Designed for Where You Want to Sit. Herman Miller Introduces Setu(TM) Chairs: The Next Generation of Multipurpose Seating

ZEELAND, Michigan - Herman Miller, the international leader in ergonomic seating design, announces the next generation of multipurpose chair for all the places we work and live now. With Setu chairs, designed by Studio 7.5 of Berlin, Herman Miller applies its award-winning seating expertise to a major chair category that has seen little innovation in years.

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“The Setu family of chairs provides new standards of comfort, performance, and value,” says Jack Schreur, Herman Miller’s director for seating products. “It’s made from an innovative combination of materials to provide remarkable levels of strength, flexibility and simplicity.”

Setu will be introduced at NeoCon 2009 in Chicago, June 15-17. The initial offering will include the Setu 5-star, 4-star, butterfly, butterfly stool, and lounge and ottoman. Future models are planned that will further extend the Setu family’s range of application.

Multipurpose chairs are used where people sit for shorter periods and frequently move, such as conference rooms, touchdown workstations, and collaborative spaces. However, these so-called “temporary spaces” are now less temporary. For many of us, all the places we sit are temporary as we move throughout the day, spending an hour or two at a time in different places.

The problem is existing multipurpose chairs aren’t designed to handle longer-term sitting and more active use. This was recognised by Studio 7.5, who also designed Herman Miller’s award-winning Mirra work chair in 2003. During their global travels in support of that chair’s international launch, they sat in many different multipurpose chairs along the way. The 7.5 team found the one-piece seat and back typical of multipurpose chairs is not very comfortable; instead comfort is compromised for affordability. Coming home, they recognised a need for a new kind of multipurpose chair-one combining work-chair principles of motion and comfort with good looks, and a compelling price.

Herman Miller and Studio 7.5 created Setu to answer those needs, with key inventions that greatly improve on comfort and support: the Kinematic Spine(TM) and the Lyris(TM) seat suspension material.

Throughout Setu’s development, Studio 7.5 were guided by their quest for simplicity. “We want everything as simple as possible, but no simpler,” noted the designers, paraphrasing Einstein. Simplicity is especially important in multipurpose seating, where chairs may be used in many places, and many different people may use the same chair during the day.

Setu is elegant and organic, yet is simple and easy to use. To achieve that, it contains embedded design intelligence, with form and function working in harmony.

Setu is Motion: The Kinematic Spine

The first thing you’ll notice once you sit in Setu? Nothing, but instant comfort. There’s nothing to tilt, nothing to tweak, nothing to think about. It’s mathematics in place of mechanisms. From the moment you sit down, you and the chair move as one. It is elegant form and performance working together in harmony.

Setu’s Kinematic Spine is the primary reason. It has tilt-like kinematics in one continuous seat and back, rather than in a separate seat pan, back rest, and tilt. Because of living hinges in the spine, there is no tilt mechanism on the chair, and the only adjustment is seat height.

The spine works together with Setu’s Lyris seating suspension material. This unique suspension has no rigid frame structure on the top and bottom edges of the chair, but is only suspended between the two Kinematic Spines. It conforms to your contours as you move, whilst providing aeration and minimising heat build-up.

Setu is Simple: One adjustment

Because there is only one adjustment (height), Setu is simple to use. This makes it ideal for places where many different people use the same chair. Everyone gets the full ergonomic benefit without adjustment.

Setu is Adaptable: Wide application

Where Setu is, it belongs. The clean, light-scaled aesthetic complements a wide range of environments. It is designed to fit most shapes and sizes. But, equally important, Setu is designed to fit all spaces and places. Adaptable like no other chair in its category, Setu appeals to functional needs as well as design aesthetics.

Because the spine provides the chair’s motion within the seat and back, multiple different bases can be applied for a wide range of future applications. With its light aesthetic, Setu is equally stylish and comfortable in office, home, healthcare, education, and hospitality environments, anywhere in the world.

Setu contract list prices start at US$650 (GBP464/EUR613). Setu chairs will be orderable in the commercial market beginning June 15 for North America, and from mid-July in all other countries and regions. Retail distribution will begin in September for North America, with other regions to be determined.

Setu is Responsible: Fewer materials

Thanks to Setu’s Kinematic Spine, chair components are greatly minimised. Setu contains only the materials needed and not a molecule more. The Setu basic chair has few parts and weighs less than 20 pounds (9kg). This means less material, time, and energy needed to build and ship it. Setu’s H-Alloy aluminium base is another example of less equals more. Durable, anti-corrosive, uncoated and unpolished with no added labour or harmful toxins, it has less eco-impact than traditionally finished bases.

Setu adheres to the McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) Cradle to Cradle protocol. The chair has 48 percent recycled content, is 92 percent recyclable, and contains no PVCs. Setu is under review for MBDC Cradle to Cradle Gold certification and GREENGUARD(R) certification. Setu carries Herman Miller’s 12-year, 24 hour use, warranty.

About Herman Miller

Herman Miller works for a better world around you-with inventive designs, technologies and related services that improve the human experience wherever people work, heal, learn, and live. Its curiosity, ingenuity, and design excellence create award-winning products and services, resulting in more than $2 billion in revenue in fiscal 2008. Innovative business practices and a commitment to social responsibility have also established Herman Miller as a recognized global company. In 2009, Herman Miller was again cited by FORTUNE as both the “Most Admired” in its industry and among the “100 Best Companies to Work For” in America, while Fast Company named Herman Miller among the innovative “Companies to Watch.” Herman Miller trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol MLHR.

Contact Luke Dawson +44(0)1249-707469; luke_dawson@hermanmiller.com

Address Herman Miller, Methuen Park, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN14 0FG

Internet www.HermanMiller.com

A picture accompanying this release is available on AP Archive: photoarchive.ap.org (PRN1 / PRN2)

Source: Herman Miller Ltd

Contact: Luke Dawson +44(0)1249-707469; luke_dawson at hermanmiller.com. Address Herman Miller, Methuen Park, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN14 0FG