The Economies of R-Urban - Rachel Kelly

The Economies of R-Urban:

the process of (re)embedding food and architecture Essay 3: Pilot Thesis

Rachel Kelly | Girton College

Figure. 1: Cover Image. AgroCité civic hub at R-Urban 2

The Economies of R-Urban:

the process of (re)embedding food and architecture Essay 3: Pilot Thesis

A design thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the M.Phil examination in Architecture & Urban Design (2020-2022).

Words: 4821 (excluding bibliography)

Rachel Kelly | Girton College Supervisor: Dr Nicholas Simcik Arese 25 March 2021

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Figure. 2: AgroCité civic hub at R-Urban

Contents:

1. Introduction 2. Introducing R-Urban 3. Karl Polanyi & Substantive Economies 4. ‘Autogérée’ 5. The Economies of R-Urban

reciprocity

redistribution 6. Embedded Architecture co-production

materiality & for m

symbolism

adaptability & reversibility

7. Influence on Design-Research Methodology 8. Conclusion

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Introduction:

The food we eat has an enormous impact on our health and the health of our planet. For most of human history food has been central in shaping our habits, societies and environments. 1 It uniquely sits at the nexus between our relationship with nature and our relationship with each other; between our biological and our social needs. However, in the past century the questions of what we eat, how it is produced, and where it comes from have become increasingly detached from our everyday lives. 2 Our current industrial food system places the individual consumer at the end of an ever-expanding production line. Consequently, we have lost our understanding of food as a vital form of nourishment and connection and reduced it to merely an economic commodity. 3 Evidence suggests that our detachment from the food system has far-reaching affects, such as the rise of food-related diseases of obesity and diabetes, as well as increased food insecurity and malnutrition. 4 This change in the food industry can be seen as part of a wider trend towards increasingly detached markets where economic drivers of profit and greed are prioritised over social and ecological value. 5 This trend of industrialisation and marketisation is a continuation of what Hungarian economist and historian Karl Polanyi (1886-1964) referred to as ‘The Great Transformation’. 6 He explains this as a shift from societies with markets to market-societies; from ‘embedded’ to ‘disembedded’ economies. 7 Polanyi’s Carolyn Steel, Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World, 1st edition (London: Chatto & Windus, 2020), p. 2.

2 Steel, p. 15.

3 Vandana Shiva, Who Really Feeds the World?: The Failures of Agribusiness and the

Promise of Agroecology, (Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 1779), p. x.

4 Marie-Monique Robin, Allison Schein, and Lara Vergnaud, Our Daily Poison : From

Pesticides to Packaging, How Chemicals Have Contaminated the Food Chain

and Are Making Us Sick, Reprint edition (The New Press, 2016).

5 Shiva, p. x.

6 Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time,

2nd edition (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2002).

7 Ibid., p. 71.

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theories are therefore a useful tool to analyse contemporary architectural approaches to ‘self-managed’ neighbourhood food systems.

This pilot thesis will ask, firstly, how can a reading of Polanyi’s concept of ‘embeddedness’ help us to understand the structure of self-managed food systems? And secondly, what is the role of architecture in the development of embedded economies? This will be answered through the analysis of ‘R-Urban’ – a strategy for neighbourhood resilience, which includes a neighbourhood food system, in Paris. The ‘R-Urban’ framework will be examined as an embedded economy and analysed using the principles of reciprocity and redistribution as set out by Polanyi. 8 The essay will go on to seek an understanding of how the architectural design process influences and is influenced by this embedded economy. In closing, I will arrive at how this research is shaping my own design approach.

8

Ibid., p. 49.

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Introducing R-Urban:

R-Urban, a framework for neighbourhood resilience, was initiated by atelier d’architecture autogérée (aaa) in 2008. 9 Originally, the framework was implemented in the Parisian neighbourhood of Colombes but it has since been adapted to neighbourhoods in Paris and London. 10 The R-Urban framework is centred around a number of ‘civic hubs’ that each engage in a variety of interconnected activities. 11 For the sake of brevity, this essay will focus its analysis specifically on the materialisation of R-Urban in its preliminary test site, Colombes. R-Urban Colombes consisted of three planned civic hubs. An urban agricultural hub (AgroCité), an urban waste recycling hub (RecyLab) and a cooperative residential unit (ECoHab). 12 Between 2011-2016, just under 7000 citizens engaged with the R-Urban civic hubs with 400 emerging as active stakeholders in the project. 13 The majority of this participation took place at the AgroCité site where community members developed a café on site, participated in teaching spaces and worked to cultivate the community food garden. 14 Atelier d’architecture autogérée (aaa), founded by Doina Petrescu and Constantin Petcou in 2001, define themselves as a collective platform for design exploration, research and practice. 15 The group are characterised by their innovative and transdisciplinary approach to designing the built

Doina Petrescu, Constantin Petcou, and Corelia Baibarac, ‘Co-Producing

Commons-Based Resilience: Lessons from R-Urban’, Building Research & Information, 44.7 (2016), 717–36, <https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2016.1214891>.

