Cogito ergonomic

'This chair makes me feel like a million bucks!' Youssef Rakha gets into the optimally ventilated, Dynatec-swathed Xten - and doesn't want to leave.

Sitting pretty: The Ares Line Xten chair, for the more ergonomically-minded nine-to-fiver.

When you are a top-notch, filthy rich, style-conscious and naturally hard-working executive, you invariably end up sitting down on your office chair for over 12 hours a day; and while you generally associate sitting down with making yourself comfortable, the mechanics of the situation are such that your backside actually suffers.  After 12 hours, with the seat's foam thrusting upwards, its flat surface making no provisions for the curves and protrusions of your body, you are unlikely to be a very comfortable executive, however top-notch, filthy rich, style-conscious and naturally hard-working you may remain. After 12 hours, your backside is in pain, your back is sweaty, your arm muscles are contorted and your body has been generally mispositioned for hours on end.

Enter the Ares Line Xten chair, designed by the Italian firm Pininfarina and billed by many a press release as the "million dollar office chair". It is the race car of office seating, armed with an optimally ventilated backrest, Dynatec fabric (designed for Olympic athletes), the Armtronic precision position adjustment system and Technogel "seating technology" that "hugs and forms around the body", in doing so reducing backside strain by a quantified 60 per cent. Thus equipped, the Xten seems to give convincing answers to all possible questions of comfort. It may be that this chair will accommodate you in ways that even your pretty young secretary still refuses to.

At the Office Furnishing Interior Solutions outlet off the Maktoum Bridge in Dubai, sales assistant Firdaus Irani explained to me that the Xten was the only truly ergonomically certified chair in the world. "It has gone through very strenuous tests," he pointed out. Climbing onto the little platform on which it stood proud, I could not fend off the sense that this poor chair had been oversold; had I been walking casually through the store, the Xten would not have stopped me.

However, as the Xten's brochure cautions: before you consider sitting in the Xten, always remember to ask yourself, "Are you ready for a real emotion?" I edged in to the seat, anticipating nothing in particular. My backside cried out in instant rapture. I noticed that the back rest bent perfectly smoothly, and that the armrests easily adjusted to the optimum height in a second. "Nincompoop," I berated myself while relishing the moment. "No wonder you've never had a pretty young secretary."

I should have trusted the Pininfarina brand name from the start. I should have known to expect - from the designers of, among other emotionally disruptive and expensive toys, the Ferrari, the Maserati and the Ford Focus - an emotional jolt. I had been a fool. I hadn't been ready for a real emotion. The Xten retails at Dh 10,000. It only cost a million bucks to design; my editors and I thought otherwise thanks to a few vaguely worded press reports. It has been on sale in the UAE for just under a year, and almost 40 have been purchased. It comes in four default colours: metallic Maserati blue, Ferrari red, grey and anthracite - but special colours can be arranged on demand. I asked Irani about what's next for the Xten; what add-ons and upgrades and special models we might expect.

"There will be no models," he answered. "It is one of a kind." Turning to go, I ended up facing the Xten momentarily, and noticed that, from the front, it resembles an animatronic robot with its arms raised. "Now you know," it seemed to be saying, cheering itself on, "no matter how much they're selling me for, I really am a million dollar chair."
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