ABSTRACT
Industrial experts, engineers and architects in the early twentieth century faced the so-called ‘factory problem’. It had two important components that were interrelated: on the one hand, the plant’s spatial order; on the other, the quest for more effective ways of exercising power at the workplace. Both were centred on a new interest in the human factor of production. Workers were no longer regarded as mere objects of discipline but rather as individuals whose individuality was to be utilised. In this context a new discourse on work environment began. Some of the most important German architects and engineers were determined to beautify the factory and to create a human habitat (Lebensraum) inside, not least because of the increasing number of female labourers. Accordingly, notions of efficiency were combined with the new concept of beautification: rationalisation was ‘humanised’. The problem experts faced was how to create an atmosphere of trust which would promote the efficient usage of workers’ abilities. In this context, external discipline had to be more and more replenished by chosen workers’ self-discipline. It had been most important to humanise the workplace, respect the worker as subject of production and create conditions which increased working morale.
