by Brianna Crandall — June 23, 2014—As covered in a previous FMLink article, global furniture manufacturer and distributor Herman Miller, Inc., built on the momentum of its Living Office launch and unveiled new tools, information, and dynamic new furniture designs to help organizations address the new landscape of work at the NeoCon contract furnishings show in Chicago two weeks ago, earning Best Large Showroom and Best of NeoCon Silver for Nemschoff / Herman Miller Healthcare’s Palisade Collection. Additional innovative products that bring to life the company’s Living Office concept are detailed below.
Public Office Landscape System
Designed by Yves Béhar and fuseproject, Public Office Landscape intends to transform every part of the office—including the individual desk—into places for greater collaboration. Herman Miller says it is the first office system to support casual work and provide comfort at the desk, in circulation space, and in group areas, all within a consistent design vocabulary.
Visually uniform and modular surfaces, storage and seating can be configured into a broad range of settings that keep the office in a state of flow and encourage fluid transitions between collaborative and focused work.
The Social Chair is the core component of the Public system, bringing new ergonomics and functionality to soft seating while accommodating a range of people and postures as they work. The social seat is the core of a new landscape platform that encourages the purposeful interactions that drive work forward—at the desk, in group areas, and throughout the entire office.
Designed by Sam Hecht and Kim Colin of Industrial Facility (U.K.), Locale helps organizations better utilize and manage open offices with a system that enables people to seamlessly transition between work done together and alone, and in seated or standing postures. By removing visual and physical obstacles and condensing the architectural scale of an open plan office into a tightly knit neighborhood, Locale helps people stay better connected to their work and each other.
During the design process for Locale, Hecht and Colin drew on their own office for inspiration—a highly efficient space that accommodates different work styles and behaves like an energetic international neighborhood. The design was informed by the idea of a thriving English high street, which serves the community and broader city simply and effectively, by arranging a variety of local activities and services in close proximity.
The system responds to the growing desire for office layouts where high-performance teams can work more fluidly and with more variety, and offers a truly open office plan that recognizes collaboration as a necessity of good business.
Designed by Brian Alexander, Renew makes moving from sitting to standing—and back again—a natural part of people’s day. Combined with a chair, it gives a full range of supported “health-positive” movement so people can stay more active, reduce aches and pains, and keep up a steady flow of energy and ideas. The table features a soft, paddle-shaped switch that intuitively moves the table up to raise and down to lower.
A seamless wire management design routes the cords from desktop tools into a cable trough below the table, keeping them out of sight even when the table is raised. Finally, softly angled corners under the table protect the user’s knees and encourage movement.
Geiger Elsi Conferencing System
Designed by Jess Sorel, Geiger Elsi is a comprehensive conferencing system that uses floor space in an efficient manner, making it possible to create collaborative areas in private offices and small meeting rooms. It includes a teleconferencing system, small and large conference tables, demountable walls, and a credenza to accommodate technology and media storage.
Elsi is offered in three heights with solid wood legs with a metal shroud: 24″ lounge height, 29″ task height, and 38″ standing height. Aluminum legs are also available, and a wood plinth base is offered at 29″ high for conference tables. The product is available in all Geiger standard woods and four standard linoleum color options.
Elsi is GREENGUARD-certified; produced at an ISO 14001-certified facility powered entirely by Green-e certified renewable energy; and features FSC-certified recycled-content wood substrate and optional FSC-certified veneer. The product features a 12-year warranty and is made in the USA.
Logic fosters consistent interactions with power and data, helping people work, meet, and create—in any space and on any surface. A range of sizes and configurations enables a uniform experience of connectivity across all settings, and available grommet-mounted and clamp-on options ensure that Logic seamlessly integrates with any work surface.
Logic also intelligently manages cords and connections, organizing them below the work surface, hidden from view, and affording what people need to work and create. Charging devices or connecting to networks is made simple with an easy-to-access tray. For organizations seeking an integrated Living Office, Logic is the only power access portfolio designed to create a frictionless user experience and ubiquitous technology access at the work surface, notes Herman Miller.
Formwork stackable desktop storage accessories designed by Sam Hecht and Kim Colin help bring order to papers, tools, and artifacts. With shapes and sizes that were rigorously considered to relate an intuitive sense of utility, the accessories may be stacked and combined in any way the user sees fit.
The accessories include a pencil cup with a ledge for smaller items; a large and small tray with a cantilevered ledge to allow the placement of items in order of usefulness; a large and small box with a removable lid and a spot for a cup; a tissue box; a media stand with a stabilizing silicone base to hold tablets and notebooks for storage or use; and a paper tray with a gently sloped lip to make picking up the pieces easy.
Balancing meticulous attention to details with a thoughtful consideration of context, Hecht and Colin created Formwork in varying permutations, allowing some items to be kept out of view, while others remain within reach, based on aesthetic considerations or frequency of use. The sophisticated forms, material production, and color palette indicate a level of thoughtfulness rarely brought to desktop goods, says Herman Miller. Each form is shaped in ABS plastic with a non-slip silicone base.
