Course Material

Arch 201, Spring 1989: Student paper titled “The Office Building: A Study of the Nature of the Workplace”

01/05/1989

Student Work, Paper

Authors:

Susan Blowers, University of California Berkeley, College of Environmental Design, Department of Architecture, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Content of

Academic Course

Design studio on Office Building Design 1989

University Program:

Master of Architecture

Course type:

Graduate Design Studio

Course number:

Arch. 201

Instructors:

Christopher Alexander, Eleni Coromvli

Enrolled students:

Susan Blowers, Tom Dinwoodie, Dil Green, Ora Hatheway, Ross Ishikawa, Cliff Niederer, Soren Pfeffer, Marlene Suggs, Bob Theis, Robert M. Walsh, Chris Winans

Students were asked to examine contemporary office buildings, specify their problems and propose a design process, which would generate a new archetype for office buildings. Emphasis to be given to the criteria and patterns which make the office spaces personal ...

References

Projects

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 ...