Banglatown Reclamation - Nabiha Qadir

Banglatown Reclamation Widening Access to Bangladeshi Women in Trade, Retaining Heritage, and Alternative Propositions to the Truman Brewery Development Proposal

Essay 3: Pilot Thesis

Nabiha Qadir nrq20 Wolfson College

Banglatown Reclamation

1

Banglatown Reclamation Widening Access to Women in Trade, Retaining Heritage, and Alternative Propositions to the Truman Brewery Development Proposal Essay 3: Pilot Thesis Nabiha Qadir nrq20 Wolfson College A design thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the M.Phil. in Architectural and Urban Design 2021-2023 Supervisor: Irit Katz Design Tutor: Aram Mooradian With thanks to Anjuman Chowdhury & Tati Cafe 4,991 words excluding bibliography, appendix and table of figures All illustrations by author, unless otherwise stated

This Pilot thesis is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except where specifically indicated in the text.

Essay 3 - Pilot Thesis

2

Contents Introduction.................................................................................................................................... 5 The Truman Brewery Development Proposal........................................................................ 7 Migrant Street Livelihoods in Brick Lane................................................................................ 9 The Patriarchy of Migrant Trade.............................................................................................. 10 Case Study 1: Anjuman Chowdhury........................................................................................14 Case Study 2: Tati Café...............................................................................................................14 Research Questions................................................................................................................... 16 Methodology.................................................................................................................................18 Case Study 3 – The Maryam Centre...................................................................................... 18 Case Study 4 – Materiality in The Ningo History Museum.............................................. 20 Design Implication...................................................................................................................... 21 Conclusion................................................................................................................................... 26 Bibliography.................................................................................................................................. 27 Table of Figures............................................................................................................................29 Appendix.......................................................................................................................................31

Banglatown Reclamation

3

Fig 1: Map showing new developments surrounding Brick Lane

1

Fig 1.2 - Spitalfields Market (2005)

5

Fig 1.6 - London Fruit & Wool Exchange (2015)

9

Fig 1.10 - The Relay Building (2018)

Essay 3 - Pilot Thesis

2

Fig 1.3 - Shoreditch High Street Station & GoodsYards (2010)

6

Fig 1.7 - Aldgate Tower (2016)

10

Fig 1.11 - One Braham (2020)

3

Fig 1.4 - 20 Bishops Square (2010)

7

Fig 1.8 - Goodman Fields (2016)

4

Fig 1.5 - Avant Garde (2014)

8

Fig 1.9 - Aldgate Place (2017)

11

Fig 1.12 - Trumans Brewery (2024)

4

Introduction Banglatown, Brick Lane, is a place of rich and complex history, existing as a centre of migration for several different communities and diasporas since the 1680s. However, it has recently been the centre of pronounced urban change, with several redevelopment initiatives slowly changing the urban fabric of the area. In 2003, The London Mayor’s metropolitan wide ‘London Plan’ established the development of various sites across the area, some of which include land surrounding Brick Lane (Fig. 1) (Alexander et al., 2020). The designation of Brick Lane as a tourist area as part of Tower Hamlets Council’s ‘City Fringe Area Action Plan’ has also seen its demographic shift towards more upscale urban economies, with the Truman Brewery, former brewery premises turned boutique, food, and music venue, being at the centre of a more arts and creative focus. Coupled with substantial public investment in Shoreditch High Street Station and other corporate ventures, there has been a detrimental impact on the southern end of Brick Lane, or Banglatown, where large amounts of footfall are localised to the north of the Truman Brewery instead.

With these newer developments come a new type of architecture, with high rise heavily clad glass façades and standardised ground floor chain shopfronts, despite conservation areas in Spitalfields being put in place for the regulation of new large-scale development. As the regeneration of Spitalfields accelerates, and Banglatown moves towards decline, a loss of the layered tabula scripta as we know it is at stake. Although feelings within the Bangladeshi community towards this urban change in Brick Lane are not uniform, there have historically been large amounts of protest rejecting various development proposals within the last few decades. Jane Jacobs speaks of this historical revolt in ‘Edge of Empire’, where she outlines previous conservationist campaigns to save Georgian houses which involved squatting in houses earmarked for demolition, pictured here is architectural writer Dan Cruickshank and historian Raphael Samuel protecting a Georgian house (Fig. 2) (Jacobs, 1996).

Banglatown Reclamation

5

Fig 2: Conservationist groups squatting to protect Georgian Houses earmarked for demolition in Spitalfields

Essay 3 - Pilot Thesis

6

The Truman Brewery Development Proposal Today, the local community are fighting against a new proposal, where the Zeloof family, owners of the Truman Brewery, seek to develop an empty car park of the Brewery into a five-storey complex containing four floors of corporate offices and a ground floor shopping mall, designed by architecture practice Buckley Gray Yeoman’s (Fig. 3). The proposal has caused an uproar with the local community, with fears it will catalyse the decline of an already disappearing Banglatown, driving up rate and rent prices for businesses in the area and accelerating a changing demographic of visitors

Fig 3: Truman Brewery Development

in Brick Lane (Fig. 4).

