INTRODUCTION

George Robert Henry Avraam

Masters of Architecture Student & Student of Architecture

Having worked as an Urban Designer and Student of Architecture whilst studying the Masters of architecture it has opened up a world of different scale projects from larger scale masterplanning to medium to high density residential, commercial and community infrastructure.

As a designer I’m always looking to explore new and innovative projects which reflect the current paradigmal shifts within architecture. DISRUPTION thesis studio interested me due to its unique nature to tackle some of the gripping issues within our industry, with its focus on environmental and social sustainability. The studio’s focuses on elements of modular construction, innovative materials and climate orientated design which facilitates new designs for the future. It especially captured my attention due its future 2050 design context and how we can facilitate innovative designs which will accommodate the challenges of the future and address those of the present. The focus on the social housing precinct renewal was captivating as it provided the framework to develop my own brief which would focuse on how we can make architecture resilient to those most vulnerable within our community and promote well-being at a larger urban scale.

01.

AN ARCHITECTURE OF RESILIENCE: THESIS PROPOSAL

“We have to speak up so the government hears us! There is a chance 50/50 that we win. At least we can say fuck it we tried.”

- Resident Wellington Street High Rise, Collingwood in saving the building from demolition (Wade, 2022)

HOW CAN ARCHITECTURE BE RESILIENT TO A DISRUPTED 21ST CENTURY?

HOW CAN ARCHITECTURE EMPLOY SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND HUMAN RESOURCES TO CREATE WELBEING FOR THOSE MOST VUNERABLE?

ARCHITECTURE OF RESILIENCE

Since Le Corbusier’s, utopian, ‘Plan Visor’ spread like a plague worldwide, Melbourne’s 1960s social housing highrises are fundermentally inadequate, deficient and antiquated in sustaining the needs of their residents. The question being do we want our own social housing to meet the same fate as Pruitt-Igoe? Pioneers Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philipee Vassal exclaims “never demolish... always add, transform and rebuild” towards projects (Druot et al., 2007).Contrastingly, none of the Victorian Government’s, ‘Homes Victoria’ housing projects engage meaningfully with existing stock, they demolish and rebuild.

Furthermore the business as usual approach is severely out of touch with vibrant communities existing already. Communities were fractured when the highrises in Kensington and walk-ups on Wingate Avenue in Ascot Vale. were demolished. Residents want their homes saved but when will governments listen? High-rise social housing on 253 Hoddle Street in Collingwood provides the opportunity to examine housing through an urbanistic “deep retrofit” and adaptive re-use of the tower using modular construction. Exploring resilience as a process in harnessing social, environmental and human resources this proposition explores a hybrid typology of housing, health and community services addressing the disruption of the 21st-century.

Fig. 1. Pruitt Igoe, St Louis. 1954 (demolished 1972)

RESILIENCE IN SUSTAINING WELL-BEING.

Anthropologist, Dr Catherine PanterBrick (2014) describes resilience as a “process to harness resources to sustain well-being”). This definition applied to architecture is to provide “sustained wellbeing” for end users. We implement physical or environmental resources improving the performance of our buildings and promoting the well-being of the planet by harnessing its natural resources. We stimulate programmatic adjacencies which foster social resources or services such as health, clinical and community services which provides support in places of need. Within a 2050 context, architecture more than ever should strengthen resilience which sustains wellbeing for people and the planet.

Fig. 2. Artists understand the problems of architecture before us as architects realise. Banksy’s commentary on the social plight of the towers in Hackney ‘Designated Picnic Area’, (2004). Social stigma and disintergration have always surround social housing.

Fig. 3. Little did Banksy know that 18 years later Hackney’s adaptive reuse at Kings Crescent (above) and Hoxton Press Towers (left) would become some of UKs most exemplar examples of retrofitting

Fig. 4. Andreas Gursky, Montparnasse Social Housing represents the scalessness of our buildings (1995)

Fig. 5. Robin Hood Gardens Social Housing Estate, London. Smithsons. Demolished 2012

SOCIAL RESOURCES FOR RESILIENCE.

Have we not learnt that architecture is relational? A building is never in isolation, it has a context, a place. It’s the relational qualities of architecture that make a building resilient. It makes a building social.

The Corbusian ‘vertical garden city’ suffers from scalelessness as our cities were transformed from human scale to megascale (Figure 4). From Jan Gehl, who argues that “the human dimension has not… been on the agenda”(Gehl, 2010) to Jane Jacobs who had been spurting out logic for the last 60 years, it’s Rem who put things more frankly “Bigness is no longer part of any urban tissue... The subtext is fuck context”(Koolhaas, 1995). This thesis explores the retrofitting of existing social housing high-rise typologies promoting human scale and a relationship to context, forming a “programmatic alchemy” which hybridises housing, social, communal and health services. After all who wouldn’t want to eat oysters with boxing gloves, naked, on the ninth floor?(Koolhaas, 1978).

