Form and Fancy: Factories and Factory Buildings by Wallis, Gilbert and Partners, 1916-39

In 1916 Thomas Wallis founded a practice - Wallis, Gilbert & Partners - primarily to collaborate with an American company in the design of factories to be constructed of reinforced concrete. Designing factories was not then popular among architects, and many manufacturers regarded the employment of an architect as an extravagance. Wallis’s move could be seen as a reckless gamble, but his and his partners’ subsequent achievements suggest that his choice had been well considered; some of the best-known inter-war industrial buildings - Firestone, Hoover, The Gramophone Company, Glaxo Laboratories - were their work. This book looks first at Wallis’s biographical background, at the history and organization of the partnership he founded, and at the many factors that contributed to its reputation in the inter-war years. The author then offers a perspective on architectural thought and activity in that period, and on the attitudes and influences on factory design. Designs by the partnership for over 100 factories and factory buildings have been discovered, and at the core of the book is a chapter which analyzes and assesses them. Finally, there is an evaluation of the design philosophy of Wallis, Gilbert & Partners, whose aim was to contribute to the successful pursuit of business by the companies that commissioned them.