10 Constantin Petcou and Doina Petrescu, ‘Co-Produced Urban Resilience: A Framework for

Bottom-Up Regeneration’, Architectural Design, 88.5 (2018), 58–65, <https://doi.org/10.1002/ad.2343>.

11 Ibid., p. 60.

12 Ibid., p. 63.

13 Doina Petrescu, Constantin Petcou, Maliha Safri, and Katherine Gibson, ‘Calculating the

Value of the Commons: Generating Resilient Urban Futures’, Environmental Policy

and Governance, n/a.n/a <https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.1890>, p. 3.

14 Ibid.

15 aaa, ‘Urban Tactics’ <http://www.urbantactics.org/projects/rurban/rurban.html>

[accessed 1 March 2021].

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environment. 16 In particular, they have been using this design-research method to explore which of these practices work most successfully at the neighbourhood scale. 17

Figure. 3: AgroCité civic hub as viewed from surrounding houses.

Fredrik Nilsson, Doina Petrescu and Constantin Petcou, ‘Transgressive practices for resilient urban agency’ in The Changing Shape of Architecture: Further Cases of Integrating Research and Design in Practice, ed. by Michael U. Hensel and Fredrik Nilsson, (Routledge, 2019), pp. 58-68 (p. 59).

17 Fionn Stevenson and Doina Petrescu, ‘Co-Producing Neighbourhood Resilience’, Building

Research & Information, 44.7 (2016), 695–702 <https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2016.1213865>.

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Karl Polanyi & Substantive Economies:

Karl Polanyi was explicitly critical of the market economy. 18 In ‘The Great Transformation’, Polanyi distinguishes between a socially ‘embedded’ economy and non-embedded, self-regulating, market economy. This distinction can also be understood as a debate between formalist and substantivist economies. It is argued that the formalist state of our current market economy first emerged in the 19th century. 19 Prior to that point, the social and material well-being of humans, rather than accumulation of wealth and profit, was society’s principal goal. 20 According to Polanyi, rather than a desire for economic gain, production and distribution in an embedded economy is ensured through two fundamental principles of behaviour: reciprocity and redistribution. 21 The contemporary relevance of Polanyi’s critique of the free-market and his examination of embedded economies, has emerged in a number of papers tackling the modern crisis of food sovereignty and insecurity. 22 One paper argues that this revival is due to “Polanyi’s central theoretical concerns resonat[ing] with contemporary intellectual sensibilities in several unique ways”. 23 In the case of food production, central themes Daniel P. Tompkins, ‘Weber, Polanyi, and Finley’, ed. by Mohammad Nafissi, History and Theory, 47.1 (2008),123–36.

19 Polanyi, p. 45.

20 Ibid., p. 46.

21 Ibid., p. 49.

22 Eric Holt Giménez and Annie Shattuck, ‘Food Crises, Food Regimes and Food

Movements: Rumblings of Reform or Tides of Transformation?’, The Journal of

Peasant Studies, 38.1 (2011), 109–44 <https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2010.538578>.

Mark Tilzey, ‘Reintegrating Economy, Society, and Environment for Cooperative Futures:

Polanyi, Marx, and Food Sovereignty’, Journal of Rural Studies, 53 (2017),

317–34, <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2016.12.004>.

Roberta Sonnino, ‘The Power of Place: Embeddedness and Local Food Systems in Italy and

the UK’, Anthropology of Food, S2, 2007 <https://doi.org/10.4000/aof.454>.

Sam Bliss, ‘The Case for Studying Non-Market Food Systems’, Sustainability,

11.11 (2019), 1–30.

23 Fred Block and Margaret R. Somers, ‘Beyond the Economistic Fallacy: The Holistic Social

Science of Karl Polanyi’, in Vision and Method in Historical Sociology, ed. by

Theda Skocpol (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), pp. 47–84 <https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511621567.004>.

