Cities have always been places where commerce and production, working and living are physically and functionally integrated. Only with the rise of industry have zoning regulations been introduced to separate these functions in space. However, what is the role of such regulations when industry is digitized, increasingly emission-free, and based on innovation more than mass production? How should working and living be combined to make mobility and energy consumption become more sustainable? And what are the opportunities in creating urban areas based on social equity and resilience, in a volatile world characterized by digital disruption, migration and demographic shifts?

Based on interrogative research at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) in the interdisciplinary urban design studio The Industrious City, the Zurich-based architecture studio Hosoya Schaefer presents this publication of the same name. Investigating ways in which production can be reintroduced to the city, this book explores how new synergies between production, services, leisure and living can be found using the example of the polycentric urban landscape of Switzerland – all against the backdrop of fundamental shifts in how urban industry is shaping our social, political, spatial and economic futures.