From 1958, Ettore Sottass worked as a design consultant for the office equipment manufacturer Olivetti, initially just designing typewriters and mainframe computers. As a result of this work, he began to perceive these products as part of a larger, more complex system and started regarding knowledge of the user’s daily work processes as an essential aspect of typewriter design, as he explained in a lecture given in 1968 ('How to Survive with a Company, Perhaps?'). Between 1970 and 1972 Sottsass designed an adaptable office furniture series for Olivetti called Synthesis 45, which included the typewriter chair Z9/r.. Seat height can be adjusted by means of a threaded shaft concealed behind a plastic sheath, while the backrest can be varied not just in height but also – thanks to two hinges – in the angle of the tilt. The frame and base of the chair are made of cast aluminium, while the upholstered seat and backrest have synthetic coverings. Sottsass wanted his office furniture to be perfectly adapted to a working environment increasingly dominated by machinery, which was already having an impact on office workers’ posture by then.
Text: Julia Selzer
