office interior design reading
if you’ve ever looked into buying an officechair and have say looked up some options online - you’ll find that it's possibleto buy one for about $50. there are also ones for between a hundredto a thousand. and there are ones for over a thousand dollars. you may think to yourself- aren't they alljust things we put our butts on? what's with the big price range? and what kind of crazy person would spendover a thousand dollars on a chair? well let me tell you a story. the first chair i ever bought for myself wasa chair from i think walmart for like $39.99.
after about 18 months of use, an arm had brokenoff, the adjustable seat had gotten stuck, the vinyl had ripped in a bunch of placesand the seat cushion was as flat as pancake. in fact, this chair wasn’t even frequentlyused - i maybe sat in it for about 1-2 hours a day on average. a good, durable office chair should last about10-15 years while being used continuously for an average of a 40 hour work week. a cheap chair may cost you less initially,but if you had to replace it every year or two it may end up costing you more in theend. and that's not even mentioning that cheaperchairs are often very uncomfortable
and not ergonomically designed. this is not to say that every single personneeds to spend a thousand dollars on a chair. for light residential use, you could probablyfind a good quality chair for that purpose for a few hundred dollars. but if you're looking to buy a chair for businessuse, or you work from home and you do spend about 40 hours a week sitting itin - you probably want to look into spending a little bit more to get a good quality chairfor the long term. designing a quality commercial office chairoften takes years and cost a lot of money to implement.
it involves a lot of research and development,testing of materials, concepts iterations, and involve the work and input of many scientists,engineers, designers, technologists and even healthcare professionals. for instance - the steelcase leap chair tookfour years to develop, cost 35 million dollars, and involved 11 academic studies. but why do furniture manufacturers botherwith doing all of those things? well one, because it takes a lot of work todevelop something that's strong and durable. most commercial manufactures will put theirchair designs through vigorous testing methods for function and durability.
an example of this is the iso 21015 test foroffice work chairs. this test would determine the stability, strengthand durability of a chair by applying various standardized simulations of functional useas well as expected misuse. number two, most high quality chairs are extensivelyergonomically designed, since most of us expect to sit in them for up to 40 hours a week. sitting for a long period of time in an uncomfortableseat, a poorly supported cushion, or a strained position - could lead to severe health conditions. thus a chair should not only be comfortable,but also adjustable. so most professional office chairs are designedwith mechanisms that allow a user to easily
adjust seat height, back angles, seat depth,chair tilt, arm location, chair width, tension, and sometimes even the locations of lumbarsupport - allowing the chair to adapt to your body type, work conditions and personal preference. many commercial office chairs are also customizable. at a residential furniture store you generallyhave a limited choice of design and fabric options, because manufactures can keep costslow by manufacturing a few standardized products in mass quantity. but commercial customers usually require awider selection of options, so commercial suppliers generally have a higher per-itemcost.
a commercial chair supplier usually allowsyou to choose from a greater selection of designs, finishes, and fabric options. you can even bring in your own fabric, orhave the option of printing a custom graphic or pattern onto the fabric. many commercial businesses want to be ableto reflect their brand colour or image in the design of their offices, especially ifit's for a customer facing environment. but if you're just a person who's lookingfor a simple functional chair for your home office - you most likely don’t needall of that. but the option is there if you have a veryspecific design in mind.
ultimately - a great chair, like all greatdesigns, seamlessly ties together elegant form, innovative technology and functionalexcellence. the aeron chair, a herman miller product thatwas designed by bill stumpf and don chadwick in 1994 - is actually a part of the collectionin the museum of modern art. an interesting and innovative part of theirdesign is that its seat as well as back are actually not built out of traditional upholstery. it's made out of an intricate network of polyestermesh that’s stretched over an aluminum frame. this make it light and flexible yet durable,resilient, stain proof, splash proof and its open mesh helps to keep your butt airy andcool.
so if you’re looking to buy a chair - whetheryou're looking for a classic work of of art that's worth of a museum, or you're just lookingfor a simple functional chair - hopefully this gives you a little bit of an idea intowhat to consider and what to look for. often i like to talk about how “everythingin this world is designed†- from the concrete curbs on the side the road, to toilet partitionsin a public bathroom, to the plastic trims on the edges of a chair. most people don’t even realize, or takefor granted just how much work and thought has gone into designing some of the most ubiquitousthings in the world. so i'd love to hear from you guys.
what are some of your curious questions aboutthe design world, or just what are some of your questions about the everyday objectsaround you. feel free to leave it in the comments below, or suggest it to me via any of my social media accounts. thanks for watching and happy sitting! subtitles by the amara.org community