Aeron Office Chairs

Unique features in Aeron Chair Chairs include the seat pan's SMF (seat, membrane, foam) comfort system. The seat is shock-mounted atop four springs, permitting ''give'' when you shift in the chair, though the effect is subtle and you'll never feel unstable. The springs also ensure a soft landing on the tailbone if you sit down quickly. And you will never bottom out on hard plastic because the bottom of the seat pan features a Dymetrol elastic membrane in Aeron Chair Chairs.

Aeron Chair Chairs boasts intuitive, ''soft-touch'' coded knobs and levers. Blind users will love the chair because adjustments can be made by feel alone. Parts that engage the fingers are made of a soft, rubbery-textured plastic, with bumps or grooves that not only make the part easy to grip, but indicate the motion required, such as pushing or turning. The tactile feedback is pleasurable, encouraging users to experiment until the chair feels just right.

There is the same patented, German-engineered Schukra lumbar support used in high-performance cars such as Ferrari, Audi and Porsche. Beside the customary lumbar support bar that moves up and down, Amicus has a control to move the lumbar support forward and back.

As well, the back can lock in several reclining positions. Nothing unusual there, except that the mechanism thoughtfully has an anti-catapult safety feature. When you release the lock from the recline position, you have to push back before the chair comes forward. The chair will not move unexpectedly, as when the cleaning staff comes by and accidentally hits the adjustment. ''Other chairs will actually jump forward and attack you,'' Turner says.

Finally, Turner points out the seat-depth adjustment, which locks as soon as you release it. ''This is usually the comedic moment in my sales presentation. Before you can lock the adjustment in other chairs, you release a lever and you do a hula, the lambada, some pelvic thrusting.''

Compared to Steelcase and Teknion, Humanscale, a $33-million (U.S.) company based in Englewood, Co., is an upstart. But Freedom, its new chair, was designed by star seating designer Niels Diffrient. Based in Ridgefield, Conn., he is the co-author of the ergonomics compendium Humanscale, the designer of furniture with Eero Saarinen, and the owner of more than 20 patents.

His chair conspicuously lacks bells and whistles. ''Introducing the world's simplest chair and smartest mechanism,'' the PR bumph states. So-called ergonomic chairs come equipped with knobs, locks and levers that often just gather dust.

Aeron Chairs |