A Chair Like a Second Skin

The five designers who made up the Berlin design firm Studio 7.5 when Mirra was developed consider themselves "the grandchildren of the Eameses." And like Charles and Ray, they are design pioneers who specialize in observing how workers interact with their environments and in finding ways to improve that interaction.

Claudia Plikat, Burkhard Schmitz, Carola Zwick, Roland Zwick, and Nicolai Neubert (who has since left Studio 7.5) worked as a team, without titles or hierarchy, rather than relying on a single individual. They have been involved in designing products that improve how people work for more than a decade.

The whole team shares a genuine passion for one particular workplace element—seating. Studio 7.5 also designed our Setu chair. Mirra evolved from their willingness to break the standard task chair mold. They envisioned a chair that reacts to what people do, a chair like a second skin, like a shadow of the sitter. There are only a few adjustment controls, designed to be very intuitive.

Mirra features common materials applied in original ways, such as the elastomeric seat suspension and molded polymer back that replace traditional foam and fabric.

User testing, benchmarking, focus groups, tilt performance studies, and other research ensure that the chair meets your needs and provides advanced ergonomic performance. For example, research over the years has shown that the biggest concern that work chair users have is back support. In fact, back issues account for the second highest number of work illnesses. The designers took this concern 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 to 65, using advanced 3-D technology. Data from the study—the first full-body, 3-D surface anthropometry survey of the U.S. and Europe—was used to create a chair that fits people from the 5th percentile woman to the 95th percentile man.

The result? An adaptable, ergonomic office chair that sets a new standard for comfort, fit, balanced ride, and visual refinement in its price range.

There are only a few
adjustment controls,
designed to be very
intuitive.