Weaving in Wallsend

Weaving in Wallsend

An Urban Commons for Tyneside

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Weaving in Wallsend

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An Urban Commons for Tyneside

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Weaving in Wallsend

Synopsis

An Urban Commons for Tyneside

This studio aims to explore ideas of civic space through the construction of ‘urban commons’: networked sites of shared public resources and community facilities that are carefully woven into the fabric and ecologies of the city, challenging the typical divisions between ‘public’ and ‘private’ space.

More broadly, this studio asks you to consider how an architect can operate as an advocate, an agent that seeks proactive social change, questioning the typical roles of power within the construction industry and re-emphasising the importance of citizen empowerment and inclusivity. What role can architecture play in embodying and enabling democracy? Neoliberal capitalism has led to widespread spatial injustices within contemporary urban developments, serving the demands of the market over the community. Do the current value systems within architecture need to be revisited and how can meaningful spaces be created without subsequent commodification?

You will have to ask yourself who are you advocating for, speculate on the ‘right to architecture’ and actively seek methods and design practices formed by social consciousness and activist tendencies.

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Weaving in Wallsend

An Urban Commons for Tyneside

Studio Themes

Critical spatial practice Commoning by design Activism and advocacy Communities and participation Meaningful civic exchange RetroFirst and adaptive re-use

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Weaving in Wallsend

An Urban Commons for Tyneside

Studio Leaders Sophie Baldwin has worked alongside practitioners in Nottingham, Newcastle and London developing an interest in the socioeconomic potentials of inclusive spatial design.

Her interests lie in researching the evolving nature of an architect - taking on the role of an advocate and facilitator, and the necessity of civic engagement within design. Working for Levitt Bernstein, Sophie works predominantly within housing design, trying to question the typical modes of housing production for more socially and environmentally sustainable practices. Current research involves challenging the designer/client relationship; ensuring that social value is prioritised within every project, putting the community and their quality of life at the forefront of design.

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Kieran Connolly is a Lecturer in Architecture and Ph.D candidate at the school. His research examines the use of standardised building components in architectural design and their relationship to contemporary attitudes in both architectural practice and building construction. He also works for the school’s inhouse design and research consultancy, Design Office, where he has been actively involved in the recent redevelopment and restoration of the University’s Armstrong Building. He has taught widely across all stages, involved in previous years teaching in Stages 1, 2, 3 and 6, alongside an M.Arch linked research module exploring themes related to his Ph.D research.

Luke Rigg is a London based architect currently working as a sole-practitioner on various smallscale projects. He has previously worked on a number of city centre masterplans and mixed use developments in the UK and internationally.

His main theoretical interest is in the socioeconomic and political systems that underpin contemporary urban design, and the role of architecture as a means of critiquing these. He has taught across Stages 2 and 3 in the school in previous years whilst in practice.

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Weaving in Wallsend

Studio Introduction

An Urban Commons for Tyneside

Historically the civic centre has occupied a prominent location in UK urban settlements, often housing the seat of local government such as the town hall and town square. In the past these were often grand architectural statements that created a symbolic focal point of civic activity and provided a backdrop for special events and ceremonies or were the sites of protests and rallies.

In the second half of the 20th century successive governments have carved-up and scaled back the operations of local government, preferring standardised and centralised policies and an increasing reliance on private companies to deliver public infrastructure and services, mirroring a general shift in UK politics toward free-market policies and neoliberal agendas.

Traditional civic centres, such as state owned and managed libraries and community halls are disappearing from regional towns in favour of private offerings or more digitised online services. Today, the centres of civic life more regularly take the form of privatised shopping centres, places where we consume and exchange within the flows of global capital.

Responding to this ever-changing context, you will be tasked with developing a contemporary centre of civic life, an ‘urban commons’ for Tyneside that incorporates a series of spaces for meaningful civic exchange and that prioritises inclusivity over exclusivity, public over private and the community over the individual.

