Industrial places -and most of all, deserted ones - always inspired artists, because of their romanticism and melancholy : the once powerful and aggressive machines are now idle and cold. The monster is numb, or even dead, you can touch it or even take a revenge upon it ! The revenge now can be to use the industrial abandoned areas, like railway sheds, factory halls, chemical plants, silos, mills, breweries and so on, as film sets or dwelling spaces...
See also http://www.arhind.ro or http://picasaweb.google.ro/veneto.roma.sicilia/IndustrialArchaeology20012007#