Herman Miller is a globally recognized designer of furniture. The company asked Krueck and Sexton Architects, based out of Chicago, to update their flagship showcase room. The designers merged their interest in the possibilities of glass with Herman Miller's distinctive attitude toward the design-functional, whimsical and intensely humanistic.
Defying the conventions of the showroom window, the exhibit wall is a 200-foot long series of faceted glass panels, mortised into a terrazzo floor of recycled glass and white epoxy. This dynamic and crystalline screen creates layers of space, light and reflection conveying the client's credo of flexibility and openness.
In-between the entry and the showroom, glass panels form the fronts of four conference rooms. Elegantly attached with stainless steel pins, the panels are pattern sandblasted and overlapped to create different areas of visual density. Colored lighting (shown below) is programmed to slowly change color and intensity, altering sensations of transparency and materiality, while activating the space.
In the showroom itself, a curved three-dimensional grid undulates across the display area (as shown below), responding to existing beams and ducts. Constructed of painted particleboard, the grid is lit from above with light fixtures, covered with gels of varying color and intensity. The effect is a subtle flow of space, color and light, which de-materializes the ceiling into a series of luminous waves.
Above is the axonometric detail of the ceiling installation. Notice the spacing of the fluorescent lights is not even and the beams are far narrower than would typically be expected. Utilization of light gauge construction makes this possible.
The final affect resembles a pond, where columnar lilies and a ceiling mimicking undulating waves help create a subterranean, underwater environment. The final appeal is smooth, sensual and relaxing. All together, the design is for an office space, but utilizes modern computational and constructional techniques to break away the typical barriers for what is typically expected architecturally of an office.
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