informal architectures

Informal workers, informal streets

2011-07-07T07:47:00.000-07:00

A session on economic planning and development at the World Planning Schools Congress suggests informal workers (auf Deutsch nichtdokumentiere Arbeiter, vielleicht auch Gastarbeiter) in large cities often have potential to better organise, and are a vital element of city vitality. (WPSC session 15A) The case of WIEGO - Women in Informal Employment Globalising and suggests three sectors of workers, street vendors, waste pickers and home workers, all vulnerable and poor marginal citizens have much to offer to city vitality in many cases.

Other research showed Tax Increment Financing (TIF) schemes were used in Chicago city regeneration, with the intention of decreasing blight and creating jobs, (even if not in the TIF area?) but also drained funding from schools and other urban social infrastructure. The lack of localism in the programme seemed to work against its effectiveness.

A UTM Curtin study tour investigating 'vibrancy' in the new cities Cyberjaya and Putrajaya in Malaysia suggests these centres seem to have almost dispensed with the old idea of the street. The new Malaysian urban culture here is car and road based, segregated, along a multi-media development corridor with sparsely located iconic buildings. On counts such as walkability, cycleability, interconnectivity and transit orientation, the urbanism was considered lacking, although for the benefit of international 'direct investment' the area is located near the KLIA International Airport.

Bare House, Pori - opening 28 May

2010-05-19T02:37:00.000-07:00

Bare Street, Bare House

2010-04-20T13:40:00.000-07:00

For the exhibition Bare House in Pori, opening May 28, I will present posters with some drawings, and with some of my Ulaanbaatar diaries (Blog extracts)

paviljonki 3

2010-04-07T07:58:00.001-07:00

paviljonki 3
Originally uploaded by neppanen

A Bare House

Trolleybus, Ulaanbaatar Street

2010-04-07T06:21:00.001-07:00

Bare Street, Ulaanbaatar

Ulaanbaatar Trolley
Originally uploaded by AaverageJoe

Shop Sign, Street and Public Transport by Michael Chu

Bare House

The proposed contribution for Bare House, in Pori this May - to be called Улаанбаатарийн Гудамчнууд or alternatively 'Bare Street' - is concerned with urbanisation and the informal peri-urban environments of Ulaanbaatar. The informal districts of Ulaanbaatar (known as гэр хооролол) are expanding due to internal migration following the recent extreme winter 'zuud', which has damaged rural livelihoods. A series of six banners of urban landscapes (printed using a local UB technique for making shop signage) forms one part, a small drawing studio / installation with pencil drawings, sketchbooks and a blog forms another. The weblog diary and sketches document the work and day-to-day life of a certain 'nomadologist', an architect teacher trainer in a peri-urban construction college, walking from the edge of the formal city through a 'ger district' to a training college and live construction site. Some features of the year-long blog include Live Projects , Participation, Sustainable Tourism, and a wheelchair tour of Ulaanbaatar streets. What will be the future for nomadic peri-urbanism?
Gregory Cowan (AUS / GB)

ARTISTS/ARCHITECTS:
GREGORY COWAN, AUS/GB
ALETTA DE JONG, NL
MICHAEL FÜRST, AUT
KATRIN HORNEK, AUT
SONIA LEIMER, ITA/AUT
CHRISITAN MAYER,GER/AUT
ANA REWAKOWICZ, PL/CAN
CHRISTINE SAALFELD, GER/NL
OULA SALOKANNEL, FIN
SER-ODIN DOLGOR, MN
SEDBAZARIN GANZUG, MN
TOGMIDSHIIREVIN ENKHBOLD, MN
ANNU WILENIUS,FIN
YO.DALKH-OCHIR, MN

AUTHORS:B. DAAJAV, MN
GREGORY COWAN, AUS/GB
SAARA HACKLIN, FIN
TAINA RAJANTI, FIN
ANNU WILENIUS, FIN

Curator / ORGANISATION: ANNU WILENIUS

Growing a Greener London

2009-05-01T10:33:00.000-07:00

Actions: What You Can Do With the City is a recent exhibition at the CCA in Montreal, featuring several thought-provoking examples of informal urbanism and greening. The London based work of Guerilla Gardeners and What If , and the projects of the French group aaa (of Urban Act) stood out to me, for example. Like the exhibition 'London Yields', this was another prompt to collectively pursue more growing and greening of gardens in our patch of London.

