CRISIS ISSUE 03
CONTENTS EDITORS NOTE small crisis BIG CRISIS EM EDWARDS CHANGING PLACES ADAM DE VERE EXIT THROUGH THE GRADUATION HALL JOSH PEASLEY CAUKIN STUDIO RORY FLYN WHERE WE LIVE SHOWCASE ELEANOR STRANGE AN ANTHROPOGENIC CRISIS MSADU IS THIS CITY FOR SALE? JAD CHOUCAIR HETEROTOPIAN POSTCARDS HOLLIE COOPER CERAMICS NADIRE GOKMEN BEAUTY OF IMPERFECTIONS ALFREDO STEIN HEINEMANN AN INTERVIEW WITH WOAH WITHOUT A HOME PROJECT UPDATE MANCHESTER ARCHITECTURE NEWS SPRING 2018
small crisis BIG CRISIS Article by Nancy Ruth Sharp Illustration by Yuki Pan / continued on next page CRISIS
1. a time of intense difficulty or danger. 1.1 a time when a difficult or important decision must be made. 1.2 the turning point of a disease when an important change takes place, indicating either recovery or death. People experience crises every day. Whether it be a crisis in confidence over a university project, the crisis of finding yourself without a home, or struggling through a time of mental crisis. This issue is not to remind you about all the shit going on in the world, but the idea is that (hopefully) it will inspire students to lend their skills to those who might need them. In a world with Brexit, Theresa, and Donald, it might seem like there is so much going wrong that ‘what’s the point?’, and yes, obviously I, as a 3rd year architecture student with deadlines in 2 weeks, will not change the world. But, on a smaller, personal scale, I do (maybe naively) think we have the power to change things around us. As architectural students we definitely can, we have a huge range of skills and abilities, from practical thinking to structural knowledge. There are so many opportunities for us to use them in a powerful way, improving others’ lives and effecting the way people live their day to day lives, some might claim all architecture does this. One in four students experience mental illness, personally I think that in itself is a crisis, not enough is being done to help students who pay £9000 a year only to get a mental illness alongside their degree. There is still a stigma surrounding mental health, whether it’s telling yourself you’re just being dramatic there’s nothing wrong or thinking that you are the only one dealing with it, and in architecture school, you are absolutely not. There is just as much importance in small personal crises as big world crises. So please do recognise your mental health as a priority. https://www.mind.org.uk/
WARY Article and artwork by Yuki Pan, 2nd Year Architecture at MSA In real life, the walls around the alley are not nearly as tall or intimidating and the empty park beside it is next to a cemetery. The alley is still just as dark and badly lit. I’ve gotten used to walking near it nowadays, but I can always feel the ever-present pinch at the back of my neck. I’m not sure if it’s just because of the stories I’ve heard that have made me warier of walking home at night, or if there really is a problem with safety and security.
Changing Places Article by Emily Edwards Illustration by Rowena Rowland
On a bus journey it is easy to become immersed, in an article or Instagram blog, that all of a sudden you find yourself ahead of where you expected you might be. You have lost a sense of time and place and found yourself on a journey from one place to another, with little thought for what lies in between. In an increasingly digital age, spaces of transition are being lost. Emerging is an expectation for constant arrival; to see a desired image of a specific place at each glance and one already preconceived by forms of media. Social media has provided an accessible platform for instantaneous transportation to ‘place’ as dictated by the provider, whether through the photographer, writer or filmmaker. As Marshall McLuhan stated, the ‘medium is the message’ as it generates a perceived mass knowledge of a location without experiencing it as it exists. It is becoming common practice to post regular ‘best shots’ composed of an idealised angle in areas of interest, which often attempt to replicate other images seen of the same subject. It is changing what people seek by means of place: both new and familiar. A photograph defines a particular perspective, time and view, instigated upon its audience by the photographer. In taking and viewing it, the arrival to the final image is lost through its capture. This is a transition which has been lost due to a digital asset. Increased media use has resulted in a romanticised expectation of place. But how much of a place now has become dependent upon its existence online? If an entire city was physically obliterated, what of it would persist due to its virtual presence? Or, is a place invigorated due to an existence in both physical and virtual realms? These questions are changing and affecting how we view and design the environment around us. It is a role of architects and designers to reconnect people with the urban environment surrounding them in its entirety, to minimise the concept defining a city as a series of arrivals. The risk of a continuum is the production of an urban space collected of these arrival points, places of specific,
quantifiable and qualifiable interest, with virtual paths linking them together which could become the same everywhere, regardless of location. In a similar way, the fate of vernacular architecture disappearing in favour of a more homogeneous arrangement could result in ‘place’ following a similar outlook. We need to design with the whole in mind, to reduce risk of identifying with the touristic traits of organising a journey by set destinations and moving directly and as quickly as possible to the next, as a bus on its loop. ‘Place’ is evolving and we must design to embrace this.
