Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Forwarding a formal project proposal, for the “Development of a New Line of Office Furniture and Enclosures” and referring to an article recently published by Architectural Record’s Interiors issue as an example illustrating what is being proposed for the Herman Miller Inc. project. A list of practical points is included

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

Christopher Alexander, Artemis Anninou, Gary Black, John Rheinfrank

Architectural Record, No. 1501, pp. 130-141

McGraw Hill Inc., New York, NY, U.S.A.