Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Wall lights & reflectors

1988

Work of Art for Project, Office Furniture Prototype

System of wall lights placed at the wall-celing interface, to form a lighting cornice. The wall lights are supplied with computerized colored reflecting surfaces, that can be installed either below or above the wall light. Full scale functioning light fixture mockup running along the full length of the wall, made of foam board and transparent paper, incorporated in the 12 feet by 18 feet office interiors for one person, constructed by C.E.S.

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

Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Wall Light Reflector mockup 01/01/1986

Mock-up

Created by:

Christopher Alexander, Artemis Anninou, Gary Black, Center for Environmental Structure, Berkeley, CA

Medium:

Array

Size:

14 3/4"x94", 14 3/4"x60"

Scale:

1'=1'

Full-scale cardboard mockup strips of light reflectors with geometric patterns of a darker green background with lighter green cross shaping lines forming red stars.

Photographs

References

Scientific Research

Books

The Nature of Order - An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe. Book Three - A Vision of a Living World 2005

Authors:

Christopher Alexander

Publisher:

The Center for Environmental Structure Publishing, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

No of pages:

697 pp

“A Vision of a Living World”, the third volume of “The Nature of Order” series, presents, for the first time, a full spectrum of Alexander’s and CES built and unbuilt works. The book describes hundreds of buildings, plans, neighborhoods, drawings, ...

Book Chapters

Chapter 14. Construction Elements as Living Centers, 6/ Unfolding Building Details from the Fundamental Process

Publication,

Book title:

The Nature of Order – An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe.
Book Three – A Vision of a Living World

Pages:

456-476

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