Record

Haworth New Office Furniture System: Notes, lists and charts

01/05/1985

Miscellaneous, Notes

Five handwritten pages with early project notes.

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

Correspondence

Haworth New Office Furniture System: Expectations to sign contract between C.E.S. and Haworth Inc. Letter outlines Christopher Alexander's thoughts on how to prepare the way by writing down the expectations from his perspective in a collaborative context with Richardson Smith and asking that Haworth Inc. might do the same. Four points of feelings are written and crucial points for how C.E.S. envisions the project are detailed. 21/08/1985

Project, Contractual, Request for Feedback

Sender:

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

Recipient:

Tom Hench, Haworth Inc., Holland, MI, U.S.A.

Medium:

Letter