Skip to main content Skip to accessibility helpH104 x W65.5 x D40cmH107 x W68.5 x D43cm More than 10 in stockH114.5 x W72 x D47cm Delivery from 3 working days (lead time and available delivery slots will vary by postcode) International delivery not available How we may still help youIF YOU are a staff member working at the Ministry of Manpower's office in Kim Seng Road, count yourself lucky - you may get to sit on a comfortable designer chair. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has spent almost $272,000 to buy a total of 472 Herman Miller chairs for its staff. The model Celle, which MOM bought, was launched in 2005 and is named after its cellular suspension. Its seat and back are made up of loops and cells which flex individually to give good support. Herman Miller is an American manufacturer of office and home furniture based in Zeeland, Michigan. The tender for the chairs, which was placed on the Government's electronic procurement portal, GeBiz, was awarded to home-grown furniture company Xtra Designs on Jan 31.
"We conducted an open tender in accordance with government procurement guidelines. The brand of the chairs was not specified in the tender invitation," said a MOM spokesman in reply to queries from my paper. Xtra Designs, located at Park Mall, is the sole authorised dealer for the brand here. The MOM spokesman said that the chairs, which cost $575 each, were chosen because of various factors, such as their ergonomic design, durability and value for money. "Taking all these factors into account, the successful tenderer meets our requirements and offered the best value for money over the lifespan of the chairs," added the spokesman. The chairs, which have not been delivered, will arrive in batches. Xtra Designs was selected out of a total of 11 companies which submitted their quotations to the ministry. The chairs come with a 12-year warranty, which covers all parts, including on-site support and the option to repair or replace. Xtra Designs managing director Lim Choon Hong confirmed the warranty coverage.
Mr Lim also highlighted that a feature of the Herman Miller Celle chair is that it is 99 per cent recyclable, and is made with 33 per cent recycled content. He said: "This is an important acknowledgement and response to the global and our Government's direction towards environmental sustainability." For more my paper stories click here.RON ARAD: HYBRID POSSIBILITIES MAGIS: THE FAMILY WAYPlease select One Option MORE PROMOTIONS ITEMS + IM Metal Leg Series AIR 753 Low Back Mesh Chair Promo $158 Herman Miller Sayl Chair Sale @ $438.00 Wilkhahn ON Ergonomic task chair Sale @ $288.00 Wilkhahn Neos Cantilever Chair Sale @ $198.00 Herman Miller Aeron Clearance Sale @ $328.00 Maple & Red Desking System in Cluster of 8 6 User Workstation 4.2 x 1.54 m We are one of the office furniture, keeping the environment green Today, we still have a strong hold in our core business, supplying high quality recycled furniture. We have also evolved with time to supply functional and economical new office furniture.
We will continue to strive to deliver our Best, caring for our customers' Business with our wide range of Furniture.The ancient essayist Plutarch once posed the following theoretical quandary—if all the parts of the legendary ship that Theseus sailed were replaced and updated by the time he sailed it back to Athens, was it still the same Ship of Theseus? Today, Herman Miller announced the remastering of the Aeron chair—one of the most successful and well-known office chairs of all time—with a host of material, technological, and ergonomic updates. Its distinctive shape and name, however, remain untouched. So Don Chadwick, who designed the original Aeron chair in 1994 with Bill Stumpf, knows he will have to come up with a satisfactory answer to Plutarch’s question. “I've often drawn an analogy to the Porsche 911, which came out in 1965,” he says. “The overall profiles of that car have pretty much remained constant up through the latest models. It's a different car, but in a way, it's the same car.”
Chadwick and Stumpf revolutionized office seating with the original Aeron. The tilting mechanism supported many postures, and the mesh for the back and seat eschewed foam and upholstery to bring transparency—and breathability—to offices. It was a chair designed for the digital age. Chadwick, now 80, has been involved in the design of the new Aeron, helping re-engineer the mesh to focus support on certain areas of the body and changing the technology that drives the tilt mechanism. In this exclusive interview, Metropolis talked to him to understand the spirit behind the update. Avinash Rajagopal: We think of the Aeron as a serious chair, but you’ve often said that you and Bill Stumpf were inspired by toys. Don Chadwick: When Bill and I grew up, we had toys like an erector set, or we had blocks. The fact that you could put something together, disassemble it, and then put it back together was a critical part of the ideas behind the Aeron chair—as it was with its predecessor, the Equa chair.
