The chair is available at Novo Ambiente São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro
Original text – Design Milk
Herman Miller achieved resounding success when it launched, in 1994, the Aeron chair, developed in partnership with designers Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf. Nearly 25 years later, another landmark release emerged: the Cosm chair, designed by the Berlin-based firm Studio 7.5. In São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the chair is available at Novo Ambiente.
Carola Zwick, Roland Zwick, and Burkhard Schmitz, the designers leading the project, spent eight years on research and testing to develop a new ergonomic recline system. The trio had previously collaborated with HM on the two versions of the Mirra chair. 
Named Auto-Harmonic, the mechanism is the x-factor of a task chair that automatically adapts to the user, ensuring more than enough comfort for the consecutive hours we spend seated.
“We did not want to make just another chair. Our idea was to develop an experience, like the feeling of zero gravity,” explains Carola Zwick. “The project’s codename was precisely ‘Flying Carpet,’ because the idea was to create something suspended, where the user could focus and ‘forget’ gravity.”
The breathable, temperature-neutral Intercept elastomeric suspension provides continuous support for the spine by eliminating the gap between the backrest and the seat. Attached to an exclusive flexible frame, it increases freedom of movement.
“During the process, it became clear that we needed to develop new prototyping methods to test our hypotheses”, says Zwick. “One of those methods was finding a more effective way to attach the suspension to the chair’s frame. Many things went wrong until we finally found a solution using syringes and polyurethane. It took eight people to attach it completely, because we had only 120 seconds before the material dried. All that experimentation ended up creating a new production method for attaching the material”.
The new Leaf arms draw attention with their curved, sci-fi-inspired design, creating a spacious and comfortable resting place for the elbows.
“The design of the Leaf arms is unusual because we wanted to avoid contact points other than between the elbow and the suspension. The essential idea was to create a comfortable support that would not prevent the user from getting close to the worktable, while also being strong enough to assist the user when standing up or sitting down,” Weick explains.
The Cosm is available in six colors and offers three size options for the backrest, expanding the possibilities for combination and use. In addition to the version with Leaf arms, there are models without arms or with conventional fixed/adjustable arms.
“Even at an industrial scale, there are still artisanal techniques involved. I hope we can follow in the Eames’ footsteps in designing something that is thoughtful in every detail. It was a long journey, but the difference between our ideas and the final version of the Cosm is better than any project we have done before,” Weick concludes.
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