till I did a quick online search for chairs that support sitting in “goofy” positions and that’s when I found that I wasn’t alone and there many innovative chairs that support people like us! The one that caught my eye amongst the top results was Soul Seat, firstly for its shape, and secondly, because it was literally the duplex of chairs! It is extremely common to sit cross-legged in Asian countries, the concept is old but bringing it to your workplace in the form of a chair so you can utilize your desk is what’s new.

The Soul Seat helps you sit in a neutral posture which is effortless and comfortable. The springs on the elevated perch tilt the pelvis forward, open the hips and help align the spine. You can sit in several positions if crossing legs isn’t comfortable for you, the chair enables you to switch between multiple positions frequently keeping your body engaged and blood flowing. For some, this may also alleviate neck and back pain! The height of both levels can be adjusted to suit your workspace setup. I know there were many comments from our Instagram audience about it missing a backrest and while I don’t think it causes harm if you sit without one (people meditate and work in this very posture for hours in Asian countries), I do think having an option of a detachable backrest can help those who are just starting to work on their posture ease into it. It is about having that choice which opens up many more people to use the Soul Seat, however, there are countless reviews that mention it being comfortable as it is so it is a great design but it does come down to personal preference.

“It swivels just as a conventional office chair does, but that is where the parallels stop. Everything else about the Soul Seat represents a paradigm shift in ergonomic thinking, bringing together self-care and sustainably-minded design,” says the team. Sitting cross-legged has many benefits like improving digestion, state of mind, aiding in weight loss, and more apart from better posture. Many yoga teachers recommend this position but also advise to keep switching every 30 mins. This is not a one chair fits all and while we this may be an ergonomic option for me, it is always better that you consult your health practitioners before investing in one for yourself. Level up – literally!

Designer: Ikaria Design Co.

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Standing Desk + Backrest = LeanChair

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Three years ago, we checked out the Locus, an expensive standing desk with a stool. Wayne Yeager’s LeanChair is another alternative to standing desks. Instead of letting you rest on your butt, it has a backrest and a footrest, allowing you to lean back while standing.

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The LeanChair is tilted at just the right angle so you can still see straight ahead while relieving your legs of about 25% of your weight. It does put some of the load on your knees, so it won’t be an optimal solution for everyone.

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The half-chair also comes with a rubber-coated desk on a swing arm, so you can either use it with a standing desk or on its own if you don’t need a lot of space to work.

Pledge at least $245 (USD) on Kickstarter to receive a LeanChair as a reward.

[via Gadgetify]

The Origin of Seating

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The Origin task chair focuses on natural ergonomics, positive posture reinforcement & even weight distribution to keep the user’s body in check while they work. With other task chairs, users still have to lean forward to access their keyboard or mouse, thereby negating the chair’s ergonomics. Here, a split keyboard & mouse are integrated into the armrests so the spine can remain supported while weight is distributed to the forearms rather than the wrists. Oh, yeah… it’s also really really really ridiculously good looking!

Designer: Edwin Cruz

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(The Origin of Seating was originally posted on Yanko Design)

Related posts:

  1. Sensible Seating
  2. Where’s the extra seating when we need it?
  3. Social Adaption Seating
    


Focal Locus Desk & Chair Set Won’t Allow You to Sit or Stand, But I Still Want One

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I’ve seen all kinds of office chairs and desks, but I’m pretty sure the Locus series by Focal is the first one that I’ve encountered that encourages people to be in a position halfway between standing up and sitting down. It seems silly at first, but I can actually see myself being comfortable on it. Too bad I can also see myself not being able to afford it.

focal locus desk chair

The Locus desk is made of aluminum, hardwood laminate and polymer. The surface can be inclined up to 18º and the legs can be raised and lowered. But the quirk of the Locus lies in the seat, which as you can see is a bit like a bar stool, except it has a long base that tilts up. The seat itself is not fixed to the base and can be moved up to 10º side to side. The idea is that your butt to be barely on the cushion and your legs stretched out with your feet leaning on the tip of the base.

Aside from the lack of back support, the biggest downside to the Locus line is the price tag. Focal is selling the seat for $500 (USD) and the desk for $950. These are already discounted introductory prices; the regular price will be $650 for the seat and $1150 for the desk. If you’re ready to stand down and sit up, head to Focal’s website to pre-order.

[via Instash]