After the Factory

Focussing on thriving community initiatives and Rochdale's Cooperative legacy, students pursued research strands connecting manufacture, culture, and lifelong learning with wider questions of place and agency.

A drawing of people enjoying a garden area in between buildings — Maria Lisnic

Off

Modern architecture has had various and conflicting relationships with the factory typology. Some theorists have embraced the architecture of mass production, while critics like Marx, Engels, Morris, and Ruskin condemned its human and material costs. Considering the relationships between architecture, labour and place, the studio explored these themes in the former mill town of Rochdale, home to a new manufacturing hub and against which students could critically position their projects.

Projects explicitly contested material profligacy in architecture and developed nuanced responses to the ‘found’, rather than repeating the modern desire for new form and the tabula rasa.

A drawing of people using a road crossing to go towards a new building at night — Jacob Downey

After the Factory - Studio 2025-26

View images

A black and white map design of a collection of buildings surrounded by forest — Holly Welsh

A drawing of a courtyard between buildings with red scaffolding over it and people sat on logs in the middle — Rebecca Wood

A drawing of people in a corridor of a building with an open second floor walkway above them — Joe Rowlinson

Studio lead

Stuart McKenzie

University Teacher in Architecture
School of Architecture and Landscape

I am the Year 2 undergraduate course leader and Deputy Director of Education. I am interested in the role of the academy in architectural education, and widening participation.

Email: stuart.mckenzie@sheffield.ac.uk

Guests and collaborators

Holly le Var (artist)
Oliver Boaler (Rochdale Development Agency)
Graham Mateer (Commonbond Architects)
Richard Harpin (University of Sheffield)

School of Architecture and Landscape