I just noticed an edible garden being constructed in Weston Rise. Thornhill Bridge (N1) and Marchmont Street (WC1) are further potential locations in the local area where "actions" could be undertaken, and develop ideas from the Leeds urban wildlife and greening project in the previous blog entry below...

Holbeck Designs short-listed

2009-03-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

Our London design team, comprising Annick Collins (superblue) Gregory Cowan and Natalie Skeete, has have been shortlisted for the Holbeck competition scheme submitted in February. (Design Week)

The competition entry prepared by Collins Cowan and Skeete proposes a triadic strategy of landscape, urban 'furniture' and a palette of suitable materials, where non-humans and humans will interact. The final result is due to be announced on the 28th of May.

Designing animal habitats for Holbeck Urban Village seemed an excellent idea for a collaboration on a design competition. Annick, my engineer colleague, and one of a trio with whom I had worked on the Ken Saro-Wiwa Mobile Memorial competition, agreed to collaborate at the end of 2008. Near Camley Street , a model inner city nature interaction space, we talked over a pint of London Pride about human-animal and animal-human interaction in this 'urban regeneration' area, and found consensus on issues like biomimicry, and human-centred urban design principles which might also allow birds to nest, bees to pollenate, and otters to hide from human residents of the area. Architectural assistant Natalie Skeete, who had been working in the same regeneration area by the Fleet, and on the new Kings Place building by the canal, joined the team, adding her experience of nocturnal animal architecture.

A discussion about the transdisiplinary work of OOZ was brought my attention by a neighbour commentating on the work. Geese, Birds, Fish and Bats had been studied and discussion ensued about human and non-human interactions.

Our team finalised and submitted our three part strategy proposal in February, and in March our team was shortlisted, among a field of competitors from Yorkshire, California, and beyond. We met by the canal again to consider the shortlisting, and offered the competition organisers the opportunity that we would engage the local community. Our process-driven design strategy, which combines urban landscape, animal 'furniture' and a code of materials will not easily translate into a photo opportunity. The press article says "The winner, who will be announced on May 28, will see his or her vision turned into reality and installed in Holbeck Urban Village ready for local critters to move in." But do the organisers understand the need to work with the existing resident human critters?

Whether our scheme will be suitable for building a photogenic prototype for the 'critters' - as the organisers envisage - remains to be seen.

Links:

Group picture
Holbeck Tour: and 18 part zipped Audio Guide
Biomimicry at the AIA 2007 Convention
Presentation about OOZ
Ecological sustainability
The Biomimicry Institute and its ask.nature website
Hilary Powell's 2007 photographs of the site

Bogota

2009-03-15T16:08:00.000-07:00

PBS has screened a 25 minute segment about rapid urbanisation, informal settlements, and recent development in Bogota. Although exaggerated in its style, and narrated grandiosely by Brad Pitt, the story of the reintroduction of pedestrian and bicycle priority for city transport is poignant, and Mayor Peñalosa's reassertion of the importance of human centred accessways, footways, cycleways, and public transport systems are explored. The introduction of walking programmes and bike lanes, and the political resistance to these by business is addressed, including the controversial but laudable practice of prioritising footway and cycleway construction for the majority over roadway construction for the few.

Brazil

2009-03-10T06:08:00.001-07:00

I was on a high after tasting the mild, fruity and spicy Brazilian grind of the day at Monmouth Coffee in Covent Garden this morning, following a nine o'clock meeting. It was an appreciated pick up after the previous evening's amazing party for the 15th birthday of Stranger and Stranger, at a well stocked venue in Little Portland Street.

At the meeting with the Quantity Surveyor in Bloomsbury Square this morning, I was accompanied by a more experienced architect colleague, to see the tender documentation of a project in Kings Cross, which I would like to work on. Among many topics, we discussed facade detailing, window specifications, and changes of planning use in the building. I learned a little more about section 106 agreements. Tenders will close this week, and no doubt some interesting issues will arise around the contracting, costing and project planning, given the current climate of the construction and property markets.

