We continue our guide to high-tech architecture by looking at the Inmos Microprocessor Factory, a key example of Richard Rogers' radical inside-out buildings.
Completed in 1982 in Newport, Wales, the Inmos Microprocessor Factory is a highly-flexible single-storey steel structure that was conceived as a prefabricated kit of parts that could be constructed anywhere.
It contains a microchip factory, and like many of Rogers' other high-tech buildings, is identified by the outward expression of its structure and building services that help keep its interiors column free.
In the case of the factory, this emanates from nine blue-painted towers made from tubular steel that are positioned along the centre of its roof.

The Inmos Microprocessor Factory was the result of a government-backed commission from British semiconductor company Inmos to support the expansion of the Britain's emerging microchip industry. It was developed by Richard Rogers Partnership, now Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, in collaboration with the high-tech engineer Anthony Hunt as a model microchip factory that could be quickly and easily replicated in any location.

The technical requirements of the brief from Inmos called for an area dedicated to the microchip production with controlled clinical conditions protected from dust and vibration, while offering more open offices and a staff canteen under the same roof.
However, it simultaneously demanded that the building should be completed within one year of con...