Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Office Layout Process; notes from thirteen individuals who participated in a test experiment led by C.E.S., for which C.E.S. provided a step-by-step generating sequence which allowed each person to work out the ideal layout of his/her own office step by step

01/03/1989

Design Matters, Layout Process

Two pages containing a brief list of comments on the existing work conditions of each participant, and a list of available furniture to choose from, each including the amounts requested .

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

Records

Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Office Layout Process; a set of sketches and notes from thirteen individuals who participated in a test experiment led by C.E.S., for which C.E.S. provided a step-by-step generating sequence which allowed each person to work out the ideal layout of his/her own office step by step, and then realize it by building it in the movable cardboard model 01/03/1989

Project, Design Matters, Layout Process

Sketches with brief comments on the existing work conditions, twenty six pages in total, produced by the thirteen participants in the C.E.S. office experiment, for testing the office layout rules: 1. Pirko Luckhesie, Architect; 2. Alex Bloom, Software Development; 3. ...