I sat there in the lecture theatre on Thursday evening and I knew I am supposed to find out something about Thames Gateway. Yet I still don’t know what went wrong with the Thames Gateway.
Mark Brearley spoke in length about ‘standing back’, ‘exploring’ and ‘troublemaking’, ‘trying to dream’ and ‘making projects’. But I felt he was speaking with some coded language and wasn’t sure whether there was any essence behind this code. Still there may have been a purpose there. I saw slides of highways in the rain, empty riverside fields and sadly looking new developments and all these between some ‘minty phrases’ which were supposed to tell a story. The tale of Thames Gateway is vague and unclear which is maybe why Mark chose to speak about in such meandering manner.
As far as I could figure it out the story was: there were ‘blind policies’ and there were people who stood ‘on the church steps’ and talked about a big regeneration plan. Those people finally sat ‘in the control room’ but still had to produce some maps since they did not know where they were going, lacked spatial understanding and general idea for Thames Gateway. As they were finding their way around this regeneration program they focused on projects, gave advice and helped in the process. In the meantime they analysed the existing situation but as ‘they were sleeping and trying to dream’ more things happened: extensions, leisure boxes, shopping centres, retail parks, suburban housing, and river frontage, DRL, Jubilee Line and Airport. But it all seems accidental in the big scheme of things. Around London Riverside with 50 local area strategies and subsequent policies no big plan becomes implemented in the end.
The second lecturer of the evening Geoff Shearcroft chose not to speak about Thames Gateway at all. Instead he ran through his research on Thames Valley.
Thames Valley, as I found out that evening, in contrast to Thames Gateway is ‘participatory, productive and popular’. These three phases house a lot of cars and car parks, many sheds, business parks, retail parks, industrial parks and a lot of suburban housing. This is what public wants we’re told because it is the happy area of Britain.
But what about Thames Gateway. It’s hard to grasp the issue. No one wants to speak about it directly and this is, I think, what went wrong.
Tuesday 26 October 2010
T9 1 minute presentation for MA and unit meeting
3 Weeks Ago
When I joined the MA in Spatial Planning and Urban Design I was only following my gut feeling. I couldn’t pin it down to why exactly I need this second qualification. I imagined it to be something spatially bigger than architecture and possibly with more of an impact.
Couple of days later I chose to join unit 6 precisely because it has such a strong emphasis on people, on working with the communities and 1 to 1 interactions and reactions.
When I joined the MA in Spatial Planning and Urban Design I was only following my gut feeling. I couldn’t pin it down to why exactly I need this second qualification. I imagined it to be something spatially bigger than architecture and possibly with more of an impact.
Couple of days later I chose to join unit 6 precisely because it has such a strong emphasis on people, on working with the communities and 1 to 1 interactions and reactions.
Now
In unit 6 people are at the centre of things. One person with their story is possibly a project. This year the unit will travel to India and project will be focused on slum communities in Agra. To begin with however we had to go to Walworth Road in London to discover hidden immigrant and local communities there. We did this through talking to people who wanted to talk to us and observing those who refused to make contact. We learned to take as much as we are given by the local people and to build closer relations with them. We collected stories, characters and places. Those characters with their particularities will inform any modifications to a selected location for this short project.
So far on all classes associated with Spatial Planning and Urban Design we did a lot of talking: debating and reflecting the present and past political and social condition in Britain. Little is clear, everything has many interpretations and politicks turns this weal of fortune. Gradually I learn to recognize the connections between the big planning statements and the fortunes of ordinary people. They after all are the centre of all conversations. Yet people in Masters Course still feel so small and number like.
In unit 6 people are at the centre of things. One person with their story is possibly a project. This year the unit will travel to India and project will be focused on slum communities in Agra. To begin with however we had to go to Walworth Road in London to discover hidden immigrant and local communities there. We did this through talking to people who wanted to talk to us and observing those who refused to make contact. We learned to take as much as we are given by the local people and to build closer relations with them. We collected stories, characters and places. Those characters with their particularities will inform any modifications to a selected location for this short project.
