Office system furniture — a survey

It may be hard to believe that system furniture has only been in existence for twenty years, but no real analysis of office work was carried out until Herman Miller formed its Research Corporation in 1960 under the direction of Robert Propst, leading to the launch of Action Office 1 in 1964. It was claimed to have a ‘forgiving’ nature because of the ease of revision allowed by breaking the workstation down into small components but it was not a commercial success — cost was one major drawback. Further design work gave rise to Action Office 2, still the brand leader in the UK and the progenitor of numerous copies.