Amiee Mullins is a champion sprinter who set world records at the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta. She is also a TED speaker whose presentation sparked the interest of James Ludwig, Steelcase vice president for global design and product engineering.
Mullins was speaking about the J-shaped carbon fiber prosthetic leg she wears to run, and asked a provocative question: When she is wearing the appliance, is she disabled or “hyper-enabled” because of the technology that went into crafting the prosthetic limb?
Ludwig was tasked with the job of exploring the uses of carbon fiber for the office by former CEO Jim Hackett and was intrigued by the use of carbon fiber in the prosthetic legs of paralympians. The J-shape created the “spring” for the sprinter. Could a similar shape do the same for a high-tech office chair?
Ludwig was tasked with the job of exploring the uses of carbon fiber for the office by former CEO Jim Hackett
Steelcase answered that question yesterday with the launch of the SILQ chair. It uses a new plastic (and actual carbon fiber on the super, high-end models) J-shaped back support to give strength and support to the user. It is a major launch for the world's largest office furniture maker and the first that moves Steelcase from making chairs Ludwig affectionately calls “exquisite machines” to a much simpler, sleeker design.
SILQ displays a probity rarely found in office furniture, stripping out the unnecessary for a uncommon simplicity and elegance. In its high-end, carbon fiber, leather and polished aluminum form, it is one of the most beautiful office chairs ever built. It is a marvel even in its more pedestrian form that uses plastic and fabric.
The chair has one adjustment lever for height. Technology behind the chair does the rest, creating a comfortable, albeit firm, sit for anyone from the smallest office dweller to the largest. The tension when the user leans back is created by the shape of the chair back and the material that flexes differently depending on how far you sit back.
While the Steelcase Gesture has about 250 parts, SILQ has about 30. This design economy creates one of the cleanest task chair undercarriages on the market. There simply are no extra parts. SILQ was designed with minimalism in mind.
Designing something simple and elegant is more difficult than creating a complex chair. It is easy to take a box of parts and pieces and assemble an office seat. Ludwig wanted to create a chair with the characteristics of a high-performance chair that also looks simply beautiful, more bioengineered like a contact lens or heart stent than mechanically built and brutal looking.
The idea for SILQ started in 2008 with a few sketches, though it went on the back burner for awhile. The basic idea was good, but the material science lagged a bit behind. Ludwig couldn't find the right material for the chair. In the meantime, Steelcase was busy launching the Gesture and Series 1 chairs, both examples of the “exquisite machines” the company has always made.
The study on simplicity and materiality began with the LessThanFive Chair. The stacker is a collaboration between Coalesse and Michael Young made of carbon fiber and weighs less than five pounds. While visiting a Steelcase carbon fiber supplier in Shenzhen, China, Ludwig realized he had the material for what would become the SILQ chair.
He gathered a team of five people, commandeered a room at the company's Grand Rapids headquarters, put paper on all the windows and doors and went to work on SILQ. The team operated like a small startup company. “There has always been this 'arms race' for features on chairs,” Ludwig says. “We wanted to do something different, more organism than machine, something that you might see in aerospace or automotive, sculptural, something you don't see a lot of in this industry. Something that grabs you.”
Anyone who has shopped for a carbon fiber bicycle or automobile knows how much the material costs. It comes at a premium. To keep the price at a level where SILQ could be used throughout the office, Steelcase came up with a high-performance polymer that would perform nearly as well as carbon fiber, but cost a lot less.
The chair will be available in the new, high-performance polymer and carbon fiber. The starting list price for SILQ is $970. It ill be available in North America and Asia in spring of 2018, and in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in fall 2018.
The myriad options give designers a broad palette to create the look they want at the price the customer needs. It also means the chair can look radically different depending on the options chosen — from a Tom Ford-esque sculptural beauty to a casual surf shop chair. SILQ offers an expansive variety of material combinations, including digital printing options, to allow interior designers to create virtually limitless bespoke versions for their clients.
Ludwig says he is more energized and excited about SILQ than any other product in his career. “I think of this as an engineering tour de force,” he says. “It is unfettered because of this absolutely clear vision of simplicity. There are no springs and pulleys.”
The chair was unveiled yesterday in New York, and Ludwig says a customer site for SILQ will be in place in late spring with a European launch soon after. SILQ was designed as a worldwide product for Steelcase.
“Creating something truly new is not easy,” Ludwig says. “I think we can go head-to-head with anyone in our industry with our seating.”
