The Impact of Breda and Batignolles on Urban Space: Railway Construction and Industrial Development in the Late 19th Century

The relation between a factory and the urban space around it is a complex system, the product of a changing balance between opportunities and issues. Such structures impose on the neighbourhood pollution, noise, traffics but at the same time are a source of profit. This contribution wishes to understand these complex relations in the late 19th century observing the spatial issues and changes brought forth by two such industries and their hosting city. The two case studies will be the Société Jules Goüin et Cie. and the different societies “L’’Elvetica”, located respectively in Paris and Milan.