Curating the City

CURATING THE CITY Embodied Reading and Progressive Conservation for the Saltaire World Heritage Site

ARC3001 Architectural Design Stage 3 Design Studio VIII Tutors: Jianfei Zhu and Neil Burford

Image: Saltaire Village, pre-1857 In Sir Titus Salt and the First Super-Mill, My Learning: Available at: https://www.mylearning.org/stories/ saltaire--victorian-model-town-then-and-now/522?

Studio VIII: CURATING THE CITY

SYNOPSIS This studio explores the ideas of ‘curating’ as a method to critically engage a World Heritage Site – Saltire in West Yorkshire. Built in 1851-53, Saltaire was a model village/ town comprising then the largest and most advanced textile mills, with workers housing and communal facilities, all in a coherent planning of townscape and landscape. A culmination of industrial settlement development over a century, and a pioneer of ideas of town planning and the Garden City to come, Saltaire – now a World Heritage Site – commands a pivotal position in the Industrial Age and the forming of ideas that constituted the meaning of being modern – such as welfare society and city planning.

Our task, within the studio and with our architectural instruments, is to develop a way of curating the site by contributing a design intervention, with creative ideas and perceptive studies, and a certain theorized agenda.

Image: Twisting Yarn at Salt’s Mill, Early 20thC In Sir Titus Salt and the First Super-Mill, My Learning: Available at: https://www.mylearning.org/stories/ saltaire--victorian-model-town-then-and-now/522?

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Image: Front Cover - Saltaire: The Making of a Model Town.

Staples, Byrony, 2010 3

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Image: Saltaire, 1841-1852.

Ordinance Survey, Yorkshire CCI.11, 1841-1852 5

Image: Salts Mill circa 1853 In Abrahms and Chronicle Wordpress, Available at: https:// abramsandchronicle.wordpress.com/2015/01/21/bookstore-ofthe-week-salts-mill-gallery-bookshop/

Image: Saltaire; The New Mill Yorkshire Post: Available at: https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/heritage/automatic-bollards-could-be-installedworld-heritage-site-saltaire-stop-trespassers-2980618 6

THEMES 1. City as Gallery (…. of Vision on the Move) Embodied Seeing, Felt Knowledge & Engaged Tourism 2. Progressive Conservation and Critical Heritage Studies History as Live; Constructive Memory 3. Garden City & Landscape Urbanism Valley Ecology and Sustainable Urban/Land Form Assemblage of Life/Work and City/Landscape 4. Culmination of Industrial Settlement Design in Mid-19th Century (Saltaire) Pioneer of Town Planning in Mid-19th Century (Saltaire) City as Utopia, City as Archaeology

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Basics Site

Selected points in and around Saltaire World Heritage Site

Programme

Interpretation (Visitors) Centre + public facilities and/or infrastructures 1500 sq.m. and multi-storeys

Agenda Curating the Site for a Progressive Conservation & Embodied Reading

Image: Sir Titus Salt In Sir Titus Salt and the First Super-Mill, My Learning: Available at: https://www.mylearning.org/stories/ saltaire--victorian-model-town-then-and-now/522?

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Image: Salts Mill, looking east.

Photo taken 21 Sept 2020 © Jianfei Zhu 9

Studio Leaders Jianfei Zhu Having obtained BSc in China and PhD at University College London, and with practice, Jianfei started his academic career since the mid-1990s. He has taught in London and Tasmania and for a long while at Melbourne, before joining Newcastle in 2019 as Chair of East Asian Architecture. Jianfei is specialized in the area of history, theory and criticism, with a focus on political/social theory, spatial analysis, visualization and late imperial and modern architecture of China. He pioneered a microscopic spatial/political analysis of imperial Beijing, and was the first to write on contemporary Chinese architecture (AA files 1998; 2G 1999). He is the author of ‘Robin Evans in 1978’ and ‘Criticality in between China and the West’ (Journal of Architecture 2011 and 2005), and ‘Empire of Signs of Empire’ (Harvard Design Magazine 2014). Jianfei has delivered more than 100 publications and more than 100 public lectures worldwide.

Neil Burford A professionally accredited architect with over 20 years of experience in education and professional practice. He developed his academic career at the University of Dundee and joined SAPL at Newcastle University in 2017 as a Reader in Architecture. He is currently Director of Technology, Co-Director of the Architecture Research Collaborative (ARC) and an editor for Architecture Research Quarterly.

His work involves a combination of research-led practice, experimental research into construction and making, and social science research through community engagement. He has a particular interest in the rural, low energy housing and the craft of sustainable construction. His creative practice work has been published widely in architectural research journals and in book chapters and he has been shortlisted on a number of international design competitions including the British Homes Awards and 100 Mile House competition. He was awarded the Royal Institute of Architects in Scotland ‘Scottish Design Tutor Award’ in 2013-2015.

