Industrial structures : an analysis and transformation of their formal characteristics
type: CreativeWork
description: Industrial structures such as blast furnaces, oil refineries, gravel crushers etc. are often beautiful and fascinating. Furthermore, they exemplify certain formal and organizational characteristics which could be incorporated into architectural design. In the 1920's Le Corbusier and his contemporaries refereed to industrial structures, American grain silos in particular as a symbol of their Positivist faith in rationalism and anticipation of a Techno - Utopia. However, the world has changed in the last 60 years. Contemporary architecture is struggling to move beyond this Positivistic utopian vision and create a built environment which is more humane, user friendly and accommodating of idiosyncrasy and diversity. This thesis will examine four characteristics exemplified by industrial structures which could inform such an architecture. Industrial structures are heterotopically ordered complex assemblages of autonomous components. Discrete, clearly defined spaces within them are displaced so as to allow residual or slack space in between. The exposed steel frame work creates a sense of transparency and blurs the edge between inside and out. The purely utilitarian lack of artifice creates an honest and legible tectonic expression. These four characteristics cannot be applied superficially as an end in themselves. They should evolve out of the design process. Industrial structures are organized according to strict functional, utilitarian and economic criteria. It might be possible to archive these characteristics in architecture by following the same functional methodology. However, this is difficult in architecture because not only are the functional requirements obscure and complex but there is often little correlation between form and function. In architecture, the experiential as well as the technical qualities of a building must be considered. Helmut Schulitz's three C's context, construction method and content, defines a broad categorization of functional criteria …
abstract: Industrial structures such as blast furnaces, oil refineries, gravel crushers etc. are often beautiful and fascinating. Furthermore, they exemplify certain formal and organizational characteristics which could be incorporated into architectural design. In the 1920's Le Corbusier and his contemporaries refereed to industrial structures, American grain silos in particular as a symbol of their Positivist faith in rationalism and anticipation of a Techno - Utopia. However, the world has changed in the last 60 years. Contemporary architecture is struggling to move beyond this Positivistic utopian vision and create a built environment which is more humane, user friendly and accommodating of idiosyncrasy and diversity. This thesis will examine four characteristics exemplified by industrial structures which could inform such an architecture. Industrial structures are heterotopically ordered complex assemblages of autonomous components. Discrete, clearly defined spaces within them are displaced so as to allow residual or slack space in between. The exposed steel frame work creates a sense of transparency and blurs the edge between inside and out. The purely utilitarian lack of artifice creates an honest and legible tectonic expression. These four characteristics cannot be applied superficially as an end in themselves. They should evolve out of the design process. Industrial structures are organized according to strict functional, utilitarian and economic criteria. It might be possible to archive these characteristics in architecture by following the same functional methodology. However, this is difficult in architecture because not only are the functional requirements obscure and complex but there is often little correlation between form and function. In architecture, the experiential as well as the technical qualities of a building must be considered. Helmut Schulitz's three C's context, construction method and content, defines a broad categorization of functional criteria …
author: Strub, Damon
language: eng
keywords: Architecture.
license: http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582
date published: 1988
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:21:59Z
provider: MIT
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78988