COVER
CREDITS
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LIST OF CONTENTS
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Workshop Title: Walk Work, Along the City of London Fringe Duration: Monday 01 July – Monday 16 September 2013 University: University of East London, School of Architecture Computing and Engineering, Subject Area Architecture Teaching: Christoph Hadrys (born September 1971), Programme Leader MA Urban Design and Leader Diploma Unit 2 Participating Students: Luna Bibas, Luiza Giannelli, Marie Lartigue, Bruna Pasquali and Rebeca Tabosa
Workshop Description The workshop focused on the north-eastern urban fringe condition around the City of London and consisted of three parts. The first part was a walking lecture with the students from London Liverpool Street Station to the Barbican Centre. During the second part, the students researched key locations along the walk further. They made maps, drawings, took photos and wrote about past and current conditions. During the last part of the workshop, the students made a book about the walk and work.
The Condition around the City of London The City of London is located on the North bank of the river Thames. It is based on the old Roman settlement Londinium. The slightly raised embankment allowed structures right next to the river without fear of flooding. While London’s size and population grew further and further, the Roman grid formations turned into a maze in medieval times. Since then, the City of London slowly became the ‘office’ of London and uses turned increasingly into finance, insurance and trade. Political and religious institutions as well as culture moved further west, while industry and harbour facilities developed further east along the Thames embankments.
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This urban division of functions became manifest during the 19th century, when the City of London, or so called ‘Square Mile’ or just the ‘City’, solely connected to the money economy. In the shadow of this extreme concentration of wealth, the immediate urban context of the City of London developed a dependency on the financial district and residential communities around it. It became predominantly an area of services, manufacturing, infrastructure and cheap labour that would maintain the day to day needs of the City. As the City changed, so did its context. The fringe area has responded to changing demands of the City and has remained in a constant state of adjustments and transformations. This had fundamental effects on the physical and social urban fabric. Nowadays, the immediate context of the City of London is one of the most diverse but also fragmented areas in London. It bears traces of different ways of living and working, that reach back many centuries. Georgian housing, 19th Century brick warehouses, Post War and contemporary housing, transportation infrastructure as well as empty land are side by side. It is an area of contrasting and heterogenious dimensions of old and new, big and small, solid and void, dark and light, slow and fast, shiny and mat; home to people from all over the world, rich and poor. Over the last few decades, the City of London has gained an expanded position within global financial markets. Its hunger for land and resources as well as a shift in London’s gravity eastwards, has partly led to a restructuring of the City fringe, with warehouses being converted, shops and restaurants opened and new jobs in service industries created.
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The Walk The walk started at Liverpool Street Station in the northeast of the City of London. The area around the station is one of the most dynamic growth areas of the City of London. The contrast of old and new as well as small and big is most extreme here. We continued our walk further east and explored the area around the former fruit and vegetable market of Spitalfields. Over the last decade, it is has largely been converted into offices and restaurants, showing an expansion of activities that are connected to the financial industry. Further east to the market is Georgian Spitalfields. The area consists mainly of small scale townhouses that date back to the 18th century. Being in disrepair in the mid 20th century, the area was regenerated in a DIY (Do-ItYourself) manner by families and smaller groups, during the 1970s and 80s. The scale of the buildings allowed a ‘bottom-up’ engagement that also invited a Bangladeshi community to settle further east. Brick Lane is know as its heart nowadays. Even though Bangladesh offers very different conditions of living, the community settled well into this close knit network of spaces. Walking further to the north, Brick Lane changes from Asian restaurants to more European urban cultures in and around the buildings of the former Truman Brewery. It is home to clubs, restaurants, bars, Sunday markets and cultural exhibition venues. Up north, the walk takes us to the outer locations around the City fringe. It is an area of diverse housing conditions, from the 18th all the way to the 20th century. Early social housing, like the Boundary Estate as well as Council Housing from the mid 20th Century are side by side. It is a fragmented neighbourhood and at times asks questions of what ‘social’ in an urban context actually means. The area of Shoreditch to the north-west is dominated by 19th century warehouses and its former urban manufacturing. Large floor-plans and windows provided room for making things manually. Nowadays, they have been converted into offices and ‘loft’ apartments.
