Wilkhahn partnered with the German Sport University Cologne to develop Trimension® sitting kinematics to get our bodies moving while we’re sitting at desks and compensate for the lack of movement inherent in today’s life styles. The concept encourages fluid three-dimensional movement while sitting (called the free-to-move concept) and allows the body to maintain its centre of gravity at all times.
The latest free-to-move office chair called AT will be premiering at Orgatec in the last week of October 2018 – but not just on Wilkhahn’s Office for Motion stand. Under its New Visions of Work banner, the trade show’s organisers will be presenting selected solutions on the boulevard that allow visitors to experience the new culture of collaboration up close and personal. The highlight of the boulevard will be the Wilkhahn island, where AT will be displayed in two ways that define our lives today: as a particularly appealing chair for offices and meeting spaces – and as a dynamically agile car seat in a custom-developed Trimension vehicle.
As today’s life styles in both offices and cars are so sedentary, Michael Englisch, Wilkhahn’s design and development director, decided to add more movement to a vehicle too: in his spare time, he turned an old VW beetle into the motorised chassis for the Trimension vehicle to which Wilkhahn engineers then added agile seats and footroom.
The new Trimension patent for AT, with the seat shell suspended on the frame, allows the principle to be transferred to driving and sideways movements integrated with the AT seat shells. The slightest shifts in weight are enough to get hips moving and stimulate both body and mind. And what’s more, the centrifugal force causes the seat and pedals to tilt automatically into the curves! It’s quite literally an auto-mobile. But why not see for yourself?
Adding this new type of movement to vehicles is highly relevant at the moment: because the mobility concepts of the future, such as autonomous driving, are increasingly turning vehicle interiors into working, communication and entertainment spaces. Wilkhahn’s using the Trimension vehicle to show how the free-to-move concept can ensure improved health, performance and safety here too!
Of course, the vehicle isn’t the only way visitors can try out the free-to-move concept, the Wilkhahn stand, which is just a stone’s throw away from the Orgatec boulevard, will also feature the AT office chairs and their “siblings” IN and ON.
Orgatec Cologne, 23.-27.10.2018, Kölnmesse, hall 6, stand B88/C89
You can find out more about Orgatec here.
Watch the free-to-move film here.
To part 1 of the free-to-move series.
For more info about the AT free-to-move chair, watch the making-of film.