So far on all classes associated with Spatial Planning and Urban Design we did a lot of talking: debating and reflecting the present and past political and social condition in Britain. Little is clear, everything has many interpretations and politicks turns this weal of fortune. Gradually I learn to recognize the connections between the big planning statements and the fortunes of ordinary people. They after all are the centre of all conversations. Yet people in Masters Course still feel so small and number like.
Future
I like these two approaches to come together. I want to give faces to the numbers in planning statistics. I also want to know how a life of one person with all its complexities is translated into numbers.
Saturday 16 October 2010
T8 Lecture 02: What makes up the contemporary city?
Politicks, politicks, politicks and architecture somewhere in between. Owen Hatherley is a very critical voice. He is not trained as an architect so his words were free of preconceptions and educated judgements of what should be considered beautiful and good yet his outlook carried a very Left sided bearing. The slides he’s shown were amateur but very real, they were the holiday photos you wouldn’t like to have in your album. It was interesting to hear what non-architect that actually pays attention to his environment observed.
I hear there were 3 Britain’s before II World War and 2 more since:
1) Oxford standing for Tories international prominence
2) Sheffield steelworks and sublime, deeply inhumane social housing of the north of England
3) Suburban, increasingly leisured capitalism of mainly south of the country
4) Post war settlement in a form of council estates and new towns of social democracy
5) Blair colourful flats of newly found urbanism
Britain 5 counts for the last 30 years of British cityscapes and it was the primary subject of the critique.The cityscapes of 1990’s Blairism have turned out to be brittle and superficial with little space in between high density blocks of residence covered with colored paneling, terracotta, pale wood or glass. They replaced some old urban fabric under numerous Regeneration Schemes of 1980’s and 90’s that still continue today.
Owen recalls examples of 1980’s sub urban Ocean Village right in the centre of London next to metropolis like, strictly controlled Canary Wharf. He calls 1990’s Sheffiels high density student housing ‘blaisboxes’. He has no mercy for BDP’s West Key in Southampton, or Park Hill in Sheffield by Urban Splash. He suggests regeneration shame designed by one, and executed by the fourth party, timidly founded by whoever is in power cannot be good. It’s hard to disagree with him.
The up-down policies failed to recognize the inhabitant of all these shames.
Owen Hatherley however leaves us a positive note at the end of his lecture. Beautiful or not doesn’t matter here, these were citizen initiatives, to make space of their own or to build community block they actually wanted to live in.
I hear there were 3 Britain’s before II World War and 2 more since:
1) Oxford standing for Tories international prominence
2) Sheffield steelworks and sublime, deeply inhumane social housing of the north of England
3) Suburban, increasingly leisured capitalism of mainly south of the country
4) Post war settlement in a form of council estates and new towns of social democracy
5) Blair colourful flats of newly found urbanism
Britain 5 counts for the last 30 years of British cityscapes and it was the primary subject of the critique.The cityscapes of 1990’s Blairism have turned out to be brittle and superficial with little space in between high density blocks of residence covered with colored paneling, terracotta, pale wood or glass. They replaced some old urban fabric under numerous Regeneration Schemes of 1980’s and 90’s that still continue today.
Owen recalls examples of 1980’s sub urban Ocean Village right in the centre of London next to metropolis like, strictly controlled Canary Wharf. He calls 1990’s Sheffiels high density student housing ‘blaisboxes’. He has no mercy for BDP’s West Key in Southampton, or Park Hill in Sheffield by Urban Splash. He suggests regeneration shame designed by one, and executed by the fourth party, timidly founded by whoever is in power cannot be good. It’s hard to disagree with him.
The up-down policies failed to recognize the inhabitant of all these shames.
Owen Hatherley however leaves us a positive note at the end of his lecture. Beautiful or not doesn’t matter here, these were citizen initiatives, to make space of their own or to build community block they actually wanted to live in.
