A modern office chair dissertation

A Modern Office Chair
Veronika Horakova
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor in
Interior Design, Atrium, Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries, the University of
Glamorgan. No part of work referred to in this dissertation has been submitted in support of
an application for another degree or qualification in this University or any other institute of
Learning.
Interior Design
Dublin Institute of Design
Atrium, University of Glamorgan
April 2012

Abstract
Office chairs have become ubiquitous products, sold in the millions to corporations and
institutions over the world. While the capitalist society runs on productivity, the human body
requires rest and comfort to function optimally, which has guaranteed not only continued
business for the office chair industry but also the continued evolution of office chairs. An
interrelated and dynamic set of factors motivates office chair design. Work habits, production
technologies, ergonomic ideals, and broad social goals change frequently and considerably
and affect the features and functions of office chairs. This paper investigates and explores
what were the main factors which influenced the office chair evolution from the end of
nineteenth century up to present. The main objective of this dissertation is to summarize the
important elements in office chair design. Although the topic of the evolution of office chair is
very broad, this paper is trying to approach the development of office chair in significant and
key moments.
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Contents Page
Abstract
Acknowledgement
Introduction 4
Chapter 1 The History of the Office Chair from 1849 to WWII 5
Chapter 2 The Office Chair in Modernist Office 10
Chapter 3 The Ergonomic Office Chair 14
Chapter 4 The Office Chair in Twentieth-First Century 20
Conclusion 24
List of Illustration 25
Bibliography 27
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Acknowledgement
I would like to express my thanks to a number of people, who have helped me in writing this
dissertation; to all those who provided support, talked things over, read, wrote, offered
comments and assisted in the proofreading.
I would like to thank Tracey Dalton and Aimee Ward for providing invaluable advice on the
drafts for the dissertation and general guidance.
I would like to thank Trina Milner and John Milner for their professional advices and making
my research much easier and accessible.
Lastly, I would like to thank my partner Martin Netopil, who supported and encouraged me
through the whole process of writing this dissertation.
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Introduction
“Sitting is a simple activity. It is something people do. Sitting is active, involving motion,
balance, position, posture, and control. Sitting is an innate behaviour involving both body and
mind. Sitting is natural. People sit in a wide variety of places and ways. Sitting is simple.”1
This dissertation follows up historical development of office chairs. The historical
development of the office chairs is associated with evolution of work places and hierarchy in
the work places. It will also analyse production advancements and development of new
materials and technology in office chair design from the beginning of nineteenth century up to
the present. This dissertation will introduce the terms “ergonomics” and it will establish the
importance of the integration of the ergonomics in the development of product design.
1
Tim Springer, The Future of Ergonomic Office Seating, Knoll Workplace Research, 2010, p. 1
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Chapter One: The History of the Office Chair from 1849 to
WWII
Chapter one will open the discussion about history and development of the office
chair. It will discuss the origin of the early version of the office chair dated back to 1849 and it
will continue discussing the evolution of handmade forms until the beginning of the Industrial
Revolution. This section will focus on the definition of used elements on different chairs at
different times. It will discuss the roots of the first movement mechanism and the roots of the
first kinetic office chair and how these main features have developed and evolved through
time. This section will also discuss presentation and expression of different hierarchy in work
places and it will detail what were the fundamental factors to express the different
hierarchical organizations. The chapter will also analyse production advancements and
development of new materials and how these factors influenced the evolution of office chairs.
The office chair has evolved through four key phases. During its first phase in the
nineteenth century, designers invented the office chair prototype including the movement
mechanism to suit the needs of rapidly growing and expanding business.
In the mid-nineteenth century the expansion of industry and factories created an
unprecedented number of clerical and management job positions which resulted in to an
urgent need of for office seating that would promote productivity of staff by discouraging the
clerks from leaving their desks. These circumstances have changed dramatically and office
chairs have undergone an extensive design evolution as they have been adapted to the
changing world around them2
.
In the history of the office chair we cannot determine a single inventor of it. The basic
elements that define the first office chair are a movement mechanism, adjustable features,
and casters. All these basic elements appeared on different chairs at different times. In 1849
Thomas E. Warren invented a chair called the Centripetal Spring Armchair which features
arched steel leaf spring that allows the chair to flex in any direction (Figure 1). This type of
mechanism is the first patented movement mechanism for a desk chair3
. Steel leaf springs
were commonly used in chairs manufactured in the nineteenth century, and are still used in
some chairs designed today, most notably on the Think chair designed in 2004. However this
type of mechanism was not very useful and successful, as it made the user feel unstable.
