T23/2 How do we approach the definition of character?

Followed on from Liam’s crit commentary T23/2
...I think I recall Vinnie saying that to define the word 'character' is a task in itself…

How should the planner, the architect, the architect planner be approaching its definition and so the improvement of place thereon?

As ‘architects’, it seems much of our studio work this year is about how we transfer the character of a place onto paper. Sometimes it is about collecting 'stories', narratives of nearby people, not essentially local, just there, to ascertain what they think of the place. They may just be fleeting visitors too, but we still note their story down with enthusiasm and take a meaning from it…can this be right? “We want our area to be nicer”, “there aren’t enough buses around here”, “I like to walk my dog here”.. Or should it be down to our judgment, as people who have trained for quite a few years now, to ‘look’, to sketch down the inherent qualities of place: edge conditions, ways in, feelings of openness, enclosure, the legibility of our surroundings, light, ‘atmospheres’?

'Instead of being mere visual aestheticisation, architecture for instance, is a mode of existential and metaphysical philosophising through the means of space, structure, matter gravity and light. Profound architecture does not merely beautify the settings of such dwelling, as it articulates the experiences of our very existence, such as gravity, matter, light, time and order...' [1]

These ways of looking seem so far removed from a planning policy. If we are trying to find a better median between architecture and planning, which is what I think this course is about, perhaps we should be finding place for this existential architectural approach. Or maybe planning policies are far too practical to allow space for these leanings.

'Architectural problems are, indeed, far too complex and deeply existential to be dealt with in solely conceptualised and rational manner.’[2]

Juhani Pallasmaa and Peter Zumthor are key reads to our units’ approach. Can their phenomenological stance be transferred into planning speak? It would just be read as fluffy guff (and hence be even easier to misconstrue, or just leave sitting on the paper). There's no cohesion.

'A landscape wounded by human acts, the fragmentation of the cityscape, as well as insensible buildings, are all external and materialised evidence of an alienation and shattering of the human inner space.'

If a policy did elaborate on the definition of character, or alluded a more experiential way of designing, it would probably be written in a way that creates more constraints than opportunities, limit ways forward in changing and improving areas, but it might stop rubbish developments being allowed through.

It seems that we should be getting to know planning policies just so that we can find ways to get around them. It's always a battle against the real, the sober, obtuseness. Re-termed as playing. ‘Architects don’t invent anything: they transform reality.’[3] Alvaro Siza. Do we just transform planning policies to suit our intentions? Is that how it should stay, the ‘arrogant architect’ (to quote Nick Bullock) turning their back on the rubric of planning?

Some policies seem so stale. Conservation areas are hardly re-assessed, the protection law is in place, it took a long time to write it, it’s staying there. We don’t care if the rest of the area has moved on.

Places are temporary, transient, always changing. Conservation areas stay the same. Edges are made. Perhaps it is then about a better way of looking, so that there is scope for change, in order to ‘reveal and articulate what exists and what are the natural potentials of the given condition’[4]. So that it’s not about deciphering the character of a place in terms of how old the buildings are, what architectural era, in ‘those grassy patches must stay there as they have always been there’, but a means of allowing for the re-evaluation of the use of a place without being so romantic (Port Sunlight springs to mind). It's the simple matter of making conservation policies less stringent. Probably not that simple.

Maybe the relationship lies in the imaginations of both parties, this is how we proceed in working together. Being creative and being able to evaluate a place in an economically ethic way.

‘The capacity to imagine – to liberate oneself of the limits of matter, place and time – must be regarded as the most human and essential of all our qualities. Creative capacity as well as ethical judgement calls for imagination…’[5]

Liam likes to imagine.