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Studio Description Our studio can be described with the following key specifications: + a research-led design exercise + duo-focus on the past and the present (history itself and our intervention with it) + using ‘curation’ as a key concept and method to address the two different concerns (history itself and our perspective and relations with it) + exploring a network of ideas using ‘curation’ as a central task – curating our seeing, reading, knowing, interacting, contributing and promoting values of the Site, Saltaire, as WHS (World Heritage Site) + tapping into the toolkit and conceptual armory of ‘critical heritage studies’ + precedent case studies will be part of the process + a mixture of collective and individual work – where individual sites and designs contribute to a shared overall site (Saltaire WHS) + an emphasis on landscape and cityscape throughout the studio

Image: Salts Mill, looking east.

Photo taken 21 Sept 2020 © Jianfei Zhu 11

Image: View along Victoria Road, looking north.

Photo taken 21 Sept 2020 © Neil Burford

Image: View along Edward Street, looking north.

Photo taken 21 Sept 2020 © Jianfei Zhu 12

Image: View along George Street, looking north.

Photo taken 21 Sept 2020 © Jianfei Zhu 13

Timetable Framing (Semester 1): Group Work + Individual Portfolio Week 1-4 5 groups x 4 to work on these five themes with visualized & thick description: 1. City as Gallery (… Vision and Tourism) 2. Critical Heritage Studies 3. Garden-City Assemblage 4. Industrial Model settlement (Saltaire) 5. Digital Site Modelling of SWHS Week 4 Monday: Forum Week 5-8 5 groups x 4: Precedent case studies 10 groups x 2: Ten sites: 3D digital model + visual analysis 20 individuals: Individual Brief + site analysis + massing & visual analysis Week 8 Monday: Exhibition: 5 groups thematic studies and group digital model.

Week 8 Friday: Submission: Draft Academic Portfolio and Thematic Case Studies Testing (Semester 2): Individual Design Testing, Wks 1-4, a declared scheme which has been thoroughly tested on site.

Synthesis (Semester 2 + 3): Development + Submit, Wks 5-9 +, a fully declared and refined scheme which integrates theory and technology.

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Outcomes & Marking Criteria Tectonics Our studio will creatively explore the ideas of ‘memory’ and ‘invention’ by examining the following three concepts: + the nature of materials and their forms, old and new and how these may be combined in new aesthetic relationships; + forms of structure that allow the building a greater plastic flexibility to give its spaces a greater density; + the nature of the joint and its symbolic expression within the context of the ‘whole’.

Approaches to Climate Crisis We will investigate the issues of technology, society and environment through their interrelated co-creative dynamics. Using Patrick Geddes’s typology of civics and technics we will use this as a framework to situate proposals for reconstructing the city ecologically and socially.

Architectural Theory We encourage students to start from any one or a few ideas in our listed 4 themes (clusters of ideas) to develop their own focus of writing and thinking, for both ARC3001 and 3015 (Theory into Practice).

Marking Criteria 1. Visual, spatial and interactive relations to the Saltaire WHS and its primary landmarks and landscape(s) will be the essential marking criterion.

2. Clear conceptual framing (theorizing) and communication (verbal, graphic, tectonic), for the agenda of curating the Site towards a progressive conservation & embodied reading.

