I wanted to share this prototype of this beautiful chair with you. It’s a chair I designed a long time ago with some great colleagues. We wanted to bring people together purposefully, yet casually.
It looks a bit like a tête-à-tête, or conversation chair, and it’s a lovely way to be together without having to look each other straight in the eye, without tangling legs, and without being separated by a table. You can place something on the wonderfully wide armrest to point at photos, shared topics, a screen to help one another, or whatever else.
For the prototype I just used LEGO, because it’s a great way to show people what you mean, by using bricks and happy colors.
We came up with the idea while doing weekly speculative innovation designs for a pension fund over a few months. With this chair, we brought young healthcare workers together with near-retirees—the ‘old hands’ in the field.
That way, they could learn from each other while we experimented with the concept of retirement. What if retirement didn’t start abruptly with a dismissal and a goodbye, but began at 55 with a slowly evolving, better role in the workplace? With more time to coach the youngsters on handling stress, talking to patients, or simply maintaining joy in being a jack-of-all-trades.
I’m still in love with this beautiful chair and can recommend it for any space where a good conversation, or just human proximity, is important. Not constant chattering, but just an occasional hand on an arm, sharing a moment. Actually, a perfect seat for your café. It’s not for sale yet, but maybe I should just make it. Who wants one?