Leaving my friend at Seven Dials, I returned via St Giles Circus and walked through the delightful British Museum court to Russell Square. Hordes of student teachers congregated around the brutalist front of the Institute of Education in Bedford Way, and I continued past Ghandi in Tavistock Square, through Woburn Walk, around Argyle School, and back to my office.

London

2009-03-05T06:49:00.002-08:00

Mid-afternoon, escaping the South Kensington traffic into Hyde Park, I cycled past two women walking in the sun by the Albert Memorial, and overheard one say to the other "...she was twenty four hours in labour..." I crossed through the Park, by the Serpentine Gallery, which appeared dormant but for a figure pacing the roof terrace on a telephone under the changing sky. I think it was the director, Julia Peyton-Jones, talking to Kazuyo Sejima in Tokyo about the SANAA summer pavilion.

I was returning, reeling slightly, from the ecobuild exhibition at Earls Court, where among thousands of products and presentations, I caught Bill Dunster presenting the impressive ZEDFactory projects, including RuralZED, and I learned something about Passivhaus principles, about T-Zero, and BREEAM, by finding the BRE stand.

Samsen

2009-02-13T07:35:00.000-08:00

Samsen Community, in Bangkok's Dusit district*, is the site of a study by current students in UCL Bartlett School's " Building and Urban Design in Development" course. At their Tavistock Square studio, I attended a presentation of the work, hosted by Professor Nabeel Hamdi and Supitcha Nong, in the institute which Prof Hamdi tells me began life long ago as the 'Tropical' unit at the Architectural Association. Students had mapped and profiled the informally-housed Samsen community, about 340 residential units, and have developed briefs around residents' needs, aspirations, and livelihoods.

Student responses applied a framework of "provide - adapt - enable - sustain", and projects ranged from a craft business incubator called "Thought Factory" and a livehoods programme for waste pickers, to urban public arts using Bamboo. Notions of linking with NGOs -although tentative- included reference CODI, EMPOWER and UNICEF. Materials recycling for craft enterprise and tourism were two shared themes of the projects.

*Dusit is described as a mini-European city, transformed by Rama V. from a former fruit orchard. (Lonely Planet)

Lines of Flight: Sheffield

2009-01-29T04:57:00.000-08:00

The Lines of Flight researchers' group at the University of Sheffield arranged a workshop on 28 January about Informal Architectures and Participatory Practices in Mongolia.

On the theme of Informal Architectures, we discussed:
• the informal,
• the idea of l'informe from Bataille (Bois and Krauss, Formless Zone:1999) - and the relation of form and informal, informal within the formal, etc.
• Informal Architectures (Black Dog:2008) the book,
• participants' notions of informal architecture and urbanism, belonging, and land tenure,
• 'institutional study' of informal settlements including by visiting university groups (WHO pdf).

On the theme of Participatory Process and practices,
we briefly reviewed a few VSO methods which were developed and tailored with Mongolian construction college teachers in a training workshop in July 2008
1. Focus Group Discussions - Бүлгийн Хэлэлцүүлэл
[each subgroup develops responses to a topic and reports to the wider group]
2. Participatory Presentations - Орон Нутгийн Шийдвэр
[each participant presents a few examples and everyone groups them]
3. Picture Stories - Зурган түүх
[developmental Heurisms communicated graphically]
4. Problem Tree - Асуудлын Мод
[root causes and effects 'fruits' of a problematic are mapped as a tree]
5. Thought Shower - Санаагаа Илэрхийлэх.
[free generation and discussion of ideas]
(pdf)

A suggestion to the Mongolian teachers was that some of the methods might be applied to teaching through two live architectural projects. Some of the work to site analysis stage in July 2008 was presented;
Site Analysis and Initial Discussion
Yarmag - Childrens Camp and Conference Centre
processes
Site plan, site analysis
Site sections, site analysis
Captioned Site Photography - tested using the "Participatory Presentation" method in teams for selection and captioning.
Sketches, Collage
Accommodation Brief
Play space - defining play
incl interior, exterior, roads, gardens, ecological features, ecological footprint.
Market Appraisals; Play/Conference centres UB wide, International; Russia, China, Khazakstan etc
Agreed Precedent Studies - Structure, Roof of Beijing Airport (Foster)
Precedent Studies - Programme, Eden Project Cornwall (Grimshaw)
Precedent Studies - Conservation, Camley Street London Kings Cross
Precedent Studies - Theme Parks, Butlins Family Holiday Camps (UK)
(The college director / client suggested Beijing Airport, and students asked for successful foreign examples to study from 'my culture')
Questions arising in the Seminar
• Why weren't local / Mongolian / vernacular architectures studied as precedents?

