My thesis project focuses on the possibility of creating a hybrid urban factory for (sustainable) ceramics- incorporating a public function to invite, engage and inform the local neighborhood and the broader city about the manufacturing process and labor conditions. The project will facilitate the winning of clay, transportation, and manufacturing space in combination with a public garden. According to the traditionalist view of the built environment, programs of manufacturing and leisure are perceived as almost opposite spaces and cannot therefore “merge”. However, considering the ever-changing reality of our urban milieus, and reflecting on the history of the factories in the cities, these opposed activities can provide a site where the production process becomes “transparent”. Proposing an urban factory as a public space that hopes to engage social activities, towards a vision of transparency. 

As the oldest known ceramic material, clay is used in many modern industrial processes, such as paper making, cement production, and chemical filtering. Between one-half and two-thirds of the world's population live or work in buildings made with clay, often baked into brick, as an essential part of its load-bearing structure.