Exit Through The Graduation Hall Article and Illustration by Adam De Vere
Traditionally we thought education to be isolated from the work of Edward Bernays. Maybe for a while it was. Especially in the UK where until 1999 tuition fees didn’t exist and so students purchased degrees in the traditional way with blood, sweat, tears and other bodily fluids. To get into University was a privilege. Not a right. However at the turn of the 21st century more jobs required degrees and so the government commissioned the Dearing report in which they found that much more money would be needed to get more young people to go to university. This was to come from the students themselves. Cue red flags. This changed the power dynamic between universities and students because now students as a paying customer demanded more from there institutions. As a result universities are buckling under the pressure to look after their vast numbers of students and staff for which they are getting less and less funding and are being forced more and more to operate for profit to survive. On top of which, the economy is not looking up. In fact, its wearing a baseball cap and shades inside whilst staring at the floor, smiling manically. So it looks and feels just like Jack Nicholson after a signature night out. Except this hangover has lasted since 2008 and just like Nicholson its unlikely to make a comeback. Your other option is government funding and lets be honest, you’d have better luck playing wonderwall on a £20 ukele outside the Arndale centre with an empty cup in front of you. Furthermore like any mass produced item on a budget, the quality of the product is the first to feel it. Changes to fees and degrees have already led, at least in some part, for the reputation millennials rightly deserve. The sickenly entitled “I’m paying 9000 a year for this” attitude. Along with the tepid academic environments, predominantly low workloads, even lower pass marks (40% in most cases!) and questionable degree subjects which look more like an excuse to come to uni and sustain liver damage. I’m looking at you “Equestrian Psychology and sports science” BSC! All of which are designed to keep you (and your £32,000) no matter the cost to your long term development.
What we need is a balance one where universities have a vested interest in quality teaching and commitment to helping students but where they also don’t sell a final product. Rather an opportunity. I for one do not see any kind of balance being made. I predict a more “sci-fi” reality for us as students and as people. As consumerism and the disposability of objects works its way up a scale of emotional attachment and intrinsic value. It is only logical that we will eventually reach humans as an openly consumable object. Don’t think we are as a species capable of such a thing? You only have to look to the world at large to know that our CV for cruelty and malice makes us more overqualified than Pavarotti auditioning for The X-Factor. In short, getting a job is ever more a numbers game as there becomes so many of us and we combine ever more with the web. Sure, we maybe buying a degree, but only so you can be paid to provide some service for some other entity. It is simply another layer. An onion of human commerce. With advances in haptic biology and other trans-human improvements we become more like adjustable tools for a certain task. The lie of free will slide in front of a person’s obligation to go uni get a degree, get a new body part etc, to make themselves an attractive enough looking apple in the ever competitive, digital and proverbial supermarket. Were we will all wait, grinning to ourselves about how wonderfully unique we are like snowflakes in a blizzard. Maybe as students and as people who have to go through this process we rebel and revolt against the powers that be responsible for this. Maybe a counter culture 2.0 will emerge like some twisted 60’s parody show. Led by a Puffer jacket wearing, New Zealand wine swigging, Instagram having Hunter S. Thompson JNR. I sure hope so and If any or all of this article didn’t make any sense just watch Bladerunner 2049 and Replace replicant with student and your pretty much there. Yours sincerely Snowflake No.3283836.
