Industrial zones

Business parks 

The first true industrial zones, without inhabitants, were the docks of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They were enclosed by high walls to prevent theft (Pudney 1975: 34). In the twentieth century the docks were followed by industrial estates in which badï¾­neighbour industries could be concentrated. Trafford Park, in Manchester, was started in 1896 and followed by similar estates at Chicago, in 1902, and elsewhere. In Britain, the major nineteenth century public health problems had been solved by 1945 but, according to Desmond Heap, 'there was still (to put the matter quite shortly) the problem of the dwellingï¾­house built in the shadow of the factory and of the factory erected in the midst of the garden suburb' (Heap 1969: 4). This problem was dealt with by the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947. Industrial zones were set aside in the new towns and land was 'zoned for industry' on development plans for old towns. Industry became a singleï¾­purpose land use. The trend towards concentration, regardless of the specific side effects which an industry might produce, has increased commuting distances and caused the peak flows of workers cars to become 'the principal conflict between adjacent residential and industrial uses, surpassing the traditional nuisances of noise, smoke and dirt' (Lynch & Hack 1984: 306). Many industries do not produce unpleasant side effects and this has led to the establishment of another kind of industrial zone: designed to provide a good environment for the workers and a prestige location for the company. Such zones are known as business parks, science parks, technology parks, food parks, etc. The Team Valley Trading Estate, planned by Lord Holford in 1936, was one of the first to be designed for this purpose. Its name reminds us that the original idea was to create opportunities for trade as well as a better environment. Sadly, the Team Valley Trading Estate is only a moderate success in landscape terms. The open space takes the form of large vacant expanses of 'empty land made decent with grass' (Holford 1937). The River Team, which could have graced this land, was encased in a concrete box culvert. The effort devoted to the industrial buildings has merely given them a quiet suburban respectability: they do not reveal the dynamism and excitement of productive industry. Modern business parks, like Aztec West, have a wellï¾­designed landscape setting but one which still appears desolate because industrial workers do not wish to spend their leisure time on their employer's doorstep. They must leave the estate to shop or eat. The problem can be solved by intermixing industry with other land uses which will use the open space and 'benefit from the offshoots of the industrial activity' (Alexander 1977: 230). A trend towards multiï¾­purpose land use is underway, though there is more talk than action (Blacksell & Glig, 1981:62). Planners favour the idea of 'clean' industry in towns but remain preoccupied with the harmful side effects produced by a few industries: chemical works, sewage treatment works, steel works, slaughter houses, oil refineries, and some mineral workings. For these industries the only reasonable landscape policy is to designate a zone and surround it with a buffer. There will be a continuing need for wellï¾­buffered zones for this type of industry. Other types should be freely intermixed with housing, offices, shops and parks, depending on the range of sideï¾­effects which they will generate, and from which they could benefit.