City fordisation - Pilot Thesis by ioana.gherghel10

CITY FORDISATION Inquiries into the role of architecture in perpetuating consumer fetishisms Ioana Gherghel

Ioana Gherghel Supervisor: Lefkos Kyriacou Design Supervisors: Ingrid Schrรถder, Aram Mooradian, James Pockson Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge. Essay 3: Pilot Thesis, submitted 23th April 2019. An essay submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the MPhil Examination in Architecture & Urban Design (2019-2020).

Fordisation = (noun) democratisation of production processes;

Image on cover: tripartite of fragments of drawings by author entitled â&#x20AC;&#x153;ABCDreamsâ&#x20AC;?

Population density Water Retail Areas Town centre Retail Area Greenery Industrial building in East Leicester Leicester map 1:200000 4

1. Thurmaston Industrial Estate 2. St Saviours Rd Area 3. Imperial Typewriter Building 4. Corona Works Building 5. Evington Valley Estate

List of contents

I A broken labour market 6 II Fetishism of commodities in the 21c. 8 III Production in Leicester 12 IV A different production geography 20 V A different labour geography 26 VI Conclusion 32 Bibliography 34

I A broken labour market

The UK is one of the most unequal countries in the EU1. Being the first country to industrialise, it spearheaded the capitalist ideology, an allegiance it renewed through Thatcher’s neoliberalist policies. As the UK started to shed its manufacturing to lower wage countries in the Far East in the ‘60s, as part of its transition to a service based economy, cities that used to thrive on their manufacturing economies started struggling. Leicester of the 1940s was the second richest city in Europe thanks to its hosiery industry (Fig. 1), but in the ‘60s the sharp deindustrialisation process turned it into a shell of its former self. This decline is reflected in its stagnant, once thriving, population growth (Fig.2). In 2004 any remnants of local entrepreneurship were stifled with the passing of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement which lifted the textile exports quota on Bangladesh. For most businesses that previously sourced from Leicester it became financially obvious to now source from Bangladeshi firms2. Nevertheless, by 2007 the local industry started picking up: the invisible hand was at work again, giving birth to the inevitable informal economy that still operates in Leicester today3. This unregulated industry reportedly harbours serious labour rights issues, including excessive working hours, poor working conditions, night shifts, unauthorised subcontracts, wages below National Minimum Wage and others. These conditions are not far from the much condemned practices of sweatshops in the Far East (Figure 3). This labour exploitation allows Leicester’s informal industry to stay competitive in terms of price per unit and lead times, while also being flexible. These are the features that persuaded brands such as Boohoo, Next or Asos to source a portion of their garments from Leicester4. Nevertheless, a Next, Asos or Boohoo customer might be feeling quite content about bagging a great deal on a trendy pair of jeans, completely oblivious to the complexities of his purchase, particularly since they bear the reassuring label 6

Figure 1: Leicester Clothes the World. Front cover of the Leicester and County Chamber of Commerce Monthly Journal, from June 1938

1. House of Commons (2019). Briefing Paper Number 7484. Income inequality in the UK. House of Commons Library. 2. Hammer, N., Plugor, R., Nolan, P. and Clark, I. (2015). New industry on a skewed playing field: supply chain relations and working conditions in UK garment manufacturing. 3. Saskia Sassen notes that advanced capitalist inevitably give rise to informal economies, particularly when transitioning from manufacture dominated economies to service based economies. 4. Hammer, N., Plugor, R., Nolan, P. and Clark, I. (2015). New industry on a skewed playing field: supply chain relations and working conditions in UK garment manufacturing.

“Made in Britain”. Most purchases that we complete are the last in a string of financial transactions, yet the objects we buy bear no mark of who made them, where or how: the jeans cannot speak about what they’ve seen in British factories and abroad. Figure 2: (right) Leicester population graph 1800-2020 using data by UN’s World Urbanisation Projects by author. Figure 3: (below) Photographs of St Saviours Road factories in Leicester by Financial Times

II Fetishism of commodities in the 21c.

