Launch of new 'Setu' chair by Herman Miller at Neocon 2009

Designed For Where You Want To Sit. Herman Miller Introduces Setu™ Chairs: The Next Generation of Multipurpose Seating


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.

"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™ and the Lyris™ 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.