Caukin Studio Article by Josh Peasley
CAUKIN Studio, made up of 7 students from the Welsh School of Architecture, designs and builds humanitarian projects for developing communities globally. The organisation’s most notable projects have been located in Cambodia, Indonesia and Fiji, with new projects in 2018 located in India, Vanuatu, Sierra Leone and Fiji. The founders set up the studio to give other students and young professionals the opportunity to learn from the construction process, a key skill that often lacks in architectural education. With volunteers from around the world partaking in the projects, the collaborative process is an invaluable learning experience for all involved. The projects are funded by a combination of paying volunteers and private donations, and aim to employ as many local skilled workers as possible, further rooting the projects in the communities in which they are situated. The design studio started in 2015 when the 5 founders decided that they wanted to experiment with hands on construction to realise one of their own designs - a process which could potentially take decades through the traditional route of working in practice. The first project was obtained by emailing charities, NGOs and schools across the world, proposing the idea of a built project of any shape or size. With limited construction experience, no qualifications, no contacts and limited funds it became ncreasingly difficult to secure the first project. Eventually the charity Friends of Koh Rong, situated on an island off the coast of Cambodia, came back to us, proposing the design and construction of a play and learning space, aimed at keeping the children away from the negative impacts that tourism was having on the island. The project, PLAYSCAPE, funded by a Kickstarter campaign, was constructed over a period of 8 weeks by a group of 12 friends and marked the start of CAUKIN’s enterprise. It was through this invaluable learning experience that the team realised the potential that these built projects had to not only educate a huge number of architecture students and young professionals, but to actually change the lives of the people in need for whom they were building. Their projects now focus on the immersive model of taking international volunteers to project locations and living with, working with and building with the communities
in which they are situated. The collaborative process is core to CAUKIN’s values and creates a working culture where everyone involved benefits through an exchange of knowledge, skills and culture. The partnerships that are created, result in unique design solutions that effectively tackle the issues at hand. Methods to increase trust, inclusion and unity give ownership of the projects to the community, ensuring the long term success of each project. Turning the traditional model of architectural client, developer, designer practice on its head, CAUKIN now implements architecture as a vehicle for realising meaningful action in communities going through crisis or experiencing development. During 2018 CAUKIN Studio completed their two most substantial projects to date; a Kindergarten and a Community Hall on the island of Vanua Levu in Fiji. They welcomed a team of 40 volunteers from numerous universities worldwide, and completed the projects over a 2 month period in August and September. After the destruction caused to Fiji by Cyclone Winston in 2016, these projects were vital in the rejuvenation of the villages. Designing for communities going through crisis or development requires a certain level of sensitivity. No longer is the architect designing for the traditional idea of a western client and therefore the typical research and design processes can not be applied with the expectation that it will produce an adequate resolution. With the equalisation of power between community and facilitator, the role of the architect changes from designer and decision maker into mediator and facilitator. The role is more than just the translation of needs into form, it is the artful cohesion of multiple stakeholders. With an established network of local contractors, suppliers and communities, the team will be returning to Fiji to build a further two projects in 2018. If you would like to apply for these, or any of the other projects on offer, then please follow the link below: www.caukinstudio.com/volunteer
Where We Live
Article by Rory Flyn, Dualchas Architects, Skye, rory@dualchas.com We live and work in the Highlands and islands of northwest Scotland. It is a landscape that sometimes harsh, sometimes peaceful, but always inspiring. We make buildings on the edge of lochs, in quiet glens, amongst birch woods, on rock. These buildings look out over beaches, sea and mountains. And we get to travel on roads and ferries that visitors from around the world come to use. Our practice is just over twenty years old. From simple beginnings making modern, economic, longhouses we now work mainly on bespoke, single-house projects across Scotland. These are a mix of new-build and adaptive re-uses of historic structures. We are known for our modern approach to design, rooted in a sense of place. We hope that our approach has helped increase the focus on quality, material and respect for built and natural environment in new architecture in our region. But within this landscape there exists a crisis that continually threatens its communities and their attempts to grow and develop in the twenty-first century. It is a housing crisis. The lack of housing and in particular affordable housing is a problem common to almost every area of the British Isles, but in rural areas on the periphery the sense of anxiety is heightened. There are many contributing factors to this Highland housing crisis: the expense of building in rural areas; low wages; poor-condition housing stock; lack of relocation options; lack of investment in housing association projects. We only have to look around us on Skye to see the symptoms: homeless colleagues; local businesses unable to house potential staff; families in inappropriate accommodation. Communities cannot grow if there is nowhere for people to live. Young people leave. School numbers drop. Confidence deteriorates.
One of the major factors affecting new house building is the lack of available land. Land ownership is a historically sensitive issue, particularly in the Highlands where the effects of the clearances of the 19th century can be seen everywhere: in the ruined villages; and the fact that the population of Highlands is half that of the mid-19th century. This is the opposite of nearly every other region in the UK. Large estates own most of rural Scotland. Putting the ownership of the land in so few hands has a detrimental effect on society. Being an area that has a successful tourism industry also means that the purchase of houses and sites can be very competitive. Higher house prices in other regions, mean it is often difficult for locals to compete in an open market. Rental is also very difficult as houses that were previously offered for long-term let are now let on Airbnb. Some of the solutions to these social and economic issues are political and there has been recent progress in legislation such as the community right to buy. This helps empower communities to buy, take control and develop areas of estates that come on the market. Architects, as agents of change, also have a responsibility to address the social and economic problems in their communities. We work on the projects that we are asked to and chase ones which we aspire to. How do we square working on private, bespoke houses for relatively well-off clients with the affordable housing crisis we experience around us? We know that house building is an expensive and challenging option in our area. But it is often the only one for people and families looking to settle and that have the opportunity of land. The method of procuring a new house has to be simpler. Our experience led us to set up a separate kit-house company, Hebridean Homes. This provides a series of pre-designed kit-houses that we feel are appropriate to our landscape and building culture. Often kit-house companies only offer generic, suburban living models, inappropriate to the Highland landscape and climate.
