Luxury Link

LUXURY LINK. A NEW SHOPPING CENTRE FOR ELEPHANT & CASTLE

THE ARCHITECTURE OF LUXURY URBAN REGENERATION IN LONDON THE WALWORTH ROAD

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank Samir Pandya and Nasser Golzari for the useful comments, remarks and engagement through the process of this thesis.

I would also like to thank all the people I’ve met through this course for the enriching discussions and exchanges we have had throughout the year.

SUMMARY

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INTRODUCTION

Luxury and fashion brands are well known for having their shops in the most expensive streets of the western capitals. Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Chanel are just a few examples among all the boutiques you can ind in Paris, New-York, or London.

In the past 30 years, we have seen more and more of those shops opening on the high street, in western countries, and also largely in Asia. The growth of the luxury market, not surprisingly, followed the path of the growth of Asian economies.

Japan has been the country where this industry grew the most in the 1980’s and the 1990s. Before going further into this work, it is important to understand why.

Louis Vuitton, the French ‘malletier’, famous for its luxury trunks and leather products irst entered the Japan market in the 1970s. The very irst shop was not a shop as we could see in the western streets. It was a booth inside of a major department store, a depāto (デパート). At the time, it was impossible for a foreign brand to penetrate the Japanese market in the ield of fashion and luxury without a joint-venture with a depāto.

These stores, such as Hankyu, Mitsukoshi, or Takashimaya, are strongly established and meet more than just the role of selling products. They offer services, counselling, cultural activities, exhibitions, and are strongly linked to everyday life. Most of them originated from private railway companies which, from the beginning of the 20th century started to build their own department stores directly linked to their lines’ termini. The railway network is extremely developed in Japan, as a consequence, depātos have become increasingly numerous and powerful.

When he irst established the branch of Louis Vuitton in Japan, Kyojiro Hata started by opening shops inside of a depāto in Tokyo. However, he knew that to further develop, the brand should cease to depend on department stores, and open its own boutiques. The brand becoming more and more popular, it was possible for the company to open its own boutique in 1999.

I had the chance to live in Japan for a few months, and this experience greatly in luenced the thesis topic I have chosen to develop throughout this year. Japan is a fascinating country, It’s history, culture, traditions as well as its geographical distance makes it one of the most interesting country that I have ever been able to see. As an architect, many of the cities and buildings that I saw during my stay aroused my curiosity. Among them, were lagship stores of luxury and fashion brands.

Renown architects have been commissioned by luxury and fashion brands since the 1990s to design lagship stores around the world. Some examples can be seen hereafter.

Top : Dior Omotesando, SANAA, Tokyo, 2004 http://marcokany.de/2010/tokio/

Above : Maison Hermès, Renzo Piano, Tokyo, 2001 lickr.com

Above : Prada, OMA, New York, 2001

Prada New York Epicenter, http://openbuildings.com/buildings/prada-new-york-epicenter-pro ile-3081

Opposite : Prada Aoyama, Herzog & De Meuron, Tokyo, 2003

Guillaume Delfesc, 2012

This phenomenon coincide with the historical context in which luxury and fashion brands developed themselves in the 1990s. Since architecture and the architects started to be seen as helpful for the brand’s image.

“The great luxury brands have chosen architects and designers because of the reputation and prestige they bring with them. Their work is not on sale, but it helps to display the product by converting it into a symbol of power and a permanent link with culture” Giron, M., 2010, p93 More recently, especially since the 2000s, collaboration between fashion brands and artists is becoming more and more common. Indeed, not only luxury bands value their shops architecture, but they also invest in patronage of artists. These brands no longer communicate exclusively through classical advertising. Fashion and luxury brands today are used to go beyond the ield of retail, and patronage is one example.

The irst example is the art installation Prada Marfa by the Scandinavian artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset : a Prada shop in the middle of the desert of Texas commissioned by the brand in 2005.

