Aga Khan Award for Architecture

International Seminar Workplaces: the Transformation of Places of Production Istanbul, 12 and 13 January 2009

Mohammad al-Asad Geneva, 10 November 2008

Introduction An important component of the built environment in the diverse set of countries that make up the Islamic world relates to industrial production. This includes factories, workshops, warehousing facilities, and a variety of building types intimately connected to the industrial process such as workers housing complexes. In spite of their ubiquity, they have yet to be the subject of any intense investigation. The Transformation of Places of Production seminar aims to initiate a discourse that may begin to shed light on this important subject.

A brief chronology of the industrialization process in the Islamic world The earliest examples of modern steam-powered industrial production in the Islamic world date back to the first half of the nineteenth century, particularly in Egypt under the rule of its autonomous Ottoman governor, Muhammad Ali. This process was implemented as a state enterprise that concentrated on military production to support Muhammad Alis regional military and political ambitions, but also included products intended for civilian consumption, primarily textiles and foodstuffs. Soon afterwards, similar industrialization efforts were initiated by the central Ottoman authorities in Istanbul, and by the late nineteenth-century, modern industrial facilities also were built by the Qajar dynasty in Iran and by emerging industrialists in the Indian subcontinent such as the Tata family. Since then, attempts at industrialization gradually emerged as an integral component of the process of modern state-building in countries throughout the Islamic world. The story of industrialization of course often differs considerably from one country to the other, but a number of common themes may be identified. As the modern era set in, and as independent states came into being in the post-colonial period, particularly around the middle of the twentieth century, attempting to establish an industrial base emerged as a central component in the making of the modern state, along with other undertakings such as setting up a national military force, putting in place a state-run media apparatus, and establishing a national educational system.

2010 Steering Committee His Highness the Aga Khan, Chairman. Mohammad al-Asad, Chairman, Center for the Study of the Built Environment, Amman. Homi K. Bhabha, Director of the Humanities Center, Harvard University, Cambridge. Norman Foster, Chairman, Foster + Partners. Glenn Lowry, Director, The Museum of Modern Art, New York City. Rahul Mehrotra, Principal, RMA Architects, Mumbai. Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean of the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge. Farshid Moussavi, Partner, Foreign Office Architects, London. Han Tmertekin, Principal, Mimarlar Tasarim Danismanlik Ltd., Istanbul. Farrokh Derakhshani, Director.

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The vast majority of the industrial establishments that initially came into being were state-owned. This is partly because of the underdevelopment of the private sector during both the early-modern and earlypost-colonial periods, especially in comparison to the overwhelming power of the state, and partly because of the rise of socialist ideologies during the early-post-colonial period, particularly around the mid-twentieth century, which advocated significant if not complete ownership of the means of production by the state. With time, however, a sizeable private sector came into being in countries where regulations allowed for a market economy to emerge, and a number of privately-owned industrial conglomerates arose. In many cases, they have been associated with individuals or families, but these gradually have been giving way to public share-holding companies. Beginning in the 1990s, numerous governments also initiated processes for the privatization of state-owned industries, which often were viewed as highly inefficient, selling them partially or completely to local and foreign investors. In spite of the significance of the industrialization process in the Islamic world as a primary force of modernization and nation building, in many cases, it has neither been complete nor successful, and has yet to be as extensive as what took place in the West beginning in the mid-eighteenth century, or in the emerging industrial nations of East Asia or even South America beginning in the second half of the twentieth century. There are numerous reasons for this. One of them is that the societies of many of the countries of the Islamic world, even those with established industrial infrastructures, remain significantly agrarian (about 30% of the population in Turkey and Iran; 55% in Indonesia; 60% in Egypt; 65% in Pakistan; 70% in India; and 75% in Bangladesh), with pre-mechanical agricultural production systems continuing to play a significant role in their economies. There also is the lack of the intense history of engineering and mechanical innovation found in industrialized countries. Moreover, as the process of economic modernization has progressed in the Islamic world over the past few decades, considerable resources in many countries were directed towards the service sector, as with banking, real-estate development, tourism, and, more recently, telecommunications, rather than towards industrial production. In most instances, the industrialization process therefore has yet to reach its logical conclusion. Other hurdles have hindered this industrialization process. One of them is the extensive level of state ownership of industrial ventures, which often allowed highly inefficient production, marketing and distribution, as well as management practices to prevail unchecked. Another hurdle is the protectionist policies that were put in place in many countries and that directed industrial production exclusively towards a local, often small, captive market instead of pursuing export-oriented policies as was the case in South Korea, for example, which embarked upon an extraordinary industrialization process in the 1960s. In addition, the world of industrial production is highly-crowded and intensely competitive, with established industrial nations as well as emerging ones vying for effective presence and increased market share, thus making it very difficult for newcomers to make any significant inroads. Important changes, however, began to take place over the past two decades or so. Even though China has been quickly expanding its industrial output to become the worlds fourth largest industrial producer (after the United States, Japan, and Germany), new opportunities for increased industrial production have been emerging throughout the developing world. These are closely connected to the policies of international economic liberalization and openness, as well as the cross-border synchronization of national investment-related policies and regulations that have taken place during this period. Such