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The area has seen some of the most dramatic social change and gentrification in the last two decades. Contemporary art and library buildings have halted, but also facilitated that change. Our walk takes us further to other residential neighbourhoods that resemble the aforementioned social housing qualities and take their conditions even further. It contains early private social housing like the Whitecross Peabody Estate. More experimental late 20th Century approach to living has brought about community gardens and the tallest residential timber tower in Europe. The walk comes to an end at the Golden Lane Estate and the Barbican Centre, both designed by the architects Chamberlin Powell and Bon. The housing projects are exemplar for a more articulated 20th Century Modernism and besides housing, contain sport, cultural and educational facilities, such as cinemas, theatres and art schools. The walk concludes in reflecting back on most diverse, but also interesting ways of making cities, from single family town houses all the way to single-handedly designed pieces of cities for thousands of inhabitants. This allowed a more holistic understanding of spaces and places that developed throughout history, in an interrelated manner. The Research and Book Each student selected five to six urban situations or locations, such as a piece of architecture, a street or a particular urban condition. First, students re-visited the locations, took photos, researched back-ground information and made drawings that exemplified observed qualities. They used library facilities and a variety of computer programmes and hand-drawing techniques. Furthermore, students wrote short texts that explained the object of study and their own interest within it. In addition, photography about further interesting spaces was added to the main research locations.
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The research was accompanied by regular tutorials and group work. The students worked within a given book template and made a coherent layout. More and more, the students developed fragments of work back into a more connected Walk Work, allowing others to re-visit places along a continuous chain of spaces.
Christoph Hadrys London, 27.10.2013
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Bishopsgate
(Buildings in Time) It is a originally roman major road in Lonndon’s main financial district.
Panoramic of BishopsGate
Collage of Bishopsgate
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The Bishopsgate it is a road that gathers differents pieces of the history in one just place because it is made by several buildings of several decades and different architetonic styles. Based on this the idea of the draw was thought to annalyze how would be the landscape of this street in each decade with the buildings constructed so far, for this experiment, just a little piece of the road was chosen as you can see in the panoramic photo below.
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1860/70
1890
1930/60
2000/1990
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East side of Liverpool Street Station
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The Bishopsgate Exchange One of the buildings constructed to improve the east area. It is located on the 158 Bishopsgate.
Section
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On the 70’s and 80’s a division of classes between the East and West London was clear. To improve the poor east side, some companies decided to invest on the area. The construction of some buildings was the principal idea to transform the area and attract people to the place. However, the higher class started to attend the area, they still have to keep them apart from the lower class. So the Bishopsgate was built with large galleries, created one level above the sidewalk level, this way separating the social classes.
Detail
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The Exchange House and The Broadgate Tower Two massive buildings hiding the same mystery.
These two great buildings on the central London have something in common: both were built above the rails. Maybe on the first look this fact is hard to notice, but when walking through The Exchange House and reaching the square behind it, the rails, which compose the station, coming from above the building will intrigue anyone. The following draw was made on a guess of how the rails and the pillars of the structure of The Exchange House and The Broadgate Tower work on plan. Using a satellite image was possible to map the railway and draw the many tracks that arrive at the station. Assuming the pillars should be between each rail track, the foundation was located by following the shapes of the buildings and by on site recognizing where the pillars were reaching the ground.
The Broadgate Tower
The Exchange House
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PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT
PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT
PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT
The railway and the pilars
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Broadgate Tower
(Track and Structure) The Broadgate Tower is a commercial skyscraper located in Bishopsgate, at the City of London. It was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and it was constructed between 2005 2009.Nowadays is one of the tallest buildings in London.
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Section of the Broadgate Tower
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The best way of understand the structural part of a building is looking at the section of it. And this draw was made based on a guess of how would be the structure of the edification. The foundation probably made by pile support the big construction and the train station that beneath the earth goes. The structure that connecct both buildings would also have a structural function in the whole, helping to transferring the loads to the foundation.
Space created between the Towers
The Broadgate Tower
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Exchange House and Square The Exchange House was built between 1987 and 1990, designed by Bruce Graham from SOM, which carried many prizes, has the total of 12 floors and is built over the underground station held by a core construction.
The Exchange house is a massive metal structure that grants a lightness to the building, which initially looks like a box. The building relates to the city needs, sits over the railway from Liverpool street station towards east, through two big pillar structures in each end of the building, creating also a flow of people parallel to the railway path from the street with the square that is located between the building and the station. The square with the little restaurants and sitting spaces creates business-meeting points, there’s a big chess in the floor to play, there are trees and covered areas that makes shelter for raining days, the stairs have different kind of steps that creates sitting spaces for lunch breaks or work breaks with intent of renew ideas. The running water creates a relaxing atmosphere for the stressful sound of the trains on the rail or merely contemplate.
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View from Exchange House
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Bishops Square Located in the area of Spitalfields, it is a small commecial square with a lot of stores in front of Spitalfields Market. It is an example of privately public owned space, this means that the space is public but it is owned by a private entity.
