Suburban condenser. A spatial, social and ecological framework for the concentrated growth of an expanding city

This project is also published here:
http://futurearchitectureplatform.org/projects/704ee670-3473-454c-b48b-c300d871ccc2/

An urban answer to the misfortunes of dispersed, fragmented, uncontrolled and alienating suburbia. 

ABSTRACT

Suburbia in the UK is experiencing turbulent transformations. From being an idyllic habitation for homogenous, relatively affluent middle class, it has become a complex reflection of political, social and economic processes in the urban cores – gentrification, a property bubble and housing shortage. As a result, more and more households are being expelled out from the inner areas into suburbs and then, further out to the fringes. In the face of the increasing influx of population and scarcity of land, project proposes a linear suburbanisation - a concentrated, medium-density but high-intensity development which uses the land effectively and creates diverse built environment alongside the infrastructure. By exploiting the most basic urban elements and typologies such as street, perimeter block and courtyard building, and placing them in a dialogue with a natural setting, a new type of suburbia emerges.

URBAN AND SOCIAL CONTEXT 

• UK LAND USE. 7 % of UK area is urban (including infrastructure), 70 % is farmland.(1)

• WHAT THE URBAN AREAS ARE MADE OF? Only 2 % of urban areas are buildings. 54 % is green space (gardens, parks, etc.).(2)

• UK POPULATION. 64 million. 83 % of the UK population live in cities.(3)

• SUBURBAN LIFESTYLE. 15 % of city population live in an inner city, while 85 % live in outer suburbs.

• THE AGE OF LONELINESS. 29 % of the UK population live alone. 1 million older people live alone.(4)

• LOVE OF GARDENING. 90 % have a garden (including communal).(5)

• WORK AT HOME. From 30 million workers 4 million work from home.(6)

• AUTOMOBILE DEPENDENCY. 36% of the UK population commute to work by car. The average UK commute is 54 minutes.(7)

• UK’S HOUSING CRISIS. UK housing shortage is almost 1 million homes.(8)

INNER CITY / OUTER SUBURBIA

The project draws a mental framework to the set of spatial, social and environmental issues of outer suburbia and its relationship with the inner city (9):

• Rising and ageing population,
• Housing shortage,
• Increasing poverty and precariousness,
• Social isolation and reduced connectivity,
• Economic, cultural and ethnic segregation,
• Car dependency, poor public transport, increasing road traffic congestion,
• Land-consuming, sprawling development and controversial green belts.

GREEN BELTS

Unwillingness to build high and densely, inability to accommodate empty homes, complexities of brownfield redevelopment and scarcity of land have led to a development of ever increasing expanding of UK cities. However, Green belts designated to limit urban sprawl are now the challenge for both the politicians and developers. 

Green Belts around the British cities are designated for:
• making a distinction between rural and urban,
• preventing from urban sprawl and conurbation,
• providing access to open green space.

CASE STUDY: LONDON

London's Metropolitan Green Belt policy has several significant drawbacks. Firstly, an inefficient use of land. For instance, intensive farming (more than a third of the land (11)) on the edge of the metropolis has no significant economic or environmental benefits. Secondly, this comes at the expense of more valuable development and leads to its 'leapfrogging' and displacement beyond the Green Belt. (12) Finally, all these factors contribute to longer commuting between London and its satellites. Created with positive intentions in the 50s, Green Belt today aggravates prolonged problems of suburbia such as reduced connectivity, accessibility to services and traffic congestion. The arcadian vision of suburbia must be reviewed.

Current condition. Greater London enclosed by London Orbital Motorway and London Green Belt (schematic diagram).

The project proposes infrastructure integrated development within preserved yet transformed Green Belt.

THE CONCEPT - A LINEAR DEVELOPMENT

Aerial view. London Orbital Motorway (M25)and A3 junction. The project rethinks the old ideas of Metro-land in a contemporary context.

Birds eye view

Suburban condenser defines a clear edge between Nature and build environment. At the same time, by being porous, it allows the Nature flow through.

SUBURBAN CONDENSER

THE COMPONENTS

SC uses infrastructure as a form-defining armature which supports chain-link enclaves and is perforated with heterotopic voids. (13)

Basic module exploits the traditional, normative 600ft pedestrian armature between centres.(14)

A city is a plane of tarmac with some red hot spots of urban intensity.

Rem Koolhaas, The Surface, 1969

First page of the manuscript of Rem Koolhaas’s The Surface (1969)

Axonometric view

Infrastructure has a clear functional, scale and speed hierarchy. As such it does not have a segregating effect on communities. 