Fig 4: Local community protesting development Banglatown Reclamation

7

Despite the proposal being met with 7,051 letters of objection, as opposed to just 79 letters in support, the Tower Hamlets Council officers in decision for the development agreed for it proceed on the 14th of September 2021 (Russell-Jones, 2021). Heritage groups, residents and local business owners argue that the proposal does not fit with the rich architectural fabric of the site, which exists within a conservation area in Spitalfields, with the proposal obscuring views of the landmark’s Grade 2 listed chimney as well as causing a 60% loss of light in the terraces opposite the site around the junction of Woodseer Street and Brick Lane (Spitalfields Trust, 2022). With large glass double height foyers and standardised retail units, the mall rejects the typologies of the existing area where, when viewing the proposal alone, gives no indication that it may exist in the context of Spitalfields (Fig. 5).

Locals also argue that there is no longer a need for large scale corporate buildings, with the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 causing a decrease in the number of office workers on site. With the entire 11-acre brewery existing under singular ownership of a family, their planning decision leaves little consideration to the impact it may have on surrounding communities. A lack of neighbourhood consultation, participatory planning, and consideration of the immediate needs of the site’s locality has led to the formation of a Save Brick Lane coalition, where several organisations, trusts and charities have grouped to form a larger fighting front to stop the proposal from construction, with the coalition currently raising funds for a judicial review of the planning application and the council’s recent decision. The coalition are also seeking to develop alternative community led proposals, where they are inviting people from all backgrounds to submit ideas of what would be a better use of the site. With the effect of the pandemic already impacting smaller businesses, including the distinctive curry houses of Banglatown, locals fear it is only a matter of time until the corporatisation and regeneration of Brick Lane, along with the development of the Brewery shopping mall, causes a complete shift in what the street has been for the last 30 years.

Fig 5: Truman Brewery standardised shopping mall retail units

Essay 3 - Pilot Thesis

8

Migrant Street Livelihoods in Brick Lane With existing street livelihoods thriving in existing buildings in Brick Lane, the implications of new developments and regeneration in the last 15 years have caused an interruption in the way migrants trade can operate.

Brick Lane has housed working class migrant communities for years, with different diasporas inhabiting existing buildings with their respective street livelihoods in different ways. Placemaking in a Western context is key to a migrant’s living, as described as ‘in-situ resolutions’ by Suzanne Hall in City, Street and Citizen, when describing street economies in Walworth Road (Hall, 2013). This has been evident from the conversion of lofts into silk looms by the earliest incoming community of Huguenot refugees to the adaptation of ground floors of terraced houses into curry restaurants by the most recent community of Bangladeshi migrants (Fig. 6).

The complex street economies that form in underinvested areas where jobs are hard to come by result in smaller circular economies, where businesses become interrelated in support of one another, for example, curry houses sourcing produce from neighbouring grocers or suppliers. When larger developments are introduced to these areas, these smaller street economies and livelihoods are significantly disrupted, where investment in particular establishments distort familiar patterns of trade. This familiar improvisation has become unsustainable, where the interruption of footfall, the introduction of corporate developments and the investment in one building and its impact on neighbouring buildings all have had a significant impact on these ongoing street livelihoods.

Banglatown Reclamation

Fig 6: Preem - Curry house on Brick Lane

9

The Patriarchy of Migrant Trade Bangladeshi male migration in Brick Lane began from as early as the 17th century, when the British Crown took direct rule of India after the abolition of the East India Company, resulting in large amounts of tea and jute exports from Sylhet, Bangladesh. Sylheti seafarers, or lascars, passed through British ports each year, where some were employed to work as cooks on East India Company ships. These ships would carry imports from Calcutta to the docks of East London, where many lascars were abandoned by their employers. This resulted in small communities of Sylheti men settling, who were later joined by increasing numbers of Commonwealth citizens after East Pakistan, now known as Bangladesh, gained independence after the Second World War (Alexander et al., n.d.). Whilst many adopted trades in textiles after the Huguenots established an industry for the area, cheaper competitors caused this trade to die out, resulting in a shift in trade towards ‘Indian’ coffee-houses, establishing the foundations for the curry houses we see today (Fig. 7). Whilst these Bangladeshi men had established a community in Brick Lane, the Britain’s Commonwealth Immigrants Act in 1962 tightened immigration laws, however supported the process of family reunification for the wives and children of Sylheti migrants who were already in Britain to migrate. Whilst these initial migration patterns allowed a Bangladeshi community to flourish, a patriarchy in the trades of Banglatown was long established, which would cause a lasting impact on its future generations and trades today. Bangladeshi men had become accustomed to life in the UK and the trades they had long been employed in, being able to navigate Brick Lane with the fellow Lascars they were previously employed with.

However, this secondary immigration had consequences on the wives of these traders in Brick Lane, where they struggled to adapt to an unknown culture, had no knowledge of the place they were living in and no knowledge of the English language or training to work in the industrial scale of the textile or restaurant trade. Whilst their male counterparts are expected to survive in society and work from a young age, the female counterpart is not, except clean, breed and feed her husband and child within the household. A gender inequality is built in the domestic sphere, but carried through generations in Brick Lane, where trade spaces continue to be inaccessible to women today. Monica Ali speaks of this disparity in ‘Brick Lane’, which follows the experiences of a Muslim female protagonist who faces restrictions in her secondary migration experience after joining her husband who was a trader in Brick Lane (Fig. 8).

