Savo teamed up with design experts from Form Us With Love and Superlab to discuss the future of the office chair during Stockholm Design Week 2025. Moderated by design journalist Amy Frearson, the conversation revealed how changing rituals and attitudes are making our task chairs work harder than ever before.
Held at the Savo showroom in Stockholm, the panel was made up of Craig Howarth, CEO of Savo; John Löfgren, co-founder of design studio Form Us With Love; and Niklas Madsen, founder of research and design laboratory Superlab.
Speakers discussed how, with the rise of hybrid working practices, office chairs are increasingly being shared by several users across a range of different tasks.
This is fuelling demand for chairs that offer greater flexibility and multifunctionality, but which are simpler and more intuitive to operate.
“When you come into the office, it could be that four or five other people have been sitting at the same workstation on the same chair already that week,” Howarth told the audience.
“So the chair has to be intuitive and easy to adjust,” he said. “There is only one adjustment you should have to think about and that’s the height. It should do everything else for you.”
The panellists agreed that this cultural shift has been ongoing since the turn of the century, particularly with the uptake of co-working. But it has accelerated significantly in the years since the Covid-19 pandemic, which led many people to adopt new working rituals.
With more people now dividing their working hours between the office and home, it has become more common for chairs and desks to be shared by multiple users.
“In the late 90s, everyone had a chair that was set up for them ergonomically,” said Madsen.
“You had ergonomic companies coming out to big corporations to help everyone adjust their chairs. But that doesn’t happen anymore,” he continued.
“We now have a situation where we need chairs for multiple users and multiple tasks. It has created a whole new pitch for what the office chair actually is.”
Löfgren explained how this thinking informed the design of the Savo Spine, the modular task chair that Form Us With Love designed for the brand.
“We were well aware that this product would be used by a lot of different people,” Löfgren said.
“We had the ambition to do something with a low-tech aura to it,” Löfgren explained. “You don’t need an instruction manual to cater for different adjustments.”
From left to right: John Löfgren (Form Us With Love), Amy Frearson
As with other Savo chairs, the Spine is designed to reflect the latest research in ergonomics. Löfgren said the aim was to offer a balance between comfort and active sitting.
“There are definitely more comfortable chairs!” he quipped. “This is just the right amount of comfort – that’s how we see it. You maybe do something for 50 minutes then get up and make a coffee or use the restroom.”
Howarth said that one of the most important factors in ergonomics is human behaviour. A key tip for sitting better, he explained, is to not stay in the same position too long.
“The best position is your next position,” he told the audience, reciting a quote from the late Norwegian industrial designer, Peter Opsvik.
From left to right: Niklas Madsen (Superlab), Craig Howarth (Savo), John Löfgren (Form Us With Love), Amy Frearson
Madsen said that he sits on a Savo Joi stool while working because it finds it encourages him to move between seated and standing positions.
The Superlab founder believes that young people have a similar mentality when it comes to working rituals, unlike the generation before them.
“There’s an older generation that defines work within a specific place, while the younger generation defines work mentally, that it can happen anywhere,” Madsen said.
He believes the future of workplace seating is task-based rather than place-based. “As our tasks change, so will our task chairs,” he suggested.
Sustainability will continue to shape the evolution of the office chair, panellists said. A key driver of change will be the arrival of digital product passports, which will be a requirement for all new furniture sold in EU countries from 2027 onwards.
By scanning a QR code, customers will be able to access detailed information about what a product is made from and where those components were sourced.
Howarth said this new layer of transparency will have a huge impact on product development. “I think it will change the way that products are designed,” he said.
Savo is already planning for this, with the new Savo Soul Air set to become the brand’s first product with a digital passport. “It will be interesting to see the development,” Howarth said.
Aesthetics are equally important, according to the panel. A task chair needs to look good in other environments besides the office, for optimal flexibility.
“For our design process, it has been important to understand which chairs can be designed and produced to work in multiple environments,” said Howarth.
“I would like to have a chair that I can place anywhere, in my house, in an office or in a co-working space,” added Madsen.
“I think this is something that we’ll see much more of in the future – that the chair will have more of a home feeling to it, but it will still be super ergonomic.”
The panel discussion took place on 6 February in the temporary Savo showroom in Stockholm, which hosted the exhibition ‘Studies in Seating‘ for Stockholm Design Week 2025. The exhibition marked the pre-launch of the Savo Soul Air, the latest addition to the brand’s collection.