Sitting kills!

Recent researches reveal that sitting all day long can be just as bad for your health as smoking, significantly increasing the risk of diabetes and heart disease.

This is a particularly concerning conclusion if we think that it reflects the day-to-day from most of the urban population working in offices.

This reality and its long-term consequences, in economy and public health, worried and motivated the Netherlands’ Chief Government Architect, whose function is to protect and promote architectural quality and urban suitability of public buildings, to commission a practical study considering ergonomic alternative possibilities for working environments.

Developed by Dutch architects RAAAF alongside with visual artist Barbara Visser, “Outstanding Landscape of Affordances” is a project that explores how contemporary offices can encourage a more active and healthy lifestyle, offering a landscape of possibilities for alternative working positions.

The result will be a "livable sculpture" scheduled to be held by the artists at Amsterdam in spring 2015. The goal is to inspire companies and designers to develop new working environment solutions, capable of promoting a more active style of life, physically and mentally, for a longer and healthier life.

An animation entitled "sitting kills” shows a rock-like structure that encompasses hundreds of options for working positions, between standing and lying down. The angular form of the sculpture offers its users the chance to find the optimal position to complete their duties throughout the day. 

A clear allusion to the film "Playtime" by Jacques Tati, explicit in a project image, leads us immediately to this director’s critical gaze on modern architecture.

Perhaps this critical view has inspired the authors of this project to develop a new approach, through radical break from orthodox office situations, designed entirely around the concept of "sitting at the desk", enabling to anticipate a future in which standing at work is the new norm.

On the other hand, the viewer’s initial strangeness when faced with this innovative approach can also be reflected in Jaques Tati’s film character, looking at those inhospitable office cubicle arrangements, in 1967.