Contemporary chairs can be strange looking things: odd angles, bizarre configurations of their backings, with widths and strange seat pieces which make them appear more like medieval torture devices than objects to sit and relax upon. But is the appearance of contemporary chairs, and by extension other pieces of contemporary furniture, true to the sensation of sitting on or using them? Or is it a trick of the eye?

Ergonomics have come a long way since the beginning of chair design, and what may appear to be uncomfortable can actually have been designed with the height of an individual’s body type and comfort in mind. A limited-edition chair by designer and architect Eric Kahn proves this point; while the individual lines of the seat may appear uncomfortable, in reality the chair has been engineered to conform to the shape of the body, and as a result its give and take support an individual’s body and needs in an extraordinary way.

When concerned with the look versus the feel of a contemporary chair, the important points to consider are the material the item is made of and the way in which it supports the body of its user. Of course, some contemporary chairs are poorly made, and style should never win out over comfort in furniture. But ignoring the fact that something looks as if it may be uncomfortable and instead trying to sit in a contemporary chair which is actually well-designed and promotes the comfort of its user, new avenues in interior design and furniture use can be explored, opening new horizons to those wishing to find a more experimental, contemporary look for their home and the furniture in it.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 2:20 pm and is filed under Furniture Design, Handmade Furniture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.