Wheelchairs in modern furniture design

David Pompa, an Austria-based designer, has created a collection of office furniture called Surreal Minimalism that includes eight chairs created by combining a variety of upholstered seats with different metal bases. Some of the metal bases are lifelike shiny metal human legs and feet, and other bases are wheelchair-like.

The first photo here shows a red seat attached to a metal base that is a minimalistic take on what a manual wheelchair looks like, with two big rear wheels and two small front wheels. It's not clear if the wheels are functional, but I don't think the back wheels would turn and while all the wheels are, of course, round, none of the edges anywhere appear to be rounded to accommodate gripping and pushing with hands.

Created as a project for his graduate studies at Kingston University in London, Pompa says, "Interaction is often reduced to a functional basis; this collection is an approach that objects and humans can interact on an emotional level with the aim of stimulating creativity."

The second photo here shows the same red seat with a metal base that looks like two silver human-shaped calves and feet that rest on short metal strips that look a little like truncated skis. From this angle you can better see the bright red seat which looks a little bit like a Lego with a cushy inner seat carved out of it. The armrests are the same solid unyielding plastic-like material as the rest of the seat's shell, and from this angle you can see it would be impossible to reach around these sharp-edged arms to push oneself with the wheelchair-base. By "sharp-edged" I simply mean the edges of the seat are not rounded off anywhere but are perpendicular corners. The top is blocky and the bottom is human-shaped.

At dezeen, Pompa clarifies in comments that the "objects are not meant to be comfortable, aesthetic, or usable furniture. the objects are symbols to question the stereotypical situation many people face in their office enviroment. there is no intention of putting these objects into an office enviroment and i am still at the beginning of their design process."

This third photo is of an entire room with several pieces of furniture that have regular furniture legs combined with either wheels or human-like legs. The furniture is either yellow and white or pink. A long oval yellow conference table has ten different "legs," one pedestal leg, several large round posts of varying styles and several that are either clearly human-shaped or mimic the organic curves of the human-shaped but lack an actual foot at the bottom. The chair at the table is like a basic dining chair with upholstered seat and back, and wooden arms and front legs. The back legs are replaced with yellow-tired wheels complete with handrims. Against a far wall is a chaise-like yellow upholstered sofa where the two back legs are replaced by slightly scaled-down versions of the yellow-tired wheels. A pink easy chair with ottoman looks quite comfortable. The ottoman has a metal pedestal base with four legs to the pedestal. The chair has half of that metal pedestal and is balanced in the back by pink-tired wheels with handrims. Between these last two pieces is a lamp that has small wheels (about the size of the front wheels on a manual) as part of its base. Obviously these chairs would not roll unless you lifted the half without wheels off the floor, but these are clearly images of a basic manual wheelchair worked into otherwise classic-design furniture.

Do you like what you see and how Pompa uses the wheelchair in the same way he uses human form in these designs? I wasn't sure how I felt about them until I read this analysis at notcot:

why do we always think about functions when we talk about inclusive design? design icons are icons for an exclusive range of our society. why?

I'm not sure if that's a writer at notcot or Pompa further explaining his design, but I like that very much. I think that inclusiveness is still not nearly a big enough part of even design discussions about function if the design of everything around us is an indication of what's being talked up, but hey, I'm all for inclusive design icons too.

That third photo above clarifies for me how furniture design could naturally incorporate the iconic wheelchair image so typically used as a symbol of inability and pity into design without it looking medical or unwelcoming. That's far more interesting to me than the first two chairs or the other variations in the collection that can be seen here.

Browsing Pompa's website, I found this last image of the design for what looks like a fashion show or possibly a nightclub. It's a big room with many tables, seating perhaps a couple hundred though there are no people in the photo. There's a bar seen dimly at the very back and a long runway or stage through the center of the room. Above it is some interesting angular architectural design. There are several stairs at each end of the long runway stage, but angling off from the stage's center are wide ramps that slope into the audience at either side. The ramps are a natural part of this whole angular stage and design above it. A half dozen big globe lights hang over the runway as a contrast to all the crisp corners and angles. Everything is white and stylishly accessible.