Calum Thomson

This project aims to present a contemporary idea of how a post-industrial landscape could be revived through the development of an infrastructural system for the production and distribution of factory-built housing. Using the Ruhr Valley in Northwest Germany as a prototypical landscape for this experiment.

Focussed around the worlds largest inland port in Duisburg. Harnessing the global supply of materials which flow through the port, a processing and production facility is created to straddle the infrastructures of river and rail. Standardised volumetric units are constructed on an assembly line from 6mm aluminium sheets which arrive via rail from China. Units are finished to near completion on the factory floor before being returned to the rail infrastructure for efficient distribution.

The network is definitive of the housing machine as it not only facilitates the input and output but also connects a host of possible sites within the hinterland. Disused railyards and sidings offer a unique condition providing housing with immediate connection to the rail network which ensures the possibility of sustainable transport on a transcontinental level. This form of housing can provide a more suitable living situation for the modern worker of the neo-liberal service economy due to these connections between hinterlands and economic centres.