There are many great aspects to being an architectural photographer, but one of my favourites is documenting construction projects. Whether the scheme is large or small, there’s just something very satisfying about showing an empty patch of land flourish into someone’s home or someone’s place of work. I feel invested in it, I feel indelibly connected to it.
Building something is always a big deal. And documenting the build with quality architectural photography is a great way of marking that milestone. And it’s a one-time thing: once it’s built, it’s built and it’s too late. Construction progress shots are excellent for company’s social media profiles, media updates, and they are great to get printed and hung on wall in a corridor or in the canteen etc.
Getting the opportunity to photograph DPD’s new depot in Howden was very exciting. It was a design–and–build project brought forward by property developers Horncastle. It was built by Hobson & Porter and I kept in close contact with the site manager to arrange access but, more importantly, to ensure I didn’t miss an important stage of the construction (you can’t photograph the steel work once the cladding is on, after all). The project took a few months to complete and I visited five times in total.
The 47,145sqft parcel distribution depot sits on a 4.5 acre site and includes a distribution warehouse, 6,716sqft of offices space, 59 van and HGV trailer parking spaces and 60 car parking spaces. The £4m development processes up to 20,000 packages a day for delivery to residential and business addresses within a 50–mile radius.
DPD’s new depot is part of Ozone Business Park, which is also home to DHL and TNT. Thanks to its excellent transport links, Ozone is a great spot to run logistics from. Warburtons and Timloc Building Products have also built distributions centres there.