‘I always thought reservoirs were beautiful places and would never imagine that it wouldn’t be beautiful to live next to one. But if you live in 1 of 1000 houses in a modest estate and are hemmed in by the fences of the water company and couldn’t possibly get within 400m of the water, you probably wouldn’t feel such romanticism.’[6]

[1] Juhani Pallasmaa, The Thinking Hand: Embodies and Existential Wisdom in Architecture.
[2] Pallasmaa ibid.
[3] Alvaro Siza
[4] Pallasmaa ibid.
[5] Pallasmaa ibid.
[6] Liam Morrissey. Blog T23/2

T33 Manifesto #3

As the course rolls on, like the wheels of the SPUD bus last week as we hurtled around the UK, I hope, and hopefully think, that thinking about lots of things at the same time is a good thing. Different subject groups tend to merge into one, little connections start to spark between things told, words read, presentations heard, places seen, a bank of MA SPUD knowledge. I'm not sure whether this is just a current and temporary reaction to essay writing, but I imagine it's a good thing to start thinking about all of the MA subjects as a whole. This is what has to happen in real life isn't it? Though the real life can be dangerous. Sometimes. We are students after all, and merging all with the design all is sometimes harder than one might think.

The trip around the UK was highly useful and interesting, putting places into context makes a big different to their understanding, books and slides just don't do justice sometimes. Perhaps something to keep in mind whenever presenting in future. Sometimes it's about the obvious, and other times it's not about what you might have thought was the practical solution. eg traditional sea side towns in Belfast vs community kept peace walls in Belfast; big pratical beautiful bridges of Newcastle vs the unexpected rebuilding of a community in the past slum area of Byker. Or just the unexpected with the unexpected: Well maintained Milton Keynes vs slightly ropey Letchworth; empty opressive Port Sunlight vs lively Liverpool One.

In more lucid terms, the questions that I am starting to ask myself, and of places/presentations seen, are a sign that I am, if not starting to understand what the issues are in the world of Spatial Planning and Urban Design, then at least trying. Though it is easy to doubt whether the questions one is asking are the right ones. I suppose I'll find out more this term.

T32 Barking

http://lyncharchitects.co.uk/pdf/AJ_20091119.pdf

I found this blog page saved and realised what it was for: Barking

Fenna from DFL presented with a splash of her previous expeiences in the architectural profession and a presentation on the work DFL have commissioned in Barking. When coming out of the lecture, I remember how engaged I was with the developments, partly because I'd seen the public square and fake old wall presented before at the Mayor's Great Spaces day and wanted to find out more about the scheme for the adjacent park, hence the pasted weblink. I like the work on Lynch's website. Though an odd transfer to make from classic Doric columns scattered all over the floor to fake tree trunks...

T 31 Thesis Ideas

Thesis: Urban Rural

Not being a native city dweller, the relationship between the city and the countryside is one I am curious about. There has always existed a strong culture of 'escaping' to the countryside in the UK, especially felt in the dense cities, London being a fine example. Letchworth, Hampstead, Welwyn are all examples of the city's attempts to move outwards, and the Green belt was the buffer, existing as a means of controlling the sprawl of the city, partially due to cheaper land and hence house prices, but also because of the better 'quality of life' that one connects with the open land and 'fresh air', though traditionally the countryside was a place for making a living, agriculture, where the workers longed to get to the Big City of light and attractions.

What seems to be the newer trend is the idea of 'bringing the countryside into the city', even the London Plan mentions it. The mayors great spaces presentation day gave some examples of current boroughs following the trend: Sutton, Barking...

In most of my essays this term I have focused on the history of garden cities, and how they affect the way in which we still feel the need for expanses of open space in the city. Take, for example how the whole of the northern area of the Olympic park will be converted into housing within a vast park, complete with river side knolls.

Why do we crave these open spaces? Density of built space plays a key part. Data and how they calculate this. What does this mean in more human terms? A lot to do with how we perceive the space, as being open, being grassy, being natural and rugged.

The more one tries to characterise either, the less clear the definition of both are. How do we distinguish urban from rural? Classifications of land uses are complex, as they are for open land, there is even a figure and methodology for reaching it for Urban and Rural: Rural/Urban Definition and LA Classification.

If we must, how do we, as architects and urban planners, incorporating the country into the city without it seeming a token gesture?

T 30 Start Again #3: The Idea of City

9/12/10 Florian Beigel and Philip Christou - Architecture as city.

An approach to the design of space: infrastructural and inhabitation in S M L XL, from furniture configuration to the design of a city in Korea, always finding the city within space, and the spaces between spaces.

The lecture began with the image of a Korean folding screen depicting civil life in a hierarchical layering of nature, buildings, people and civil ceremony, folding up and disappearing after supper is over.

