Study of Body Postures Adopted in Public Spaces to Define Furniture Design Principles

Abstract: In this study, Intermediate Body Positions refers to a group of spontaneous gestures assumed by people interacting with surrounding objects, which are in between biped-erect and sitting-standard. Furniture that motivates the sitting-standard posture is usually found in outdoors as the only option to rest; therefore users adopt different objects to rest their body. In this study, we observed the common postures adopted in public spaces while spontaneously using objects which were not designed to rest the body. The study conducted the evaluation of three Intermediate Body Positions and two control postures (sitting and standing) with two different finishing surfaces (rough and smooth), and the registration of the angles and forces in the points of support with a Dinagoniometer. The posture’s performance was evaluated in terms of time of permanence, energy expenditure and subjective perceived exertion measured in five male models in laboratory conditions. These results were compared with the angles and forces measured at each point of support. We have found that the interaction of the body with different types of materials and at different positions is crucial, since they specify not only the biophysical reaction of the body, but the individual perception. These results permitted to establish a number of design principles for furniture and public spaces.

Keywords: Posture, Public Spaces, Dinagoniometer, energy expenditure, exertion perception

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1001279

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