Haunted Modernity: The Persistence of Fascist Spatial Logics in Post-Industrial Turin Part 2 Dissertation 2026 Thomas Dickason London South Bank University | UK Haunted Modernity: The Persistence of Fascist Spatial Logics in Post-Industrial Turin asks how architecture can continue to shape society long after the political regimes that produced it have disappeared. Through a comparative study of FIAT’s Lingotto and Mirafiori factories, the dissertation investigates how industrial architecture developed before and during Fascism continued to organise labour, movement and authority after the regime’s collapse.Drawing on architectural analysis, historical research, archival material, original drawings and first-hand site research in Turin, the project argues that Fascism’s most enduring architectural legacy lies not in monuments or political symbolism, but in the spatial systems embedded within industrial production. Circulation routes, structural grids and production layouts developed for efficiency and control became not only functional systems but expressions of an aesthetic of order, rationality and industrial modernity. These spatial logics proved remarkably resilient, surviving political change while continuing to shape the built environment.The research traces the transformation of these factories from sites of production into objects of heritage and cultural memory. While Lingotto has been celebrated through adaptive reuse, Mirafiori remains an active industrial landscape, revealing contrasting ways in which architectural histories are preserved, reinterpreted or overlooked.By challenging the assumption that architecture simply reflects political ideology, the dissertation presents industrial architecture as an active participant in the formation, persistence and reinterpretation of power. It reframes industrial heritage as a living spatial legacy, contributing to wider debates on adaptive reuse, collective memory and the enduring relationship between architecture, ideology and society. Tutor(s) Christopher Cowell