The chair that moves with you
Godrej Interio
Motion Chair
The Indian company Godrej Interio was looking for a partner to develop an affordable office chair for the Indian market which could compete with international office furniture manufacturers. Through the Dutch Design Fashion & Architecture programme, they were put in touch with npk design. This proved a good match, because Motion is a good, affordable ergonomic office chair.
Cost reduction through smart design
How do you combine a low cost price with all the functionality of a well-designed office chair? Eliminating the metal standard mechanism and replacing it with plastic was a crucial decision. This enabled us to use an important characteristic of plastic as a material, namely flexibility. This also reduced the number of parts, as well as the assembly time.
Flexibility of the material was also a deciding factor for the design solution. The movement of the backrest was well thought out. We studied several ergonomic chairs and translated the functionality from the high-end market segment into a low-cost solution, based on the flexible curve. The form of this curve puts the hinge at the bottom of the chair seat rather than in the more traditional place at the lower back.
“In the design of the Motion Chair, we combined innovative use of material with clean elegance. By replacing conventional mechanisms with new flexing principles, we managed to create a new archetype for office chairs that will make the office a more active place.”
Jos Oberdorf
managing partner npk design
The role of prototyping in our approach
How do you combine a low cost price with all the functionality of a well-designed office chair? Eliminating the metal standard mechanism and replacing it with plastic was a crucial decision. This enabled us to use an important characteristic of plastic as a material, namely flexibility. This also reduced the number of parts, as well as the assembly time.
Flexibility of the material was also a deciding factor for the design solution. The movement of the backrest was well thought out. We studied several ergonomic chairs and translated the functionality from the high-end market segment into a low-cost solution, based on the flexible curve. The form of this curve puts the hinge at the bottom of the chair seat rather than in the more traditional place at the lower back.
In India, which is home to 12% of the world’s population, a growing number of people work in an office environment. The introduction of the Motion office chair early in 2018 makes it possible for a large market segment, at least in numbers, to work ergonomically.
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