Urban Shrinkage, Industrial Renewal and Automotive Plants

Download or read book Urban Shrinkage, Industrial Renewal and Automotive Plants written by Andreas Luescher and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-12-13 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the relationship between the auto industry and the built environment at multiple scales, a topic of particular interest now as the industry is going through a period of major transformation. Drawing from multiple perspectives, including architecture, urban design and urban planning, the authors examine the changing form of the auto factory itself, the changing geography of auto production, and the challenges faced by communities as the auto plants that once brought them prosperity, and often a sense of identity, leave town. They examine four places that are dealing in different ways, and with varying success, with the aftermath of a decommissioned auto plant in their midst. These are Janesville, Wisconsin, and Willow Run, Michigan, in the U.S., and Bochum, Germany, and Genk, Belgium, in Europe. Together these four cases provide some clues about what the future might look like for places that were once intimately connected with the manufacture of cars.