T27 Start Again 02: Venice Biennale

What are these exhibitions for? Modern Art is the answer, Modern of what is happening in each country. Let’s see what the UK has to say.

Nationalism is overcome by art, the British Pavilion bows before its hosts saying: W are here to celebrate you, serve your needs. We are the platform for discussion.

The villa Frankenstein designed by muf is made in Venice using local materials and local craftsmen (contrary to previous exhibitions made in Britain and shipped to Venice). It is absolutely dedicated to Venice as a theme: the British artists Steve Mcqueen’s film ‘Giardini’ features the very exhibition site once it has been closed. Every year, a spectacle of nature acts itself around empty national buildings left standing in the Venetian garden. Nature takes part in exhibition in yet another way: local scientist discussion on fate of Venice and its lagoon, marshes being a part of exhibition itself. Venice features in the pavilion exhibition of photograph of Ruskin and Gavagnin. The most UK national among components of villa and its exhibits is the 1:10 model of Olympics 2012 station. This is made to be platform, forum for discussion and meeting with a space underneath for ecological experimentation by children. Olympics is a multicultural event bringing people together as well. All these level of interrelations in the British Pavilion! Nature, ecology, sustainability, participation and discussion on multinational level seem to be the messages.

It’s interesting to listen and read about this description of a pavilion and arts which is to represent modern British arts movement. Has Britain given away its identity or is it looking beyond it’s own boundaries. It does stand in contrast with recent British polices ever more emphasising national identity and separation from Europe. Are British artist and architects misrepresenting their county or are they being the eye-opening explorers of neighbouring cultures and word wide issues, or are they just advocating what’s in fashion? Interesting times.

T16 Application for Urban Design Officer job

To Whom it may concern

I would like to be considered for the position of Urban Design Officer in Corydon Council.

Over 8 years ago I committed to architectural education and profession. The University years challenged my creative potential and understanding of design from pragmatic knowledge of building construction and its elements, through the tectonic and poetic language of design and material. While in my final year at Kingston University I joined Baynes and Mitchell Architects (a small architectural practice based in London) on part time basis. Since completing my degree I continued to work there full time.

I have worked on a number of residential buildings and gained experience in initials and detailed design as well as management and coordination of work on site. My full involvement on the high-end residential refurbishment project in central London was a great experience in working as a team to bring the best in each person involved in the project.

For a year I was involved in a feasibility study work for a group of Grade 2* listed buildings in Historic Dockyard in Chatham which was to become new offices, libraries and workshops as well a visiting centre of the Historic Dockyard. This experience gave me an insight into work on historic sites, collaborating with a number of stakeholders on the development of a public shame for the mixed use of the trust as well as the public. Another project on this site: Chatham Joiner Shop, now completed, is a Grade 2 listed 16th century building which incorporates workshop units for artists as well as exhibition space and offices. The practice has been involved in promotion of the workshop upon its completion and took part in first events organized in the Joiners Shop.

In the years in practice I came to realize that architecture is a truly interdisciplinary art which draw on knowledge of professionals such as planners, landscape and urban designers, engineers and builders. Architect trough practice becomes a social scientist with all the technical knowledge of the builder. I gain a lot of management and technical experiences through training in Baynes and Mitchell Architects. I expanded my knowledge of currents polices in London and UK yet I felt I needed to learn more about human sciences to complete my understanding of the city and its inhabitants and to serve the people better.

In 2010 I joined the MA course in Spatial Planning and Urban Design. In the course of a year I larded to think critically and flexibly of the space making in the city. I was challenged to think at a variety of different spatial and time scales. I expand my understanding of functions of local governments and of the planning processes. I studied in depth the social aspects: causes and effects of projects on local and wider communities. I was challenged to make brave propositions.

I think I am an excellent candidate for the position of Urban Design Officer. I have a varied knowledge and experience background. I am very insightful and sensitive to the surrounding and I easily engage with the environment and people I encounter. I aim to make the spaces and situations more beautiful via embodying human needs into the physical form. I seek knowledge about the people and the world. I practice architecture which for me is the monument of the knowledge of a human being, his physics and spirituality, his social condition. I am motivated by the challenges ahead and keen to learn new skills and tools.
Yours faithfully

Dorota Kozaczuk

T17 Manifesto 02

Humans can bare a lot of bad of urban life. They put up with overlooking, congestion, pollution, social problems and through that they got to work every day, get paid every month and pay mortgages till the rest of their days. They are inspired by the dreams of a good life with a house, a car, a good job and a decent local school for their children. It’s not so much to ask for. We are promised a city is our best chance to realize those dreams so we put up with it.