2
Adrian Forty, Objects of Desire, Design and Society 1750 – 1980, Thames and Hudson, 1986, p. 120
3
Jonathan Olivares, A Taxonomy of Office Chairs, Phaidon, 2011, p.15
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Figure 1: Thomas E. Warren, Centripetal Spring Armchair,
USA, 1849
The William-IV- style chair altered by Charles Darwin in 1840s was the earliest known
example of a chair on wheels. In 1853 Peter Ten Eyck invented a sitting chair with cast iron
pivot under the seat that is kept in tension with leaf springs (Figure 2). The first reference of
adjustable features is introduced on Unknown 1 chair (Figure 3) made by Singer
Manufacturing Company in 1872 where the backrest tilts backwards on a spring-loaded pivot
point that connects the backrest spine to the underside of the seat. This movement allows a
user to tilt their back whilst keeping their legs still. The Unknown 1 chair’s seat and backrest
were made from wood, the base was made of cast iron as a monobloc with four articulated
legs. Chairs of this type were commonly used in factories and telephone operating rooms.4
These early models of office chairs anticipated the needs of a changing society.
Figure 2: Peter Ten Eyck, Sitting chair, Figure 3: Singer Manufacturing Company,
USA, 1853 Unknown 1 chair, USA, 1872.
Offices in the nineteenth century were small and privately owned and the majority of chairs
used were four-legged dining chairs. When business started to expand into corporations and
needed more office workers then the manufacturers of office chairs started to develop more
4
Jonathan Olivares, A Taxonomy of Office Chairs, Phaidon, 2011, p.17.
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adequate seating solutions. This period of time is the end of the first phase of evolution of the
office chair and it is slowly approaching the phase two which will be analysed in Chapter 2.
Hierarchy was a very important factor in the evolution of the office chair, because
each class of an office chair was required to look and in some cases function differently. The
book ‘The Principles of Scientific Management’ published by Frederick Winslow Taylor 1911,
became the foundation of organization for the twentieth-century workplace5
. Under Taylorist
work methods, worker’s tasks became more structured and the tasks were divided among
specialists. These workers were structurally separated and they sat in different types of
chairs that reflected their status. From early twentieth century up until the 1990s, hierarchical
organization structure presented executives, managers, secretaries and administrative staff
that typically sat in different types of chairs. Executive chairs tended to be more robustly
constructed using costlier materials and sometimes more advanced movement mechanism
than chairs designed for managers or administrative staff. Frank Lloyd Wright designed
separate chairs for the managers and executives in 1956 applying a larger base and an
adjustable tilting mechanism on the executive chairs as seen in Figure 4 and 5.
Figure 4: Frank Lloyd Wright, Figure 5: Frank Lloyd Wright,
Price Tower Armchair, USA, 1956 Price Tower Executive Armchair, USA, 1956
By the late 1980s, each office chair collection usually offered at least three hierarchical
choices which included executive, management and basic operational chairs. Sometimes
there were two other divisions added into the chair collection.
5
Adrian Forty, Objects of Desire, Design and Society 1750 – 1980, Thames and Hudson, 1986, p. 122
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In today’s office chair design, the hierarchical structure is often expressed by using different
types of materials; executive seating upholstered in leather and base in die-cast aluminium;
basic operational chair upholstered in fabric and base in moulded plastic.
The earliest office chairs were made with wood and cast iron which became a
standard material in office chair production during the following decades, and steel central
bar, and they were upholstered with batting and fabric. Growth of production technology and
the development of new materials in the early twentieth century have established new
possibilities in office chair design6
. Materials such as steel tube, sand-cast aluminium,
aluminium sheet were used in manufacturing process of office chairs. New production
technologies developed during World War II. Materials such as die-cast aluminium, moulded
fibreglass and plastic resin, industrial strength glues and compound-moulded plywood were
applied and more expanded in the decade that followed World War II. In the 1960s,
transparent thermoplastic and injection-moulded plastic were first employed on chairs such
as the D-49 and Pollock chair (Figure 6 and 7). Since then, plastics have rapidly evolved with
frequent introductions of higher-performance plastics. Many variations of injection-moulded
plastics have been released since the 1970s, and there is not an office chair on the market
today that does not employ some form of this material7
.
