HBL Book of the Week: A Taxonomy of Office Chairs by Jonathan Olivares

Wednesday 27 April 2011

A Taxonomy of Office Chairs by Jonathan Olivares


American industrial designer Jonathan Olivares takes a zoological approach to design in this categorised guide to office chairs, published by Phaidon in February this year. Recently reviewed by Alice Rawsthorn for the New York Times (read her verdict here), A Taxonomy of Office Chairs caught the attention of the WGSN-homebuildlife team at Viennese museum MAK's design shop by virtue of being the only design book on the shelf to offer something completely different.

HBL loves: the innovative approach to design analysis. Olivares details hundreds of office chairs, categorising each component (head rest, angle of tilt etc) and chronologically tracking the evolution of the office chair from the 1840s to the present day.