PROGRESSIVE THINKERS

Hans-Christian Mengshoel - Balance is the key word

[Keine Beschreibung eingegeben]For a long time Hans-Christian Mengshoel  had been looking for the right word – finally, roughly 30 ago, he came up with the term „balance“. To this day,  Hans-Christian Mengshoel is convinced: „The best posture stems from the body`s being in balance!“ The Norwegian Mengshoel whose company not surprisingly is called Balans is one of the progressive thinkers when it comes to saddle seats. Children “riding” their chairs and people crouching in front of low coffee tables inspired him to look at sitting with new eyes.
"There must be a reason why people improvise. So I set out to offer them the solutions they required. ",  Mengshoel tells us. The obtuse angle between hip and thighs is the right angle allowing people to find their balance; this is known from horse riding and yoga. " The aspect that has become more and more important over the years is freedom of breathing", says Mengshoel. When you sit in balance you can breathe more freely, providing your body with more oxygen; a higher energy level and better concentration are the results.

Balans® today has become a registered logo, adorning products by different manufacturers. Yet, 99 per cent of the furniture used for sitting still are, according to Mengshoel, constructed to bring people off balance. Is this a reason to be frustrated after 30 years of involvement? By no means:" This is not about black and white. What I could advise people, though, is to try out  a different way of sitting  - and let yourself be convinced."

A.C. Mandal – Against all traditions

[Keine Beschreibung eingegeben]When A.C. Mandal, consultant at the surgical clinic in Denmark, discovered at the beginning of the 70s that he could work much better at his desk if he bobbed forth on the front legs of his chair, his chair made it precisely one more month – and then collapsed. So Mandal constructed a substitute chair for himself, and after discovering that his secretary enthusiastically used this chair whenever her boss was not around, he decided: „I am going to follow this line of work.”
“Working against all the “good” old traditions and despite a lot of scepticism voiced from the ergonomics experts Mandal was convinced of the idea of the saddle seat right from the start. “The obtuse 135 degree angle between the back and the thighs is ideal, but what counts even more is the balance provided by the chair – and in this respect the saddle seat is the best solution you can come up with ", says Mandal.

Even today, as an old pensioner, the Dane, born in 1927, fights for a body-compatible way of sitting: "It would be so very important if we could get the schools to use body-compatible furniture and nothing but - only then would we be able to really revolutionize the way people sit!"
His book  "The seated man" has been translated into a number of languages over the years;  it has become a standard in the field of  ergonomics of sitting.