Architecture at work. Towns and Landscape of Industrial Heritage

Published by FormaEdizioni, with the contribution of Intesa Sanpaolo's Cultural Project, the volume "Architectures of work. Towns and Landscapes of Industrial Heritage" by Giovanni Luigi Fontana and Andrea Gritti represents a great novelty in the international panorama of studies in this sector, for three fundamental reasons. The first concerns the point of view expressed, in their respective introductions, by the authors, an architect and an economic historian, before proceeding to the selection, classification and analysis of about 200 case studies. The second concerns the comparison on a global scale of the diversified types of settlements that made up the "social enterprises" built in the mill towns, cité ouvrières, bruk städer, colonias industriales, villaggi operai, company towns, mining landscapes. The third concerns the observation of the case studies analyzed, which are extended over more than two centuries and on all continents. The book is structured on four timelines (origins, expansion, modernization, recovery) framed by as many openings written by the authors, offering an unprecedented overview of 65 major case studies, single or grouped according to the typological classification (e.g. Scandinavian copper cities, Wallonia mining sites, French royal manufactures, Lowell System cities, Catalan textile colonies, Krupp colonies, garden cities, Swiss watchmaking cities, Bata, Ford Motor Company or Russian steel cities) analyzed by authors and specialists from Italian and foreign universities, invited as correspondents. The book is concluded by a repertoire of 120 further case studies, prepared by the authors, which, articulated as the rest of the volume, offers the immediate perception of the typological consistency of further relevant examples of cities and industrial landscapes of all continents. The volume counts on a rich iconographic apparatus consisting of original images and drawings and satellite footage, and photographs of the current condition of the places under investigation. It counts on the preface by Lucie K. Morrisset, which reflects on the research dedicated to the industrial heritage as an "open work", and on the afterword of Massimo Preite, which analyzes the criteria adopted by UNESCO to include some of these industrial sites in the World Heritage List. The international scientific committee that monitored the project includes prestigious figures such as Federico Bucci, Konstantin Dmitrievich Bugrov, Margaret Crawford, Pierre-Yves Donzé, Sara Marini, Cristina Meneguello, Lucie k. Morisset, Valérie, Massimo Preite, Julion Sobrino Simal, Horacio Torrent, Mark Watson.