Photograph

Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Personal Chair – Photographs

01/01/1988

Finalized Piece of Office Furniture

Professional photograph of fully functioning prototype piece of office furniture.

Photographer:

Mark Darley/Esto, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Source:

Digital

Characteristics:

Color

Content of

Construction Innovation

Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Personal chairs 1988

Work of Art for Project, Office Furniture Prototype

Created by:

Christopher Alexander, Artemis Anninou, Gary Black

Light-weight armchair for office use; frame of high strength monocoque construction, lacquered surface and upholstered seat in heavy duty ribbed silk. Functioning prototype was included in the 12 feet by 18 feet office interiors for one person, constructed by C.E.S.

References

Projects

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 ...

Drawings

Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Personal Chair - Sketches 02/02/1988

Construction Innovation, Sketches, Perspective, Elevation

Designers:

Christopher Alexander, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Medium:

Original on Paper

Size:

8 1/2"x11"

Two pages of pencil sketches by Christopher Alexander for the work armchair.