Top : Erwin Wurm for Hermès, 2008

Love Him Love Him, http://trendsafari.com/ visual-culture/erwin-wurm-love-him-lovehim-for-hermes/

Above : Yayoi Kusama for Louis Vuitton

BFA, Joe Schildhorn, http://www.elle.com/ news/fashion-style/yayoi-kusama-for-louisvuitton-nyc-windows

Opposite : Prada Marfa, Elmgreen and Dragset, 2005

Marshall Astor, 2007, Elmgreen & Dragset Prada Marfa - Head on, https://www. lickr. com/photos/15965815@N00/794650771

The main idea behind these patronages is for the brand to relate to its customers through art, giving the brand a more cultural status.

Among all the luxury and fashion brands that have a patronage program, Prada is an interesting example. It developed its own foundation for contemporary art : Fondazione Prada, based in Milano, and designed by Rem Koolhaas.

Large scale model of the Fondazione Prada in Milano, OMA

Fondazione Prada a Largo Isarco, http:// www.buromilan.com/?projects=fondazione-prada-a-largo-isarco-milano-italia

The examples of luxury boutiques we have seen so far can be found throughout the world, bringing with them the identity of the brand. Thus, the brand identity of Prada, Louis Vuitton, or Hermès that can be found inside of their shops is the same regardless of the location. As we have mentioned it before, one can ind these shops in Paris, New-York or London. The only common point among these locations is the high disposable income of the people visiting the area. In other words, these are areas where you can ind potential customers, not only in term of wealth, but also in term of the values they share with the brand.

What else could architecture do for luxury brands, and what could luxury brands potentially do for architecture ? This is something we will try to explore through this work.

One option would be to create an actual luxury shop into an environment where we would not usually ind it. Looking at some famous high streets such as Regent Street or New Bond Street in London, Ginza in Tokyo, or the Champs-ElysĂŠes in Paris, what would happen if one of these shops was moved to a more popular area like Walworth Road ?

The Walworth Road

Walworth road, http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/A215_road#mediaviewer/File:Walworth_road.jpg

This is what I want to explore throughout this project. Furthermore, the street is currently facing some changes and challenges as the Elephant & Castle area is undergoing a massive regeneration, with iconic projects like the Strata Tower.

PROJECT

INTRODUCTION Front cover of City, Street and Citizen

Walworth Road, is located in the south bank, in the borough of Southwark. The street runs between Elephant and Castle and Camberwell Road, and hosts a multitude of “Ethnic retails” (Suzanne M. Hall, 2011), in other words, shops owned by people from the different communities living in the area and that offer merchandises and goods from various countries.

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

According to the author, the high street has a crucial role. As two third of the Londoners are living within 500 metres of a high street. Its role is not only economical, but also social and cultural. Two thirds of the trips to the local street appear to be made in order to access forms of exchange and interaction other than retail. The street offers chances and opportunities to breach social and spatial divisions. This point becomes even more important in an environment that brings together individuals with different cultural backgrounds.

But how exactly does it work ? How can the street act as a catalyst for interaction between people ?

The book suggests that the particular experiences of the street are likely to create a local identity. This local identity is then shared by its many inhabitants and therefore creates a “collective membership” (p132).

The retail spaces are the architectural and physical elements responsible for this phenomenon. Research have shown the “signi icant economic and social role of small shops” on high streets across the UK. Therefore, the role of the different shops on Walworth road can inform the project.

We shall begin our exploration with a particular shop : Nick’s Caff, a typical London Caff located on the Walworth Road. Born in Cyprus, and emigrated to London in the 1950’s Nick’s father established the Caff in the 1960’s.

“Nick’s Caff is a small meeting place in a large and rapidly changing city. Within the interior off the street, experiences of belonging space from the vast distance of global migrations into London, down to which table regular customers feel comfortable to sit at. Those who occupy the tables in Nick’s Caff include the remnants of a white working-class neighbourhood alongside irst, second and third generations off immigrants. Together they offer us a view of the impact of global change on local life.”

Hall, S., 2013, p52 On Walworth Road, the Caff is the shared space where ‘newcomers’ and ‘established residents’, or migrants come to know each other. The question the author tried to answer was to know whether an array of individuals can recreate a sense of being local, and in what kind of space.

Through the study of this particular space, its role of a local meeting place became clear.

