Hybrid Factory, Hybrid City

Description

A compelling selection of contemporary architects and urbanists who are just now addressing issues of how to bring manufacturing back to cities in a mixed and innovative way. The book is a compilation of essays from a symposium Hybrid Factory/Hybrid City that Nina Rappaport convened with Future Urban Legacy Lab at the Politecnico di Torino in February 2020. The authors wrote about their own projects and urban studies to address how to mix and reingrate manufacturing in cities. They address questions such as: How do we break the planning and land use patterns of segregated zoning by class and function? How can we encourage and design mixed-use manufacturing at the building and the city scale? How can the hybrid model change with new technologies, sustainable manufacturing, and advanced production systems. What kinds of buildings can be design so that the are flexible and hybrid and thus sustainable. After Covid-19 we are seeing that this mix a mix that is sustainable is more valid and resilient as we need shorter supply chains, but also for environmental reasons so people don't have to commute far from home to work and it reduces their energy foot print, and goods don't have to travel so far. Ultimately the impact will be to encourage, inspire, and help lead cities in a mix of use, sustainable eco-systems, closed loop production that integrates all aspect of the built environment. These kinds of spaces and companies will provide more job opportunities for urban workers and bring new technology skills to workers so that they can learn new methods for manufacturing. With Contributions of Bram Aerts, Frank Barkow, Cristina Bianchetti, Eva de Bruyn, Giovanna Fossa, Nicholas Gilliland, Djamel Klouche, Dieter Leyssen, Nina Rappaport, Matteo Robiglio, Markus Schaefer, Giulia Setti, Maria Paola Repellino, Nicola Russi, Ianira Vassallo, Ward Verbackel, Juan Lucas Young.

Nina Rappaport is an urbanist, architectural historian, and educator. As director of Vertical Urban Factory, a think tank and consultancy, she focuses on the intersection of production spaces, architecture, and the role of the factory worker. She is the author of Vertical Urban Factory (Actar, 2015; 2nd ed., 2020) and curator of the eponymous traveling exhibition (2011 - ongoing). Rappaport co-edited Design for Urban Manufacturing (Routledge, 2020) and Industrial Palimpsest: Newark, N.J. (Actar, 2012). Rappaport has been Publications Director at the Yale School of Architecture since 1998, a visiting professor at the Politecnico di Torino and Sapienza Universita di Roma, and is coordinator of the history/theory program at the School of Public Architecture at Kean University.