Marx perceived this quality of objects ever since the middle of the 19th century, when industrialisation was in full swing; he called it the ‘fetishism of commodities’. As David Harvey aptly summarises the concept: “He [Marx] sought to capture by that term the way in which markets conceal social (and, we should add, geographical) information and relations. We cannot tell from looking at the commodity whether it has been produced by happy laborers working in a cooperative in Italy, grossly exploited laborers working under conditions of apartheid in South Africa, or wage laborers protected by adequate labor legislation and wage agreements in Sweden.”5Importantly, Harvey annexes the notion of geographical dimensions of objects to Marx’s fetishism of commodities. The compression of space brought about by globalisation is apparent in the supply chain relationship between first world countries and the workshops of the world, such as South East Asia. Geography has been a dimension of objects ever since the 16th century the rise of colonialism drastically globalised the world. Since then it only became more intricate. The collapse of Rana Plaza became a landmark in the development of global industry although it does not stand alone in the list of catastrophic events caused by this consumer blind spot. Nevertheless it was the sheer number of casualties that didn’t allow the international community to turn a blind eye. The industry declared itself outraged and resolved to address the situation, with numerous organisations such as Human Rights Watch, IndustriALL Global Union, Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights etc., condemning Bangladesh or offering funds6. One enduring outcome of the international outcry is the Fashion Revolution movement. A NGO aimed at changing consumer habits, it organises conferences, creates installations and supports campaigns around the globe that promote transparency of supply chains7. It also created a “transparency index” which 8

5. Harvey, D. (1990). Between Space and Time: Reflections on the Geographical Imagination. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 80(3), pp.418-434. 6. Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University Stern School of Business (2014). Business as Usual is Not an Option Supply Chains and Sourcing after Rana Plaza. 7. Fashion Revolution. (2019). ABOUT - Fashion Revolution. [online] Available at: https://www. fashionrevolution.org/about/ [Accessed 18 Apr. 2019].

Figure 4: (above) Dhaka Savar Building Collapse.jpg image uploaded to Flickr.com on 12 May 2013 Figure 5: (right) Screenshots from video â&#x20AC;&#x153;The 2 Euro T-Shirt - A Social Experimentâ&#x20AC;?

it uses to annually condemn or applaud clothing companies according to their efforts to expose their supply chains8. Interestingly, this initiative foresaw that regulations and policies will fail to address the structural problems of the industry and instead decided to appeal for change on the consumer end by encouraging firms to uncloak their secrets and trust consumers to make an informed, supposedly ethically correct, choice. Their efforts are honest and well intended, although the insistence on transparency frequently sparks heated arguments centered on the unintended harm the economies in the Far East suffer due to boycotts and so-called Prejudice to Commercial Interests. When the Rana Plaza factory collapsed, it killed and injured thousands of people, yet the culprit was difficult to identify. Although the owner of the factory, Sohel Rana, was found guilty of corruption for having bribed authorities to issue building permits on his non compliant plans, the reality is he was acting as a business owner trying to stay relevant on an increasingly cruel market. The most important lesson the industry learnt from this tragedy was that its subcontracting, fissured way of operating allowed businesses to shed accountability down the supply chain and freely aim for cost minimisation9. Sohel Rana was just finding ways to keep up and Leicester’s informal textile industry is doing the same. How, then, should these issues be addressed? The Fashion Revolution movement brings together “designers, academics, writers, business leaders, policymakers, brands, retailers, marketers, producers, makers, workers and fashion lovers”10 to hold workshops, collaborate, give lectures and attend conferences. Their conversations are aimed at finding ways of waking the consciences of economically active citizens of the world. This often backfires, leaving consumers feeling shamed for their choices. Even reshoring industry and buying local, “Made in Britain”, is a double sided sword. Despite arguments, there is consensus in the industry that addressing consumerism and the consumer blind spot of commodity fetishism is the way forward. Yet Dr Nik Hammer, professor in Work and Employment at the University of Leicester, is of the opinion that the power to change the industry is held by policy makers. Dr Hammer has studied the informal economy 10

Figure 6: (above) Fragment of drawing by author. Existing geography of production

8. Ditty, S. (2018). Fashion Transparency Index 2018. [online] 9. Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University Stern School of Business (2014). Business as Usual is Not an Option Supply Chains and Sourcing after Rana Plaza. 10. Fashion Revolution. (2019). ABOUT - Fashion Revolution. [online] Available at: https://www. fashionrevolution.org/about/ [Accessed 18 Apr. 2019].

that has developed in Leicester. Together with a team of researchers, in 2014 they issued a report on the local textile industry, emphasizing the inadequacy of existing policies to regulate the industry11 and calling for policymakers to strive to understand the mechanisms behind the new post2007 industry in order to design more effective policies.12 This essay argues that segregated urban environments perpetuate this consumer blind spot. It explores the role that architects, planners and urbanists could and should have in the conversation about sustainable making and how can they contribute new perspectives on how the manufacturing industry can adapt to the needs of a new age. As Richard Sennett notes, most of our public spaces have become commercialised spaces dedicated to consumption; meanwhile, the spaces of production are tucked away in the folds of the urban fabric.

