Empathic Design
Empathic Design
Problem
Union is a seating line that responds humanistically to the needs of the office worker, home office worker, student, diner, patient, and guest. These individuals find themselves in sitting situations that are commonly static in terms of movement, are mis-aligned in terms of support, causing a diminishment in their comfort and health.
Solution
Union produces a health positive result through the manifestation of the BioFLex Shell technology, which automatically responds to the sitter's seated behaviors with carefully programmed micro and macro flexion initiated by subtle shifts/movements of sitters body mass. This instinctive response of the shell supports a range of postures that include active postures (hand tasks in forward leaning postures) to passive postures (passive tasks, reclined/relaxed posture) and every posture in between.
Technology
The BioFlex Shell technology is based on a unique combination of material and geometry and a proprietary injection molding process that produces a solid state (single part) auto adjusting mechanism that is inherently compliant + supportive + healthy and practical.
People
The Union chair is designed to accommodate sitters of all shapes, sizes, ages and genders while engaged in the interchange between people and technology in activities such as working, learning, healing and play.
Place
The Union chair is designed to live in all places that humans dwell in their daily lives, whether it is in an office, class room, dining room, waiting room, conference room, home office, etc. Union is capable of accommodating the breadth of place types through the implementation of a system that is comprised of the universally applied BioFlex Shell and 5 base types that correlate to place through their materialization and architecture. These base types include:
Winning both the 2022 Good Design Award and the 2022 RedDot Award
“The Union seating line impresses with a simple-looking yet outstandingly user-friendly technology that enables a high level of comfort even through long sitting sessions.”