As a result of an analyze made in this area, we can conclude that the square has always movimentation anytime of the day, being more intense in the afternoon, around lunch time, where people buy their food in the restaurants nearby and go to eat there. Surrounded by Spitalfields markets, small stores and these restaurants, we can affirm that is a place which works well for the population.
Bishops Square
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Morning
Afternoon
Night
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Morning
Afternoon
Night
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Spitalfield Gardens Behind the old Spitalfield Market, the Gardens are hidden behind some trees and a parking lot entrance. If you are curious enough to give a look inside you can see apartments surrounding the square as a big communal courtyard.
People usually seek the Spitalfield Gardens because of the relaxing environment, to have a personal, informal or private conversation; also, many people have lunch due to the amount of offices around the area and choose as place to calm down and take a break. The apartment units on the Spitalfield Gardens are a recreation of the old Georgian Houses made into flats. Little courtyards and balconies accompany these houses, these nice courtyards are in a way almost private because of the bushes that protect privacy, but when they go out of this “fence� of bushes, they have the possibility of social contact such as hearing and seeing people. In front of these apartments, two green spaces open themselves to form a nice public space during the day. Although this looks like a completely public space the L shaped buildings as well as the half-opened fences give an intimate characteristic to the place turning it into a blend of semi-private and semi-public space and on winter, the buildings protect this space from the wind.
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Spitalfields Market Behind the old Spitalfield Market, the Gardens are hidden behind some trees and a parking lot entrance. If you are curious enough to give a look inside you can see apartments surrounding the square as a big communal courtyard.
Named after the area hospital and priory St. Mary Spittel (1197). The area has always been recognised for the wealth of cultures represented. Historically, it has played host for new immigrants. The success of the market encouraged people to settle in the area and following the edict of Nantes in 1685, Huguenots fleeing France brought their silk weaving skills to Spitalfields.The market started when traders have been operating beyond the city gates where the market stands today. At the end of 2005, after 18 years of sensitive preparation, the Spitalfields regeneration programme was completed. This regeneration has resulted in the creation of two new public spaces, Bishops Square and Crispin Place, a public art programme, an events programme, the restoration of several historic streets in E1 and a selection of independent retailers and restaurants. A visitor to the market today will find designers/makers and artists selling fashions, home wares and accessories or a treasure trove of vintage and antique clothing, furniture and other wondrous oddments.
Market Section
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Market Entrance
Market Inside
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Where are you from in London? Located on the heart of Spitalfields, the Old Spitalfields market survives until today since 1876, when it was built. However, a market used to operate there since 1638. Nowadays the market opens seven days a week and it is possible to find popular fashion, arts, crafts, food and general market.
The Old Spitalfields Market is traditional on the area since the 1600s and even with the pass of time it still well known as a good market to visit and explore. However, opening seven days a week, the market vendors change quite a lot. Therefore the proposal for this study was to check where people who work there are from in London, not where they are from in the globe, because the idea was to create a map allocating them on London limits and with that have a perspective of how long people need to dislocate themselves to their work. The collection of information was made in two different days of the week. The result was surprising, because it was expected to had a concentration of these sellers in some region of London. Although they are really spreaded on the map and need around 20 to 50 minutes by tube to reach the market.
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Mapping result
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Christ Church next to Spitalfields Market
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Georgian house study Georgian House - 1725 Wilkes Street number 2 Spitalfields
This Georgian house was built in 1725. The interior is one-room deep, being smaller than the other houses of the street due to its corner location. Its façade is typical of the Spitalfields surroundings, commonly following the Palladian’s proportions and symmetrical structure. In order to maintain the façade rhythm, central blind windows were built, even though there is a staircase behind them. It is not, as it might seems, the result of window tax. The house is being remodeled, and the blank windows are now being substituted by real ones.
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Section and picture of the house.
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Brick Lane Brick Lane East London London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Brick Lane Jamme Masjid 59 Brick Lane London E1 6QL
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Brick Lane assembles very different activities and cultures. In the 18th century it was home of many French Huguenots, introducing Silk manufacture in the area. While in 19th century a Jewish community arrived from Easter Europe, helping develop schools, culture and business. From 1970, Bangladesh immigrants came and still live there. The southern part of the street consist in buildings with mainly three storeys. The central section around the Truman brewery (closed in 1988) has large buildings, now occupied by markets, stores and small business. North Brick lane has also a height consistency, around three/four storeys.
