CRUNCH: Odd Couple: ‘Post’ Industrial Architecture and ‘Post’ Human Futures

What do we do about the material history of industrial capitalism in the age of climate crisis and posthuman futuring? Historians care about the past as well as the present, but the history of industrialisation and its buildings often reads like a tale of woe with little positive contemporary relevance. 

In the wake of completing a history of industrial architecture, Claire Zimmerman assesses the relevance of the subject today, when the term ‘post-industrial’ is unavailable to those for whom assembly-line labour continues apace but promises gentrification for many others. 

This talk juxtaposes industrial infrastructure with alternative human and posthuman production, opening from two dramatic examples: floating industrial whaling factories and their landside infrastructure beginning in the 19th century and the longstanding harvesting of whales by Indigenous peoples in the Bering Straits. Enlisting the environmental history of Bathsheba Demuth, the literary reflections of Herman Melville and historical touchpoints from related industrial developments, the lecture explores factory architecture as it mediates our relationship to other species, through a dangerous proximity to them. 

This talk will be followed by a panel discussion and responses with PhD students from The Bartlett School of Architecture: Rían Kearney, Merve Okkali Alsavada, Daniel Ovalle Costal and Elly Selby. The event will be chaired by Dr Stylianos (Stelios) Giamarelos, The Bartlett School of Architecture. 

This event is part of the flagship CRUNCH Series at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL.

Please note this event is first-come, first-served and is limited capacity. Doors close at 18:40. 

Speaker biographies

Claire Zimmerman directs the PhD Program in Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto Daniels Faculty. Her current projects include work on industrial architecture, a collective research project on The Costs of Architecture, a co-edited book titled Lines of Property, and a publication project on architectural collage. She has published three solo-authored books (in press: Albert Kahn Inc.: Architecture Labor, Industry), four edited books (most recent: Architecture against Democracy: Histories of the Nationalist International), and many articles, both long and short form.  

Rían Kearney is a curator and researcher based in Birmingham. He is a PhD candidate at The Bartlett School of Architecture and a visiting scholar at the Yale School of Architecture. He previously worked as Assistant Curator of Public Programmes and Research at Nottingham Contemporary. His writing appears in Frieze and this is tomorrow, and he contributed a chapter to Queer Exhibition Histories (Valiz, 2023). 

Merve Okkali Alsavada is an architect and PhD researcher in the Space Syntax Lab at The Bartlett School of Architecture. She is also a Post-Graduate Teaching Assistant at UCL. Her research focuses on computational and data-driven approaches to exploring the spatial and socioeconomic transformation of cities and assessing the impact of waterways, using multi-layered urban network modelling and configurational analysis. Prior to joining The Bartlett, Merve worked as a research assistant and research associate in Turkey and collaborated with experts in urban planning and computer science to develop assessment indices, investigating the socioeconomic and spatial dynamics of urban environments. 

Daniel Ovalle Costal is an architect trained between Spain and the UK. He works as a sole practitioner in London where he has led projects across many sectors while working for WilkinsonEyre and Acme. He is also an Associate Professor (Teaching) at The Bartlett School of Architecture where he is admissions director and co-runs unit PG22 in the Architecture MArch (ARB/RIBA Part 2) programme with Prof Izaskun Chinchilla. Daniel’s research interests lay at the intersection of architectural design, domesticity and queer studies. He has a special interest in forms of making that relate to popular culture, Including dollhouses, paper theatres and pop-up books. 

Elly Selby is an interdisciplinary scholar, educator and practitioner, studying Architecture & Digital Theory MPhil/PhD at The Bartlett School of Architecture. Her research explores the influence of computation on authorship in architectural and artistic production, from the mid-20th century emergence of early artificial intelligence to contemporary generative technologies. She teaches on several programmes at UCL including Cinematic & Videogame Architecture MArch, Architecture & Interdisciplinary Studies BSc, and Engineering & Education MSc. Elly holds an MArch and a BA in Architectural Studies from the University of Toronto and has practised architecture in Canada and Italy. 

More information

Image: Scrimshaw. Engraved Whale Teeth, photographer unknown. The Nicholson Collection, Providence Public Library. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.