Herman Miller: Education 2015, 5 51

People +
Pedagogy +
Place =
Possibilities
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During the project, the team had to solve a number of design
challenges, including the university’s request that the small
space accommodate up to 60 students. To achieve this, the team
minimized the footprint of the teaching station, giving professors
and students more space to move about and work together. They
added mobile chairs and tables to allow groups to rearrange
furnishings as their needs change, and café-height seating lines
the perimeter. Students and faculty now have a choice of furnishings
to suit a variety of learning styles. A large, centrally located monitor
has been replaced with four monitors, all thoughtfully placed
for optimal viewing by everyone in the Learning Studio.
Direct feedback from students and faculty indicates that they
are thriving in the new environment. “I think we all know that space
is important on some level,” said Sanchez, “but this project really
reinforced for me, for others across campus involved in the project,
and for students and faculty using the space just how powerful
the learning environment is.” The university plans to use insights
gained from the Learning Studio to develop more student- and
faculty-centered learning spaces.
“I liked the Herman Miller program
because it uses actual research
on students’ perceptions of
learning spaces.”
— Rudy Sanchez, Director of Academic Technology and Innovation,
Fresno State University
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Researching Spaces for Human-Centered Learning
At Herman Miller, we believe people, pedagogy, and place are
essential elements of efective learning spaces. When they are
considered and combined in the right ways, the possibilities
are endless.
The Learning Spaces Research Program
SM (LSRP) is one way Herman
Miller is helping educational institutions realize the potential of
purposefully designed learning spaces. We work with leading
universities to create Learning Studios with the ideal mix of
furnishings, tools, and technology to encourage creativity and
scholarship. We then measure the success of these spaces
through ongoing study.
Recently, Fresno State University in California partnered with
Herman Miller to design a Learning Studio in the school’s Family
and Food Science Building. The university saw LSRP as an
opportunity to test a more flexible, collaborative classroom layout
using our human-centered, research-based approach. “I liked
the Herman Miller program because it uses actual research on
students’ perceptions of learning spaces,” said Rudy Sanchez,
Director of Academic Technology and Innovation at Fresno State.
Researching Spaces for
Human-Centered Learning