Arch 207, Spring 1989: Class paper titled “The Personal Workplace: A System of Office Furniture Designed for Comfort – Vol. 10, Office Building”

01/05/1989

Student Work, Paper

45-page paper on “The Nature of the Buildings Which Will Extend the Qualities of the Personal Workplace to the Whole Work Environment”. The paper describes the criteria used for formulating the design process for office-buildings. The criteria were determined by studying the problems in current work environments on different levels of scale. It includes four chapters 1) Introduction; 2) Criteria for Evaluation; 3) Most Important Problems of the Office Building; 4) Physical Patterns Which Form the Backbone of the Building. One draft of the paper is also included .

Authors:

Instructors: Christopher Alexander, Eleni Coromvli; Students: Susan Bowers, Tom Dinwiddie, Dil Green, Ora Hatheway, Ross Ishikawa, Cliff Niederer, Soren Pfeffer, Marlene Suggs, Bob Theis, Bob Walsh, Chris Winans, University of California Berkeley, College of Environmental Design, Department of Architecture, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Content of

Academic Course

Research on Office Building Design 1989

University Program:

Master of Architecture

Course type:

Graduate Seminar

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

Graduate seminar on the definition of criteria for evaluating the office building form and its functionality. The criteria were based on the problems identified in office buildings and the patterns required for providing solutions to the problems.

Contents

Course Material

References

Scientific Research

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 ...