Herman Miller Chair Aeron

'People either don't use these controls or adjust them incorrectly in Herman Miller Chair Aeron,'' says the greying master while demonstrating his chair. ''My chair's name is Freedom; the theme is simplicity. You just position your body where you want it.''

The first-time user of Herman Miller's designed chair adjusts back height, chair height and seat-pan depth. Period. You never have to adjust the chair again. During a recline, the chair automatically provides the appropriate amount of counter force on the backrest, for heavy and light persons alike. There's no groping around underneath to find a tension-control knob.

What really wowed me about the Freedom's recline, though, was the headrest's action: It comes forward to meet your head, moving in an arc, following the natural trajectory of the head, hence the chair's rounded superstructure.

''Not everyone realizes how much you relieve pressure on the spine by reclining,'' Diffrient says. ''With as much recline as the Aeron has, you need a headrest that's supporting your head, or else you are straining your neck to support your head. But nobody else has ever been able to figure out how to do this.

''If you watch, when I recline, my head wants to stay vertical; that's when I need to have a headrest. But if I kept the headrest at the same angle, I'd be pitched forward when I came up. So, traditionally you reach back and undo the lock and adjust it. We made the action automatic and eliminated those nuisances.''

To raise or lower the arms, you simply lift up the front of the arms, a much more natural action than looking for a release button. Moreover, the arms move synchronously -- a big plus. The arms on my Aeron chair have finicky, independent adjustments, and I gave up trying to raise them to the same height.

Freedom's contours follow the body's curves, which allows for thin upholstery. ''The best support is really a matter of supporting as much of the area of your body as possible. You reduce the pounds per square inch and you feel less pressure,'' Diffrient says.

One could sit quite comfortably on the chair without any padding, but Americans, who equate padding with comfort (more so than Europeans or even Canadians, according to Klaus Nienkamper), probably wouldn't buy it.

Even so, after sitting in a chair for some time, the tailbone compresses the seat cushion so that the area of impact becomes a hard spot. To that end, the Freedom seat contains a non-compressible gel that dissipates the load, so that one never feels any hard points.

Aeron Chairs |