Lotus Cantilever

Designing a modern school chair

Off the back of the success of the Pop chair Nick set out to design a contemporary shell based chair to suit the requirements of 21st century school environments. Combining extensive research into the history of educational seating with innovations in production techniques and contemporary materials. The Poly prop chair designed by Robin Day in 1962 was the first injection moulded  chair to enter the education market, replacing the classic wooden school chairs that dominated before.

This groundbreaking design offered a product with greatly improved comfort, durability and aesthetic qualities along with a more palatable price point. Over the years competition in the market has focused on producing cheaper iterations of the original design, whilst the latest scientific research recommends more improved ways of sitting for a better posture, all suggesting there was a gap in the market for a more suitable product.

The Lotus chair has been designed to promote ‘active, dynamic seating’ this provides support and encourages movement in all directions. The thin waisted backrest structure allows the user 360 degree movement, whilst when sitting straight the seat shape offers good postural alignment whereby the pelvis is tilted in a more forward sitting position improving blood circulation and overall concentration. We believe these developments in ergonomics twinned with a sleek contemporary aesthetic has provided the education industry with a chair fit for the 21st century working environments.