Emergence of Systems Furniture in the 60's

The office was still an evolving concept in the early 60's where corporations were struggling with a common face for their offices. They typically hired local firms to design offices that were either plush or conservative based on the personality of the local manager.
The typical office was created as a series of closed rooms occupied by managers or staff; a single room for a manager and a shared room for secretarial and administrative workers. The issues noticed within these kinds of office environments was that no room for growth within departments was built in. Which meant that if a new manager was added in purchasing, he could be located in a room that was on the other end of the office or literally on a different floor or building. The inefficiencies of working in these offices began from the low communication, duplication of tasks and lack of collaboration between people working within departments.

The 1960's saw the rise of a new concept for office design by the Quickborner Team in Germany - The Office Landscape Planning theory. This concept broke down walls within departments and encouraged departments to sit in an open environment which had the flexibility to co locate with other departments and utilize work synergies effectively. These designs were based on strong work flow patterns and the location of departments within the space was also strategically designed based on these work flows.

The emergence of this style of office planning in the U.S. coincided with the advent of systems furniture - Action Office from Herman Miller. Action Office was a product of creating ergonomics within offices by creating furniture that could allow worksurfaces and storage to be hung at different heights to suit individual preferences. The product was not specifically designed for the open environment. As the 70's approached the growth of the modern corporation accelerated and mergers & acquisitions led to the high growth of offices in North America. Traditional contractors and builders could not keep up with the rapid growth of offices added with the need to standardize the design of sizes, quality and shape of the workstation. Machine made furniture was the answer to this rapid need and was answered by a number of furniture manufacturers like Steelcase, Herman Miller, Knoll, Haworth and Allsteel. The products were all designed to answer the space division and working needs of the new corporations.

As the age of technology grew over the next couple of decades with the advent of the Personal computer in 1981; there was a need for a new type of a workstation design. This was answered by manufacturers like Teknion and Herman Miller. The Teknion T/O/S system was introduced in 1983 as a product designed to offer belt line electrical, off-modular panel attachment capabilities and stacking panels which allowed for increasing the height of a workstation at a later date. The product was designed by the industrial design team of Ford and Earl who designed the product based on the new age of data and power requirements seen over the next few decades. Herman Miller Ethospace also answered these new requirements with its launch in 1984 and changed the office workstation for many corporations. New options and possibilities were seen by clients - Life cycle costs because they could re dress these panels after a few years at a relatively lower price. They could change the size of their stations based on changes in the business environment. They could cater to the changing design trends in the industry. Surprisingly, the demand of traditional systems still continued and the old product designs continued to flood the market. Many major manufacturers introduced products like T/O/S and Ethospace only by the mid 90's when they realised that the new wave of technology companies could not be approached with existing products.

Today the trend is once again changing with the emergence of wireless technology and raised floors. The consciousness of environmental initiatives and responsible practices is catching on. Once again furniture manufacturers are rethinking their furniture designs. The emergence of casegood inspired furniture seems to be gaining popularity. The first furniture design - desk with return that is similar to a workstation was designed by George Nelson in the 50's. Is this another revival similar to the architectural and cultural revivals that emerge every few decades? Bell-bottom pants is an example that has seen three revivals in the last 30 years and maybe furniture design will follow similar revivals; maybe at different time intervals. We wait eagerly for the next greatest technology or trend that will change the look of the modern office workstation.