Though harbors themselves have been an invention of the human race, its’ advancing precision, specialization and trowing complexity disconnects us from each other ever since port areas were repositioned outside / have grown out of the cities. For decades the two zones have been evolving in a parallel manner without the port having strong communication to the public. This brings us to a place where our neighbor became a type of phantom or black box to most of us. Its’ zones are closed of for the public and behave rather hostile to busy-bodies.

Revisiting especially industrial sites as an architect makes one thing more apparent than any other: space making is relative to its context everywhere and in a context where there is no need to serve human needs or aesthetic judgement there is a different set of rules underlying it. The strangeness of in which processing units, infrastructure and composition that are inherent to every specific industry present themselves is intriguing and confusing at the same time. They govern the space as allegedly grown structures of divergent still repetitive patterns. Due to their introversion and their channeling of energy into a limited number of tasks and processes, they manifest space in a manner of autism. The following research representation in the form of visual journalism tries to profoundly dissect these industrial spaces and make the feasible for the reader, explaining networks they are imbedded in, the workflows on-site, and their impact on the generated spatial configurations. Instead of trying to re-invent and re-organize harbour spaces, it approaches the Non-Understood via deep analysis and re-connect the port and the people not physically but through knowledge. Industry Spaces in the Port of Rotterdam (petroleum refinery Shell Pernis) and the Port of Marseille-Fos (steel production plant ArcelorMittal Fos-sur-Mer) are focus of these investigations. The attached pdf contains a "scroll of knowledge" for each industry, allowing the reader to dig deeper and deeper into the world of Autistic Spaces. 

The design assigns information steles in front of the (locked) entrances to the harbour industries - thus de-stranging them from society, and bringing the harbour areas closer to our societies again.