Hasta La Ideas

Seats on a business class ticket are dramatically safer than those in economy class. That isn’t because they were designed to be safer, it’s because they were designed around the idea of spacious luxury. James Lee’s butterfly seats explore that very idea to make flight seats safer. By isolating seats, creating partitions, and providing facilities that align with the concept of premium value addition, the Butterfly seats instantly offer a much more safe travel experience by creating dedicated spaces for passengers with lesser chances of spreading germs through interaction.

The seats come in pairs of two and are slightly offset, rather than being side by side. This immediately means you don’t have someone directly beside you, which decreases the chances of socialization. Seats even have adjustable partitions between them to separate passengers, and even have dedicated armrests so you’re never accidentally resting your arm on someone else’s place. Seats come with all the fittings needed to allow you to store your belongings and even work while flying. A dedicated laptop desk ensures you can work while flying, and there are even slots to store magazines and your own pair of in-flight headphones. For parents traveling with little children, the seats fold down to turn into a makeshift bed for youngsters, and if you’re traveling solo with nobody beside you, both the seats can be folded down and covered with a zigzag mattress so you can sleep comfortably – a feature that’s useful for people who are unwell on the journey or for red-eye flights.

It’s simple tactics like this that will help make flying safer and less fearful at the same time. With solutions like the Janus Seat, you end up creating a functioning solution, but run the risk of still dealing with an entrenched sense of fear in the passengers (besides, sitting in that middle seat becomes even less desirable). The Butterfly, however, retains the status quo, with seats that aren’t dramatically different and visors/partitions that don’t look like partitions. By masking the idea of safety using luxury as a design solution, the Butterfly makes traveling safe again while also allowing the experience to be a relaxing, valuable, and comfortable one!

The Butterfly Aircraft Seat is a winner of the A’ Design Award for the year 2020.

Designer: James Lee