Herman Miller Setu Chair Designers from Studio 7.5
Carola relates: A funny story I recall was an incident at immigration one time we came over to share the latest generation of Setu prototypes.
The immigration officer asked Roland: "So what's your profession?" (because Roland had marked "business" as the purpose of the trip on their form).
Roland answered: "I am an engineer."
"So what do you engineer?"
Roland replied: "A chair."
The officer answer: "They need engineers to build chairs?!"
These moments tell you that our obsession with chairs is really hard to share...
OD: How did you approach designing the Setu Chair differently than you approached designing the Mirra Chair? |
Herman Miller Setu Chair
S7.5: Mirra was a brief from Herman Miller with a clear mission. The Setu Chair is the result of observations and experiments we did on our own, that we later shared with Herman Miller.
OD: Please tell us about the aesthetics of Setu, what were they based upon?
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S7.5: It’s about being as stingy as possible in the consumption of material. The quest for using "only the molecules needed and not one molecule more" became the mantra on the Setu design journey. Through countless iterations we carved the geometry to improve the construction. This helped to create an elegant solution that is compelling, because we think one can now read all details and understand their purpose.
OD: Who specifically were you designing the Setu for? |
S7.5: We all spend increasingly more time working and sitting in other places than our dedicated work station, e.g. conference rooms, hotel lobbies, airports or at home. So the overall time spent sitting might be same, but it’s more like playing musical chairs: you grab a chair that’s available. In these places you want a seat that provides as much embedded ergonomics as possible without being bothered by complicated adjustments, we call this instant comfort.
OD: Did any other chair designs inspire the Setu Chair? |
S7.5: Of course we are big admirers of the Eameses. In a way, we followed in their footsteps and asked ourselves "How would they do something that would be appropriate in 2010?" The quest for simplicity and using materials in new and innovative ways seems to be a connection we have. We were proud when Niels Diffrient - a designer we also admire a lot - came to us at Neocon and said: "I knew Charlie and he would be proud of you!"
OD: Who came up with the elastometric fabric used for the seat/back and how? |
S7.5: The adaptiveness of this type of elastomeric fabric on Setu was first explored in the Aeron chair. We developed it further on the Mirra seat application. We always felt that the ultimate goal would be a continuous adaptive membrane.
OD: How does Setu’s kinematic spine differ from the Steelcase Leap chair’s "Live Back?" |
Herman Miller Setu Chair
S7.5: In Setu Chairs, the spine and the membrane work together in forming a seamless support of the sitter’s body. The spine controls the ergonomic motion, whereas the elastometric membrane provides adaptation to the individual contour of the sitter with the highest possible resolution. On the Leap chair the semi-rigid back shell has a certain amount of freedom to comply with the sitter’s back.
OD: Why did you name the chair "Setu?" |
S7.5: Setu means "bridge" in Hindi. The name expresses our goal of creating an overarching comfort in different places and applications.
OD: Why would a customer choose a Setu over other chairs, like Aeron, Mirra or Embody? |
S7.5: The Setu Chair is dedicated to places where you cannot put a name tag on a chair and still need to provide a substantial level of instant comfort. We call it places where you just want to forget about gravity. Since it’s on a smaller scale it also makes a perfect home office seat, even in smaller spaces. |
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