Humanizing Industry: A Training Ground for Advanced Manufacturing in Kent, WA

Abstract

Where industry was once the backbone of community, it has since been relegated to sprawling industrial zones, on the edges of community, divorced from the people who benefit from its labors. However, a certain renaissance in "making" is evident in the Maker's Revolution. The typical manufacturing facilities used today are not the dark, soot covered factories of the past. Processes have changed and building technologies have become more efficient. Yet, the resulting environment for manufacturing has developed to be little more than large, sprawling boxes, disconnected from their human occupants. Proposing a community education, co-working and manufacturing facility, this thesis is not intended to redefine the manufacturing process, but to address the physical environment in which it takes place, making it more fitting to the occupants therein. Scale, programmatic relationships and adaptability are used to explore various spatial experiences in which to interact, collaborate, and simply occupy.