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in Polanyi’s work align with the current struggle between the aims of socially-lead cooperative movements and the imperatives of an industrial food industry.

Polanyi is part of a tradition of thinking that focusses on the morality of the economy. 24 The term ‘moral economy’ was coined by English historian E.P Thompson who developed these ideas in the late 20th century. 25 The ‘morality’ of moral economy stems from ideas of justice and fairness that are present in human social relationships but absent in an autonomous market. 26 The economists J.K. Gibson-Graham, who are part of a group of researchers at R-Urban, have explored similar ideas. In their paper ‘Re-embedding economies in ecologies’, they state that economies need to develop “social – ecological resilience” where people and nature exist “as interdependent systems that change, adapt and transform”. 27 In doing so, they extend this ethical framework to include our relationships with the planet and the other non-human animals with whom we share its natural resources.

In ‘The Great Transformation’ Polanyi examines the function of economy relative to the social life and dynamics of the neighbourhood. 28 For the sake of this essay a neighbourhood is considered to be an active state of interdependency. 29 In using this definition of the neighbourhood, I am building on a definition by Max Weber, an influence of Polanyi, in Economy

Tim Rogan, The Moral Economists: R. H. Tawney, Karl Polanyi, E. P. Thompson, and

the Critique of Capitalism, (Princeton University Press, 2017) <https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvc772hq>.

25 E. P. Thompson, ‘The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century’, Past & Present, 50,1971, 76–136.

26 William James Booth, ‘On the Idea of the Moral Economy’, The American Political Science

Review, 88.3 (1994), 653–67 <https://doi.org/10.2307/2944801>. p. 653.

27 J. K. Gibson-Graham, Ann Hill, and Lisa Law, ‘Re-Embedding Economies in Ecologies:

Resilience Building in More than Human Communities’, Building Research & Information, 44.7 (2016), 703–16,

<https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2016.1213059>. p. 704.

28 Polanyi.

29 J.K. Gibson-Graham, ‘Cultivating Community Economies’, p. 37.

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and Society. 30 Weber defines the neighbourhood as “an unsentimental economic brotherhood”. 31 He illustrates this through a description of East German house building, where neighbours volunteer labour and are compensated with a feast. 32 Through this anecdotal illustration, Weber positions both architecture and food as social actions and exchanges central to the very definition of a neighbourhood.

‘Autogérée’: ‘Atelier d’architecture autogérée’ roughly translates to ‘self-managed architecture studio’. 33 The concept of ‘autogérée’ can also be translated as ‘autogestion’ which has frequently been understood in a Lefebvrian tradition, particularly through the work of Mark Purcell. 34 Purcell argues that, when fully appreciated, Lefebvre’s ‘right to the city’ involves a “radical democratisation” or “an ongoing and collective struggle by urban inhabitants to manage the city for themselves”. 35 This desire to reposition citizens at the heart of decision-making processes, I would argue, can be understood as a desire to re-embed economies.

This essay aims to demonstrate that examining the concept of ‘self-management’

through

a

Polanyian

lens

can

strengthen

our

understanding of how these systems function. I recognise that Polanyi is part of a theoretical tradition distinct from the Marxist thinkers who inspire the architects of R-Urban, the nuance differences of which are well Max Weber, Economy and Society, First Edition, Two Volume Set, with a New Foreword

by Guenther Roth ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013).

31 Weber, p. 360.

32 Weber, pp. 360-361.

33 aaa, ‘Urban Tactics’ 34 Mark Purcell, ‘The Right to the City: The Struggle for Democracy in the Urban Public Realm’, Policy and Politics, 41.3 (2013), 311–27 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/030557312X655639>.

35 Purcell, p. 311.

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documented though beyond the scope of this essay. 36 I am not endeavouring to argue against or contradict the Marxist approach, but rather to build upon those theories and analysis. Other papers, recognising the affinities between Polanyi and Marxist thinkers, have argued that reading Polanyi can help to understand and supplement a Marxian approach. 37 In order to do this, this essay returns to the root behavioural principles that, according to Polanyi, govern these neighbourhood systems.

Benjamin Selwyn and Satoshi Miyamura, ‘Class Struggle or Embedded Markets? Marx,

Polanyi and the Meanings and Possibilities of Social Transformation’, New

Political Economy, 19.5 (2014), 639–61 <https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2013.844117>.

