Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Author(s): A. B. WATERS
Source: Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Vol. 118, No. 5171 (OCTOBER 1970), pp. 659697
Published by: Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41370664
Accessed: 05-12-2016 17:35 UTC
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111
111
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each occasion.
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[Caroline Hambury
will all have seen, there are listed the criteria important than i
for factory buildings that are thought to be is the former whi
necessary to achieve efficient production, cost that must be a
and therefore profitability, in a working product when it is
fact that there is an economic cost at which time between the appointment of the ar
the building is an economic proposition. tect and the date for occupation of the com
It is, however, important to define cost in pleted building is all too brief, but thi
this context, for cost in use ought to be more particular aspect cannot be short-circuit
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client :
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SITING OF BUILDINGS
availability of labour ;
availability of raw materials ;
It is not proposed in these lectures to di
good transport connections to customers,
the land use problems involved in d
and for export, to docks and airports.
mining suitable locations for indus
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INDUSTRIAL ESTATES
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done.
been discussed.
At Teesside, Napper Errington Collerton Barnets master plan for the English CIRCULATION WITHIN THE FACTORY
Industrial Estates Corporation provides a The most important aspect of factory
modified Radburn layout with car-free areasis, without exception, the plan, by w
within the superblocks. The layout for the meant both the internal planning
Astmoor Industrial Estate at Runcorn New
building and the placing of the buildi
Town separates traffic and pedestrians, with
the site. This can be summed up in
vehicle access at the rear of the factoryword, 'circulation', for the basis of f
blocks and pedestrian access at the front.
planning is circulation, of the product
The internal roads are linked to a main road
manufacture, of personnel and of se
running through the estate, and there is in
such as electricity, steam, water, comp
addition a 'Rapid Transit' used by 'buses
air, gas and drainage. It begins with the
only. A large part of this estate is laid out for arrival and storage of raw materials, flows
advance factories of two types - nursery through the processes and ends at the desfactories of 3,200 or 6,400 sq. ft. and
patch bay. Into this main chain of activities
standard factories in multiples of 12,800 sq.
are woven the circulations of personnel and
ft. But provision is also made for larger services.
buildings, including one site of some 16
But a plan is only two-dimensional, and
acres.
the design of an industrial building cannot
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turn on a turntable.
DETAILED STUDY
BUILDING
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formly distributed
load of 10 lb. per sq. ft.
pared in 1966 by the National
Building
or equivalent point
loads at 6 ft. to 15 ft.
Agency on behalf of the Industrial
Estates
centres.
Corporation. In the introduction to the
This is in addition to other loads imposed
Report it is stated that 'in 1965 the capital
by the structure and the services.
invested by industry in new factory buildings and works was 525 million, and there Roofing:
is every indication that by 1970 this level of
advance factories is 80 x 80 ft., the architect, David Gosling, has used a 70 pitch
portal.) Roof glazing is envisaged, insula-
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tion is specified and fire vents and fire THE NEXT STAGE
curtains are required.
Having posed the problems that
siting a building and defining the basic
Cladding:
requirements for a typical industrial buildDaylighting is envisaged only for ancillary
ing, the next stage would be to discuss in
accommodation.
some detail how the problems might be
Goods doors are to be 12 ft. wide and of
the full height of the building.
Service Zone :
answered.
buildings, external treatment, internal lightThe services are one of the most important
ing and siting and landscaping.
isolation.
ment.
water, etc.;
system.
The service zone is required to be above successful one. First by assessing needs and
the clear height specified, with a minimum then translating them, within the agreed
depth of 2 ft., the desirable average being cost and time limits, into a building programme. For this purpose he must be the
given as 3-4 ft., which should not be
main link between the client and contractor,
obtained by stepping the roof. Services
must be installed so that they are accessible by liaising with all parts of the client
for maintenance without interfering with organization, and channelling and co-ordinating all the specialist skills, which will
the maintenance of any adjoining component. Heating, ventilating and lighting include structural work, mechanical, eleccriteria are given, the latter being increasedtrical and other specialist contributions to
the design of the building. It will also be
in the case of a windowless building.
to give cost advice, which must be
Requirements for partitions and ceilingsnecessary
are
not only in terms of first cost but also of
given, but not for floors, except as a fixing
for other elements, although this, with cost
the in use.
