In the countries of Central and
Eastern Europe, a certain type of industry has rapidly developed - an
industry that produces nothing physical. Storing, packaging,
classifying, assembling, and other ancillary processes of manufacturing
and distribution are carried out 24/7 in extensive logistics parks.
Their vast sites, often brightly lit during night hours, have doubled in
terms of area covered every four years during the past two decades.
These Steel Cities, as some locals have termed them, occupying
increasing amounts of what had been fertile farmland, deeply affect the
lives of local residents, and create entirely new relationships.


This
book investigates the Steel Cities' impact on landscape and society
from various perspectives. It reveals the architectural and spatial,
legal, economic, social, and environmental ramifications of the
logistics system in this region and elsewhere. It examines these
logistics centres on three scales: as an architectonic-landscape entity
the size of a small town, as a network that reshapes the map of Europe
so to define its own territoriality, and as part of the everyday life of
the workers inside and the residents around them.


Text in English and Czech.