She highlights the public-private dichotomy of this household where, even when the family is severely financially struggling, and the female protagonist offers help to the husband to seek employment, he still refuses to let her enter the public world of trade in Brick Lane (Ali, 2014). But beyond this exists other dichotomies complicated with culture and religion, where a skewed view on what a ‘good Muslim woman’ is, means staying home and away from other males in the public sphere. In interpreting

Essay 3 - Pilot Thesis

10

Fig 7: City Spice – Curry house on Brick Lane

Fig 8: Monica Ali – ‘Brick Lane’

Banglatown Reclamation

11

anthropologist Talal Asad’s theorisation of women’s agency in Muslim communities, Mary Evans describes it as “recognising her responsibility to the values of the community”, where “endorsement and visible manifestation of the community rules” is how her agency is expressed (Evans, 2013, pp.47–63). Many immigrant women are “wholly dependent on their husbands as their link to the world outside their homes”, as discussed by Kimberlé Crenshaw when analysing urban intersectionality and immigrant women in ‘Mapping the Margins’, and in this case, where many of these Bangladeshi women arrived as post marriage secondary migrants, had no knowledge of their rights as a woman in the UK (Crenshaw, 1991). Despite the male diasporas of Brick Lane residing in the UK for years before their wives joined them, the gender ideologies of the Bangladeshi community were still present within the households of these immigrant families. Whilst some of these workingclass families were facing substantial financial hardship, a restriction on the women being allowed to work continued to exist.

The spaces in which these trades exist in, for example, a ground floor of a terraced house, fail to lessen the difficulty of trade inaccessibility to Muslim women in Brick Lane. These spaces become gendered, where the private households are accessible to women but not inaccessible to men, whereas the public trade spaces are accessible to men but inaccessible to women. Massey discusses gendered characteristics existing in “everyday spaces and interactions”, where space itself implicates spatial gendered roles (Massey, 1984). In reference to Indian contexts, Datta describes a woman’s accessibility to various spaces defined by her abilities, where her access is restricted to only those spaces where her labour is required (Datta, 2011). In these situations, her expected abilities are limited to that of a domestic, therefore she is limited to the household, even if she holds the skills to exercise it in trade spaces. Upon interviewing various curry house workers and merchants along Brick Lane in 2021, it was found that none of them were female (Fig. 9). Runnymede Trust conducted research in 2020 where several restaurants and their owners/employees were interviewed and noted that the interviews solely consisted of male Bangladeshi entrepreneurs, with the voices of Bangladeshi women being absent (Alexander et al., 2020). The existing terraced houses that exist in Brick Lane, where the ground floors are adapted to serve as curry houses, spatially limit the possibility of its users and restrict it to be suited specifically for males, where it most likely was adapted by males. With a lack of intermediate and private spaces, it is difficult for a female trader, especially a Muslim female trader, to navigate and use these spaces (Fig. 10).

Monica Ali touches on the experience of secondary migration on Bangladeshi women in trade in Brick Lane, published in 2014. The experience of immigrant women in metropolitan contexts is also widely referenced, where there are several publications exploring gendered spaces in public contexts. However, in a context where the public moves closer to equality, exists sub-contexts where there are remaining inequalities, with the added threat of certain trades declining due to external factors beyond existing dichotomies. The Truman Brewery Development Proposal causes added nuances to the experience of women in migrant trade, and this research will aim to delve deeper into the various complexities of Bangladeshi women and trade in Brick Lane.

Essay 3 - Pilot Thesis

12

Fig 9: Male employees of curry houses in Brick Lane

Fig 10: Inaccessibility of the terraced curry house spatial arrangement

ouse Analysis - Making spaces more accessible

Installation of walls and sectioning of kitchen to allow privacy for women chefs

Private/safe/sectioned off spaces for women/users that need them, staff and visitors

Intermediate spaces between outdoor/indoor for safety, before entering main space

EXISTING

Banglatown Reclamation

INTERVENTION

13

Case Study 1: Anjuman Chowdhury Anjuman Chowdhury is a second-generation immigrant, whose father, Azir Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury, opened Ariza Café and Restaurant in 1968. She tells the story of her family who lived together in a small room in a Victorian house in Tower Hamlets, while her father Mr Chowdhury ran the restaurant. Her parents were both well-educated and could read and write English, so the café soon became a place where fellow Bangladeshi migrants would come to translate their bills, letters, and documents in English to Bengali. However, despite her mother being able to offer her skills of English translation in her husband’s café, she was told to stay home to raise her young children, who were only an age apart. She remained isolated in raising her children, whilst her husband would be the breadwinner for her family, as well as their families back in Bangladesh. As she suffered loneliness and struggles in raising all her children in the conditions of one room in a Victorian house, she had no choice but to return to Bangladesh, and move back in with her family, where she would have help in raising her children.

Shortly after she moved to Bangladesh, her husband suddenly passed away due to health conditions.

Unfortunately, no tangible assets were left to the family, and when Anjuman’s mother sent her eldest son back to the UK, the restaurant no longer existed. Many Bangladeshi families suffered similar patterns where, despite the wives of traders holding abilities and skills useful for trade spaces, and the entire family suffering from poverty, a continuous public-private dichotomy left them with no choice but to return home (Chowdhury, 2022 – see appendix).

