Human-Sized 'Hamster Wheel' Helps Office Workers Stand, Walk, And Stay Active At Their Desks
Artists have designed a human-sized hamster wheel that’s meant to keep you moving at your desk — it’s called the “Hamster Wheel Standing Desk” and will literally make you feel like a rodent in a cage.
The wheel was designed by a collaboration between artist Robb Godshaw and Instructables Developer Will Doenlen, at Pier 9 in San Francisco. “You are not reaching your current productivity potential,” the wheel artist Robb Godshaw writes on Instructables. “Numerous esteemed experts agree that standing is better than sitting and that walking is better than standing. Despite this, your workplace only provides inhumane chairs and stagnant standing desks for you to use while you struggle to get through a workday full of distractions and bodily pains.”
He continues: “Rise up, sedentary sentients, and unleash that untapped potential within by marching endlessly towards a brilliant future of focused work.” The wheel is made out of plywood and is 80 inches in diameter, and 24 inches wide. It’s supported by two pipes and four skateboard wheels.
Research has shown that sitting for up to 12 hours or more a day could have a destructive impact on our health, contributing to issues like diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and other disorders. At the same time, the wheel creation is tongue-in-cheek; it reminds us that as humans, we’ve really come as far as to imprison ourselves in office-cages, leaving us desperate for any form of movement — even if it resembles that of an confined animal.
Godshaw describes the project:
Things that are made to fit people are subject to lots of careful consideration. Ergonomics and safety are very important to any furniture project. We considered adding in brakes but decided against it in order to really force the productivity out of the desk user. In the end, we decided on a wheel 80 inches in diameter that would be supported by a 24-inch wide base that contained a set of four skateboard wheels on which the wheel would rest. This design allows fluid rotation without requiring an axle for the wheel.