Both designer Hannes Wettstein and manufacturer Dietiker are used to designing with an eye to utility.

Besides interior design, Wettstein has done building, residence, and set design, in addition to product design for prominent European companies like Belux, Bosch, Carl Zeiss, and Velobaze / EST (creating not only light fixtures and optical equipment, but also bicycles, watches, and stereophonics).

And much of Dietiker’s output is for commercial purposes-they design seating schema for large spaces such as conferences, training courses, offices, restaurants, and hotels. A short way of saying this is that they create products that work.

Kalio Swiveling Chair. Designed by Hannes Wettstein. Manufactured by Dietiker.

The Kalio Swiveling Chair is a case in point: designed with human proportions in mind, the Kalio features rounded, open transitions that are kinder to human anatomy than the 90 degree angles of much contemporary seating. The seat slants upward just slightly, an innovation that helps support the spinal/pelvic junction, meaning that the chair is actually, well, safer (who knew sitting could be perilous? Anyone who has ever suffered from back pain, that’s who). And, of course, it swivels-welcome news for procrastinators, ruminators, and agitators of all stripes, or for anyone who enjoys the occasional exhilaration of seeing the room spin.

If you’re gonna go for a spin, you might as well do it in contemporary elegance. Dietiker calls the Kalio “the sitting culture of a rotating sculpture.” A bit much maybe (who am I to talk…), but I’ll buy it. The chair does look like it could do double duty as a display apparatus for fine art: Rodin’s The Thinker would perhaps find it comfortable; it could tempt Michelangelo’s David to take a respite from his routine of slaying Philistines; even Epigonus’ The Dying Gaul might find it of some consolation. But back in the modern world, the Kalio will tempt anyone who values form and function, who wants contemporary furnishings that are comfortable and ergonomic, as well as stylish.

The Kalio chair is also available in a “Lounge Model,” which features a longer seat, lower profile, and broader base.