Building a Better Grindstone: Form and Function Team up in This Workspace Gear

When I asked Rob Forbes, founder of the modern furniture retailer Design Within Reach [1], what he considers the ingredients for the perfect work space, he laughed and replied, "A Mac laptop and a Corbusier lounge chair."

It's true, of course, that wireless computing means that students are no longer tethered to their desks in classrooms but can continue their work in cafeterias and hallway niches and outside under a tree in the schoolyard. But much work -- whether it's being done by students in school or at home or by professionals in their offices -- is tackled best in space and furniture designed for focus and efficiency, not more generalized activities.

Schools are beginning to refine the idea of how and where students work. Places like San Diego's High Tech High [2] include workstations very similar to what you'd find in the offices of Google or Yahoo.

Perfectly comfortable and efficient chairs, desks, and lighting often cost more than schools can afford for their students, or teachers can afford for their home offices. The operative axiom here is "You get what you pay for," and fine design is rarely inexpensive. But there's a wide spectrum of well-designed furniture at a variety of prices, and it's important to remember that design that works well lasts for years, and helps us work well.

To be brutally frank, many of us -- students and teachers alike -- work in conditions that, by current ergonomic standards, are just slightly better than primitive: chairs that treat the human body like an alien presence, desks too high or too low and about as cleverly designed as a piece of plywood on two sawhorses, and lighting in which the technical metric of candlepower is only too literally appropriate. On these pages, Edutopia's design elves offer a Christmas list of working tools that really go way beyond workmanlike work.

Credit: Luxo

Luxo Lamp [3]

$183

This familiar classic, designed way back in 1937 by Jac Jacobsen for Luxo, in Oslo, Norway, was made even more famous in a short digital film by Pixar. Specifically called the L-1 8155 Luminaire, the desk lamp has been copied endlessly but never really improved on. In the seven decades since its introduction, twenty-five million L-1s have been sold. Small wonder -- the little Luxo puts light wherever you need it.

Credit: Hive

Panton Chair [4]

$245

Credit: Design Within Reach

In 1960, Danish designer Verner Panton came up with a chair made of a single piece of polypropylene, cleverly cantilevered to provide plenty of support and a decidedly human fit. Vitra continues to make the chair in various colors, including an eye-catching orange-red. Though the Panton doesn't roll on wheels like a typical desk chair, it's light and easily moved.

Compact Study Solution [5]

$1,644

Design Within Reach offers a clean, well-lighted work space that includes the Cinto Stacking Chair with breathable mesh material and adjustable lumbar support, the wheeled Archimede Laptop Caddy, with two adjustable work surfaces, and the height-adjustable Brazo floor lamp (shown right). The Compact Study Solution makes the most efficient use of a small space, either at home or at school.

Credit: Sit4Less.com

Aeron Chair [6]

$749 and up

Designed by Don Chadwick and the late Bill Stumpf for the Herman Miller Company, this handsome, technically sophisticated chair is truly a seat of power. With movable lumbar support, fabric both strong and aerated, and more adjustments for perfect fit than a tailor-made outfit, the Aeron is the chair of choice in Silicon Valley and beyond. At more than $700, it's far from cheap, but it's also the last desk chair you'll ever have to buy.

Credit: HermanMillerSeating.com

Caper Stacking Chair [7]

$249 ($349 with arms)

An excellent and affordable solution to team seating for project-learning tasks, the ultralight (11.5 pounds), simple, and supportive Caper was designed by Jeff Weber for Herman Miller. The chair, with wheels, is produced with a high percentage of recycled material; it comes in fourteen colors, with a hand opening at the top of the backrest for easy carrying.

A Modern Sensibility: Resources for Exploring Contemporary Design

Simple, beautiful, eminently functional -- what's not to love about latter-day design? Here are links to a few Web sites to get you started finding out about the best design offerings of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries:

Museum of Modern Art [8]

New York's MoMA boasts one of the world's definitive design collections.

Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum [9]

Part of the Smithsonian Institution, Cooper-Hewitt is the world's only museum devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design.

Studio Forbes [10]

Rob Forbes, founder of retailer Design Within Reach, writes a thoughtful, informative design blog.