Fig. 6. diagram from Propos d’urbanisme by Le Corbusier (1946). The transition of human scale settlements to that of high-rise vertical garden cities destroying contextual relationships and creating the ‘iconic’ building.

SERVICES

LIVING

GREENING

DINING

AQUATICS

SPORT & REC SUPPORT

Fig. 7. Programmatic alchemy through the mix and diversity of functions within the Downtown Athletics Club. Can diversity in functions assist in creating a resilient social community? (Koolhaas, 1978)

Fig. 8. Down Town Athletic Club Section, integrating conflicting and contrasting programs as a “Constructivist Social condenser: A machine to generate and intensify desirable forms of human intercourse” (Koolhaas, 1978)

Social resources are a connection community, feeling of ownership and belonging to place. Social resilience is important especially for people of migrant backgrounds, elderly, and children typical of social housing within Melbourne.

There are 116,351 people living in public housing with an average age of 41 years old and over 29,000 are under 18 years (Homes Victoria, 2020). Ethnically diverse people, of varying age groups need spaces to come together to feel a sense of community that meet their social needs.

The Knickflats in Ommoord, Rotterdam, reflects similar social and physical condition to the Collingwood Housing complex. Many residents are aging and younger family household with diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds are moving in (Loschke, 2022). The problem identified was the scale of the buildings, architecturally the solution was oriented around spatial reprogramming and improved access by dividing this scale into three functioning segments (Karakusevic & Batchelor, 2017).

Fig. 9. Converted car parking consist of a new medical centre and community facilities as well as accessible housing for elderly residents Fig. 10. Top -Exterior view of façades showing segmented building with 3 separate lift cores to promote accessibility and solve social tensions within the original design. Note the increased module to extend interior living space on the right hand side.

Fig. 11. Bottom - Exterior view of additional prefabricated balconies providing residents with additional space.

Fig. 12. Section of Knickflats showing, prefabricated design elements allowing residents to stay in place during construction.

Knick Flats Hans Van Der Heijden Rotterdam, Netherlands 2011(1968)

Retrospectively ‘Habitat 67’ by Moshe Safdie embodies humanistic qualities. It’s an architecture of social equity, where its core principles are oriented around light, sun, and nature. Safdie sees the architecture more as a collective urban entity, through fractalisation of scales, and a connection to context which pursuits a human dimension(Safdie Architects, 2021). Through applying these concepts to large scale retrofits and employing modular construction we can explore how to achieve resilience and an improved quality of life but with densities which prevail today. (TED, 2014).

Fig. 13. Sketch Habitat 67, Moshe Safdie (Safdie Architects, 1967)

Fig. 14. Top Right - The terraced spaces provide relationships between residents and creates “for everyone a garden”.

Fig. 15. Top Left - Connection to nature and light, blurring of public private spaces and activation of context

Fig. 16. Bottom - Relationship with ground plane though the tectonics of fractalisaiton.

ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES FOR RESILIENCE.

The year is 2050 and our lives are in a state of utter disruption. Architecture must cultivate resilience to worldwide problems associated with these stresses (Figure 16). Koolhaas states that “our concern for the masses has blinded us to Peoples Architecture”, that... “Air-conditioning has launched the endless building”(Koolhaas, 2002). Our buildings no longer consider environmental resources when creating a design of resilience, utilising basic principles which sustains comfort with minimal use of energy. “Energy poverty” is real, where 180,000 Victorians have persistent difficulty paying their energy bills whilst 45,000 are regularly unable to heat their homes(Victorian Council of Social Services, 2018). This is exacerbated by Australia’s poor quality of existing homes which performs at a 1.8 green star rating and frequenting around 30 air changes per hour(Reardon, 2020) (Sara Wilinson et al., 2020).

The demolish and rebuild approach by ‘Homes Victoria’ Project is inadequate with Victorian Public Tenants Association estimating there is over 100,000 people on waiting lists for public housing (Silva, 2020). Not a single development from the fast-tracked projects engages with improving the high-rise typologies through adding to or expanding the capacity of these buildings (Figure 17).

Futhermore around 33% of a buildings total carbon emissions are related to embodied energy and new dwellings invest a range of 700-1200kgco2e/ m2. (Prasad et al.,2021) (Crawford et al.,2019). Through“deep retrofitting” this investment in materials, labour and embodied emissions can and should be harnessed to expand the framework of these buildings whilst improving their thermal performance, comfort and orientation. (Oldfield, 2022).

Fig. 17. Top -The summarised effects that climate change will have on Victoria and Australia which we will have to mitigate through design. (See Appendix B for Full References)

Fig. 18. Bottom - Current ‘Business as Usual’ in the deliver of social housing by the ‘Homes Victoria’ Project verse international case studies