Herman Miller has for the past few years shown NeoCon attendees and its larger customer base a drawn-out progression of its Living Office concepts. It’s been a pleasure to see the concepts take shape, from a collection of vague, broad-scale ideas in 2013 to a suite of living and working solutions approach that, while new and revolutionary, are very much a part of the Herman Miller heritage.
Putting Living Office into a context that designers are comfortable working within can be difficult, and Herman Miller’s showroom this year was research- and evidence- heavy in an effort to show us the real-life possibilities of Living Office. If you didn’t take the time to walk through the interactive research installations at the front of the showroom, you missed a big chunk of what they were presenting. In addition to debuting a few new products, Herman Miller presented the results of its most rigorous research effort within the past 25 years.
We caught up with Joseph White, director of workplace strategy at Herman Miller, to understand the thinking behind the brand’s NeoCon 2016 showroom, the results of its Living Office research, and how designers can actually use Living Office most effectively in their projects. Four distinct areas of focus are guiding Living Office’s focus:
>Point of View; Herman Miller’s point of view on how people work and what makes us human. There are six fundamental human needs that affect our (humans’) decision-making: security, autonomy (seeking freedom), belonging, achievement, status (seeking recognition), and purpose (wanting to make a difference). These six needs provide a structure to build on. “When a person makes decisions, they naturally cycle through how those decisions will affect their six fundamental needs,” noted Mr. White.
>Placemaking Framework; transforming place into a strategic business asset by using purposeful variety, which signifies meeting business goals and meeting human needs at the same time. “Nothing in nature is random, so why would we expect or build the environments we live in to do anything different?”
>Product Portfolio; delivering the Living Office strategy through a portfolio of product solutions.
>Evolutionary Support and Services; the newest area of focus, addressing how Herman Miller supports each and every application. This area of focus asks how Herman Miller is evolving along with the changes in living and working.
“In our minds, it’s how we define prosperity,” said Mr. White. “It’s not just about providing fruit juice and nap rooms; it’s much more than that.”
“Herman Miller proposes that if people are different, and the work they do is different, then the places where those people work should be different too. To illustrate these concepts, we asked 12 artists to envision their ideal place to work. Would it be more open or closed? More formal or casual? What material choices would make them happy? How much technology would they want? Would the space feel isolated and calm, or crowded and buzzing? Would it be neat or messy? Their responses suggest the inherent uniqueness of each Living Office.” NeoCon visitors were invited to take home a poster or two.
Herman Miller is building on the knowledge gleaned from those four focus areas, and NeoCon 2016 was all about proving how Living Office is indeed doing what it promises to do. Since releasing Living Office in 2013, the brand has been working with its clients to determine what priorities and goals those clients find most important.
The results of this research is a compilation of five business drivers that Herman Miller explored at NeoCon this year: attraction and retention, stimulating innovation, promoting knowledge sharing, strengthening brand connection, and increasing efficiency through continuous improvement. The research also identified six significant shifts showing that designers and clients are planning space differently – “with greater variety, more opportunities for interaction, and a smarter use of resources. In other words, more like a Living Office.”
>From standard conference rooms to a variety of group settings, each specifically designed to support different people and their work. Moving away from 1 type of group space and towards 6 types of group settings.
>From required circulation to desired connection: circulation space can help you do more than get from point A to point B. By delivering increased opportunities for effective activity, Living Office transforms circulation space into purposeful connective space. Transforming 33% circulation space into 47% connective space.
>From distant breakrooms to central plazas: breakrooms are valuable to the groups they serve, but they don’t foster broader social connection and information sharing. Living Office’s centrally located Plazas encourage fortuitous interactions – and help bring an organization’s culture to life. Moving away from providing for 16 people per breakroom seat and instead providing for 4 people per plaza seat.
>From privacy-as-luxury to privacy-on-demand: Everyone benefits from a quiet place to think and relax, but most offices don’t offer enough of them. Moving away from spaces for 67 people per private space, to 24 people per haven.
>From oversized conference rooms to precision-fit meeting spaces: Most outsized conference rooms are underutilized because they only support formal presentations to large groups. Living Office minimizes wasted space by offering a variety of smaller meeting spaces that more effectively support a range of activities. Moving away from spaces with 10 conference room seats, to 7 meeting space seats.
