End of a century and the Millennium
Moving towards the 21st century, there have been a number of “signature” buildings with overt exterior architectural features following on from the Renault building. The Vitra building by Frank Gehry (Figure 1) started in 1987 as a factory but now a museum, displays its disjointed elements as floating blocks.
Figure 1 Vitra building
The Igus factory (1992) ,(figure 2) a slick shed with its demountable office pods and ventilation domes sitting under the two large yellow painted masts as the factory itself lies apparently suspended below.
Figure 2 Igus Plastics
We should also note the Motorola factory, Swindon, (1998) , (figure 3), with its cigar shaped roof covering an internal “street” where staff can socialise, infamous for its part in one of the James Bond movies, and also an extreme showpiece such as the Volkswagen “transparent factory” in Dresden (1999-2000).
Figure 4 Motorola Swindon
Other recent factories have taken the route of blending into the surroundings. James Dyson’s now defunct Malmesbury vacuum cleaner plant (1998) (figure 4), takes a more self-effacing stance, with its undulating roofline rippling through the landscape and its glass walls reflecting the landscape.
Figure 4 Dyson factory
When David Mellor built his cutlery factory near Sheffield, (figure 5) away from his trade’s traditional industrial setting, in an area of outstanding natural beauty, he used natural materials and trees to blend the conical shaped building in to its surroundings.
Figure 5 David Mellor factory
Ercol , the furniture firm use a similar woodland setting to hide their sliver of a building, and when Nicolas Grimshaw (ex “Eden” project) chose the site for the new BMW owned Rolls Royce plant, (figure 6) he planted it in old gravel workings, set low, almost invisible with its “living green” roof from the surrounding Downs countryside. The recent Adnams Brewery distribution centre snuggles just on the outskirts of Southwold in Suffolk, again sporting a natural living roof.
Figure 6 Rolls Royce
Although we could look at the emerging new materials, resins, fibres, metals and plastics, some sandwiched together to insulate, seal, and increase strength, they are for now just adaptations of what has been, their worth is yet to be evaluated. The real innovations are now on the shop floor, with robotics emptying the workspace of people, and the deployment of modern ergonomics and special planning.
Where humans are still part of the process, innovations are shown with the introduction of theory that workers are not there just to perform tasks as part of a well-oiled machine, but are part of a larger integrated social structure. Ideas such as “group technology” where teams of workers take control of processes to help control the boredom of the production line. Flexibility is the new mantra and the ability of the workforce to adapt for change could be just as important as merely having a flexible building structure.
The current scene, a new era?
We have come a long way since the first forays into mill building; mock Palladian mansions have turned into signature architectural icons or bland sheds. The story as far as this essay is concerned lies around structure and physical aspects of factories. There has been fleeting mentions of working practices; social, representational, and political issues are left for another work.
The story has been one of innovation, in materials and technologies, adaptation, of buildings and processes, and reaction to changing architectural styles and influences. Factories have been glittering show pieces, secreted away into the landscape, or just taken for granted as rows of uniform boxes within the local trading estate.
We have also witnessed dereliction, of individual buildings, and complete areas as political, market, or individual business demands change. Posterity shall mourn some, such as Firestone, Brynmawr or Reliance factories; others have a welcome departure from the lives of people who were fated to exist as virtual machines within their walls or lived near their ugly countenance.
Some have learnt to adapt, their basic forms being suitable to a whole range of industrial uses, others, including the giant Lister mills at Bradford , have gained a reprieve from destruction, by becoming part of the trend for regeneration and conversion to other uses such as housing,
commercial or office space. Others, such as the Magna ex-steel works at Rotherham (figure 7) or the Iron Bridge gorge museum, Shropshire, have become part of the heritage and education industry itself, teaching the latest generations how their fore fathers lived and worked.
Figure 7 Magna
Industrial architecture so often the Cinderella of architectural theory writings maybe deserves a closer look. What can we say about the cladded sheds or boxes that we experience on a daily basis; those “inscrutable envelopes of human activity” as Gillian Darley states. Although whether icon or humble, they all have a story, a feature, an effect upon us in some way. Tom Dyckhof of the Times has recently discussed newly completed BMW car factory in Leipzig (2005) (figure 8) along with mentions of other earlier factories such as Ford’s Kahn designed works, The AEG building and others such as Roger’s efforts in Swindon.
Figure 8 BMW Factory Leipzig
In the article he mused of the times when people romanticised about mass production, “when the production line was fantasised about as a thing of beauty and liberation, not oppression”, and when the “sight of a well-oiled machine could wring a tear from the eye of the grandest of industrial magnates”. Maybe this iconic factory by Zaha Hadid has finally taken Cinderella to the ball.
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