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One of the consequences of a more
mobile workforce is that fewer people
work in the same position or even
the same chair for extended periods,
but instead move constantly from
workstation to meeting room to break-
out area. Modern office chairs reflect
this new style of working with lighter,
more intuitive designs perfect for
interrupted use, among them the new
Diffrient World chair from Humanscale.
Humanscale started out in 1983
selling anti-glare screen filters before
expanding into other areas of ergonomics
including monitor arms, laptop holders,
seating, LED lighting and air purifiers.
In 1999 it broke into the international
seating market with the revolutionary
Freedom chair designed by Niels Diffrient.
Something of a game changer for
Humanscale (a million sold to date) and
seating design in general, the chair was
a breath of fresh air for office workers
fed up with overly complicated manual
adjustments. Freedom replaced the
multitude of knobs and levers found on
office chairs at the time with a weight-
sensitive recline so that all the user needs
to change are the seat height, arms and
lumbar support: everything else adjusts
automatically.
Brilliantly simple, but according to
Humanscale account manager Natalie
Hodson, not simple enough for a designer
who has always been interested in
reducing the number of materials used
in the manufacturing process.
“When Niels first designed
Freedom the chair that he
wanted to design
was the Diffrient
World Chair, but he
didn’t know how to do
it then,” she said.
He does now.
The Diffrient
World chair, at last
available in Europe, reflects
the current trend for lightness and
simplicity. An all mesh task chair,
Humanscale’s first, it has just
8 components
Keeping it simple
compared to more than 30 in the
Freedom chair, weighs 25 pounds – half
that of a traditional task chair – and is
99% recyclable compared to 97% for
Liberty and 87% for Freedom.
Humanscale has been able to reduce
the number of components thanks to
a patented technology based on ball
bearings within the frame of the chair.
This provides a degree of automatic
adjustability without the need for a bulky
automatic counter-balance mechanism.
Minimising the number of resources
used has obvious sustainability benefits,
but according to Hodson, the key driver,
as with other Humanscale products, is to
create products that are simple to use and
very ergonomic. The Diffrient World chair
also has a slightly lower price tag – about
£100 or 20% cheaper than a Freedom
chair.
The launch of the Diffrient World chair
increased the number of Humanscale
chairs to three, giving customers more
choice and allowing Humanscale and
the designers who specify its products to
meet a broader range of needs.
The other two chairs in the existing
range are the flagship Freedom chair,
available with or without a neck rest
and, with Freedom 2.0, a new back shell
design and armrests that can be
adjusted with just one
hand; and the Liberty
chair launched in
2004. Popular with
media companies,
Sustainable Times
visited Humanscale’s London showroom
to find out about its latest seating products
The Diffrient Smart
with signature chair
mechanism
office seating
As well as reducing the number of
components used in seating products,
a growing number of furniture
manufacturers are designing their
chairs to reduce transportation costs
and associated emissions.Wilkhahn’s
award-winning ON chair, for example,
has a clever assembly method that
allows it to be shipped with the
backrest ‘knocked down’ . This reduces
the size of carton needed by 45% (in
volume), bringing significant savings
in packaging materials and space
taken up in transport and storage.
For its new ‘quarterback’ swivel chair
(top), Sedus has reduced packaging
by 40% by designing the chair so that
it can be dismantled for shipping and
reassembled without tools on delivery.
At Orgatec, Connection Seating was
previewingWhy? by Roger Webb
Associates. Like the previous examples,
this ‘chair-in-a-box’ is designed to
be shipped economically and quickly
re-assembled simply by clicking its
elements together.
The key driver
is to create
products that are
simple to use and
very ergonomic.
“
this has the same automatic counter
balance mechanism as Freedom but a
different aesthetic, with a mesh back
that takes on the shape of the sitter’s
back removing the need for additional
adjustment.
In 2013, Humanscale plans to add
the Diffrient Smart chair to its range.
This lighter, simpler chair combines a
lower price with a more architectural,
masculine appeal thanks to a square back
and recycled aluminium construction. It
features Humanscale’s signature weight
sensitive recline, a mesh back and the
option of a mesh or fabric seat.
www.humanscale.co.uk
A light touch: the
Diffrient World Chair
Clicking
into
place
Sustainable
Editor’s Choice Award
Humanscale