Don’t stop me now: the AT office chair from Wilkhahn

The message that sitting rigidly is unhealthy, and that movement at the workplace promotes concentration, has by now surely penetrated to even the most remote executive floor. But how to best put this insight into practice? Fortunately, it has been some time since brightly coloured exercise balls invaded German offices. Setting aside their aesthetic qualities, they seemed a convincing and straightforward solution for dynamic sitting.

Yet it isn’t quite that simple. Although it may be detrimental to not move at all while seated, sitting in a state of perpetual tension or making the body constantly work to keep its balance isn’t any better as it overstresses the body’s support muscles and inhibits metabolism. ‘What you want is frequent alternating between muscle contraction and release,’ says Burkhard Remmers, Head of International Communications at Wilkhahn. But this poses a real challenge when working at the computer.

Wilkhahn, a medium-sized German office furniture manufacturer, is a major pioneer in the area of dynamic sitting. Because digitalisation has only further increased our tendency towards continuous sitting and our sitting habits are unhealthily static, Wilkhahn has been jointly researching this topic with the German Sport University Cologne since 2005, commissioning multiple studies on a new, groundbreaking sitting concept.

The latest result of this research is the ‘AT’ office chair series. Its heart is the patented coupling of the self-centring 3D suspension of the seat-backrest shell with the backrest bearer for automatic synchronous movement. This enables fluid motion in all directions on the basis of even the slightest shift in weight. The body’s centre of gravity stays in balance, and the technology encourages motion without overload. The movements are fully intuitive and virtually independent of the weight of the user. Sit down, adjust the seat height and you are ready to work – your body and the chair take care of the rest on their own.

All ‘AT’ models are additionally available with a forward tilt capability that can be activated as needed. And the model with elevated seating position (ESP) promotes a fluid transition between sitting and standing at vertically adjustable desks – since up to now, the well-intended flexibility of workstations made for both sitting and standing has been little utilised: 80 per cent of workers don’t take advantage of it, because standing up to reset the height interrupts their workflow.

With its ESP model, Wilkhahn is the first manufacturer to successfully integrate this change of position into the workflow. Both desktop and seat are placed somewhat higher from the outset. When the user bends forward, the seat shell tilts accordingly, and the movement naturally ends with the user standing up.

From start to finish, everything stays in flow, as the best position for the body is always the next one.

© Architonic