VERTICAL URBAN FACTORY THE FACTORY IN CONTEXT
Gropius writes an essay about industrial architecture, using American examples.
1915 | GROWTH OF DETROIT AS AUTOMOTIVE MANUFACTURING CENTER 1917 | RIVER ROUGE, DEARBORN, MI Architect Albert Kahn designs Ford’s large-scale integrated manufacturing plant outside Detroit.
1910 | FORD PLANT, HIGHLAND PARK, MI
1919 | FIRST POWERED AND FREE CONVEYORS
Architect Albert Kahn designs the largest American factory at the time and the first to use a full assembly line.
Charles Seeberger with the Otis Elevator Company produces the first commercial escalator in 1899 at the Otis factory in Yonkers, New York.
1913–1926 | FIAT LINGOTTO FACTORY, TURIN, ITALY Engineer Giacomo Matte-Trucco designs this factory to support the vertical process through its concrete construction and rooftop track.
1910
Le Corbusier writes a collection of essays which profoundly advocates for the concept of Modern architecture influenced by industry.
Lockwood, Greene and Co. engineers design this concrete-frame building with vertical supports and floor slabs exposed to view.
Architects Jan Kotera, František Lydie Gahura, Miroslav Lorenc, and Vladimír Karfík, design a factory city planned by Bat’a shoe company. It exemplifies Modern construction technologies and design.
1925 | BAUHAUS SCHOOL DESSAU, GERMANY 1920s | GARMENT CENTER NEW YORK CITY 1913 | FAGUS WORKS, AN DER LEINE, GERMANY
MARCH 25, 1911 | TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE
The factory designed by architects Walter Gropius and Hannes Meyer is one of the first large structures to use steel frame and glass facades.
1913 | POWERED MOVING ASSEMBLY LINE Henry Ford combines previous ideas of assembly, making the first moving line at his Highland Park plant in Michigan.
1915
1915 | FRANK AND LILLIAN GILBRETH TIME AND MOTION STUDIES The Gilbreths conduct studies focusing on how a task is performed. They use light and photography to find out how to eliminate unnecessary steps and increase productivity. Their book: Fatigue Study: The Elimination of Humanity’s Greatest Unnecessary Waste; a First Step in Motion Study was published in 1916.
Architects Brinkman and Van der Vlugt, with Mart Stam, design a factory that is innovative for its glass facade, open floors, and comfortable working conditions.
1923–1939 | BAT’A, ZLIN, CZECHOSLOVAKIA
1911 | PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT, FREDERICK W. TAYLOR Taylor publishes his ideas on improving industrial efficiency through what he calls “Scientific Management” with enforced standardization of methods for faster and more efficient work.
1927–1929 | VAN NELLE FACTORY, ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
Erich Mendelsohn designs this dye works building in Germany, with a form that expresses the ventilation system.
Henry Ford offers his workers five dollars a day, which is an exorbitant amount at the time, as incentive to be efficient workers and consumers of his automobiles.
1911 | LARKIN WAREHOUSE, BUFFALO, NY
1910
1923 | VERS UNE ARCHITECTURE, LE CORBUSIER
1920 | HAT FACTORY, LUCKENWALDE
1914 | FORD FIVE DOLLAR DAY PROGRAM
One of the largest industrial disasters in New York, the fire kills 146 garment workers, who are trapped on the upper stories behind locked exit doors. The fire leads to improved factory safety standards.
Ballinger & Co. design the first industrial building to boast all-glass walls, which allow for ample day lighting.
Jervis B. Webb invents a multi-rail conveyor system that allows for overhead or inverted movement of goods.
1911 | MODERN ESCALATOR
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1922 | “DAYLIGHT” BUILDING, BRIDGEPORT, PA
The Garment Center develops as the center for clothing manufacturing and design in the U.S., occupying full blocks of 30th to 40th Streets on the west side of Manhattan.
1921 | R.U.R. ROSSUM’S UNIVERSAL ROBOT ` Karel Capek writes a science fiction play that premieres in 1921 and notably introduces the term robot.
1920
The Bauhaus school (1919–33), founded by Walter Gropius, embraces the idea of creating a “total” work of art, combining crafts, the fine arts, and architecture. Their new Modern building is built in Dessau in 1925.
1926 | AMERIKA, ERICH MENDELSOHN Architect Erich Mendelsohn publishes a book of photographs he took of American cityscapes in the 1920s.
1926 | THE MODERN FUNCTIONAL BUILDING, ADOLF BEHNE
1925
1928 | OVERHEAD CONVEYOR Jervis B. Webb improves his overhead conveyor system with new track and connection systems for fluid processing.
1929 | THE GREAT STOCK MARKET CRASH
1929–1935 | AUSTRIA TABAK, LINZ, AUSTRIA Architect Peter Behrens expands the Linz tobacco factory, which is Austria’s first major steel-frame structure.
1929–1945 | DYMAXION HOUSE Buckminster Fuller designs the Dymaxion House, a prototype composed of factory-manufactured parts assembled on site.
1929
1913 | “INDUSTRIEBAU” JAHRBUCH DES DEUTSCHES WERKBUNDES, WALTER GROPIUS
VERTICAL URBAN FACTORY THE FACTORY IN CONTEXT
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