Journey into cultural history
The history of sitting started when hunter-gatherers settled down. Over the millennia, sitting has grown into a driving force that has been instrumental to our cultural-historical development: once the privilege of gods and their deputies, vast numbers of people sitting on correspondingly differentiated types of seating became the visual symbol of the emancipation of the middle classes. With the introduction of compulsory schooling, westerners finally mutated from "Homo erectus" to "Homo sapiens sedens", to a wise, seated person, who was accompanied by explosive, mental development - and who is at the same time characterized by lack of physical mobility.

Fascination of chair design
Against this background, it is no wonder that the development of chairs is one of the greatest cultural and ergonomic challenges. It has always been important to try to combine status and power on the one hand, with functionality and facilitating work on the other hand. There is therefore hardly any designer or great architect who has not attempted to create his very own chair.

Design and ergonomics: sitting in "Chairmany"
The thoughts and ideas of the Werkbund and Bauhaus have also been one of the decisive factors influencing the design and development of chairs by the manufacturer of office furniture, Wilkhahn, from Bad Münder. The collaboration with Deutsche Werkstätten and the Ulmer Hochschule für Gestaltung (Academy of Design, Ulm), laid the foundation for a design approach which combined form and function as equal partners.

The "line of ancestors" of designers of this "typical German design" of the highest degree ranges from the 1950s to the present day: Herbert Hirche, Georg Leowald, Roland Rainer, Walter Pabst, Friso Kramer, Nick Roehricht, Herbert Ohl, Klaus Franck, Werner Sauer, Fritz Frenkler, Andreas Störiko or Michael Englisch.

They stand for a modern design approach, which strives to achieve a synthesis of enduring form, innovative, people-oriented function, sustainable quality and responsibility in the broadest sense.

Behind the scenes:
wiege Design Studio stages design process and milestones of sitting
The window display in the busy Theaterstrasse in Hanover encourages passers-by and congress visitors to discover the exhibition "Sitting in Chairmany". In an endless projection they can see as larger-than-life images and in countless variations those very parts of the body that are primarily involved in sitting: buttocks and back - placed on the most different types of sitting devices in the form of snapshots from daily sitting experience in Germany.

Buttocks and backs in all shapes, sizes and postures encourage people to visit "Sitting in Chairmany".

Behind this, wiege has designed a purist installation to elucidate the design process taking the Wilkhahn office chair Solis as an example. Four table displays show intermediate stages from initial drafts to the finished product. The focus of this abstract presentation, which only shows a projected image of the finished chair, is on the mental process and the aesthetic quality of design details.

Solis, the new office chair from Wilkhahn: detail qualities that are defined in the design process.

Seat platform and backrest with hinge joint: "dynamic" sitting began in the early 1970s with the 232 range by Wilhelm Ritz.

The second, concrete part of the exhibition "Sitting in Chairmany" is taking place in the courtyard building. Here wiege shows key milestones from six centuries of chair design and development based on original exhibits. They have each set new standards for the world of sitting in the exciting field of tension between concentration and relaxation, statics and movement, materials and production processes, creativity and feasibility. The Solis office chair is used to demonstrate design principles that combine complex functions with a conceivably simple language of form and intuitive operation. And it goes without saying that the visitor will find countless different types of seating to allow hands-on experience of ergonomics.

An unrivalled standard of "dynamic" sitting until today: the FS-Line by Klaus Franck and Werner Sauer (1980).

Modus marked a new standard of sitting ergonomics with flexible, covered backrests (Franck, Sauer, 1994).

wiege proves with Solis, the new swivel chair it has designed for Wilkhahn, that ergonomics is largely a question of aesthetics (2003).

w3design puts visitors' buttocks on the website: www.sitting-in-chairmany.de
The young Hanover internet agency w3design has created a virtual counterpart to the real "sitting exhibition". For this purpose, they have created their own, interactive website. Whoever wants to participate can become part of the exhibition: sitting on a marked area, the visitor's buttocks and back will be photographed and included in the online picture gallery and/or sent by email to family or friends.

The wiege Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH evolved out of the Wilkhahn design division in 1985. Today, wiege is an independent design studio that works for international clients in the field of product design, interface design, planning exhibition stands and interior design. The spectrum of services extends to broad consultation in issues of corporate design with a view to providing clients with security and clarity in all areas of design and to developing holistically coordinated solutions. www.wiege.com

w3design was founded in 1996 and carries out internet projects in the field of interface design, web development and online marketing.
The results of the "shortest link between design and technology" are web-based corporate communication, content management, software ergonomics and interfaces on different technical platforms. www.w3design.de

Lectures on the theme of design and ergonomics in the exhibition (all lectures in German only):

10 September at 6pm
Michael Englisch, designer, managing director of wiege: "Ästhetik der Ergonomie - Ergonomie der Ästhetik? " (Aesthetics of Ergonomics - Ergonomics of Aesthetics)

12 September at 6pm
Prof. Werner Sauer, designer anddean of the Faculty of Design at the Fachhochschule Hildesheim:"Erstens Form - Erstens Funktion" (First Form - First Function)

Please register for lectures at:
www.sitting-in-chairmany.de 
Pro Office
Theaterstraße 4 - 5
30159 Hanover
Germany
Tel. + 49 511 950798-91
Fax  +49 511 950798-90

For further information, please contact:

Wilkhahn
Wilkening + Hahne GmbH+Co
Press + Public Relations
Fritz-Hahne-Straße 8
31848 Bad Münder
Germany
Phone: ++49 (5042) 999 -169
Fax: ++49 (5042) 999-450
burkhard.remmers@wilkhahn.de