Infrastructure is an integral part of the formation and its footprint ratio to entire development is minimised.

Heterotopic voids provide a space for uncertainty, endless possibilities and transformations for the future development. They are landmarks and nodes within the continuous framework.

Heterotopic void. Nature: park / forest / meadow

Heterotopic void. Intensification: housing infill

Heterotopic void. Industry / service / retail: sheds, warehouses, shopping centre

Heterotopic void. Football field: games, concerts, events

Enclave / neighbourhood.

The enclave is a self-organising system which accommodates the private sphere - housing, business and retail activities, incorporate communal life and embraces the public sphere. By using uniformity and repetition, equality is ensured yet it is diversified by its context and inhabitants – heterogenous and egalitarian society.

Enclave section. 

SC is a built environment where:

▪ Public sphere is provided for knowledge and social exchange.

▪ Co-working and work from home are supported by providing facilities next to the living space.

▪ Different housing typologies offer accommodation for a diverse spectrum of households.

▪ Spaces are adaptable and extendable by using flexible modules, layouts and structure.

Typology of units. 

The edge. Allotments. 

Town square / courtyard.

The street view.

The upper street.

A workshop on ground level.

Studio flat on 1st level.

REFERENCES

1. Mark Easton, The great myth of urban Britain
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18623096>

2. Ibid.

3. United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects 

Urban population <http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS>
4. Kim Walker, Loneliness in the UK
<http://www.eauk.org/culture/statistics/how-lonely-are-we.cfm>
5. Christopher Hope More than two million British homes without a garden The Telegraph
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5811433/More-than-two-million-British-homes-without-a-garden.html>
6. Characteristics of Home Workers, (The Office for National Statistics, 2014)
<http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lmac/characteristics-of-home-workers/2014/rpt-home-workers.html>

7. 36% of the UK population still drive to work, only 3% cycle 

<https://www.totaljobs.com/insidejob/36-of-the-uk-population-still-drive-to-work-only-3-cycle/>

8. David Kingman Britain’s housing crisis in 3 numbers

<http://www.if.org.uk/archives/7195/britains-housing-crisis-in-3-numbers>

9. Some data is taken from: Paul Hunter, Towards an suburban renaissance: an agenda for our city suburbs (The Smith Institute, 2016)

10. Tom Papworth. The green noose. An analysis of Green Belts and proposals for reform (Adam Smith Research Trust, 2015)

11. Ibid.

12. Ibid.

13. Three primary urban elements - armature, enclave and heterotopia are the terminology used by David G. Shane in Recombinant urbanism : conceptual modelling in architecture, urban design, and city theory (John Wiley & Sons, 2005)
14. Ibid.

Heterotopic grid. Summary

This collage concludes my thesis work. I have reflected on my year long journey and have summarised the most important guidelines which have framed this project. Behind this is a theoretical background containing authors: Michel Foucault, David Graeme Shane, Rem Koolhaas, DOGMA, Superstudio and many others. 

Heterotopic grid. The other dwelling in the Green Belt.

The thesis investigates the potential of using the heterotopic (other, different) grid as a conceptual and formal framework for a utopian vision - accommodating increasing growth of Scotland’s population in a concentrated and equal manner within a highly infrastructural Green Belt on the city edge of Edinburgh. ‘City edge’ is one of the designated sectors within the Glasburgh corridor – a speculative research area between Edinburgh and Glasgow, defined by the infrastructure of the motorway M8 and the Shotts Line railway.
The competition project ‘Exodus or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture’ and several works by Superstudio and DOGMA inhere heterotopic qualities by being able to create utopian visions and simultaneously reflect and redefine conditions of a real, existing society.
The thesis draws parallels between the cultural, social and political issues of the others on one side and the accompanying urban processes and the role of Architecture within them on the other. It also highlights a set of questions which interrelate with each other on the basis of the concept of heterotopia and the heterotopic grid.
How could the heterotopic grid intensify, diversify and in the same time preserve the Green Belt?
How could the heterotopic grid be able to accept and embrace different social groups within a homogeneity of housing context and create an egalitarian community?
How could the heterotopic grid operate as the catalyst of utopian visions?

The result is a formation which defines a clear edge to the city by framing the Green Belt around it. At the same time, it preserves what it frames and by being porous, it allows nature, infrastructure, and people to flow through. The singular unit of the heterotopic grid is a social condenser – a micro-city where the main urban components – enclave, armature, and heterotopia are condensed and manifested into one entity.

