Working Habitats : Office Evolution

Herman Miller, the creator of the widely praised, iconic Aeron chair, was one of the collaborators with our early innovation center projects. We tested office novel office space designs with them. Now they are talking about ...

" ... an approach that allows for physical buildings to dynamically evolve and support change. ... The initiative, Programmable Environment, is a spatial system designed to evolve over time, interact with the users who inhabit it, and enable a more sustainable building infrastructure. The company created a subsidiary, Convia, to specifically focus on this vision ... ".

The problem with offices in the enterprise is that as people become more powerfully mobile they don't need to be in offices. If this kind of interface takes off the trend may accelerate. So the number of offices and thus furniture requirements have been dropping. Remote interaction options are also increasing and evolving. Here is an advanced example: Qwaq. If an office could be set up to greatly increase efficiency, there would be additional value. But if I have to be in an office, the Aeron chair I am sitting on now sure is comfortable.