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BUSINESS BUILDINGS
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HOUSING (OLD HUGUENOTS HOUSES)
CHURCHES
BANGLADESHY COMMUNITY
OLD TRUMAN BREWERY
COMERCIAL CENTERS MARKET
RAILWAY
SMALL BUSINESS AND HOUSINGS
HOUSINGS
1. Huguenot symbol: a metal bobbin above the front door
2. Bangladeshi symbol: the Brick Lane Jamme Masjid
3. Jewish symbol: the engraved coal hole cover is to commemorate London’s first Yiddish theatre.
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Brick Lane : Symbols location map
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Arches for Bishopgates Goodyard
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Bricklane: Public Spaces x Private Spaces Brick Lane is a street located on the East London side, in the Borough of Tower Hamlets. It’s well known for it small shops and fairs, as well for the street art.
The Brick Lane Street is the heart of the Bangladeshi culture. The many traditional shops cover a great part of the street. Mostly used by locals, the street attracts a lot of tourists and people who want to be in on the street culture. Therewith the relation between public and private spaces and its limits take our curiosity. At first look it can be easy, although the real condition of it is based on a fine line. Applied on a portion of the street, the drawing identify the public spaces (basically shops) which occupy the ground floor of the houses there. The intriguing thing is how sometimes one shop can have different uses or even work as public and private at the same time. In general the street has a lot to offer and the condition created there between public and private spaces work really well.
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The Black Eagle Brewery was founded around 1666 in Brick Lane. It was one of the largest brewery in the world, but it was shut in 1989. It is now The Old Truman Brewery, home to a revolutionary arts and media quarter. Its ten acres of vacant building are now office, retail, leisure and event spaces.
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Alen Gardens and Truman Brewery View
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Boundary Gardens The Boundary Gardens was designed as a social housing scheme, built around circular gardens in 1900. This central element, the round public garden, is raised, breaking the continuity of the street. It creates a more withdrawn space, where the people living in the neighborhood can enjoy and meet. Although spaces around are very wooded, some between the buildings are misused, being unsuitable for people to explore.
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Boundary gardens plan
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Frontyards before Arnold Circus
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Photostudio by David Adjaye
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Warehouse The case study is the warehouse located on the 135 Curtain Road. It was clearly refurbished recently as the others nearby.
Although the warehouses were losing it domain on the urban scenary during the pass time, these big commercial storage buildings had not disappeared. The possibility of customization and versatility of uses have interested a lot of people on to refurbish this kind of buildings. In addition to offer unique spaces depending on how the client want to remodel it. The example on the Curtain Road shows how changeable and timeless this style of construction can be. The big openings and the free plan proffer different uses and divisions of rooms on each plan type. The study tries to show how many disposition this kind of typology can offer when refurbishing it.
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Plans
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Elevation
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Hoxton square Hoxton Square is a closed garden located in the area of Hackney. It may be one of the oldest squares in London.
The Hoxton square was developed at the beginning of the 18th century. The central garden space was private, formerly used by the housing’s residents. The original constructions were two storeys brick built. The oldest remaining houses on the Square are no.31 and 32. The other houses slowly changed their shape and dimensions, sometimes three houses turned into one bigger building. Nowadays the square is a very vivid place, with galleries, bars, restaurants and a public garden. The garden is used as an extension of these buildings, where people can have their meal, and also have a place of leisure and rest. The square is not as busy as Bishops Square since it is a more recluse space. The flow inside it’s not intense, apart from lunch time.
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FUTURE FOOURTHSPACE PROJECT
SAINT MONICA”S PRIMARY SCHOOL
FUMI GALLERY
SAINT MONICA’S CHURCH
FUTURE FOOURTHSPACE PROJECT
SAINT MONICA”S PRIMARY SCHOOL
FUMI GALLERY
SAINT MONICA’S CHURCH
PARKINSON PRACTICE HOUSE (No 1) PARKINSON PRACTICE HOUSE (No 1)
OLDEST HOUSES FUTURE ZAHA HADID (No 31-32) PROJECT
OLDEST HOUSES FUTURE ZAHA HADID (No 31-32) PROJECT
RUFUS ST. WHITE CUBE GALLERY RUFUS ST. WHITE CUBE GALLERY
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1800 - 1900
1900-2000
2000-2013
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Morning
Afternoon
Night
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Morning
Afternoon
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White Cube Gallery located in Hoxton Square
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Community Garden around Chart Street
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Social Housing in Charles Square
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Timber Tower next to Shoreditch Wenlock Barn Estate
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Figure Ground Comparisson This comparisson is very clear once the walk is done. These spaces are very different in quality of urban spaces, users, dwellers and contruction times. The social space between buldings are the most impressive to observe when compared between the drawings and the waking experience.
