Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Real ceiling

1988

Work of Art for Project, Office Furniture Prototype

Low budget patterned ceiling surface made of prefabricated panels, which can be easily installed over the top of most existing celing systems, without affecting accessibility to services, or insulation value. Full scale functioning mockups covering the full extent of the ceiling was 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

Photographs

Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Real Ceiling - Photographs of mock-up 01/01/1988

Mock-up

Photographer:

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

Source:

Digital, Print, Slide

Characteristics:

4"x6", Color

Professional photographs of two different full scale ceiling mock-ups.

References

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