Cities as Industry

In this episode, we speak again with Conrad Hamann as we dissect another fundamental layer of urban development: the city as industry. If cities were once defined by ideological and religious order, industrial modernity reconfigured them into factories of progress and production—landscapes of extraction and acceleration. Industry was not merely an economic function; it was a defining urban idea, and a remapping of power. Smoke billowing from factories was once a sign of economic vitality and civic virtue, but with industry also came stratification, pollution, and the entanglement between economic advancement and environmental degradation.

 

This episode traverses the industrial city's evolution—from railways as the connective tissue of empires, to the automobile fracturing urban coherence and ushering in sprawl, highways, and logistical spines that redefined mobility and access. Conrad discusses Australian industrial cities like Melbourne, Sydney, and Geelong, and explores how former industrial zones such as Docklands, Pyrmont, and Fisherman's Bend have adapted over time.

 

Now, in an era of digital economies and dematerialised labour, the question becomes: are cities still industrial, or have they become pure software—factories of data, energy, and capital? Have we simply substituted one form of extraction for another, replacing coal with data and production lines with algorithmic efficiencies? If industry no longer requires proximity, what holds the city together?

SUP is hosted by Ian Nazareth, Graham Crist and Christine Phillips.  

This podcast is produced with support from the Alastair Swayn Foundation and the RMIT University School of Architecture & Urban Design.

We acknowledge the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups on whose unceded Country we are recording this podcast.

Show Notes and References 

1. Industrial Heritage & Urban Identity 

  • Footscray Amphitheatre 
    A contemporary integration of cultural and public space with the area’s historical industrial identity. 

  • General Motors–Holden, Dandenong 
    A major automotive manufacturing site that influenced Melbourne’s economy and suburban growth. 
    Greater Dandenong Council 

 

2. Speculative & Planned Cities 

  • Broadacre City – Frank Lloyd Wright (1932) 
    A vision for decentralised, agrarian urbanism fusing nature with low-density infrastructure. 
    Broadacre City PDF 

 

3. Corruption, Policy & Urban Form 

  • Fraudest Urbanism 
    A term describing unethical urban planning practices leading to environmental and community harm. 

  • 1980s Economic Rationalism in Australia 
    The rise of market-driven policies (privatisation, deregulation) reshaped both architectural production and economic governance. 
    JSTOR Article 1 
    JSTOR Article 2 

 

4. Australia’s Built Environment 

  • Federation Square, Melbourne 
    An iconic and contested cultural precinct. Key figures include John Macarthur, Graham Crist, Gevork Hartoonian, and Zara Stanhope. 
    Architecture Australia Feature 

  • The Australian Ugliness – Robin Boyd (1960) 
    A critique of visual clutter, imitation, and poor planning in Australian architecture. 
    Text Publishing 

 

5. First Nations, Place & Industry 

 

6. International Reference Projects 

  • Bartlesville Price Tower, Oklahoma – Frank Lloyd Wright (1956) 
    A rare skyscraper by Wright, expressing his organic design principles in an industrial city. 
    Price Tower 

  • John Portman’s Hotel Atriums – Atlanta 
    Portman’s dramatic multi-storey interior spaces transformed the hotel typology in the 60s–70s. 
    Atlanta History Centre 

 

7. Popular Culture & Urban Values 

  • 1980s American Soap Operas – Dallas and Dynasty 
    Reflective of aspirational, industrial wealth and domestic drama, mirroring the values of urban economic power. 

  • Watching Dallas – Ien Ang (1985) 
    A seminal cultural study of how global audiences interpret melodrama and urban aspiration. 

 

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Cities as Theatre
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Cities as Order