Items related to The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body, and Design
Synopsis
Describes how the development of chairs has had more to do with status than comfort or practicality, and argues for the use of a wider variety of postures and more body-conscious seating
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About the Author
Galen Cranz, Ph.D. is professor of architecture at the University of California at Berkeley.
Reviews
The oldest surviving chair comes from the tomb of King Tut. "Roman chairs were rare, decorative items of luxury." Chairs themselves represent the West?or the "barbarians"?to cultures that have done without them. Office seating uses shape, fabric and size to make clear which chair belongs to the boss. And current home seating?even the "male" La-Z-Boy?increasingly tries to accommodate women's bodies and tastes. So reports Cranz (The Politics of Park Design), a professor of architecture at the U.C.-Berkeley, in this concise, multidisciplinary gem. Cranz begins by surveying the chair's historical kinds, styles and meanings; then addresses issues of back support, body shape and ergonomics; and ends up in a vigorous, detailed argument against the standard right-angled chair and "chair-desk complex," in favor of "body-conscious design" in an attractively described Ideal Workplace. "Sitting is hard work," Cranz's research reveals; seatmakers should, she says, abandon the common principle of lower-back support; the Alexander Technique of somatic therapy holds lessons for furniture designers; "human beings are not designed to hold any single posture for long periods"; garden-variety office furniture is bad for you; and the famous chairs of Modernism are, in general, even worse. Cranz's clear book?half survey, half polemic?may successively delight, instruct and alarm professors in their endowed chairs, designers at their slanted tables, drivers in drivers' seats, parents with carseats and, of course, the armchair intellectual. 85 photographs and illustrations.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Berkeley architecture professor Cranz takes a radical departure from her first book, The Politics of Park Design, in offering up a soundly intellectual perspective on the chair--its history, styles, uses, and evolution. Far from being an object of desire, the four-legged wonder as commonly designed and perceived wreaks havoc on our bodies, making the phrase "comfortable chair" a thoroughly modern oxymoron. In fact, Cranz examines in depth most of our sitting apparatuses--from Breuer's Cresca chair to Norway's Balans--and finds most wanting. Her solution? A five-point checklist, a new philosophical perspective (somatics, the science of body-mind relationships), and a range of novel ways to align and support torsos properly. Provocative yet thoughtful, with more than a kernel of truth. Barbara Jacobs
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The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body, and Design
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The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body, and Design
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The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body, and Design
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The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body, and Design
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The Chair : Rethinking Culture, Body and Design
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Norton & Company, Incorporated, W. W., 1998
ISBN 10: 0393046559
ISBN 13: 9780393046557
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The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body, and Design
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W W Norton & Co Inc, 1998
ISBN 10: 0393046559
ISBN 13: 9780393046557
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Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. Light soiling to white jacket being only noted fault. Stated "First Edition.". Seller Inventory # 2036
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THE CHAIR: RETHINKING CULTURE, BODY AND DESIGN
Seller: Columbia Books, ABAA/ILAB, MWABA, Columbia, MO, U.S.A.
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Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. W.W. Norton, 1998. 2nd printing. 288pp., index,black and white illustrations. 8vo. Fine hardcover, fine d/j. Seller Inventory # 113021
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The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body, and Design
Seller: Tristan Navarro Rare Books & Manuscripts, Oakland, CA, U.S.A.
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Volume hinge cracked after half-title page, some page edges minor soiling. Volume Near Fine Jacket light wear and soiling, name penciled to front flap. Jacket Very Good+ Publisher's duo-tone blue and tan boards, spine lettered in silver, dust jacket. Seller Inventory # 69
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The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body, and Design **SIGNED**
Published by
W W Norton & Co Inc, New York, 1998
ISBN 10: 0393046559
ISBN 13: 9780393046557
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Seller: Theoria Books, Andover, MA, U.S.A.
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Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. 288pp. '1' in number line. 85 Illustrations, predominantly black and white photo-illustations. Notes, pp. 223-252; Bibliography, pp. 253-276; Index, pp. 277-288. White boards with sky blue backstrip and brilliant gilt lettering on spine; author initials blind-stamped on front cover upper center. Very faint small tan oval stain to left center fore-edge, with no bleeding onto pages, but small tan finger tip-like smudges to margins of pp. 26 and 36 (describes much worse than it is), else As New. White dustwrapper not price-clipped ($27.50) with illustration of reddish chair on front cover, title lettering in blue across upper front cover, author name lettering in gold across bottom front cover. 1/4" oval light tan ring at foot of spine on Publisher's bird logo, slight, nearly invisible smearing of the tan ring substance above the oval (tan coloring essentially transparent in that area): again, describes much worse than it is, dw looks virtually as new but for the small oval. Tight binding, sharp corners, NO rubbing wear, NO previous owner names. Text free of markings. Book looks unread, despite the small stains, probably coming from a rare opening of book for casual glance, with hands not quite clean. Flatsigned by author on title page beneath her printed name. Flatsigned by Author. Seller Inventory # 000969