These may be regarded by some as
possible exception of the roof, constitutes
claims, but I offer no apology
perhaps the most important element of extravagant
the
building.
I for making them.
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hole,that
probably with a bit of asbestos pipe
buildings, that these were the very few
through
it, and that provided the ventilation.
Britain produced of any real quality. They
are
Do not Ibe misled; the general quality of
still worth looking at now. Another which
industrial
remember as being included in a collection
of work in this country to-day is as good
as it is anywhere.
pre-war industrial buildings was the Owen
Williams Boots factory, which had a very imMr. Clifford Paine, bsc, fric: I
portant influence upon general structural design
would like to have heard a little more from Mr.
collecting their pink stamps. It is a fantastic mild the boiler blew up because of frost. It is
building which I shall be talking about in one true, for example in petrol refining, that it i
of my later talks. But buildings here can be
wrong to seek to enclose all the plant, and it can
seen by everyone, whereas the foreign buildings be arranged into some very exciting shapes.
that are illustrated and those I have shown you
On your first question - how can the architect
on the screen are the best ones.
assist in helping to get the client's ideas clear
But if you think of what you regard as Ithe
gave you the American solution ; the architec
must be skilled in cross-examination because if
worst possible factory built in the last ten years,
he is woolly and the client is woolly, the building
I will assure you quite positively that it is much
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where,
answer a particular situation which is not
of if
hisI remember rightly, they have opted
invention.
industrial building.
produced a hundred different industrial buildings. By and large the glass structures of the last
symbols.
Mr. F. H. Ho worth (Chairman, Northrecent book The Architecture of the WellWest Centre and Member of Council) : Speaking
Tempered Environment suggested that the
as an air-conditioning engineer, I have observed
future history of architecture might be written
was a bad fashion, and it is now well on the wayMr. Sharp (Manchester Polytechnic, Deof Environmental Design) : Mr.
out. More and more the 'windowless' factorypartment
is
Waters said that a large number of factories now
being built because it reduces the effect of solar
are being built without windows, and there
gain. You may know of the work of the Ministry
seems to be great difficulty in deciding whether
of Works in this context, not only in the landshould be in zones or ghettoes, or
scaped air-conditioned office at Kew, butfactories
in
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OCTOBER 1970
been given to putting the whole lot underSociety) : I wonder if I may make two comments ?
ground ? These attempts at landscaping ofFirst, as the Society's educational work began
which Mr. Waters showed us some exampleswith assistance to the Mechanics Institutes,
might then have some meaning. Is there any
and particularly in Lancashire, I was very
fundamental reason why building of this nature
pleased to notice on the door of this building
shouldn't be buried ?
be held here.
the rest ordinary ventilation is good enough. The meeting concluded with the usual expressions
of thanks to the Lecturer and Chairman .
But if you were underground the building would
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of the Society's policy of strengthening regionaltogether for two or three years. I am referring
time being given in three regional centres. Building, where he was head of the building
I had a more modest rle teaching
Mr. Waters has had a distinguished careerdepartment.
as
and science to builders at the rival
a consultant architect, particularly in regardmaths
to
the Brixton School of Building.
industrial building. He is a founder memberinstitution,
of
The following lecture , which was illustrated , was then delivered.
