Steelcase Karman office chair has “reactive” frame designed to move with the body

Promotion: global furniture company Steelcase has created an office chair with an ergonomic and ultra-lightweight frame designed to react to the body’s movements and encourage healthy posture.

The Steelcase Karman office chair was created to eliminate painful pressure points commonly associated with other, less flexible, mesh chairs.

The company integrated its Liveback technology into the chair – a geometric design that “allows the backrest to flex and contour” to the user’s form – as well as weight-activated mechanisms designed to shift with the body.

“Comfort is built into every aspect of Karman – it’s reactive to each body type and posture and adapts to all the different ways in which we might sit,” said Steelcase design director Mark Spoelhof.

“You’re not aware of the chair, but it moves with you continually.”

Other ergonomic features include an armrest that pivots up and down and a comfort dial that allows users to adjust the level of resistance as they recline.

Featuring integrated cushioning, the chair’s suspension seat is covered with a patented mesh textile called Intermix, which also covers the back of the seat.

Made out of a transparent woven material that contains yarn and filaments, Intermix was created to mitigate the sagging that can occur with traditional mesh seat textiles.

“While air circulation, lightness and liveliness are top attributes of a mesh chair, the Steelcase seating team was concerned about the performance as mesh seats can start to sink, making ergonomics even worse,” said the team.

According to Steelcase, Intermix achieves a “perfect tension”, which allows the user’s weight to be evenly distributed for a comfortable seat.

The textile comes in a variety of colourways, from grey and black to steely green, iridescent purple and a range of metallic hues.

Weighing just 13 kilograms, the Steelcase Karman was designed to include “the least number of components necessary”, which the company says contributes to the chair’s overall sustainability.

“Many of Karman’s parts are doing double or triple duty allowing it to function with about one-half less material than traditional task chairs so that it is as organically responsive to the human body as possible,” said Spoelhof.

Steelcase’s previous designs include a furniture line based on archival designs by Frank Lloyd Wright and an office chair that references the form of an armchair.

The photography is courtesy of Steelcase.

Partnership content

This article was written by Dezeen for Steelcase as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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