T7 Urban Design Roles
Urban Design is a complex process with requires advise and knowledge of many and authority of a few. It is a real interdisciplinary interface and a multidimensional activity.
Urban design takes place between planning and architecture, yet at the same time other seemingly independent disciplines play equally crucial roles in the study and/or creation of cities:
Individuals with their own urban initiatives
Furniture designers,
Architects
Landscape architects,
Structural and mechanical engineers
Communication and transport engineers,
Behavioural studies researchers e.g.:
Sociologists
Economists
Group and individual psychologists
Humanities scientists e.g.:
Artists
Musicians
Historians
Philosophers
Lawyers
Developers
Planning consultants
Politicians
Urban design takes place between planning and architecture, yet at the same time other seemingly independent disciplines play equally crucial roles in the study and/or creation of cities:
Individuals with their own urban initiatives
Furniture designers,
Architects
Landscape architects,
Structural and mechanical engineers
Communication and transport engineers,
Behavioural studies researchers e.g.:
Sociologists
Economists
Group and individual psychologists
Humanities scientists e.g.:
Artists
Musicians
Historians
Philosophers
Lawyers
Developers
Planning consultants
Politicians
T6 Urban Design Definitions
Richard Rogers, Lodnon as it could be ( from www.richardrogers.co.uk)
‘At the heart of our urban strategy lies the concept that cities are for the meeting of friends and strangers in civilised public spaces surrounded by beautiful buildings.’
Urban Design Compendium (from www.urbandesigncompendium.co.uk)
'Urban Design is the art of making places for people. It is therefore concerned with how they function, not just how they look. It covers the connections between people and places, movement and urban form, nature and the built fabric and the processes for ensuring successful places are delivered and maintained.
Urban design draws together many strands of place-making – environmental concerns, social equity and economic viability – to create places which work and are sustainable in the long term.
Urban design brings together issues of planning, transportation, architectural design, development economics, landscape and engineering to create a vision for an area and then ensure it is delivered.'
Urban Design Gorup (from www.udg.org.uk)
‘What is urban design?
Urban design is the collaborative and multi-disciplinary process of shaping the physical setting for life in cities, towns and villages; the art of making places; design in an urban context. Urban design involves the design of buildings, groups of buildings, spaces and landscapes, and the establishment of frameworks and processes that facilitate successful development.'
‘At the heart of our urban strategy lies the concept that cities are for the meeting of friends and strangers in civilised public spaces surrounded by beautiful buildings.’
Urban Design Compendium (from www.urbandesigncompendium.co.uk)
'Urban Design is the art of making places for people. It is therefore concerned with how they function, not just how they look. It covers the connections between people and places, movement and urban form, nature and the built fabric and the processes for ensuring successful places are delivered and maintained.
Urban design draws together many strands of place-making – environmental concerns, social equity and economic viability – to create places which work and are sustainable in the long term.
Urban design brings together issues of planning, transportation, architectural design, development economics, landscape and engineering to create a vision for an area and then ensure it is delivered.'
Urban Design Gorup (from www.udg.org.uk)
‘What is urban design?
Urban design is the collaborative and multi-disciplinary process of shaping the physical setting for life in cities, towns and villages; the art of making places; design in an urban context. Urban design involves the design of buildings, groups of buildings, spaces and landscapes, and the establishment of frameworks and processes that facilitate successful development.'
T5 Site 01: Walworth Road, Histories and Planning Policies
History (ref. Southwark Council, Old maps of Southwark)
Plan of London free from the United Kingdom Newspaper, 1832
A rather generous giveaway from the United Kingdom Newspaper from 1832. The title reads: Plan of London from actual survey 1832. Presented gratis to the readers of the United Kingdom Newspaper by their obliged & humble servants, The Proprietors.
Kennington to Peckham, circa 1830.
This map includes the Kennington, Walworth, Peckham and Camberwell areas around 1830. Note the marshy land where the Bricklayers railway depot later stood and the slightly dramatic hill shading around Denmark Hill.
