For several centuries, the design of office chairs has funnelled towards a single ideal: a chair so comfortable that workers might go eight hours barely needing to move. Thomas Jefferson was an early pioneer of this “do less to do more” philosophy when, in 1776, the future president inserted a spindle and rollers underneath his Windsor chair to create the world’s first swivel seat. In 1840, Charles Darwin fitted wheels to his armchair and used it to zip between specimen drawers.
Today’s ergonomic office chairs come with a half-dozen knobs that help you position your body just so. They are designed to reduce the strain of this long-term immobility, otherwise known as “office life”. The webbed material used in Herman Miller’s iconic Aeron chair, for example, was initially developed to prevent bed sores. Such innovations are ergonomic marvels, if we understand ergonomics to mean “a thing that helps you work more”.
But, for “active sitting” advocates, every enhanced lumbar support and pillowy armrest is a step away from the light. Talking to an active chair evangelist for the first time is something like discovering you have got the function of an everyday object entirely backwards. Are you sitting comfortably? Too bad, but I’ll begin.