Image source: Herman Miller — Sayl Chairs
© Herman Miller and the respective rights holders. Quoted to accompany INTEBEE's independent design commentary and research.
Sayl Chairs
Yves Béhar's family of work chairs, side chairs and stools, with an unframed 3D Intelligent back.
622 × 1035 mm
2010
Official product information
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Description
Overview
Sayl is a family of seating designed by Yves Béhar for Herman Miller: work chairs, side chairs and stools with an upholstered seat and a suspension or upholstered back.
Construction
The unframed 3D Intelligent suspension back uses elastomer strands that vary in thickness and tension, supported by a Y-Tower. The work chair has a 5-star base; side chairs have a 4-leg or sled base.
Specifications
Work chair, suspension mid-back (AS1SA), price-book drawing: 24½ in across and up to 40¾ in high in the high-height range; no axis is assigned to these values and no depth is given. Maximum user weight 350 lb (159 kg).
Story
Suspending a chair
Herman Miller asked Yves Béhar to design a highly affordable chair that would include beautiful design, first-class ergonomics, elegant engineering and respect for the environment. Béhar looked at designs that deliver the most with the least, then at San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, and asked whether the engineering principles of a suspension bridge could be applied to a chair.
Image source: Herman Miller — Sayl Chairs · © Herman Miller and the respective rights holders. Quoted to accompany INTEBEE's independent design commentary and research. · View official product page ↗ · Image use & copyright policy
A name from sailing
The design story explains that the chair seen from the side resembles a full mainsail, a reference to the sailing vessels that pass beneath the bridges that inspired the design; the letter y in Sayl nods to the Y-Tower structure of the work chair.