THE RLE OF THE CLIENT
modern movement
which flourished on the
It is a curious thing that between
the excelContinent,
where industrial clients seem to
lence of the buildings of the
eighteenth
have
been much
more susceptible to change.
century and the present day
there
should
The result
can be seen in the many splendid
have been a period in which factory
building
industrial buildings on the Continent that
should have been so bad. It is, of course,
true that buildings of other kinds and the were built in the early part of the twentieth
decorative arts generally were also of poor century, which can be regarded as direct
quality. For the latter it has been argued that evidence of the effect of the skill of the
with an increasing demand from people of architect in creating a proper environment,
little discernment, coupled with rapid deve- since industrial architecture was the perfect
lopment of materials and processes, it seemed vehicle for modernism. This flowed from the
to be inevitable that the artistic standard
realization of the need to regard design, in
should be low. But what is true of decorative
this context the external appearance of the
art need not have been true of buildings, for building, as inseparable from planning and
it was still a craft process and the ability was construction.
there to provide buildings of quality so far
PRESENT APPROACH TO
FACTORY BUILDING
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OCTOBER I97O
manner.
his client.
drawings) ;
G.
Bills
of Quantities ;
the architect's function
H. Tender Action;
The rle of the architect has J.
not
changed
Project
Planning;
over the years, for even with the
more comK. Operations
on Site;
plex buildings of to-day he must
continue to
L. Completion;
identify himself not only with
building
M. the
Feed-Back.
as a whole, but also with its erection.
This analysis of design team
In the detailed
is not to claim that he should take over the
operation the contribution to be made by all
province of the builder and contract forthe
its specialist skills, and the time at which
erection, although there are some who they
ad- are to be made, are set out. It provides
vocate this and have done it successfully.
a background for good communications, the
After all, there are two large contracts in need
this for which was highlighted by the two
country in contemplation, where it is a conTavistock Institute reports, Communications
dition that the main contractor does no
in the Building Industry (1965) and Interwork, but must sub-contract everything;
dependence and Uncertainty (19 66).
and this is the normal practice in some parts
of West Germany, where the general con- THE APPROACH TO DESIGN
tractor does not exist, and the architect is
wholly responsible for the erection ofI the
want now to return to the design crit
building.
outlined in the NBA Report, and by gi
That situation has not yet arrived in this
solutions to some of the requirements, i
cate the matters to which the architect must
country, and there is much to be said for our
own system of having one contractor responhave regard when he is designing an indussible to the client for the erection and comtrial building. Two statements must be made
before this is done.
pletion of the building, and it is against this
background that the task of the architect The first is that many of the considerations
should be examined.
will apply to buildings of any kind; it is just
It is all too frequently argued that as
that popular misconception does not always
building becomes more complex it can no recognize the contribution that the architect
longer be controlled by one man. While thishas to make, nor does it recognize that indusis true, the argument should not be extendedtrial building merits this sort of careful
to suggest that no one profession can do so,thought.
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STRUCTURAL FRAME
Matters to be covered by such a plan are:
The general composition of the teams; the
This
involves
a choice of material, stee
contract procedure to be adopted; the overall
reinforced
concrete,
and of shape, betw
cost target and the policy on running cost,
together with the general programme using a
barpitched roof and a flat roof. While it
be argued that reinforced concrete has be
diagrams or networks and time targets.
In its preparation the architect will co-operate
fire-resisting qualities than steel, which m
with the Project Manager (a member of the
have to be cased in concrete in some app
client's staff), who in turn will consult with tions,
the
my preference is for steel. It is m
various members of the Company's team. Then
readily strengthened, and this is an adv
follows the systematic collection and analysis of
tage when the changes occur that are in
the Company's requirements by each specialist
able in industrial buildings.
member of both teams, involving a continuous
process of exchange of contributions. After aAs to shape, it is my view that except
pit
teams.
work in isolation.*
Factories.
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[Sydney W. Newbery
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Concrete panels , Sperry and Hutchinson , Chicago. A. Epstein and Sons, Architects
movement.