I came to London by bus. I got off in Victoria Central in 2006 and like thousands of other immigrants in the same situation started looking out for a relative – my brother Daniel. From Victoria we set to a long journey to the East of London and after an hour and a half my first neighbourhood in London was revealed before my eyes. Plaistow housed a mixture of Italian, Turkish and mainly Indian communities.. It was dirty and unwelcoming to the unfamiliar eye. The streets of terraced 2 storey housing seemed endless and were dotter with abandoned properties and one of those houses became my first London home. Our ‘family’ of 5 which in 6 month grew to 10 lived in a house of 5 rooms with no kitchen, no central heating, couple of windows missing and a very slovenly running water. But it was cheap. It allowed for existence, it was good.

I had no money at first, job turned difficult to find but not impossible. Soon I began working for a restaurant earning minimal wage. On the way to work from Plaistow to I first saw the towers of Canary Wharf, than a reflection of myself in the window of the tube train and at the end picturesque splendour of Knightsbridge. I served cocktails all day and evening. On the 3 hour journey back I squeezed inside bus 25 from Tottenham Court Road together with Londoners returning home from their night out. I got off at Stratford and hastily walked ‘home’ for 30 minutes not taking any shortcuts. Canary Warf was showing me the way.

We moved out to a hostel in Finsbury Park, I found another job and applied to Kingston University. I was paying rent and eating out sometimes. Everything was going well.

To cut the story short I am now working in architecture, still studying architecture yet these days I don’t look at those past experiences as ‘all was well’. It was hard work, and it still is the work of so many English and Immigrants. The wages are small, the rents are high, the properties are impossible to buy. For some as hard as they work it is simply beyond their capabilities. Yet they look up to the towers of London and go through another thin year. Social inequality continues and the stage of this drama is the city.

This complex urban world houses many differences. City gives jobs and aims to provide for all yet it hasn’t succeeded yet. There are lots to be done. Planning has always tried to eliminate the social injustice and ease the pressures of the city. At the same time there is a danger that overregulation which is an inevitable result of planning policies. This will eradicate the grey area which part of I once was. The cheep flexible adjustable environments which host people of all backgrounds struggling in the city are disappearing replaced by immaculate supermarkets, shiny developments and glamorous parks. I ask myself what is more important.

T17 Glossary 02

Planning - Making proposals for the future which to the greatest possible extent incorporate the needs and aspirations of all parties involved.

Spatial Planning – Translating the needs and aspirations of parties involved into the spatial arrangement to be implemented in the future.

Design – To create for a particular purpose.

Urban Design - To create for use of urbanities.

Market - Economic forces by which the consumption needs of the population are determined.

Quantity - A number observed in a process of research.

Quality – A degree to which the worth can be recognized.

Public – All people for which use and purpose the laws are created and implemented; parties interested and free to express their opinion in the process of social change.

Proposition - The opinion to make a change including the description in a manner in which the change is to take place.

Branding - Means by which any product/ proposition can be made to look good an convincing enough to be sold / implemented.

T15 History, Theory and Policy essay

How are the changing roles and relationships between reformist movements, philanthropic organisations, and the state in planning up to 1940 relevant to the present day?

The extraordinary growth of the cities through 19th century in all England and Europe led to an unprecedented situation of overcrowded city with ever more degenerating areas of what came to be called as slums.

It was brought to the attention of the world by newspaper seeking human interest stories and literature seeking fresh themes of life. Social science and survey was invented and a modern social legislation followed. Poor were to be protected, their living conditions improved. Mechanisms of philanthropic help and organizations back in the 1900s emerged followed by humanitarian approach of the 20th century. And it all led to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights . Its Article 25 that says that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood beyond his control."

These agreements and laws now feed back to policies of all countries including The Third World countries.