Hüseyin Özel and Erdal Yilmaz, ‘What Can Marxists Learn From Polanyi?’, 2005.

Michael Burawoy, ‘For a Sociological Marxism: The Complementary Convergence of

Antonio Gramsci and Karl Polanyi’, Politics & Society, 31.2 (2003), 193–261 <https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329203252270>.

37 Özel and Yilmaz, p. 2.

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The Economies of R-Urban:

The R-Urban framework creates “a microcosm of economies” that involve various different types of labour and exchange in a hugely diverse set of enterprises. 38 Within a framework of self-governance, the various embedded economies of R-Urban sustain themselves, quite explicitly, through Polanyi’s principles of reciprocity and redistribution.

Reciprocity: The economies that have emerged at R-Urban encourage many different kinds of transactions. Some of these are reminiscent of market encounters, but others are not monetised and instead are integrated within social actions rather than financial exchanges. 39 Forms of reciprocity can be seen through frequent gift giving within the community as well as mutual exchange of labour. 40 One form of new economy that has emerged at R-Urban is the Repair Café at RecycLab. Here, volunteers share their knowledge of how to repair various items (such as bikes or furniture) and in return they would be given support, through the expertise and knowledge of other participants, should they need it. Similar skill sharing activities take place at AgroCité in the community gardens and kitchen. 41 These forms of mutually beneficial activities and exchanges are examples of effective division of labour that allow the community to live interdependently.

Beyond the reciprocity of immaterial assets (knowledge and skills), the civic hubs function interdependently of one another on a material level.

Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée, Katherine Gibson Interview | R-Urban, video interview, YouTube, 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rmp4OFhaYw> [accessed 21 March 2021].

39 Ibid.

40 Ibid.

41 FA VUT, No More Architecture — Atelier d’architecture Autogérée: R FOR R-URBAN,

Recorded Lecture, YouTube, 2020,

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nENZ19n0I0> [accessed 21 March 2021].

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Figure. 4: Repair Café

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According to the architects, this type of closed-circuit local economy balances the “co-production and co-consumption locally”. 42 This means that water, energy, waste and food are all processed and shared in a way that is beneficial to the network as a whole. 43 New enterprises often emerge through gaps that appear in the flow of materials. For example, the ‘compost school’ enterprise emerged from the opportunity of productively using the waste products from the canteen in order to provide an energy source for the gardeners. 44 This enterprise also illustrates how the reciprocal circuit can extend to include ecological processes. 45 Within the network of civic buildings food is grown, waste is disposed of and energy is created.

Redistribution: R-Urban is self-managed by a number of community actors and stakeholders. As the framework grows over the coming years, it hopes to be managed by a Cooperative Land Trust that will be able to guarantee democratic governance across all of its sites. 46 This form of bottom-up governance was developed in order to identify and then redistribute resources of space, knowledge and power across the local community. 47 Moreover, from the start this structure of self-governance was intentionally positioned within a community where there was a need to develop – or revitalise – a local economy as well as increase ecological literacy. 48 The neighbourhood of Colombes was lacking social and cultural infrastructure.

The act of commoning urban space allowed it to be more widely available EIB Institute, Get to Know R-Urban (France) - SIT 2014, Recorded Presentation, YouTube, 2015, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TzaXjafiJs> [accessed 21 March 2021].

43 Petcou and Petrescu, p. 60.

44 Petrescu, Petcou, and Baibarac, p. 725.

45 Petcou and Petrescu, p. 62.

46 Ibid., p. 64.

47 Stevenson and Petrescu, p. 697.

48 FA VUT, No More Architecture 42

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Figure. 5: R-Urban sharing network

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and democratically used. 49 In this way the framework is developing new kinds of wealth that can be redistributed throughout the community.

As well as democratising and redistributing knowledge, space and power, the redistribution of food is also part of the R-Urban framework. In particular, people at AgroCité work to “provide surplus food that is then circulating through the community”. 50 In the ‘Great Transformation’, Polanyi uses the practices of the Trobriand Islanders to illustrate a similar redistribution of surplus. He explains that the food grown by the community is then stored collectively. 51 This food is then used to provide large celebratory feasts. 52 Similarly at AgroCité, some of the food is kept within individual families or sold at market to raise money for the initiative, but the majority of the food is harvested and used in the canteen. A group of unemployed community members take turns to cook meals and the food is distributed on a ‘pay-what-you-feel’ basis with any profit used to reimburse the chefs and cover AgroCité’s expenses. 53 The importance of this communal eating ritual in the reinforcing of common interests cannot be understated. The etymology of the word companion (copain, compañero) is ‘with whom one eats bread. 54 With this in mind it can be argued that in all cultures eating together is related to people growing closer. 55 It remains unclear whether it is the act of eating itself or something else that happens at a group meal which causes this increased feeling of connectedness. It is possible that eating causes endorphin release which improves one’s ability to make social

Petrescu, and others, p. 2. aaa, Gibson Interview 51 Polanyi, p. 50.

