Evolution of Production Spaces: A Historical Review for Projecting Smart Factories

Factories are transforming not only mechanically and technologically but also architecturally due to emerging developments in the industry and fabrication: This new process, called the Second Machine Age or Industry 4.0, a new model is designed in production by providing the human-machine partnership over a virtual network. It is aimed that the machines used in production and the people participating in different stages of production can work in different spaces. In time, jobs that require human power will be replaced by robots, and a new order is being considered where there will be no people in production spaces, and they can work in the virtual environment. Production for human beings is mostly from material production to digital production; labour will turn into digital labour. For this reason, it is thought that production spaces will turn into smart factories with only machines and production robots and no workers. And now the question is: what is a smart factory? The revolutions in the industry history started with the invention of the steam engine; then, new technological revolutions were experienced with the use of electricity in production, the development of automation systems and internet-based systems. While technology and production tools are constantly changing, these developments also affect production spaces. Factories are also transforming to keep up with these rapid and continuous physical and fictional innovations. This study focuses on the architectural evolution of factories by following the technological revolutions of the industry. It examines the main criteria in the process of change and transformation of factories and spatial reflections of the revolutions. It establishes a relationship between production technology and the needs of the production spaces and seeks references from past samples. The study aims to review the historical background for generating a projection to new production spaces and to be a new discussion for future factories

Smart Factories: New Production Spaces in Digital Transition

Digital developments have affected humanity in industry and many areas in recent years. The new revolution, defined as Industry 4.0, is planned to ensure remote and digital machine–human collab- oration for a new working life. Thanks to internet technologies, communication can be achieved in a digital network with the machines and robots used in production and the employees who manage and supervise them. In this new order, the possibility of people participating in the system remotely, leaving physical production to robots, and using smart production systems leads to factories turn- ing into smart factories. While smart factories require a digital environment between humans and machines, they also bring humans and machines together for different functions. As a result of the digital revolution, the transformation of factories into smart factories and inno- vations in the production space initiates a new discussion in industrial architecture. This study focuses on the spatial effects of the smart production model of the new factory revolution. The re- search aims to understand how digital production processes in smart factories change factory de- signs. For this reason, smart factory definitions were first researched in the literature, and future factory propositions were examined. Then, in this context, smart production spaces designed and built to produce new technologies since the day the new revolution was introduced were analysed. This study aims to present a projection for new production spaces with the morphological analyses performed. As a result, this study will form the basis for future studies as an architectural criticism of the transition process