Full thesis text:
https://issuu.com/ivarskalvans/docs/book_issu

Thesis drawings:
https://issuu.com/ivarskalvans/docs/drawings_issu

The finish line ahead...

http://www.dundee.ac.uk/djcad/degreeshow/workondisplay/architecture/ivarskalvans/

Ivan Léonidov, Competition entry for the socialist city of Magnitogorsk

‘A socialist settlement is a properly thought out organisation of industry and agriculture, culture and leisure:  of everything that informs human consciousness and life. It is a settlement constructed on the basis of the foremost socialist technology.’

Ivan Leonidov, Explanatory notes on the OSA team’s project

Leonidov like many of his contemporaries of Modernism had a social vision apart from a purely architectural drive. In the competition entry for the socialist settlement at Magnitogorsk, he tests new social patterns of living within strictly organised functional zoning.

REGION.
Magnitogorsk is an industrial city located in Russia on the eastern side of the
Ural Mountains and surrounded by many lakes

The design comprises a linear development located between chemical and metallurgical combine and a giant collective farm. The city starts from an industrial node and its development is possible in two or four orthogonal directions. The Linear City consists of a strip of residential complexes and two strips of ancillary functions on both sides of the housing zone.

A part of the Linear City

Each housing complex is intended for 250 people living in eight separate housing units, each for 32 people. Units could be allocated both individually and stacked in towers. The children’s sector is located in the green zone between two residential complexes. Ancillary functions are represented by public buildings and places such as the community hall, sports facilities, parks, zoological and botanical gardens. The highway on one side is for transport and also serves as border and stimulus for further development. 

Hierarchy of rooms

The housing unit is the main component in this scheme which is repeated throughout the city on a chequerboard pattern in order to create each separate complex. Each unit is intended as a small community. It consists of sixteen small private rooms located in the corners of the units on two levels with communal space in the centre of the unit. Leonidov and his group propose an idea of dis-urbanisation where living and social activities take place in proximity to nature. Linear city is ‘a new form of human settlement which eliminates rural backwardness and isolation from the world, and the anti- human concentration of vast masses of people into large cities.’ It embodies many ‘ideals’ of modern living – spaciousness, unobscured views and green surroundings where labour, leisure and socialisation could occur.

'The Architecture of the City' by Aldo Rossi

'Whereas the humanist conception attempted an integration of subject and object, the modernist conception polemically attempted their separation. The problematic nature of the practice of modern architecture with respect to the theory of modernism has to do precisely with its inability to effect this separation and thus its contamination with imperatives from the humanist conception.'  p.5

'Rather, history becomes analogous to a "skeleton" whose condition serves as a measure of time and, in turn, is measure by time. It is skeleton which bears the imprint of the actions that have taken place and will take a place in the city.' p.5

'The two main permanences in the city are housing and monuments. With respect to the first, Rossi distinguishes between housing and individual houses. Housing is a permanence in the city while individual houses are not; thus, a residential district in the city may persist as such over many centuries, while individual houses within a district will tend to change. With respect to monuments, the relationship is the opposite, for here it is the individual artifact that persists in the city.' p.6

'Urban studies never attribute sufficient importance to research dealing with singular urban artifacts. By ignoring them - precisely those aspects of reality that are most individual, particular, irregular, and also most interesting - we end up constructing theories as artificial as they are useless.' p.21

'Le Corbusier; Ideas and forms' by William J R Curtis

Le Corbusier certainly is a key figure in 20th Century Architecture. He was a visionary whose ideas and projects left deep traces in the history and had a long lasting yet controversial impact on the future development of architecture and the society it was created for.
"Le Corbusier: ideas and forms" is an extensive documentary on his philosophy, urban visions and realised architecture. Here are some interesting quotes from this book.

'Although he never constructed his ideal city in toto, he did treat individual buildings as demonstrations of urbanistic ideas.' p.8 

'He tried to abstract principles from tradition, and to distil these into a formal system with its own rules of appropriateness.' p.8

'Le Corbusier worked from general to particular and from particular to general when solving problems.' p.11

Influences

About Carthusian monastery near Galluzo he wrote:
'Yesterday I went to see Chartreuse... there I found a unique solution to workers' housing. But it will be difficult to duplicate the landscape. oh those monks, what lucky fellows.' p. 22

'Many of the ideas were derived from Camillo Sitte's Der Stadtbau of 1889, which had stressed the need for intimate complexity in the placement of buildings, squares and streets, and which had been heavily illustrated with examples from medieval Italy.' p.30

'The Uses of Disorder. Personal Identity and City Life' by Richard Sennet

I discovered distinctive sociologist and urbanist Richard Sennett by clicking phrase "Open city" in Google. Where this phrase came from I do not remember but it was the name of a lecture given by him at the Harvard GSD which grasped my attention. I found his ideas explicitly simple and persuasive. They are rooted in Humanistic thinking and address such fundamental issues of humankind as craftsmanship, cooperation and urban environment.
"The Uses of Disorder" is one of his earliest works which casts doubts on the ideals of rigid, excessively ordered society. 
Richard Sennett denies purified community where the development of its members is locked into framed identity. Instead, he proposes an alternative environment where otherness, diversity and ambiguity are allowed.
Further are some interesting quotes feeding my concepts and leading deeper into serendipity.

