Stephen George + Partners LLP (SGP) has completed a stylish £2.5million open plan office extension to the Herman Miller Portal Mill site at Melksham, Wiltshire. SGP’s design created 1500m2 of practical open plan office space and staff amenities.
Consolidating their UK operations into one flagship building, office furniture designers and manufacturers Herman Miller chose SGP for this prestigious project after successfully working with the AJ100 architectural on the original office building.
Herman Miller’s brief for the original scheme was to celebrate the main public and office building as an architectural focal point, called ‘the cam’, with the logistics and production building providing a simple but clean backdrop. SGP’s focus for this second phase was a seamless extension to office facilities within the existing building, fully realising the architectural concept with the office functions wrapped around the ‘design street.’ This opens up internal and external views and creates dynamic workspaces that promote staff well-being and collaboration.
Explains Marcus Madden-Smith, Partner at SGP:
“The clean design echoes the high quality design values of Herman Miller itself, creating a beautiful and spacious working environment that combines practicality with staff well-being. The architecture successfully captures the aspirations whilst also providing a functional production facility.”
SGP’s design created a complete extension to both the west wing and south wing of the existing core. In the south wing, the addition of a new floor above an existing workshop provides bright, open plan office space which connects through to a second open plan office area. Along the west wing, five new meeting rooms have been added, with another open plan office area and a conference room. Although composite panel walls divide the core areas from the warehouse, the demolition of internal walls overlooking the double height atrium has created a continuous and open core with office spaces wrapping around an internal “Design Street”.
On the ground floor, extending the internal core on the west wing has provided space for storage facilities and larger locker and changing areas. The refurbishment of the existing locker room has created additional male toilet facilities. Externally, the redesign of existing facilities has allowed an additional 109 car parking spaces for the extra staff and visitors.
Concludes Madden-Smith:
“The client wanted a seamless addition to their existing building, making the interior and exterior changes whilst the building was in full operation. Our design had to take into consideration which areas would be occupied by the client, and challenging us to create an unabridged, practical design within limited spaces. It also led to close collaboration between the client and the construction team in the planning of the phasing of the works.”