Van der Rohe, as with Eames, Gehry, Hadid, Libeskind, Corbusier, and Breuer: if they've designed a big building, chances are they've designed a thing on which to sit.
Saturday, November 08, 2014
The Problem With the Chair
Van der Rohe, as with Eames, Gehry, Hadid, Libeskind, Corbusier, and Breuer: if they've designed a big building, chances are they've designed a thing on which to sit.
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17 comments:
I would think that the biggest problem with designing chairs is that everyone has different proportions. This makes it very hard to make a chair that will be comfortable for a wide variety, and rather gives people with unusual proportions a much harder time. I know I have had problems with chairs where my legs are too short to reach the back of the chair. i never really thought about the visual look of a chair, because usually with chairs I'm busy focusing on whether the chair is comfortable to worry about how it looks.
This is interesting in that it asks me to think about something that I usually just ignore, or complain about without really knowing why. In the freshman studio, all of the chairs are a little bit different, and everyone has personalized the positioning of theirs to make it just that little bit more comfortable- but how comfortable are we really? Sitting for 6 hours in class makes it impossible to be comfortable in anything. I was especially interested to see the graphic of the spinal positions, as I hadn't realized how much the position of the legs impacts the curvature of the spine. I don't know what the solution would be, but I'm looking forward to what people come up with for a working environment.
I love seeing different designs for everyday things: stairs, tables, chairs so this article sparked my interest. It was a pretty interesting analysis that a chair should look good when no one is sitting in it but should be invisible once someone sits down. I have designed and built a few chairs and i never really thought about how they disappear when sat in. The other interesting point in the article is how chairs are bad for you. As someone who sits in a chair for 80% of my average day that is kind of scary. I would e interested to see what kinds of chairs come out in the future. I have seen some pretty crazy chairs that have you sit in some pretty crazy positions but I'm sure the innovation hasn't stopped.
I love seeing different designs for everyday things: stairs, tables, chairs so this article sparked my interest. It was a pretty interesting analysis that a chair should look good when no one is sitting in it but should be invisible once someone sits down. I have designed and built a few chairs and i never really thought about how they disappear when sat in. The other interesting point in the article is how chairs are bad for you. As someone who sits in a chair for 80% of my average day that is kind of scary. I would e interested to see what kinds of chairs come out in the future. I have seen some pretty crazy chairs that have you sit in some pretty crazy positions but I'm sure the innovation hasn't stopped.
I always found it funny how so many architects design chairs too. I know that Frank Lloyd Wright designed the furniture in the houses he designed and he would get really upset when the owner of the house wanted new furniture. But I also like the comment about how it's not the chair that is causing spinal issues, it's the flat tables. It's totally true. That's why drafting tables can go on an angle, it's not only easier to use, but it's also more comfortable for the person using it. We keep thinking that the backs of the chair are the most important but now that I think about it, I barely ever use the back of the chair!!!! I always prefer a chair with a back but I never use it because working and leaning back is actually really uncomfortable.
Chairs are the definition of laziness. Chairs are also the chains the object students are conditioned to feel chained to growing up. On a first day of school we are told to pick a seat and that will be our chair for the rest of the year. We are taught that we can't do the paper busy work assigned to us unless we are sitting in a chair. We can't travel efficiently if we are not sitting in some chair. As a society we are trained that chairs are a huge part of our daily lives. To find out that our chairs are harming us is no surprise. As a society chairs are too ingrained to try to rid them completely from our system but redefining them so they are less about representing status or providing comfort is a very possible change.
I couldn't agree more with this article.
Not only do different people have different proportions from one another, but different activities require different types of chairs. How can you compare two chairs?
Which is better, a loveseat or a high stool?
Depends, are you watching a football game or working on mixing colors in the paint shop.