'One technique of planning large human settlements developed in the past hundred years has been the device of establishing "projective needs". This means guessing the future physical and social requirements  of a community or city and then basing present spending and energy so as to achieve a readiness for the projected future state.' p.6


  

The most isolated London's suburbia

No cafe, no pub, no doctor in London's most isolated suburb

Here is a vivid example of how single function development created to serve housing needs becomes limiting and burden. By not providing decent social and transport infrastructure council together with the developer has created another gated community which struggles with isolation and loneliness.

Inner freedom. Space and façade for mass housing

ABSTRACT

Face often is described as the mirror of our inner world. Similarly, façade ideally could be a representation of building’s content. What are the face and the space of today’s mass housing?
This essay examines the role of façade and space in mass housing. It assumes that façade and space as main components of dwelling are able to express humanity, identity, freedom and well-being.
Maison Dom-ino by Le Corbusier was a basic building prototype which embodied design ideas about liberation. Its author’s aspirations were as much social and urban as structural and spatial.
Prototype’s legacy today is multi-storey mass housing around the world. The result is dual. On the one hand, there is an efficiency of the building process, a flexibility of variation through standardisation and unification. On another hand – it is alienation, lack of humanity and personality.
The field of interest of design research unit is construction. My interest lays in the intersection between structural technology and social issues. 
At first, the research examines the Maison Dom-ino, its space and structure, relationship with an external world and finally, its legacy - mass produced housing. 
Next, the research looks at the free façade in the context of Le Corbusier’s ideas and its meaning in the wider context. Research inspects liberation and identification of the façade of the mass housing through architectural expressions supported by structural transformations.
Finally, it looks at progress and failure of mass housing. Research examines more than 30 precedents of mass housing and tries to summarise the methods of liberation in mass housing. In these precedents and case studies, it tries to find out the factors responsible for successful communication between content and skin, between ideas and their representation.  
The research uses a reading, writing and making to investigate methods of liberation that tackle issues of human scale, individuality and freedom in mass housing and its external appearance.
Object engages in this discourse with speculation about possible solutions to these problems. It looks at Maison Dom-ino as an experimental platform for architectural ideas.

In conclusion, research summarises the methods of liberation in mass housing as follows: internal flexibility, vertical dimension, separate units, hybrid, parasite and special facade. These methods overlap in their expressions and technical solutions and with a common aim to create a liberating living environment. 

METHODS OF LIBERATION 

1. FLEXIBLE HOUSING

The researchers Jeremy Till & Sarah Wigglesworth, and Tatjana Schneider in their project define meaning of the flexible housing and arguments for it. Socially, it provides control to inhabitants over their own dwelling. Demographically, it offers a possibility to transform dwelling accordingly to the current situation. Economically, it slows down the functional, physical and moral ageing of a building and reduces resulting expenses related with its transformation. Technically, it provides effective servicing (Schneider, 2007).

2. HYBRID

The hybrid nature of the contemporary project alludes to the current simultaneity of realities and categories, relating no longer to harmonious and coherent bodies, but rather to mongrel scenarios made up of structures and identities in parasitic coexistence.’ - by this Manuel Gausa (2000:293) describes formations not only in architecture which become one of the characteristics of Postmodernity. These formations are feeding each other and creating new environments around themselves. In mass housing, it means adding different functions to housing function.

MVRDV is an architecture practice, one of “second modernity” architects whose “anti-dogmatic” approach is resulted in many innovative housing designs which address a wide spectrum of issues.

Berlin Voids is a significant combination of new concepts which challenges Modernist clichés of mass housing for example – standardisation. This competition work is a synthesis of antipodal aspects – concentration of living spaces in one volume like typical urban block and differentiation of these spaces through their spatial typology Constanzo, 2006). Typology, in turn, plays on house concept – spatially unique yet interconnected it also reflects on ‘... the inner dynamism of contemporary society...’(Constanzo, 2006:17). This is also a typical example of another liberating concept – special façade.

