Industrial architecture

Any type of building that has emerged as a direct result of the Industrial Revolution, for example factories, warehouses, stations, office buildings, department stores, and certain types of bridge. Typically, industrial structures employ standardized, mass-produced components, commonly associated with engineering. More importantly, they are unadorned, even anti-decorative. Although principally utilitarian, this style of building has influenced the development of the Modern Movement and many parallels can be drawn between Industrial architecture and the high-tech approach.

Landmark structures in the UK include the iron lattice-work bridge at Coalbrookdale 1777–79; Kings Cross Station, London 1851–52, by Lewis Cubitt (1799–1883); and the Boatstore, Sheerness Royal Naval Dockyard 1858–60. In the USA the development of Industrial architecture is closely linked to the Chicago School, while in continental Europe it is associated with a tradition of engineering, as in the AEG turbine factory, Berlin, 1909, by Peter Behrens, and the airship hangers at Orly, France, 1916–24, by Eugène Freysinnet. Other more recent examples feature in the work of Pier Luigi Nervi and Santiago Calatrava, notably the latter's spectacular suspension bridges in Seville, Spain.