Correspondence

Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: In continuation to a telephone call, issues that were discussed including further explanations, are laid to facilitate a clearer understanding of the current problematic situation. Specific contract articles are mentioned as needing special attention

11/12/1989

Contractual, Outstanding Issues

Sender:

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

Recipient:

Gary Miller, 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 ...

References

Reports

Herman Miller Furniture Systems: Contract & revision to paragraphs 15, 16 and 17 to be inserted in contract between Herman Miller, Inc. and the Center for Environmental Structure 21/02/1989

Project, Contractual, Design Services Agreement

Marked-up copy with editing of the 19-page agreement with an addition of a two-page revision of paragraphs #15 Proprietary Rights, #16 Product Ownership and #17 Project Cancelation .