M A rc h A rch U n i t 16
…THIS IS NOT A GATEWAY! Picture an image, good even tonal lighting, balanced contrast, clearly defined shadow structure, a scene of simple domesticity or perhaps romantic abandonment? Table and chair, carefully aligned, all the basic equipment needs of the absent protagonist hardwired into the ether. An uncompromised staged landscape; Workbench assorted tools, various small wires and pieces of equipment. Distant technical vistas skilfully arranged as a contemporary still life of the near future. The New Society, benevolent capitalism repackaged as the Market Leveraged state. Mass deregulation, finance, health, law and order, education, planning, outsourced government everyone’s a consumer now! Banking failures, double dip recession, economic stagnation, rising social unrest, leads to unprecedented urban flight, tax-starved, abandoned London falls into protracted decline. Around the Peripherique, latent memories of Abercrombie plan, the incorporated new towns of the M25, a borderland of corporate consumer driven dreams. Last year we crossed the Midwest of America from Chicago to failed city of Detroit. The unit explored the origins of the Common-Wealth, examining the instruments of wealth and power. This year the unit will draw from its experiences of Detroit, applying these lessons to the City of London. This is not a Gateway is a collective call to challenge and re-imagine the utility and function of the City of London,
rejecting traditions, by proposing new futures. At its peak London’s population reached approximately 7.5 million, revised estimates suggest a core population of around 2.4 million remain, although accurate figures are somewhat speculative. Like Detroit, inner London is less city-like, more a series of dispersed rural settlements, semi-autonomous neighbourhoods, locally generated, predominantly unregulated experiments in social organisation. 42 Mile Road… The A13 seen as slices of time and space, skilfully staged as a still life, contriving a compelling scene of uncompromised unnatural beauty, the mother road, from Aldgate, to Shoeburyness. ‘Crazy silhouettes of twisted steel from piles of broken masonry, memorials to the chaos of the old town. A fine building in ruins and we turn away sadly. But we should be thankful for much of the destruction — challenging opportunity confronts us.’ Ralph Tubbs Special thanks to our critics and guests: Luke Chandresinghe, Joerg Majer, Paul Monaghan, Graham Shane, Philip Turner, Liam Young Year 4: Ariff Abd-Hamid, William Fisher, Jerome Flinders, Nurlina Marof, Thomas Richard Smith, Yeung Piu So, Chris Thompson Year 5: Tsui Yan Chik, Michael Dean, Michail Floros, Shanaver Hamid, Sun Woo Hwang, Meor Mohd (Harris) Kamarul Bahrin, Nobuhiko Maeda, Kate Marrinan, Kyu Sik Shin, Greg Skinner, Yi-Tung Su, Bong Yeung Hamid, Michael Dean
Simon Herron & Susanne Isa
Fig. 16.1 Michael Dean, The Watchers House at Blakeney Point.
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