One can explain this situation through two points of view. For the owner there is the question of gaining the support of a varied clientele. For the

customer the point is to appropriate a space by regularly occupying it, “while observing established code of conduct” (p53).

Nick’s Caff is just an example, but one can understand its role and implication among the retail fabric of the Walworth Road.

Simultaneously, small independent shops have to face a marked, severe and continued decline across Britain : “retail is either large, af iliated and growing ; or small, independent and on the rapid demise” (p3)

The northern part of the Walworth Road ends on a major road junction, the Elephant & Castle. On this location is also situated the shopping centre that bears the same name.

This shopping centre built in the 1960’s became the irst covered shopping mall in Europe. It imported concepts from American shopping malls in a fashion that was completely new to the UK. Today it hosts around 80 shops, with an important representation of Latin American an Caribbean communities among them.

Despite its architectural novelty, or perhaps because of it, the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre has never been as successful as it was irst thought.

“Largest and most ambitious shopping venture ever to be embarked upon in London. In design planning and vision it represents an entirely new approach to retailing, setting standards for the sixties that will revolutionise shopping concepts throughout Britain.”

The Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre, Sales Brochure, Developments, W. , 1963, p1 During the 1990s it has undergone some quick ixes and refurbishments, and was soon decided to be demolished. A masterplan had been drawn in 2004 by MAKE architects, and would see the shopping centre demolished in 2010. However, no demolition works have begun, and none are expected in the near future.

Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre

http://blackcablondon. iles.wordpress. com/2012/10/elephant-and-castle-shopping-centre-2012.jpg?w=620

Recently, the Southwark Council sold two major areas located on both sides of the Elephant & Castle to a developer to create new homes as part of a massive regeneration project.

This project is spread on two sites of respectively 1.5 et 22 acres. On the smaller part, the developer creates a 37 storey tower adjacent to a four storey building offering around 300 high-end lats and studios.

The larger part is located on the site of the former Heygate estate, on the east side of the current shopping centre.

Completed in 1974, the Heygate estate was a large housing estate of neo-brutalist architecture, housing around 3000 people in 1200 socially rented units. It is currently under demolition.

This whole regeneration project is strongly criticized by a group of local inhabitants who fear gentri ication.

At the intersection of a street with a strong identity, and two new redevelopment programs bringing new inhabitants to the area, is the Elephant & Castle shopping centre. On this very site, how can an architectural project accommodate all these factors ?

Then how can retail spaces in general, and luxury shops in particular, take part in such a project ?

THE ISSUE OF LARGE REDEVELOPMENTS IN LONDON The regeneration project that one can witness in Southwark is part of a wider context. Many other redevelopment took place recently, or are currently taking place across London.

King’s Cross is one famous example. To the north of King’s Cross and St Pancras stations, a 65 acres brown ield of former railway lands is being redeveloped. The project is a mixed use program of housing, of ices, and public spaces.

Initiated in the 2000s with the move of the Eurostar international station to St Pancras in November 2007, the project is still under construction.

This type of massive urban intervention doesn’t get unanimous support.

A large amount of online literature exists to make dissonant points of view visible. Inhabitants of the affected areas create websites, blogs, and set up public meetings to make their voices heard.

King’s Cross Redevelopment

http://kxdf. iles.wordpress.com/2014/04/ b6-from-above.jpg?w=300&h=225

Generally speaking, what stands out of these media is people feeling not heard by the decision makers.

“I’ve often wondered how the management of Argent would feel if a development the size of a small town happened within 300 yards of their front doors. If they had been positively engaged with, their concerns properly given respect and real weight they may well have welcomed it. If they had been effectively shut out with a massive outline planning application stopping real discussion of detailed plans perhaps they would feel miffed.”

Talbot, S., 2014 The result of such redevelopment are not only brand new buildings and refurbished streets, but also a change in the local populations. Higher rents of the newly built homes, make leaving in the area more dif icult for the historical inhabitants. Newcomers with higher purchasing power settle, changing the whole social character of the neighbourhood (Cowley, 1979). This process is called gentri ication.

This gentri ication phenomenon happened, or is happening to many redeveloped areas across London. The issue is being widely criticized by inhabitants.

