It is obvious from the number of chairs produced as sculpture or objects of art that throughout its history the chair has served a more complex role than aesthetics and function alone. This is something we often don't hear discussed in the context of chair design. These issues are important in helping us to understand the obligatory, ubiquitous presence of chairs in our lives today and to consider what we are up against in trying to change attitudes toward seating alternatives - a change advocated in this book. The next section is a criticism of chair design and sitting conventions in our society with a focus on the work environment and public places. The author is critical of ergonomic studies of chair design which fail to consider the whole person in relation to sitting and chair use.
Back pain is second only to the common cold as a reason for work place absenteeism.
Poor posture is considered one of the major causes of back pain. How we sit and for how long has a major effect on our posture. The book also includes a surprising and amusing evaluation of some famous chairs such as the bean bag and butterfly chairs. Surprising for me was the author's approval of the Rietveldt Red and Blue chair because I once made some chairs with flat panel backs and seats and found that the pressure points where your protruding bones, shoulder blades, sit bones, etc., press the flesh against the chair surface caused numbness and discomfort after about ten minutes. But the author contends that no one should sit in any chair for more than ten minutes.