FRANKNOTE

"When Herman Miller unveils Ball's new high-end workplace system this summer, it is gambling on the idea that an increasing number of companies are looking to provide for their employees the same kind of comfort in confined spaces that the designer began pursuing with the Clipper. Ball's design for the new system, called My Studio Environments, embraces the paradoxical idea of providing a retreat in the open-plan cubicle environment. With its translucent walls, sliding door, sliding windows onto neighboring stations, and private lockable closet, My Studio aims to give back a little seclusion to office dwellers without sacrificing openness and light. Into the brief dark history of systems furniture Ball has introduced a kind of Schroder House of cubicles—a dynamic piece of architecture on a street of nondescript boxes."