TY - CHAP

T1 - Elevator as a mediating technology of organization

AU - Bernard, Andreas

PY - 2019/12/12

Y1 - 2019/12/12

N2 - This chapter examines the rise of the elevator from the mid-nineteenth century onwards and its ramifications for the organization, perception, and imagination of multi-storey buildings. The early history of the elevator is of particular interest because it resides, as it were, in the gap between an old and a new organization of space, and registers its very points of transition. To reconstruct the elevator’s medial and organizational power, four main problem areas are identified: ‘breaches’, ‘hierarchies’, ‘controls’, and ‘interiors’. These areas address the specific verticality of the elevator building, the new hierarchical order of the storeys, the development of control elements, and the hermetic space of the elevator cabin.

AB - This chapter examines the rise of the elevator from the mid-nineteenth century onwards and its ramifications for the organization, perception, and imagination of multi-storey buildings. The early history of the elevator is of particular interest because it resides, as it were, in the gap between an old and a new organization of space, and registers its very points of transition. To reconstruct the elevator’s medial and organizational power, four main problem areas are identified: ‘breaches’, ‘hierarchies’, ‘controls’, and ‘interiors’. These areas address the specific verticality of the elevator building, the new hierarchical order of the storeys, the development of control elements, and the hermetic space of the elevator cabin.

KW - Digital media

KW - Media and communication studies

U2 - 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198809913.013.16

DO - 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198809913.013.16

M3 - Contributions to collected editions/anthologies

SN - 9780198809913

SP - 214

EP - 224

BT - Oxford Handbook of Media, Technology and Organization Studies

A2 - Beyes, Timon

A2 - Holt, Robin

A2 - Pias, Claus

PB - Oxford University Press

CY - Oxford

ER -