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An architecture of parts: architects, building workers and industrialisation in Britain 1940-1970

The book An Architecture of Parts: architects, building workers and industrialisation in Britain 1940-1970 describes post war reconstruction from a new perspective: the changing relationship between architects and building workers. It uses a multi-disciplinary methodology that includes technical archives, oral history and visual material to describe the construction process. The social aspects of production and the changes in working life for architects and building workers are examined, in particular the effect on the building process of introducing dimensionally co-ordinated components. The book concludes, through an investigation of architectural approaches to industrialisation, that the structures and ideas underpinning this period of rapid industrial change were revolutionary in their commitment to a complete transformation of the building process. The research underpinning the book revealed a dearth of documentation and analysis of activities at the level of the building site. This provided the impetus for a two year Leverhulme Trust funded project, Constructing Post-War Britain: building workers' stories 1940-70 on which Wall Principal Investigator.