I think one of the biggest reasons why it is difficult to design chairs is because our eyes are the biggest enemies we have. If we see something that doesn't look comfortable, we wont't think it's comfortable. But just as important about making a chair look comfortable is making it ACTUALLY comfortable. It is an interesting challenge of something that has it's own classification of design. One in which form and function must go hand in hand and neither must ever be more important than the other.
I think this article is super interesting. Besides simply talking about variety and design in chairs, I think it discusses the restructuring and evolution of design.
As mentioned in the article, chairs came into their prime during the revolution of a servicing economy in which workers sat at office chairs all day. First chairs were a means of functioning and served subsequently as a way to discern rank. Shortly after lawsuits complaining about health concerns and the restrictiveness of chairs, office chairs were redesigned with functionality and comfort in mind. Although there is still a high demand for chairs in our world, a new trend of health awareness serves as a call to redesign the chair once again. Yes, the chair serves as an enabler of productivity, but the negative health effects prolonged sitting can result in are noteworthy reasons to instill change. Bad posture and the compression of organs calls for a better solution in our pro fitness and health world.
As we can see through the progression of the chair outlined in this article the long term design process is evolving. Using the chair as an example we see ideas from their conception being solely created for functionality (the chair offering a new means of rest between standing and lying down). Then next comes the aesthetic amping; now that the idea is built and has purpose how do we make it sleeker, cooler, more durable, and all around better? This parallels the chair's appropriation of rank in the office as the more important workers have chairs that are bigger fancier and more extravagant than those almost purely functional ones of the common worker. Following the aesthetic comes co-depence; surely the desk was built with the chair in mind, and by linking the two ingenious designs together the original idea becomes not only useful for its functionality but a necessary prerequisite for utilizing another thing. This co-dependent compliment has become ingrained into our design process as a means of making the original design last by creating a necessary demand for it.
The newest phase of design that this article suggests we have emerged into is concern with sustainability and health. As we see with this article's call to design new more health aware chairs, a new step in a products long lasting history of design is redesigning how it deals with its health and environmental effects. By midigating these a product comes closer to absolute unquestioned necessity to all lives, as it can now function, look cool, and enable other functions all without any logistical reasons not to use it.
As we see in this article with the example of chairs, and in our own lives with innumerable other products, long term design is evolving once again with new concerns over sustainability and health.
Traipsing through Hemingway's house in Key West many summers ago, I found two of his favored antique birthing stools. While he didn't use them for birthing, he used them for fishing, adopting a similar posture to the use they were originally intended for.
I personally am a fan of the chair fitting the function. Once the idea of a comfortable chair was introduced, we were suddenly confronted with the fact that comfort was unique to every individual person. Now instead of being responsible for acquiring chairs for everyone in an office, whoever purchases stock must account for so-and-so's misaligned pelvis, or so-and-so's elbow-to-shoulder length. Several times I have heard my parents talking at length about the inner-office politics and bureaucracy that must be faced to procure someone an office chair. Not to say conditions like these are unimportant, but it has been proven time and time again that problems like these all but disappear when the "moderation" rule is used. Be active, but don't avoid chairs like the plague. That's silly. Sit, but not to excess. It's common sense.
I think that it is incredible to think of how much time we actually spend sitting in chairs. I like that this article took a more comical approach to talking about the subject. I would be interested to see how a fetal position drafting desk would work. Also from personal experience of spending a lot of time sitting in chairs, the type of chair you have can directly affect the amount and quality of work you are able to accomplish. One thing that was also interesting that this article said was that it is harder to create a chair than a building.
This article has definitely put some thought into my head about chairs. It is so true that no true chairs are the same and it would be entirely ridiculous to have only a small collection of chairs! Not even two dinner chairs or two sofas feel the same. Even different textures create an entirely different experience. Leather couches and upholstered couches are two entirely different things! I also found the argument for using chairs less to be interesting. Chairs are big parts of our lives. They can say a lot about our status, it is polite to sit down where ever you go, and they are even part of how we get comfortable. It would be hard to try and use chairs less even though they can be such a bad influence on your health.
