A Problem That Turned Into An Award Winner.

Through a unique situation that needed a solution, the JumpSeat was born. Design is all about solving problems. So what happened when an industrial design studio in Portland, Oregon was presented with a unique challenge of their own? The answer is simple, the studio used design to come up with a solution that turned into an awardwinning product. That studio was Ziba Design and this is the story of its JumpSeat.

Ziba Design had an incredible new theatre space within its Portland headquarters, and rather than going for traditional seats, the studio fell in love with the simple, raw concrete steps. The problem was found in the fact that a city like Portland gets pretty cold and sitting on raw concrete is uncomfortable. The studio tried a couple of straightforward approaches, such as loose cushions, but much was left to be desired.

Thus, an idea was born to blend the comfort and benefit of a theatre seat with the compact slimness of an airplane jump seat. This theatre seat needed to be stylish, intuitive, user-friendly and robust. A complicated mix of needs, but the brief was set.

Ziba Design then began working with seating company Sedia Systems, which specialises in public seating. What started to emerge was a special mix of timber trapezoidal sections that allowed for flex, paired with some heavy duty sprung steel.

The end result? A unique theatre-style seat that can be applied retrospectively to a mix of spaces. And a slew of design awards.

The JumpSeat can support 260 kilograms and comes in four versions, from wall mounted, floor mounted or an independent (moveable) base. Another stellar feature is the fact that in many instances it sits just a mere 100mm thick once installed, so it meets the necessary egress codes while creating instant backup seating.

Seeing the potential of this innovative seating system, The Meta Collective has brought the chair to Australia. Already it is being used across many diverse sites – the Perth Airport, a Courthouse in Victoria, and the new Anzac Legacy Gallery in Brisbane’s cultural precinct.

One of those awards came in May of 2018. The Meta Collective team, on behalf of Sedia Systems, accepted an award from Good Design Australia for Best in Class – Furniture & Lighting. This is just one confirmation of how solving problems through design makes for valuable product solutions.