Home office: Herman Miller continue to lead by example, working here with Gensler to create bespoke offices that challenge market standards.

Herman Miller is a name that is familiar to many architects and designers, representing as it does one of the world's leading furniture manufacturers. With a heritage that dates back to 1905, the company has grown up with Modernism, and along the way has commissioned some of the world's greatest designers, including George Nelson, Charles and Ray Eames, and Verner Panton. As patron of design, Herman Miller has also made its own contribution to architecture, most notably in the UK throughout the 1970s and '80s with the appointment of the young protagonist of British High-Tech, Nicholas Grimshaw.

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With two revolutionary industrial buildings, one in Bath and the other in nearby Chippenham, Grimshaw and Herman Miller seemed ideally suited. With Grimshaw emerging as one of Britain's so-called 'big-four' and Herman Miller on the brink of discovering an entirely new market sector, entering a new era of ergonomic chair design, client and architect were united in their commitment to well engineered and scientifically inspired design.

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With such a heroic recent history, therefore, this building may come as something of a surprise to the many architects and designers who admire their more innovative products. Herman Miller, however, remains convinced that its new European headquarters building, designed by Gensler, is representative of its evolving core values, demonstrably providing a more humane working environment for its staff who have relocated from the rather unsatisfactorily modified YRM factory in Bath.

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In today's buoyant office market, Herman Miller and Gensler seem equally well matched, both having extensive experience in the design of contemporary workplace environments. With shared expertise, therefore, working with the site's developer, they have succeeded in producing a bespoke building at a cost that challenges the market standard.

Situated on an otherwise anonymous retail and business park in Chippenham, this new building not only provides flexible working space for staff and dealers from across Europe. It also serves as a working showroom for their products, enabling Herman Miller to host customers, architects and specifiers on common ground. The environment is deliberately neutral, to provide flexible space for resident and remote staff teams, and for display and mock-up scenarios. There are also extensive staff training facilities to ensure consistency in service across the region.

Set within a relatively standard steel frame, finessed with glulam beams, the building's thin-plan linear form has a solid masonry skin to the south and a glazed screen to the north, optimising daylight penetration and reducing solar gain. It is largely naturally ventilated and has achieved an 'Excellent' BREEAM rating, as well as a Gold award in the US equivalent LEED.

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