Herman Miller Furniture Systems: The Personal Workplace – A System of Office Furniture Designed for Comfort: Vol 1. Overview and Scope – General Introduction

01/01/1988

Project Report

16-page document which provides an overview of the scope of the work, and the predominant issues to be addressed, as reflected in the Table of Contents: 1. Introduction; 2. The Character of Office Space; 3. Types of Individual Workspace; 4. Importance of Group Space; 5. The Layout Process; 6. Physical Character of the New Line of Furniture; 7. Color and Light; 8. The Office Building; Appendix: Workbooks available for the Personal Workspace System.

Authors:

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

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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 ...

References

Scientific Research

The Uniqueness of People's Individual Worlds, Always Respected and Manifested

Areas of focus:

Design and Building Process

Guiding idea:

Participation of Users

In the last two centuries "modular" design has produced identical apartments, arranged in typical apartment blocks. The same is true for mass-produced furniture. Uniqueness, which expresses personal needs and whiches, and which springs from the need to adapt and connect ...

Correspondence

Transmittal of an 18-page copy of "A System of Office Furniture Designed for Comfort: Volume 1. Overview and Scope". Notes that another fax will follow immediately. the 19 pages are not attached here 03/04/1996

C.E.S. Office, Administrative, Transmittal

Sender:

Randall Schmidt, Center for Environmental Structure , Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Recipient:

Audrey Schriefer, New Jersey, U.S.A.

Medium:

Fax

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