On Balance

— 03 February 2026


The Balance family, by Jonathan Prestwich, is a suite of chairs that shares a cohesive design language and dovetails into a diverse breadth of workplace zones. Growing from a collection of ergonomically crafted work and meeting chairs, the collection has expanded to include a family of lounge chairs for lively break out zones and more contemplative areas, as well as understated project chairs and elegant high back meeting chairs. Every chair has been skilfully designed to empower individuals to excel at the task in hand.

Together with a shared design vocabulary, each member of the family is united by meticulously tailored upholstery, which, on closer inspection, reveals a removable cover that traces the curves of the seat shell using invisible clips instead of glue. This small shift in the way each chair is constructed enables replacement covers to be applied time after time, keeping the main body of materials in use and minimising the need for new materials.

This resourcefulness is key to combatting the overconsumption arising from the accelerating pace of refit cycles. Over time, the impacts of repeated refit cycles can seriously add up, outweighing the impacts associated with a building’s initial construction. As refit cycles become shorter and the volume of materials being wasted and replaced continues to grow, we need to find simple solutions to avoid overconsumption.

MO74131

As we seek to decarbonise the built environment, re-use of every element in a building will become more and more important. Offering replacement upholstery covers gives the Balance family serious added value because every chair is already poised for a second, third and subsequent life. Covers can be refreshed if the interiors team create a new scheme, if anyone’s clumsy with a coffee, or if the chairs change hands and need to match the brand colours of their new owners. 

With all eyes on carbon, it’s easy to forget the value of plain and simple resourcefulness. Yet using the fewest resources goes hand in hand with carbon reduction. In the case of the Balance family, replacing just the cover can save up to 75% of the embodied carbon, compared to replacing the whole chair. 

In a time of global overconsumption, the thrifty design of the Balance family is one small step towards reducing resource use so that we can stay within planetary limits and help return to a point of balance. 

 

Balance Lounge wingback v2
23 v2.01.24 MODUS SOFT LOUNGE 216

Related pages

Your interest *

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Modus:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices.