img(height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=2939831959404383&ev=PageView&noscript=1")

Radical conservation

Words:
Jan-Carlos Kucharek

As Karl Marx said, you get the best out of workers whose labour is not just a commodity. That thought may have lingered in the minds of Rooflight Company’s Peter and Val King, as 25 years since they started producing the ‘Conservation rooflight’, they’re transferring the firm to employee ownership this month. They say it offers ‘higher productivity… 25% increase in operating profits… more resilience to economic turbulence…more engaged, fulfilled and less strained workforce.’ Someone might have taken a hammer to Marx’s grave in Highgate cemetery recently, but you can’t knock those findings.

Latest

20 May 2025 from 9am to 11.30am

RIBAJ Spec: Architecture for Housing and Residential Development Webinar

An exciting inaugural year for the RIBAJ/Future Architects Film Competition ended in prizes for a love letter to a London street, an animated tale of bread production, and a reflection on a Highland mountain hut

A love letter to London, a tale of bread production and a reflection on a mountain hut all win prizes

Marco Nicholas pens a love letter to the chaotic London street

Snapshots of shops, traffic and people capture the essence of Holloway Road

Juliette Loubens delights with an animated tale of circular bread production

Big ideas are cleverly tackled through small features

Immanuel Lavery captures a remote mountain hut in the Scottish Highlands

Architecture captured in its most primal form