Heb Homes provides a single appointment for obtaining the site analysis, professional advice, technical documentation and statutory approvals required to build. House designs range from modest 50sqm structures up to 250sqm homes. The company is also set-up to enable houses to be procured in a flexible way: from a kit of parts and drawings; through to complete turnkey delivery. Clients, their family and friends often have skills, resources and abilities that will make construction more affordable. This flexibility allows clients to obtain some sweat equity, enhancing the value of a house. Currently Heb Homes produce about 50 new houses a year. Another recent innovation that we are currently developing is for a lowcost kit-house, based on a single house design. This would comprise a fully specified kit of parts and a detailed set of construction instructions. It is intended for mass production. This is in the spirit of the Department of Agriculture pattern book house design of the late 19th century, where a specification list and set of drawings was provided to crofters to empower them to improve their own housing situation. We are also often involved in encouraging estates and communities to produce masterplans for the development of sites zoned for new housing. Without encouragement these sites can often lie dormant, choking the ability of a community to grow and limiting opportunities. An Architect friend of ours described how he takes on a limited number of loss-making community projects, often funded by profits from private house projects. He calls these his Robin Hood projects. Our approach is different. We have developed frameworks for delivering homes for many different means and ambitions. This approach has created jobs and opportunities for local companies and contractors and is helping to develop the housebuilding industry in the Highlands. It encourages building through simpler and cheaper access to Architect-designed homes. Our inspiring Highland landscape is not only a backdrop to be viewed through fixed frameless glazing. It is home to living, breathing, fragile communities that require locally developed options for growth. As Architects we feel we should be aware of the wider environment within which we operate and our ability to shape it.
SHOWCASE
Illustrations by : top right / Remi Philips-Hood top left / Ivan Georgiev middle left / Timothy Wu middle right / Gus Wray botton left / Tadiwa Sam Mashiri bottom right / Rowena Rowland
MSSASHOWCASE was started this year to show off the talent at MSA online. It was something the school had neglected despite many other universities embracing the digital age in this manner. We post a variety of work not all architecture based. Follow us at @MSSASHOWCASE !
Illustrations by : top right / Haniun Kim top left / Paul Cedilla middle left / Zafir Ameen middle right / Charlie Isham botton left / Eleanor Strange bottom right / Joby Barrett
An Anthropogenic Crisis Article and illustration by Eleanor Strange
The Anthropocene is a new geological age proposed by Paul Crutzen. It is the theory that we entered a new epoch when the industrial revolution began, in which humanity is now the primary agent of change on a global scale. We move more sediment and rock each year than all other natural processes like erosion and rivers whilst over three quarters of land outside the ice sheets are managed by humans. Currently, the Anthropocene is far from an accepted theory and there is much disparity between interpretations of the epoch in different disciplines and cultures. It has been suggested that today’s environment, created by humans, is a hybrid where architecture has a socio-political sense of place but it is debatable whether the built environment is acknowledged as part of the earth’s geology. Lindsay Bremner, head of Architectural Research at the University of Westminster, has described architecture as ‘a forceful geological agent’ suggesting that humans are transforming the earth with architecture and the built environmental as nature does with environmental factors and weather events. This leads to the implication that we are just a catalyst for change in the environment as humans are a part of earth’s complex ecology: the built environment being the product of our change. Could this mean it is also a part of nature? This question is where the anthropogenic crisis stems from. Western views of humanity’s impact on the earth are very negative and these manifest in teachings and actions in the western world. Humans are part of a complex interdependent web of relations between many elements in the environment. The Anthropocene thesis strongly endorses this view that humanity and nature are one and not to be seen independently. However, this is how the Western world still recognises humanities relationship with the earth: dualistically. Humanity seems to isolate itself from nature, ecology and landscapes. Whereas in other cultures, commonly in less developed parts of the world, humans are seen as an integral part of nature. The Anthropocene poses challenges in relation to how to encounter changing understandings of humanity.