52 Ibid.

53 Petrescu, Petcou, and Baibarac, p. 725.

54 Claude Fischler, ‘Commensality, Society and Culture’:, Social Science Information,

2011 <https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018411413963>, p. 530.

55 Ibid.

49 50

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connections. 56 However, it is most likely that the laughter and storytelling which occur at social meals trigger this sense of bonding. 57 Beyond the simple enjoyment of the social meal, seen both in Polanyi’s work and at R-Urban, these feasts provide an opportunity for the collective efforts of the group to be admired and their common interests reinforced.

Figure. 6: Social meals at AgroCité

V. P. Bakshi and A. E. Kelley, ‘Feeding Induced by Opioid Stimulation of the Ventral Striatum: Role of Opiate Receptor Subtypes’, The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 265.3 (1993), 1253–60.

57 Robin Dunbar, ‘Breaking Bread: The Functions of Social Eating’, Adaptive Human

Behavior and Physiology, 3 (2017) <https://doi.org/10.1007/s40750-017-0061-4>,

p. 9.

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Embedded architecture:

Architects have pioneered the R-Urban framework using a sophisticated understanding of space and design to drive integrated social, ecological and economic change. The physical infrastructure of the hubs provide space where acts of civic cooperation “can be enacted, can be learned and showcased”. 58 According to economist Katherine Gibson, who has researched and visited a number of local economy initiatives, the element that sets R-Urban apart is the involvement of architects throughout the process. 59 She claims that the process of designing and building of the civic hubs allowed for considered organisation and co-location of a number of different enterprises which facilitated greater cooperation and collaboration. 60 Architecture offers the possibility to “build a new thing” – both physically and systematically. 61 Co-production: R-Urban is developed through a process of ‘co-production’. The framework is closely engaged with research and academic practices, but it is not produced through the direct application of theory. 62 Instead, it is in itself a method for conducting research through design. It works through “an iterative and exploratory practice and a theoretical strategy that constantly inform and re-inform each other”. 63 This ‘co-production’ process of iteration and experimentation begins through meeting with various civic actors in order to harnesses the valuable social capital that already exists in neighbourhoods. 64 This citizen group are then engaged in the development of the physical infrastructure of the project but, crucially, EIB Institute, Get to Know R-Urban aaa, Gibson Interview 60 Ibid.

61 Ibid.

62 Petrescu, Petcou, and Baibarac, p. 720.

63 Ibid.

64 Ibid., p. 722.

58 59

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Figure. 7: New physical infrastructure at AgroCité

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are also involved in the self-management of the various initiatives. 65 That is to say they are not seen as ‘community consultants’ but rather indispensable and active stakeholders. 66 The co-production process broadens the role of the architect to more than simply designer but also initiator, negotiator, enabler, mediator. 67 They are facilitators that provide a platform for non-specialist citizens to participate in the co-production process. This is an ongoing process with no border between design and use, the architects are required to have continued engagement with the project as one of many local actors.

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This is illustrated by the fact that the architects have designed further

ecological devices that improve that function of the building after it has been constructed. For example, aaa designed a prototype device for water filtration as the need for it emerged through active use of the hub. 69 Moreover, these devices are drawn and explained in a way that encourages the knowledge to be dispersed throughout the community. 70 This democratisation of information means that citizens can repair or replicate the device as needed.

The nature of the co-production process means that the physical architecture of the intervention could take a variety of forms. Although united in their strategic ambition, the material, spatial and organisational arrangement of each R-Urban site varies as the specifications emerge from co-production activities and evolve through use. The examination of the specific architecture at R-Urban in Colombes is therefore only highlighting one possible architectural language that could emerge from the framework. That said, the key themes that are touch on here – materiality & form, symbolism, adaptability & reversibility – are influenced by the Petrescu, and others, p. 3.

Stevenson and Petrescu, p. 697.