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[Wimpey News
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THE ARCHITECT AS
CO-ORDINATOR
method of
ventilation, method of artificial
Roof, walls and floor are sometimes
referred
and will,
to as the building envelope, lighting,
and this,
to-with the client, have laid
down the standards to which these installa-
Fortunately
increased
discuss in detail in this lecture,
by far
the height, if decided
before construction,
most important are the mechanical
and elec-is one of the less costly
trical services. These services embrace heataspects of factory building (although heating
ing, ventilating and lighting, and may alsocost will increase), so that it is possible to be
include compressed air, fire-fighting equip-generous in this respect. With stanchions
ment and power for plant operation. The spaced at 50 to 60 ft. centres, with trussed
detailed design of this work may be under-beams spanning between stanchions of suffitaken by a services consultant and competi-cient depth to afford adequate space for
tive tenders invited, or a specification of services within the roof steel, and designed
performance may be prepared by an engineerto carry some additional load at each node
on the architect's staff and the work tenderedpoint (for there is always something to hang
for on a design and instai basis, again infrom the roof), a really flexible building will
competition, by specialist sub-contractors. be obtained which can be used for any
Although not necessarily concerned inpurpose, either for changing manufacture by
detail with these services, the architect willan existing occupier, or by somebody moving
have been involved during the briefing andinto the building for the first time.
DISCUSSION
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OCTOBER I97O
(We talk about windowless buildings, but we This has been my experience over very many
really mean buildings without rooflights, bejobs. There are very few who are prepared to
cause once you are fifty feet away the window
think out a proper development programme of
means very little.) It is easier to control temperawhat they want. It is getting better, however.
ture and this on the whole is more acceptableIn
torecent years I have been working for two
the people who work inside. In one building for
groups of people with whom we have been able
which we were responsible the men could work
to sit down over a period of six months and
method of measurement) where either the architect or somebody quite outside is responsible for
organizing the work on the site. There is in West
Germany a group of people to which our nearest
comparison, professionally, would be a building
surveyor. He will take over the drawings which
the architect has prepared, he will take over the
sub-contracts and he will organize the work on
architect cannot have a building without a client whatever is necessary. I saw this being done on
because there is nothing to be gained by just a thirty-three storey office block. The whole of
making drawings. It is bricks and mortar we are the frame was up when I saw it, and on the first
floor was a huge drawing office, with three men
interested in. Most industrial clients who come
from the metal window manufacturers, six men
to architects are prepared to take trouble, though
from the ventilating contractors and so on they will sometimes be a bit late in deciding
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valuable
client for his impressions of the effectiveness
of advice the architect can provide to his
the building, and if so, at what stage ? industrial client in the first stages is in advising
him whether what he asks for is what he really
The Lecturer: What I meant was feed-
? The on
engineer's training is directed
back in every direction. Feed-back needs
on cost,
the solution of structural problems,
the way the building works and ontowards
whether
the architect's function is the solution
people like what they have got - or, whereas
if they
are
of human
of organization and environdisappointed, in what respects. I know
a lotproblems
of
andlook
the physical means of achieving those
architects who will go every year orment,
two to
solutions. It seems to me that this is the essence
at a building to see what is going on
there. If
ofhear
the architect's
professionalism.
anything goes definitely wrong you
about
it fast enough. But I think it is important that
The Lecturer : It is for this reason that I
as a matter of routine one should go and see
think that the architect is particularly fitted to
what is going on and that this information
the leading adviser.
should get back into the office. Doesbe
a particular
But? IDoes
will tell
you a little story against myself
detail work in the way that you hoped
a
here.
I was
particular way of weathering let in the
water
orbuilding a small factory for a man
who in
hadthis
said he wanted it ten feet high ! I told
does it keep it out ? - and so on. Only
are!
The architect must be involved because of
values.
matters.
Mr. Robert Madeley, friba (ViceThe meeting concluded with the usual expressions
of Associathanks.
