Factory Futures - The Factory as a Spectacle

<p><b>Currently, in New Zealand, pipfruit processing factories typically adopt the vernacular farm shed-like typology, which makes the business’s identity invisible to the surrounding community. The architecture presents itself as anonymous facades sprawled across large sites, expressing no association with the surrounding community, the industry, or New Zealand’s pride in the industry. New Zealand prides itself upon its horticultural industry, yet its factory designs fail to evidence this pride through architectural identity. While the designs of modern factory typologies for the New Zealand wine industry are challenging the traditional model of anonymous utilitarian forms – resulting in designs that establish relationships with the site’s broader context and identities that express the industry’s iconic qualities, whereas factory typologies for the New Zealand horticultural industry have not yet undertaken this important step. This thesis asks:How can the architecture of New Zealand’s pipfruit processing industry be reconceived to reflect pride in its identity, while contributing positively to the communities located adjacent to these factories?</b></p> <p>How can architecture be engaged as a vehicle for establishing programmatic expression and place identity for New Zealand’s pipfruit industry, and in this way, also help establish ‘Factory Futures’?</p> <p>This design-led research investigation seeks new and meaningful design principles for factory design relating to pipfruit processing that can help mitigate the negative aspects of anonymity in industrial factory typologies relating to one of New Zealand’s most successful export industries, while enhancing people’s awareness of and pride in New Zealand’s horticultural industries through its factory architecture.</p>