Charles Hope Architecture

HÅB

PORTFOLIO

Agricultural TheatreGuild of Seasonal Workers

The project uses an architecture of assembly to infer a social/ political commentary on the nature of work and play. Group research investigated key events of the Peasant’s Revolt (1381), the population of which were mainly agricultural labourers. One consequence of mechanised agriculture is a decreasing population of seasonal workers in Kent. This proposal is a guild for social exchange between seasonal workers and a niche population of food provenance tourists.

Peasants’ revolt

Canterbury pilgrims group research Project location & historic layers: Pre-Industrial/Feudal, Industrial & Post-War

FARM, BOUGHTON-UNDER-BLEAN

The distinction between work & play Banquet hall & kitchen, crop processing, accommodation and winter storage

Seasonal worker’s guild: Processing, storing, cladding celebrating the harvest crop

CHURCH FARM, BOUGHTON-UNDER-BLEAN MASTER’S ROOM & WINNOWING CHAMBER PLAN 1:50 UNIT 1_AR836&AR838

CHARLES HOPE

CHURCH FARM, BOUGHTON-UNDER-BLEAN DRESSING ROOM AND DORM PLAN 1:50 UNIT 1_AR836&AR838

CHARLES HOPE

Envelope model 1:20 2mm cardboard, styrofoam 60x240mm

The lost art of straw thatching: using agricultural by-products for contemporary cladding

Detail model 1:5 Aluminium, styrofoam lathe wheel, long straw 420x600mm

CHURCH FARM, BOUGHTON-UNDER-BLEAN DETAIL ISOMETRIC UNIT 1_AR836&AR838 CHARLES HOPE

Agricultural TheatreMeneparishe

Meneparishe: Agricultural Theatre speculates on the diversification of farming practice. Early studies included the Yantlet Creek Cattle Observatory and deployment of a Camera Obscura. The project investigated the last Kentish cattle mart and proposed an alternative experiential typology in light of the discontinuation of EU farming subsidies in Britain. The complex is a theatre, the cattle actors, the farmers their supporting cast, and the curious visitors, the audience.

MENEPARISHE

HOO PENINSULA

OBSERVATORY

LIGHTENTERSAPERTURE

LIGHTENTERSAPERTURE

7. CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL AISLE, SOUTH WINDOW SHOT WITH

PIN HOLE CAMERA

7. CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL AISLE, SOUTH WINDOW SHOT WITH

HOLE CAMERA

for

an endangered typology

IN

TO PROMOTE AND ORGANISE THEIR OWN BUSINESS INSTEAD OF SENDING THEIR ANIMALS FURTHER AFIELD TO BE SOLD. FROM 1784-1856, THE MARKET WAS HELD IN THE BROAD PART OF THE ASHFORD HIGH STREET ABOVE EAST HILL. BUT, APART FROM THE INCONVENIENCE OF DOING BUSINESS IN A PUBLIC THOROUGHFARE, RESTRICTIONS AND REGULATIONS BEGAN TO INTERFERE WITH WHAT ONE HISTORIAN CALLED “MAN’S LIBERTY”.

IN FEBRUARY OF 1856, A LARGE NUMBER OF FARMERS AND GRAZIERS SIGNED A DOCUMENT PLEDGING SUPPORT FOR A NEW MARKET. IT WAS AGREED THAT THE ‘ASHFORD STOCK MARKET’ SHOULD BE PROVISIONALLY REGISTERED UNDER THE LIMITED LIABILITY ACT OF 1855. THE NEW MARKET WAS LITTLE MORE THAN A GREEN FIELD FITTED OUT WITH ADEQUATE PENS, GATES, FENCES AND DRAINSBUT SUCH EQUIPMENT WAS CONSIDERED SUFFICIENT FOR THOSE DAYS. THERE WAS A STEADY INCREASE IN SALES AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND IN 1958, A RECORD ENTRY OF 314, 283 HEAD OF LIVESTOCK WERE SOLD.

THERE WAS ALSO A GENERAL GROWTH OF BUSINESS NOT DIRECTLY CONNECTED WITH LIVESTOCK AND LARGE SECTIONS OF THE MARKET HAD TO BE MADE AVAILABLE FOR MORE THAN ONE PURPOSE. THE CHARACTER OF THE MARKET CHANGED AND THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT ONE FACTOR, THE INCREASING SPEED AND RANGE OF MODERN TRANSPORT, WAS THE MAIN CAUSE NOT ONLY IN ASHFORD BUT ALL OVER THE COUNTRY.