Stanford's Map of the County of London 1894
This detailed map shows the central southern section of Stanford's Map of the County of London. Note the commercial docks in Rotherhithe and the profusion of railway lines leading to the former Bricklayers goods depot on the Old Kent Road.
Walworth to Penge 1894 to 1896 Fragment
This detailed map shows building detail from Walworth to Penge and from Brixton to Deptford. Note the detail of the Crystal Palace before it burnt down in 1936.
John Rcque's John Rocque's A Plan of London, 1766 Fragment
In this earlier plan of London Rocque soberly describes a physical superiority of London over Paris. The header text calculates London to be 8 ½ square miles compared to Paris's 6 ⅓ square miles. Did Rocque's royal patronage oblige upon him this subtle exercise in cartographic propaganda or was he simply emboldened by his position?
Plan of London free from the United Kingdom Newspaper, 1832
A rather generous giveaway from the United Kingdom Newspaper from 1832. The title reads: Plan of London from actual survey 1832. Presented gratis to the readers of the United Kingdom Newspaper by their obliged & humble servants, The Proprietors.
Kennington to Peckham, circa 1830.
This map includes the Kennington, Walworth, Peckham and Camberwell areas around 1830. Note the marshy land where the Bricklayers railway depot later stood and the slightly dramatic hill shading around Denmark Hill.
Stanford's Map of the County of London 1894
This detailed map shows the central southern section of Stanford's Map of the County of London. Note the commercial docks in Rotherhithe and the profusion of railway lines leading to the former Bricklayers goods depot on the Old Kent Road.
Walworth to Penge 1894 to 1896 Fragment
This detailed map shows building detail from Walworth to Penge and from Brixton to Deptford. Note the detail of the Crystal Palace before it burnt down in 1936.
Panning Policies
T4 Lecture 01: What is the city for? Reflections
It was a long day. First day in the studio around MA SPUD activities. I was a bit anxious not knowing how tricky it would turn out to be. In the Unit 6 we registered our details for the India trip and were given the preliminary project. We were asked to head off to Walworth Road and look for stories as we will when we are in Agra in a month’s time.
I didn’t go, I went to the library, borrowed a few books. I relaxed on a sofa reading about cities tuning into the climate of the lecture to come. As 6.30 pm was approaching I went back to Spring House just in time to find a chair in the fourth row of lecture hall. I was pleased witch myself sitting comfortably and looking at a larger and larger number of people gathering in this gray space. I reached for my notebook only to notice I left my documents together with my passport in the library. Passport is the last thing I can lose just before the India trip! In a hurry I squeezed through already full room hearing behind me the first words of the lecture!
I found the passport, but didn’t make it back to my fourth row seat of the lecture hall. When I returned I could only stand in the third line behing very tall men surrounding both entry doors of this room. The fragments of words I heard and quarters of slides I saw made little sense.
I just left thinking this hall is too small, or there are too many of us future Architects, Planners, Designers competing for the first seats.
I didn’t go, I went to the library, borrowed a few books. I relaxed on a sofa reading about cities tuning into the climate of the lecture to come. As 6.30 pm was approaching I went back to Spring House just in time to find a chair in the fourth row of lecture hall. I was pleased witch myself sitting comfortably and looking at a larger and larger number of people gathering in this gray space. I reached for my notebook only to notice I left my documents together with my passport in the library. Passport is the last thing I can lose just before the India trip! In a hurry I squeezed through already full room hearing behind me the first words of the lecture!
I found the passport, but didn’t make it back to my fourth row seat of the lecture hall. When I returned I could only stand in the third line behing very tall men surrounding both entry doors of this room. The fragments of words I heard and quarters of slides I saw made little sense.
I just left thinking this hall is too small, or there are too many of us future Architects, Planners, Designers competing for the first seats.
Friday 15 October 2010
T3 Film: Koyaanisqatsi Reflections
At the beginning there is a drawing of men, a drawing of distinct long gone civilization. There are plain black figures gathered on the pink rock of a cave. At the end there is another drawing of men, of a recently gone civilization. Black patterned figures just look back at me from this pink cave rock. Between there is meditation.
