#de-industrialisation

8 Drivers of Globalisation Globalization, a multidimensional set of social process that create, and intensify world wide social, economic and technological interdependencies and exchanges, is an historical phenomenon affecting every country directly

8 Drivers of Globalisation Abstract Globalization, a multidimensional set of social process that create, and intensify world wide social, economic and technological interdependencies and exchanges, is an historical phenomenon affecting every country directly or indirectly. Despite all the occasional setbacks and resentment expressed against its different dimensions, globalisation is the march…

Stockport - A de-industrialised city

To understand how Stockport has decayed it is essential to analyse the process of de-industrialisation and its effects on the town. De-industrialisation can be mapped through the disuse of buildings, and decommissioned industrial networks.

During the boom of the industrial revolution, Stockport, like many of Manchester’s satellite towns was highly populated with a workforce attending the town’s cotton mills. These mills were situated close to the River Mersey to provide transportation to the newly formed global trading network and to provide power to the machinery. Stockport was built on the success of the cotton industry.

With the fall of ‘Cottonopolis’, Stockport soon faced de-industrialisation with the cotton industry being replaced by a cheaper labour force over seas. Whilst in this state of decline, Stockport failed to grasp onto the changing economy and felt a decay similar to Stoke-on-Trent. Former industrial sites of Stockport have been left vacant, redeveloped and reused since de-industrialisation started. 

It is clear, from comparing historic maps of Stockport, that many cotton mills have been demolished or reused to accommodate new businesses. Through the removal of links to its industrial past, Stockport has rid itself of a proportion of its industrial heritage with old mills being replaced by retail estates and industrial warehouses. The few mills that survived have been occupied by small businesses, with some mills being better preserved through restoration via a loving owner and decent interior designer whilst others being completely stripped of their industrial origin.

Stockton on Tees & Yarm, Teesside

To understand the extent de-industrialisation has on cities, it is essential to examine the decline of industry within the city. Teesside, a conurbation in the north east of England, made up of Stockton-on-Tees, Middlesbrough and other settlements surrounding settlements near the River Tees has experienced the decay of industries, such as steel manufacture, rope making, sugar production, pottery and chemical industries (David Simpson, Stockton-on-Tees, Billingham and Norton, http://www.englandsnortheast.co.uk/). Stockton-on-Tees, situated on the River Tees has experienced the fall of chemical industries in the late 20th century, due to de-industrialisation and globalisation; with low cost labour abroad and the introduction of sustainable legislation. As a result, industrial premises were closed and the area faced rates of  high unemployment.

Yarm, a small town south of Stockton-on-Tees, has a prosperous biomass industry supported by government due to being a very sustainable source of energy. The biomass industry of Yarm is expanding and Bio Energy Investments Ltd (BEI) have submitted a planning application for a large biomass plant and sustainable forest on a former brownfield site in Stockton-on-Tees. The proposed biomass power station, would draw on the unemployed skilled workers who were made redundant from the closure of the chemical factories in Stockton-on-Tees. The location of the new plant also provides a crucial strategy for allowing ships to utilise the existing wharf next to the site for all the fuel deliveries, ensuring no fuel will be delivered in lorries, significantly reducing the impact on local roads when the plant operates (Dezeen, BEI Teesside power plant by Heatherwick Studio, http://www.dezeen.com). 

The working partnership between the expanding biomass company of Yarm and de-industrialised town of Stockton-on-Tees, capitalises on the decay of the former chemical industry. The knowledge exchange of a successful biomass industry has provided Stockton-on-Tees with the blueprints to success, and has allowed for the biomass industry to thrive in another location. Following the diagram of a surplus commodity being exchange with another city, Yarm supplies Stockton-on-Tees with the understanding of a successful biomass industry and how to operate such a business. This develops the connections of town twinning with the expulsion of knowledge, mixed with the effects of decay, to form a positive mechanism for economic growth.

Brownfield sites from the declined chemical industry are used for the expansion and growth of the new biomass industry; creating jobs, capital, social activity and productivity to a new site. The connection or ‘twinning’ between Yarm and Stockton-on-Tees shows the significance of a knowledge exchange or knowledge economy. The rust (brownfield site, disused buildings, unemployed persons) provides the foundation for growth, allowing the decaying town or city to develop. Both elements of expansion and decay are fundamental to allow for stable success.

Thinkbelt Potteries

Cedric Price (1934-2003) was one of the most visionary architects of the late 20th century. Although he built very little, his lateral approach to architecture and to time-based urban interventions, has ensured that his work has an enduring influence on contemporary architects and artists, from Richard Rogers and Rem Koolhaas, to Rachel Whiteread (Design Museum, Cedric Price, http://designmuseum.org ). Price’s ‘Potteries Thinkbelt’ (1966) proposed to use the de-industrialised site of Stoke-on-Trent, following the decline of the pottery industry, to boost education and promote a knowledge economy. He believed that “...further education and re-education must be viewed as a major industrial undertaking and not as a service run by gentlemen for the few.” (‘Potteries Thinkbelt: A Plan for an Advanced Educational Industry in North Staffordshire’ Architectural Design, 36, October 1966, p 485)

Focusing on the unused sites from the former potteries, the ‘Potteries Thinkbelt’ proposed to use disused railways to teach and house students and local residents and push education in the UK. He hoped that his ‘Potteries Thinkbelt’ would help to break down the traditional wall between “pure” and “applied” science and technology, lure scientists and technologists back to Britain, and help to put the nation at the forefront of advanced technologies (Stanley Mathews, Cedric Price - From “Brain Drain” to the “Knowledge Economy”, http://www.audacity.org ). He designed a series of generic modular units to be used ordered into residential living and teaching spaces. His designs considered every eventuality of structural situation, and ensured that all foundations and modular orientation were correctly positioned within brown field sites. Mobile teaching facilities would be placed on railway carriages allowing for their use at railway sidings whilst accommodation units were temporal and flexible; allowing for expansion, contraction and reorganisation, depending on their exact use. 

Price’s proposals unfortunately lacked the support needed to materialise and remained as an Architect’s radical ideals for education in the UK. This left the potteries unused and in a Stoke-on-Trent in a state of decay. However, the potential of the project proposed a symbiotic relationship between traditional and educational industries, with the exchange of knowledge flowing from one to the other.