Pre-reading Discussion. 1. What is the difference between the buildings of the 20 and of the 21st century?

1. What is the difference between the buildings of the 20 and of the 21st century?

 

2. What are the main functions of industrial buildings?

3. Do you agree that architecture reflects the processes of the world?

4 What great architects do you know? What are they famous for?

In the 19th century, the image of industrial building was dominated by huge factory structures in which the

process of mass production was combined with a concentration of mechanical power. Innovative concerns expect

architects to provide holistic strategies rather than design details, and organizational structures based on

communication and cultural needs rather than constructional refinements. More and more virtual concerns are

dispensing with the actual production process to concentrate on product planning and marketing. The classical

unity of time and place in which industrial activities were carried out in the past, and the kind of construction in

which form reflected function are disappearing; but the transition to structures dominated by communications

and intelligence is not reflected in the architecture.

It is not easy to formulate a precise and acceptable definition of industrial building. One set of guidelines

for industrial construction lists "buildings or parts of buildings that serve the production, processing or storage

of products and goods". Under the same heading, the encyclopedia includes buildings for industrial

production and research, together with administration and social structures.

In his "History of Building Types", Nikolaus Pevsner confines his treatment of industrial structures largely

to factories of a certain size in which products are manufactured in great numbers, as well as to warehouses,

market halls and exhibition structures.

Pevsner soon stretched his own definition, however, to include the steam-turbine house erected for the

fountains.

In 1996, Helmut С. Schulitz warned that architects were enamored of form and were neglecting the technical

aspects of building, especially new concepts related to content and space. As a result, architects were losing

ground in the race against industry, which was demoting them to the role of packaging decorators. Most industrial

buildings take place without any relation to the surrounding city and the population at large. A factory can

be more than just a provider of workplaces for production, though. It can also make a contribution to the cityscape

and the urban image. It can help to create urban spaces. It can reduce the noise from a traffic artery far

more effectively than acoustic screening walls. With the proper layout and landscaping, it can have a positive

effect on urban climate. Solar energy can be generated and stored on its large roof areas, or additional parking

spaces can be made available at weekends for leisure activities. For generations, in the face of urban concentration,

environmental damage, traffic chaos and mass consumption, a solution was seen in the separation of functions.

As a result, the concepts of connectivity and plurality have been lost, even though they offer the chance

of mutual enrichment between habitation and workplace. Partial needs may be satisfied, but at the expense of

the whole. By linking industrial buildings with other areas of urban life, more problems could be solved than

would be caused by mutual disturbance. With the development of cleaner, more compact technology, industry

has created the conditions in which a rethinking process is necessary. Even cities with a great architectural

awareness, have an antiquated approach in this respect, as is shown by the recently extended building of the

lamp designer. In spite of efforts by the company over many years to secure a city location, the

architects were finally obliged to conceal their spectacularly spare spacecraft-like design

for the works - the operation of which causes no environmental disturbance - behind an embankment in a

commercial zone. Such acts of exclusion challenge the very nature of the city as a collective phenomenon

in which human history is reflected.

Companies like Volkswagen and Siemens avail themselves of urban metaphors to keep the loyalty of their

clientele or as a reference joint for innovative processes (e.g. "the revi-ralization of the polls"). In this way, urban

qualities are exploited to create a synthetic surface that rouses emotions and sparks innovation.

Rather like the Palais Royal in Paris 200 years ago, the Xenia project was conceived as a means of exploring

the pressing problems of our age through an exchange between technology and the arts, between the working

city and the city as a place of human intelligence. A century ago, the composer Maurice Ravel marveled at

the ironworks in Duisburg, speaking of palaces of flowing metal, glowing cathedrals, a wonderful symphony of

whistles and terrible hammer blows. A glimpse behind the scenes of our modern epoch-making "cathedrals of

labor" and "corporate identity" is less satisfying than enthusing over the highlights of building history. Nevertheless,

it is strange that the term "industrial culture" is used mainly in a historical context and not to describe

the future potential of modern architecture. The main sites of industrial tourism are memories of the past, to be

found in the new "industrial museums" and in the conservation of important industrial buildings from the "good

old days". For example, the former textile-producing town of Lowell, Massachusetts, with a population of

70,000 has been designated a national park.

The German equivalent of this would be the UNESCO World Heritage Sites where the industrial culture of

the Saarland and the Ruhr area can be seen. Our passion for the past and our pessimistic view of civilization is

unbroken.

A waterworks with its romantic background may be transformed into a parliamentary assembly; a car factory

with a test track on the roof may be converted into an art gallery, trade fair centre, hotel, university and

shopping palace; but no company aware of its corporate identity is willing to attire itself in second-hand clothing.

"History is more or less bunk. It is tradition. We don't want tradition," the car manufacturer Henry Ford

said in 1916. With his modern concepts of financing and friendly service, Ford was far ahead of his time, and

he demonstrated this architecturally, too - with the aid of his company architect, Albert Kahn. A similar developmental

leap would be conceivable for modern industry if it were to abandon its strongholds and integrate itself

in a dynamic European city environment stripped of retrospective tendencies and open to experiment.

"More quality of life through the revitalization of the polis," as Siemens says. And the architects?