The Future Office Chair For Better Posture

Remember how when you were a kid you were always told to sit up straight? “Stop slouching, it’s bad for your back!” Well, in a study last year, Scottish radiologists confirmed that a 130-degree angle of recline between torso and thighs reduces pressure on the discs in the lower back.

Office chairs like the Aeron designed by Herman Miller and Humanscale, have been around since 1994, considering recent findings, these chairs were really quite revolutionary. Despite the array of levers and knobs that help adjust the chairs recline tension, lumbar support, seat-pan depth and forward tilt, designers have found that most users only use the height adjustment.

This neglect has manufacturers such looking toward the next frontier: a self-adjusting chair. Humanscale’s Freedom chair includes uses a counterbalance system that automatically adjusts to the sitter’s weight as he or she reclines, eliminating the need for recline controls.

Designers have also brainstormed that the future office chair may not be a chair at all. According to the National Institutes of Health, chairs contribute in part to the high rate of back pain which affects approximately eight out of 10 Americans. Asian traditions of kneeling or squatting on the floor have shown to have great ergonomic benefits, Cameron Campbell a designer for Herman Miller recently said,

“Our notion of a machine for sitting may not make sense in a globalized world.”

Perhaps in the future one worker may sit in front of their workspace on a self adjusting recliner, whilst the next may kneel amongst a pile of cushions.

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