Report

Herman Miller Furniture Systems: Patent Assignment and Non-Disclosure Agreement

24/06/1988

Contractual, Non-Disclosure Agreement

3-page updated draft of the Non-Disclosure agreement between the Center for Environmental Structure and the “Consultant” or “Employee”, requiring a confirmation by each consultant that only C.E.S. has the ownership of rights for the designs, inventions and patents and C.E.S. is required to warrant to HMI that all titles, ownership interests of any concept and design are free of any third person or entity claims. Updates are highlighted, as mentioned in the attached letter. A copy of the initial draft and its forwarding letter are also included .

Authors:

Consultant/Employee

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 ...

Contents

Reports

References

Correspondence

Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Forwarding a draft of the contract notifying that the non-Disclosure agreement is being prepared as well 13/06/1988

Project, Contractual, Non-Disclosure Agreement

Sender:

Robert Harvey, Herman Miller Inc., Zeeland, MI, U.S.A.

Recipient:

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

Medium:

Letter

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