Landscape Compatibility of Factories: From Practices to Tactics

Abstract

Industrial facilities are responsible for several detrimental effects on the landscape. Impact occurs in terms of both interference in the main ecosystem's physical matrices and intense perceptual-aesthetic contrasts with the landscape. As a result, the social sphere also is affected and corporate identity is threatened. Agri-food companies are particularly touched by the issue due to the high environmental impact of their processes, their recurring proximity to the rural landscape, and the strong link between corporate image and environmental attitude. Since the Eighties, literature and regulations have proved harmonisation between industry and landscape is a crucial element of companies' social awareness. In this framework, some tools have been developed to analyse the impacts, but their main focus is on environmental issues. Nowadays there is no unitary vision capable of balancing manufacturing requirements with effective measures to mitigate the impact of factories on the landscape at all different levels. Our research therefore aims to define a methodology to analyse how agri-food facilities interfere with the landscape and to develop a set of measures suitable to promote less conflictual relationships. This can be achieved by combining the natural, perceptual-aesthetic and social/cultural dimensions of landscape. The goal is to develop a design support tool to analyse impacts and prioritise weaknesses, thereby helping companies to define case-specific mitigation strategies. In particular, the paper presents real life case studies noteworthy for the adoption of mitigation practices, from which a set of general tactics was devised. Over 50 exemplary facilities have been analysed, 200 good practices identified, and more than 100 general mitigation tactics formulated. Furthermore, the study has identified recurrent patterns in the architecture of factories, which generally confirm trends found in literature.

Mitigating the Impact of Factories on the Landscape: An Assessment and Design Support Tool

“…Moreover, the horizontal analysis of case studies offers an interesting cross-sector overview that underscored some recurrent collocations between functions and tactics: like existing building with camouflage; food industries with underground facilities; wineries with territorial iconic identity; energy facilities with multifunctionality. The more frequently found patterns are shown by Marchi et al [57].…”

“…Furthermore, cases were categorized by location, preferring domestic projects but including also remarkable international examples: 88% from the EU area (of which 32 out of 46 are Italian) and 12% from extra-EU (mostly USA). A sample list of the analyzed case studies is included [57].…”

“…Hence, from over 300 good practices selected in the collection of case studies, 97 general tactics were devised. An extract of the latter is shown in Table 3, while the extended list is found in the paper [57].…”