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Ethospace adds 120 degree capability

Herman Miller's time-tested and honoured Ethospace office system has added a number of new enhancements and extensions, including 120-degree capability. The product line has been aesthetically refreshed for a lighter, more contemporary appearance. Herman Miller also has added new structural alternatives that allow more application freedom to adapt to changing work styles.

New Ethospace components were featured at NeoCon 2002, June 10-12 at Chicago's Merchandise Mart.

The complete news release follows.


    

HERMAN MILLER INTRODUCES 120-DEGREE CAPABILITY, OTHER NEW OPTIONS TO ETHOSPACE SYSTEM
Enhancements and Updates Redefine Award-Winning System for a New Era

Herman Miller, Inc., a leading global provider of innovative office furniture and workplace consulting services, today announced a major, comprehensive extension of its award-winning Ethospace office system, including the addition of 120-degree capability.

"This involves a complete aesthetic refreshing of the product line," said John Lubbinge, Herman Miller Ethospace product manager. "We're also adding significant new structural alternatives that allow more application freedom to accommodate new work styles--especially collaboration--and greater worker diversity."

Ethospace's familiar frame-and-tile design provides the foundation for a lighter, more contemporary appearance emphasizing less mass, new angles, and grooved, perforated, and translucent tiles. Open and adjustable returns make workstations lighter-scaled while reducing their cost. New understructures are leaner, to better open up spaces and lower workstation costs. Ethospace co-designers Bill Stumpf and Jeff Weber have dubbed this "Aeronizing" the system, referring to the Herman Miller Aeron chair's qualities of increased aeration, transparency, and light penetration.

Also new to Ethospace is the added flexibility to open up workstations to 120 degrees; walls are enclosed on five sides and open on the sixth to create an increased sense of privacy. Other new enhancements include fabric screens for privacy and light filtering purposes, which can be digitally imprinted with custom graphics to reflect corporate culture or branding.

All enhancements are designed to integrate seamlessly with existing Ethospace products, allowing current Ethospace customers to selectively upgrade their systems.

"These additions make Ethospace a more comprehensive system that defines and refines space in new and more effective ways," Lubbinge said. "Our goal is to provide additional design alternatives to make a better environment based on new work processes, yet be realistic about footprint efficiency."

The original Ethospace system, introduced in 1984, redefined the basic elements of office architecture. Its frame-and-tile wall design was a genuine innovation for its time, achieving an aesthetic and functional flexibility beyond conventional office systems.

The heart of the new Ethospace is its system of stacked zones which support power functions at the foundation level; tiles, lighting, and other tools at mid-level; and community needs including display, way-finding and lighting at the upper level. As needs change, the addition of freestanding furniture allows for easier workstation adaptation.

With this latest series of enhancements, the Ethospace vocabulary offers a comprehensive choice of high-performance workstation layouts, from call centers, to traditional stations, to open, collaborative spaces to enclosed offices with 86-inch-high walls and lockable doors--all with trademark Ethospace integrity, quality, and durability.

"These changes have been made without compromising the integrity of the original design," Lubbinge emphasized. "In fact, the product additions and the applications they support are true to the original intentions of Ethospace design, which included its ability to express character and culture, provide good technology support, and evolve as individual and company needs change."

Huntsman Architectural Group recently utilized the enhanced Ethospace in its newly relocated San Francisco offices. "We love it," said Aaron Vinson, a principal with the firm. "Ethospace has met and even exceeded what we had hoped for in a workstation solution, giving us more flexibility than we had imagined. We were able to install it more quickly and at less cost than a built-in environment. Plus, the enhancements work well with the clean new office aesthetic we are establishing."

Ethospace system components will be on display during NeoCon 2002, June 10-12, at Herman Miller's new Chicago National Design Center, on the third floor of Chicago's Merchandise Mart.

Herman Miller creates great places to work by researching, designing, manufacturing, and distributing innovative interior furnishings that support companies, organizations, and individuals all over the world. The company's award-winning products, complemented by primary furniture-management services, generated over $2.2 billion in revenue during fiscal 2001. Herman Miller is widely recognized both for its innovative products and business practices, including the use of industry-leading, customer-focused technology. Again in 2002 Herman Miller was named "America's Most Admired" furniture company by Fortune magazine and included in Forbes magazine's "Platinum List" of best-performing large corporations. The company trades on the NASDAQ stock market under the symbol MLHR.


An Ethospace System for the 21st Century

New enhancements to Herman Miller's award-winning Ethospace system include:

-A new range of work surface shapes and sizes, supporting individual or group work.

-New finishes including Metallic Champagne, Metallic Silver, and three new accent colors.

-A new 120-degree capability, providing enclosed walls on five sides (open on the sixth) for an enhanced sense of privacy.

-Wall-supporting work surfaces, open returns, and a monorail system for non-module components.

-Expanded energy distribution and access, elevated mounting of storage on lower walls, and more multifunctional tiles.

-And what system designer Jeff Weber refers to as a "dematerialized architectural sensibility" of translucent and porous walls that comprise a lighter-weight structure of functional and aesthetic universality.