Teachings in the western world result in the assumption that humans only inflict negative environmental impacts and we have very little or no capability of creating a positive impact. Also, our attitude towards improving our relationship with the natural environment takes a negative form: we seem confuse doing less bad and reducing the amount of harm we inflict with doing good. Therefore, we are unaware of what a strong positive relationship with nature really is which hinders any opportunity to move forwards towards this relationship. Moreover, the Anthropocene is often referred to, especially in western culture, as an adverse phase the earth is going through and frequently related to climate change. By no means am I denying the presence of climate change. It is a very real issue that is unquestionably happening. But western attitudes towards the great climatic changes occurring have separated us from nature to a point where we are reinforcing and exaggerating the view that humanity and nature are separate elements of the earth’s environment that are up against each other. When in fact we should be promoting a harmonious relationship where we work with and learn from nature to create a positive adjustments and adaptations with the built environment as our tool for change. Landscape, ecology, nature, humanity and culture are concepts that have previously been separate but, in the age of the Anthropocene, have been unified. Yet this is not practiced or accepted widely enough for the positive relationship to be reflected. The Anthropocene should be seen as an opportunity for education, activism and positive use of humans’ power for change in order for us to begin to address the crisis in humanity’s relationship with nature.
Is This City For Sale?
MSADU’s latest debate, focused on trends of development in Manchester and other UK cities, the debate became a heated political, and personal, exchange. Our two student speakers report on their participation in the event: For: Callum Richardson BA2. Prior to the most recent debate I had a relatively limited understanding of the complexities surrounding development and how it is able to influence the urban environment. Having lived in London my entire life I have seen a dramatic change in the nature of the city due to development. Some infrastructure developments, especially those found in the areas of East London, such as Stratford post Olympics affected my life positively, as the extension of the Jubilee line helped me commute to my former place of study. That being said, developments of ‘luxury apartments’ in areas such as Elephant and Castle, Brixton and Peckham have profound effects on the local people and communities. Taking part in the debate helped me gain different points of view on the matter, I found it incredibly insightful as an aspiring architect and is something which I would recommend all students in the School of Architecture to participate in. Prior to this debate I had no experience debating and it was perhaps one of the best learning experiences I have had throughout the course thus far. Against: Rory Thomas BA1. As a first year I came into the debate with hesitation as I was fully aware of the lack of time I had spent in architectural education so far, however, this debate was a fantastic experience for myself and increased my knowledge about the subject of architectural development. In my experience, modern development in cities has been a disconnected money grab that has no connection or will to benefit the heritage or community of an area. A good example is the St Michael’s development that shows this attitude through its design, opting for a copy and paste steel and glass tower design rather than responding to the significant cultural heritage of the site. However, despite my strong views on the subject I found myself pulled further into the other side during the debate and I found myself considering views that otherwise I would have completely missed or overlooked myself The environment of the debate was great, MSADU is a fantastic way to strengthen and challenge your established views on a subject and I could not recommend it enough to anyone who has so much as an inkling of will to get involved. /MSADebate
@MSA_debate
msadebateunion@gmail.com
Heterotopian Postcards Article and Illustration by Jad Choucair Michel Foucault describes ‘heterotopias’ as structures that emerge in the shadows of master-plans, as isolated spaces whose functions act against its surrounding urban fabric (Foucault & Rainbow, 1997). It is monuments like these that are often stamped onto the nations postcards, as reminiscent of a previous era. The physicality of memory is manifested within the urban fabric of the city through progressive architectural contributions. Such contributions hold great importance to the local community because they provide a delusion of time, a time which they regard as the essence of their being and of the culture they are accustomed to. These monuments are often not built as heterotopias, instead they morph into such phenomenon’s due to their inability to progress at the same pace as their surrounding built environment. This is often the result of a post war reconstruction scheme that does not include these monuments in its master plan due to their cultural significance, hence keeping the monuments in their traumatic state, as memorials of the bloodshed. Without the intervention of architects, urban planners, government officials and the local community, it is difficult to imagine how these nostalgic landmarks could be sustained. Post-war reconstruction, however, attempts to regain function after destruction, in order to withstand the balance of the urban footprint and create a progressive society. Although, a post-traumatic urban site cannot function as intended without interdisciplinary inclusion and contribution, but the structure could remain static with alternative occupations. Such schemes must take into account multiple disciplinary factors when creating a master plan of the new city, which is why “…architecture can somehow never get out of politics, but must learn to dwell in it on a permanent if uneasy basis…” (Jameson, 1997, p. 242). The relation between nostalgic monuments and functionalism should not be alienated. A strictly monumental piece of architecture that’s sole purpose is to act as a physical postcard of the past, is, virtually, dead space. Space left to disintegrate by the hands of national pride and delusion. A country enduring post-traumatic urbanism must not repress the memory of its ruin, but should celebrate its endurance to violence, and commemorate the works that came before it.
