Record

Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Notice to C.E.S. employees regarding possible Herman Miller royalty sharing

01/01/1988

Financial, Notification

3-page informational notice to C.E.S. employees indicating future royalty income could be generated because of the C.E.S. – Herman Miller, Inc. project.

Authors:

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

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: "Agreement between C.E.S., Gary Black and Artemis Anninou regarding sharing of royalties in connection with the Herman Miller Furniture Project" 23/08/1988

Project, Contractual

Authors:

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

4-page draft agreement between the Center for Environmental Structure with Gary Black and Artemis Anninou, establishing a royalty sharing incentive compensating their work in connection to the C.E.S./Herman Miller furniture design project. The attorney’s –Robert D. Links– forwarding letter of ...