3. SPECIAL FAÇADE

Wozoco’s apartments and The Housing Silo both in Amsterdam are other contemporary examples of advanced housing by MVRDV. Here, in both projects, facade plays a significant role by successfully expressing its inner content and also by liberating their inhabitants. Thus Wozoco’s apartments are an impressive modernist concept of liberating man from ground. It is achieved by large cantilevered volumes – living units. 

Whereas Silodam is liberating example by using ‘... a multiplicity of closely interrelated functions inside the building...’ (Constanzo, 2006:112). It also plays with city’s housing typology – row houses within one large volume. This creates mini neighbourhoods which are enriched with different ancillary functions. It also respects future inhabitants’ individual wishes by creating variety – each flat is unique. This building also is a bright reminiscence of Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation. The main similarity here is a vertical dimension.

4. VERTICAL DIMENSION

5. SEPARATE UNITS

6. PARASITE

Social Space. Adaptive cultural & educational centre for a town

INTRO

‘Emerging regions. This is a moment of transformation characterized by the bipolar opposition between techno-economic globalization and socio-cultural identity.’

Viny Maas. KM3 :excursions on capacities. 2005.

The project explores the role of a public building in the regeneration of the former market town. 
How could social space be a platform for a ‘civic renaissance’ in a modern society? 

The current trend shows the weakening of the town centre on behalf of the outskirts. Towns are expanding, thanks, to new housing areas. In such former market towns as Blairgowrie/Rattray and Kirriemuir, many of community centres and activities related to them are located out of the town centre. High street typically serving trading and shopping activities has been weakened by such contemporary retail development’s trend as shopping in shopping malls out of the town centre and online shopping. 
As a result town centres have experienced decline and weakening. 

My intent is to test some urban theories and to create a design for educational and cultural centre rooted in the community which could have a positive influence on the development of the whole town. 

This project is grounded in urban study and strategy which was implemented by the group. 
The Urban study looked at social, historical and other aspects which have formed and still forming two former market towns Blairgowrie/Rattray and Kirriemuir. Then it looked closer to the character and identities of both towns. Based on urban analysis urban strategy was implemented with the aim to define methods - potential solutions. 

In the end of the group work, decisions were made by choosing a town for the location of two objects - library and childcare centre - either separately or together.
These two public facilities are important urban anchors and attractors which have both social and cultural significance within any city or town.

The contemporary library is able to accommodate and provide a wide range of services which can coexist and feed each other. They are sources of information and knowledge as well as places for socialising and interaction.  
Childcare centre plays important role in children development, it is a place for joy, learning and socialising.
Group’s investigation and further strategy initiated me to look deeper into urban concepts and implement them in my design. 

REGIONAL CONTEXT

“The city is unique, formed as it is by the forces of nature and manufacturer, by topography and climate, and by ownership and law. It shows resistance to the impositions of a structural order influenced by urban thinking which is abstract and ideological. Whether such impositions occur through political, economic or social motivation, they are almost always absorbed or modified by the cultural character and temperament of the city, making them specific and of their place.” 

Stephen Bates. The city of things. 

The Urban study looked at social, historical and other factors which have formed and still forming two former market towns Blairgowrie/Rattray and Kirriemuir.
Then it looked closer to the character and identities of both towns.

Further, it leads to the decisions about eventual town and influences the whole design process. 

Tayplan strategic Development Plan 2012 - 2032 in Policy 1 has defined location priorities where principal settlements are ranked by its strategical importance and their contribution to the region's economy.

Blairgowrie/Rattray - settlement has “...the potential to make a major contribution to the regional economy but will accommodate a smaller share of the region’s additional development.” (p.9)

Kirriemuir - settlement has “...the potential to play an important but more modest role in the regional economy and will accommodate a small share of the region’s additional development which is more about sustaining them.” (p.9)

TAYplan: Scotland’s SusTAYnable RegionStrategic Development Plan 2012 - 2032

HISTORY. POPULATION AND TERRITORY

       

Blairgowrie/Rattray   Kirriemuir 

The scheme shows how significantly both towns have expanded their territory during the last 50 years on behalf of residential areas. New primary schools and hospitals have been built in order to serve these new parts of the towns.        

INFRASTRUCTURE

OPEN PUBLIC SPACES

‘They are singular, they create an identity, and they must be able to stimulate the evolution of all kinds of part of a society.’

CHORA / Raoul Bunschoten. Public Spaces. 2002

Full project could be seen here:

http://ivarskalvans.blogspot.co.uk/p/worksarch.html