Record

Haworth New Office Furniture System: Layout of Common Space – for 10 unit office, 17,000 sf, 20sf per person gross density

01/01/1985

Design Matters, Layout Process

23-page draft document exploring the potential of five different processes for the layout of office space. ‘Basic Principles’, ‘The Steps’, and ‘List of Common Space to be Shared by all Units’ are outlined for each process proposal, together with simulation plans testing possibilities and outcome.

Authors:

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

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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

Scientific Research

Reports

Haworth New Office Furniture System: Basic Sketch of Theory and Physical Characteristics of the Office Furniture 01/09/1985

Project, Project Report

Authors:

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

41-page early report addressing the following six topics: 1) Fifty Key Elements; 2) Customer Variables and Builder Variables; 3) Price of Variables; 4) Manufacturing of Elements; 5) Speed of Production; 6) Franchised Local Production Shops; 7) Cuttable Modifiable Materials.