Figure 6: Hans Könecke, D-49 chair, Figure 7: Charles Pollock, Pollock chair,
Germany, 1964. USA, 1965.
In conclusion, the first chapter follows up on first prototypes of office chairs emerged from
rapidly growing and expanding business in the beginning of nineteenth century. It shall state
that the approach of Taylorism and hierarchy in office environments was or was not
influential for further development of new materials and production technologies in office
6
Hazel Conway, Design History: a student’s handbook, London, 1995, p. 72
7
Penny Sparke, The Genius of Design, London, 2009, p. 157
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chair design. This fact shall introduce Henry Ford and the ‘Fordist’ manufacturing system as
a next step in evolution of office chair.
Chapter Two: The Office Chair in Modernist Office
This chapter will focus on the evolution of office chair design in the beginning of
twentieth century. It will ascertain how the introduction of new materials and product
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technologies influenced the office chair design along with Henry Ford and the ‘Fordist’
system. It will also discuss the impact of modernism and approach of enhanced materials.
This chapter will also touch on Florence Knoll and Knoll Planning Unit and it will analyse how
influential and innovative the Planning Unit was and how it reflected in interior and furniture
design of the post-war era.
A second phase, in the beginning of twentieth century and early after Second World
War, the expansion of new production technologies and new materials contributed to
industrialized product design and replaced crafting in office chair manufacturing.
The evolution of office interior and subsequently the office chair in early twentieth-century
was influenced by the introduction of the ‘Fordist system’ named after Henry Ford, the
American industrialist and car manufacturer who gradually developed a series of innovations
in technology, process and work organisation which he successfully applied on his car
manufacturing company. Ford developed the assembly line technique of mass production in
order to increase production speed and in the same time to reduce the cost of production
and manufacturing process8
. Fordism displaced predominantly craft-based production. This
situation compelled the designers to focus on simplifying objects and environments to make
them part of the modern world.
First three decades of twentieth century were the period of the architectural and
design modern movement called Modernism. Modernism was influenced by principles of
Bauhaus. Visual impact of Modernism design was to simplify the design, produce a ‘purer’
form of design implementing clean and geometric shapes9
. Designs aimed at the general
public, usually manufactured on a large scale of mass production, using industrial techniques
introduced by Henry Ford. Modernism promoted the use of materials that had not been
previously considered as suitable materials for furniture such as tubular steel which was very
light, versatile and affordable material. The use of tubular steel opened up new design
possibilities in office chair design10
. Other new materials such as ‘Bakelite’ also known as the
first true plastic, plywood and moulded fibreglass used to enhance the function of the
production11
.
8
9
Ibid, p. 122
10
11
Penny Sparke, The Genius of Design, London, 2009, p. 136
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The use of steel tubes in furniture production was popularized in the 1920s and 1930s and it
remains common today. One of the first examples of applying steel in chair design was
demonstrated by Marcel Breuer, designer of the ‘B7a’ revolving chair (Figure 8)
manufactured by Thonet in 1928 where he used bent steel tubes to form backrest, armrests
and base of this chair. The chair features very simple revolving mechanism which raises the
height of the seat by swivelling the stem between the tube legs. Ebonized wood is used on
the seat and armcaps. Backrest pad is sewn leather stretched between bilateral steel tubes
of the backrest frame12
. Another example of an office chair with simple features but with
application of new materials is the ‘Montecatini Headquarters Chair’ (Figure 9) designed by
Gio Ponti in 1938. It consists of a single piece base made of die-cast aluminium and the
backrest and seat are Bakelite. Cast aluminium is stronger and lighter than iron, and since it
was employed for this design it has been used to produce countless office chair bases.
Bakelite is considered the first plastic, and colours are inherent to it. Plastics have become
fundamental materials used in every contemporary office chair13
.
Figure 8: Marcel Breuer, B7a chair, Figure 9: Gio Ponti, Montecatini Headquarters
Austria, 1928. Chair, Italy, 1938
Progression of twentieth century signified a separation of factories from office
conditions by application of ‘landscaped’ office layouts. The concept of office landscaping
was developed in Germany in late 1950s14
. It introduced a flexible system of furniture that
could be rearranged into units and separated by low partition walls. During this innovation the
main requirement of office chair design was to enable full and fast transformation of office
seating that would suit the stations of clerks or chairpersons.