67 Petcou and Petrescu, p. 61.

68 Stevenson and Petrescu, p. 697.

69 FA VUT, No More Architecture 70 Ibid.

65 66

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Figure. 8: Co-design workshops with specialists

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wider strategic ambition of the project and would therefore likely emerge in a similar, though not identical, ways on other sites.

Materiality & for m: Decisions regarding the materiality of the hubs are embedded within social and ecological concerns. In this way, the architecture of R-Urban can, in itself, be understood as an embedded economic process. For example, the buildings are constructed entirely from local, recycled or reused materials. 71 The form of the building and its construction then emerges from the materials that are available. The methods used are low-tech so that, with help of construction experts, the community are able to take part in the building process. 72 Moreover, the architects have employed their own expertise to ensure that ecological principles, such as passively heated spaces, are integrated into the building’s design. 73 Symbolism: The architecture of the civic hubs showcases the various issues that the R-Urban network addresses. The buildings become physical manifestations of the R-Urban ethos. The ecological systems that exist within the building, such as the material recycling, energy production and food growing, are intentionally celebrated as moments of architectural importance. 74 One example of this is the green roof at AgroCité which is designed to filter the water and then irrigate the vegetation growing on the green wall (Figure.10) on the side of the building. 75 This is achieved through reasonably low-tech methods that are deliberately left visible, providing visual evidence of the success of these ecological systems. This,

Petcou and Petrescu, p. 63.

FA VUT, No More Architecture 73 Ibid.

74 Petcou and Petrescu, p. 61.

75 FA VUT, No More Architecture 71 72

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Figure. 9: Recycled building materials

Figure. 10: Visible ecological systems 25

in turn, hopes to inspire other citizens to engage with the project and begin to enact these everyday practices in their own lives. 76 Not only does the architecture make the work of R-Urban in Colombes more visible, but defining physical infrastructure anchors the closed-loop circuits within the neighbourhood, ensuring the citizens are continually at the centre of the network as it expands. 77 Adaptability & reversibility: The common urban space on which the project relies is one of its greatest assets. However, it also opened R-Urban up to vulnerabilities in 2016 when a change in municipal government meant that the access to this land was taken away. 78 This meant that, despite significant protest, R-Urban at Colombes had to be demolished in order to make way for a private car park. 79 Although this was hugely disappointing for the network, the civic hubs at R-Urban were designed to be resilient and adaptable in the face of these external challenges. 80 For example, the prefabricated elements of RecycLab were designed so that the civic hub could be deconstructed in 48 hours. 81 Similarly, the building at AgroCité was designed so that if it had to be relocated, 95% of the building material could be reinstalled.

82

This is evidence of the fact that the hubs were designed with careful

consideration of wider social, political and economic influences.

The civic hubs that were previously in Colombes have now been relocated to various other neighbourhoods around Paris, proving the adaptability and reversibility of the physical infrastructure. 83 Despite the success of the building’s resilience, it is important to recognise the loss caused from Ibid.

Petrescu, Petcou, and Baibarac, p. 722.

78 Petrescu, and others, p. 2.

79 Ibid.

80 Petrescu, Petcou, and Baibarac, p. 718.

81 FA VUT, No More Architecture 82 Ibid.

83 Petrescu, and others, p. 2.

76 77

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this detachment of the civic hubs from the community in which they were embedded. As has been illustrated throughout this essay, the physical infrastructure of R-Urban is, if understood successfully, inseparable from the wider social and ecological network. Moving the physical infrastructure should therefore be seen as a restart rather than a relocation. The skilful reversibility of the architecture enables this fresh start to happen with minimal waste and ecological impact. An unexpected positive consequence of the loss of the site at Colombes was that it was widely covered in the press, generating greater awareness of the R-Urban framework. 84 Since then many other urban areas around Paris have begun to adopt and implement the strategy. 85

Figure. 11: AgroCité in the new site in Gennevilliers Justinien Tribillon, ‘Why Is a Paris Suburb Scrapping an Urban Farm to Build a Car Park?’,

The Guardian, 2015 <http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/sep/11/ paris-un-climate-conference-colombes-r-urban-urban-farm-car-park>

[accessed 22 March 2021].

