Author Description

The late nascence of the industrial building, together with its strong ties to changing technologies and its relative anonymity, liberated the architect from tradition. Factory buildings have been a testing ground for inventions in construction as well as new expressions and the non-mainstream while silos and reservoirs have been muses for architectural theory. Architects such as Peter Behrens, Albert Kahn, Jean Prouve, and Herzog & de Meuron as well as engineers such as Francois Hennebique, Robert Maillart, and Pier Luigi Nervi made their names building for industries. Whether large halls or vertical stacks, whether generic or highly specific, experiments in the industrial realm have produced perhaps the purest relationships between structure, light, and space that we would find in any building type. The new book "Space of Production," based on extensive research done by Atelier Kuo at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne s School of Architecture, revisits spaces of production through seminal projects, text contributions, and studio explorations. The concept and design of the book is very similar to that of "A-Typical Plan." Topical essays investigate specific aspects of the industrial building. Examples from the past 100 years are featured with floor plans and sections as well as photographs. Work by students of Atelier Kuo is presented with photographs, brief descriptive texts and plans. Essays are contributed by Jacques Herzog, Frank Barkow, Alberto Bologna, Germain Brisson, Juan Jose Castellon, Petra Jossen, Jeannette Kuo, and Cedric Libert. "