Sanzai - Eco Houses - Эко Хаус
Background of project funding, private development.
Green standards, agreeing a standard of ecological sustainability
• Energy - Энэриг
• Transport - Тээврийн хэрэгсэл
• Pollution - Агаарын бохирдол
• Materials - Матэриал
• Water - Ус
• Land use and ecology - Талбай ашиглалт
• Health and well being - Эрүүл мэнд эрүүл саруул байх

Questions arising in the Seminar
• Could the ecological sustainability of the traditional Mongolian Ger be studied?
General
• Defining informal architectures,
• Activism, roles of local NGOs (eg MWFA, MWUA, GCSD) and International NGOs
• Collaboration and Participatory methods in Architectural Practices and Education

Possible actions:
• Further communication / contact in future - discuss ongoing projects with those involved

Here are some flickr pictures - including some shown in the 'lines of flight' seminar.
Lines of Flight Seminar space and participants.
Thanks to participants for a stimulating discussion. Please post/send comments.

Sheffield; Informal Architectures

2009-01-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

Students at the University of Sheffield (Lines of Flight) have arranged a workshop on 28 January about Informal Architectures and Participatory Practices in Mongolia.
Recent pictures of the architecture school in Western Ulaanbaatar.
Alt Praxis (U Sheffield c.2007)

'Slumming' in Panchsheel Vihar and Chirag Delhi

2009-01-13T08:17:00.000-08:00

Architecture students I met at London Metropolitan University are working with two informal settlements in India, Panchsheel Vihar and Chirag Delhi, which they visited at the end of 2008. These settlements are west and east of the Madapuri Stream, and between two of the seven ancient cities of Delhi. The latter 500m x 500m village has a population of 80 000, only three storeys (a density of 3200 persons per hectare). The students' collection of site information, surveys, analysis and photographs of these informal settlements forms the background for proposing improvements to public spaces.

Diverse precedent studies included one student reviewing Chandigarh*, Archigram and markets in Petaling Jaya. Her project connects many rooftops, with complex effect on private and public space thresholds. Another identified genial occupations of the street, but did not have a clear proposition for any improvement to the neighbourhood. I suggested projects might reference development of communities through local education organisations like SEWA, or like Mongolia's MWFA.

In an age of studios where images of even Panchseel Vihar and Chirag Delhi are accessible via google earth and websites, a student collage of an anonymous map profile caught my eye. In a clipping of an ancient map called "Terra Incognita", I recognised the coast of Western Australia. Like one by Robert de Vaugondy (Didier) 1756, only the west coast was distinct, which suggests it was from the 17th century, when Hondius was still drawing connections between Terra Australis Incognita and the Orient. As students grapple with cross sections of villages and of social strata, Terra Incognita takes on others meanings in 2009.

* Chandigarh conference (see also flickr photos)

Holbeck Urban Village site

2008-12-15T07:26:00.001-08:00

P7150120
Originally uploaded by hilarypowell

Photos of Holbeck Urban Village site by Hilary Powell
More Holbeck photos on flickr.
Architecture for Orang Utans in Perth

Rumours are circulating in mid March that the competition entry prepared by Collins Cowan and Skeete had been selected by the jury for the short list. The final result is due in May.

birds bats and bees

2008-12-11T09:37:00.000-08:00

Designing some animal habitats for Holbeck Urban Village in Leeds is the subject of a new competition which caught my attention. An engineer colleague, one of a trio with whom I worked on the Ken Saro-Wiwa Mobile Memorial competition, was interested in a collaboration. Not far from Camley Street we talked over a couple of pints of London Pride about human-animal and animal-human interaction in this 'urban regeneration' area, and found consensus on some issues including biomimicry, and human-centred principles which might allow birds to nest, bees to pollenate, and otters to hide from human residents of the area.

