Spaces of Labour: Re-imagining a Productive Landscape for Scotland

Spaces of Labour (S.O.L.), which began its life as a series of mapping exercises with students at Strathclyde University's Department of Architecture, has been developed into a touring exhibition, publication and website inviting a considered investigation of how capitalist work practices were organised spatially and of the architecture of the workplace.

Alongside questioning historical memory and the architecture of work the project, crucially critiques the " neo-liberal policies" that drive the capitalist agenda.

S.O.L suggests that Scotland needs to think more creatively about new possibilities for transforming the built environment speculating on the types of industrial and agricultural production that could exploit the country's abundant natural resources.

Unapologetically idealistic, S.O.L does not romanticise the industrial past.

Rather it marks the extraordinary engineering, skill and craftsmanship of the shipyards, steel plants and the pits whilst raising serious issues for the future.

It suggests that as an imperative Scotland should consider planning for futures that could see massive increases in labour costs in the BRIC economies and escalating transportation charges as fuel reserves dwindle; developing responses to the increasing demands of environmental imperatives and re-imagining the contribution of manufacturing industry could make to a stable future economy.