>From assigned seats to shared work-points: as portable technology allows people to work anywhere and at any time, assigned workstations are unoccupied for up to 60% of the day. By offering a variety of shared work-points in diverse settings, Living Office offers an elevated experience of work and increases workplace efficiency. Transitioning from 97% assigned workstations to 41% unassigned work-points.
HM’s showroom experience this year was designed much like a gallery exhibit at a museum. Near the entrance at the front of the showroom, a series of interactive installations showed visitors the research and helped set the context for Living Office.
“We wanted to communicate that, ‘You have goals as a business, we have products and design thinking; how do we now begin making a successful place for you to work in?’ The place should be a unique reflection of you and how you work, and those two are intrinsically linked.”
After moving through the interactive installations, showroom visitors then experienced Living Office concepts in reality. Herman Miller showed its product portfolio in two camps of work systems, with its new and existing products mixed together:
Landscape Systems: “Solutions that offer the adaptability, variation, and modularity to meet a broad set of needs, as well as a cohesive design that harmonizes seamlessly across the floor plate. Recognizing that this is the most critical furniture investment a company will make, and that every company is different, Herman Miller offers a selection of Landscape Systems that are deliberately diverse in purpose and character.” Landscape Systems are designed to be deployed across a floor plate or building, and tailored to fit three broad work types:
>Canvas: for a company that knows who they are and what they want to accomplish on a specific level. “With its cohesive, versatile kit of parts, Canvas simplifies the creation of highly varied workplaces that can easily grow and adapt as organizations evolve. The system supports a wide range of individual and group work activities across the most Living Office settings. Regardless of the configuration, Canvas delivers a refined architectonic aesthetic and the flexibility to respond to years of business and work change.”
>Public: more casual, free-wheeling and social. “Public Office Landscape is founded on the idea of social connection and collaboration, and the value it creates. This is enabled by a high-performance social chair that serves as the foundation of individual and group settings. The design is informal and contemporary – ideal for entrepreneurial growing businesses or any organization that seeks the vibrancy of such a culture.”
>Layout Studio: the minimalist of the group; more streamlined and includes a work tools portfolio that helps tailor spaces specifically to individuals who need additional workspace resources. “With an ideal balance of versatility and affordability, Layout Studio offers a refined, minimal aesthetic that harmonizes with a wide range of environments. Its streamlined leg and support beam structure allow for efficient configuration and the ability to scale from simple tables to fully outfitted workstations. Levels of privacy and storage adjust depending on the desired application and budget. These thoughtful details and options contribute to an environment where employees feel valued and supported at every level.”
Focused Portfolios; “Discrete solutions designed to meet the precise needs of specific people and their work. Want to create the ultimate working neighborhood for a project team? To support coders working in pairs? To give creative individuals ultimate control over their space? Focused Portfolios meet these more unique and divergent needs.” Highly customizable and highly flexible, these elements that might not necessarily play as well with everything else; products in this work system include:
>Metaform: “Like an open-source operating system, Metaform offers a platform to create hyper-flexible, highly-customizable, individually-controllable settings for work. It is designed to support individuals and groups who benefit from this on-demand versatility. These are agile teams who frequently adapt their size, structure, or working processes to meet the needs of the tasks at hand—characteristics that are embodied in the system itself.”
>Renew Link: “Renew Link helps create high-density environments for workers whose tasks often require extended periods of focus. This height-adjustable system offers the greatest postural flexibility and ergonomic support in its category, with subtle considerations that enhance concentration and contribute to an individual’s feeling of support.”
>Locale: “Designed based on research into the unique working habits of high-performance teams, Locale helps deliver the creativity and innovation leading executives deem critical to their organization’s success. It enables the creation of unique neighborhoods of work that define a team and culture, let people move fluidly between activities, and support social connection and individual focus. Locale is an invaluable tool for an organization’s most valuable workers.”
The Living Office section of Herman Miller’s website expands on all of the topics discussed above. Check it out here.
See the Photo Gallery below for images of other new product introductions by Herman Miller, NeoCon 2016