Brynmawr Rubber Factory

Coordinates: 51°47′42″N 3°10′34″W / 51.795°N 3.176°W The Brynmawr Rubber Factory was a notable building situated in Brynmawr in Wales. It was designed between 1946 and 1951 by The Architect's Co-Op, a group of Architecture students from the AA in London, in collaboration with engineer Ove Arup.

It was used for producing various rubber products (mainly tyres) and is considered by many as a Modernist icon.

The main production floor was spanned by nine huge concrete shell domes which were punctuated by circular rooflights. Some of the outer sections of the factory were roofed with concrete barrel vaulted shells.

The building was perhaps too ambitious and it was never a commercial success. Later in its life, it was owned by Dunlop and used for manufacturing vinyl flooring known as Semtex. Despite being a listed building, it was demolished in 2001..

The boiler house of the Semtex factory still remains, albeit in a derelict condition. On Monday 12th January 2015, the chimney joined to the boiler house was forced crashing down by strong winds causing power cuts around the town.

I worked for Dunlop Semtex in the 1970s. Apropos the boiler house I heard a story that the Chief Engineer made a trip to Sweden where, in a boiler house, he spotted a spiral staircase without any structural support, it being self supporting. There is one in the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe New Mexico that is believed to be a miracle enacted by St Joseph. Nevertheless the Chief charged his engineers to design one on the Swedish model for the Brynmawr facility. It was challenging, very time-consuming, and expensive but they succeeded. Some time later one of these engineers made a trip to Sweden to visit the same facility so admired by his Chief Engineer to find that the spiral staircase in that boiler room had a supporting structure. Is the Brynmawr staircase still standing?

External links