The product designers at SeymourPowell have imagined a new system of seating for trains that allows you to create whatever seating configuration you like.
Rather than being confined to the standard arrangement of a group of four, or two side-by-side, the SeymourPowell seats can be rotated and moved. They can be arranged in groups for meetings or, for those wishing to avoid human contact, as solo units. Seats can also face each other, creating a two-person cocoon, with protruding side rests providing privacy.
Design director Nick Talbot, said the system is uniquely flexible, allowing travelers to ride as they wish. He envisages travelers would pre-book their seating requirements, although conversion is a quick process. He says one possible use is in sleeper trains, where seats can be moved in the evening to make space for beds and returned at daybreak to make optimal use of the space.
SeymourPowell has designed hundreds of innovative products, from the world’s first cordless kettle to Lynx deodorant bottles. They imagined the AirCruise giant vertical airship earlier in the year, and the Baby Scoop highchair, too.
The luxurious seats are a stark contrast to the new SkyRider "saddle seats" announced this week which are designed to take up as little space as possible, apparently with little regard for comfort.
Talbot hopes business and premium class trains will use the new seats. Those of us in cattle class will presumably still have the option of using our suitcases as a flexible seating solution for the seven-hour journey to Cornwall.
This story was written by Alice Lighton of WiredUK.
Image: SeymourPowell