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Weaving in Wallsend

An Urban Commons for Tyneside

Wallsend, a very brief history

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The focus for our studio this year will be Wallsend, a regional town in North Tyneside located a few miles to the east of Newcastle city centre. As an urban centre, Wallsend has a long history. The Roman fort, Segedunum (1), marked the eastern end of Hadrian’s Wall, a defensive line constructed to keep tribal forces from Scotland from invading Roman controlled ‘Britannia,’ and the remains of this strategic military settlement were unearthed during a series of excavations from the 1970’s onwards.

From around the mid-18th century, Wallsend’s urban morphology and cultural history was shaped by the forces of accelerated industrial development. Thanks largely to its proximity to the River Tyne, Wallsend, grew rapidly during the (first) Industrial Revolution (c.1760-c.1840).

First coal mining, then shipbuilding became key industries in Wallsend, as well as the wider North-East region, expanding the local population and densifying the urban area.

Importantly, shipbuilding became stitched – or woven – into the very identity of Wallsend (2), helping to cultivate a rich place of industry, culture and politics, and a hotbed of trade unionism and social empowerment.

More recently, Wallsend, like many former industrial UK towns, has undergone a process of ‘de-industrialisation,’ enacted by a mixture of free-market politics and shifting global economies. The shipyards have long since closed (3), and Wallsend is now a ‘satellite town’ linked into the wider Tyne and Wear metropolitan area, with Newcastle at its centre.

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1. Illustration of Segedunum Roman Fort 2. The World Unicorn being constructed in Wallsend shipyards 3. Views toward the Tyne from Wallsend

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Weaving in Wallsend

The Forum Shopping Centre

An Urban Commons for Tyneside

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Our site for the year will be the The Forum Shopping Centre, a mid-20th century shopping precinct occupying a central site in Wallsend, positioned along the main high street and at the axis of two major urban transport routes from north to south, and east to west (4).

Opened in 1966, The Forum was one of many new types of dispersed, out of town shopping centres popping up across the North-East and the UK more broadly. Borrowing ideas from the suburban shopping ‘malls’ of the US, The Forum was designed in a modernist style, referencing the Brutalist movement and constructed using a concrete frame, pre-cast concrete panels and brickwork reliefs.

The centre’s brand name trades off the town’s Roman history. In Roman settlements, the forum – or ‘fora’ – was an important public space at the heart of communal life, a common ground of shared spaces and sites of exchange, trade and commerce. Today, Wallsend’s modern day ‘fora’ channels the flows of contemporary culture.

Owned by New River REIT plc, a specialist ‘real estate investment trust’ that manages 33, largely regional or suburban, UK shopping centres, The Forum is home to number of retail outlets, from national chains to local business (5). It also hosts the ‘Wallsend Customer First Centre’ (6), a civic outpost of North Tyneside Council that serves as a ‘one-stop-shop’ of civic services - from a public library to an administration centre for state supported benefits - and is based very loosely on early 2000’s ‘Ideas Stores’ that were promoted as the future of the UK library by New Labour.

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4. The Forum in the 1960s 5. Wallsend Customer First Centre 6. Inside the The Forum

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An Urban Commons for Tyneside

The Urban Commons

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Working with this site of consumption, as well as the wider contexts of Wallsend, this studio asks that you reimagine The Forum Shopping Centre as an ‘urban commons’ – a networked site of community, culture and exchange.

The term ‘urban commons’ has become fashionable in recent years to describe new community oriented and community-led strategies that aim to preserve or create new public spaces and resources inclusive to all.

Set against the backdrop of the increased privatisation of public space, commons aim to create genuine sites of collective ownership that are carefully designed and interlinked into a wider network of community organisations and civic facilities (7). From community gardens (8) to subsidised laundrettes (9), the act of ‘commoning’ can take on various shapes and sizes, and presents a useful strategy for rethinking how certain contemporary spaces might be better utilised in the face of a growing number of social and environmental challenges.

Wallsend’s current Forum faces many threats to its future, from the decline of the high street in competition with online retailers to the ongoing difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, The Forum remains an important civic site in Wallsend, a place of everyday ritual and routine. This studio asks you, therefore, to think of ways in which this mid-century shopping precinct can be sustainably and resourcefully adapted into a common site of civic exchange and a space that is resilient to ever more volatile economies, ecologies and societies.