Case Study 2: Tati Café “Why should only men cook in restaurants when women love to cook too?” – Hajira,Tati Café With restaurant trade in Banglatown being inaccessible to Bangladeshi women, Tati café, a women-led community café, seeks to bring Bangladeshi culture back to Brick Lane, by way of enabling those that had not been given the access to do so in the curry houses that are now closing. The café was initiated by design collective OITIJ-JO, a group of artists of Bangladeshi background whose vision is to enable Bengali traditions in arts and craft practice. In realising the project, the group made sure to engage local communities, using their feedback in their proposal and reaching out to relevant groups, especially Bangladeshi women, through schools, health centres, councillors and more. They have trained and employed a group of women who had never worked before, with a core group of 12 members between the ages of 30-60, giving them a trading

Essay 3 - Pilot Thesis

14

space which they have historically been excluded from (Fig. 11). In holding workshops to give participants new skills and empowerment, enabling them to work in professional kitchens and developing front of house skills, participants shared that Banglatown has always been a place dominated by men. In its prime, the curry capital was home to over 50 Bangladeshi restaurants, all managed by men. The women expressed their distaste for the way in which Bangladeshi males served curries in excess oil which are thick and stodgy, something which may have been accustomed to mass British tastes but is not traditional Bengali food (Begum-Hossain, 2019).

Rebirthing the image of Bangladeshi curry in Brick Lane and reclaiming an area they have always been excluded from is at the heart of what these women seek to do. Rashida, who is 53 years old, spent most of her life working as a housewife and unable to speak English, but is now able to step out of her comfort zone in a safe environment for women only. She wishes for a space where she can work at, where her children and family can visit too. Founder of OITIJ-JO, Maher Anjum, highlights a loss of Bangladeshi culture in Brick Lane due to gentrification, but she believes women can make the changes to save their trade and heritage. In crowdfunding to open this café, the Mayor of London contributed £7,500 to reach a target of £13,317, however the pandemic has resulted in a loss of income stream in March 2020 (London City Hall, 2021). Now, they seek to rebuild Tati Café, seeking investors and a space where this initiative can exist.

Fig 11: Bangladeshi women of Tati Café

Banglatown Reclamation

15

Research Questions This research project will follow the Truman Brewery redevelopment proposal and aim to propose an alternative plan which is better suited to the needs of the public. Having interviewed a range of traders, as well as members of the Save Brick Lane coalition, there are several programmes that the community suggest as an alternative to the corporate and shopping mall development. This includes the reintroduction of night-time social spaces, like the Vibe Bar, to increase footfall to curry houses at later hours, workshop spaces for teaching trade skills, community hubs, more live/work trade spaces, access routes through the brewery for permeability, public squares for congregational spaces, accessible spaces for disabled users, and accessible and safer spaces for women (Fig. 12). However, due to the time confines of the MAUD course, this research will focus on the lack of accessibility for Bangladeshi women in existing trade spaces, designing a multi-use trading hub, with groups such as members of the Tati group at the forefront of who will use this space. The members of Tati believe that the reclamation of Banglatown lies in the hands of women, and this research will explore how new architecture can facilitate this, with a careful understanding of the livelihoods of these women, their needs, and their respective trades.

With neighbourhood consultation and in-depth analysis of the existing vernacular, this research will interrogate existing development plans that have failed to fit in the area, with out of place archetypes and construction methods that are damaging to its environment. Whilst Brick Lane is changing, this proposal aims to mediate new buildings that are detrimental to marginalised immigrant communities, and old buildings that are not accessible to women, looking at alternatives to the typical brick, concrete, steel, and acrylic components of an existing Spitalfields and exploring ways of retaining the existing streetscape using low-carbon methods of construction.

Spitalfields is an area of profound history, and heritage and its physical manifestation is key to the way in which this proposal may be constructed. This poses the following questions:

How can alternative neighbourhood consultation plans be proposed as opposed to the Truman’s Brewery corporate/shopping mall development to meet the needs of its immediate communities?

How can these new trade spaces be designed to ensure that they are accessible for the marginalised Bangladeshi women of Brick Lane?

With these new spaces, how can Banglatowns heritage be retained and protected, acknowledging the rich and layered vernacular it sits in, whilst constructing them sustainably?

Essay 3 - Pilot Thesis

16

Fig 12: Community led programme

Night time social spaces

Workshop/enrichment spaces

Community/social hubs from existing spaces

New access routes through site to increase footfall

Opening up public squares for safer and congregational spaces

Provision of more live/work migrant trade spaces

Banglatown Reclamation

Accessible and safe spaces for women i.e. intermediate spaces

17

Methodology Ethnographic research forms the biggest part of the methodology for this investigation, where the understanding of existing street livelihoods is at the core of how it will be approached. To gain a profound understanding of how users and trade operates in Brick Lane, I intend to conduct interviews, as I have done in previous essays, on Bangladeshi women in the community, including the members of Tati café. Conducting longer interviews, alongside analysing the day to day of these individuals and questionnaires will ensure a larger testing pool of participants in this research, allowing a more in-depth form of response.

One of the biggest criticisms of the Truman Brewery development proposal, was the lack of neighbourhood consultation and its failure to understand the needs of the community. Part of this research will aim to conduct participatory planning workshops, where Bangladeshi women, the users of this project, are as large a part of the design process as the architect. To create socially oriented spatial change, the gap between the designer and the user must be questioned, as DeCarlo describes in Architecture and Participation, “identifying with the users’ needs does not mean planning ‘for’ them, but planning ‘with’ them” (De Carlo, 2005).

