This book explores the dynamic spaces and enterprises that activate contemporary urban industrial places. While often assumed to be obsolete in an era of AI, digital technologies, and service economies, cities still depend on industrial land. These critical yet misunderstood spaces have undergone dramatic transformations in the twenty-first century, but continue to house the essential services that keep cities running, support diverse and specialized employment, and incubate innovative enterprises. 

Drawing on extensive research in Melbourne, Australia, and comparative examples from around the world, Carl Grodach reveals the varied and often invisible productive activities that industrial spaces support, and the forces shaping their futures. In doing so, he exposes the tension between Melbourne’s industrial reality and its image as one of the world’s most livable cities, making the case for recentering industrial land in urban research, planning, and policy. Challenging assumptions about the "post-industrial" city, the book invites readers to reimagine industrial spaces as central to more resilient and equitable urban development.

Carl Grodach is Foundation Professor of Urban Planning and Design at Monash University, Australia. His research bridges economic development and land use planning, with an emphasis on urban manufacturing and industrial lands, cultural industries, and circular economies.