Paradigm regained - a singular diversity.
A typology is a part or unit of built construction with a unique character. As such an assembly of building typologies forms an ensemble or paradigm for a neighbourhood quarter or larger urban structure as it proposes a whole. OMED1 :
typology – from, to typify, as a singular unit. typify – a representative example of; embody the characteristics of. paradigm - an example or pattern (at any scale).
We have no doubt all encountered a favourite paradigm and call it by a familiar name, Regents Park Crescent, Fitzroy Square, the Brunswick Centre, Barbican. Examples which assemble from smaller parts a recognisable wholeness or ensemble. It is perhaps to such places that we are both drawn and informed by, since they inform and revalue other parts of a diverse world. Such places in their distinctiveness revalue our encounters with diversity, by sharing a similarity with a crescent in the city of Bath, yet revealing their uniqueness, as at Cartwright Gardens WC2. Such a place may be found at the Boundary2 estate E2, built 1894-1900 for the London County Council in Shoreditch. An area rebuilt on demolished slums, with 4-5 storey multi-family dwellings, playground areas, ground floor retail street, two schools and light industrial workshops. A typology used in designing each building provides for sunlight in every living room, pedestrian and playground spaces with residential elevations and dispersed courtyards with terraced 2 storey workshops. A roundabout and landscaped mound provides a focal point encircled by Plane trees, with an vista along the broad Calvert Avenue. Such a mix of sunny aspect, dwellings residential elevations with playground prospect, and two embedded schools, while singular and exemplary in locality, also has international dimensions, partnerships and counterparts. Guiding the design of this rebuilding for the L.C.C. was Owen Fleming, Housing Architect of a Board of Works branch 1893-1900 and 1900 onwards with the Fire Stations branch. An Arts and Crafts manner of building design may not be obviously suited to 4-5 storey dwellings in an urban design inner city development. However, international conversations were well underway during the later nineteenth century and fruitful in North America, where H.H. Richardson, Louis Sullivan and others engaged a contemporary materials palette with crafts design of component assembly and site construction. Travellers across the Atlantic were also becoming familiar with designers in Europe, who were exploring their own materials palette, in conversations with international colleagues.
1 Oxford Modern English Dictionary OUP (1992). 2 Boundary Estate Conservation Area, L.B. Tower Hamlets (2007).
In the example of Charles F A Voysey, singular design was an inventive exploration with his select palette of materials and crafts. His conversations with Károly Kós3 encouraged the latter to explorations in Budapest, and Hungarian examples show this was a lively discourse. Built 1909-1929 the Wekerle – Telep, provides a paradigm for urban design4 in Budapest, which has resonances with our earlier Shoreditch development. A quarter of mixedactivities, a layout of pedestrian sensibility, vista and transport avenues, a 1-5 storey skyline, around embedded green and other open spaces. As Chicago, Budapest and Shoreditch can all show, a shared culture5 of discourse and conversations is generative of inspiration, just as exploring singular design can also have international resonance and arrive at such successful diversity.
Colin D. Brooking Dip. Arch.
The Boundary estate built 1894-1900 : lead Architects in the LCC group.
Owen Fleming and William E. Riley,
3 Karoly Kos by András Székely (1979). 4 'A paradigm for urban design in Hungary' by Charles Scott, Inland Architect journal vol.37 March-April no.2 Chicago (1993). 5 Culture defined as a common activity in 'The John Peel Lecture' by Brian Eno (2015).
Arnold Circus elevations at the corner of Palissy Street.
Boundary Estate Conservation Area layout (Š LB Tower Hamlets '07).
Wekerle – Telep layout (Kispest District, Budapest 1926).
Wekerle – Telep elevations in general view (© Dániel Szücs '09 ).