The metaphor of the space inbetween Morandi's paintings cropped up once more. So did Hans Scharoun's library, Berlin, illustrating a natural geological order within the envelope of a building. I liked the analogy in this context. I've been inside this library on a studio trip in third year, and somehow it did seem to have a very natural order within. Big hulking tree trunk columns that fly into the sky of circular lamps, with the bookshelves to desks to chairs forming the city skyline in the distance. They're swaying me round to their way of thinking...

Hans Scharoun's Library in Berlin. Especially soft carpets if I remember correctly.

The scale and order of the city is always present. Leading to ideas of contrasts between artificial and natural to create legible definition in human scale, giving form to public space, somewhere to explore contrast as seen at the sea's edge in Porto. Natural rock vs sharp concrete paths.

'All allude to, or are the city in different ways'

Searching for a meaning between planning and what's built, finding a relationship between the landscape and paths, as seen in their project in Cirencester, building up the landscape's inhabitation incrementally with a personal touch.

These examples were used as a means of guiding us through the practice's approach to their design work in Korea, (the content of the book being launched). Analysing existing successful and unsuccessful built forms and bringing them together to create a new city space in a controlled sea plain.

Is this how we, as architects, should proceed to design? Learning from personal critique of the form of every building, breaking each building and space down into a list of good and bad, in terms of proportion, symmetry and contrasting size, ie the first impression of aesthetic, and lumping all the good together? Were the examples shown only seen to be of a 'human scale' because of the carefully chosen images of people in the buildings' openings? I found myself questioning in my Moleskin. Quite a new thing for me. In some instances, I think pictures can do a great deal in selling the proportion of a building or object, but I trusted what they were saying. The form of things define everyday life. Which toilet brush we choose to buy, which apple or orange, it's just that I think you have to be careful when 'Thinking on a small scale and blowing up' that you think of the bigger picture, and the spaces in between. : if we do think on a small scale, taking ques from human proportions of window openings, and the ratios of dimension, how can these proportions be blown up to an urban scale without losing the intimacy of the original 'human' size of that window opening? Sometimes seemed a little contrived.

In describing a series of new library buildings in Korea, it was said 'Each building has its own character, standing shoulder to shoulder like people in the ground': surely most buildings in an urban setting stand shoulder to shoulder regardless of their scale, and does that building have its own character if it is a collage of previous 'successful' buildings taken from such examples as Portland Place, London?

Though it was stated by Phil that in essence they were not 'ripping up and starting again, surely the basis of the Korean project was starting from scratch, starting again, therefore their approach to starting again was to rip up and collage existing cities. Does this new framework for a city in Korea plant the seed for it to become its own city, or will it always be like another?

Favourite quotes:
'Form is passe, figure is in'
....and programme: 'What it looks like is important, it is not about programme, that comes second...Architecture has a life of its own. It's about beauty. Content is something else, is this not for planners?' ???
'Creating the rug for the picnic'

T29 Emma Rutherford.This was your crit.

So Emma, this was your crit, that was your presentation, these are your next steps, though we shouldn't use next steps really, sounds like a commercial masterplanners brochure...and we shouldn't really use masterplanner. Urbanist if you please.

Well you started at the start. You went first. Yes good. Step one. Go first. Presentation was clear, I liked the crosses that pinned each image to the page, led to a nice transition from slide to slide. I think the area of interest is quite a tricky one to convey, photos often tend to romanticise the area, I wonder how you would have depicted the area had you not walked around the reservoirs, but instead gone first and only to the industrial area around Northumberland Park?

The stark and charming images of its industrial buildings led the conversations that followed to celebrating these buildings. When not all of them are that beautiful. It might be an interesting study to compare the function, layout and facade of the IKEA bulding against the big powerhouse, or one of your favourites, perhaps as a more material study of how it's made and what qualities make one better than the other, and how the spaces around them differ. What do the other surrounding warehouses do?

This website is good for checking out Brownfield sites (including a good interactive map):

http://www.londonbrownfieldsites.org/Content/Brownfield.aspx

You looked at the changing scales in the area, from person to house to mid scale building, to industrial to reservoir. It's the middle scale that seems to intrigue you. I wonder what the people living near by think of the industrial buildings? Do they even notice that they're there? Big elephants in the landscape that go unnoticed?