12
Jonathan Olivares, A Taxonomy of Office Chairs, Phaidon, 2011, p.33
13
Ibid, p. 186
14
Peter Dormer, Design since 1945, London, 1998, p. 134
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Florence Knoll was the founder and director of the Knoll Planning Unit operating from
1943-1971. The Knoll Planning Unit was part of Knoll Associates, which manufactured,
designed and sold furniture and textiles in the early twentieth century. The establishment of
The Planning Unit was the reaction to a growing demand for modern office design and
furniture. It set the foundation elements in office design after the Second World War by
combining elements from modern architecture, which were perceived as cold and barren,
with colour and texture into the interior15
. This new aesthetic movement was also adopted
and developed by Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia and other well
known designers who introduced and incorporated new organic forms, vibrant colours into
their designs and created a softer modernism which was more appealing to a general public
at the time. Showroom of Knoll Associates (1948, Chicago), is an example of modern interior
design16
(Figure 10).
Figure 10: Chicago showroom of Knoll
Associates, 1948.
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian
Institution
One of the first office chair pioneers suitable for vigorous office environments were the ‘Kevi’
chair (Figure 11) and the ‘MAA’ chair (Figure 12), both very distinguished and advanced.
The ‘Kevi’ chair, designed by Jørgen Rasmussen in 1958, introduced an injection-moulded
plastic double caster which rolled more fluidly and effortlessly than earlier models of iron
casters. The ‘Kevi caster’ became an iconic Danish product and it is considered as an
industry standard since.
In 1958, George Nelson designed the ‘MAA’ chair. It introduces a very innovative feature of
the backrest form which is attached to the armrest-seat shell with die-cast aluminium lengths
15
Bobbye Tigerman, “I am not a Decorator: Florence Knoll, the Knoll Planning Unit and the Making of the
Modern Office”, Journal of Design History, 2007, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 65
16
Florence Knoll Bassett, Florence Knoll Bassett papers, 1932-2000, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian
Institution, 2008
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and flexing rubber mounts and it allows the backrest to recline without moving user feet.
Although this movement pattern is similar to that of the ‘Unknown 1’ chair, the use of tilting
joints between the armrests and the seat is a unique solution. This design informs the ‘FS
Chair’, made in 1980, which employs armrests in the first synchronized movement
mechanism. Design and features of the ‘FS Chair’ is going to be analysed in Chapter 3.
Figure 11: Jørgen Rasmussen, Kevi chair, Figure 12: George Nelson, MAA chair,
Denmark, 1958. USA, 1958
In conclusion, this chapter primarily pursues the evolution of office environments and
subsequently the office chair in the beginning of twentieth century. It shall prove that Henry
Ford and ‘Fordism’ was or was not influential and important for further development of
product design and how ‘Fordism’ changed the whole design ideology after Second World
War. It will also focus on analysis of new office environment layouts in conjunction with
Florence Knoll and The Planning Unit as being one of the most influential segment
incorporating the groundbreaking design elements in architecture and product design.
Chapter Three: The Ergonomic Office Chair
This chapter will establish the importance of the integration of ergonomics in the
development of product design. It will discuss the integration of personal computers in office
environments in 1970s which contributed to significant changes in the evolution of office
chair. The current situation opened up to Postmodernism as the contrary to Modernism. This
chapter will review Postmodernism’s newly introduced trends and possibilities in office chair
design. This section will include analysis of office chairs designed between the 1960s and
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1990s including the chair designers and manufacturers, forms used and featured ergonomic
requirements.
A third phase, beginning in the 1970s and ending only recently, brought about
ergonomically advanced office chairs designed for sitting at computers for extended periods
of time. Personal computers in office environments became common equipment and it
started to slowly dissolve the workplace into collaborative and communal organizations of
multifaceted workers. Product designers started to question the validity of minimal Modernist
design, whether clean and geometric lines were the right and appropriate key elements in
order to follow rapidly expanding consumer’s requirements. Postmodernism was a reaction
to Modernism where the emphasis is placed on aesthetics, shape and form, it can be
regarded as works of art rather than functional design. Most of the products designed in
Postmodernism relied on visual impact, with minimum regard for the functionalism of
Modernism17
.
