Founded by Winy Maas, The Why Factory concentrates on the production of models and visualizations for future cities. It runs independent research projects, PhD programs, architecture and urbanism studios, postgraduate studios at the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam, and workshops and debates. One component of the thinktank is publishing a series of books and producing films. This volume is based on Maas' inaugural address upon assuming the position of Chair of Architecture and Urban Design at Delft University of Technology in 2009. It also includes transcripts and addresses from "My Future City," a Why Factory symposium, in which students, architects, urban planners, philosophers, politicians and engineers shared their visions for the city of the future.

The Why Factory is a global think-tank and research institute, run by MVRDV and Delft University of Technology and led by professor Winy Maas. The Why Factory's Future Cities research programme explores possibilities for the development of our cities by focusing on the production of models and visualizations for cities of the future"--Book Jacket

Since the 1970s, cities world-wide have been witness to radical de-industrialisation. Manufacturing was considered incompatible with urban life and was actively pushed out. As economies have grown, public officials and developers have instinctively shifted their priorities to short-term, high-yielding land uses such as offices, retail space and housing. Inner-city growth from New York to London and even Seoul have generally come at the expense of land uses such as manufacturing or logistics. Despite the odds, manufacturing is not in terminal decay in western cities. On the contrary, it is at the opening of a new chapter. Urban manufacturing can help cities to be more innovative, circular, inclusive and resilient. Recently, with increasing interest in the circular economy, with cleaner and more compact technology, with more progressive building codes for mixed use, with increasing awareness of the impacts of social inequality and with a clearer understanding of the value chains between the trade of material and immaterial goods, cities across the world are realising that manufacturing has an important place in the 21st century urban economy. While both enthusiasm for making is increasing and the value of manufacturing is becoming increasingly evident in cities, the topic remains extremely complex and challenging to manage. This book attempts to shed light on the ways manufacturing can address urban challenges, it exposes constraints for the manufacturing sector and provides fifty patterns for working with urban manufacturing. This book has been written as a manual to help politicians, public authorities, planners, designers and community organisations to be able to plan, discuss and collaborate by developing more productive urban manufacturing. The book is split into two parts. "

The 'Why factory' throws down the gauntlet to the city of Hong Kong. What role will Hong Kong be fulfilling in the future? Which specialism should the city focus on in the trial of strength with other cities, such as Shenzhen, Shanghai and Singapore? What objectives need to be set? What are the ingredients that would be appropriate? Can Hong Kong deploy its relatively high quality to develop itself further? And if so, then how? "Hong Kong fantasies" plots out alternative paths, new visions and strategies for Hong Kong's urban and architectonic future. Sustainability and globalization play a leading role in specific spatial interventions that underpin progressive developements in the future.

This revised edition focuses on the spaces of production in cities--both the modernist period and today--and the technologies that have contributed to shifts in factory architecture, manufacturing, and urban design. Vertical Urban Factory tracks the evolution of the vertical urban factory from the first industrial revolution to the present and provides an analysis of the political, social, and economic factors that have shaped today's global industrial landscape. Ultimately, it provokes new concepts for the futureof urban manufacturing, and the necessity of creating new paradigms for sustainable, self-sufficient urban industry. Illustrated with historic and contemporary photographs, manufacturing process diagrams, and infographics by MGMT Design.

Welcome to Porous City! Welcome to a porous society! Welcome to cities that want to be open and porous! Our cities consist of buildings that are introverted and not mixed with urban life. They are closed. How to open them? How can we introduce pockets for encounters, for streams of circulation, for green areas, for tunnels of cooling ... What logics can be imagined in our towers to allow for this openness? Using stepped floors? Creating grottos? Splitting towers? Twisting blocks? Every hypothesis leads to a series of interventions. How far can we go before the tower collapses, before it is unaffordable? Together, these series form an army of towers that contributes to a more porous city. Why wait?

A pioneering exploration of four cities where East meets West and past becomes future: St. Petersburg, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Dubai.

Ob Birmingham, Rotterdam oder Wolfsburg: Industriestädte haben nicht nur völlig unterschiedliche Gesichter, sie unterliegen auch einem bemerkenswerten zeitlichen Wandel. Die Autoren behandeln die Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft der Industriestadt als europäisches Phänomen. Aus soziologischer, historischer, geografischer und medialer Perspektive erörtern sie unterschiedliche historische Modelle und Typen von Industriestädten im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, diskutieren die Frage nach der Zukunft von monostrukturellen Industriestädten sowie mediale Repräsentationsformen industrialisierter Städte. Mit Beiträgen vonChristoph Bernhardt, Hans-Peter Dörrenbächer, Simon Gunn, Christine Hannemann, Martina Heßler, Martin Jemelka, Henry Keazor, Robert Lewis, Timo Luks, Rebecca Magdin, Jörg Plöger, Richard Rodger, Rolf Sachsse, Adelheid von Saldern, Ondrej Sevecek, Judith Thissen und Clemens Zimmermann.

Community development expert Ilana Preuss explains how local leaders can revitalize their downtowns or neighborhood main streets by bringing in and supporting small-scale manufacturing. Small-scale manufacturing businesses help create thriving places, with local business ownership opportunities and well-paying jobs that other business types can't fulfill.

The “vivid, provocative” untold story of how restrictive policies are preventing China from becoming the world’s largest economy (Evan Osnos). Dexter Roberts lived in Beijing for two decades working as a reporter on economics, business and politics for Bloomberg Businessweek. In The Myth of Chinese Capitalism, Roberts explores the reality behind today’s financially-ascendant China and pulls the curtain back on how the Chinese manufacturing machine is actually powered. He focuses on two places: the village of Binghuacun in the province of Guizhou, one of China’s poorest regions that sends the highest proportion of its youth away to become migrants; and Dongguan, China’s most infamous factory town located in Guangdong, home to both the largest number of migrant workers and the country’s biggest manufacturing base. Within these two towns and the people that move between them, Roberts focuses on the story of the Mo family, former farmers-turned-migrant-workers who are struggling to make a living in a fast-changing country that relegates one-half of its people to second-class status via household registration, land tenure policies and inequality in education and health care systems. In The Myth of Chinese Capitalism, Dexter Roberts brings to life the problems that China and its people face today as they attempt to overcome a divisive system that poses a serious challenge to the country’s future development. In so doing, Roberts paints a boots-on-the-ground cautionary picture of China for a world now held in its financial thrall. Praise for The Myth of Chinese Capitalism “A gimlet-eyed look at an economic miracle that may not be so miraculous after all.” —Kirkus Reviews “A clearheaded and persuasive counter-narrative to the notion that the Chinese economic model is set to take over the world. Readers looking for an informed and nuanced perspective on modern China will find it here.” —Publishers Weekly “A sophisticated and readable take of China’s triumphs and crises. . . . A first-hand witness to China’s transformation over the past quarter century, Roberts credibly challenges the myth of China’s inevitable rise and global dominance.” —Ian Johnson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author and Beijing-based correspondent “A potent mix of personal stories and deft analysis, The Myth of Chinese Capitalism takes a hard look at China’s migrants and rural people.” —Mei Fong, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of One Child: The Story of China’s Most RadicalExperiment