And in that section from house to river, you didn't include the small buildings/pump plants that sit on the banks of the reservoir. Small Victorian figures that echo the building era of the powerhouses. How do they relate to each other if at all?

Maybe we should have a cup of tea and chat. I know you like those. You put one your wall for your crit...

T 28 Peter Bishop

Monday evening, lecture room, they've turned the heating on tonight, this guy must be important. (first) Director of Design for the LDA I think. Pretty big then. So question number 1: Where did planning play its part in the projects presented?

Having worked as a planning director for the past 20 years in four different Central London Boroughs, and on big projects like Canary Wharf, BBC campus and Kings Cross, I would imagine the majority of the lecture would have been about planning, but surprisingly, he talked of 'beauty' and 'delight' and the values of designing at a human scale in the city, not the norm for a planner. He's got good at the game of 'addressing ones audience' I believe. The nice little snippets of information and stories in the presentation proved this. And so we may as well slip in question number 2 here: Where did spatial awareness and design have its moments? Bishop merged the subjects of Planning and Urban Design quite nicely, in a way that suggested that all decisions made had been the right ones. In the use of the lifetime of a child growing up as a means of 'selling' the way in which Kings Cross should be developed to Argent (the developers), we can see the way in which all parties involved in its planning and design were encouraged to join in, though only if they were saying the right thing, 'Always use your stakeholders to support arguments, but don't let them on the table to distort arguments'.

Honest. Clever. Engaged. Seller.

'See the space before it's there, and move into it before it's created.'

Both spatially but in talking to people, whether that's consulting/persuading the public, talking profits with developers, or getting planners to be flexible.
In other words having your cake and eating it.

T26 Waltham Forest Hot Food SPD

Within Waltham Forest's new Supplementary Planning Document on proximity of hot food take away to schools and parks, it is quite fascinating to see the detail that must be included in creating a new document when considering its role and impact on current and future establishments.

Basics like distances from schools and parks need to be defined. (400m according to the document), even this is a huge research task in itself. I would be interested to see the data sets consulted for this decision to be made.

Another document that kick started a government campaign was the 2008 “Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: A Cross Government Strategy for England” which pushed for healthier living, and better quality school dinners. The campaign hard a hard time. It takes more than planning policy to change the mindsets of both children and adults, and if the need is there why shouldn't takeaways cater for it?

In looking at how the policy defines what is takeaway and what is not, I wonder how small existing takeaways will find holes in the policy so that they only need make small changes to their business to turn it into a cafe or restaurant rather than the banned takeaway?

T25 Croydon

In what seemed to be an approach to planning off paper and on the streets (for the people), Vinnie Lacovara and Finn Williams presented the series of 5 masterplans, or 'visions' currently in place for Croydon. Though it could be questioned how many, or how much of these plans will actually be delivered, it looks as though Croydon is taking a step in the right direction where design for the city is concerned, making small and considered steps in order to encourage better future development.

Similar to previous worries of previous decades where the Borough was in danger of letting the design of buildings drop to the bottom of the agenda, and the economics of development to the top, it seems as if the recession has done Croydon a favour in being able to pause and reflect on what the large centre actually needs. Much of the work involved in creating these visions was in getting people to talk to each other. Cups of tea and post it notes in a rainbow of colours. Bad feeling and conflicting ideas on land ownership lead to fragmented and obnoxious plans for developments, isn't it better when people work together?

T24 PPS Review

PPS's are gradually replacing PPG's, and it is interesting to follow how the graphic layout of these documents have changed with age. Below is a list of all Planning Policy Statements and Planning Policy Guidance from the government website:

