When we think of architecture, we often conjure images of great Renaissance cathedrals or impressive modernist buildings. But the truth is that architecture exists across the built environment, and wherever humans have made something, there’s an aesthetic to be enjoyed. Among the lesser-appreciated designs are factories – anonymous warehouses from the outside, but dazzling mechanical metropoles within. In this article, we’ll pay homage to how these beautiful interiors are designed – and why they have an aesthetic all of their own.
Table of Contents
Conveyors
One of the first thing you’ll notice when you enter a factory is that conveyor belts crisscross it. Firms are constantly erecting new levels to their production lines, building ever-more impressive networks of conveyors to get products and parts from place to place. They run so fast and so often that replacement belts are often required to make sure they’re able to run throughout the day, every day. The overall effect is of busy industry, but with something soothing about the content movement, noise, and gleam of the conveyor wheels as they Go about their very practical, very efficient work.
Machines
Conveyors link machines in factories. And these machines are great, brutalist hulks of metal and rubber which can be evocative of all those films you’ve sat through which feature machines taking over the world. So if there’s something a little daunting about this aesthetic, it’s often because these machines are the models for a world that you’ve seen in the movies. As with conveyors, though, the knowledge that these machines are designed for a single purpose – productivity – sets them apart as a modern aesthetic of function over grace. That’s quite beguiling if you’re interested in the built environment and how it can make those within it feel.
Lights
The lighting in factories is often bright – and constant, on night and day until the machines are switched off, and only the red glow of emergency lights bathes the factory in a kind of sinister gloom. But when the machines are whizzing along, it’s the lights that pick up the chrome, the sheet metal, and the glass, making this something of a glinting wonderland of industrial power and proficiency. The lighting is often bright white, as per safety regulations, so that the scene is clean, sterile and stark – slightly inhuman, but also deeply interesting for the passerby.
Colors
Colors are important in factories. With so many moving parts, health and safety regulations stipulate that barriers painted in bright colors such as yellow must be present to protect workers from tripping onto conveyor belts. Buttons to kill the machines are usually bright red, adding to the primary color palette. And you’ll often see red and black or yellow and black striping – also something used to show where employees can and can’t go. Add to all this the colored hard hats of the workers, and you get an aesthetic reminiscent of a great Bond villain lair – rather compelling and incredibly memorable.
These four features of factory interiors are well worth checking out for yourself, given the architectural and design elements that they bring into play.
