By watching hundreds of hours of video and conducting in-depth interviews with workers of all ages, in all disciplines, Knoll and Formway Design recognized that the basic assumption about office seating — that there are only a few optimal ways to sit while at work — was flawed. In fact, their investigation showed that sitting upright and facing forward was just one of the ways people use their office chairs. Shifting, stretching, rotating, leaning, and reclining not only relieve boredom but are essential to our ability to stay energized and collaborate with colleagues. Understanding that no combination of adjustment levers could make a chair equally comfortable in each of those positions, Formway sought to achieve an elastic design—the idea that a product would rearrange itself in response to a user’s movements. After years of design and development, spent considering and reconsidering every component of the chair, Formway arrived at a truly innovative design. With a revolutionary new material for the chair’s back and a form that anticipates and allows for a multitude of body positions, Generation achieves Knoll and Formway’s mission to help workers sit how they want.
It is truly the next generation of seating.Principals at Formway Design, the New Zealand-based design group, credit the many lessons learned during the extensive design and prototyping process for the Generation chair and years of close collaboration with materials experts and product engineers at Knoll for the relatively quick two-year time span between the conception and launch of the ReGeneration chair. Formway Lead Designer Kent Parker cites the elegantly attenuated bridges of architect-engineer Santiago Calatrava as a model for his team’s strategy of using the structural diagram to dictate the overall form. By celebrating rather than hiding the interplay of loads and forces typically applied to work chairs, Formway was able to “minimize components and minimize materials so we get [directly] to performance,” explains Parker. Benjamin Pardo, Director of Design at Knoll, concurs, pointing to the designers’ use of a curve for the chair’s back as the central element and one that equally and economically serves both aesthetic and structural purposes and, at the same time, provides comfort.
“Visually there is not a lot of chair there,” notes Pardo, who explains that this economy of means not only results in an appealingly slim silhouette, it also sends a strong message about making efficient structures, and, so, by implication, the importance of conserving natural resources. And there was an added benefit to both revealing and streamlining the structure, according to Formway’s lead engineer Paul Wilkinson, who points out that “more parts add complexity and [therefore] cost,” something counter to the fundamental purpose of the ReGeneration chair—bringing dynamic seating to a wider audience.It’s difficult to get excited about office chairs. Especially now, with study after study claiming that sitting all day is killing you, and with every reputable source advising you to spend more time standing up and moving around than you spend sitting. Knoll ReGeneration Desk Chair Base price climbs quickly once you add the options — which you must to get the lumbar plate and the articulating arms.
Seat isn’t as breathable as a suspension web seat of competing designs. A complete failure in every way Solid with some issues Very good, but not quite great Excellent, with room to kvetch I’ve read all those articles, too, and I do plan on switching to a standing workstation very soon. I’ve even selected all the parts to convert my desk. So the irony is not lost on me that I’ve spent the last three months sitting in what is easily the most comfortable office chair I’ve ever used. It’s like a bad movie where the man meets the woman of his dreams on the eve of his wedding to another bride. My little homewrecker of a desk chair is called the Knoll ReGeneration. It’s the furniture giant’s latest addition to its line of mesh-backed desk chairs with the Generation name — we reviewed the premium model last year. Compared to the company’s previous Generation design, the ReGeneration is lighter, more compact, and less expensive. Compared to the company’s previous Generation design, the ReGeneration is lighter, more compact, and less expensive.
Knoll has also upped the treehugger quotient; the elastomer net on the back of the chair makes use of corn by-products, and the foam in the seat cushion is partially sourced from soy-based materials. The structural design is also very minimal, using as little plastic as possible and eschewing the shell that manufacturers commonly use to cover the innards. Almost half of each ReGeneration is made from recycled materials when you add it all up (44 percent if you choose the plastic base, and 48 percent if you choose the aluminum base, according to Knoll). This eco-minded approach extends all the way down to how it’s packaged and shipped. It comes in two halves that squeeze into a remarkably compact box, and it weighs less than 30 pounds. The environmental gains here are obvious: more of the chairs can be stuffed into a shipping container, and it’s less impactful to get one delivered to your door. Assembly is a no-brainer — just insert the barrel into the base, where it clicks into place — and adjustments are equally simple.
Beneath the seat are the levers you’d expect for adjusting the height and seat depth, and for locking the reclining mechanism. My favorite bit of adjustment, however, is the optional lumbar support found on the back of my loaner. It’s a rigid plate that’s split vertically down the centerline by what looks like an oversized plastic zipper. To adjust the point where the support is the stiffest, move the zipper up and down. All of this flexibility in adjustment means there’s zero fuss in dialing in a comfortable, healthy position. Lean back slightly (as my doctor tells me I should be doing all the time while at my desk), and the curved back hugs your spine. In this ideal position, the chair props you up with just the right amount of stiffness while still allowing you to keep your back muscles relaxed. More impressive is how the chair handles uncomfortable positions. I have pretty terrible desk posture — lots of slouching, leaning, and one-shoulder hunches — so I’m off-balance much of the time.
The undercarriage feels springy when you’re just sitting normally and staying centered in the seat, but it gets more rigid when you list sideways or lean forward. Of course, you only notice this if you’re thinking about it. To test the chair’s range of adjustment, I passed it around to a few office-mates of different shapes and sizes. I’m six feet tall, but my co-worker who’s almost a full foot shorter than me could also find a comfortable position in it — a first for her, since every other office chair she’s ever used has left her feet dangling. I’ve spent most of my days in the past six years sitting in three chairs: a Herman Miller Aeron (with which you’re no doubt familiar), a Steelcase conference room chair, and a nameless hunk of cheap plastic much like what most of you are sitting in right now. The Knoll is closest to the Herman Miller Aeron in design, though it’s both smaller and more comfortable. The Knoll’s padded cushion is more comfortable and supportive than the Aeron’s diaphanous suspension seat, though not as breathable.