Murakami Chair designed by Rochus Jacob
Maybe your grandma has a rocking chair. Maybe she sits on it and crotchets, or reads magazines about crocheting. Or maybe not. But the fact is, rocking chairs ain’t just for grandma anymore. The Murakami Chair offers a modern twist on the age-old furniture piece – it’s a rocker with a built-in OLED (organic light-emitting diode) lamp that’s powered by the rocking of the chair. That’s right – rock this puppy and you get to be a human power plant.
Designed by Rochus Jacob, an award winning product designer based out of New York City with essential interaction and strategy experience, the Murakami Chair brilliantly harnesses the kinetic energy that is created by rocking the chair and utilizes an advanced nano-dynamo technology built into the skids of the chair to power the reading lamp above the rocker’s head. The OLEDs require very little juice to power and if you happen to want to read without rocking, no worries; rock a while and the battery pack will store enough so you can read later while sitting still. Perhaps best of all, the chair looks sleek and cool, and it will never embarrass you. How did such an idea come about? “I was looking for opportunities to generate energy through activities we naturally do,” said Jacob. “The final result is a rocking chair that enables the user to experience production and consumption of electricity in a gentle and rewarding way.” Jacob also stated that in the future, “To have a drastic reduction of consumption the big challenge will be to make consuming less feel like getting more.”
A bit more about Jacob: He holds a master’s degree in product design and design research from the University of Art and Design in Offenbach, Germany. He gained international working experience at HTC Taiwan, One & Co. San Francisco andIDEO Munich by working with clients such as Microsoft, Samsung, P&G, Nike, Steelcase and Google. He uses a holistic and user-oriented approach that is dedicated to developing meaningful service, interaction and products that have a positive impact on peoples’ lives. Undoubtedly, his Murakami Chair embodies his noble work philosophy.