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7. Mapped diagram illustrating urban commons, AAA 8. R-Urban Community Farm, Paris, AAA 9. Service Wash community laundrette

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Weaving in Wallsend

An Urban Commons for Tyneside

Weaving in Wallsend

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You will be asked to develop your own brief and programme for an urban commons that is relevant to Wallsend, The Forum, and the theoretical and critical agenda that you will carefully define. Your urban commons should be designed for specific activities producing spatial experiences that are generous, not 20are Section exploitative and open to reinvention, reuse or even times of misuse. You are invited to consider the role of architects and designers as agents of advocacy and your proposal should engage with the communities it will serve, empowering them to actively participate and take ownership of the spaces you will be speculatively ‘futuring’ for Wallsend.

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You will need to think carefully about the design of your commons, considering the role of architecture and urban planning in cultivating spatial compositions where many layers of activity and use co-exist, and creating transformational environments that offer a variety of activities throughout the day (10).

Good examples of urban commons are carefully interwoven into the fabric of a city or urban settlement, offering spaces that reflect a city’s pattern of use and identity. You’ll also need to consider how the spatial organisation and urban response of your proposal can facilitate new modes of inclusive participation and engagement. And all of these considerations will need to be synthesised into an overall proposal that explains how your commons will be experienced by the community (11), whilst outlining how it will be constructed technically and environmentally (12).

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10. City Drawing, The Japan Pavilion, 2018 Venice Biennale 11. R-Urban Community Farm, Paris, AAA 12. The National Centre for Writing, Norwich, by Ash Sakula

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Weaving in Wallsend

An Urban Commons for Tyneside

Design Methods

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To help you realise your urban commons you will need to establish appropriate design methods and practices that reference and adopt ideas of critical spatial practice.

Critical spatial practice is a relatively new term, introduced by prominent architectural theorist Jane Rendell. For Rendell, critical spatial practice refers to a mode of architectural design that works between art and architecture, public and private, and theory and practice.

It is also a practice that borrows from stands of critical theory, notably those that engage with ideas of social transformation and selfreflection. In a broad understanding, critical spatial practices ‘are those that question and transform the social conditions of the sites into which they intervene, as well as test the boundaries and procedures of their own disciplines.’

Following these ideas and methods, you will be encouraged to embed yourself in the site, making detailed studies and readings in order to understand the context, the people who live and work in the area and those who visit it. You will need to consider the role that you, as a spatial practitioner, might play in the transformation of the immediate site, Wallsend and the wider context, not just architecturally but also socially and economically. You should consider how you might operate as agents of advocacy, seeking proactive alternatives to traditional professional practices and how you might re-tool advocacy so that is it interdisciplinary, transformational and inclusive.

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13. Inhabited section, Jonny Coekin, Future City 2019-20 14. Graphic novel, Ethan Medd, Future City 2019-20 15. Site readings, Oyinkan Omotola, Future City 2019-20

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Weaving in Wallsend

An Urban Commons for Tyneside

Theory

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As a ‘research by design’ focused studio we draw our methods from a wide and deep range of sources, ideas and practices. Central to our studio culture is that architectural practice can be used as a tool to critique dominant ideas that shape the architectural profession.

Importantly we ask that you recognise that practicing architecture is a social and political act as much as it is an artistic and technical pursuit. The production of buildings is shaped by political, social and economic motives, which in turn shape the future of towns and their potential prosperity or decline. Architecture is therefore a powerful asset in communicating the values of those who produce it.

We hope you will also recognise this over the coming year, and in turn will begin to develop strategies and methods which critically engage with how architecture is made and who it is for.

Referencing critical spatial practice you will be encouraged to develop your own methods and practices to question and transform the social conditions of Wallsend, as well as questioning the boundaries and procedures of the architecture profession.