85 Petrescu, and others, p. 2.

84

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Influence on Design-Research Methodology:

This Polanyian analysis of R-Urban and its various economic processes is influencing my own design-research approach in a number of ways. In my role as an architect, I am hoping to initiate a similar collective community process in order to co-produce an embedded neighbourhood-scale food system. This process will provide the physical and social infrastructure required to encourage neighbourhood-scale growing, cooking and eating with the hope of substantially improving the accessibility to and affordability of nutritious foods. In contributing to this development of a more democratic, transparent and just food system the architectural design and organization of these spaces must be in themselves be socially and ecologically embedded.

The key to this ‘embedding’ is for the project to be co-produced by a variety of community actors and stakeholders. Through the examination

Figure. 12: Section illustrating initial design explorations 28

in this essay, I have come to realise that the central reciprocal relationship in networks such as R-Urban is between the production of the physical infrastructure and the production of the community group. The two processes are active and interdependent struggles that inform and influence one another. Co-production is a means of ensuring the architecture meets requirements of the community and can be continually updated and reassessed as the community evolves. Equally, at the initial stages of developing the physical infrastructure, the co-production design discussions and activities provide a way of strengthening the community group.

Developing a relationship of co-production requires an understanding of the initiative as an ongoing project which will entail continual engagement and development from the architects as well as other civic actors. As has

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been illustrated at R-Urban, the role of the architect in this process is expanded to include more than simply that of designer. That said, it is important to be reminded of the value of architectural design training.

It is vital to use the visual skills and spatial understanding that I have developed as an architect to guide and facilitate the co-production process.

This must be done alongside an appreciation of the expertise of others, whether that be from other professional disciplines or the lived expertise of everyday citizens. The design of successful physical infrastructure, that can assist in the creation of a wider network of embedded economies, is then able to emerge from this transdisciplinary approach.

Figure. 13: Initial design exploration

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Conclusion:

In conclusion, this essay has illustrated that the R-Urban framework can be understood as an embedded economy. Polanyi’s root behavioural principles of reciprocity and redistribution are evident in various forms throughout the structure of the R-Urban network. This can be seen at the scale of the individuals in the framework who share and distribute food, knowledge and labour with one another. It can also be seen on the larger network scale where a local closed circuit is maintained through mutually beneficial processes such as waste disposal, energy creation and water filtration. It has been shown that architecture has the opportunity to aid in the development of such economies. An understanding of these principles within the context of local food economies is therefore useful for architects embarking on a process of initiating such systems.

The design and building of physical infrastructure within the R-Urban network is crucial in supporting the development of embedded enterprises across the civic hubs. The ongoing process of use and adaptation also provides an opportunity for expansion and evolution over time. These new enterprises that develop may reach well beyond the matter of food but are still rooted within the same strategic ambitions of circularity and distribution. Additionally, it has been shown that through the process of co-production, architectural design decisions also become integrated within social and ecological concerns. Through this analysis, it can be understood that architecture, or more specifically the process of architectural design, provides a way of facilitating a wide network of embedded economies and, at the same time, is an embedded economic process in itself.

In this way, R-Urban is illustrative of the potential social, economic and political impact that architects can have through their work. The research

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conducted throughout the design and implementation of the R-Urban framework hopes to encourage architects to start “thinking about themselves as designing new futures in much more applied ways than perhaps they might have imagined”. 86 In order to successfully re-embed our food and architecture economies, it is not enough to focus solely on social relations or economic concerns. Rather, it is important to recognise the value of materially reconfiguring spaces in order to develop economies that place social and ecological relations at their centre.

Figure. 14: Colombes site before R-Urban

86

aaa, Gibson Interview

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Figure. 15: Colombes site during R-Urban occupation

33

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List of Figures:

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a Car Park?’, The Guardian, 2015 <http://www.theguardian.

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March 2021]

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[accessed 22 March 2021]

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R FOR R-URBAN, Lecture Slide, <https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=-nENZ19n0I0> [accessed 21 March 2021]

Figure 7: Ibid.

Figure 8: Ibid.

Figure 9: Ibid.

Figure 10: Ibid.

Figure 11: ‘R-Urban’, R-Urban <http://r-urban.net/en/>

[accessed 22 March 2021]

Figure 12: Authors own image.

Figure 13: Authors own image.

Figure 14: ‘Inauguration of the Agrocité’, R-Urban English, 2012 <http://r-urban.net/en/activities/inauguration-of-the-agroc

ite/> [accessed 26 March 2021]

Figure 15: ‘Works - PublicSpace’ <https://www.publicspace.org/ works/-/project/j281-r-urban-network-of-urban-commons>

[accessed 22 March 2021]

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