Southwark Notes is a blog created and maintained by locals of the borough of Southwark who feel affected by the new redevelopment in Elephant & Castle. This blog strongly criticize the regeneration project engaged by the council.

The site informs us about three of the main reasons for this opposition.

Firstly the gentri ication in itself, rising the properties prices and threatening the existing shops : “After the luxury lats market set the trend for our previously unfashionable and always snubbed part of London, the volume housing developers (like Wimpey or Countryside) came in on the act to throw up acres of cheaply built but expensive housing. Now, after, nearly a decade of development, Walworth, one of the poorest areas in England has seen the irst arrival of a yuppie housing market. Not only has this impacted on the local area, with vacant spaces being built on for new oddly-coloured buildings, but the sale and market in ex-council houses has gone through the roof” Southwark Notes, 2012 Then, the destruction of the 1,200 homes of the Heygate Estate and the eviction of its inhabitants.

“Heygate Estate had to be removed from the Zone 1 super transport-connected Elephant & Castle. A massive site of prime cheap land for new expensive private housing” Southwark Notes, 2012 Facing dif iculties to relocate inhabitants in 16 new Housing Association-run blocks, some of them not yet built at the time of eviction. To the extent that some council tenants were asked to ind homes themselves through the Council’s Homesearch waiting list.

Finally, among the 2,300 new homes of the project only a small fraction is reserved for social housing. Indeed, only 79 homes of the new program will be social housing units (3.4%). In the meantime, the lowest price for a one bedroom lat in the new development is £310,000.

The process of gentri ication brings a controversial change to local communities, and is in itself a reason for the criticism that developed in recent years towards large redevelopment projects in London. In Elephant & Castle the regeneration project supported by the council sees homes demolished and their occupants evicted, without being resettled nearby because of the lack of social housing included in the new program. As a result the project has been called a ‘Rip Off’ by the inhabitants.

It is in this complex context that the project is going to take place. We shall see now, how luxury can inform further this endeavour.

Above : One the Elephant gentrification

Gentriϔication top trumps, http://southwarknotes.wordpress.com/graphics/gentri ication-top-trumps/

Bottom : Rip Off Elephant logo

http://southwarknotes. iles.wordpress. com/2013/01/pink-ele-rip-off. jpg?w=300&h=212

Elephant & Castle area Before the Heygate Estate demolition

Elephant & Castle area Redevelopment project by Lend Lease

One the Elephant

Leisure Centre

Strata Tower

Elephant Park (former Heygate Estate)

Current amount of social-rented units Heygate Estate

Amount of social-rented units in the new development Heygate Estate

LUXURY “A thing is said to promote the interest, or to be for the interest, of an individual, when it tends to add to the sum total of his pleasures : or, what comes to the same thing, to diminish the sum total of his pains. ” Bentham, J., 1780 At a time deeply affected by scarcity, and vulnerability towards the misery, this statement seems natural. Therefore according to Jeremy Bentham, diminishing the sum the pains is associated promotes the interest of an individual. In this case, luxury is not a natural interest, and is therefore super luous. One can agree or not with this theory, but today’s consideration of luxury has changed.

Luxury is no longer limited to the elite. Since we no longer referred to luxury solely, but to the luxury industry. It has indeed expended unstoppably from a craft into an industry (Sudjic, 2008). Nowadays it is a business of large scale, based on marketing principles.

In the meantime, it has become increasingly dif icult to de ine luxury in our contemporary context.

“The wonder is that the concept has survived at all, when there are so many more possessions and they are so much easier to make than in the past” Sudjic, D., 2008, p95 Thus the major European Maisons, formerly craftsmen, have become brands with sales strategies, product lines, and customers. Therefore the clientele of luxury is everywhere. And we are witnessing a ‘luxurisation’ of the common consumption behaviours (Michaud, 2013). Today, almost everyone can acquire a luxury good : a t-shirt, or even a Ferrari key ring.

Those brands have strong and well thought marketing strategies. Patronage is one of them. As we saw earlier, luxury brands act as patrons for artists, creating their foundations for contemporary art, as it is the case for the Fondazione Prada.