Materiality forms a great deal of importance in sensitive design for comfortable spaces for these users who will mostly be women, as well as for the rich vernacular it sits in. Where heritage, memory and sustainability are all important parts in the physical manifestation of this project, model making to realise spatial qualities will also be an important methodology. In combining all these methods, I hope to create a body of research which informs the design of a space that reflects the needs of its users and enables the continuity of a disappearing Banglatown in a period of regeneration.

Case Study 3 – The Maryam Centre The Maryam Centre in Tower Hamlets is a new extension to the existing East London Mosque, designed specifically to provide services to Muslim women in the community, including a prayer hall, counselling, a women’s only gym, a school, a children’s area, and a visitor centre (Fig. 13) (Maryam Women’s Services, n.d.). The centre has become a key hub for the female community, providing safe spaces for guidance, with counselling services provided by female therapists, something that has historically not been a priority in mosques in East London. The needs for a Muslim woman are specific and cannot be resolved by a generic space with a failure to acknowledge them, and whilst they have been historically spatially neglected, this centre has played the role of a sanctuary for many reasons, not just that of a prayer space.

Essay 3 - Pilot Thesis

18

A short distance away, the Brick Lane Jamme Masjid has not been as welcoming to women, where the only provision for space and service is a dark room in a basement, where only the very middle section of it is tall enough to stand and prostrate in (Fig. 14). Shukri Sultan speaks of this in ‘Measuring a Sacred Space’, “Neglecting a women’s access to the mosque is also denying them a vital community space” (Sultan, 2021). In designing a trading centre for women, programmes such as a children’s area, a women’s only faith area, teaching spaces, meeting spaces, workshop spaces, and acting as a general sanctuary for a marginalised community, are all vital.

Before a women’s centre existed in Tower Hamlets, women’s sections in faith spaces formed as an important community sanctuary, and whilst Brick Lane Jamme Masjid fails to provide substantial space for women, this research will explore this void, as well as the implementation of the necessary programmes at the Maryam Centre in this trading centre.

Fig 13: The Maryam Centre – Tower Hamlets

Fig 14: Brick Lane Mosque – Women’s area

Banglatown Reclamation

19

Case Study 4 – Materiality in The Ningo History Museum Where Spitalfields has seen a great deal of urban change, where new development is labelled as unfitting for the area, a thorough understanding for the vernacular and the materials one can gain from it is vital. The Ningbo History Museum, China, completed in 2008, was built where several villages existed surrounding the site. Upon visiting the site, Wang Shu had discovered large piles of debris from demolition of the neighbouring villages, and upon closer inspection found large amounts of brick, tiles, roof tiles, and other construction materials, some of which date back over a thousand years. Wapan, a traditional construction technique, is how the façade was constructed, in which multiple elements of varying sizes are packed together, with the help of craftsmen, to create a stable structure (Fig. 15) (Hobson, 2016). Whilst modern architecture has had a conflicted history with the material, the reactivation of brick in this museum reinstates value in the material (Roskam, 2013). In the same way, my research aims to reinstate value in discarded objects, which captures heritage, memory and years of brick making from the historic brick kilns of the area, curated into a rich façade of materials of a previous Brick Lane.

Fig 15: Ningbo History Museum façade featuring a mosaic of reclaimed materials from villages around the site

Essay 3 - Pilot Thesis

20

Design Implication My studio focuses largely on materiality and construction methods, and this translated into my project where I developed a series of construction systems based on the themes heritage, memory, and reclamation, in a context where Banglatown is disappearing and Spitalfields is changing. As my research involves proposing new architecture to enrich local communities and their histories, a sensitive understanding of the area and the materials that can be gained from it formed a large part of the project. Whilst new high rise glass developments in Spitalfields have been labelled out of place and do not use sustainable methods of construction, this research investigated the use of reclamation in materials that may be discarded in different ways from Brick Lane, and how they can be repurposed into construction materials for permanent spaces. Much like the Ningbo Museum, this detail exists as a visual archive of Brick Lane’s layered history, using fragments of its past to build up an external façade. As described by Rotor when discussing the practice of deconstruction, “while a plant that is uprooted or cut from its stem will die off, a building component torn from a building may live several lives elsewhere” (Devlieger, 2019). In my design process, this started out as model tests, curating reclaimed bricks, fabric, and other discarded materials into exterior panels within a timber frame (Fig. 16).

Fig 16: Reclaimed materiality model tests

Banglatown Reclamation

21

This system then developed, using reclaimed bricks, of which 95% are not used in the UK, as well as tiles, pieces of stone, roof tiles, broken masonry, acrylic signage and other discarded materials, the components on the exterior are tightly packed together to form a mosaic of memory, and internally supported by a structural timber frame (Fig. 17). Other materials that are often discarded in Brick Lane, like discarded denim from textile and charity shops and cardboard boxes from curry house supplies, were tested to be used as insulation and potentially structural masonry, where they are both made into fibres and pressed into building components (Fig. 18). In collecting these materials, the design process explored in Phase 1 where the space is used to form a reclamation centre (Fig. 19), where these materials are collected, to then begin construction for the main design project Phase 2, a women’s trading centre.

