Unlearning Architecture: Environmental History of Production Spaces from Mill Buildings to Machine Landscapes

Anthropocene is the present geological epoch in which human-built infrastructures dominate the resources of the world and the highest level of human intrusion to the ecosystems have been accumulated since the Industrial Revolution. Utilization of the steam engine initiated change in energy sources and extraction of raw materials that altered the existent means of production and led to the hegemony of industrial activities. The spread and growth of industry prevailed onto the practice of architecture to construct rapidly developing bases of production, storage, and distribution. Therefrom, physical embodiments of these bases as an overall system enable to relate energy, labor, and technology as fundamental elements of identity with the discourse of architecture. Hence, this study examines three architectural typologies -mill buildings, daylight factories, machine landscapes- for the evolution of production as a historical overview and analyzing the typologies with an emphasis on environmental history uncovers the intricate relations in between these elements and architecture in the exigency of climate change. Cases from different industrial periods reflect the altering nature of energy, labor, and technology regarding means of production, construction techniques, and materials. Acting as design parameters through the spatial transformation from mill buildings to daylight factories, and now to the machine landscapes, these relations indicate the interdependency between architecture and industry, and allow to formulate further spatial entities for production that are more climate-conscious within the curricula of architectural pedagogy.1

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.Teach.2021.36

Volume Editors
Jonathan A. Scelsa & Jørgen Johan Tandberg

ISBN
978-1-944214-38-8