Interview about Alcyone Standing Chair, winner of the A' Furniture Design Award 2020
For him, one important goal in coming up with the shape of this project was to simulate the human body’s quality and natural form as much as possible. He uses the human form as a metaphor for the good posture, bodily flexibility and active lifestyle everyone aspires to attain. With this product, he assists with three simple movements people perform during the course of a workday: sitting and standing, twisting the body and stretching the back over a backrest, therefore improving health and increasing productivity.
View detailed images, specifications, and award details on A' Design Award & Competition website.
View Design DetailsAs you adjust the height of the seat component manually, vertical cables (2) attached to the seat with flexible prongs bend and stretch inward and outward slightly and by using this stress and friction between cables and conduits (4) attached to the stainless steel base frame, the seat is “suspended” at a precise height location that a user adjusts to. The threaded locks on the conduits assure that the seat will be secured and will not move. This is one of the main features of this product that I discovered as I was working with the scale model which was an indispensable tool not only for testing many ideas I had but also for rendering three dimensional computer model that allowed me to see the product from multiple angles. Because of the complexity of design and specialized equipment and resources needed, the final working prototype was never built to this date.
Even though I have been conscious of leading healthy lifestyle generally, I was contradicting myself when I found myself emulating bad workplace habits from my coworkers over the years. These included sitting all day in office, not getting up enough to stretch and exercise, developing lower back pain that resulted in medical treatments, etc. At the beginning of design process, I connected with my extensive experience in building architectural and exhibit design models using a variety of fabrication materials and wanted to see if I could experiment and come up with an innovative office chair design that would alleviate some of the health problems I was having. I started by selecting flexible materials such as steel cable, stainless steel, elastic cords, injection moulding materials and high-density foam that I had a lot of experience working on models but had little experience building full-scale prototype pieces with. My goal then was to combine my interest in addressing workplace health issues and designing everyday furniture piece that is functional, mechanically sturdy and aesthetically pleasing.
It was important to me that an individual user attain the ownership of this product and to feel comfortable using it to achieve the desired sitting position. The memory foam (SAF’s) attached to the seat shell with Dual Lock and elastic horizontal ropes of the backrest achieve this personalized experience. I also wanted users to be able to both “lean” lightly on the standing chair and to “sit” as if sitting in the conventional chair and thick memory foam attached to the concave shape of the seat shell achieves this purpose. Since everyone’s fitness and physical tolerance level is different, this chair along with height adjustable desks would be introduced as an alternative to the conventional workspace that can be used and shared with those who are simply interested in improving and maintaining overall good health.
The metal frame base is the structural foundation of the chair that must support the weight of a person sitting on it. And just like the Brno Tubular Chair Design, the base at the bottom is flat and more rigid and as it rises, the seat starts to “float” in the air. And the frame is twisted in order to make room for and accommodate user’s physical size and his or her sideway movements. To achieve maximum strength and durability, the frame base is made of continuous stainless steel piece held by web pattern that is broken only at the hinged (2) locations to allow the flat bottom base to fold up. Besides accomplishing functionality, the sinuous frame also simulates flexibility and twisting motion of the user while exercising.
There are three things that I learned from talking to physical therapists and chiropractors about how to prevent lower back and back muscle pain. These are; keeping good posture, building strong core muscle and avoiding tailbone fatigue. Keeping good posture means stretching thoracic curve of spine and not slouching and sliding bottoms forward on the chair. Building core muscle greatly reduces the burden placed on the lower portion of the spine - allowing the muscle and spine to work in tandem. Avoiding tailbone fatigue means not placing person’s entire weight on a single point of the body, glutes, for a long time because of the residual effects it may have on attached muscles, ligaments and tendons which also get injured easily. While these three clinical points greatly influenced my design process, I wanted to place just as much emphasis on maximizing the body movement, dynamic as opposed to static sitting positions and extent to which bones and muscles can be flexed periodically while working at the office for an extended period of time.
Repetitive sitting - standing exercise which is similar to sit-ups helps tighten core muscle, strengthens abdominal and neck muscle and keeps the blood flowing to every part of your body while you are at it. This can be done by keeping both feet flat on the floor, leaning slightly against the seat component, holding the edge of outer seat shell and repeating the sitting - standing motion by bending knees and straightening them. This way, you are strengthening quadricep and hamstring muscles as well as maintaining the proper thoracic and lumbar curve afterwards – an ideal orthostatic position. Twisting or rotation exercise is great for body’s stability, strengthening core muscles, improving posture and increasing flexibility in the hips and spine. And because it stretches tight shoulder, chest and abdomen muscles, it reduces the risk of injury particularly for those who are involved in athletic activities like myself. When doing this exercise, it is best to sit firmly on the seat to stabilize yourself since you are twisting your body in concert with the seat which also twists and stretches sideways. Stretching backward or back bending helps with spinal flexibility, improves posture, reduces stress and energizes nervous system. And this can be done with the help of the curving backrest. One simply needs to raise arms, lean against the backrest and slowly fall backwards and it let you stay at that suspended position for as long as you can tolerate.