Hollie Cooper Ceramics Article and ceramics by Hollie Cooper I consider myself a developing and upcoming ceramicist, working within homeware primarily. I love to make ceramics such as tableware and planters for commercial use whilst being objects that are simply admirable at the same time. The process I use within ceramics is ‘slip-casting’, a method whereby I can make an initial design and make a plaster mould from it, which allows me to then create duplicates therefore mass production. For the majority of my work I used white porcelain as I love the sharp contrast between the black marbled surface. I love the fluidity of marbling, as each vessel or bowl is entirely unique from one-another. It was during my Foundation Diploma two years ago that I discovered my passion for ceramics which led me to study it further at Nottingham Trent University. From graduating, I intend to set up my own small studio and create more collections.
Beauty of Imperfections Article and artwork by Nadire Gokmen, 2nd Year 3D Design student at MSA As a maker drawn to the beauty of imperfections, I’m primarily interested in surface and form, particularly as a consequence of movement, weather and time. I have a habit of collecting objects I find whilst out and about - usually possessing a weathered patina and curious shape and also because I hate seeing free things go to waste and I could definitely use that circle piece of metal rod that’s been left in someone’s front garden in my room to hang all the other objects I’ve collected off the floor on. Although completely different in shape I saw a similarity with these 2 objects, these beautifully tarnished and rusted sheets of metal that almost look like squashed bottles. I began by analysing the forms and focusing on particular sections of each object - finding how I could recreate and take impressions of their curves, bends, and surface. And as for the metal sheets, I left them in the street for 2 days to get imprinted with the trace of cars and rust from rain. Over this period they became very nicely scratched and rusty. I found it really intriguing that with any of these objects I could recall exactly when I found it, who I was with (if anyone) and what I/we were doing at the time. It’s almost as if the objects act as physical documentation of the time. I love this idea of 3D forms acting as ‘memory objects’ which influenced this series of cast pewter and press porcelain fragments, stripped of their weathered surfaces but replicating their mark and shape.
In Conversation with Dr Alfredo Stein Heinemann
Lecturer in Urban Development Planning at the School of Education, Environment and Development (SEED), University of Manchester Interview by Hani Salih, 3rd Year Architecture Student at MSA So I just want to start by introducing myself – I’m Hani. I’m part of the Manchester School of Architecture, and we are doing a Zine issue on crisis. And this covers all types of crisis, whether its mental personal crisis or global crisis. And through my conversation with Diana – She brought you up and said that you have experience in dealing with crisis. And so I just wanted to talk to you a bit more about your experiences and also what you think is the general feeling in academia and practise about responding to the increasing amount of crisis. So can you just tell me a bit more about the role you play and what kind of things you do in that field? From a practitioner perspective, I worked in the past in low-income housing and local development programmes, mainly in Central America, dealing with rehabilitation and reconstruction after civil wars as well as after earthquakes and big climate related disasters, like hurricanes. And more recently, in academia, I am working in applied research trying to understand how urban poor communities are adapting to the impacts of severe and extreme weather events, and what can be done to strengthen their resilience to climate change. This research has been undertaken with colleagues from the University of Manchester and local institutions in five cities in Central and South America, as well as in Africa and Asia. So, I think that the applied research as well as the practice that I have been involved addresses some important issues on how to deal with manmade and natural disaster crises. Given the rate that climate change is taking place which reflects in the increase in the number of extreme weather events we’re seeing particularly in the examples of hurricanes Irma, Harvey and Maria – Do you think that there is, as a result, a direct awareness that built environment professionals have to take more responsibility in trying to help reduce their impact? Because obviously you can’t stop those events but you can try and reduce the impact that they have on people’s lives.
Yeah absolutely, I think that many of the impacts and disasters that occur in human settlements are related to the built environment. Some of them are the consequence of the lack of infrastructure and lack of adequate housing or the fact that building has taken place in areas that were not supposed to be occupied because they are prone to flooding or landslides. This happens a lot and I’m not talking about the results of recent hurricanes Irma and Harvey and their impact in the United States. I am taking especially of weather events that affect most often urban poor communities in cities of developing countries. That is why now, I’m not only interested in big disasters, but also in the daily small and imperceptible crises that poor people, households and communities are experiencing as result of climate change. Our research shows that the climatic disasters that are affecting the poor are not the‘big’ ones like Harvey, Irma and Maria, but small, incremental and invidious changes. And because they are not ‘big’ disasters, you hardly read about them in the papers. Tell me a bit more about those smaller – like you said the “daily disasters” that you talk about. For example, often you can have rain that falls very intensively for ten, fifteen, minutes or half an hour and generates small landslides in communities that are located in steep hills. And the land just subsides and all of a one house just falls on top of the other. Maybe no one died, but the families lost important part of their belongings. That’s regarding rain. But also there are a lot of issues linked to heat waves. There’s an ongoing incremental increase in heating and the houses are not ventilated or adequately built and people suffer more because of the amount of heat that they are exposed to inside the house. But also the way that you have access to the places where people live, you know sometimes you have to climb very difficult steep stairways to get to there. But also, as heat increases and dry seasons are becoming more intense, there are droughts and a lack of access to water. These are very problematic issues if you have slums, where you have latrines and if there’s no water it’s difficult to wash them and to improve sanitary conditions. These new settlements, the high density settlements that are appearing in the areas that are potentially undesirable but also just affordable, do you think that there’s a new way of living that’s coming out of these settlements that’s not been seen before?
