Ok, i’ll bite. If modularity is the key, how about stacking? You know, so that you can outfit a room with the chairs you need in different situations and then take away the chairs you don’t? Maybe one day it is a 30 seat lecture room, the next it is a 10 seat meeting room? To me, that would be good modular use.
Like this 40/4 chair. (so called as you can stack 40 chairs 4 feet high). Also you can lock them together in rows.
R
That’s a great solution, R. Honestly, I would prefer one like that to the holistic, more complicated and expensive IDEO version any day. =)
only thing is they are not that comfy. we had them at school and for an 8 hour crit, your a$$ was asleep by the end. 
R
Honestly firt thing i otught was that it’s wicked on the other hand I have doubts. I can see it being used in Universities, where apparently more mature students are, but in school, no way, races and craziness. But for older people it seems kinda small.
I just saw this product at neocon and was very impressed by it. An improvement without a doubt in my mind. It rolled very nicely on its (upgradeable or replaceable) casters and felt very durable. The seat provided a nice flex and was fairly generous in proportion. The double arm reticulation of the tablet arm/desktop was a nice touch and will also help the “bigger” population feel comfortable in the product. Wish they had these in my school daze.
I agree with cg. I’d like to see a whole classroom system designed around this.
And I don’t work for Steelcase.
Well, I’m sure many designers are skilled armchair virtual critics (myself included). I’m sure we might be more impressed like the guy above if we saw it in person.
To true, I used to call it “visual product testing”… it is good to note your first impression from 2d and then re-analys in 3d to see how far off you were… I’m guessing the size comments would go away in person. One thing I wonder about is the under the seat storage, it seems a bit hemmed in and might be fussy with a big backpack… but it might just look that way, we are very accustomed to seeing just bent metal, so it may only be a perception issue.
R, I was never a fan of the 40/4 chair. It’s best visual is when it is stacked. Unstacked it is not very comfortable nor very pretty.
I knew I’d seen this chair before:
I spent a few minutes looking for an example of the elementary school desks I grew up with (1956-60? 
). I don’t know how old they were when we had them, but I’d guess at least twenty years old? … nice ergonomics, huh?
The big surprise was that it was designed by Norman Bel Geddes. Now that I really take a look at it, I can see the influence…
edit - If you see one of these at a yard sale, you may want to pick it up… they seem to have appreciated somewhat; $675
Whoa! I had one of those in my room for years when I was a kid. I wonder what my parents did with it? Probably tossed it. Bummer, that’d be a cool piece to have.
Bummer, that’d be a cool piece to have.
see edit… 
Cripes.
LMO, I have that desk in my basement, apparently my fiance had it when she was little and now we have it. It’s bright red and in almost perfect shape.
I’m not buying into the 6 opportunities to break argument, what about power windows? And the if it ain’t broke don’t fix it? BALONEY, I worked for a custom cabinetry/restaurant dining room fixture company, and researched classroom furniture to see if the company could get into the school through the classrooms and then get to do the cafeterias. Classroom furniture is definitely broken. It hasn’t changed in 50 years, but everything else has. Teaching styles, architectural styles, technology, everything except the furniture, ridiculous.
The new all plastic shopping carts at target are cheaper, lighter and more durable than their metal counterpoints. And they look quite a bit better. I saw the guy who owns the company that manufacture them talk at a conference, he said they hit one with a truck at speed and the result was much better than a metal cart.
IDEO probably observed what students already do with luggage, slide them under the chairs, to get their inspiration for the under seat space. Hooking them on the back of the chair increases the profile while placing them underneath does not.
What would a classroom look like with 20-30 extension cords stretched across the floor? I wonder if that would create problems? I get pissed about leaving the vacuum plugged in in the living room.
Even if you did have college students using laptops in a classroom environment, I don’t see them using power chords. The class is what an hour? A laptop battery nowadays goes beyond that. Many students don’t want to be carrying their laptop charger with them in the first place. I don’t see many females wanting to carry them either.
If it is for younger, elementary students one would argue that kids are using laptops. Unfortunately teachers are realizing that using laptops in the classroom does not bring better results. Kids are more and more just going online with the computer and finding the answers than discovering the answers for themselves by going online and finding the answer to the math problem. Because of this schools are starting to get rid of the laptops for students.
Laptops also keep students to themselves and reduce coorporation and working together, which this this product was suppose to promote. Instant electronic communication tends to do this. This is why you see kids texting to each other, 5 inches away when they could just talk to one another…Now, they are still communicating but I don’t think that is a type of communication and environment schools want to promote. When I went to Neocon it was said to help revolve around teachers trying to put kids in groups to work together, so the wheels helped students easily move. This might also help reduce scratching of the floors.
Electronics are great, but not the best for the classroom environment for now.