As I mentioned earlier when I talked about the height - adjustable mechanism, the scale model for this project was an important design tool without which the final design solution would not have been achieved. The model was built using 2.5mm soft aluminum wire for modeling, 3mm aluminum tubing, 3mm spring, 1.5mm steel wire, sculpted and painted high density foam for the seat component, wooden dowels and fabric mesh for the elastic backrest. These were used to simulate the effects and movements of the actual chair as much as possible. As a sketch model (conceptual model in architecture term), it was not so much a precision model as a test model with rough edges to find out how different parts and components would work and react with each other. For instance, I wanted to see if the details for the height-adjustable mechanism I had sketched out earlier would work on the model and soon found out that bent conduits attached to the aluminum base frame would need interior bearing for the steel wire’s smooth entry and exit. Prongs and steel wire connection also needed to be rigid and made out of durable materials to prevent metal fatigue failure. The proportion of the steel base frame had to be correct both visually and structurally and be continuous from the base at the bottom to the push handle at the top for maximum stability and strength. I also wanted to see if there would be enough clearance between rear of the seat shell and upper portion of the metal base frame as a person moves the seat up and down to adjust to his or her desirable height. These tests could only have been done on the physical model and not in drawings when you are working with non-linear organic shape such as this standing chair.
I am amazed at how many innovative and cutting-edge office chairs are being introduced every year. There are now “smart chairs” that alert you to sit up straight when you slouch forward for a long time and to take a break and exercise after sitting too long in the chair. There is a shell shaped chair design that swivels around and has an outlet and USB port for recharging. It also has compartment at the wide base where you can store books, pens and papers and electronic devices. Now you can also bring your computer screen attached to robotic arm to you while you lie down in bed. All these inventions are great to use especially in large office space, rehabilitation center and community center for young, elderly people and students alike. But with the advent of Zoom, Skype and video conferencing that eliminate the need to go to the office anymore, I wonder if these devices including my chair will be in demand 10 years from now. With so many more people being health conscious nowadays, an ideal work situation for all of us would be to spend half a day in the office and spend rest of the day outside (weather and schedule permitting) either doing office work or working out. So that I do not envision my Standing Chair design to be influencing the future of ergonomic office design much but I do think that it would be appreciated and used by small groups of people - artists, craftsmen, doctors, therapists, cooks, elderly people and those trying to regain lower body strength after injury who are working in a more intimate work environment.
Actually, design process for this self initiated project which went through several phases started much earlier when I was doing just sketches and writing. It went through extended design process because I was working on this project after work and in the middle of other furniture design projects. During this time, I had an opportunity to observe office workers’ work habits, talk to healthcare professionals and to present drawings and a full scale mock-up at the local Design Soiree. The mock-up was built out of plywood for the base and the seat was carved out of laminated Styrofoam with a long blade X-Acto knife and a drywall file. The detachable seat was shaped to roll forward and backward on the plywood base so that the user could experience both sitting on the regular chair and standing (or leaning) against the chair at the same time and had many good feedbacks from them. I then started to design the chair in earnest during the summer of 2019, first building a model based on the success and failure of the mock-up and series of sketches I had done. I did the final hand drawings in scale on tracing papers before my architect friend and I started to model in 3 dimensional computer rendering program. I had also consulted with an auto mechanic who had an extensive experience bending steel pipes and tubes with CNC 3-D freedom tube bender that would be able to bend each section of my chair’s steel base before cutting and welding. All these interactions with professionals gave me both design and technical feedbacks that were extremely useful in coming up with my own chair design.
Having had a background in Fine Arts and Architecture, I have always been interested in both practical aspects of designed objects as in meeting safety standards and user-friendliness and aesthetic side of such objects be they chairs, desks, cabinets, counters, stairs or floor tiles in the bathroom that seem to elevate the spirit of the people who use them. And when they are exposed to such a stimulating environment at home and at work, they tend to be happier and come back to it time and again. This Standing Chair design was no different in trying to meet these dual objectives whether it was successful or not. And this is my way of saying that art is essential in everyday life and should not be confined to those who can appreciate and afford them. Everyone can benefit from it and they in turn could be inspired to be creative, physically active, lead healthier lifestyle and enjoy life more with those loved ones around them.
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