Planning Policy Statement 1: Delivering Sustainable Development
Planning Policy Statement: Planning and Climate Change - Supplement to Planning Policy Statement 1
Planning Policy Statement: Eco-towns - A supplement to Planning Policy Statement 1
Planning Policy Guidance 2: Green Belts
Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing
Planning Policy Statement 4: Planning for Sustainable Economic Growth
Planning Policy Statement 5: Planning for the Historic Environment
Planning Policy Statement 7: Sustainable Development in Rural Areas
Planning Policy Guidance 8: Telecommunications
Planning Policy Statement 9: Biodiversity and Geological Conservation
Planning Policy Statement 10: Planning for Sustainable Waste Management
Planning Policy Statement 12: Local Spatial Planning
Planning Policy Guidance 13: Transport
Planning Policy Guidance 14: Development on Unstable Land
Planning Policy Guidance 17: Planning for Open Space, Sport and Recreation
Planning Policy Guidance 18: Enforcing Planning Control
Planning Policy Guidance 19: Outdoor Advertisement Control
Planning Policy Guidance 20: Coastal Planning
Planning Policy Statement 22: Renewable Energy
Planning Policy Statement 23: Planning and Pollution Control
Planning Policy Guidance 24: Planning and Noise
Planning Policy Statement 25: Development and Flood Risk
Planning Policy Statement 25 Supplement: Development and Coastal Change

As Vinnie explained, it is important to have an understanding of these documents in order to get the most from development opportunities.


When PPG 1 was re written as PPS 1, there emerged a much stronger focus on urban design in the policies.


In looking through these planning policies, I think there is a deficiency in policies that cover the expanding market of large superstores and shopping centres. There should be tighter measures put in place so that these kind of developments are harder to build and that small local develpoment is encouraged, especially with the new localism bill.

T23 Crit: How can we plan incrementaly to develop green spaces and their surrounds in the Upper Lea Valley?

Following Sammas' comments on my crit, I have attempted to reflect on the information that I presented and formulate new ways of approaching the site of study, keeping in mind the research done since.

Quoted from Sammas:

'for Bethan.....
I have to say I am sorry as I didn't pay 100% attention as some of them are too tired...
1.The presentation has focus a lot on policies about green space in the Tottenham Marshes area, given it's located at the border of a few different councils, there must be a lot of different policies for the area. It might be an idea to sort out and summarize, see if there's any discrepancy, or any gaps between different councils.
2.The discussion is on opening the green space to the locals, there are a few suggestions already about the program, but there might need to be consideration on who is going to manage them and how... Although Thames Water might be desperate to improve their reputation who would be more appropriate to manage these spaces?
3. Is Thames Water obligated to open up these spaces? Do we have enough power to order them to open up? How might we do it?
4.With the possibility of increasing footfall into the green spaces, how do we protect these spaces from any damages by human? Are these green spaces of any scientific significance (sorry you might have mentioned this...?)? Can we protect the species that is currently living there? You have mention about bat house the other day, would they create any problems with the existing ecosystem?
5. As they are working reservoirs, do we need any rules about how these green spaces can be developed (if any) so that they won't have any negative impact to the reservoirs and london's water?
6. With is proximity to the Olympic Park, did their masterplan promote or ignore the connection with these spaces? What can be done to make it better? (or not? if we don't want too many outsiders into the area?)
7. Is there any policies that can be relaxed to make the spaces more useful but still protects them? or do they have to be tightened?
Hope I didn't suggest anything that you have already covered..........!
Do let me know if any and I will think of other suggestions.......

-----

It's easy to get swallowed up into the policies of just one Borough on just one subject ie Open Space in Waltham Forest and think that they should be followed, yet questioned through design (for instance the way in which 'small scale' can be interpreted from Planning documents). In taking a step back, one can see that there is equally as much importance in probing the areas surrounding the reservoirs and their neighbourhoods, in a more rounded look at the site. Following research for our evidence module, into the high indices of deprivation in the communities either side of the reservoirs, not only does an argument build for creating stronger links up and down the valley to the new economy of the Olympics, but in the value the connections across the Valley would create, not only the physical use of the open space itself.

There are precedents to be had on opening up reservoirs, on how they can be managed, and how contracts can be made so that the opening of the reservoir can make money to fund the employment of rangers and hence maintain the security of the site. In fact, there is a reservoir at home that does exactly that called 'Llysyfran Dam', with a cafe, shop and visitors centre in which I used to work. What a coincidence.

Though policy is not the be all and end all (as my design tutors like to tell me) it is interesting to see how it plays a big part in determining what stays green and what doesn't.

T22 - Olympics Lecture

The Olympic legacy can be seen as a driver for the growth of London Eastward, a new Urban District, whilst also improving the conditions of two of the most deprived communities in Europe.

