Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Memo on Use of Modelling Expense Money

12/01/1989

Financial, Memorandum

Notifying that the expenditures on the design and modelling between 01-Jul-1988 and 31-Dec-1988 are higher than the budgeted sum. This is due to the increase of items requested to be designed. Additional funds will be needed if C.E.S. continues at this rate. Summary of modelling expenses with options for the following months is included.

Authors:

Christopher Alexander, Center for Environmental Structure, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

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

Correspondence

Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: An invitation to meet and review the current work, followed by an in-depth discussion about the budget constraints due to the requested increase of items from six to twelve without an increase in budget 07/02/1989

Project, Financial, Budget

Sender:

Christopher Alexander, Center for Environmental Structure, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Recipient:

Dick Ruch, Herman Miller Inc., Zeeland, MI, U.S.A.

Medium:

Letter