This figure ground comparison includes four very different regions, the first one is the Shoreditch Wenlock Barn Estate, one of the largest in the area of central London, this area is known for suffering from a range of crimes and anti-social behaviour. As it shown in the pattern and in the picture, although the area has some meeting spaces, it seems that the urban design has some flows that allow these range of crime and anti-social behaviours, as broad streets, poor quality courtyards and the number of paths that decreases the number of possible everyday meeting, which weakens the community. The second area is the Boundary Estate, is a nice place with a strong community, and has the roundabout of Arnold Circus, consistent meeting place recently refurbished and reintegrated in the life of the community, also the space scale and the paths around grants the social the people meeting, which increases the social activities. The third area is around the Georgian Spitalfield, the houses in there are mainly from the earlier 18th century. What is interesting about the Georgian Houses is that they were very well crafted and the design was not only understood by the architected but by the craftsmen. The relationship that the design of this type of housing bears with the street is very specific because the ground floor had the semi-private/public characteristics and made it social in a way with the proximity with the street, also the facade part that would touch the ground was different than the rest, meaning that it was part of the street. The fourth and last is the Bishopgate area, with massive tall buldings blending with old building of different times. Is a higly finace center, with a large number of coming and going people.
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Peabody Estate The walk way passes through a fragment of the Whitecross Street Estate which is part of the Peabody Estate. It is located near Barbican and the historically established Whitecross Market (established in the 17th century). The comparisson made in the drawing is about the quality of space between the two courtyards. The first one is larger and used as a parking lot, the rest of the space has no clear use, there is some informal seating provided by residents and a lot of flower pots and planting made also by the residents showing a desire to make the most of the resources that are available. Based on observations, the second courtyard is where all the kids, rather be playing and people rather meet. There is a defined accecible green space on this side of the estate. And its characteristics are the opposite of the first courtyard, it is smaller and more intimate, the possibility of meeting and social acitivities is higher than in the first one, which makes the second courtyard of a higher quality in the use of space.
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Golden Lane Golden Lane Estate is in Fann Street, London. Listed as grade 2, social housing.
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The Golden Lane Estate is a social housing complex built in the City of London in the 1950’s, in an area that had been devastated by bombing during World War II. The design was decided by a huge competition, won by Geoffry Powell. There are 385 flats and 174 maisonettes, shops and social facilities.
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Barbican Centre ( Event Spaces) The Barbican Centre is located in the City of London and is one of the largest performing arts centre in Europe. It was opened in 1982 by Queen Elizabeth II and it was built as a gift to the nation.
View of the Barbican
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The Barbican Centre is an big arts centre with different functions and uses. We can identify a theatre, cinema, library, conference halls and art gallery. Besides of these main uses, there are restaurants, informal performance spaces and trade exhibition halls. The Barbican holds houses of different sizes and types, not only inside, but if you notice, you can see how many different typologies you have for the design of housing. Put the design aside, one of the greatest things about the Barbican is how the dwellers take care of their space, and that is an important thing after the design is ready, is the use that people give to the place, how they take care of their own living space. Even in the winter, the flowerpots are never empty.
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Barbican: public and green spaces The first impression on Barbican is how the brutalist complex is amazingly integrated with it public zones. Even the massive horizontal blocks or the big towers work harmoniously together with the green spaces. For a social housing project all the centre was thought thinking on the detail and to create good spaces outside and inside. The following map is a register of the green and public spaces of the Barbican. The photo is one of the good quality scenarios possible to find there.
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Barbican Lakeside The Barbican Lakeside terrace is located between the Barbican Centre and a lake. It is a large public space where people tend to stay or practice some activity. The seven elements between the lake and the terrace floor appear like sculptures formed by circles and stairs. But in fact, they enable self-expression by using those different levels to seat or play. Nevertheless, the place is not directly connected to the city. It is a more recluse space, being accessible only by the Centre itself or stairs.
Lake side Terrace
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Barbican concrete nish
Barbican concrete finish
The Barcican Centre is an exemple of brutalist architecture in London. It assembles diferent types of concrete treatment, from rustic to soft surface The same material can Barbican finishing. concrete nish be used as to express several kinds of spaces, reflecting the multiples activities found inside the Barbican.
Barbican concrete nish
2. Pick hammered nish
1. Smooth nish
Barbican concrete nish 2. Pick hammered nish
1. Smooth nish
2. Pick hammered nish
1. Smooth nish
4. Concrete tile nish
3. Small pebbles nish
2. Pick hammered nish
1. Smooth nish
4. Concrete tile nish
3. Small pebbles nish
4. Concrete tile nish
3. Small pebbles nish
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4. Concrete tile nish
3. Small pebbles nish
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First facade, simple line drawing
Second facade with windows texture
Third facade with green spaces outlined
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