Freedom Headrest Designed by Niels Diffrient

Described by The New York Times as "the gold standard in office seating," the Freedom chair redefines the concept of traditional task chairs. Designer Niels Diffrient aimed to design an office chair that automatically adapts to the user, allowing them to move freely from posture to posture. Diffrient’s unique approach removed complexities found in other chairs, such as cumbersome recline levers and back tension dials for a truly ergonomic task chair. As a result, he developed a recline mechanism that perfectly adjusts to the user, definitively reinventing modern task seating to be truly simple, functional and beautiful.

With innovative recline that provides constant support and a pivoting backrest that automatically adjusts to the needs of the spine, the Freedom chair is exceptionally comfortable and promotes movement throughout the day. Its refined and sculpted cushions were designed to mimic the body’s natural contours and decrease pressure point loads for premium comfort. Like all Humanscale chairs, the Freedom chair was designed to look and function like new after years of consistent use.

Features

Articulating Headrest

The Freedom chair features a dynamic, articulating headrest to support the head and neck as users recline. It moves with the sitter, so they can change postures without making manual adjustments and stay comfortable in any position.

Self Adjusting Recline

Freedom eliminates the need for traditional recline mechanisms, which can be bulky and weigh up to 15 pounds. Instead, Freedom uses the sitter’s body weight and the laws of physics to perfectly and automatically adjust recline support for each individual.

Synchronous Armrests

Freedom's body-friendly armrests move up and down together, staying with the user during recline for continuous comfort and support. Unlike other chair designs, Freedom's armrests are attached to the back of the chair to ensure synchronous use.

Design Story

With the airplane you learn a lot about how to deal with the air, for a chair you have to learn a lot about how to deal with the body, and what the body needs, wants, indicates it needs. And that's the way, ultimately after some ups and downs, I ended up designing [Freedom].”
Niels Diffrient, Designer
Inspired to create a revolutionary office chair that adjusted automatically to whoever sat in it, Niels Diffrient designed the Freedom chair. Diffrient had always had a passion for aviation, growing up drawing and building model planes. In his 2002 TED talk, in which he shared the processes behind the design of Freedom, he explained how the disciplines connected.

Tech Specs

Chair Width: 27.25"
Base Width: 25"
Height: 20"
Weight: 38 lbs with arms / 34 lbs without arms

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