Uncategorized
February 9, 2012
By David Foster
MASS founders Michael Murphy and Alan Ricks outside the Butaro Hospital in the Rwanda countryside.
A Rwandan hospital designed to reduce the transmission of airborne disease; a school and library for orphaned Rwandan children; and an urban strategy for Port-au-Prince, Haiti; are just a few of the good works achieved by MASS Design Group, recently named Contract magazines’ 2012 Designer of the Year.
Only a few years old, MASS was founded on the belief of first-rate healthcare facilities for the third world. Utilizing a process of research and development focused on communities, MASS engages, empowers, and educates local workers in the construction of their projects. Breaking the cycle of poverty, they improve more than just health. The 140-room Butaro hospital in the Rwandan countryside is testament to this approach.
A partnership based on shared philosophy, Herman Miller supports MASS’s work in Rwanda and Haiti, and is a sponsor of the MASS Design Group fellowship program. Together we hope to build a better world around you.
Education, What's Up
February 8, 2012
By David Foster
Have an urge to get behind the camera? James Cameron, director of Avatar, may have been speaking to you when he said, “Pick up a camera and shoot something. No matter how small, or cheesy, or whether your friends and your sister star in it. Put your name on it and now you’re a director.” Herman Miller invites you do just that: pick up a camera, gather some friends, and make a video that answers the question “what makes your campus green?”
Commuting to school by bike, campus-wide recycling initiatives, perhaps a zero-waste sporting event. Large or small, it doesn’t matter; show us what your school is doing for the Earth.
A winning entry could earn you up to $2,500 cash in Herman Miller’s third annual Student Video Contest.
Checkout last year’s winner, Fiona Green of the University of Ottawa, and get inspired.
Design, What's Up
February 7, 2012
By David Foster
“Why did you become a designer?” “Because I love building things,” says Konstantin Grcic. Interior Design recently picked the brain of the Chair_One creator with its 10 Questions…. Here are four that we found interesting:
Interior Design: Why did you become a designer?
Because I love building things. When I was 19 years old, I did an apprenticeship for a cabinetmaker and I became intrigued. I discovered that I could create or rethink the things I built. I enrolled at the RCA (Royal Academy of Arts) in London.
What does design mean to you?
That’s an impossible question. You could write a book or say something really stupid.
What do you most like to design?
The physical scale of furniture attracts me. It’s what I’m good at. And it’s what I really like.
Where do you get inspiration?
KG: It comes from everywhere—from daily life.
Visit Interior Design for the rest of Grcic’s answers.
Better World, Products, What's Up
February 6, 2012
By David Foster
Whether it’s an affordable work chair or a textile, we always approach design with a better world in mind.
Enter Gem, a new polyester upholstery fabric that is antimony-free, making it a good choice for the earth. Polyester is one of the world’s most popular polymers; unfortunately making it is harmful to the environment. Designing a better polyester meant replacing antimony, a heavy metal used as a catalyst, with titanium, a much more earth-friendly choice.
Gem is durable, inexpensive, and easy to take care of—and it’s part of Herman Miller’s quest for a Better World.
Design
February 3, 2012
By David Foster
Check out Eye Delight-2011 for more interesting images.
Design, Education, Uncategorized
February 2, 2012
By David Foster
Student designers at Drexel University recently rose to the challenge of making their mark at the school’s Library Learning Terrace. Part of an extra class project, more than 50 graphic design students created experimental compositions using words associated with Drexel’s learning outcomes. Sophomore Seth Fowler choose to “show growth through exploration and learning,” two words appearing in the trunk of his tree-like design; “the branches are the fruit of learning, represented by the word ‘knowledge.”
Five student designs were selected and will be printed on Herman Miller Resolve dividing screens located in the Learning Terrace, a hub for students to gather, study and collaborate with one another.
Design, Healthcare, What's Up
February 1, 2012
By David Foster
Physicians and nurses work through a space planning exercise. Photo: Joint Commission Resources
The design process can be overwhelming if you’re unfamiliar with its various phases, tools, and lingo. A new workshop aims to give healthcare professionals the skills to positively influence patient safety and quality during the design and construction of future healthcare environments.
Learning to read blueprints, articulate a future vision, and design for flexibility, these and other skills are covered in the Safe Health Design Learning Academy. This three-day session is organized by Joint Commission Resources (JCR)—a not-for-profit healthcare accreditation organization—and sponsored by Herman Miller.
Giving physicians, nurses, and healthcare leadership an active voice in the design of healthcare will result in safer spaces, better patient care, and satisfied caregivers—all noble goals.
The next JCR Safe Health Design Learning Academy will be held in April 23-25, 2012; sign up now.
Design, Products
January 31, 2012
By David Foster
It looks beautiful when it’s from the hands of designer Yves Béhar. Who, with Herman Miller, set out to dispel the misconception that affordable meant offhand design and questionable quality.
Looking for affordability in innovation, Béhar and Herman Miller engineers spent months developing a unique suspension material for the backrest of SAYL. The resulting breakthrough molded ergonomic support directly into the back of the chair, which was then stretched into place. It also replaced foam and fabric, typical to other low-cost task chairs, with a single recyclable material. Less material and fewer manufacturing steps, all saved money. A point not lost on Spencer Bailey of Bloomberg Businessweek, who recently described SAYL as “An executive-quality perch that doesn’t require an executive’s bonus to buy.”
Design, What's Up
January 30, 2012
By David Foster
An early prototype of the Eames lounge developed in 1946.
In 1945, Charles and Ray Eames introduced the world to molded plywood as a material for furniture. Using a process perfected in the living room of their Westwood apartment, the Eames created numerous prototypes. With each, they learned the characteristics and limitations of molded plywood, eventually landing on the forms of their iconic molded plywood chairs.
This February, see the Eameses’ hard work on display along with plywood designs by Aalto, Jacobsen, Yanagi, and others at Plywood: Material, Process, Form at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Hurry, the exhibition closes February 27, 2012.