President, Birmingham Architectural
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delivered to the North East Centre of the Society at the Merz Court
of the
Professional Services Board of the RIBA.
work as Chairman of the Joint Contracts
Tribunal, the body responsible for the production
Principally I would like you to know him as an
architects have had in their general improve- to concentrate manufacture into a smaller
ment, both as places of work and as a con- number of larger installations. One result of
this is the need for an increasing number of
tribution to the general scene.
I took as my starting point the work of the distribution centres, which is a comparaeighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in tively new development in industrial buildthis country by illustrating buildings which ing; and since this can be used to demon-
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[Sydney W. Newbery
Fine Fare Limited , Aylesford. ( Unless otherwise stated , the Architects for all the building
control ;
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collected
floor level arranged
the area must be
determined by the stability
ofat stacks
in this way. If
must be stored
cost is accepted
be determined
the goods
adequate
are to
fragile
provide athey
sufficient number of
in palletpicking
racking,
and
if
this
locations,
while
the
length and width
dimensions
be such
that movement
the height
of must
the
stacks
will is
by two restricted
considerations:
the
as far as possible.
In most cases a
ment.
686
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687
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Overall width:
the loads - normally using a pallet truck - Both types, 8 ft. 2' in. (2J m.)
on or off the vehicle, by using dock levellers,
If the easy movement of vehicles is to be
which are steel plates housed in the loading
allowed for, so that they can be accurately
dock. The required inclination is obtained
positioned without effort on the part of the
by the use of counter -balanced, springdriver, then quite large spaces in front of
loaded or hydraulically operated mechanisms loading doors are required, of the order of
which maintain the dock leveller in position. 50 ft. clear for smaller rigid vehicles, and
An alternative, not yet widely used in this 80 ft. for larger articulated vehicles.
country, is to use vehicle lifting tables, by
When parking space is provided for empty
which the vehicle can be lowered for loading vehicles and for employees' and visitors'
cars, the areas required become quite considerable, and the site area may be of the
order of twice the area of the building.
SELECTION OF SITE
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[Sydney W. Newbery
tic appliances.
690
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[Sydney W. Newbery
a little more to have a prestige building. the type of work, and the work will be
This does not happen very frequently, andplaced with the firm submitting the lowest
in 1903 when Albert Kahn was appointed totender. A variant on this would be to
design the Packard plant in Detroit, it wasnegotiate a price with a single contractor,
on the understanding that the well-designedpossibly on the basis of an earlier contract
building that he proposed should cost no obtained in competition.
more than the building that they would have A contractor may be approached direct,
got before they considered the appointmentwho will prepare the scheme, using either
of an architect.
a staff architect or a private practitioner
All too frequently, it is after having estab- appointed by the contractor, and submit a
lished that a new building is required and, price, which may be examined by an archipossibly, allocated a quite firm budget for tect or quantity surveyor - or both it, that the industrialist will begin to consider appointed by the building owner.
the alternative ways in which the building
As an extension of this method it is posmight be obtained. In some cases the site
sible to go to a developer owning his own
may have been chosen, and if this is owned site or to a contracting firm which is set up
by a developer, which would include the solely to undertake a complete design and
Industrial Estates Corporation, there will build service - the package deal. Probably
be little freedom of action. But given that I do not need to discuss in detail the claims
692
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to his client.
actually financing the project, where a prob- (3) The contractor can guarantee completion
on time. The architect cannot do this, but
lem arises the overriding consideration is
generally speaking the reasons that give
finance; that is the finance of the designing
charge if there is some minor point whichstandard form of building contract will
the client thinks can be improved. This isbe found in the contract prepared by the
contractor.
anticipated in the original costing, and
(4) The contractor is appointed at the comallowed for, so that there is an amount
within which the offer to do additional or
mencement of a project, and advantage
alteration work for the client can be made.'
