The Ford Box project is an architectural research project, which focuses on the impact of the Ford car factory in Cork in relation with the built environment of the city. A way to explore the relationship between Cork and Ford from an cultural, economical and architectural point of view can be by looking at how the wooden boxes that were used to deliver car parts for the Ford T Model and tractor to Cork were recycled. Architect LeCorbusier was hugely inspired by the way Ford set up his concept of assembling, and the step towards prefab panel housing developments is not farfetched. The Ford Box project examines the re-use of material and the second life of things, the creativity and inventiveness of how Cork people re-adapted the boxes for their own use and the impact of pre-fabrication on the built environment. Traveling around Cork, interviewing ex Ford employees, and locating the remaining boxes, which were often re-used as dog kennels, pigeon lofts and garden sheds, we explore how this left-over material of this global industry became integrated into Cork society.On the cliffs around Cork many of the summer houses once started off as Ford boxes, which have, in time, been turned into permanent housing, as a result of inventive re-use of left-over material of the assembly line.
