Height-adjustable tables let a meeting move from sitting to standing, but the chairs usually get left behind. That’s a rather awkward limitation for furniture meant to support the people around it. Swiss company Studiotools’ HighLow Chair gives its backrest another job, tipping the padded cylinder forward to become a leaning support when everyone gets up, without requiring a second piece of seating.
At first, it looks more playful than mechanical. A thick circular seat and bolster-like backrest sit on a slender black tubular-steel frame, with small casters beneath its four legs. There aren’t any armrests boxing you in, and the open sides leave room to sit sideways or astride. The rounded forms give it a character closer to a colorful stool than a conventional conference chair.
Designer: Moritz Willm (Studiotools)
The cylinder is doing more work than its simple shape suggests, of course. Inside is a plywood core with two differently angled supporting faces, surrounded by softer foam for the backrest and firmer foam for leaning. Tipping it forward presents a different surface to your body, rather than asking the same cushion to handle two quite different jobs in exactly the same way.
Making that movement straightforward requires less conspicuous engineering. Studiotools developed the joint in-house, milling it from tool steel and damping the mechanism to reduce rattling. The backrest moves directly, with no separate lever to release before changing its position. When a discussion turns into a standing workshop, the chair can stay nearby instead of becoming something to push out of the way.
The seat uses webbing beneath its upholstery to provide some spring rather than relying on foam alone. Four foam densities are used across the chair, including those two inside the cylinder. Studiotools intends this arrangement to support different postures during longer sessions, though it doesn’t establish all-day comfort. Having several ways to sit isn’t the same as finding one that suits you.
The upholstery makes the geometry feel a little less clinical. Camira’s Yoredale bouclé comes in 33 colors, from quieter neutrals to the stronger yellow, blue, and red tones that give the chair a cheerful presence. It’s a wool-rich blend with black yarn worked through the weave, picking up the frame’s color without making every surface look like it came from the same material.
Mobility matters for a chair meant to follow a changing meeting. Its casters have brakes, so rolling closer to a colleague doesn’t have to mean leaving the support free to move when you lean against it. Depending on the version, two to four chairs can stack. Clearing space for a group activity needn’t require scattering chairs along every available bit of wall.
That flexibility does ask something of the room around it, however. Arrange everyone in fixed rows for another hour of slides, and a movable backrest won’t change much. It’s better suited to meetings where standing up or turning toward a colleague doesn’t feel like interrupting the proceedings.