developments have ushered an era of economic globalization that has facilitated the movement of goods and capital (though not necessarily people) across borders. Also of extreme importance are the tremendous advances in telecommunication technologies that have greatly facilitated communication and the exchange of data across the globe, and that should make the current phase of globalization more enduring than the previous one from the second half of the nineteenth century. Although it remains unclear as to the extent to which this globalization process will continue, particularly considering the international economic and financial downturns currently taking place, what has transpired already has linked markets in most though not all Islamic countries to the outside world in a manner not seen before. One manifestation of this process has been that of industrial multinationals establishing production facilities throughout the developing world to serve local, regional, and international markets. This move is attributed to a number of factors, one of which is to take advantage of lower labour costs as well as the weakness or even non-existence of effective organized labor organizations in those countries. These conglomerates also may benefit from relatively weak environmental protection policies in the developing world that would provide safeguards against potential air, water, or soil pollution caused by industrial facilities. Another factor is to save on shipping costs, an issue that is becoming increasingly significant with the long-term trend of rising oil prices. Also important is that by establishing permanent production facilities in these targeted markets, rather than only transporting finished products to them, it is possible to create more sustainable production and distribution networks in them, as well as a more permanent consumer base. Finally, such production facilities can take advantage of regional cooperation agreements (as with the Gulf Cooperation Council in the Arabian Peninsula) that allow their products not only to readily access the countries where their production facilities are located, but also access regional markets. As for the investments in these new local production facilities, they may be provided by the industrial multinationals themselves, but also by local investors or through joint ventures that include both. Criticisms have of course been made of such arrangements, particularly in that they may take advantage of lax labor or environmental protection regulations in the host countries. These industrial facilities in many cases also are relatively labor intensive, relying on conventional assembly-line industrial production methods, and most often do not involve cutting-edge industrial technologies, as with semiconductor chips or advanced biotechnology and pharmaceutical products. Still, they do involve a level of industrial-technology transfer, as well as a transfer of the management, marketing, and distribution structures associated with them. It may also be argued that the labour and environmental practices that a number of industrial multinationals bring with them already adhere to higher standards than what may exist at the local level. Whatever the criticisms may be, it is definite that as a result of these various new developments, many countries of the Islamic world today are undergoing a renewed and rather extensive phase of industrialization. Another very interesting, though yet limited, related development taking place is that a number of industrial companies in various Muslim countries are beginning to establish industrial facilities in the West and elsewhere, and are buying out existing companies internationally. It remains early to tell regarding the extent and consequences of such a phenomenon. In some cases, it simply is a case of excess oil money searching for new investment opportunities, but in others, it is an indication of the