Because the majority of office work is performed from a seated position,
understanding how to correctly apply the ergonomics to office seating is critical to delivering
work environments that are safe and support performance. In the post war era the public
started to pay more attention to consumer health18
. This important fact led to raised safety
standards in everything from packaged food and automobiles to office chairs. The ergonomic
breakthrough in the design of office chairs was discovered between 1960 and 1970, when
designers Henry Dreyfuss, Niels Diffrient, Bill Stumpf and Wolfgang Müeller Deisig set the
scientific parameters of seating comfort with their groundbreaking studies where they
introduced the concept of ergonomic work furniture which would reflect the requirements of
the human frame19
. It was revolutionary. The first ergonomic office chair featured height
adjustable seat, pivoting backrest and casters. Examples of the first ergonomic office chairs
are shown in Figure 13 and Figure 14.
The ‘232’ office chair designed by Wilhelm Ritz for Wilkhahn manufacture in Germany in
1970 introduced a pneumatic cylinder in the chair’s stem to adjust the seat height when
activated by lever. This gas lift component replaced the threaded fitting that required a user
17
David Raizman, History of Modern Design: Graphics and Products Since the Industrial Revolution, London,
2003, p. 355
18
Penny Sparke, A century of design, design pioneers of the 20th century, New York, 1998, p.142
19
The Museum of Modern Art, Workspheres, New York, 2001, p. 108.
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to rotate the entire chair to adjust the seat height. The upholstered plastic backrest pivots on
bilateral joints to the seat20
.
The ‘Synthesis 45’ office chair, designed by Ettore Sottsass Jr. in 1973 features manually
adjustable seat height, adjusted by turning a threaded fitting at mid-stem height. The angle of
the injection-moulded ABS plastic spine that holds the backrest is adjustable with a knob at
its bottom. The angle of the backrest panel is adjusted with a second knob that connects it to
the upper spine21
.
Figure 13: Wilhelm Ritz, 232 office chair, Figure 14: Ettore Sottsass Jr., Synthesis 45
office Germany, 1970. chair, Italy, 1973.
At the beginning of the 1980s the workplace started to change with the introduction of
computers into offices where office staff began spending significantly longer periods of time
seated at their desks22
. On the basis of computerized offices, the office chair had to comply
with basic ergonomic requirements which applied some common elements such as height
and depth adjustable armrests, height adjustable lumbar support, depth adjustable seat, and
large quintuple bases for stability. All these features and additional mechanisms tend to
make office chairs bigger and more robust, and have contributed to the gradual increase in
size of the office chair over the last twenty years. More advanced and evolved ergonomic
20
Jonathan Olivares, A Taxonomy of Office Chairs, Phaidon, 2011, p. 43
21
Ibid, p. 45
22
Kenneth R. Bofl, “Revolutions and shifting paradigms in human factors & ergonomics”, in Applied Ergonomics,
2006, Vol. 37, pp. 391.
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office chairs such as the ‘454 ConCentrx’ chair by Steelcase Design Studio designed in 1980
(Figure 15), the ‘Diffrient Basic Operational Chair’ designed by Niels Diffrient for Knoll in
1980 (Figure 16), the first office chair with advanced tilting action called ‘FS Chair’ designed
by Klaus Franck, Werner Sauer and Fritz Frenkler for Wilkhahn in 1980 (Figure 17) and the
‘Capisco’ chair by Peter Opsvik for HÅG manufacturer designed in 1984 (Figure 18).
The ‘454 ConCentrx’ chair and the ‘Diffrient Basic Operational Chair’ share very similar look
and design. However the ‘Diffrient Basic Operational Chair’ introduces some advanced
features than the ‘454 ConCentrx’ chair.
The ‘454 ConCentrx’ chair features backrest and seat made with two-part flexing panels that
allow the upper portion of the backrest to flex backward and the front of the seat to flex
downward. The seat and backrest upholstery is glued onto a cold-moulded polyurethane
foam cushion that is glued to the two-part flexible panel. The armrests are fixed under the
seat and are made of die-cast aluminium with plastic armcaps23
Backrest on the ‘Diffrient Basic Operational Chair’ is depth and height adjustable along its
single supporting spine. The steel spine is mounted on a 30-degree angle that allows the
depth and height of the backrest to be adjusted with one motion. The steel armrest post
houses a cable that triggers seat height-adjustment from a button under the armrest. This
type of seat-adjustment was very advanced at that time24
.
