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Abstract: This paper discusses a little known feature of the industrialization process, namely how manufacturing was organized in buildings that were occupied by small independent businesses. The first notable example of this took place in Sheffield, where a number of cutlery producers, engaged in different stages of the manufacturing process, came together in large factory buildings. Such concentration allowed manufacturers to share the energy produced by early large-scale steam engines. This tenement factory model was widely adopted elsewhere, like in the mechanical production of laces in Nottingham, and in Birmingham’s jewellery industry. A revival of the tenement model took place in the mid-nineteenth century: this type of plant (renamed flatted factory) was used in Britain’s post-war reconstruction as well as in the Netherlands and Scandinavia. In the 1960s the flatted factory was successfully introduced in Hong Kong, later spreading to other Far Eastern countries.

Keywords: Industrial Building; Small Business; Urban Planning; Local Development