Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Expressing feelings of joy after meeting in California with Christopher Alexander and of the possibility of the project becoming a new paradigm shift in the creation of office environments. Also, requesting parts of the Nature of Order manuscript for studying them, as part of a deeper understanding of the philosophy behind the project; memo note relating to a book suggested to Christopher Alexander at the meeting, is attached

Zeeland, MI, U.S.A.

Herman Miller, Inc. - Rob Harvey, Vice President

Christopher Alexander, Artemis Anninou, Gary Black

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.

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

Robert Harvey, Herman Miller Inc., Zeeland, MI, U.S.A.

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

Letter