It is built on reclaimed marshland on the banks of the River Plym, with active boatyards nearby. You see the factory side of things first, a tall zinc-clad box, blank but for a high-level clerestory, approached by Ritchie's characteristic gabion walls - mesh cages filled with rubble, here the local stone. Elsewhere in Plymouth you see plenty of rough-and-ready industrial gabions doing their retaining-wall thing. In contrast, Ritchie's are immaculate, perfectly rectangular, looking as if every stone has been individually sorted.

The plan of the building is straightforward. The full-height industrial spaces on the landside are balanced by an upper-level central spine of offices. On the far side, three large pods protrude across the stone-strewn ground towards the river. They are square with radiused corners, clad in matt brown phosphor-bronze mesh, each sunk slightly into the ground with a strip of metal-framed windows running round the base of each. These are the rehearsal stages. Metal clad but soft - this is a woven metal mesh, with padded insulation beneath, and you can reach out and squish it slightly as you pass. There is meant to be a fourth pod, but this was cut out on grounds of cost and will be built later. Better that than to reduce quality all round and end up with a standard industrial-estate crinkly tin shed, which was briefly considered as an option.