A recent discussion about the transdisiplinary work of OOZ in this area was drawn to my attention by a friend commentating on the work. Geese, Birds, Fish and Bats have been studied and the discussion ensued about human and non-human interactions.

Annick the engineer and I discussed the competition judges Hale (an artist) and Ward (an architect) and determined that Annick and her partner would inspect the Holbeck site during a planned Christmas visit nearby.

Postscript: Natalie Skeete joined the team and we submitted the proposals in February.
News: In March our team was shortlisted

Other links:
Holbeck Tour: and 18 part zipped Audio Guide
Biomimicry at the AIA 2007 Convention
Presentation about OOZ
Ecological sustainability
The Biomimicry Institute and its ask.nature website

games

2008-12-09T12:13:00.000-08:00

Hilary Powell: from Pudding Mill River Works

As the 2012 Olympics becomes gradually more temporary and flexible, I have been enjoying looking at Hilary's drawings for the Pudding Mill River Factory Tour, and was reminded of her film The Games, where I played the extra part of one of the athletes waking in a tent camp in the overgrown Lee Valley wetlands...

more:
•see Iain Sinclair's essay - The Olympics Scam
• new clip from Pudding Mill River
• amateur city games; climbing club

drawing.. and studying architecture

2008-12-09T02:03:00.000-08:00

My father recently sent me an interesting cutting; a review of a new book about Michaelangelo. It tells of how he invented through drawing. He apparently disdained the authority of Vitruvius' theory, learning slowly by copying architecture. Drawing was itself a mode of education, and he found his way into architecture in the 16th century using drawing-as-thinking. (education comes from e-ducere, drawing out). The review, by Philip Drew, is from The Australian.

white walls

2008-12-08T09:55:00.000-08:00

In 1938, while visiting a new villa built by the Irish designer Eileen Gray, Le Corbusier was inspired to "improve" on her work. He admired the white-walled classicism and industrial finesse of the home, which was built in the spirit of his own domestic architecture. But he thought it needed a little something.

And so Le Corbusier stripped naked, took out his paint brushes and covered the house with large, sexually provocative images. "One of the murals was on the previously spare white wall behind the living-room sofa, so that what had been specified by Gray to be a point of visual respite was now an animated scenario," writes Nicholas Fox Weber in his new biography, Le Corbusier: A Life. Gray, who admired Le Corbusier and was, like many architects, proprietary about her work, felt "raped" by the incident.

from Washington Post's review of Nicholas Fox Weber's new biography 'Le Corbusier - A Life'

The story reminded me of Beatriz Colomina's book Privacy and Publicity - and reading of the house E1027, a site of competition and rivalry between Gray and LC. The 'Murals at Cap Martin', apparently commissioned by Jean Badovici without Gray's consent, are in the house overlooking the site where Le Corbusier died swimming in 1965.

Le Corbusier's naked redecorating antics are hypocritical in light of his attitude to interior design. Charlotte Perriand was at first turned away as "cushion embroiderer" but later designed items like the LC2 armchair and the B306 chaise which added to Le Corbusier's fame.

Energy Cafe

2008-12-01T04:46:00.000-08:00

At Gunpowder Park yesterday, near Rammey Marsh and Waltham Abbey in Essex, I visited Amy and Ella's project 'Under Construction' taking shape on this former munitions test site. Local geographic naming history, overlaying blast mound and cob fields was curious.

Their self-built wood stove reminded me of some Mongolian ones I'd seen, like Jadamba's in Zuragt. I used the kitchen (comparing water systems) and the bicycle power station, and was shown around the camp. We discussed making things from material on site, the process of building a Ger (Mongolian Felt Yurt) and whether one could be adapted to suit the damp in a place like this. I recommended viewing the film Mujaan, depicting a Mongolian craftsman building a Ger.

We ate some local food and talked about ideas like fishing in nearby King George's Reservoir and collecting mushrooms in Epping Forest.

Informal Architectures Mongolia

2008-12-01T04:30:00.001-08:00

Ger Districts
Urban UB

2008-11-25T07:49:00.000-08:00

Black Dog Publishing

Symposium

Order (Amazon)

Google Books

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