At the center of looks and comfort

Marcus Koepke

Principal/Product Designer, Marcus Curtis Design – Indianapolis, Ind.

Slim is in — from televisions to mobile phones to furniture. Sleek and slender contemporary design is certainly a trend.

For years, a comfortable work chair has been associated with a bulky, overstuffed aesthetic. Sitting is a complicated physical posture, and differences in human physical stature, spine and musculature make it difficult for one chair to support a variety of users.

When I set out with the HON^® Company to design a contemporary style chair, the goal was to develop a better solution. We first looked to improve the seat itself.

Traditional seat designs either utilize a molded seat pan (most often wood) or mesh. The only way to create a soft, comfortable chair designed with a molded seat pan is to add layers of bulky foam and upholstery, which results in a static, nonconforming seat panel. A nonconforming seat panel won’t adjust to an individual’s movements while sitting, nor does it conform to individual body contours. Mesh seats do conform to individual body contours, but do not provide the cushy feel and continuous support of foam.

This knowledge is why the HON team and I started to work on a design that would achieve both exceptional comfort and a slim profile.

We developed the Nucleus^™ Work Chair, utilizing high-tech materials. The seat design is made with a unique suspension material called NRAM. NRAM provides a much softer and responsive seat than the seat pan because it continuously contours to individual sitting postures and movements.

The NRAM material is stretched over a contoured metal frame to replace the traditional molded seat pan, and then over-molded with foam to provide a soft initial feel and reactive, lasting support for virtually all body types. When an individual sits in the chair, the suspension material stretches to distribute weight evenly. This minimizes pressure points and improves circulation, which in turn reduces muscle fatigue and provides long-lasting comfort.

The Nucleus chair back features ilira^®-stretch M4, a mesh fabric with a four-way stretch that moves with the user and automatically supports an individual’s lumbar without manual adjustments.

Innovative material and technology result in a clean, slender profile that provides a customized comfort profile. Nucleus looks and feels like no other chair because it was designed like no other chair.