The Home as Factory

In the 19th and 20th century, pollutant and noisy industrial centers were often relegated to isolated areas, or towns in desperate need of tax revenue. Today, virtual marketplaces and consumer demands for greener approaches to production are spurring a re-birth in the localization of production. This allows us to revisit our cultural and economic standards and ask, what are future possibilities of bringing industry back to the city center? By focusing on micro-scale production, this report uses an ethnographical approach to explore the architecturalization of online marketplaces and their producers. Issues of space, storage, and production beg for a revisit into their current state, opening up the possibility as architects to contribute to a better understanding of production chains and their spatialization.

Bio: 

Angela Loescher-Montal is a second-year dual degree student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), currently completing her Masters of Architecture and M.S. Real Estate Development. At MIT, she is focusing her research into the mediated nature of our urban realm and the increasing privatization of public space. She is also in the process of founding a start-up called Harness the Heat with three friends as part of the MIT DesignX Incubator program, which looks at the possibilities of re-channeling sources of wasted heat to heat outdoor spaces in the winter.

Prior to MIT, she completed her A.B Architecture summa cum laude at Princeton University, with a focus in Architectural Theory and Art History. Herein, her undergraduate thesis focused on the relationship between architecture and art in US corporate contexts (1950s-present). All in all, she is interested in pushing global imaginaries through research and design, and questioning ecological, social, and economic implications of our everyday life.