As workplace strategy was evolving pre-pandemic, Herman Miller engaged Fuseproject to contribute to their "Living Office" strategy, with the goal of designing for a more fluid, collaborative workplace.
The Challenge
The brief from Herman Miller had two major asks:
The first was an ask to develop "the ultimate office setting for collaboration". In the lingo of workplace design, a "setting" is an individual arrangement of furnishings and equipment to do a task. A typical collaborative setting is a conference room, with table, chairs and large display.
Our strategy team did a broad swath of primary research on collaboration, which took us to Pixar Studios, Oculus (pre-Meta), Zynga, Uber and other offices. What we discovered is that the majority of collaboration actually takes place at the desk, with interstitial and public spaces also hugely important. We also uncovered that the right mix of settings — public/private as well as individual/group really mattered. If the right setting for the collaboration wasn't visible and available, most people just defaulted to email or the collaboration didn't happen. These insights were the inspiration for Public Office Landscape — a complete office furniture system designed to promote collaboration. "If we can work from anywhere, then the physical office should be optimised for what it can do best — face to face collaboration."
The second brief was for a digital platform to empower workplaces that offer "hotdesking" - a more fluid approach that allows employees to reserve and sit where they like on a given day, based on their preferences and needs.
Outcome
The resulting furniture system we developed is called "Public Office Landscape", which became a cornerstone of Herman Miller's workplace strategy and offering. With modular elements that can be assembled into a range of different settings based on an organization's evolving needs.
The Living Office digital platform was Herman Miller's first attempt to digitize workplace design consulting using live, real-time data. The resulting system helped individuals set up and adjust their task chairs, sit/stand desks and other settings in accordance with their individual ergonomic needs - a first in contract workplace furnishings.