DUKE OF EDINBURGH AT ASHFORD CATTLE MARKET 1968 IN 1986 IT BECAME OBVIOUS THAT THE ‘CHANNEL TUNNEL BILL’ WOULD SERIOUSLY EFFECT THE ASHFORD CATTLE MARKET COMPANY LTD AT ITS CURRENT LOCATION. VARIOUS COMPANIES ANNOUNCED THEIR INTENTIONS TO DEVELOP ALL OF THE LAND FROM THE STATION TO THE TOWN CENTRE. ONCE AGAIN, THE CATTLE COMPANY MOVED WHERE AFTER SOME RESISTANCE A SITE WAS FOUND ON THE SOUTHERN ORBITAL ROAD - WITH EASY ACCESS TO THE M20, RYE AND SUSSEX.

£108BN

THE NEW MARKET WAS EFFECTIVELY SPLIT INTO TWO. ONE HALF OF THE SITE DEDICATED TO LIVESTOCK. THE OTHER HALF: OFFICE BUILDINGS, AUCTION SUITES, RESTAURANT, CAFETERIA ETC.

THE MARKET COMPANY APPRECIATED THAT IT NEEDED TO APPEAL TO A BROADER AUDIENCE THAN JUST THE SPECIFIC AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY. ‘WE WANTED TO MAKE THE MARKET APPEALING TO THE MODERN FAMILY’, ‘IN ONE SENSE, HOLDING AUCTIONS INDOORS MAKES THEM MUCH MORE APPEALING TO THE FAMILY, AND ALMOST A FORM OF ENTERTAINMENT.’ ROGER LIGHTFOOT, THEN MARKET MANAGER (1997).

BREXIT

R. M. KEDWARD AGAINST THE 1936 TITHE BILL THE MONUMENT TO AN ASHFORD MP, WHO WAS THE CHAMPION OF THE FARMER’S STRUGGLE AGAINST THE INEQUITIES OF THE TITHE SYSTEM, HAS BEEN MOVED TO THE SITE OF THE NEW MARKET TO COMMEMORATE THE WORK DONE BY ONE OF THE FARMING COMMUNITY’S GREAT LEADERS.

86%

THE GRANITE STONE TO THE MEMORY OF RODERICK KEDWARD, MP FOR ASHFORD FROM 1929-1931, WAS MOVED FROM BEECHBROOK FARM, HOTHFIELD, TO THE NEW MARKET’S SITE. RODERICK KEDWARD WAS PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL TITHEPAYERS ASSOCIATION FROM 1931-1937. HE WORKED TIRELESSLY FOR THE ABOLITION OF TITHES WHICH WAS A TAX WHEREBY FARMERS GAVE ONE TENTH OF THEIR PRODUCE TO THE CHURCH EACH YEAR, OR PAY AND EQUIVALENT AMOUNT OF MONEY. MANY FARMS WERE SOLD BECAUSE OF THIS UNDEMOCRATIC TAX AND SOME FARMERS WENT BANKRUPT.

TITHES WERE INTRODUCED IN 1200. A TENTH OF THE PRODUCE OF EACH PARISH WENT TO THE CHURCH TO “ENABLE CLERGY TO MEET THE PEOPLE’S SPIRITUAL AND SOCIAL NEEDS, INCLUDING EDUCATION, RELIEF OF THE POOR, AND MAINTAINING CHURCH PROPERTY. WHILE THE STATE GRADUALLY TOOK CONTROL OF SUCH RESPONSIBILITIES, FARMERS STILL FACED PAYING TITHES. THE LAST STRAW WAS THE 1936 TITHE BILL ALLOWING THE GOVERNMENT TO PAY £53 MILLION TO THE CHURCH, COLLECTING MONEY FROM THE FARMERS TO COVER THE INTEREST; PROTESTS WERE HELD ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. HOWEVER, THE BILL STILL BECAME LAW AND TITHES WERE NOT FINALLY ABOLISHED UNTIL THE EARLY 1960s.

THE

EXPERIENTIAL LOCUS

Yantlet

YANTLET

Masterplan for ‘Transhumance’ The movement of people with livestock A global practice, curated

SWIGSHOLE ALIENABLE

Conserving the history of material technology failure Asbestos-composite cladding & respiratory disease Strategy for waste management in section design

Experiential theatre complex

assets and income in a post-Brexit rural economy