We continue our high-tech architecture series by looking at the highly flexible and adaptable Herman Miller Factory in Bath, which was designed by Terry Farrell and Nicholas Grimshaw in 1976.
The factory for the furniture company was one of many high-tech buildings, including the Park Road Apartments completed by Farrell Grimshaw Partnership six years earlier, which was designed to have flexible interiors.
The flexibility of the interiors was matched with the pale-yellow panelled exterior cladding, which is demountable, interchangeable and reconfigurable.

The open-plan layout within the factory was designed to reflect the office furniture Herman Miller was producing and to be flexible to suit future manufacturing demands.
Grimshaw was influenced by the modular design of the company's furniture and wanted to name the building Action Factory ? after the brand's Action Office furniture ? as the flexibility of its mobile elements were vital to the architectural design. "We wanted a level of flexibility that wasn't available in contemporary buildings at the time," said Bob Wood, vice president for research, design and development at Herman Miller. "I think that's what made it revolutionary."

The Farrell Grimshaw Partnership was selected to design the manufacturing facility from a shortlist of architects, which included fellow high-tech architect Norman Foster and James Stirling. Max de Pree, son of Herman Miller founder DJ de Pree, wanted a factory th...