Research shows that people don't really mind talking to a stranger — they often want to. They just don't dare to start. Chairwave removes that barrier without anyone noticing it has done so.
The moment someone sits down, the adjacent seats unfold, opening up as the only available places for the next person. No signage. No instruction. Just a quiet invitation to sit beside someone. What happens next is up to them.
Invisible choreography
Each chair holds a sensor, a motor and a light element working in concert. When no one is near, a slow wave of movement and light drifts along the row — calming, hypnotic, and impossible to ignore.
Proximity logic
As someone approaches, the nearest seat folds open; when they sit, the adjacent seats follow. Strangers consistently end up side by side, and conversations happen.
Straight or curved
Chairwave installs as a straight line or a curve of any radius between 6 and 60 metres, adapting to plazas, atriums, festival grounds and architecture of any scale.
Rietveld, reinterpreted
The silhouette draws on Gerrit Rietveld's Zigzag chair — Dutch design at its most reduced, made kinetic. Flat light-guide plates illuminate seat and backrest, keeping the form clean and the intention clear.
Shown at Dutch Design Week, Amsterdam Light Festival, Vivid Sydney and Bright Brussels, and recognised as Best Social Design at Dutch Design Week.
- Seats
- 15
- Materials
- stainless steel, aluminum, plywood
