Twenty-four Hours at Work

A Filmic Survey of Transportation Corridors in Europe

Authors

  • Renzo Sgolacchia Stichting OMERO
  • Alex Retegan Office for Metropolitan Architecture

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7480/footprint.12.2.2046

Abstract

The deregulation policies implemented in the United States and the European Union in the early 1980s brought forth a significant rise in employment in the field of logistics but at the same contributed to a deterioration of work conditions in the industry – a paradoxical situation largely invisible to many in the age of online shopping. In recent years, a number of cinematographers showed interest in this type of work, depicting it in documentaries. Referring to one of these films, The Weight of Dreams (Francesco Mattuzzi, 2015), this review analyses the implications of the deregulation policies over work conditions, focusing on the relation between workers and space. As seen in the film, work in the field of logistics is a struggle between the desire for an efficient movement of goods and the desires of the humans who move the goods. This translates into an ambivalence of the space they use, which on the one hand, is planned for movement, but on the other, is appropriated by users with the illusion of a sedentary life.

Author Biographies

Renzo Sgolacchia, Stichting OMERO

Renzo Sgolacchia is an Italian architect active in Rotterdam. He is the founder of Cinema Architecture, a project combining research and film screenings, which investigates architectural space through cinema.
He graduated cum laude from the Faculty of Architecture of Roma Tre University in 2010. His graduate thesis, developed at TU Delft within the MSC Public Building, dealt with a housing project of a compact block in the city centre of Havana (Cuba). In 2012 he participated at the Istanbul Design Biennial (Adhocracy section) with the exhibition Re-reading Giancarlo De Carlo, based on a collective research. In Rotterdam he worked as an architect at KCAP Architects & Planners, Atelier Kempe Thill and Studio Marco Vermeulen. Since 2015 he is developing the project Cinema Architecture with the support of Creative Industries Fund NL and City of Rotterdam.
Currently he is curating the new programme of Cinema Architecture 2017-18 called Itinerant Movies, focusing on films shot entirely in a vehicle.

Alex Retegan, Office for Metropolitan Architecture

Alex Retegan is a Romanian architect, urban researcher and editor based in Rotterdam.
He graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Architecture and Urbanism Ion Mincu in Bucharest in 2008. His dissertation, analysing the Roman legionary camp as an instrument of organizing territory, was nominated for the RIBA Presidents Medals in 2008. He also holds a Master of Science degree in Urban Studies from the Bauhaus University in Weimar. He worked as an architect in Bucharest and researcher/editor at Volume magazine in Amsterdam.
Currently he is working at OMA in the Public Affairs department. He is also part of the collective that prepares the programme of Cinema Architecture 2017-18.

References

Belzer, Michael H. ‘Collective Bargaining after Deregulation: Do the Teamsters Still Count?.’ Industrial and Labor Review 38 no. 4 (July 1995): 636-655.

Dewar, Helen. ‘Teamsters Order Selective Strikes Against Trucking Firms.’ The Washington Post, 1 April 1979, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/01/22/coors-flattens-brewery-workers-union-battles-boycott/ad008649-2393-4e3a-bd21-597d332158e2/?utm_term=.d05658ac39a7.

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Interview with Francesco Mattuzzi, 11 October 2017.

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SafetyNet, Fatigue (2009), https://ec.europa.eu/transport/road_safety/sites/roadsafety/files/specialist/knowledge/pdf/fatigue.pdf.

Sanchez, Jesus. ‘Teamsters Strike Shuts Down 22 Trucking Firm.’ Los Angeles Times, 7 April 1994, http://articles.latimes.com/1994-04-07/news/mn-43292_1_trucking-firms/2.

Trucking Industry Regulatory Reform Act of 1994, Pub. L. No. 103-311, 108 Stat. 1673.

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Published

2018-11-08

Issue

Issue # 23 | Autumn / Winter 2018 | The Architecture of Logistics

Section

Review article

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