maturity and success of established industrial ventures, which are reaching new levels of confidence and capacity that enable them to compete with internationally prominent players in their fields. Industrial production and the built environment Narratives in the West How have these various developments been expressed in the built environment? The architecture as well as urban ramifications of places of industrial production in the countries of the Islamic world have not received the attention they deserve. They have certainly received far less attention than in the West, and even there, the interest in industrial architecture remains relatively limited in comparison to the attention provided to other building types. The West provides a natural frame of reference considering that it is where the modern industrialization process, i.e. the Industrial Revolution, came into being. Numerous narratives presenting the evolution of industrial architecture in the West have been put forward. Many of them share a common storyline that begins with Claude-Nicolas Ledouxs Royal Saltworks building of 1775 at Arc-et-Senans, which although belonging to the pre-mechanical age of industrial production provides an important example of a place of production that also is consciously and deliberately presented as an architectural statement. These narratives move on to feature utilitarian structures from the second half of the eighteenth century that were made possible by technical advances brought about by the Industrial Revolution, as with iron bridges, the earliest of which is the 1779 castiron bridge at Coalbrookdale. These are followed by the variety of large-scale steel structures that were proudly exhibited as examples of industrial advancement in the Western world. Among the best known of those is the cast-iron and glass Crystal Palace in London by Joseph Paxton. The Crystal Palace housed the Great Exhibition of 1851, which featured the latest and most advanced industrial products available in the world at that time. A later world-renowned example is the 1889 Eiffel Tower in Paris, the iron structure that functioned as the entry arch for the Exposition Universelle and remained the worlds tallest structure for decades. The Exposition also included the Galerie des machines, which had the longest single-span interior in the world, extending along a length of 111 meters. As with the Crystal palace of a few decades earlier, it too featured the latest industrial machinery of the time. These narratives usually reach their apogee with the industrial buildings designed by German Modernists that served to give architectural dignity to the workplace. Many of these architects were affiliated with the Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Federation), the association of artists, architects, designers and industrialists that aimed at integrating traditional crafts and mass industrial techniques. Among the best known of these buildings are the AEG Turbine Factory in Berlin by Peter Behrens, completed in 1910, and the Fagus Shoe Factory in Alfeld on the Leine by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer, begun in 1911. This group of architects also paid considerable attention to the extensive social ramifications of the industrialization process and accordingly was concerned with developing housing prototypes for the newly emerging class of industrial laborers. A memorable expression of such design efforts is the 1927 Weissenhof estate exhibition, carried out by the Deutsche Werkbund, with Mies van der Rohe as lead architect. The exhibition featured over twenty constructed projects that included Le Corbusiers Citrohan House, which remains one of the better known explorations that aim at creating standardized, prefabricated low-cost housing units.

These narratives also may veer away from architectural production to touch upon the emergence of an industrially-inspired aesthetic that affected the visual arts of the West. Examples include the paintings of the French Fernand Lger (d. 1955), which featured machine-like, streamlined forms and colors, and those of the American Charles Sheeler (d. 1965), which provided highly-developed visual explorations of the formal qualities of machines and industrial facilities. The chronological coverage of these narratives usually fizzles out with the advent of the second quarter of the twentieth century. This is possibly because the industrialization process in the West had almost taken its full economic and social course by then, and, with that, the interest of the architectural community in it began to wane. Moreover, as Western economies entered the post-industrial age, with its emphasis on the service sector and on information technologies, architects followed suit by shifting their attention to other relevant building types such as office buildings, showrooms, or even research facilities, in addition to maintaining pre-existing interests in other buildings types, whether residential, commercial, institutional, or cultural. Although industrial buildings of high quality continue to be designed and built, to many architects (and also to clients and members of the general public) industrial buildings unfortunately remain no more than utilitarian sheds of generally predetermined form that house machinery and warehousing facilities. It is interesting to note, however, that what may be identified as an industrial aesthetic, which most commonly is expressed through High-Tech architecture, nonetheless has increasingly taken on a prominent role in defining the formal qualities of overall architectural production in the industrialized world and elsewhere since the 1970s. Industrial architecture in the Islamic world A corresponding narrative to the evolution of industrial architecture in the West has yet to be put together for the countries of the Islamic world. This is understandable considering that the industrialization process, and by extension, the evolution of industrial architecture, there has not taken on the same level of intensity as in the West. The countries of the Islamic world still contain enough relevant works of architecture and urbanism to allow for putting together a relatively detailed narrative addressing industrial architecture. A natural departure point for such a narrative would be the industrial facilities erected under Muhammad Ali during the first half of the nineteenth century, continuing with those built under the Ottomans in Turkey, whose activities relating to the industrialization process even included an industrial exhibition, the 1863 Ottoman General Exposition in Istanbul. These would be followed by the industrial facilities constructed in South Asia during British rule and in Qajar Iran. The construction of industrial facilities was continued during the first half of the twentieth century under industrialists such as Talat Harb in Egypt and the Tata family in India. The major proliferation of industrial buildings, however, does not take place until around the middle of the twentieth century, with each of the countries of the Islamic world following its own process of industrialization, often initiated by the exit of colonial powers. During this phase, large-scale manufacturing facilities emphasizing heavy industries often relating to iron and steel, cement, as well as oil and petrochemical production feature prominently. Such a narrative may touch upon the newly-emerging phenomenon of converting pre-existing industrial buildings, some of which date back as early as the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, to