I think that, what is happening is that land is becoming very expensive in urban areas as people migrate to cities but also as result of natural urban growth of the population living in cities. And adequate and affordable land is becoming very scarce as result of land speculation, so people start occupying land that is not suitable or that is more at-risk to the impact of these types of hazards. Once people start having access to a certain level of economic resources they start building in the land they occupy even if they don’t have legal permissions to be in the sites they are building. And this can also become an issue because they cannot afford or don’t access to receive adequate technical guidance on what to do and how to do it in these plots of land. The construction they are doing and the housing they are building can also have technical faults that increases the risks these people already face. And they are more exposed to falling down when these short and sometimes intensive events occur. So while I think that in these areas people are improving their living conditions, people are improving their physical and built environment, there is also a need for technical and financial assistance to make this self-help building process safer. So would you say certain approaches, I’m not entirely sure but it might be in Brazil, where the government has – rather than demolish all the favelas and start from scratch – they’ve taught them how to make things safer, like the electricity connections, and they’ve- it’s almost like an element of incremental housing where they’ve slowly taught them how to improve their houses and make them reach a certain level of safety standard. So do you think that’s the way forward? I think that there are different ways. When we are talking about the city we always find different types of settlements, there’s not only settlements that are already there that you need to upgrade and retrofit. That would be the case of the favelas of Rio. I think that itis not only in the place where people are already living and you have to upgrade but also in new places where people are starting to occupy even through informal methods. If you can also provide technical assistance on how to make more efficient and effective the use of scarce resources that people have, that can help. Thus, you combine upgrading where people are already living with building in new sites under more adequate technical assistance. Okay, so, aside from ensuring the standard and quality of construction
in those areas, specifically the vulnerable areas as well not just in the dense urban areas, what role do you think the planners and the architects can play in minimising this? Do you think that they can play a role in policy making? I think that they can do several things. One is recognising that the efforts that the majority of improvements that are done sometimes in these communities are done by people themselves, without the assistance of government or private companies. So I think that recognising and learning what is going on is very important for people that are studying architecture and planning. The second issue is how to incorporate what you have already learned, technologies, design, and procedures complemented with good norms and standards, to provide certain technical assistance to these people in order to make things not only more efficient but also more liveable. More space, more light more ventilation, and the use of different building techniques. So how to improve the occupation of land even if its not legalised but to make it more safe and less risky and then make it more liveable, that is the challenges concerned and committed architects should have. So in terms of the scales of these interventions, you think there’s greater benefit from the direct action in low-income areas? Well, I think that it’s important that architects get involved with low-income housing, and the contact they can have with the urban poor. I think they can learn a lot, and more importantly, they can give a lot. And if you start thinking of – for example, here [pictured overleaf] you have a very steep area where we’re providing technical assistance on how you can reutilise spare tyres to build a retention wall so that the land plot is more stable and the house will not fall down. This is based on the idea that people already have these tyres but they were not put in a way that they can reinforce and sustain the terrain. So, the challenge is to learn about what people are doing and to provide technical assistance in a way that is also very respectful of the ways that people, through their life cycle, occupy and use the land. Because if you start thinking, it’s amazing how people have been able to live in those areas and occupy the land, and build their homes without proper assistance. Obviously this is going to be difficult in some parts of the country or the world because it’s such a deeply engrained part of what goals are for most people and governments - But do you think that redefining
development is just as important as a sound built environment are strategy? Oh I think that’s absolutely the architects and planners’ responsibility, especially in areas prone to disasters. But even if you come to a place like the UK to learn, you have to question if these are the models that are suitable everywhere and are a solution for everyone in the world. And I think that one of the problems that we have is that we’re very constrained by what we think should be the model of development and that permeates everything. And it reflects afterwards in architecture and the built environment, suggesting and sometimes imposing that this is what development should be. Without questioning. And that’s a battle that has to be won everywhere. Not only in those countries that are affected by recurrent crises, but also here.
