Correspondence

Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Giving explanations for the reasons the Center for Environmental Structure lost its trust regarding the financial management by Rob Harvey. A layout of the chronological sequence of events leading to this decision is given, starting on Mar of 1988 through August of 1989 and concluding with the need to change the financial manager, rebuild a mutual trust and hopefully move ahead with the design process; two drafts are included

01/09/1989

Financial, Notification

Sender:

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

Recipient:

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

Medium:

Letter

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

Correspondence

References

Correspondence

Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Demanding a new financial manager for the project if Herman Miller Inc. wishes to continue working with Center for Environmental Structure. It is believed that finance and design management should be separated 30/08/1989

Project, Financial, Notification

Sender:

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

Recipient:

Ed Simon, Herman Miller Inc., Zeeland, MI, U.S.A.

Medium:

Letter