Figure 7: (above) Fragment of drawing by author. Existing geography of production 11. According to their account, currently sanctioned firms avoid paying the Home Office penalties by going into insolvency, their owners consequently setting up a new company under a different name and continuing business as usual. This flexibility, inconsistency and intensity of the industry makes it difficult to regulate. 12. Hammer, N., Plugor, R., Nolan, P. and Clark, I. (2015). New industry on a skewed playing field: supply chain relations and working conditions in UK garment manufacturing. 13. Hirt, S. (2012). Mixed Use by Default: How the Europeans (Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t) Zone. Journal of Planning Literature, 27(4), pp.375-393.

In the UK earmarking pockets of cities to house production geographies has become the norm for planning authorities despite a lack of explicit zoning laws13. Leicester is no different, having dozens of industrial estates within its administrative boundary. These geographies allow the cogs of the economy to run efficiently at the expense of social, environmental and even urban sustainability.The system nevertheless is gearing towards change. As a response, this essay proposes reimagining the city as a place whose geography of production is not only reshored and exposed, but is integral to public life. This aims to address the lack of supply chain transparency and the lifestyle of oblivious, myopic consumption. The first part of the essay is concerned with the existing condition of production, while the second part explores precedents that do production differently. Firstly, I will quickly review the existing planning policy and its role in shaping the current geography of production in Leicester. Taking an analytical view of the different types of industrial buildings in Leicester, I then assess their interaction with public space as well as the social dimension of the workplaces they comprise. In the second part I explore ideas and precedents related to how can architecture make production more tranparent and how can it encourage the formation of social capital. 11

III Production in Leicester

Being the first country to industrialise, England’s cities developed acute pollution, congestion and public-health issues in the 18th century. In order to protect its population, it started segregating its urban uses. As a result, the English bourgeoisie was also the first to suburbanize, in the 1700s15.

Figure 8: (below) Screenshot of interactive Leicester City Interactive Map showing the Local Plan strategy.

The current English planning system was formalised by the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act. It was informed by numerous architects, among others Ebenezer Howard and Patrick Abercrombie, and was inspired by the freshly established welfare state that also created the NHS16. Without any intrinsic national zoning laws, this system devolved decision making power to local authorities who act as planning authorities by default. Besides issuing case-by case decisions, the authorities also define their urban strategies in regularly updated reports called Local Development Frameworks. It is in these documents that segregation of uses takes shape in the form of Local Plan strategies maps17. The Leicester Local Plan18 (Figure 8) clearly earmarks “Key Employment Areas” as well as “Primarily Employment Areas” and “Proposed Employment Areas” which as seen in Figure 9 clearly overlap with what I call “industrial estates”. According to the Cambridge Dictionary an industrial estate is “an area on the edge of a town or city specially designed for factories and businesses”; nevertheless, clusters of industrial buildings do not exist solely on edges of towns as the definition suggests, but also deep within the city, taking advantage of urban boundaries such as railway tracks, rivers, motorways. This map also illustrates a large stock of unused urban industrial buildings. Ranging from distant to inner town industry, the relationship of the city with its production is a difficult one. Mostly determined by a balancing of the need of town centre proximity and the costs associated with it (mostly rent and business rates), four types of industry have emerged according to their geographical 12

Based upon O.S. mapping with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office ©Crown Copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes ©Crown Copyright and may lead to prosecution. Leicester City Council Licence No. LA 100019264, 18 April 2019

1:65536 at A4

14. ibid. 15. Ellis, H. (2019). The Rise and Fall of the 1947 Planning System. Historic England. [online] Historicengland. org.uk. Available at: https:// historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/ debate/recent/town-and-countryplanning-act-70th-anniversary/ rise-and-fall-of-1947-planningsystem/#ref1 [Accessed 5 Apr. 2019]. 16. Hirt, S. (2012). Mixed Use by Default: How the Europeans (Don’t) Zone. Journal of Planning Literature, 27(4), pp.375-393. 17. Maps.leicester.gov.uk. (2019). Leicester City Maps. [online] Available at: https://maps.leicester. gov.uk/map/Aurora...[Accessed 18 Apr. 2019].