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Recreation Ground

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ER C O AC H

R O AD

Wind e rm

ere R oad

HIG H

TH

OM

PS

ON

PO

Saltaire Cricket Ground

Roberts Park Cup and Ring Lodge

Riv

er A

ire

Bowling Green

Pav Inn (PH) Tennis Courts Bowling Green

New Mill

Towin rpo ol Ca Leeds and Live

Riverside Court

g Pat h

69.5m

nal

Victor ia

Saltaire

Allotment Gardens

Salt's Mill

74.4m

Te rrace

Church

79.6m

Shipley College Salt air e

80.2m

Sta ti

on

RO AD

11

Art Gallery Art Gallery

79.2m

AM ELIA

EDWAR

Hall

Allotment Gardens

Car Park

11

11

Allotment Gardens SALTAIRE

ST REET

D STRE ET

ST FANNY

83.8m

WILLI AM

11

ALBERT

DALLAM AVENUE

New Mill

Club

Hall 83.5m

STREET

HELEN

REET

STREET

SCHO OL

CARO LI

LO CKW

O O D ST

REET

ADA ST

UE

11

CE

ET

RO AD

96.3m

O AD

M eth C hurc

RIA R

Saltaire

KS STRE

Car Haro ld

Plac e

90.8m

Fern Pl ac e

Fire Station

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My rtle Pl ace

The Tramshed

ST REET

h

Daisy Pl ace

Park

RNE ST REET

EN

E ST RE

93.0m 94.5m

86.3m

JANE ST REET

Bank

ME LBO U

AR

96.6m

UPPER

11

CL

KATHER IN

GE ORGE

REET

ET

UPPER

Y STRE

ADA ST

SHIRLE

97.2m

of

ET

89.6m

NCE ST REET MARY STREET

ALBERT

RO AD

CO NSTA

N ST RE

REET 89.3m

Hirst Wood

MAW SO

MA DDOC

TITU S ST

ST REET

EXHIBI TI O N RO AD

89.3m

Saltaire Primary Sch

SCHO OL

ET

Victoria Hall

HIGHER

89.6m

VICTO

Square Day Nursery 101.8m

Clu

b

PH

QU EENS

PLACE

Rosse Works

DO VE ST

107.3m

REET REET

100.9m

Playing Field

LB BING

L EY

ROA

D

PARK ST

N AVEN

WHI TLAM

CARLTO

MA RY ST REET

STREET

81.7m

LO WER

PAR K

TERRAC

Playing Field

OA S TL

ER R O AD C ar P ark

PARK AV

EN UE

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E

SALTAIRE WORLD HERITAGE SITE

THOMPSON LANE

E GL NA IRE

MIDGELEY ROA

DR I VE

World Heritage Site boundary

D

IE AIREV

W CRES

St Hug

STREET

h's

AIRE

Kingdom Hall

WAY

TENNIS WAY

COACH ROAD

Riv er Aire 64.3m 69.5m

63.1m

Lee

ds

and

Liv

e rp

o ol

Ca

69.5m

nal

Salt's Mill

69.5m

Salt's Mill

INE ST RE

ELLI O TT

CENT

ET

Wyc lif fe

C.E. M

81.4m PH

Crown

JO HN

STREE

T

BAKER

RHO DE

STREE

T

S STRE

ET

Playground

SALTA

iddle S ch oo

l

Works Works

IRE R O AD

Surgery

78.6m

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Working Men's

Car Park

88.1m

JULY 2008 Reproduced from the Ordnance Survey mapping with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office © Crown copyright.

Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings.

City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council 100019304

N

Scale 1:3,000

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SALTAIRE WORLD HERITAGE SITE & BUFFER ZONE World Heritage Site boundary World Heritage Site buffer zone

JULY 2008 Reproduced from the Ordnance Survey mapping with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office © Crown copyright.

Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings.

City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council 100019304

N

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Scale 1:17,484

Context and Site Information Ten Sites of SWS Ten sites in/around Saltaire World Heritage Site are specified for students to consider their sites and briefs. More information is to be provided later: 1 rural life, 2 craft, 3 health & welfare, 4 lock-gate and Leeds-Liverpool Canal, 5 social club & allotments, 6 obelisk/chimney, 7 for residents (gateway), 8 axis/vista (gateway), 9 tramshed (gateway), 10 college.

Key Documents on SWS + Nomination of Saltaire Village for Inclusion in the World Heritage List 2001 + Saltaire World Heritage Site Management Plan 2014 + Appendix 7, Setting Survey (2012) (PDFs of these will be distributed.)

Key Websites on SWS General: https://saltairevillage.info Bradford City Council: https://www.academyofurbanism.org.uk/saltaires-role-in-regeneration/ Academy of Urbanism: https://www.academyofurbanism.org.uk/saltaires-role-in-regeneration/ UNESCO: https://whc.unesco.org/uploads/nominations/1028.pdf Maps: https://www.google.com/ maps?q=saltaire+village+planning+and+development&rlz=1C1AVFC_ enGB907GB907&um=1&ie=UTF8&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjti6rXpdfrAhVR-6QKHedhBhEQ_ AUoAnoECAsQBA 20

Image: View along a back looking to the moor.