I watch from the distance the landscapes of interconnected elements of nature and all is beautiful and all feels natural and in place. Here human interventions single at first but nevertheless large in scale look like scares. I see mines, iron factories, ducts, oil pumps and the nuclear bomb, I look at rockets, airplanes and cars and then I see men proudly watching at their own creations, confident of their power over elements. I watch human landscape now. Initially from afar i observe the quick factory like order in the city. I am drawn deeper into this life until I become one of the characters and as I lost the greater perspective I also lost the ability to recognize things. Everything passes too quickly except from few personal encounters. I am not in control. I am falling and the sky is around me.
Koyaanisquatsi: Life out of Balance is a spiral of reflections. It shows human rise and fall and suggests that soon all that remains of us are a few hand drawings on the everlasting rock. It asks for a change.
But what can we change? Isn’t modern existence far too quick and inflexible? Have we gone so far in utilization of the process of living?
For me the hope comes from those few faces in the film show slowly and closely. A homeless man, a blond girl, a fire man and a man in a window of his flat are all more than workers, tax payers, National Health Service users and generally statistics. They have histories and dreams, they are unique.
I watch from the distance the landscapes of interconnected elements of nature and all is beautiful and all feels natural and in place. Here human interventions single at first but nevertheless large in scale look like scares. I see mines, iron factories, ducts, oil pumps and the nuclear bomb, I look at rockets, airplanes and cars and then I see men proudly watching at their own creations, confident of their power over elements. I watch human landscape now. Initially from afar i observe the quick factory like order in the city. I am drawn deeper into this life until I become one of the characters and as I lost the greater perspective I also lost the ability to recognize things. Everything passes too quickly except from few personal encounters. I am not in control. I am falling and the sky is around me.
Koyaanisquatsi: Life out of Balance is a spiral of reflections. It shows human rise and fall and suggests that soon all that remains of us are a few hand drawings on the everlasting rock. It asks for a change.
But what can we change? Isn’t modern existence far too quick and inflexible? Have we gone so far in utilization of the process of living?
For me the hope comes from those few faces in the film show slowly and closely. A homeless man, a blond girl, a fire man and a man in a window of his flat are all more than workers, tax payers, National Health Service users and generally statistics. They have histories and dreams, they are unique.
Sunday 10 October 2010
T2 Manifesto 01
I grew up on a ground floor of a 3 storey block of flats on the peripheral housing estate built in mid 1970’s. The estate Słoneczny Stok in Białystok was an answer of the government to a growing need for housing and like many other estates in Poland at that time it was built rapidly. The estate consist only of a large size precast concrete slab OWT-75 system blocks and these were the view from the window of my bedroom cross the little garden and a sandy playground. I used to count the little air bubbles in the surface of my 2.3 metres tall wall of my grid 4.8 x 5.4 metres room, which, I now know, was only painted and never rendered concrete. We had a local school, a shop or two, few other facilities and a long way to the city centre but only few metres away was the local river and its marshes. I spent holidays in a red brick country site house built by my great grant father, sharing the room with a bunch of cousins.
I began my architecture studies in Bialystok Technical University. After my first year in the summer of 2002 the department of Architecture and Urban Design moved to and old School of Engineering building which had unusually high ceilings and a large ‘machines’ hall which became our first exhibition space. There was no security at the entrance, only a good common cloakroom lady which wasn’t too busy most of the year since the building was hardly ever warm. I learned a lot in that university about building construction and mechanics. We also drew, painted, sculptured but mainly collaged our 3 designs per semester.
Kingston Universities Department of Art, Design and Architecture building’s beautiful setting was in tune with the phenomenological approach of the School of Architecture. The school was vibrant, live, with great workshops, yet it was far away from the little hostel room I rented in Finsbury Park with 2 others. I travelled to university only when required and back in the hostel I converted every flat surface into my studio space. Thin walls of this Edwardian building were unfortunately the ultimate restrictions to my working hours.
