WHAT ROLE DOES THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT (THE FACTORY AND ITS SURROUNDINGS) PLAY AT THE INTERSECTION OF ECONOMY, EQUITY, AND ECOLOGY?

Today we encounter a natural world that is jeopardized by the principles of a human quality of life that in large part grew out of the industrial revolution beginning at the end of the nineteenth century. As McDonough and Braungart assert in their book Cradle to Cradle, there should be a balanced equation of Economy, Equity, and Ecology so that investigating each relationship enables benefits within each sector (McDonough and Braungart, 150-154). To clarify, economy includes monetary concerns and efficiency, equity involves fairness dealing with more social and cultural matters, and ecology includes environmental and biological topics. In the realm of pure capitalism, the whole purpose is to profit and prosper in the commercial world, but other concerns of labor, consumption, and the environment should be just as significant. These overlaps pose questions such as: are workers earning a living wage and earning those wages based on merit versus criteria of gender or ethnicity?, are workers, consumers, or the environment being exposed to destructive toxins or pollution?, do extraneous materials become waste in landfills or waste as food?, etc.

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The model above illustrates the complex relationships among economy, equity, and ecology encountered within a factory during the first few decades of the twentieth century. It is somewhat general, and therefore could be applied to any of Kahn's factories.  There are several opportunities for these three themes to overlap, converge, and influence one another which results in an enigmatic condition which the model in turn attempts to decipher. Considering all of the stocks intertwined and influencing each other, the ultimate intersection where the three sectors have the greatest potential to be comprehended lies within the built industrial environment, or the architectural realm (i.e. the factory and surrounding site) that materializes the interpretation of the most significant objectives.

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The model is conceptually similar to a systems model, but it does not necessarily aim to achieve the precision and underlying formulaic relationships, or in and out flows that an actual systems model would. Instead it provides an overview of the forces at play among the perspectives of economy, equity, and ecology. Moving forward, once more specific data and research has been collected, very exact information can be inserted into the model, if for example there is a particular product, materials, or contaminants, etc. (Therefore revisions and additions will be made to the model as the questions incorporated into it get answered in relation to each factory studied.) This would then lead to investigation of these interactions, with an emphasis on the participation of the built environment, through series of text and representative/diagrammatic narratives.

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The site and architecture housing the processes of production, the product itself, and other externalities associated with these things have all directly and indirectly contributed to the transformation of 'place' in a physical, social, economic, and cultural sense. These changes transpire everywhere around us and we are often too busy to recognize the root causes of it all. Perhaps there will always be positive and negative consequences to every action, but steps can be taken to increase the positive so that one good thing does not result at the expense of something else. A common example would be, does a manufacturer choose to burn coal for energy even if it means polluting the air, raising CO2 levels, and threatening natural ecosystems and human health because it is cheaper?

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Looking through the lens of the well-known Ford Motor Company and more locally through the Brown-Lipe Gear Company in Syracuse, we can analyze how harmless, good-intentioned architecture and ambition facilitated means of production and consumption that have brought us to where we are today. The goal of this work is not to propose a solution per se to what would in fact be a countless number of issues, but rather to take a first step by framing complex interrelated systems and everyday scenarios so that in the spirit of Cradle to Cradle, we may reinterpret our roles within local and universal ecosystems (both social and natural) to alleviate current trends heading into the future.