Haworth New Office Furniture System: Pattern Language for a New Generation of Office Furniture

01/01/1985

Project Report Early Version

66 pages analyzing a set of 27 problematic issues current office spaces suffer from, with suggestions of how each one will be addressed and resolved. The 27 pattern concepts proposed deal with qualitative, functional and environmental design solutions through a participative design process.

Authors:

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

Content of

Project

New System of Office Furniture for Haworth, Inc. 1985 to 1986

Holland, MI, U.S.A.

Office Furniture, Designed , Furniture prototypes built by C.E.S.

Client:

Haworth Manufacturing, Inc. - Tom Hench

C.E.S. staff:

Christopher Alexander, Artemis Anninou, Gary Black, Mark Brinner

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:

Pattern language for project by C.E.S. Generic rules for office layout process Use of full scale mock-ups Fabrication of full size furniture prototypes by C.E.S. Design Development drawings done after fabrication

The new system of office furniture, intended for mass production, was designed in such a way as to be capable of creating the environment for millions of workers, in an endless variety of specific configurations. The line of furniture provided ...

References

Reports

Haworth New Office Furniture System: Pattern Language for a New Generation of Office Furniture 01/05/1985

Project, Project Report

Authors:

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

34-page in-house sketch of a Pattern Language with 64 patterns structured in two groups: Group One “The Character and Layout of Offices” and Group Two “Physical Shape and Substance of the Furniture”. It includes two copies, the second one with ...