accommodate new uses, primarily of a cultural nature, as with art exhibition spaces or performance centers. These include the recent conversion of the 1910 Silahtaraa Santral, Turkeys first electric power station, into a multi-use center that now is part of Istanbuls Bilgi University. A similar project is underway for the 1930s electricity generation building in Amman, which is about to be renovated into a multi-use space accommodating commercial and cultural facilities. In Tehran, the 1993 Komeil Cultural Center is a converted beer factory that originally was built during the 1940s. One reason why this is an opportune moment for developing a narrative that addresses the evolution of industrial architecture in the countries of the Islamic world is because of the intensive industrialization they have been undergoing over the past two decades or so. Although the corpus of most prominent architects there does not include works of industrial architecture, an increasing number of architects are giving attention to this building type and are rejecting the idea of the place of industrial production as a utilitarian shed covering machinery and storage space. Not surprisingly, the highest concentration of such architects is found in Turkey, the Islamic worlds largest industrial producer. These include Seyfi Arkan, Haluk Baysal, Melih Birsel, and Aydin Boysan, who were active during the 1950s and 1960s, and are followed by younger generations of architects such as Cenkis Bektas, Mehmet Konuralp, Nervat Sayin, Murat Tabanlioglu, Dogan Tekelli, and Han Tmertekin. Pioneering work, however, also is being produced by architects from other countries, as with Sinan Hassan of Syria. Another important ongoing development relating to industrial architecture concerns the urban level. The effects of industrialization on large-scale land-use patterns are always significant and include the destruction of agricultural land, the development of sizable new settlements, both planned and unplanned, and the establishment of new and complex transportation networks. There also are complete industrial districts currently being developed, with the most ambitious examples taking place in the oilrich Gulf. These include the industrial districts of new cities such as the King Abdullah Economic City along the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia, currently is under construction, and the City of Silk in Kuwait, which is still under development. Complete cities focusing on industrial production also are being developed. An early example is the Jubayl Industrial City in Saudi Arabia, which dates back to the late-1970s, and the upcoming Jazan Economic City, along the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia, which focuses on refining and on industries relating to the extraction of the areas rich mineral deposits. Even rural areas may be significantly affected by the industrial process, particularly through the installation of agro-industries in them. These industries most often need to be in proximity to areas of agricultural production. They however also require various infrastructure services including transportation systems that easily allow for transporting agricultural products and packaging materials to them, as well as transporting the processed outputs to reach their intended consumers. Moreover, these facilities create manufacturing jobs in communities where most employment opportunities traditionally are in agriculture, and therefore may bring about new habitation densities and transportation requirements for those attracted to or pulled into these jobs, and may create new demands for supporting services, such as eating facilities, garages, and retail shops, thus introducing a considerable amount of non-agricultural land-uses into predominantly agricultural zones. Parallel to the interest expressed in the West during the early-twentieth century regarding workers housing is an emerging concern in a few countries of the Islamic world in worker's housing projects that

