From industrial campus to technological campus. Albert Kahn, Mies-Hilberseimer and Eero Saarinen

Abstract

Based on the recognition of the fundamental influence of industrial architecture on modern urbanism, we proceed to study two evolutionary storylines that are based on two separate industrial buildings designed by Albert Kahn for the Ford Motor Company. These two storylines include cross-appropriations and influences between two architectural fields: industrial complexes and university campuses. These transfers between the two fields will lead modern urbanism to the consolidation of the new type of “technology campus” as a basis for the creation of the high-tech industrial complex of the 21st century. These evolutionary paths are analyzed through the study of the works of four architects: Albert Kahn, Eero Saarinen, Mies and Hilberseimer, whose work is related and mutually fertilized by a number of influences and cross-transfers. In turn, the two lines converge in Hilberseimer-Mies’ urban proposals for the city of Detroit and, mediated by the presence of Kahn in the USSR, in Soviet de-urbanists’ proposals. Both approaches mixed, in a utopian way, industrial planning not only with educational uses, but also with the rest of the city.

Keywords: Albert Kahn, Mies van der Rohe, Eero Saarinen, Hilberseimer, de-urbanization, technology campus, industrial architecture.