The SAYL Chair Really Is "The Best for the Most for the Least" (Product Review) SAYL Chair at a Herman Miller 1952 desk model 4658. Image Credit Emma Alter Office chairs are a difficult design problem. Herman Miller's classic Aeron chair has been a hit for over a decade, but it costs nearly a thousand bucks and is rarely seen outside of high end offices, although it was the darling perq of internet startups; there were even Aeron hockey tournaments. At the other end of the scale, crowding the aisles of Staples and Walmart, are the usual low end home office chair that had perhaps a height adjustment but not much else, that sell for well less than a tenth of that. Herman Miller's SAYL is designed by Yves Behar to sit in the middle: a beautiful, ergonomic chair made from sustainable materials at an affordable price. Image Credit Herman Miller There are a couple of ways to make things cheaper: use cheaper materials, offshore production or just use less of everything.

The first two were not an option; the chair is made from safe and healthy materials and Cradle to Cradle certified, so PVC is out. dining table and chairs for sale in leedsHerman Miller makes most of its furniture in Michigan, and tries to limit it's offshore production to serve offshore markets.plastic chairs for sale miami Yves Behar of Fuseproject went back to first principles and started taking things out. round swivel chair redThey call it eco-dematerialization- "Through design iteration, we reduced material use (and environmental footprint), without sacrificing durability or comfort." where to buy wheelchair in taiwan

So the complex mechanisms of the chair back become the flexible mesh, stretched " a way that provided the greatest tension at points where support is needed and the least in areas that would allow for the most expansive range of motion." rent tables and chairs for wedding singaporeFrom the Fuseproject website:folding chair rack canada By rethinking every part of the chair, we were able to innovate the back structure and offer the first frameless suspension system. We sought to remove anything that was not necessary while still delivering a high level of performance and aesthetics. We call the resulting products eco-dematerialised and attainable: lower carbon footprint (30% lighter) and lower retail cost thanks to materials and assembly savings. But you can still adjust height, depth, tilt, arms and more.

Image credit Kelly Rossiter I do not use an office chair; I have a standing desk. However my wife does, and I asked her for her comments: I remember many years ago my husband gave me an office chair as a birthday present. It is akin to receiving a vacuum cleaner as an anniversary gift - a bad idea. Having said that, I think I'd be pretty happy to receive this Herman Miller chair. There are so many ways to adjust it that it's quite easy to make it fit you properly. You can get your back right up against the mesh for support and it's comfortable enough to sit in all day. I have been known to just put my feet up and read while I'm sitting in it. The back also tilts back quite far so you can get a good stretch if you are too busy to get up and walk around. The only downside to this chair is that the cat loves it too, and I occasionally have to wrestle him out of it to get my work done. It's somewhere in between. The SAYL doesn't have all the controls of an Aeron. Its appearance takes a bit of getting used to, but it grows on you.

But the real wonder of it is that they deliver an American-made chair built to Cradle to Cradle Silver standards that starts at $ 399. It is more than a chair; it is a different approach to design that Charles Eames used to practice, delivering "The Best for the Most for the Least." It demonstrates that you don't have to make something out of crap in China to be competitive, you just have to design it better. More at Herman Miller Watch Herman Miller Build an Eames Lounge Chair (Slideshow ... What Is The Future Of The Office? Can Boomers and Millenials Mix? LifeEdited Circa 1945: George Nelson's Storage Wall for Life Magazine Herman Miller's GreenHouse Factory Generates 15 Pounds of Landfill Waste Per Month Follow me on Twitter! @lloydalter and friend me on Facebook Table Lamps and Bedside Lights more by this manufacturer... something about your browser made us think you were a bot. There are a few reasons this might happen:Sorry, we couldn't find what you were looking for.

Click here to go home.Your average furniture designer would like you to believe his products will change your life. Most don’t, of course, but for millions of desk jockeys in offices around the globe, one task chair has done precisely that: the Aeron by Bill Stumpf (1936–2006) and Don Chadwick for Herman Miller. Originally conceived as a product for the elderly (Stumpf was the son of a gerontology nurse which undoubtedly influenced his approach), the task chair came to symbolize of a shift in the way offices conceived of furniture for employees. Everyone from a secretary to a CEO could have his or her own throne that represented the most thoughtful details and advanced engineering of the time. The design was an instant hit. MoMA acquired one for its collection before it debuted on the market in 1994. The idea of the chair was that it would conform to the sitter’s needs, not vice versa. So the seat is made from breathable, stretchable fabric that’s suspended like a supportive hammock on an aluminum frame.

There are numerous adjustments—seat height, arm height and angle, tension of the reclining seat back, lumbar support position and depth—to accommodate myriad users. Need to have an impromptu meeting with a coworker? The Aeron is set on wheels to make moving it around a breeze. The Aeron was based on the following tenets, which still inform the design and development of new task chairs for Herman Miller: 1. A chair should be perceived as comfortable before, during, and after sitting upon it. Comfort is as much a matter of the mind as of the body. 2. A chair should enhance the appearance of the person sitting upon it. 3. While allowing postural movement, the chair should also embrace the body. 4. The chair should provide correct support for the sacrum as well as the lumbar region of the spine. 5. The chair should provide a simple means for height and angular adjustments. A chair should be friendly to all parts of the body that touch it. Take Yves Behar’s Sayl chair: it’s 3-D back—inspired by suspension bridges—performs similarly to Stumpf and Chadwick’s design, but eliminates the need for a separate lumbar support thanks to its supportive yet pliable structure.

The Aeron has also inspired knock-offs that seek to imitate its signature design elements, like the mesh construction. But the true testament to the chair’s enduring influence could also be measured in pop-culture references. When the Simpsons depicted heaven in a March 2005 episode, God was perched in none other than Stumpf and Chadwick’s masterpiece. Of course, the Aeron’s legacy isn’t all roses. As some keenly point out, the chair came to represent startup era excess. And thanks to its ergonomic design, the chair offered previously unheard of comfort–so much so that it actually encouraged people to remain sedentary for extended periods, not the healthiest of behaviors. Still, you have to give credit to a guy who managed to get people excited about a chair. Today would have been Stumpf’s 80th birthday. And while the Aeron is what he’ll be remembered for, it wasn’t the only design he produced for Herman Miller: the manufacturer has sold over 10 million of his ergonomic chairs—seven million of which are Aerons—through the decades.