Photo taken 21 Sept 2020 © Neil Burford 21

Readings 1. City as Gallery (Vision & Embodied Knowledge): Moir, James, ‘Seeing the Sites: Tourism as Perceptual Experience’, in Tourism and Visual Culture, Vol 1, eds. P Burns, C Palmer and J-A Lester, Oxfordshire: CABI, 2010, pp 165-169. <PDF> Burns, Peter, Cathy Palmer & Jo-Anne Lester, ‘Introduction’, in Tourism and Visual Culture, Vol 1, eds. P Burns, C Palmer and J-A Lester, Oxfordshire: CABI, 2010, pp xv-xxi. <PDF> + Table of Contents x 2, Tourism and Visual Culture, Vol 1 and 2, Oxfordshire: CABI, 2010. <PDF> Wells, Karen, ‘The Material and Visual Cultures of Cities’, Space and Culture, Vol. 10, No. 2 (May 2007) 136-144. <PDF> Urry, John and Jonas Larsen, The Tourist Gaze 3.0, London: Sage, 2011; ‘C1, Theories’ and ‘C7, Vision and Photography’, pp 14-36 and 129-153. <PDF> Foster, Hal, ed. Vision and Visuality, Seattle: Bay Press, 1988. [Level 4; 700.1 VIS] Jay, Martin, ‘Scopic Regime of Modernity’, Vision and Visuality, ed. Hal Foster, Seattle: Bay Press, 1988, pp. 3-23.

Urry, John, The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies, London: Sage Publications, 1990. [Level 3; 338.4791 URR]

2. Critical Heritage Studies & City Curation: Winter, Tim, ‘Clarifying the critical in critical heritage studies’, International Journal of Heritage Studies, Vol 19, No 6 (2013) 532-545. <PDF> Winter, Tim & Emma Waterton, ‘Critical Heritage Studies’, International Journal of Heritage Studies, Vol 19, No 6 (2013) 529-531. <PDF> Heathcott, Joseph, ‘Curating the City: Challenges for Historic Preservation in the Twenty-First Century’, Journal of Planning History, Vol 5, No 1 (Feb 2006) 75-83. <PDF> Benesch, Henric, Heritage as Common(s): Common(s) as Heritage, Goteborg: Makadam Forlag, 2015. (1st volume in ‘Curating the City’ series). [Books Level 3 (306 HER)]

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3. Garden-City Assemblage (Valley Ecology): Young, Robert, “Free cities and regions”—Patrick Geddes’s theory of planning, September 2017, Landscape and Urban Planning, DOI: 10.1016/j. landurbplan.2017.07.007 <PDF> Wahl, Christian, Design and Planning for People in Place: Sir Patrick Geddes (1854-1932) and the Emergence of Ecological Planning, Ecological Design and Bioregionalism, Medium < https://medium.com/@designforsustainability/ design-and-planning-for-people-in-place-sir-patrick-geddes-1854-1932-and-theemergence-of-2efa4886317e (Accessed 2nd October 2020).<PDF> Barton, Hugh, ‘Chapter 4, The Emergence of Modern Planning’, in City of WellBeing: A Radical Guide to Planning, Hugh Barton, London: Routledge, 2017, pp 47-62. <PDF> DeLanda, Manuel, A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity, London: Bloomsbury, 2006. ‘Introduction’ (pp 7-11) and ‘Chapter 5, Cities & Nations’ (pp 74-103). <PDF> 4. Industrial Settlement & Town Planning (Saltaire) (Archaeology of): Minnery, John, ‘Model Industrial Settlements and Their Continuing Governance’, Planning Perspectives, Vol 27, No 2 (April 2012) 309-321. <PDF> Thornton, Helen, ‘Saltaire’s Role in Regeneration’, The Academy of Urbanism (21 July 2014), <https://www.academyofurbanism.org.uk/saltaires-role-inregeneration/> (accessed 11 Sept 2020). <PDF> 5. Mapping Ideas and Skills: Corner, James, ‘Chapter 1.12, The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention’, in The Map Reader: Theories of Mapping Practice and Cartographic Representation, eds. Martin Dodge, Ron Kitchin & Chris Perkins, London: John Wiley & Sons, 2011, pp. 89-101. <PDF> Way, Thaisa, ‘Landscapes of Industrial Excess: A thick sections approach to Gas Works Park’, Journal of Landscape Architecture, (Spring 2003) 6-17. <PDF> Steiner, Frederick & Laurel McSherry, ‘Observation, reflection, action’, Landscape and Urban Planning, 166 (Aug 2017) 55-56, DOI: 10.1016/j. landurbplan.2017.07.007 <PDF>

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Contacts Jianfei Zhu Address:

Email: Zoom: Skype:

Room 20, Architecture Building, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE1 7RU, United Kingdom jianfei.zhu@newcastle.ac.uk 886 617 6108 jianfei_zhu

Neil Burford Address:

Email: Zoom:

2nd Floor, Architectural Building, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE1 7RU, United Kingdom neil.burford@newcastle.ac.uk 812 6561 7122

Studio XX CURATING THE CITY

Image: Saltaire the Railway Station circa 1909.

Francis Firth Collection, Available at: https://saltairedailyphoto. blogspot.com/2009/11/saltaire-railway-station-1909.html 24