While in particular circumstances expediency may dictate otherwise, I remain convinced that the building owner, and particularly the industrialist, has most to gain
by entrusting his building to an architect in
private practice, and placing the building
contract on the basis of prices obtained in
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which
the building
the case). The premise that
there
is a owner is involved,
and that where
on a short-term
better contractual relationship
the basis, is for the
price is negotiated does not
acquisition
obtain
of the
if site.
the
It may
be askedshort.
what this has to do with
list is selected sensibly and
is kept
rle ofthe
the architect
in industrial buildCompetitive tender doesthe
test
market
in a manner that cannot otherwise be
ing. My answer would be that it is part of
done, and this is to the advantagethe
of work
the of the architect who specializes in
client.
the building of factories and other industrial
buildings.
(6) The developer, or the contractor,
can
In this, and in the earlier lectures, the
provide finance for the building.
The client can also do this, first
more
by
important factors in the design of
obtaining bridging finance for theindustrial
period buildings have been discussed, so
far as
time has allowed, and it has been
of the contract, and then by selling
the
demonstrated
that the architect is concerned
building to an investor from whom
he
takes a lease (lease-back).
with all aspects of the total project.
I hope that it has also been made clear
In the case of an industrial company
that the architect cannot (and should not)
whose covenant is sound this can readily
workhas
in isolation, particularly for industrial
be arranged, and the building owner
buildings. The client has an essential rle
had the advantage of the lower price
to play, through members of his own board
obtained in competitive tender, and
avoids, or may retain, the profit which and staff, which he cannot delegate, if the
the developer obtains when he sells the resulting building is to be entirely successful.
lease, for few of them keep industrial This I would define as :
a building completed to time,
properties as an investment.
at the cost agreed,
Investors, if approached early enough,
which will be flexible in use,
will usually provide bridging finance as
economical in running cost.
well, so that the only capital outlay in
DISCUSSION
Mr. Kenneth Steen, friba (County PlanThe siting is a very complex business. Should
ning Officer, Cumberland County Council):you have twenty vans and let them travel half
the distance, or ten vans and let them travel
Could I ask about the siting of distribution
centres - whether the best place is in the indus-double the distance ? Each organization has to
trial scene itself, or whether it is advisable that know the location of the main volume of its
large cities should have an area set aside for sales, for this affects the establishment of what
distribution centres where goods can be brought is called the load centre, where the distribution
from industry and then redistributed in the centre should be sited. Having established the
load centre a site must be found, and this can
be difficult. Generally speaking, it is necessary
The Lecturer: When you say the siting
locality ?
distribution centres ?
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investment, with the reviews normally at sevenlimits of manufacture. For example, washing
year intervals, although fourteen-year reviews
machines are virtually metal boxes. However
can be obtained. I have even known twenty-one
the insides differ, the outside must be a cabinet
years, but seven is common. When the rent
of a size which can be easily put under a draining
comes up for review it is related to rents being
board and brought out again. Again, computers
paid for equivalent buildings in the particular
mainly come in sections six feet high, two feet
area. If you put up a cheap building, which will
front to back and, generally speaking, four feet
require a lot of maintenance, you may start off
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OCTOBER 1970
ings without roof lighting on the basis that it production layouts. At the time of the RIBA
exhibition in 1949 Maxwell Fry wrote an article
strip is not a great deal of use, because most
on the contribution that the architect's special
skill in planning could make to the layout of
people are too remote from it. Natural lighting
factories, taking as his theme the layout of a
as a focal point, to provide a point of interest,
factory for Sigmund pumps then recently comis of value from a psychological point of view.
pleted. Maxwell Fry would not normally be
Dr. Henry Russell : Most of the pictures
thought of in this field, but I see it as a normal
shown gave us a very good idea of the environ- development of the architect's skills, and not as
ment of the factories. What guide lines do you a separate entity.
use in costing the amount of money spent on
environment? Do you place much importance
Mr. K. Kennedy, Ariba (Taker & Kenon it, and do you have any difficulty in
nedy) : In your experience have you found that
persuading the prospective owners ?
your clients have done their own homework
makes no contribution. And even the vision
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697
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