Fig 17: Reclaimed material construction system

Load bearing timber posts

Lime plaster finish Reclaimed tructural timber frame to hold packed insulation and facade Denim Insulation

Lime plaster finish Mortar Reclaimed Roof tiles

Reclaimed Material Facade

Reclaimed tiles

Reclaimed Bricks

Essay 3 - Pilot Thesis

22

How to make Denim Insulation • R Value of 3.5/inch • Post industrial and post consumer denim and cotton are recycled into insulation.

• The process uses around 3 pairs of jeans per square metre of insulation at 100 mm thickness

Obtain waste denim from local material/textile shops, charity shops, recycling centres

Obtain denim, remove buttons, zips, anything that isn’t denim

Cut pure denim squares into smaller pieces

Shred denim into fibres and treat with Boric acid and other retardants

Fibres are compressed into mattress shaped insulation pieces

How to make Cellulose Insulation • R Value of 3.2-3.8/inch • Cellulose insulation has the highest amount of recycled content when compared to any other forms of insulation.

• The material is composed of 75-85% recycled paper fibres that are usually obtained from recycled waste newspaper.

The remaining 15% is made up of fire retardant substances, like boric acid and ammonium sulphate. In comparison, fibreglass has around 50% recycled content.

Obtain recycled paper, remove staples, paperclips and other materials that aren’t paper

Shred paper into cellulose fibres and treat with Boric acid to become fire retardant, avoid decay and corrosion

Fibres are compressed into block for transportation

Fitted into wall studs by spraying it under pressure with no gaps

How to make a Cardboard Block • R Value of 3-4/inch • Load bearing, insulating and finishing material • Extremely high compressive strength • Bales are easy to stack and can form walls up to 30m high without additional support.

TAJ STORES

Reclaimed cardboard as well as negative space waste cut from box outline is obtained

Cardboard is cut down into scraps

Cardboard scraps are pressed into bales by a regular garbage press, forming efficient and easy to handle building blocks.

Cubes are placed in a running bond masonry pattern, with gaps between the bales sealed with portland cement, soil and carboard shavings. Additional metal cross bracing cables can be installed to stabilize the wall.

Fig 18: Construction materials from reclaimed/discarded objects in Brick Lane

Banglatown Reclamation

23

Fig 19: Reclamation centre to collect objects of heritage, memory, and disuse

N

1:100 2m

Essay 3 - Pilot Thesis

0

2m

4m

6m

8m

10m

24

Whilst a deeper understanding of the needs of the Bangladeshi female traders of Brick Lane will be understood after fieldwork, an introductory approach to this proposal includes the provision of trade spaces, with a day-care, teaching centre for various workshops including English language teaching and culinary skills, and a reclamation and crafts centre where the theme of heritage, memory and reclamation is continued through the programme of this building (Fig. 20). In developing this project further, I’d like to explore how sensitive and comfortable spaces can be designed, with the users’ needs in mind, and how materiality and spatial arrangement can facilitate that. Whilst this design work is still very speculative, I look forward to developing this trade centre for Bangladeshi women further, with a developed design for the proposal, and the implications of my findings during the fieldwork period.

Phase 2

DAYCARE

TEACHING

RECLAMATION & CRAFT

PUBLIC SQUARE TRADE

N

1:200 4m

0

4m

8m

12m

16m

20m

Fig 20: Trading centre for Bangladeshi Women

Banglatown Reclamation

25

Conclusion Banglatown has endured several development threats, and whilst it is still existing, is slowly disappearing. Where its curry houses have seen it adapt to changing times, like COVID-19, it hasn’t shown a large amount of change in widening its access to Bangladeshi women.

Perhaps the future of Banglatown, as mentioned by members of the Tati Café, does lie in the hands of women, of which the torch of trade in Brick Lane historically has not been passed to. “The power of female friendship is typically either underestimated, undermined, or ignored all together in cultural narratives”, as mentioned by Leslie Kern in ‘A Feminist City’, and coupled with the provision of spaces for these friendships and communities to thrive could give a new meaning to Banglatown’s reclamation (Kern, 2021). The intervention of an architect must be sensitive, delicate, and empathetic, in a context where a heritage has been threatened, and a community has been marginalised. With an ongoing climate crisis, new spaces must be carefully designed to respond to existing contexts and utilise existing resources. I endeavour to respond to these conditions with a proposal that mediates the present with the intervention, retaining a disappearing heritage sustainably, and designing a space that enriches, facilitates, and celebrates a female Banglatown, in the hope of progressing an existing trade in a modern context.

Essay 3 - Pilot Thesis

26

Bibliography Alexander, C., Carey, S., Chatterji, J., Hall, S., King, J. and Lidher, S. (n.d.). Independence, partition and post-1947 migrations. [online] beyondbanglatown.org.uk. Available at: https://beyondbanglatown. org.uk/globe/independence-partition-post-1947-migrations/ [Accessed 25 Mar. 2022].

Alexander, C., Carey, S., Lidher, S., Hall, S. and King, J. (2020). Beyond Banglatown: Continuity, change and new urban economies in Brick Lane. Runnymede.

Ali, M. (2014). Brick Lane. London: Black Swan.

Architecture Studio, A. (n.d.). Architect Wang Shu’s Ningbo History Museum, Ningbo, China. cfileonline.org. Available at: https://cfileonline.org/architecture-wang-shus-ningbo-museum/.

