Crafted by AN.ONYMOUS in partnership with UCLA CityLAB for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), this creation aims to shift work from the confines of an office space, promoting fresh modes of collaboration and interaction with and within the surrounding environment.

ZERO.GRAVITY by AN.ONYMOUS represents a cycle of human habitation, embodying a series of spatial scenarios within a winding interior and a circular exterior.

The product has been awarded Best Urban Furniture of the Year in Prize Design for Modern Furniture + Lighting 2023 by Global Design News and The Chicago Athenaeum Museum for Architecture and Design.

It’s important to note that ZERO.GRAVITY isn’t merely a chair, but rather a fusion of four iconic tubular steel chairs interconnected along an unbroken loop: Marcel Breuer’s Wassily Chair, Mies van der Rohe’s MR Chair, Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand’s LC4 Chaise Lounge, and Herbert Everest and Henry Jennings’ original Folding Wheelchair.

The continuous tubular steel frame not only supports the body but also outlines a much larger tube that cradles it. Users can choose to sit on any of the four specified chairs by simply rolling the piece along the ground, or they can inhabit the transitional spaces to discover their own zones of comfort, assume fresh postures, and adopt unscripted positions.

In ZERO.GRAVITY, the human body takes center stage, liberated from the ideological and geometric constraints of traditional architecture. Unlike the past representations within circles, squares, wheels, or chairs, here, the body isn’t confined or defined by such forms.

The divine circle has been reduced to a skeletal structure, and the square is a convoluted remnant of its modernist history.

This creation has no fixed orientation or designated position; there’s no front or back, up or down. It’s an ever-moving, restless entity that only attains stability and equilibrium when occupied.

The human body serves as its center of gravity—a void awaiting completion with a body inside. However, to truly inhabit this piece, one must also learn to master it: a dynamic dance between the two in pursuit of balance.

Here, motion is the prerequisite for repose and rest. It’s the labor of this intimate interplay that breathes life into the machine.

Project: Zero.Gravity Urban Furniture
Lead Designers: Marta Nowak and Iman Ansari
Manufacturer: AN.ONYMOUS
Photographer: Philip Arnold