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. 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

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

Minimalist hut

“The minimum could be defined as the perfection that an artifact achieves when it is no longer possible to improve it by subtraction... This is the quality that an object has when every component, every detail and every junction has been reduced or condensed to the essentials. It is the result of the omission of the inessentials.” 

John Pawson, Minimum

    The primitive hut by Charles Eisen for Frontispiece of Marc-Antoine Laugier: Essai sur l’architecture represents not only ideal self-sufficient structure at the time but also shows universality of timber use in building structure.

In a primitive hut all its elements: columns, beams and rafters are made entirely of fresh cut wood and work as a whole superstructure. Structure is assembled without any additional bonding elements and therefore seems suspicious. 

In my opinion this drawing is an allegory about universality of vernacular principles and their connection with nature. It also represents idea about simplicity as human quality against complexity of nature.

Wood is simple and sophisticated at the same time. It is the only one building material which is a living organism. None of building materials is so diverse, complex and inconstant as wood.

Complexity of wood is not only in its physical properties but also in structural principles used in timber structures through the centuries. Timber works best in structural system where each element is assisted, compensated by another. Joints are crucial in these systems and they must be precise and effective to achieve strength and toughness of the whole structure. 

The minimalist hut represents basic, essential structure accomplished in such a way to achieve simplicity and clarity of building language. The aim is to use joints without fasteners, bindings or adhesive. Structural elements are interconnected together only by interlocking and fixed with hardwood plugs.

The minimalist hut uses limited size of standard timber: beam 75x150 or 75x100mm. 

Axsonometric view

Ridge and cornice detail drawings

Process of making.

Component parts 

Sequence

Cornice detail - complete structure

Ridge detail - complete structure

Space shaped by the light out of windows

The city is shaped not only by its objects and voids between but also by external factors which allow city to be perceived. The light either natural daylight or artificial one makes the perception of physical city possible. In daylight a wide range of variable components shape our perception – glare and shadows, air perspective and cloudiness.
After dusk man-made light is almost single player in the city. It suppresses light from the stars and the moon, thus city becomes totally separated from nature. It changes our perception thoroughly because rules of perception become different. We start to see in more selective and focused manner because of darkness. Space becomes enclosed and object-like more than ever.
Artificial light is a guide through the city and it also defines the character of the city.
Norberg-Schulz points the window as especially important in defining the spirit of place:
‘It does not only express the spatial structure of the building, but also how it is related to light. And, through its proportions and detailing, it participates in the functions of standing and rising. In the window, thus, the genius loci is focused and ‘explained’.
Edward Hopper’s famous paintings Night Windows (1928) and Nighthawks (1942) illustrates two levels of the city – one which is private, domestic and usually hidden, and another which is public, commercial such as cafe or shop.

Night Windows (1928)

Nighthawks (1942)

Aim. This mapping exercise tries to reveal the character of two former market towns – Blairgowrie and Kirriemuir which now experiences economic and social decline. I am interested in artificial light as the indicator of the level of diversity and vitality of these towns.

Method. I used two types of artificial light out of windows commercial and domestic) as a code which holds different information about spaces shaped by it three-dimensionally –
both in plan and in street views.

Result. Final maps show areas of commercial and social activity, difference between centre, residential and industry areas and density of towns.
Research also revealed different features of built environment such as: typology, orientation and rhythm of windows, character of narrow streets and blank gables, aspects of overlooking
and imaginary situation of spaces shaped only by light out of windows.

urban analysis / mapping / aero view / Kirriemuir

urban analysis / mapping / aero view / Blairgowrie and Rattray

urban analysis / mapping / street view / Blairgowrie and Rattray

urban analysis / mapping / street view / Kirriemuir