Customer Reviews

The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body, and Design

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There are certain subjects that do not seem to lend themselves to serious or interesting scrutiny. I would have said the history of the chair, and its place in society, would have been one of those subjects until reading Professor (and Alexander Teacher) Galen Cranz's new book, The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body and Design.

Professor Cranz takes a look at the history of chairs, their place establishing hierarchical relationships among people, and the various design attempts artists and architects have made at creating chairs. Cranz makes clear in her book that in chair design often the "emphasis is on materials-plastic, metal, and wood in varied applications-rather than on the effect of the chair and its structure upon the body and its structure." The chair becomes an object, an everyday sculpture, that oftentimes disregards the fact that it is being used in particular ways for particular purposes, with substantial impact on the individual who sits in the chair.

In recent history, an increasing focus has been made on the way chairs affect our use. For anyone interested in the way we use ourselves, the portion of the book that examines the ergonomic attempts to create a more body-friendly chair reads like a dark comedy, as various attempts are made to address one part of the body, without adequately considering another part. Cranz takes us through this process and helps us see the misconceptions that many designers have built into their chairs. One of the first, and biggest, problems facing designers is figuring out how to determine what would make a chair that facilitated ease and comfort. Comfort is a particularly vexing concept, for reasons obvious to any Alexander teacher, since the old familiar habitual patterns are going to tend to feel comfortable, at least in the short term. Cranz suggests that the various attempts at measuring comfort, including the use of "Electromyogram tests... stresses along the spine, using needles in the discs or pressure-sensitive pills" have been unsuccessful in measuring a meaningful change in comfort level for the person sitting.

Another refreshing aspect of the book is the radical notion put forward by a new breed of ergonomic designers that chair design specifically, and workplace design in general, should not be restricted by "traditional cultural expectations. They want to change traditional workplace design. For them, the beginning and end of design should be the body."

Cranz gives a short history of the Alexander Technique in her book, but only references the Technique when it is relevant to the general design questions at hand. The Technique is presented as a unique approach that can help inform chair design, without proselytizing about the specific benefits of the Technique itself. The Technique has simply become, in effect, part of the relevant literature on design issues.

In one section of the book, Cranz talks about how one's conception of gravity will change one's design ideas: "If a designer thinks gravity is the enemy, he/she will design chairs like bags to hold our collapsed structures. But if the designer believes that gravity is useful to us, the sitting surface can function more like a platform so that the structure of forces and counterforces helps us spring into the body's natural volume-as opposed to being stacked from the bottom up like a wall or collapsed into a heap." She goes on to say that "The most wide-ranging philosophical insight from the Alexander Technique and the somatic perspective generally is that human beings are designed for movement, and that more important than any single given posture is the quality of our movement, our overall coordination."

Cranz questions the traditional notions of lumbar support, of chair backs that do not continue high enough to support the shoulders and head, and of the various other design decisions that have interfered with a more natural use of the body. In the last sections of the book, Cranz lays out her recommendations for a better chair, ("a forward-tilt seat, firm-textured surface, a flat uncontoured seat, butt space between seat and backrest,") as well as examining some of the more unconventional approaches that have been taken to try to address the complex challenges of more intelligent and humane chair design.

Cranz has successfully turned a topic that could easily have been relegated to the back shelves of university libraries into a fascinating account of what chairs have been, done and stood for over the centuries, and what they can become in the future.

Galen Cranz on "The Chair"
Reviewed by Rani Lueder, CPE

This book is about seating and sitting. Having once spent my vacation scouring Europe's museums for the earliest representation of a chair (earliest I could find was 1570), I looked forward to opening its covers.

Dr. Cranz teaches Environmental Design at the UC Berkeley Architecture Dept. Not surprisingly, she cuts a wide swath on seating, spanning history, sociology, industrial design, architecture, ergonomics, and holistic body/mind approaches - particularly the Alexander technique.

Parts of her book are engrossing. In particular, her historical perspective of how chair design has evolved historically [if it is accurate] may be unmatched. Her discussion of the holistic aspects of posture is also interesting.

That said, this book is NOT noteworthy for its review of the ergonomics research on sitting postures and seating. Much of it is plain hogwash.

Throughout the book she refers to us as "ergonomicists" [should be "ergonomists"] and claims the discipline is derived from the Greek "ergon" and "omics" [should be "nomos" (laws)].

It is sometimes painful to read her sweeping generalizations. Dr. Cranz writes that ergonomic researchers "have concluded that the workstation should be an indication of the worker's status" (p. 55) . . . and "status differences have to be maintained, ergonomicists say" (p. 56), citing as evidence two office planning guides written by and for architects that fail to mention ergonomics or ergonomists anywhere in the books.

She misrepresents research, as when she castigates Dr. Etienne Grandjean's "poor reasoning" in Fitting the Task to the Man, writing "Amazingly, Grandjean starts with the slump as a goal" (p. 108). Drs. Grandjean et al's research actually documented computer users' self-selected postures. These researchers reported that rather than sitting upright, the computer users they observed tended to recline somewhat.

