Lean stools
These tall stools are not necessarily designed for sitting, but for leaning on, while the body’s position remains more or less upright. The main concern here is ergonomy: the sitter does not assume a static position, but has to adjust his or her balance, while most of the body’s weight is supported by the stool itself. The designs themselves tend to be quite functional, and formally understated. See Burkhard Vogtherr’s ‘SWAY’ for Girsberger or Hans Roerich’s ‘Stitz 2 Model 201/2’ for Wilkhahn, both of which are height-adjustable and have a round seat.
Per Øie’s ‘Move™’, manufactured by Variér Furniture, makes the seat itself ergonomic as well, using instead an upholstered bicycle seat-shape. The ‘5° stool’, designed by Tomás Asonso for Moormann, is a wooden lean stool, with three legs and a narrow seat that resembles a trestle, it also comes in a high and a low variety. And finally, Claudia Santiago Areal’s ‘LEO stool’, produced by LIVALIKE, is a sculptural, cantilevered lean stool, which, when rotated and repositioned, can serve as a lower stool or an occasional side table.
