Assembly Lines
On Architecture and Industry
Industrialization was from the start a part of the thinking behind modern architecture. Designing buildings in a way resembling that used in designing other things – from the automobile to the coffeemaker – is inseparable from modernity, and is as characteristic of modernity as its aesthetics and its urban conceptions are. The idea dated back in time. Engineers of the 19th century were already aware of the power that industrial production would have in the future.
In a strict sense, to industrialize is to mass produce – with the variations that may be, but en masse. The assembly line, the spare part and the automation of tasks were and continue to be determinant features of industrial production. The objective is to supply products to a society of several million people...