Architecture is also used as a marketing tool : concept stores and lagship stores are built, helping the brand to acquire a cultural image and identity that is no longer only a retail one.

Could we imagine a new type of patronage ? One that would not be directed toward art ? Could we introduce a concept of a more social patronage ? The idea that a luxury brand participates in the life of a community and in maintaining it is a challenging idea.

This is one of the direction this project is taking. Luxury brands can use some of their wealth and power to help establishing shops for the local communities, as we will see later. But it cannot be the only idea here. According to Rem Koolhaas, ‘Luxury is stability. Luxury is ‘‘waste’’. Luxury is generous. Luxury is intelligent. Luxury is rough. Luxury is attention.’ And he concluded by saying that ‘Luxury is not ‘‘shopping’’.’

What can luxury be then ? And more precisely, what can luxury be in this particular context and site of London, Southwark, the Walworth Road, and the Elephant & Castle ? It cannot be just another luxury shop : there are enough of them on New Bond Street.

“Scarcity can make luxury from the simplest of things” Sudjic, D., 2008, p91 What would be scarce in the Elephant & Castle ? Would be affordable lands for small shops ? Would it be the continuity a space of intense social activity ? A space where everyday practice would allow people from diverse backgrounds to share values and recreate a local identity ?

Perhaps Japanese depātos are right when they offer many services for the locals, going way beyond the simple notion of shopping : Perhaps this would be luxury.

Mitsuya Ginza : A Japanese department store

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/ thumb/5/5f/Matsuya_Ginza_2012.jpg/738px-Matsuya_Ginza_2012.jpg

THE PROJECT As we have seen, Elephant & Castle is a complex site. Its complexity lays in the fact that its history is shared with the histories of the many communities established there, and their future is closely connected. The fascinating sociological and ethnographical study of the Walworth Road by Suzan Hall made us learn more about the social role of the street in complex displacement processes, identity and the re-appropriation of a local identity.

The Walworth Road is rich in many different shops, inhabitants and cultural backgrounds. The Elephant & Castle shopping centre is an extension of this street.

Large scale regeneration projects have been transforming London for years, although often facing protests from local residents, fearing gentriication.

It is the duty of the architect to understand what is happening in a particular site, and to take into account its human features. Architecture itself has a role to play in integrating communities in the processes of urban change.

Luxury, and especially the luxury industries are no longer mere goods retailers. They embody various features, such as a brand image, values, which are those that attract their customers.

Earlier, we were asking the question whether these brands could contribute in a new way. In other words, if they could become patrons in a new way.

“The market is the place where goods and utilities meet.”

Michaud, Y., 2013 A traditional meeting place in the city is the market. One of the main issue of this project is to bring together newcomers of the redevelopment programs and historical inhabitants. The natural site for such a project is the Elephant & Castle shopping centre.

Therefore, I aim to create in this central area a new meeting point, a new market, in fact a new shopping centre. Based on my previous research on brands, I’ll offer a new ‘brand identity’, a ‘rebranding’ for the project : The New Elephant.

Survey of the independant shops on the Walworth Road, sorted by proprietor’s origin Source : Hall, S., (2011). City, Street and Citizen: The Measure of the Ordinary. London : Routledge.

England 26 Rep. of Ireland 1 Italy 2 Cyprus 4 ‘European’ 1 Afghanistan 2 ‘African’ 3 Caribbean 1 China 3 Ghana 4

Jamaica 4 Malawi 3 Malaysia 1 Nigeria 6 Pakistan 7 Sierra Leone 1 Sudan 1 Trinidad 1 Turkey 12 Vietnam 5

India 6 Iran 1

Undisclosed 31 Total 126

Thanks to the data gathered by Suzan Hall on the shops ownership, we can imagine what the program of The New Elephant will look like. The shopping centre will offer a mix of shops from different locations. The goal is to allow newcomers and migrants who irst settle in the area to open a business and become part of the community. These shops will have the opportunity to settle in a place with cheap rents. Indeed, I aim to create a ‘social patronage’ as mentioned earlier, and brands can be part of this scheme. Luxury brands would have some boutiques on The New Elephant, and by paying a higher rent, they would help to inance the low rents of the other shops.