Figure 15: Steelcase Design Studio, Figure 16: Niels Diffrient, Diffrient Basic Chair,
454ConCentrx chair, USA, 1980. USA, 1980.
23
24
Ibid, p. 51
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The ‘FS’ Chair was named after its designers Klaus Franck, Fritz Frenkler and Werner
Sauer. This iconic chair introduced a very innovative movement feature where three swivel
axes allow the seat, backrest and armrests to follow the sitter’s movement. Technical term
for this movement method is ‘automatic synchro-adjustment’. Although it is rare today that
chairs use the armrests as a part of the movement mechanism, it is now standard that the
backrest and seats are able to move independently. The seat is constructed with rubber
mesh stretched from front to back over a steel frame, and an upholstered slip-on fabric cover
is placed over the entire structure of the seat pad. This gives the chair a flexible suspended
seat25
.
The ‘Capisco’ office chair, also called the Saddle Chair is known for its unconventional looks
and design which was a result of Peter Opsvik’s intention to re-create a horseback rider’s
dynamic posture, while also creating a work chair that would accommodate the most sitting
posture possible. Opsvik describes the Capisco chair as a ‘sitting device’ which allows a user
to sit sideways and facing backwards thanks to plastic armrests integrated in the backrest
which allow the user to easily adopt informal positions. Optional headrest is depth and height
adjustable. The casters are covered with footrests. The seat is height adjustable using gas lift
mechanism. Tilting backrest can be lockable in any leaning position26
.
Figure 17: Klaus Franck, Werner Sauer and Figure 18: Peter Opsvik, Capisco chair, Fritz
Frenkler, FS chair, Germany, 1980. Norway, 1984
25
26
Peter Opsvik, Rethinking Sitting, Oslo, 2008, p. 193
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Due to a significant evolution in office chair design in the 1980’s, the designers recognized
an increasing interest in mechanical and adjustable office chairs. In 1984 William Stumpf
and Donald Chadwick designed an office chair with a very innovative seating mechanism
feature presented on a chair called Equa Chair (Figure 19) designed for Herman Miller. The
new movement method known as a ‘knee-tilt’ mechanism features the seat which sinks and
reclines on a spring-loaded pivot point under the front seat, while the backrest flexes
backward from the seat on plastic spines. Like the FS chair, this movement method allows
the backrest and seat to move simultaneously but at differing angles, however, the Equa
chair does so without pivoting joints in the armrests. The angle between the backrest and
seat opens as both elements recline, which allows the backrest to recline further than the
seat. The resistance against the recline is controlled with a turning knob that adjusts the
tension of the backrest. This ‘knee-tilt’ movement method is refined on Aeron Chair,
designed by Donald Chadwick and William Stumpf in 1994, in which they achieved ‘ankle tilt’
mechanism27
. The Aeron Chair will be reviewed in the following chapter.
Figure 19: Don Chadwick and William Stumpf,
Equa chair, USA, 1984
In conclusion, the chapter 3 will focus on the integration of
personal computers in office environments in 1970s and how it contributed to changes in the
evolution of office chair with introduction of ergonomics in office seating. It will discuss how
important and groundbreaking the evolution of ergonomic science was. It will establish
whether or not the early models of ergonomic office chairs provided sufficiently evolved and
developed feature elements of movement and support in order to comply with ergonomic and
safety standards for office chair design.
27
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Chapter Four: The Office Chair in Twentieth-First Century
The chapter will focus on analysis of the office chair in the twenty-first century, how
the design of the office chair has developed into a strategy of making products that are
economical, ecological and comply with high ergonomic and aesthetic standards. It will
analyse the application and use of the latest technologies, tools and new materials in
designing and manufacturing office chairs. It will introduce sustainability in office chair design
as a new and important factor in evolution of office chair. It will review the latest office chair
types and their designers.
Office work has changed. Work is more collaborative and it requires multiple tasks in multiple
settings moving back and forth among them. It is the new generation of office environment
supporting both the physical and cognitive nature of office work.
