Tipping Point

You know how teenagers are always tipping back in their chairs? And how their elders are always yelling at them for it? Alvo Aalto observed this tendency and instead of fighting it, designed this chair for Baker House at M.I.T. so that students could tip with impunity. Accommodations in the dorm, which Aalto designed in 1949, are still the most sought after at the university. If he’d built it in 2007, I’m guessing he might have added a skateboard ramp.

This is me. Dava Newman took the photo.