The Armitage factory has once again been in the spotlight, appearing in a Radio 4 documentary about the designed and manufactured world.
Created by Giles Smith (pictured above) and Amica Dall from the Turner Award-winning Assemble design collective, the two part series The Sympathy of Things looks at the way mass production has affected our world.
Their journey begins with a visit to Armitage and a chat with Mick Horne and Chris Marritt about how designs are modelled and manufacturing components created, before they are shown along the factory line.
Giles and Amica’s approach is slightly different to that of other media crews who have visited the site, as they are looking beyond the manufacturing process itself, at how the way things are made can have an impact on society as a whole.
Mick said: “Amica and Giles were really interested in all of the processes and especially the amount of work people, as opposed to purely machines, put into making a toilet.
“They were impressed that many of the people who work in the plant are putting years – quite often decades – of experience into what they do.”
The segment on the Armitage plant precedes conversations with professor and best-selling author Richard Sennett and Marcus Engman, Head of Design at IKEA. The programme can be found here and the Armitage segment comes immediately after the introduction. You will need to sign in to or create a BBC account to listen.
*A segment for another documentary series which was filmed at the plant will be aired next week. Episode seven of Made In Britain will be broadcast on ITV4 at 8pm on Tuesday, 13 November.