WOAH
Article by Zafir Ameen With the alarming increase in homelessness, this social schema has evolved into a stigma. Spending a moment amongst Manchester’s streets, the severity and scale of this issue soon becomes apparent. With his pledge to end homelessness by 2020, Andy Burnham, Mayor for Greater Manchester, further reiterates Manchester’s collective view, to tackle this urgent issue. Earlier this year, Julie Teigen relaunched WOAH (Without A Home), to simultaneously raise awareness and provide solutions to the homelessness crisis. WOAH is a student run initiative, aided by fellow students, charities and organisations. As creative students, the aim is to utilise our broad range of skills and software knowledge to aid existing projects. During the WOAH launch event, it soon became apparent that the most successful way to make a difference was to ‘do less talking and more building’. The event was extremely fruitful, with several suggestions being made, such as, creating a multi-use structure, that could offer more than just shelter. With new found motivation, a WOAH Design Workshop was held, to conceive various concepts that would later be fabricated. Two main ideas prevailed:
Taking feedback from the launch event, one concept focused on flexibility, consisting of four different sized structures. These would act as: an art studio, exhibition space, library and public garden space. These would be orientated around a central performance space. However, due to the flexible nature of the structures, the client can adapt, add or even distract from the initial space. This would allow for numerous possibilities, by manipulating the positioning of the smaller structures, to create the desired space.
Similarly, the alternate scheme focused on a large flexible space, to maximise the number of uses. Serving as an art installation, the design developed into a tensile whale structure, where the components would be stored within a portable core. The core could then be easily transported and assembled across various sites, drawing attention, raising awareness and most importantly, providing shelter. The envelope would consist of a translucent material, where spotlights would penetrate through the shell, allowing the public a glimpse of the interior programme. Book exchanges, busking and informal seating were just some of the ancillary aspects intended for the volume.
Both schemes, therefore, would provide the necessary shelter, while concurrently drawing attention to the very crisis we avoid. Every day, thousands of people pass and ignore the blatant problem, purposefully dodging the homeless on the street. Through interacting, we can share and provide help for these individuals. As WOAH continues to grow and develop, so should society, adapting to overcome the homelessness stigma.
facebook.com/WOAHWithoutAHome @woahwithoutahome
Manchester Architecture News Article by Benjamin Carter Cover Image: Mayfield Depot Redevelopment
MAYFIELD PLAN RETAINS DEPOT AND ENVISIONS NEW CITY PARK The Mayfield site architects and developers, Studio Egret West and U+I respectively, have released their draft SRF (Strategic Redevelopment Framework) for the former railway depot and associated land around the river Medlock and Mancunian Way. The plan’s focus is a new 13 acre riparian park around the currently culverted and neglected river which meanders the length of the site made possible by fringing the site with a ring of high rises, stepped in massing to optimise natural light into the park. The masterplan, which anticipates the arrival of the HS2 terminal to the north of Piccadilly, seeks to animate the huge site to the south of the station, the plans promise the creation of 10,000 jobs, 1,500 news homes and an extension of the city centre towards Ardwick. ST MICHAEL’S SAGA REACHES FEVER PITCH AS COUNCIL DECISION LOOMS As the decision whether to approve or reject Neville’s St Michael’s city centre tower approaches, campaigning against the scheme has intensified with a request to the Secretary of State to intervene. Save, who have been vocal in resisting the scheme, argue that the proposal would “totally dominate the whole of central Manchester in an extremely detrimental manner”, Stephen Hodder, the architect behind the revised scheme retorted citing the public benefits that the development would deliver. Further objections have been lodged by the C20 Society, the Victorian Society, Manchester Civic Society, and a number of other
smaller groups (this author included) after the announcement that planning officials are projected to approve the development on March 8th. WORK BEGINS ON CIRCLE SQUARE CAR PARK/HOTEL HYBRID Manchester heavyweights FCBS, who have designed a number of schemes on the Oxford Road corridor, have now begun groundworks on a cornerstone site of the Circle Squaredevelopment. The project, which stacks 5 storeys of hotel accommodation atop an 11 storey car park, manifests a unique architectural expression combining a lower masonry element with arches and rotund portals with an upper faceted design with kite windows. The construction of the building marks the demolition of a small, inadvertent quirk in the design of the Mancunian Way, an obsolete motorway spur to nowhere, which stopped mid-air as the slip road was never completed. 5PLUS SHUDEHILL SCHEME REJECTED ON THIRD ATTEMPT 5Plus plans for a 13 storey aparthotel on Shudehill, at the fringe of the Northern Quarter, have been rejected despite the recommendation by planners to approve the anomalously tall scheme, which was redesigned following the first planning committee meeting to reduce the overall height by a single storey.
URBAN ISSUE 04
SUMMER 2018