Swiss Studio's HighLow Chair Doubles as a Leaning Rail for Standing Meetings

By Amara Osei

Swiss furniture maker Studiotools has built a conference chair whose backrest tips forward into a leaning support for standing meetings, no second piece of seating required. It's called the HighLow Chair, and it addresses a gap most height-adjustable desks quietly ignore: the table rises, the chairs stay behind.

The designer is Moritz Willm. The chair pairs a thick circular seat and a bolster-like cylindrical backrest on a slender black tubular-steel frame, with small casters under its four legs. There are no armrests boxing the sitter in. The open sides leave room to sit sideways or astride, and the rounded forms read closer to a colorful stool than a conventional conference chair.

What's inside the cylinder?

More than its shape suggests. The backrest cylinder contains a plywood core with two differently angled supporting faces, wrapped in softer foam for the backrest and firmer foam for leaning. Tip it forward and your body meets a different surface — rather than one cushion being asked to handle two quite different jobs in the same way.

The pivot mechanism is engineered in-house. Studiotools milled the joint from tool steel and damped it to reduce rattling. The backrest moves directly, with no separate release lever, so when a discussion turns into a standing workshop, the chair stays useful nearby instead of becoming something to shove out of the way.

The seat itself uses webbing beneath its upholstery to add spring, rather than relying on foam alone. Four foam densities appear across the chair, including the two inside the cylinder. Studiotools intends this mix to support different postures during longer sessions — though the company doesn't claim all-day comfort. Having several ways to sit isn't the same as finding one that suits you.

How does it dress and move?

The upholstery softens the geometry. Camira's Yoredale bouclé comes in 33 colors, from quiet neutrals to stronger yellow, blue, and red tones. It's a wool-rich blend with black yarn worked through the weave, which picks up the frame's color without making every surface look like it came from one material.

Mobility is part of the brief. The casters have brakes, so rolling closer to a colleague doesn't mean the support slides away the moment you lean on it. Depending on the version, two to four chairs stack — clearing space for a group activity needn't scatter chairs along every available wall.

What doesn't it fix?

The room around it. Arrange everyone in fixed rows for another hour of slides and a movable backrest changes nothing. Studiotools positions the HighLow Chair for meetings where standing up or turning toward a colleague doesn't feel like interrupting the proceedings — a reasonable ask, and one that depends less on furniture than on whoever booked the meeting.

For offices already sold on sit-stand tables, the HighLow Chair closes the loop: the chair now follows the desk's example.