Begum-Hossain, M. (2019). These Bangla Women Are Shaking Up The Brick Lane Foodie Scene. [online] Londonist. Available at: https://londonist.com/london/features/bangla-women-brick-lanetati-cafe [Accessed 27 Mar. 2022]. beyondbanglatown.org.uk. (n.d.). Making home: The world in Brick Lane. [online] Available at: https://beyondbanglatown.org.uk/globe/making-home-the-world-in-brick-lane/.

Campbell, J.W.P. and Pryce, W. (2016). Brick: A World History. London Thames Et Hudson.

Carey, S. (2021). Brick Lane, Curry and Covid-19. [online] South Asia@LSE. Available at: https:// blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2021/08/16/brick-lane-curry-and-covid-19/ [Accessed 13 Jan. 2022].

Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), pp.1241–1299.

Datta, A. (2011). Natural Landscapes and Regional Constructs of Gender: Theorizing Linkages in the Indian Context. Gender, Technology and Development, 15(3), pp.345–362.

De Carlo, G. (2005). Architecture and Participation. London ; New York: Routledge, pp.3–22.

Devlieger, L. (2019). Waste not: Rotor and the practice of deconstruction.

East London Mosque. (n.d.). Maryam Women’s Services. [online] Available at: https://www. eastlondonmosque.org.uk/maryam-womens-services [Accessed 29 Mar. 2022].

Evans, M. (2013). Gender, agency, and coercion. The Meaning of Agency ed. Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York, Ny: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.47–63.

Hall, S. (2013). City, Street and Citizen: The Measure of the Ordinary. London: Routledge.

Hobson, B. (2016). Wang Shu’s Ningbo History Museum built from the remains of demolished villages. [online] Dezeen. Available at: https://www.dezeen.com/2016/08/18/video-interview-wangshu-amateur-architecture-studio-ningbo-history-museum-movie/.

Jacobs, J.M. (1996). Edge of empire : postcolonialism and the city. London ; New York: Routledge.

Banglatown Reclamation

27

Jencks, C. and Silver, N. (1972). Adhocism : the case for improvisation. London: Secker And Warburg, p.12.

Kern, L. (2021). Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World. S.L.: Verso Books.

Lichtenstein, R. and Penguin (2008a). On Brick Lane. London Etc.: Penguin Books.

Lichtenstein, R. and Penguin (2008b). On brick lane. London Etc.: Penguin Books.

London City Hall. (2021). A women-led community café bringing Bengali culture back into the heart of Brick Lane. [online] Available at: https://www.london.gov.uk/city-hall-blog/women-ledcommunity-cafe-bringing-bengali-culture-back-heart-brick-lane [Accessed 26 Mar. 2022].

Maryam Women’s Services. (n.d.). East London Mosque & London Muslim Centre. Available at: https://www.eastlondonmosque.org.uk/maryam-womens-services.

Massey, D. (1984). Spatial divisions of labour. London Macmillan.

Roskam, C. (2013). Structures of Everyday Life: The Architecture of Wang Shu. [online] www. artforum.com. Available at: https://www.artforum.com/print/201309/structures-of-everyday-lifethe-architecture-of-wang-shu-43532.

Rosser, C. (2019). A public tasting at The Trampery Republic. Londonist. Available at: https:// londonist.com/london/features/bangla-women-brick-lane-tati-cafe [Accessed 29 Mar. 2022].

Russell-Jones, L. (2021). Locals fight plan to turn the Truman Brewery into a shopping mall. [online] CityAM. Available at: https://www.cityam.com/locals-challenge-plan-to-turn-trumanbrewery-into-a-shopping-mall/ [Accessed 24 Mar. 2022].

Sony Pictures Classics (2008). Brick Lane | Official Trailer (2008). YouTube. Available at: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLdabaTRZBo [Accessed 25 Aug. 2021].

Sultan, S. (2021). Measuring a Sacred Space: A Women’s Experience of the Brick Lane Jamme Masjid.

Trust, S. (2022). Save Bricklane. [online] Battleforbricklane.com. Available at: https:// battleforbricklane.com/brewery-redevelopment.

Essay 3 - Pilot Thesis

28

Table of Figures Fig 1.1: Author’s own illustration Fig 1.2: SP1C Old Spitalfields Market, 4 Horner Square, London, E1 6EW <https://www. hanovergreen.co.uk/search/properties/49711-sp1c-old-spitalfields-market-4-horner-squarelondon> [Accessed 14 January 2022] Fig. 1.3: Lanes, Alexandra, Shoreditch High Street, 2015 <http://www.chiark.greenend.org. uk/~owend/I/R/stnpages/shoreditchhighstreet.html> [Accessed 14 January 2022] Fig. 1.4: Schilling, Mikael, Bishop’s Square / Matthew Lloyd Architects, 2022 <https://www.archdaily. com/204313/bishops-square-matthew-lloyd-architects> [Accessed 14 January 2022] Fig. 1.5: Avant-Garde, E1 <https://www.avant-garde-e1.co.uk> [Accessed 14 January 2022] Fig. 1.6: New Life For London Fruit & Wool Exchange <https://www.srm.com/projects/new-lifefor-london-fruit-wool-exchange/> [Accessed 14 January 2022] Fig. 1.7: Aldgate Tower <https://www.brookfieldproperties.com/en/our-properties/aldgatetower-152.html> [Accessed 15 January 2022] Fig. 1.8: Goodman’s Fields, E1 <https://www.homeviews.com/development/goodmans-fields-e1/> [Accessed 15 January 2022] Fig. 1.9: Meet The Creator Of Aldgate Place <https://absolutely.london/aldgate-placedevelopment/> [Accessed 15 January 2022] Fig. 1.10: Relay Building <https://www.buildington.co.uk/london-e1/1-commercial-street/onecommercial-street/id/3418> [Accessed 15 January 2022] Fig. 1.11: “One Braham” - UID <https://realestate.union-investment.com/en/properties/1344_ london-one-braham-UID.html> [Accessed 14 January 2022] Fig. 1.12: Jessel, Ella, Buckey Gray Yeoman’s Designs For The Old Truman Brewery, 2021 <https:// www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/buckley-gray-yeoman-wins-planning-for-controversial-of fice-on-brick-lanes-trumans-brewery-site> [Accessed 14 January 2022] Fig 2: Jacobs, Jane M. 1996. Edge of Empire : Postcolonialism and the City (London ; New York: Routledge) Fig 3: Author, T.G. (2020). Trouble At The Truman Brewery. Spitalfields Life. Available at: https:// spitalfieldslife.com/2020/06/12/trouble-at-the-truman-brewery/.