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A fourth phase of office chair evolution, beginning of 1990s, sees the introduction of
sustainable chairs that suit the shifting and impromptu postures adopted by today’s
workforce. In the span of seven generations of office workers, the office chair has evolved
into a complex organism. Despite this healthy evolution, the office chair’s natural habitat –
the office – is stable28
.
In the 1990s and 2000s ergonomically designed office chairs were in high demand. At that
time, office environment were changing from clustered layouts to more open plan structures
to support work activity of one type in one position. On the basis of new office environments,
the design of office seating became more specialised, allowing the user to perform variety of
tasks. However extended seated time spent in office environments only heightened the
regulations placed on office chair ergonomics by governments and insurance companies. A
checklist of features that determines ergonomic attributes of office chairs first emerged in the
late 1980s and has continued to expand. One of the first office chairs which were specifically
designed to meet the checklist of the ergonomic features was the Aeron chair (Figure 20),
designed by Don Chadwick and William Stumpf in 1994 for Herman Miller29
. Its novel and
distinguished design became iconic and it is part of the permanent collection in Museum of
Modern Art. The Aeron chair combined pioneering ergonomics and new materials. The
design was inspired by the human form, it actively dealt with the postural health problems
associated with comfort, acknowledging that people often sit incorrectly. The highly flexible
form is constructed from advanced materials such as die-cast glass reinforced polyester for
the frame, polyurethane foam for the pads and recycled aluminium for the base. The seat
and backrest structure introduced new innovative mesh material called the ‘Pellicle’. The
‘Pellicle’ was durable and supportive material, its mesh elements allowed air to circulate
around the user body. The synchronized movement mechanism is modified and developed
since its introduction on the ‘Equa’ chair in 1984. It distributes the user’s weight evenly over
the seat and back, conforming to individual body shapes, and minimizing pressure on the
spine and muscles. The Aeron chair also introduced the first independent lumbar support
pad which can be adjusted vertically, and reversed to vary the depth of the lumbar support30
.
In 1999, Niels Diffrient designed an office chair called ‘Freedom’ (Figure 21). The secret of
his innovative design was in simplicity. The ‘Freedom’ chair features weight-sensitive
28
29
Penny Sparke, A century of design, design pioneers of the 20th century, New York, 1998, p.199
30
John Heskett, Design: A Very Short Introduction, New York, 2002, p. 48
Page | 21

reclining system of the seat and back and synchronously adjustable armrests. These
features set new standards for task chairs performance and functionality.
Figure 20: Don Chadwick and William Stumpf, Figure 21: Niels Diffrient, Freedom chair,
Aeron chair, USA, 1994 USA, 1999
Although the search for new ergonomic solutions continues to motivate the design of
office chairs, the factor that has contributed most to recent changes in office chair design is
sustainability. Office furniture designers and manufacturers are striving to eliminate aspects
of the manufacturing process that are harmful to the environment. This affects not only the
materials used, but also how the chairs are assembled. One of the first office chairs to be
promoted as a sustainable design was the Mirra chair by Herman Miller designed in 2003
(Figure 22). It is 96 percent recyclable by weight, made with 42 percent recycled content, and
is designed to disassemble easily for recycling or to have its parts replaced.
Figure 22: Studio 7.5, Mirra chair, USA, 2003
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This move towards sustainability has been accompanied by a tendency to make office chairs
which would support a range of different postures, from leaning or sitting sideways to sitting
backwards. Advanced technology of mobile office equipments of twentieth-first century
allows performance of any office task just about anywhere and in any position31
. In 2009 two
chairs were released that accommodate a broader range of movement. The ‘Generation’
chair (Figure 23) encourages to sit sideways and backwards, and the ‘360˚’ chair (Figure 24)
enables the user to adopt any number of postures. These chairs encouraged human
interaction and accommodate the collaborative spirit of today’s contemporary office.
Figure 23: Formway, Generation chair, Figure 24: Konstantin Grcic, 360˚ chair,
USA, 2009 Italy, 2009
The contemporary workplace of twenty-first century is undergoing transformations of its own
as more work is brought into the cloud: we can only speculate what will happen as an
increasing number of people work from home, mobile devices continue to allow us to work
without a fixed location. As specialized a subject as the office chair may be, its evolution and
story are indicative of the broad and rapid changes that our society has undergone and will
continue to undergo.
