I have long been fascinated by the splendid organised mess of workshops. For the outsider these workplaces, created mostly by individuals, sometimes by small teams of two or three, appear to be arranged haphazardly. Yet it is obvious that their owners have a very clear and personal idea about just how the space should be organised to suit the way they work. To my eye there seems to have been, at least initially, an underlying logic for determining where the main work area should be, where and how tools are kept, where major power tools should be located and where all the necessary materials, parts, fixings and 'stuff that might be useful' should be stored. Frequency of use and the scale and nature of the work are likely also imortant criteria for where items are located. But after this basic framework has been laid down the design seems to undergo a period of sustained, improvised development, often over many years until it gradually settles down into a structured mess that only those who have created it can navigate. In these grimy, dusty, often unevenly lit spaces one can discover a box of old screws or tin of redundant paint that has clearly been in the same spot for ages, yet which the owner steadfastly refuses to throw away 'just in case'. To remove it would be to disturb the equilibrium irrevocably, something too fearsome to even contemplate. I imagine that most of these spaces probably remain unchanged for years until the owner retires or, perhaps worst of all, has to face the prospect of moving to a new location...

Factories are buildings for working in, where productivity is key and for the most part where form is determined by function. It is perhaps not surprising that daylight has always been a recurring consideration in the design of a factory. Particularly throughout the 19th century, construction technology permitting, factories were equipped with the largest windows possible so that work could continue in the days before gas or electric lighting was available. But even when artificial light became commonplace, provision was still made for fresh, bright daylight to work by. Sometimes windows were quite small where maybe only machines were at work, whilst in those spaces where people were at work large areas were given over to glazing. From the early part of the 20th century and particularly after WW2 modern factories were fitted with large windows in the form of a classic saw-tooth roof or large vertical lights in the walls or gable ends of the building.
Workers were naturally happier in brighter conditions and efficiency and productivity increased; and businesses were able to demonstrate concern for the employees in these industrial palaces. Besides daylight the design of factories was also determined by the complexity of the manufacturing process on hand, perhaps requiring several floors for example, or a central covered space for the construction of large structures with the concomitant large-scale doors for entry and exit. The ready availability of (steam-powered) energy to drive machinery was another important factor, as was the need to protect buildings from fire with water systems to extinguish any blaze. In this collection of factories that I have photographed over the years it is interesting to see how many of these characteristics keep turning up...