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Design Story
To create the Mirra chair, Herman Miller teamed with Studio 7.5, a German
design firm.
Composed of five designers--Claudia Plikat, Burkhard Schmitz, Nicolai
Neubert, Carola Zwick, and Roland Zwick--Studio 7.5 has been involved for
over 10 years in the design and development of products that improve the way
people work.
They consider themselves 'the grandchildren of the Eameses' and, like those
pioneering designers, they are experts at observing how workers interact with
their environments and finding ways to make that interaction more natural.
Sharing a genuine passion for seating, they know seating as a science and
work to bring it to another level.
Rather than relying on any individual in the firm, Studio 7.5 works as a
team, without titles or hierarchy. The Mirra chair is a product of their
collective imagination, talent, and persistence--along with a willingness to
break the mold in order to create a chair that sets a new standard for
comfort, fit, balanced ride, and visual refinement in its price range.
Studio 7.5 envisioned a chair that reacts to what people do. Part of the
concept was to make the chair like a second skin, like a shadow of the
sitter.
From this concept, Mirra's passive adjustability was born. From the TriFlex
back to the AireWeave seat suspension to the Harmonic tilt, Mirra does just
what Studio 7.5 worked to achieve: Just sit on it, and it fits. There are
only a few adjustment controls, and they are designed to be very intuitive.
Mirra features common materials applied in original ways--such as the
elastomeric seat suspension and molded polymer back that are used instead of
foam and fabric. The relationship between materials and technology was
optimized to achieve maximum performance with minimal materials.
User testing, benchmarking, focus groups, tilt performance studies, and other
methods were used to ensure the chair meets customer needs and provides
advanced ergonomic performance. For example, research over the years has
shown that the biggest concern users have is back support. In fact, back
issues account for the second highest number of work illnesses. The designers
took this to heart and focused on the back as an area of differentiation.
Herman Miller and Studio 7.5 also used results from the Civilian American and
European Surface Anthropometry Resource (CAESAR) study, which surveyed body
measurements of people aged 18-65, using the latest 3-D technology. Data from
the study--the first full-body, 3-D surface anthropometry survey of the U.S.
and Europe--helped ensure the chair fits people from the 5th percentile woman
to the 95th percentile man.
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