What happens when a designer considers not only shapes, but also movement and gravity - and how to trick them? Andreas Ostwald is one such designer who creates spaces that set body and mind in motion.With the new Aeris Linu together with Dietlind Walger and her team, he has developed a chair that does not stand still, but resonates - with life, with its owner, with time.
About Andreas Ostwald - The man behind the form
Andreas Ostwald is no ordinary designer. He is a creator in the true sense of the word. „For me, the term 'design', after beeing used so inflationarily, is dead..“, he says. Instead, he prefers to talk about shaping, giving form and creating.
His passion for design began in childhood. As a ten-year-old, he nailed broomsticks to tree trunks and stretched a rope between them to create his first moving seat. He later designed a rocking chair, drilling irreparable holes in the ceiling in the process — much to the annoyance of his parents.
One thing was clear to Ostwald right from the start:
Sitting still is no option.
Andreas Ostwald, designer of the new Aeris Linu office and conference chair.
Having trained as a ceramic modeller, a profession which shaped his sensitivity to shapes, he went on to study design in Kiel, where he first crossed paths with Dietlind Walger, product developer at Aeris. As a professor there, he then taught the methodology of the design process at the Muthesius University for 10 years before starting to teach integrated design at the HFK Bremen in 2006.
Ostwald worked with Andreas Heller on exhibitions for brands such as Montblanc and Swarovski, designed for Burkhard Vogtherr and eventually helped build up the design department at Deutsche Telekom. A formative experience - and a turning point: „After that it was clear to me: no corporate structures.“ Ostwald has been working independently ever since. Free, but never alone.
„The best thing about creating is the exchange with others.“
Since 2014, Andreas Ostwald has focused his design work in Hamburg on international projects and advising young start-ups. His research focuses on networked structures and the potential of three-dimensional imaging. His work has already been awarded numerous prestigious prizes, such as theRed Dot Design Award and the iF Design Award.
Design meets position. Ostwald's vision of design.
For Andreas Ostwald, design is not a trend, but an attitude. He thinks of design not as a question of style, but as a cultural responsibility.
„Design is never just a language of form. Design is the form into which social ideas are brought, depending on the technologies and means available.“
– Andreas Ostwald, designer of the new Aeris Linu
Ostwald focuses on timeless design: Durable shapes, high-quality materials and a minimalist style. His designs often strike a balance between form and function. Two things are particularly important to him: Sustainability in the design language and reduction to the essentials. While others see a finished product, he sees a process. A framework of ideas that only fills itself with meaning through fantasy and imagination.
Dietlind Walger and Andreas Ostwald with the Aeris Linu.
„Only with a well-developed capacity for imagination it is possible to imagine the unimaginable.“
Ostwald's designs are intended to move - literally - both physically and mentally. With the new office and conference chairAeris Linu he and the Aeris team have once again succeeded in evolving just that: An office chair that doesn't just stand still, but sets the body and mind in motion.
About the creation of the Aeris Linu and the collaboration
When the Aeris Linu project was first conceived, it quickly became clear that the new chair should redifine the concept of movement. The aim was to create a seating experience that feels weightless - almost like floating. „The Aeris Linu is about nothing less than the abolition of gravity“, says Ostwald. No small claim for a piece of furniture, but typical of a designer who likes to explore physical limits.
All Aeris chairs are based on the idea of keeping the body in motion while sitting instead of remaining in a fixed position. With the Aeris Linu, the team led by Andreas Ostwald and Dietlind Walger has managed to take the unique Aeris movement technology to a whole new level.
Aeris Linu design team (from left to right): Dietlind Walger, Torsten Teschner and Andreas Ostwald.
Originally, the seat was to rest on four movable arms, although the prototypes were not yet entirely convincing. The decision to cross the arms like scissors was the breakthrough: This innovative and patented mechanism enables a particularly dynamic and free sitting experience, which makes the Aeris Linu so unique.
„In this position, the body has a dynamic rather than a fixed hold", Ostwald describes the effect.
More information about the development of the Aeris Linux can be found here:
What the Aeris Linu has to offer
Thanks to its flex kinematics and unique suspension strut, the Aeris Linu, equipped with the advanced technology of the Aeris Numo Task, now ensures a dynamic movement experience in all directions. The minimalist design is well thought out: the tapered backrest provides stable support and maximum freedom of movement, and the ergonomically shaped backrest cushion with integrated lumbar support ensures long-lasting comfort.
The new Aeris Linu office and conference chair is not just another piece of design furniture - it is the logical continuation of the Aeris philosophy: movement instead of stagnation, posture instead of constraint, comfort through dynamism. Together with Andreas Ostwald, a chair has been created that takes sitting in motion to a new emotional level. Or as Ostwald would describe the Linu in 3 words: „Sit and smile.“
