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> Press Release: Setu launched at Neocon '09
Technology has changed how and where we work. Now we work anywhere and everywhere. No matter where we work we want a comfortable chair.
Introducing Setu. Its innovative kinematic spine bends and flexes to your every move. There's nothing to tilt, nothing to tweak. Setu's finely tuned elastomeric fabric provides superior suspension and conforms to your contours. It's comfort now.
The first thing you'll notice once you sit in Setu? Nothing. There's nothing to tilt, nothing to tweak. It's mathematics in place of mechanisms. From the moment you sit down, you and the chair move as one. It's form and function working together in harmony. It's elegance in the name of performance. Design for how we live and work now.
Inspired by nature with its spiraling nautilus shell shape and contours, this unique single support spine was perfected by technology. Every bend, every corner and every line where painstakingly shaped, reshaped and reshaped again so that each molecule falls in the right order, in the right place. All in the name of less.
From the tip of Setu's polypropylene kinematic spine down to its category-first H-Alloy base, there isn't a molecule we haven't mulled. Because, as with every Herman Miller design, our products and materials are one. This honesty in materials has long been the cornerstone of design at Herman Miller, and Setu firmly holds true to this principle.
Setu is designed to fit all shapes and sizes. But, equally important, Setu is designed to fit virtually all spaces and places. Adaptable like no other chair in its category. Setu appeals to your functional needs as well as your design aesthetic. It can be the feature of any room or simply be noticeably unnoticeable. It's adaptability now. Designed for how we live and work now.
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.
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.
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.
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 $650 (£464/€613). Setu chairs will be orderable in the commercial market beginning June 15 for America, July 15 for Asia and the Middle East, early 2010 for Europe. Retail distribution will begin in September for North America, with other regions to be determined.
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® certification. Setu carries Herman Miller’s 12-year, 24 hour use, warranty.
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