She cites findings from a small laboratory study by Drs. Bendix et al. (12 subjects for 2 hours in 3 back support conditions) as proof that lumbar supports on chair backrests are unequivocally unnecessary (p. 109) - but not the many studies that contradict. Minor assertions are meticulously cited, but questionable conclusions often are not sourced.

If you are looking for a thorough analysis of seated posture, this is not the book for you. It provides a unique and multidisciplinary perspective on the context of seating, but - please - take her review of the ergonomics research on sitting postures and seating design with a heavy dose of salt.

______


Followup you might be interested in Dr. Jenny Pynt's far superior book on the topic, at this link.

www.amazon.com/History-Seating-3000-2000-Aesthetics/dp/1604977183


Rani Lueder, CPE has consulted in occupational and product design ergonomics for over 25 years. Her activities on seating include co-organizing the Second International Conference on Sitting Posture, held in Tokyo. Her second edited book "Hard Facts" is about sitting postures and seating (Taylor & Francis). She served on the seating subcommittee for the American National Standard ANSI BSR/HFES 100. She consulted in the research and design of over 350 lines of seating. Her newest edited book is "Ergonomics for Children: Designing products & places for toddlers to teens" (2007, Taylor & Francis).

I never thought I'd be reading a book about chairs! But this book is well worthwhile for anyone who has ever complained about uncomfortable chairs - at work, at home, at the airport etc. The book gives you quite a bit of practical information. I was struck by the references to the Alexander Technique (the author is an Alexander Technique teacher as well as being a university professor) and so I did a little researsch on that topic. There are quite a few good books available and a very comprehensive web site at alexandertechnique.com

Professor Cranz's book illustrates in a very fine way the history, anatomy, ergonomics and problems of chair seating. I also give some good suggestions on how to reduce the strain of the back, neck and arms. With her background an as Alexander teacher she understands the importance of sitting upright and in balance (like on horseback) to prevent damaging the back. This is in strong contrast to the majority of the world's experts. They still believe, that a close permanent contact with a "good lumbar support" is the best way to prevent back problems. At the same time they claim as much variation in posture as possible, but this is highly contradictory. Any one should be convinced if they study a school class sitting hunched over their desks. Several studies have demonstrated that about 60 % of the older school children complain of back problems. With the increasing use of computers this number will increase in future. As professor Cranz emphazises, our civilization is more or less based on chairs as most education, production, transportation and office work takes place in a seated position. Nevertheless the anatomy of the seated man is still unknown to most chair designers. Education of furniture designers, training of good sitting posture and standardization of furniture is also still mainly based on wishful thinking, moral and discipline from the days of Queen Victoria and Chancellor Bismarck. Unfortunately most scientific studies of the seated man deals with tiny details without considering the person as a whole. Professor Cranz's book gives a much more allround description of the problems connected with the extensive use of chairs than any of the books I have ever read. Besides it is easily read, very interesting and has plenty of good illustrations. With the increasing number of back and neck pain sufferers this book is highly needed and it will hopefully inspire to a more serious debate about sitting problems.

Over the weekend I read the book cover to cover--reclining, standing, perching, squatting, even sitting (on the way to the dunes, in a properly reconstructed car seat). What an experience, and what a fabulous gift! I can't decide which was more gratifying: the seamless matching of extraordinary form with compelling content, or the subtly powerful way in which the restrained and tasteful prose mounts an actual sociocultural revolution.

Galen Cranz has brought to life an everyday object that is so common we have stopped noticing it. Her insights into the history of the chair and to the effect of current designs upon our bodies wakes the reader up to the intelligence and motives that have gone into the designs that literally have shaped our bodies and changed our experiences. I highly enjoyed this book and the insights that it gave me. Robert Britton

I thoroughly enjoyed this account of chairs through history. Chairs are something that we take for granted but they are a basic necessity. It is difficult to find a chair that is really suitable and comfortable and this friendly book has an intelligent and humorous way of looking at something that most people rarely think about. Anyone who is of an unusual size or proportions will understand easily what I mean. I enjoyed this book very much and would recommend it highly.

Galen Cranz has provided a comprehensive, thought-provoking - and very readable - book about something so "ordinary" that we seldom give it much thought even though it has quite powerful influence on our posture and coordition.

In addition to a summary of the history of the chair, she uses her Alexander Technique knowledge to provide some very useful suggestions on how we can learn to sit with greater ease and less chance of developing backpain.

For those interested in learning more about the Alexander Technique in general, you might want to consider "Fitness Without Stress", a very nice introduction to the topic.

I'm delighted with "The Chair" and am telling everyone I talk to about how it is as exciting as a novel to read. Jane Heirich, Alexander teacher

Purchase it believing there would be a history of the chair and its development through the ages.
Very little on the history. The main body of the book deals with ergonomics and future design with very ametuer
drawings.