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Designers

Don Chadwick Bill Stumpf and Don Chadwick

Product Group

Environment

93% recyclable
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LEED Credit Summaries

Awards

  • Time magazine "Best of the Decade" (1980-90) design citation for the Equa chair
    1991

Equa 2 Chairs

  • Equa 2 Chairs
  • Equa 2 Chairs
  • Equa 2 Chairs
  • Equa 2 Chairs

What's In It For You

  • Product Story

    Time magazine called it the Design of the Decade-a truly egalitarian chair designed to provide equal ergonomics for everyone. Equa 2 allows everyone in the office-regardless of status, work activities, or body type-to experience good ergonomic support and comfort.

  • Equa Means Equal

    The person who answers phones and enters data all day needs-and deserves-the same level of support as the manager of the department. Equa provides high-performance seating in three sizes, to accommodate general office work, computer work, and meetings. All with a refined, sophisticated design that instantly upgrades any office setting.

  • Human-centered Design

    The Equa 2 provides quick response to your movements with seat and back flexing separately and a tilt mechanism that maintains natural body motion. Adjustments that fine-tune the fit are simple and easy to use. The adjustable lumbar kit, for added back support, is available on the work and side chair and stool. An opening in the shell allows air to circulate between you and the chair.

  • No Pressure

    No pressure beneath your thighs, thanks to the waterfall front edge. No pressure on your arms, thanks to wide, soft armrests that are sloped and height-adjustable. And no pressure when you lean back either; your feet stay on the floor and the front of the seat doesn't rise.

  • Pleasing Aesthetic

    The curvy contours and rounded edges of the Equa 2 chair add up to a sleek profile that blends nicely into any environment. And the warm finish on the aluminum base and frame doesn't show scuffs or scrapes.

  • Earth-friendly

    Made of 36% recycled materials, each Equa 2 chair is 93% recyclable.

Design Story

  • In developing the original Equa chair, introduced in 1984, designers Bill Stumpf and Don Chadwick analyzed plenty of available seating options. "We found that office seating was becoming more specialized in terms of how people sit in chairs and the types of tasks they perform," Don said. "We wanted the opposite; we believe that a chair has to allow a person to move around, perform a variety of tasks, and sit in a variety of positions throughout the day."

    The designers also recognized an increasing interest in mechanical and adjustable chairs. "We think a chair has to respond and interact with the person sitting in it, and do that automatically, without requiring the person to manipulate a host of buttons and knobs," Don added.

  • Several of the designers' more personal ideas and values went into the original Equa design, and they are preserved in the Equa 2 chair.

    Both designers believed that everyone-regardless of size, shape, or status-deserves a good, ergonomically supportive chair. They preferred simple designs both in structure and operation. They believed that the structure of a chair should be logical, and the materials appropriate. Finally, both enjoyed what they called "designing by analogies." Looking at familiar designs or things they appreciate-like skis, toys, jukeboxes, bicycles, and a wide variety of other objects-and determining those qualities that make them special. Then incorporating those qualities in their designs.

  • Key to the chair's "equitable" design is its one-piece shell. It began its evolution in 1979, when the first iteration showed that by using an H-shaped cut-out, the seat and back could act independently. Several shells were laid up by hand to develop a comfortable shell form. Then the right materials and manufacturing process had to be found. A fiberglass-reinforced polyester resin shaped into a one-piece seat and back using thermoplastic molding produced a strong, flexible, cost-effective, and visually pleasing shell.

    An evolution of the original Equa, the Equa 2 chair is designed to accommodate the current nature of work and the work force. Using anthropometric data, three identically proportioned chair sizes were developed to fit the broader ranges of sizes and shapes that characterize today's more diverse working population. Equa's features meet codes and standards for task-intensive computer work.

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