(1996)
VoX is a range of chairs to be used by the general public for periods of time ranging from 15 minutes to 2-3 hours, in schools, waiting areas, auditoria, offices, and factories. This typology of chair must stack vertically for storage and gang safely in rows. Moreover, to sharpen its competitive edge, the seat of this type of chair must be able to tilt up vertically. This allows increasing the number of rows by reducing the distance between rows, while facilitating the passage of people entering or leaving the rows. Furthermore, this type of chair also needs to be equipped with a writing tablet, for either left or right-handed users. This writing tablet must tilt up to allow the user to get up or sit down, while at the same time, it must also be able to collapse automatically out of the way in case of a panic. Contract seating is the most exacting type of chair to design. There are very rigorous structural norms to meet, ergonomic requirements to satisfy, and a most competitive price ceiling to respect. Moreover, it must be light weight for ease of stacking vertically or ganging. It must also be light weight to reduce cost. At the same time, this seating must be extremely strong to pass the rigorous DIN, BIFMA, and ANSI norms regulating its design. All these requirements must be synthesized in the design of a chair that seeks to be as essential as one of Nature’s organisms. That is to say, it must be also elegant and graceful. The Design Solution is based on a simple but very strong visual and functional concept: the JOINT. At that joint come together the chair’s legs, the support for the backrest, the support for the armrest and writing tablet, the ganging connectors, the stacking bumpers, and the beam supporting the seat. That joint is also the key point onto which elements can be added later, after the chair has been bought, such as arms and writing tablets. The user must be able to acquire and install these accessories after having purchased the chair. The joint also caps the hidden weldings holding the crossing legs inside the central beam. The structure is made of steel tubes, elliptical in section, conified and ribbed by stamping to increase its strength and reduce the need for material to a minimum. The flexing backrest is made in Delrin™ plastic. The tilt-up seat is produced in a copolymer of polypropylene.
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