Deconstructing Product Design

Variable Balans Stool

Peter Opsvik, 1976

1. Peter Opsvik has been rethinking the way people sit since the early 1970s, challenging virtually every assumption of chair design, both form and function, considered sacrosanct by furniture designers. With the Balans, a variation of the word balance, he presses the case that the flaw of traditional chair design is its failure to address the natural urge and ergonomic need to keep moving when seated. Peter Opsvik comments: “If we are able to move, we do. When we stand up, we very rarely ever stay still — we shift our weight around, moving our feet and our arms much more than you ever think. We can walk for hours, but we get tired after only a few minutes if we have to stand still.”
2. The aesthetic is ...