Courtesy: Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein

New Order is part of a limited edition of an experimental and unique seating object that is part of the Vitra Edition 2007 project, but in the future it will also lead to an industrially produced chair. The name addresses a key notion in the philosophy of Seymour, his main strategy being the return to the zero degree of design, the primeval soup and beginning of everything, from where a new alphabet and language can be created that allows him to reconsider materials and shapes, the way the industry is affecting the value of things, and how all this fits in a social structure. New Order is a chair for the masses with the basic ergonomic movement of a high-class office chair. “It is the most efficient chair ever produced, and by default the chair that has succeeded,” says Seymour. 
“It represents the pinnacle of an evolution. In some way it is totally devoid of design, but it also stands for and pre-empts a Zero Degree. It is the last of the old static chairs. The new dynamic chair that will push you back and forward was simply created by cutting the armrests of this plastic chair, and linking them with a bicycle elastic around the back, giving it the basic movement of an office chair.”

By Max Borka