A new entrepreneurial culture in American cities is rediscovering the economic and social value of urban manufacturing. However, urban manufacturing, which is often invisible, is poorly understood in terms of urban design and its architecture. The Design of Urban Manufacturing is the first book to bring together multidisciplinary and accessible coverage on the context and practical concerns of designing for urban manufacturing. New terminology for 21st century economic growth, such as "innovation district," is evolving and meant to capture a complex reality: that urban manufacturing now sits squarely at the intersection of research, education, and neighborhood revitalization. The Design of Urban Manufacturing explores new models for land-use regulation, urban design, and architecture that can address the complex ecology of urban production districts, where mixed-use needs to be more pervasive and is thus challenging.
Similarly, economic development policies need to account for the special roles that governments, local development corporations, and not-for-profit organizations all have to play in supporting manufacturing by linking manufacturers to research institutions, workforce training, branding, export promotion, and rewarding investments in technology. This book showcases examples of how cities around the world are growing their industrial sectors through new industrial redevelopment policies tied to land use and economics. This book presents current models for working neighborhoods where factories enable fine-grained mixed-use communities and face-to-face contact while creatively solving the very real problems of goods movement and functional buildings. The Design of Urban Manufacturing is the essential resource for policy makers, designers, and students in urban design, planning and urban and economic development.