View of the Olympic Park from the North looking down towards the less resolved Southern area surrounding the stadium.

In Legacy mode, the North area of the site will adopt Abercombie’s strategy of a connected park, a park that will connect the Lea Valley upwards, along the ‘Fat Walk’, through the football pitches of Hackney Marshes and Northwards to the Reservoirs, in a 'Health Corridor’ of sorts. Having just come back from Odessa and seen their versions of 'health walks' there, I am more convinced of the idea. The walk in Odessa was well used by both cyclists and walkers, and scattered with outdoor gyms and parks.

Outdoor gym in Odessa on the Health Walk by the sea, being used by old ladies.

Northern region of the Olympic Park, where the canals are banked in green space, to potentially be used like Hyde park adjacent to the Serpentine.

In the latter half of the lecture that focused on the Olympic Park in Legacy mode, it was emphasised how the Olympic site should not be seen as a single place, rather one that bleeds into its surroundings, bringing in the need for research into the communities surrounding the site.

To summarise the points that caught my attention in this relatively long lecture. I have made a list. How practical.


Diverse heritage
Industrial neglect
Crossed by important transport ways
Horizontal views punctured by Pylons
Huge Site
Transport and Waste Management Plan
Ecology Plan
Biodiversity Action Plan
Urban Design and Landscape Framework
Inclusive Access Strategy

2012 Sustainability Strategy: Keeping and Reusing
PLUG-Powerlines Underground rather than pylons (but what about the landmark value of the Pylon - it's a shame they didn't try and include in their scheme and celebrate.)
New Energy Centres - celebrating the utilities with good design
Water Pumping Station: Homage in design
Utilities carried in Bridges (ground plane bridges)
Hills&Fluid Mitigation
Road side bridges decorated

Final Questions, beside that of how do you stop bad graphics in brochures:

How do you activate large open areas? Very relevant for Tottenham.

T21 Stratford & Olympic Fringe Site Visit

I recall my annoyance at not getting to have nosey around the Olympic site, when instead stomping around Sanitoriums in Odessa. Though the lecture the following Monday was informative enough and full of pictures. Speaking of pictures, here's one I made earlier of the proximity of the Olympic site to my design site in the Upper Lea Valley:

T20 Trouble Makers

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/jan/09/young-architects-cineroleum-franks-hastings

I was away for this lecture, and so decided to the media to collect ideas on these new young practioners, after all if a journalist puts on the talks, then it's only right another fills the void of information. (Rowan Moore, Observer Sunday 9 January 2011).

Studio Weave (Maria Smith and Je Ahn) were described as the more 'venerable' version of young pracitioners, though their presentation the following week for Start Again #1 was a bit disorganised. I guess she had forgotten her memory stick. The dog ate it. 'Maria Smith, says they are the "Challenge Anneka generation", inspired by the 1990s TV series...' Inspired. Full stop. What a great memory. The slightly mocking way in which their naive, or 'sweet' attempts at narrative through childrens stories was highlighted was interesting, as Moore saw them more as idea generators for projects, rather than a means of identifying with their audience/client.

I'm disappointed I missed 'Practice Architecture' talk, I feel a certain allegiance. Lettice was my classmate at undergrad, and I liked Frank's cafe when I visited those many summers ago...or was it last summer?

'Drake says: "When Frank's exploded there was a feeling of, 'Oh shit, we've ruined Peckham.'" Worried that they had become agents of gentrification, they tried to atone with a plan to turn the old ticket office at Peckham Rye station, a disused "ballroom-like" space, into a "community restaurant". But they realised that the local communities were capable of setting up restaurants without their help. "We were trying to invent an infrastructure that already existed and it wasn't our place to do it. It felt patronising and dodgy."

Quite refreshing to hear gentrification being questioned following the appeal of trendies to their cafe. (I'm not counting myself as one here)

And the other negative of these 'pop ups':

'It's not a good thing if architecture is always seen as a form of volunteer work, that costs almost nothing and requires only the most basic details...But these young architects can't be expected to take on all the economic forces that surround them.'

SPUDers on tour V2.1 'the early bird' - (doing) the UK in a week

(With the inclusion of a jaunt from Wales to get the mileage running)