aim at providing better living facilities for their inhabitants. In many cases, these are being constructed to adhere to standards set by foreign manufacturers or investors, or to avert growing negative international media coverage regarding the treatment of factory workers in countries where they primarily or exclusively consist of guest workers, as is the case in the Gulf. While the proposed general narrative on industrial architecture and urbanism proposed above primarily addresses the engagement of architects and planners in the creation of industrial buildings or urban complexes, a very important issue that needs to be addressed is the emergence of sizable informal industrial districts. In many ways, these correspond to the low-income, low-quality urban districts that came into being in various cities in Europe and the United States with the spread of the Industrial Revolution from the late-eighteenth up to the early-nineteenth centuries. The built environment in the countries of the Islamic world has become littered with expansive areas containing small-scale, low-tech industrial workshops that include workshops for blacksmiths, automobile garages and spare-parts fabrication shops, as well as construction materials workshops. These slum areas are visual and environmental blights on the urban (and often also the rural) landscape and cannot be ignored in any investigation of the effects of the growth of industrial production on the built environment. Interestingly enough, a new generation of creative architects are searching for positive visual stimuli in the ubiquitous vernacular low-tech industrial workshops mentioned above. They are incorporating in their work the products and visual systems produced by those workshops through sublimating them into highly-developed visual statements. Examples of this are found in the work of Sahel Al Hiyari in Jordan who has prominently featured in one of his works galvanized water pipes, stone objects produced by street-side stone-cutting workshops, and leftover iron powder from blacksmith shops. Ammar Khammash, also from Jordan, includes in one of his buildings deliberately exposed concrete reinforcement steel rods and even reused aluminum soft drink cans. Bernard Khoury of Lebanon has incorporated into his buildings powerful visual elements consisting of expansive metal sheets produced by local welders involved in a low-tech process of fabricating compartments for elevators and trucks. Such budding examples provide the beginnings of an integration of a locally-based industrial aesthetic into contemporary architectural production.

The Transformation of Places of Production seminar Even though the industrial landscapes that have emerged in the Islamic world over a period extending for almost two centuries have had a considerable effect on the evolution of its built environment, the attention provided to their documentation and analysis remains both limited and fragmentary, and the subject continues to be relatively marginal. This symposium aims at providing a point of departure and frame of reference for developing a discourse that rigorously and comprehensively examines industrial architecture in the countries of the Islamic world, a discourse that would lead to narratives describing the evolution of this architecture. The seminar will address the diverse developments affecting industrial architecture both chronologically and geographically, and will also examine them within their technological, socio-economic, as well as urban contexts. It will feature early examples of industrial architecture dating back to the nineteenth

century as well as recent examples of the adaptive reuse of pre-existing factories. It also will address the evolution of industrial architecture in a number of countries, each of which has been defined by its own socio-economic, political, as well as cultural specificities, and will identify both common themes of development as well as differentiating factors. The seminar will examine the various challenges as well as opportunities that present themselves through the new wave of industrialization currently taking place. In addressing current developments, it will feature architects presenting their own projects, historians and critics reflecting on projects, as well as other specialists addressing the subject of industrialization. The seminar will also engage industrialists, i.e. the clients and patrons of works of industrial architecture, who will present their visions and views regarding the utilitarian, visual, as well as symbolic messages that they may want their complexes to express. Thus combining academic, professional, as well as client-based perspectives relating to industrial architecture, the seminar will aim to reach a more profound understanding of the subject and its intricacies. Although there is only so much information that may be presented in a two-day seminar, the discussions will help shed light on this important but largely overlooked subject, and we hope they will be a point of departure for further research and study into the subject of workplaces in the developing world.