Sitting speeds up your death even more than age, weight, or being a smoker, according to recent research!  That’s why sitting has been called “the new smoking.”  As you will see from this overview of chair history and style, chairs have been more influenced by status than the way our bodies work. Ergonomics has attempted to bring the body back to the forefront of chair design, but unfortunately in bits and pieces. Somatic practices, like the Alexander Technique, offer a holistic perspective that treats the body and mind as a system. Galen and her Alexander colleagues will offer you a direct experience of sitting in a healthy way.  Movement and variety in posture, fundamental tenets of Body Conscious Design, demand that we rethink the design of workstations, schools, transportation, homes, and including—yes—our dining tables and chairs. Galen will surprise, enlighten, and amuse you by getting you to think about what Body Conscious Design can do for you.

Galen Cranz is Professor of the Graduate School in Architecture at University California-Berkeley, a Ph.D. sociologist, and a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique. She defined and taught the field of Body Conscious Design for 30 years as well as social-cultural approaches to architecture and urbanism, emphasizing user experience. Her publications include Ethnography for Designers; Environmental Design Research: Bodies, Cities, and the Buildings Inbetween; The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body and Design; The Politics of Park Design: A History of Urban Parks in America. She has designed parks, playgrounds, chairs, a house, and a bathtub. @galencranzconsulting.com

If you are not a member of Berkeley City Club, you need to register with Kristina Seher, <Kseher.tpa@gmail.com>, and bring a check for $37 payable to her.

Designers; Environmental Design Research: Bodies, Cities, and the Buildings Inbetween; The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body and Design; The Politics of Park Design: A History of Urban Parks in America. She has designed parks, playgrounds, chairs, a house, and a bathtub. @galencranzconsulting.com