FH
F. Hoogendijk
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Seating in Uncertainty: Dealing with substances of concern in office chair design
A safe & Circular by Design approach to office chairs
This thesis applies the Safe and Circular by Design (SCbD) methodology and the MAPSSS (Mapping Assessment for Product Substance Safety and Sustainability) tool to B2B office task chairs, demonstrating how material safety can be integrated into the design process from early stages. The research was motivated by a gap in current practice: substances of concern in products are addressed almost exclusively through regulatory compliance, while the product design perspective remains largely absent.
The study follows the four steps of the MAPSSS tool.
Step 0 mapped the full lifecycle of a median office task chair, constructed from physical teardown evidence and material composition data from the Declare Living Future database.
Step 1 identified TCPP (tris(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate) in polyurethane foam as the priority substance of concern, with the use phase carrying the highest concern scores across both human health and environmental pathways, and end of life carrying the second highest.
Step 2 developed three design concepts, each corresponding to one of the SCbD strategies:
The Avoid concept removes TCPP and foam entirely through an SLS-printed nylon construction,
The Reduce concept retains the standard foam architecture but intercepts TCPP migration through an integrated active carbon filter system
The Control concept removes foam from components where it is not functionally necessary, substitutes aramid textile, and combines this with controlled off-gassing during manufacture and biophilic-supported filtration during use.
Step 3 assessed the three concepts against the reference chair, showing that each strategy shifts the hazard profile across the lifecycle rather than removing it, and that each depends on conditions outside the product itself to deliver its intended reduction.
The research draws on twenty expert interviews conducted across the full office chair value chain, a physical teardown of two second-hand chairs, and a feedback session with NPK Design. The findings show that chemical safety and circularity are structurally deprioritised across the industry, that the MAPSSS methodology adds a complementary substance-of-concern lens to existing sustainability practice, and that the methodology’s principal barriers to adoption are the absence of accessible component-level material data, the chemistry knowledge required in Step 1, and the lack of built-in validation mechanisms across the steps.
The thesis contributes a real-industry application of the SCbD methodology and MAPSSS tool, a set of concrete recommendations for the further development of both, and three resolved design concepts that illustrate the range of design responses available when applying the SCbD framework to a product containing a substance of concern. ...
The study follows the four steps of the MAPSSS tool.
Step 0 mapped the full lifecycle of a median office task chair, constructed from physical teardown evidence and material composition data from the Declare Living Future database.
Step 1 identified TCPP (tris(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate) in polyurethane foam as the priority substance of concern, with the use phase carrying the highest concern scores across both human health and environmental pathways, and end of life carrying the second highest.
Step 2 developed three design concepts, each corresponding to one of the SCbD strategies:
The Avoid concept removes TCPP and foam entirely through an SLS-printed nylon construction,
The Reduce concept retains the standard foam architecture but intercepts TCPP migration through an integrated active carbon filter system
The Control concept removes foam from components where it is not functionally necessary, substitutes aramid textile, and combines this with controlled off-gassing during manufacture and biophilic-supported filtration during use.
Step 3 assessed the three concepts against the reference chair, showing that each strategy shifts the hazard profile across the lifecycle rather than removing it, and that each depends on conditions outside the product itself to deliver its intended reduction.
The research draws on twenty expert interviews conducted across the full office chair value chain, a physical teardown of two second-hand chairs, and a feedback session with NPK Design. The findings show that chemical safety and circularity are structurally deprioritised across the industry, that the MAPSSS methodology adds a complementary substance-of-concern lens to existing sustainability practice, and that the methodology’s principal barriers to adoption are the absence of accessible component-level material data, the chemistry knowledge required in Step 1, and the lack of built-in validation mechanisms across the steps.
The thesis contributes a real-industry application of the SCbD methodology and MAPSSS tool, a set of concrete recommendations for the further development of both, and three resolved design concepts that illustrate the range of design responses available when applying the SCbD framework to a product containing a substance of concern. ...
This thesis applies the Safe and Circular by Design (SCbD) methodology and the MAPSSS (Mapping Assessment for Product Substance Safety and Sustainability) tool to B2B office task chairs, demonstrating how material safety can be integrated into the design process from early stages. The research was motivated by a gap in current practice: substances of concern in products are addressed almost exclusively through regulatory compliance, while the product design perspective remains largely absent.
The study follows the four steps of the MAPSSS tool.
Step 0 mapped the full lifecycle of a median office task chair, constructed from physical teardown evidence and material composition data from the Declare Living Future database.
Step 1 identified TCPP (tris(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate) in polyurethane foam as the priority substance of concern, with the use phase carrying the highest concern scores across both human health and environmental pathways, and end of life carrying the second highest.
Step 2 developed three design concepts, each corresponding to one of the SCbD strategies:
The Avoid concept removes TCPP and foam entirely through an SLS-printed nylon construction,
The Reduce concept retains the standard foam architecture but intercepts TCPP migration through an integrated active carbon filter system
The Control concept removes foam from components where it is not functionally necessary, substitutes aramid textile, and combines this with controlled off-gassing during manufacture and biophilic-supported filtration during use.
Step 3 assessed the three concepts against the reference chair, showing that each strategy shifts the hazard profile across the lifecycle rather than removing it, and that each depends on conditions outside the product itself to deliver its intended reduction.
The research draws on twenty expert interviews conducted across the full office chair value chain, a physical teardown of two second-hand chairs, and a feedback session with NPK Design. The findings show that chemical safety and circularity are structurally deprioritised across the industry, that the MAPSSS methodology adds a complementary substance-of-concern lens to existing sustainability practice, and that the methodology’s principal barriers to adoption are the absence of accessible component-level material data, the chemistry knowledge required in Step 1, and the lack of built-in validation mechanisms across the steps.
The thesis contributes a real-industry application of the SCbD methodology and MAPSSS tool, a set of concrete recommendations for the further development of both, and three resolved design concepts that illustrate the range of design responses available when applying the SCbD framework to a product containing a substance of concern.
The study follows the four steps of the MAPSSS tool.
Step 0 mapped the full lifecycle of a median office task chair, constructed from physical teardown evidence and material composition data from the Declare Living Future database.
Step 1 identified TCPP (tris(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate) in polyurethane foam as the priority substance of concern, with the use phase carrying the highest concern scores across both human health and environmental pathways, and end of life carrying the second highest.
Step 2 developed three design concepts, each corresponding to one of the SCbD strategies:
The Avoid concept removes TCPP and foam entirely through an SLS-printed nylon construction,
The Reduce concept retains the standard foam architecture but intercepts TCPP migration through an integrated active carbon filter system
The Control concept removes foam from components where it is not functionally necessary, substitutes aramid textile, and combines this with controlled off-gassing during manufacture and biophilic-supported filtration during use.
Step 3 assessed the three concepts against the reference chair, showing that each strategy shifts the hazard profile across the lifecycle rather than removing it, and that each depends on conditions outside the product itself to deliver its intended reduction.
The research draws on twenty expert interviews conducted across the full office chair value chain, a physical teardown of two second-hand chairs, and a feedback session with NPK Design. The findings show that chemical safety and circularity are structurally deprioritised across the industry, that the MAPSSS methodology adds a complementary substance-of-concern lens to existing sustainability practice, and that the methodology’s principal barriers to adoption are the absence of accessible component-level material data, the chemistry knowledge required in Step 1, and the lack of built-in validation mechanisms across the steps.
The thesis contributes a real-industry application of the SCbD methodology and MAPSSS tool, a set of concrete recommendations for the further development of both, and three resolved design concepts that illustrate the range of design responses available when applying the SCbD framework to a product containing a substance of concern.