Luxury for these brands would be to settle in the heart of a vast regeneration program where they will have access to wealthy customers. In the meantime, luxury for the shops of the newcomers would be to have an affordable place to settle and make business in an extremely well located and connected area of London. The New Elephant can then act as an incubator for these small shops, allowing migrants and newcomers to settle in, grow their business, and move to other parts of the city or the country.

The next pages display the mass plan of the building as a whole.

Mass plan The New Elephant

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

Barthes, R., (1957). Mythologies. Paris : Editions du Seuil.

Bruyninckx, J., (2006). Dress Code : Interior Design for Fashion Shops. Amsterdam : Frame.

Curtis, E., Watson, H., (2007). Fashion Retail. Chichester, England : Wiley.

De Bottom, A., (2004). Status Anxiety. London : Penguin.

Dunn, N., (2012). Digital Fabrication in Architecture. London : Laurence King Publishing Ltd. Eugenia Giron, M., (2010). Inside Luxury: the growth and future of the luxury industry. London : LID. Fowler, B., (1997). Pierre Bourdieu and Cultural Theory, Critical investigations. London : Sage.

Geczy, A., Karaminas, V., (2012). Fashion and Art. Oxford : Berg Publishers.

Hall, S., (2011). City, Street and Citizen: The Measure of the Ordinary. London : Routledge.

Hata, K., (2004). Louis Vuitton Japan : the building of luxury. New York, NY : Assouline.

Judy Chung, C., Inaba, J., Koolhaas, R., Tsung Leong, S., (2001). Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard Design School.

Lane, J.F., (2000). Pierre Bourdieu a Critical Introduction. London : Pluto.

Marenco Mores, C., (2006). From Fiorucci to the guerilla stores. Garsington : Windsor distributor.

Michael Rock, M., (2009). Prada.

Michaud, Y., (2013). Le Nouveau Luxe : Expériences, arrogance, authenticité. Paris : Stock.

Michell, G., (1986). Design in the High Street. London : Architectural Press.

MVRDV, (2012). The Vertical Village : Individual, Informal, Intense. Rotterdam : NAi Publishers.

Sudjic, D., (2008). The Language of Things. New York : Allen Lane.

Tarbatt, J., (2012). The Plot : Designing Diversity in the Built Environment: a manual for architects and urban designers.

London : RIBA Publishing.

Yaneva, A., (2009). Made by the Ofϔice for Metropolitan Architecture : An Ethnography of Design. Rotterdam : 010 Publishers.

Websites

35% Campaign. Campaigning for a more affordable Elephant & Castle : http://35percent.org (accessed 2014) King’s Cross Development Forum : http://kxdf.wordpress.com (accessed 2014) King’s Cross : http://www.kingscross.co.uk (accessed 2013 and 2014) Kings Cross Environment : http://kingscrossenvironment.com (accessed 2014) NewStatesman : http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/11/look-heygate-estate-whats-wrong-londonshousing (accessed 2014) Post-War Buildings. Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre : http://postwarbuildings.com/buildings/elephant-and-castle-shopping-centre#reference1 (accessed 2014) Southwark Notes - whose regeneration ? : http://southwarknotes.wordpress.com (accessed 2014)

APPENDIX

APPENDIX 1 Location

WALWORTH ROAD Retail spaces (shops, pubs, restaurants)

N

APPENDIX 2 Country of birth

83%

61%

England Scotland Wales Northern Ireland Republic of Ireland Other EU countries Elswhere

58%

58%

64%

66% 62% WALWORTH ROAD

N

APPENDIX 3 Religion

59%

48%

Christian Buddhist Hindu Jewish Muslim Sikh Other religion Atheist Religion not stated

52%

55%

62%

61% 61% WALWORTH ROAD

N

Design report Major thesis project ARCH701 GUILLAUME DELFESC MA in Architecture, Cultural Identity & Globalisation University of Westminster - 2013/2014

Design report Major thesis project ARCH701 + GUILLAUME DELFESC + MA in Architecture, Cultural Identity & Globalisation University of Westminster - 2013/2014