Exclave Rail System by Herman Miller

People have always gathered to solve complex problems and generate big ideas. Yet today the stakes are higher, as more organizations rely on innovative thinking for success. Exclave addresses this need by equipping people to be more effective.

It’s a thoughtfully cohesive suite of products—from boards that stack, to carts that move them, to tables and rail-hung tools that get everyone involved. Together, these products let people and teams collaborate to develop and share their work more fluidly and spontaneously across the office landscape.

Enhances Engagement

Exclave is a suite of products that complements the work of people collaborating. People can actively adjust Exclave’s highly flexible products to their area and their needs. Everyone in a high-performing team can keep their ideas moving and evolving. 

Exclave becomes a spatial ecosystem where people and tools work together across the office landscape for sharing information, socializing ideas, and achieving 

Fosters Togetherness

Exclave addresses the physical, psychological, and social needs of high-performing teams. It simplifies interactions so all team members feel welcome in sharing their perspectives. 

Table shapes ensure clear lines of sight to analog and digital displays so everyone—onsite and remote—can see and interact with information and with each other. 

The thoughtful design and placement of media tiles support the sharing of digital content and ensure that team members participating by videoconference feel they have a seat at the table.

Mobilizes Ideas

With Exclave, creative thinking that begins in one space can be refined or expanded in another. 

Whiteboards, tackboards, and lightweight eco boards travel with teams and individuals throughout the day to help preserve and disseminate good ideas. 

Mobile carts support the movement of boards, and provide freestanding display and space delineation in open areas. 

Rails installed in a variety of locations offer flexible, adaptable support for the full suite of Exclave products.

A Collaboration Challenge

In today’s competitive business environment, innovation drives success. And organizations increasingly rely on the collaborative work of high-performing teams to drive innovation. 

The stakes for solving the complex equation of collaboration are high, yet to date efforts have been piecemeal at best. Most areas of the office landscape don’t foster collaboration. If they do, they don’t allow a smooth flow of ideas across the office landscape. 

The Exclave design brief was simple: enhance collaboration in groups, for both local and remote participants.

A Team That Gets Teaming

Gianfranco Zaccai founded the design firm Continuum in 1983. He based it on the premise that design happens across disciplines and over geographies. 

In their work for global clients in a number of industries, the teams at Continuum work daily with the challenge of enabling collaboration that generates ideas and solves problems to drive organizational success. 

In tackling the design for Exclave, they began by creating a project space where they could place, move, and replace all components as needed. They quickly recognized that this flexible approach was the greatest asset to people working together to solve problems and generate ideas.

A Comprehensive Approach

Exclave is the first suite of products to comprehensively address collaboration—enabling engagement among teammates (local and remote), while allowing great ideas to grow over time. 

With Exclave, Gianfranco Zaccai and Continuum developed an integrated and interdependent suite of products that align surroundings, furnishings, and tools in a collaborative ecosystem that spans the office landscape. 

Exclave elements connect people with each other and enable teams to freely share ideas, keep them moving, and use them to create innovative solutions.