There’s a particular kind of stillness that feels almost impossible to access in the world we live in. Even when we try to rest, the body holds tension; the mind holds the day, and our brains hold all the things we need to go. But yesterday, I experienced something that felt like the closest thing to true weightlessness. A kind of suspension between presence and dream, while sitting in DavidHugh’s new Floatation chair at the Bang & Olufsen flagship on New Bond Street.
Incorporating the brand’s latest patented Planar Motion Mechanics, this chair has been engineered to hold the body in perfect equilibrium. There is no pressure, no push, no fight against gravity. The frame—precision-engineered aluminium and steel, wrapped in Kvadrat wool or Muirhead leather—disappears around you. You simply float. It’s so sensitively balanced that even a breath can lift the entire body. And that is exactly how it feels: breath as movement, life as motion.
Within moments, the sensory world began to quiet. The sharp edges of thought softened. I felt unusually light—abundant, spacious, almost as though I was floating somewhere just beyond myself. There was this subtle yet powerful feeling of being suspended in the universe, as if I was watching my thoughts rather than carrying them. Time loosened its grip. My internal world became louder and clearer. It felt like meditation without effort—like the body was finally allowed to let go, and the mind followed.
This is what the DavidHugh team have spent five years perfecting: a piece of furniture that is not simply about comfort, but about consciousness. A chair that brings together neuroscience, biomechanics, and design to create a pathway to transcendental states, even in people who have never meditated before. Brainwave studies show shifts that mirror those of advanced Buddhist practitioners. Except here, you do not have to try your way into peace. You just breathe.
In a culture defined by constant connectivity and overstimulation, this feels like a quiet revolution. A physical antidote. A reminder that stillness is not something we chase; it’s something we can return to, if we create the right conditions.
And sometimes, those conditions look like a chair that makes you feel like you’re floating in the universe.