In conclusion, this chapter outlined a new design strategy in evolution of office chair
paying attention to comply with high ergonomic and aesthetic standards. The office chair
became an inseparable segment of modern office environment. This chapter focused on
analysis of one of the most groundbreaking office chair models. It will discuss how effective
and influential was the introduction of new materials and technologies and the introduction of
sustainability and in what way the use of sustainable design affect today’s office chairs.
31
Susie McKellar and Penny Sparke, Interior Design and Identity, Manchester, 2004, p. 202
Page | 23

Conclusion
This dissertation provides verified evaluation of the evolution of office chair started in the
nineteenth century up to present. It focused on analysis of key elements in history of product
design which influenced the evolution of the office chair from the beginning of nineteenth
century up to twenty-first century. It will discuss how important and groundbreaking the
evolution of ergonomic science was. It will establish that the new ergonomic office seating
should go beyond the assumptions and approaches of traditional chairs. It shall prove that
with the approach of the new office environment layout in 1950s, Florence Knoll and The
Planning Unit was or was not influential and important for further development of office
design where she introduced an innovative integration of colours and materials into design
and architecture of the post-war era.
It will establish the importance of newly approached standards in the production of office
chairs from the use of new materials and technologies up to the integration of sustainability in
Page | 24

the evolution of office chair. It will question whether or not the design of the office chair is the
most functional design for the human body whenever the user assumes a seated position.
List of Illustrations
Figure 1: Thomas E. Warren, Centripetal Spring Armchair, USA, 1849.
Phaidon, Design Classics – Volume one, Phaidon, 2006
Figure 2: Peter Ten Eyck, Sitting chair, USA, 1853.
Figure 3: Singer Manufacturing Company, Unknown 1 chair, USA, 1872.
Figure 4: Frank Lloyd Wright, Price Tower Armchair, USA, 1956.
Figure 5: Frank Lloyd Wright, Price Tower Executive Armchair, USA, 1956.
Figure 6: Hans Könecke, D-49 chair,Germany, 1964
Brian Lutz, Knoll: A Modernist Universe, Rizzoli, 2010, p. 250
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Figure 7: Charles Pollock, Pollock chair, USA, 1965.
Tecta catalogue 2011, p. 33
Figure 8: Marcel Breuer, B7a chair, Austria, 1928.
Design Museum in Britain
Figure 9: Gio Ponti, Montecatini Headquarters Chair, Italy, 1938.
Figure 10: Chicago showroom of Knoll Associates, 1948.
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Figure 11: Jørgen Rasmussen, Kevi chair, Denmark, 1958.
Engelbrechts Product Catalogue, Denmark, 2008.
Figure 12: George Nelson, MAA chair, USA, 1958.
Figure 13: Wilhelm Ritz, 232 office chair, Germany, 1970.
Figure 14: Ettore Sottsass Jr., Synthesis 45 office chair, Italy, 1973.
Adrian Forty, Objects of Desire, Design and Society 1750 – 1980, Thames and Hudson,
1986, p. 155
Figure 15: Steelcase Design Studio, 454 ConCentrx chair, USA, 1980.
Figure 16: Niels Diffrient, Diffrient Basic Chair, USA, 1980.
Brian Lutz, Knoll: A Modernist Universe, Rizzoli, 2010, p. 298
Figure 17: Klaus Franck, Werner Sauer and Fritz Frenkler, FS chair, Germany, 1980.
Wilkhahn Product Catalogue
Figure 18: Peter Opsvik, Capisco chair, Norway, 1984.
Peter Opsvik, Rethinking Sitting, Gaidaros Forlag, Oslo, 2008, p. 193
Figure 19: Don Chadwick and William Stumpf, Equa chair, USA, 1984.
Figure 20: Don Chadwick and William Stumpf, Aeron chair, USA, 1994.
John Heskett, Design: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002,
p. 49
Figure 21: Niels Diffrient, Freedom Chair, USA, 1999.
Humanscale, Freedom Chair product Brochure
Figure 22: Studio 7.5, Mirra Chair, USA, 2003.
Herman Miller, Mirra Chair product Brochure
Figure 23: Formway, Generation Chair, USA, 2009.
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Knoll, Office Seating Product Brochure
Figure 24: Konstantin Grcic, 360˚ chair, Italy, 2009
Konstantin Grcic, 360˚ Chair Product Brochure
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Primary Sources
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