Materials Website: So Simple Even I Can Do It

Have you checked out Herman Miller’s Materials website lately? For designers and specifiers, it’s a great sampling and information tool that makes it easy to interact with our Materials Program. For people like me, it’s just fun to play with.

On the home page, there’s an intriguing chromatic arrangement of Herman Miller’s entire Materials offering—the textiles, translucents, laminates, woods, and veneers that adorn Herman Miller products and help make them durable and eco-friendly. The page gives you an overall idea of the depth and structure of the Materials Program.

From there, you can narrow down and sort your selections as you like. With every choice, you see swatches of your picks, and detailed, printable, e-mailable information is a click away for each swatch. It’s so simple to view which materials are available on what products, plus (better yet) which materials are shared by different products. Really, you can do all kinds of stuff. So give it a spin, and tell us what you think.

The Materials website is designed to be used hand in hand with the new Materials Collection—a bound set of 15 books containing physical samples of all Herman Miller textiles and finishes. I’ll have more about that in my next post a week from now.

Achieving the Promise of Programmable Environments

Note: This is the fourth in a series about Herman Miller’s Programmable Environments (PE) initiative. To read the first post, see “Getting Buildings and People In Sync.” Second post: “Cut Electrical Use, Get ‘Stimulused,’ and Earn LEED Credits.” Third post: “Energy Manager Saves Energy, Optimizes Real Estate, Cuts Costs.”

According to Always Building, Herman Miller’s book about PE, “To achieve programmable environments, we think about a digital as well as physical dimension of space.” Integrating the digital dimension can make a building smarter, more efficient, and responsive to the people who use it.
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Energy Manager Saves Energy, Optimizes Real Estate, Cuts Costs

Note: This is the third in a series. To read the first post, see “Getting Buildings and People In Sync.” For the second post, “Cut Electrical Use, Get ‘Stimulused,’ and Earn LEED Credits.”

What if someone invented a simple, affordable device you quickly attach to your car to save you gas? Genius, right?

Well then, check this out. It’s Herman Miller’s new Energy Manager—a simple, affordable device you quickly attach to your Herman Miller systems furniture (new or retrofit) to save you electrical energy, 24/7.
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Cut Electrical Use, Get ‘Stimulused,’ and Earn LEED Credits

Note: This is the second in a series. To read the first post, see “Getting Buildings and People In Sync.”

The nutshell idea for Programmable Environments (PE) is to use technology to fill new or existing buildings with intelligence. The building becomes a digital network so that permanent fixtures become adaptable. You can make them do exactly what you need them to do at any moment, change them instantly, and gather real time information about how they are used.

And it’s easy. Here’s the story:
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Rate These Amazing Concepts in New Architecture

Photo via: The Huffington Post

The Huffington Post blog has a fun way to get to know some fascinating concepts in architecture, all of which exemplify new technology and sustainability. It’s a poll called “11 Incredible Buildings from the Future” where you can rate startling new concepts on a scale of 1-10—Snooze to Super.
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Getting Buildings and People In Sync

Note: This is the first in a series of four posts on Programmable Environments.

You hear it all the time: “Technology has changed everything.” Well, duh. But it’s not totally accurate. There’s one part of our daily lives that’s largely untouched by the changes. It’s the buildings where we work and live—static, rigid, set in their ways.

While technology makes us faster, our buildings often hold us back. Unable to keep up with change—much less enable change—our buildings become out of sync with us.
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Inside Ayse Birsel’s and Yves Béhar’s Sketchbooks

Designers Ayse Birsel and Bibi Seck of birsel+seck in New York think and communicate in sketches. “Our language is drawing,” says Ayse. “Sometimes we stay ‘en quarantaine’ in the room and we do some drawing together to exchange our ideas.”
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Wake Up! Naps are Good for Business

Therapeutic news for people who work at home and nap secretly, in shame: You are not alone. The Pew Research Center reported in July, 2009 that about 34% of adults surveyed had napped in the previous 24 hours. Plus, you nappers are providing your customers a valuable service.
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What’s So Bad About Feeling Good?

Here’s something kind of interesting, depending on how geeky you are:

The origin of the word “comfort” is the Latin “confortare,” “to strengthen.” When you’re comfortable, you’re free from pain and trouble. All’s well. You’re rejuvenated. Stronger. Physically and mentally.
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Tales from the Mart: Herman Miller at NeoCon 09

Herman Miller is telling stories at NeoCon 09—ones you shouldn’t miss if you love happy endings.

The Herman Miller showroom in the Merchandise Mart (Booth 321) spotlights four distinct workplace scenarios, and each has its own tale to tell. They illustrate a range of real-life situations where Herman Miller has created cost-effective, customer-focused, eco-friendly solutions with a variety of integrated Herman Miller products, including their new Setu chairs, Embody chairs, and Intent furniture.

You’ll hear about real, relevant problem solving instead of just the (yawn) nuts, bolts, and benefits of products. It’s a great way to discover how Herman Miller makes a better world around you.
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