At the end of the year it will be important for you to be able to demonstrate appropriate methods and techniques in response to the studio brief. You will need to coherently state why your building looks the way it does, the reasons behind your material choices and construction techniques and how your architecture addresses its contexts.

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16. Inhabited line drawing, Hannah Carson, Future City 2019-20 17. Inhabited section, Darcy Norgan, Future City 2019-20 18. Composite drawing, Harry Groom, Future City 2018-19

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Materials and Making 19

Architecture has the power to frame spaces of collective exchange, debate and participation in local democracy. You will be strongly encouraged to think about what your building will be made from and how your building will be constructed to achieve this. Importantly you must think carefully about why you are using a particular material or construction system and how you compose different materials and systems into a coherent whole.

The modern building is made of up numerous building elements and construction systems that need to be coordinated and detailed to create a coherent whole. From the structural frame to the façade treatment, to internal wall, floor and ceiling finishes all of these elements interface with one another and should be carefully considered. Similarly, an integrated lighting and building service strategy will need to be developed and suitably detailed. These should all be considered within the context of a project-wide ecological strategy, that responds to pertinent issues of climate and sustainability.

Alongside your submissions for ARC3013 Architectural Technology: Integrated Construction you will need to develop a coherent strategy to the materials used in your building and how your building is made.

Working with tools at your disposal you will be encouraged to experiment with different methods of digital and analogue, drawing and modelling to explore and represent the materials you choose and they way they are put together.

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19. Collaged perspective, Shuli Wu, Future City 2019-20 20. Inhabited detail section, Joe Caden, Future City 2019-20 21. Sketch perspective, Darcy Norgan, Future City 2019-20

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Approach to Climate Crisis

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The climate emergency is the biggest challenge facing our planet and sustainability should be at the forefront of your design, material and technical considerations. This studio will encourage three specific approaches.

RetroFirst Construction in the UK produces 35-40% of the country’s total emissions and is based on a wasteful economic model of demolition, disposal, new build. Your site contains a number of existing structures that you should consider for reuse as part of your proposals, however, please do note that to satisfy the learning outcomes there will need to be a degree of new build to your proposals (22).

Adaptability and Flexibility Many examples of contemporary buildings are not adequately adaptable or flexible. Many use cheap, standardised materials that cannot be easily adapted without wasteful strip-out and require significant redesign for changing uses.

You are encouraged to think about how your proposals can be readily adapted for potential future uses and perhaps even accommodate different uses throughout the day (23).

Ecological Advocacy You will be encouraged to think beyond spatial and physical responses to the climate crisis but also to consider the complex ecology that makes up our towns and how your proposal will provide space for civic debate and participation that is crucial to democratic civic change and addressing our ecological crisis (24).

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22. RetroFirst campaign 23. Social housing, Mulhouse, Lacaton Vassal 24. Civic Lab, Paris, AAA

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An Urban Commons for Tyneside

Programme Framing Framing will be divided into a series of weekly tasks intended to prime you with useful critical and theoretical knowledge, design methods and skills. We will focus on Wallsend as you begin developing methods and practices that respond to the area and rituals of civic life. The second half of Framing will see you begin early design explorations. You will need to develop a brief for your building proposal that takes into consideration both the themes of the studio and The Forum site we will be working on.

These considerations will be both physical and theoretical and you will need to think carefully and critically about the type of spaces you wish to create, how they will be used and how they will be constructed.

Testing During Semester 2 you will test a series of proposals working across a number of scales.

This will range from the urban scale of the town, considering how your building works with, and for, its context(s); to a detail level of testing out how one material meets another. At this stage important decisions will need to be made about your proposal. How does it interact with its context(s)? What does its form, shape, façade and materiality say about your urban commons and your critical spatial practice? And how does your building - its form, materiality, construction and programme facilitate inclusive and meaningful civic exchange amongst the communities of Wallsend?

Synthesis As the project draws to a close you will need to synthesise your experiments into a coherent building proposition that succinctly ties together your theoretical agenda into an architectural proposal that is carefully conceived in terms of its plan, section, elevation, technical details and material consideration. At this stage you will need to communicate your design methods and design process clearly and coherently using an appropriate range of mediums, from detailed drawings to explanatory sketches and models that might be reinforced through carefully crafted pieces of supporting text that will form the basis of your academic portfolio.