We also drew upon the analogy of bicycles that are easily repairable. So even though you wouldn't characterize the Aeron chair as a playful composition, it's playful in the way it's conceived as a construction of parts. AR: You mentioned the Equa chair, how was that a predecessor to the Aeron? DC: The Equa chair had certain integral dynamics, particularly in the shell. We designed the shell so that it would provide the proper amount of flexibility as you sit into the chair and sit back. It also incorporated one of the first so-called knee tilt mechanisms, where the pivot point moved from the traditional position above the center post, forward. It was sort of mimicking your knee joint. That was the beginning of understanding a whole new set of kinematics, the way the body moves and the way the chair moves. We also began to look at chairs that no longer dictated status. Up until the late '70s and early '80s, there was an executive chair, there was a management chair, and there was a secretarial chair.
There was this idea of inequality in the office, and when we did the Equa, we said, "Well, everybody deserves a good chair." When we got into the Aeron chair, that attitude continued because we offered it in three different sizes. So whether you were small or large, everybody got the same chair. AR: Another precedent for the Aeron, which isn't discussed much generally, was this amazing project that you did in the late ‘80s called Metaform. How did that project influence the Aeron? DC: When Bill and I worked on Metaform, the primary product was a reclining chair. It was designed particularly for older people. We were given the assignment to develop a mini environment, where the user would spend a good amount of time, that could be adjusted from upright to full recline, and also had a table that would swing over the chair, lighting, storage. The reclining chair had many pivot points. Some of those pivot points were useful in establishing how we would develop the Aeron chair.
In that reclining chair we also had a suspension that was a prelude to the mesh in the Aeron. It was an off-the-shelf material that Dupont had developed called Dymetrol, basically a one-way-stretch woven material. We took that Dymetrol idea and made it into what would be called an A-surface—a functional, visual surface. That led to the whole development of the woven material that you call a mesh, in generic terms, but what we call the Pellicle. That did not exist until we did the Aeron chair. It was a whole new seat and back-support technology. And it had its origins in Metaform. AR: Do you remember the initial reaction to the Aeron chair? DC: People either loved it or hated it. In the early focus group testing, the moderator would explain the whole concept ahead of time, and then they would uncover the chairs, and people would react to what they saw. They noted all this down. Then, they were allowed to sit in the chair. Their reactions, in most cases, changed quite a bit.
They were amazed that it could be so comfortable, without all the traditional accoutrements of upholstery and foam. The original idea was that the chair would appeal to the technology companies, because they were more involved with heavy computer use, and keyboard interface, etc. It just permeated its way into the entertainment industry. Hollywood picked it up, and all the people that were making commercials were putting it in the commercials. At the same time, all the special effects people were using it, because they were working at computers. Disney got intrigued with it. It just migrated everywhere, way beyond our expectations. I don't think anybody ever anticipated that it would have such a broad appeal. We're all very thankful for that. AR: So how did you feel when you first heard about the update? DC: This has been in the works, on and off, for a number of years, so it wasn't a complete surprise when they finally said, "It's time." We had actually made earlier proposals, but it was at NeoCon several years ago that I was approached by the head of design development, Don Goeman, saying that they wanted to go ahead with the project.
It was very exciting to take another look at the chair. AR: Did it allow you to address issues that you wish you could have in '94? DC: Well, one of the things that always bothered Bill and myself when the chair came out in '94 was the tilt mechanism. Because of the type of rubber torsion spring we used, it was always visually a little bulky looking. With the new Aeron, since we're using a leaf spring mechanism, we were able to re-scale the chair according to that mechanism. It's much slimmer in the profile. All the proportions are quite a bit lighter. Everything on the chair is brand new, from the castors up. The whole composition is more refined. The various castings, the swing arms, everything has been re-proportioned. There are also a couple of metallic-looking finishes that I think give the chair a little more character in different lighting conditions. AR: The original Aeron was an exercise in material design, especially in the mesh. How does the new chair take that material science approach further?
DC: Brock Walker, who is a consultant to Herman Miller and was very involved with the original Posture Fit on the chair, came up with specifications for how the mesh, which we call Pellicle, could better support the body both in the seat and on the back. Going through those required that we come up with a much more sophisticated weaving process. It’s now called a zoned suspension in that there are four different zones on the seat—it allows sufficient support at the front edge, but as you move back it gets a little bit softer, and then to the rear it stiffens up again. There's actually four different stiffnesses that are incorporated into that weave, which is a whole new technology. On the back, likewise, there are various zones of stiffness. The evolution of this Pellicle is really a major breakthrough in the technology of the chair. AR: The original Aeron came out at a time when computers were widely being adopted. We are now in the throes of another digital revolution, with smart devices.