Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Conference table

1988

Work of Art for Project, Office Furniture Prototype

Long table for major conferences, cherry and painted wood. Central panel and side panels polished cherry; work surface, hand painted stenciled painted design, to order by the company. Central panel with electrical outlets provision. Functioning prototype was included in the 12 feet by 18 feet office interiors for one person, constructed by C.E.S. Paper model of the conference table was exhibited in "Designed in California - Rise of the User" on March 2018 in the San Fransisco MOMA, , together with other model pieces, a setup for the personal office.

Created by:

Christopher Alexander, Artemis Anninou, Gary Black

Content of

Project

The Personal Workplace - New System of Office Furniture 1988 to 1990

Zeeland, MI, U.S.A.

Office Furniture, Designed , Two personal offices with furniture prototypes built by C.E.S.

Client:

Herman Miller, Inc. - Rob Harvey, Vice President

C.E.S. staff:

Christopher Alexander, Artemis Anninou, Gary Black

Design and construction process:

Theree design principles guided the development of the project: 1) Layout of the personal work space by their users in order to meet their own personal needs; this process is achievable through the use of a computer program developed at C.E.S. which carries a worker through the design process. 2) Use of flexible manufacturing techniques, which allow individualisation of each piece of furniture, without increasing costs; the purpose of this feature is to eliminate the modularity that is part and parcel of current systems. 3) The basis of design is the real human needs and desires, not on the latest trend.

Project stages:

Generic rules for office layout process Use of full scale mock-ups Fabrication of full size furniture prototypes and office rooms by C.E.S. Design Development drawings done after fabrication

Herman Miller, the second largest manufacturer of office furniture in the United States, commissioned C.E.S. to develop the "personal workplace", a new system of furniture, which aimed at changing the nature of the American workplace completely. The emphasis was on ...

Contents

Models & Mock-ups

Drawings

Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Conference Table - Construction Drawings 02/12/1988

Construction Drawings, Plan, Section, Elevation, Details

Designers:

Christopher Alexander, Artemis Anninou, Gary Black, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Medium:

Photocopy

Size:

8 1/2"x11"

Scale:

3/32"=1", 1/4"=1"

Two detailed construction drawings of the conference table, including elevations, top view, sections and construction details.

Photographs

Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Conference Table - Photographs 01/01/1988

Finalized Piece of Office Furniture

Photographer:

Mark Darley/Esto, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Source:

Digital, Slide

Characteristics:

Color

Two professional photographs of fully functioning prototype piece of office furniture.

References

Public Events

"Designed in California - Rise of the User" Exhibition 01/03/2018 to 30/05/2018

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.

Exhibition

C.E.S. staff:

Lily Alexander

Organized by:

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

The artifacts exibited in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art included works developed for the Herman Miller Furniture Project: One of Christopher Alexander’s gouache sketches from his sketchbook; four paper models of office furniture built by Artemis Anninou, and ...

Reports

Herman Miller Furniture Systems: The Personal Workplace - A System of Office Furniture Designed for Comfort: Vol 2. Catalog - The New Line of Furniture 01/01/1988

Project, Project Report

Authors:

Christopher Alexander, Artemis Anninou, Gary Black, Center for Environmental Structure, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

33-page document, which includes an Introduction, list of the twenty nine items of furniture available with descriptions for each one. The items of furniture are chosen with the intension to allow the user to find a way in which he/she ...

Photographs

Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Photographs of building interior 01/01/1988

Project, Interior View

Photographer:

Mark Darley/Esto, Martinez, CA, U.S.A.

Source:

Digital, Print, Slide

Characteristics:

8 1/2"x11", 6"x8" , Color

Seven views of the second office interior for one person, built by the Center for Environmental Structure as a prototype office. It includes prototype pieces and mock-ups from the new office furniture system. The first photo was exhibited at the Locus ...