10
SEATING SPECIAL
The finest seats of learning “Sit still and concentrate” is consigned to the history books as educational seating designers embrace sound ergonomics and movement to improve the learning experience. We’ve chosen eight of the best school chairs around today. Anyone who has earned their design stripes, whether in furniture, buildings or fashion, usually has “feelings” about chairs. From the swivelling “James Bond” cool of the Arne Jacobson Egg, to the clean Danish lines of Hans Wegner’s Wishbone, via the leathery luxe of the Eames Lounge Chair, if you’re a designer you’ll have a favourite and an opinion. However, when it comes to design qualities of school chairs, it could be argued that the priority is less “aesthetics and gorgeousness” and more “does it stack, will it break and how much does it cost?” (Questions to which KI’s iconic Postura chair answers “yes”, “no” and “not a lot”, which is why it enjoys such enduring popularity with schools the world over.) School chairs aren’t going to occupy a glamorous hotel lobby, they need to comfortably accommodate a person who, at senior school, could be anything from four feet six inches (137 centimetres) to six feet three inches (190 centimetres) tall and needs to occupy said chair for six hours a day, five days a week while remaining healthy. As design challenges go, it’s complex. You might think this complexity, combined with the understandably pragmatic and cost-sensitive view of many schools, would deter designers from grasping the nettle of school seating design but, happily, this is not the case. There are designers and manufacturers out there who are passionate about improving the learning experience, who want children to benefit from better ergonomics and comfort, who recognise the need for learners to be able to move and who are designing superb seating options that genuinely improve students’ ability to concentrate and learn. Let’s just say things have moved on a bit since Hille’s iconic Robin Day chair...