25. Site mapping, Allen Huang, Future City 2019-2020

26. Testing, Ethan Medd, Future City 2019-2020

27. Perspective Section, Will Tankard, Future City 2018-2019

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Learning Outcomes

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Over the duration of our studio we expect you to achieve a series of key learning outcomes that are intended to help prepare you for the next stage of your career, whether that continues into architectural practice or another discipline.

1. Production of a urban commons with a rich spatial programme and an appropriate choice of structure, materials, construction and environmental systems in response to the brief.

2. Development of methods and practices that respond to techniques and strategies of critical spatial practice.

3. Reflections on the role of the architect as an advocate, seeking proactive alternatives to traditional professional practice.

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4. Demonstrable experimentation with methods of representation to test and convey design ideas.

Studio Specific Marking Criteria 1. Demonstrating critical spatial practice How does your design proposal communicate and evidence critical spatial practice? What methods of design and practice have you adopted to translate and realise your ideas?

2. Demonstrating advocacy How does your proposal demonstrate your own advocacy as an architect and your responsibility to communities, social contexts and wider political concerns?

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28. Site axonometric, Will Tankard, Future City 2018-19 29. Rendered site elevation, David Gray, Future City 2017-18 30. Exploded axonometric, Shalini Tahalooa, Future City 2018-19

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Studio Culture It is important to stress that we as tutors and recent(ish) graduates recognise that you are still young architects and designers in the making, halfway through your academic architectural education. Therefore, we do not expect you to have answers to every problem you encounter, to be perfectly skilled at Photoshop or Revit, or be sure on the methods and techniques for exploring the design of buildings that are appropriate to your ideas.

Instead we expect you to display a willingness to learn and ask questions, to be enthusiastic and committed to the work you produce and to retain a conviction in your ideas that can be clearly articulated.

Our tutorials across the year will focus on honing these skills and finding the right methods to express each of you as individual designers and architects. These will be supported by studio-wide peer-to-peer sessions in the form of seminars and reviews where you are encouraged to contribute and offer your opinion on the wider themes of the studio and on the outputs of your colleagues as they emerge during the year. We wish to encourage an inclusive studio culture where all opinions count, student and tutor alike, and where the work produced will display a coherent, studiowide understanding of the themes and ideas we have chosen to explore.

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Key Readings & References Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley, Are We Human?: The Archaeology of Design (Baden: Lars Muller Publishers, 2016) Christian Borch and Martin Kronberger, Urban Commons: Rethinking the City, (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2016) Doina Petrescu, Altering Practices: Feminist Politics and Poetics of Space, (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2007) Doina Petrescu and Kim Trogal, The Social (Re)Production of Architecture: Politics, Values and Actions in Contemporary Practice, (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2016) Douglas Spencer, The Architecture of Neoliberalism: How Contemporary Architecture Became an Instrument of Control and Compliance, (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016) Jane Rendell, Jonathan Hill, Mark Dorrian and Murray Fraser, Critical Architecture, (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2007).

Jeremy Till, Architecture Depends, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2013) Kate Franklin and Caroline Till, Radical Matter: Rethinking Materials for a Sustainable Future (London: Thames & Hudson, 2019) Melanie Dodd, Spatial Practices: Modes of Action and Engagement with the City (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2019) Reiner de Graaf, Four Walls and a Roof: The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession, (Cambridge, Massachusett: Harvard University Press, 2019) Richard Sennett, Building and Dwelling: Ethics for the City, (London: Penguin, 2019) Seetal Solanki, Why Materials Matter: Responsible Design for a Better World, (Munich: Prestel, 2018) Stavros Stavrides, Common Space: The City as Commons, (London: Zed Books, 2016) Tahl Kaminer, Urban Asymmetries: Studies and Projects on Neoliberal Urbanisation, (Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 2013) Timothy Morton, Being Ecological, (London: Pelican, 2018)

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