Mediating Policy to Mix Making Spaces

Cities have agency to reinterpret their building, zoning, and environmental code policies to adapt to the new economy and contemporary ways products are made in urban settings. The many vacant spaces in urban centers—from retail spaces to former factory buildings—can be rehabilitated for making things in the new urban economy of artisanal and light manufacturing and thus mix with other uses. New buildings can also be purpose‐built with these mixes to meet current safety and environmental codes, and, if zoned proactively, these spaces can provide economic stability, nimble development alternatives, and dynamic urban symbiosis. Continuing the research I have conducted for my exhibitions, books, essays, and fieldwork in specific cities, this essay analyzes ways that production can be reinserted into cities in mixed‐use buildings and districts that are now in the planning stages or have been recently realized. Some projects feature block‐level mixes and vertical building configurations created by the volumetric separation of production from living as a new typology. The projects discussed here can inspire and guide city planning policies and economic development departments by integrating the new small, clean, and quiet production into cities and allowing for much more flexible and granular land‐use and zoning regulations that will support small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises and provide jobs for local residents. Key to these projects is the strength of mission‐driven organizations that can work to bring manufacturing back through new zoning code overlays and social connectivity. Project locations include those where I have been working, or conducting in‐person research in the U.S. cities of Berkeley, New York, Newark, Somerville, Trenton, and in Europe those of Brussels, Rome, and Turin.