The Mechanization of Life: Histories, architecture, and paradoxes of intensive animal farming

The zootechnical buildings for the farming of industrial livestock are everywhere and, paradoxically, they seem to be nowhere. Also, they are often perceived as anonymous and timeless. Yet, we may ask: How did the architecture of intensive animal farming develop since the late nineteenth century? This talk will briefly explore its geographical and institutional origins, and it will critically analyse the spatial, social, and ethical paradoxes on which the animal-industrial complex is grounded.

Sofia Nannini is an assistant professor in architectural history at the Politecnico di Torino. She is author of Icelandic Farmhouses: Identity, Landscape and Construction (1790-1945) (Firenze University Press, 2023); The Icelandic Concrete Saga: Architecture and Construction (1847–1958) (Jovis, 2024) and of Is there a known optimum gate size for the dual control of cattle and sheep? (Canadian Centre for Architecture, 2025, forthcoming). She is currently working on a book project tentatively entitled The Mechanization of Life: An Architectural History of Intensive Animal Farming. This project has been supported by the Canadian Centre for Architecture and by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

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