Fig 4: Author’s own photography

Banglatown Reclamation

29

Fig 5: Jessel, Ella, Buckley Gray Yeoman’s Designs For The Old Truman Brewery, 2021 <https:// www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/buckley-gray-yeoman-wins-planning-for-controversial-office-onbrick-lanes-truman-brewery-site> [accessed 25 March 2022] Fig 6: Author’s own photography Fig 7: Vaidyanathan, Raju, City Spice During The Bangladeshi Festival On Brick Lane (1999) <https://beyondbanglatown.org.uk/street/monsoon/restaurants> [accessed 25 March 2022] Fig 8: Sony Pictures Classics. 2008. “Brick Lane | Official Trailer (2008),” YouTube <https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=TLdabaTRZBo> [accessed 25 March 2022] Fig 9: Author’s own film Fig 10: Author’s own illustration Fig 11: Rosser, Chloe. 2019. A Public Tasting at the Trampery Republic, Londonist <https:// londonist.com/london/features/bangla-women-brick-lane-tati-cafe> [accessed 29 March 2022] Fig 12: Author’s own illustration Fig 13: Maryam Women’s Services. [n.d.]. East London Mosque & London Muslim Centre <https://www.eastlondonmosque.org.uk/maryam-womens-services> Fig 14: Author’s own photography Fig 15: Architecture Studio, Amateur. [n.d.]. Architect Wang Shu’s Ningbo History Museum, Ningbo, China, Cfileonline.org <https://cfileonline.org/architecture-wang-shus-ningbo-museum/> Fig 16: Author’s own photography Fig 17: Author’s own illustration Fig 18: Author’s own illustration Fig 19: Author’s own illustration Fig 20: Author’s own illustration

Essay 3 - Pilot Thesis

30

Appendix Interview Transcript: A conversation about Bangladeshi migration in the 60s and the ongoing struggles for women in Brick Lane Date: 25/03/2022 Duration: 30 minutes Interviewer: Nabiha Qadir (NQ) Interviewee: Anjuman Chowdhury (Daughter of a former restaurant trader on Brick Lane) Anjuman Chowdhury is a second-generation immigrant, whose father, Azir Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury, opened Ariza Café and Restaurant in 1968.

An extract from full interview: NQ: So tell me more about what it was like when you moved here AC: It was really hard, we struggled a lot. We lived in a room in Victorian house, all of us in one room, and we had no bathroom. In those days, we had to use the common baths, I think it was for a shilling. So my dad built one in the garden so we could have a toilet. And it was so cold, the snow was so bad it had to be shovelled to out to open the doors. Anyways, my dad had a shop and it was called Ariza Café and Restaurant. Mum used to stay home and do the admin work for Dad. They both spoke English, they both were top in English, in Bangladesh back then they learned English in their schools.

NQ: Oh wow, okay. So tell me more about the restaurant/café, what was it like AC: It was really popular because everyone seemed to know my dad, he was educated and he had a car so when he used to drive down Brick Lane people knew his car. Anyway, he could speak English so people used to come to the café and translate their letters and bills because they couldn’t understand, they could only speak Bengali. These people, they would send letters back home and it would take 2 months for their letters to get their families. At that time, me and my brother were very young. My mum came in 1968, and I was born in 1969, and then another was born, and then another. She had a baby every year. So then she was raising us alone, while dad ran the restaurant. So then she couldn’t raise us alone anymore, so she went back to Bangladesh, you know, back to her family. She would have help in raising her children there so that’s why she went back to her family.

NQ: So did your mum ever work in the café? Did she ever have an opportunity to?

AC: No, not really, she would only visit from time to time. She didn’t work because she had to raise the kids. Anyway in those days it wasn’t safe, why would she work there. Even though she was educated, she didn’t work. So she went back to Bangladesh because she had no place there.

Anyway, my dad actually passed away in 1984, so suddenly, because he had health complications, you know it was so tough. So when he died, we had no money left, because there was no physical assets to his name. So my mum had to send eldest son back to London. Because we were both born in the UK he had UK citizenship, so he could come back easily you know, so she had to send him back to earn some money for the family. So he came back in 84, after my dad died and he discovered that café was already gone, so we had nothing.

Banglatown Reclamation

31