I later learned a bit or two about insulation, toilers, tiles and all other details as I worked for Baynes and Mitchell Architects in an open plan office in Oxford Circus. The refurbishment was the name of the game. The big rent for small spaces was the winner in rental, spotless kitchen and shinny bathroom got the applause in private commissions. Most days I heard about clients with fat wallets watching their every penny, later I pass my local homeless “Big Issue” man on the way to overcrowded tube, I bought vegetables and said thank you back to the machine before getting ‘home’.
I aspire to learn more about policies and thinking behind Spatial Planning and Urban Design for Modern Living to make more sense.
I began my architecture studies in Bialystok Technical University. After my first year in the summer of 2002 the department of Architecture and Urban Design moved to and old School of Engineering building which had unusually high ceilings and a large ‘machines’ hall which became our first exhibition space. There was no security at the entrance, only a good common cloakroom lady which wasn’t too busy most of the year since the building was hardly ever warm. I learned a lot in that university about building construction and mechanics. We also drew, painted, sculptured but mainly collaged our 3 designs per semester.
Kingston Universities Department of Art, Design and Architecture building’s beautiful setting was in tune with the phenomenological approach of the School of Architecture. The school was vibrant, live, with great workshops, yet it was far away from the little hostel room I rented in Finsbury Park with 2 others. I travelled to university only when required and back in the hostel I converted every flat surface into my studio space. Thin walls of this Edwardian building were unfortunately the ultimate restrictions to my working hours.
I later learned a bit or two about insulation, toilers, tiles and all other details as I worked for Baynes and Mitchell Architects in an open plan office in Oxford Circus. The refurbishment was the name of the game. The big rent for small spaces was the winner in rental, spotless kitchen and shinny bathroom got the applause in private commissions. Most days I heard about clients with fat wallets watching their every penny, later I pass my local homeless “Big Issue” man on the way to overcrowded tube, I bought vegetables and said thank you back to the machine before getting ‘home’.
I aspire to learn more about policies and thinking behind Spatial Planning and Urban Design for Modern Living to make more sense.
T1 Glossary 01
Planning:
making plans
preparing for the future
organizing points / moments in the future
drawing up the route, the road, the journey
accumulating means for the plan, to realize the dream, the aim
map and road
gathering information, knowledge of the road
Road
Route
Path
Journey
Future
Preparing
Map
Information
Spatial planning:
organizing object in space
composition of objects
matching of sizes, colours, shapes and textures
drawing / testing locations of objects in space
defining distances and scales
making connections, visual and/or formal contacts
Objects
Sizes
Colours
Shapes
Textures
Location
Contact
Composition
Design:
create, compose
put together in a new (beautiful?) way
unique shape / idea
bring to being / existence something that hasn’t been done / thought of before
connect in harmony / in a meaningful way
New
To make
Unique
Idea
Urban design:
idea for urban living
routes for human movement in the city
shapes of spaces for human mass and for individual in the city
People
City
The human mass
Communication
making plans
preparing for the future
organizing points / moments in the future
drawing up the route, the road, the journey
accumulating means for the plan, to realize the dream, the aim
map and road
gathering information, knowledge of the road
Road
Route
Path
Journey
Future
Preparing
Map
Information
Spatial planning:
organizing object in space
composition of objects
matching of sizes, colours, shapes and textures
drawing / testing locations of objects in space
defining distances and scales
making connections, visual and/or formal contacts
Objects
Sizes
Colours
Shapes
Textures
Location
Contact
Composition
Design:
create, compose
put together in a new (beautiful?) way
unique shape / idea
bring to being / existence something that hasn’t been done / thought of before
connect in harmony / in a meaningful way
New
To make
Unique
Idea
Urban design:
idea for urban living
routes for human movement in the city
shapes of spaces for human mass and for individual in the city
People
City
The human mass
Communication
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