Arch 201, Spring 1989: Seminar notes titled on office buildings

01/02/1989

Student Work, Seminar Course Notes

Four sets of student notes regarding the creation of a guide for helping with the layout process of office buildings; include student questions and evaluations of various aspects of the process.

Content of

Academic Course

Design studio on Office Building Design 1989

University Program:

Master of Architecture

Course type:

Graduate Design Studio

Course number:

Arch. 201

Instructors:

Christopher Alexander, Eleni Coromvli

Enrolled students:

Susan Blowers, Tom Dinwoodie, Dil Green, Ora Hatheway, Ross Ishikawa, Cliff Niederer, Soren Pfeffer, Marlene Suggs, Bob Theis, Robert M. Walsh, Chris Winans

Students were asked to examine contemporary office buildings, specify their problems and propose a design process, which would generate a new archetype for office buildings. Emphasis to be given to the criteria and patterns which make the office spaces personal ...

Contents

Course Material

SEE ALL Course Material

References

Scientific Research

The Sequence of Unfolding - Generative Codes for the Design Process

Areas of focus:

Design and Building Process

Guiding idea:

Structure Preserving Transformations

In architecture, as in other things, the "right" sequence is of vital importance. It is a generative sequence of progressive differentiations, which allow space to unfold in the right order. Each differentiation acts on the product of the previous ...

Projects

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 ...