A Study in Duality

Sculptural form and everyday function, upholstered and ergonomic, quiet and significant. Combined, it provides all the performance of an ergonomic work chair, in a form that is as comfortable as it is beautiful.

BEHIND THE DESIGN

Naoto Fukasawa designed this chair with a clear goal:

To inspire joy and create a new form, ultimately becoming the next upholstered icon. Considering the relationship between person, environment, and chair, Fukasawa looked to the world around him as inspiration—beginning with its name. Japanese for “clam” (short neck clam, to be precise), Asari’s rounded edges and sculpted segments give an anthropomorphic character to the chair. The smooth and calming surfaces of river stones and symmetrical tiers of a macaron influenced the sculptured prototypes Fukasawa and team hand-built to represent their vision of the design.

A PURELY ICONIC PIECE

In Perfect Harmony

To turn the designer’s sculpted vision and forms into reality, our development teams needed to create new ways of constructing a chair. To achieve the clean stitching and visuals and ensure the chair would meet our rigorous standards, the team devised new methods to craft the form. The result is a meticulously crafted chair design where every form, stitch, and curve is essential: a purely iconic piece of furniture.

MAHARAM MATERIALS

A First-of-its-Kind Partnership

To enable the elevated form Fukasawa desired and provide Asari with incredible softness, we partnered with Maharam to artfully curate two textiles and a leather suited to the character of the chair: Meld, Luce, and Stow. This is the first time an office chair by Herman Miller has welcomed such a focused partnership.

Meld

A multipurpose textile with universal appeal, Meld enlists a tight basket weave of luminous yarns to produce a flickering surface with light and dark variation. Offering the look and feel of wool, Meld is constructed primarily of post-consumer recycled polyester.

Luce

Woven in Italy, Luce has a rich palette derived from the post-consumer recycled wool of repurposed garments sourced throughout Europe. An offset twill weave lends grain to the surface, highlighting the depth of Luce’s heathered yarns.

Stow Leather

Guided by the Maharam Design Studio’s material expertise and sourced at a boutique tannery in Northern Italy, Stow celebrates the inherent beauty of leather returned to a more natural state. Stow’s compact profile and soft hand eases upholster-ability while a protective topcoat provides additional resistance to staining.

Colorful Characters

To bring Fukasawa’s sculptural vision to life and truly celebrate Asari’s form, we applied a considered approach to color called Color Flood. Evolving the dipped-in color approach used on other chairs, we carefully curated a palette of eight all-over hues to deliver character to the chair. This palette balances traditional shades like Black Leather, rich basics like Cocoa, and vibrant color pops like Marigold. Whether you choose one of the Color Flood options or a more traditional blended color option, Asari has the perfect character for your space.

“We smile at the chair and the chair smiles back.”

Tokyo-based designer Naoto Fukasawa is well-known for his meticulous attention to detail and keen observation. His latest design, Asari Chair by Herman Miller, is a harmonious marriage of beautiful sculpture and everyday function.

LEARN MORE ABOUT ABOUT NAOTO FUKASAWA >

This Chair Has a Soft Spot for You

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Brochure with dimensions, materials, details, and available options that make up the Asari Chair by Herman Miller is available by request.

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