As an Aeron office chair owner, I really understand how much of a difference a good and comfortable chair makes. I feel like it is one of those things that you don't know what you're missing until you try it. I feel as if I can focus somewhat better with my chair and desk combination.
Although I did know that chairs have been the focus of various designers and architects, I didn't realize how important it was for people to switch up their sitting position and style. I guess one chair can't solve all your back problems. Hopefully I'll remember this article when I'm deciding whether to get up or not from wherever I am currently seated...
This article is really important because it touches upon something that was a mentioned a few times in previous comments: what you see can change what you think, even if it is not the case. For example, we look at a chair and think, "wow, that must not be very comfortable," then we sit in it and that first thought changes our perception of what we feel. It is really amazing the effect that our mind can have on the rest of our body and sensory feelings. Going back to the article, it must be incredibly difficult to design something like a chair because everyone is different and using a chair for a different purpose. There is no one perfect chair, but mainly many different chairs to serve different people and different purposes. I never thought that I'd ever talk so much about a chair before.
I only changed position in my chair about 8 times while reading this.
Personally, I really dislike these chair/sitting articles. Yes, the design aspect of it is pretty cool, but I don't know what I'm going to do if one more person tells me I ought to be sitting less. There is simply no opportunity for less sitting when you're a student or working in an office. I probably sit in my studio chair 70 hours per week and I'm sure it's doing a number on my body, but what can I do about that? I can draft standing up, but it's not very likely that I'll start taking notes on my feet in Basic PTM or doing CAD while pacing around the room.
On the other hand, as I said, the design aspect of it is cool. If I can't avoid a chair, it might as well fit my function, right? It also is really important to me that the chair and the desk work well together. For instance, the chairs in the studio do not fit under the tables and that is the most frustrating thing in the entire world to me because I like to be able to pull myself under the desk. BUT I digress. Chair design is cool, preaching that I shouldn't sit in them so much is not.
This article takes a very interesting look in to the complexity of an everyday and ordinary object. In fact, the article looks into the complexity of chairs almost too much. Now I am all for looking at objects and examining their different qualities and forms, but to a certain extent a chair is a chair is a chair. Now, in a theatrical context this statement is limited, and obviously not all chairs are equally good for each production, but there are only so many styles of chairs that exist in this world. I guess what I'm saying is that the blending of ergonomics with aesthetics is an interesting challenge that is best left to non-theatrical designers, while we should focus our efforts in looking at how the presence of that particular chair effects how outsiders perceive the world that we are creating for the actors to interact with.
Yeah I guess we’ve all managed to sit in a chair once or twice, here and there, near and far. Let me tell you, I’m not the only one who has been uncomfortable sitting in chairs. Sometimes the worst looking chair is the best thing in the world to sit in, and sometimes the best looking thing is just so gosh dang darn uncomfortable it’s like who came up this chair. I find it difficult when starting off in a new company that they’ve already got a chair for you, but everything about it makes it hard to stay on task. Sometimes you’re just constantly readjusting positions to figure out what is comfortable. At that point you’ve wasted work time, and time is money. Sometimes you don’t mind the way a chair feels because for one you just know you’re not going to sit in it a long while. We all have a taste in what we like, and I know all of the chairs I have were first based on looks, and then comfort, when you manage to get both, you’ve got yourself a done deal.
The article makes a rather dramatic show about how chairs are going to ruin us all, but the most unfortunate thing is that it's more true than not. People were never made to sit all day, as explained in the article, and there's a good chance that the culture of sitting, if you will, has been a contributing factor to the obesity problem that we have today, not to mention the other physical health issues. It's also going to be a pretty difficult thing to fix, given how we are all so used to going home and sitting down to relax after a long day of sitting. Maybe having a bigger variety of chairs will help - and I agree, bring on the chair designs - but it's also a little bit up to the individual to take his health into his own hands and get up and exercise a couple times a day, whenever possible, even if it's just a short walk.
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