Proposed employment Key employment Primarily employment Industrial buildings Leicester map 1:200000

Figure 9: Map by author. Leicester Local Plan and geography of production 13

relationship to the city (Figure 10). The satellite type of industry most often comprises of businesses that do not have an urban character or whose need is for an interurban base, for example delivery firms like Amazon or DHL. Not needing to be in close proximity to the city enables them to capitalise on low rural land values. These are not regulated by any LDF. Edge of town industrial areas are a typical compromise struck between urban proximity and costs. These are encouraged by being permitted development without planning application if compliant with the Warehouse and industrial buildings conditions18. Even in the cases that do need prior planning approval, the lack of sensitive context in these clusters of industrial buildings provides a looser environment to build in.

Figure 10: (opposite) Diagrams by author Geographical typologies of industry Figure 11: (opposite far right) Map by author. Leicester geography of production in 1880s using data from Digimap Historic Roam.

The third category of town production has a more complex backstory. As the geography of production of 1880s Leicester shows (Figure 11) most factories were located around infrastructure points, railway stations and canals. Some of these inherited concentrations of industrial use land have been preserved as industrial sites despite their central locations in the city. Nevertheless the inner industry in East Leicester has a different genesis: having been built as an edge of town type of industry, these sites were engulfed by the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s booming growth19. As expected, the decisions on the geographical location of production are economic decisions that push industry to the outskirts of the city, but are also influenced by a certain land use inertia. They also tend to preserve a clustering behaviour, particularly when the proximity of urban boundaries encourages them to. The geographical relationship of production with the city carries little influence on the extent to which it is integrated in the social and public life of the city. Thurmaston Industrial Estate, Evington Valley Estate and St Saviours Rd area are instances of production in Leicester representative of the three above mentioned typologies of edge of town, inner town and scattered inner town production respectively. 14

18. Portal, P. (2019). Planning Permission | Warehouses and industrial buildings | Planning Portal. [online] Planningportal. co.uk. Available at: https://www. planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/ common_projects/55/warehouses_ and_industrial_buildings [Accessed 18 Apr. 2019]. 19. Digimap.edina.ac.uk. (2019). Historic Roam. [online] Available at: https://digimap.edina.ac.uk/ roam/map/historic [Accessed 18 Apr. 2019].

Satellite

Edge of town

Inner town

Scattered inner

Thurmaston Industrial Estate (Figure 12) in North East Leicester is a large edge of town place of production. Here businesses operate in isolation of each other despite being huddled together geographically. The structures are set back from the streets, usually by a large level car park. The estateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s segregated character and the employeesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; reliance on cars generates an indifferent attitude towards the public realm that serves above all as thoroughfare. The scarce built environment is designed with efficiency in mind. The Evington Valley Estate (Figure 13) is a much more physically integrated place of production in East Leicester. According to Home Office records from 2014, several of its factories obscure fully or partly informal businesses, most notably the SupraHouse textile factory, which is powered by a considerable number of illegal workers20. Despite the factories being huddled together, their cluster sits on thoroughfares that connect the wider neighbourhood. The public realm presents a criss crossing of labourers and members of an wider locale, an interaction signalled by the number of advertisements on the buildings which imply an audience, as well as the public transport infrastructure and extensive signage. The structures distancethemselves from the public realm by setting back from the street to create car park space or sometimes generous driveways. In the case of factories around St Saviours Road (Figure 14), the concentration of textile factories is high, with a large number of them reportedly operating in Leicesterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s informal economy21. The structures sit in a tightly knit network of streets which are clearly integrated in the local infrastructure. Despite the large number of desolate industrial structures, a local centre of activity has established among them in the form of a series of connected high streets. The inability of the structures to set back from the street only causes the architecture to close-in more vehemently, with windows being set above eye level and sometimes boarded up despite the glass appearing intact (Figure 15). Therefore it seems physical integration of production space causes more conscious closing in from public space the tighter knit it is. As a result the presence of factories in 16

20. Hammer, N., Plugor, R., Nolan, P. and Clark, I. (2015). New industry on a skewed playing field: supply chain relations and working conditions in UK garment manufacturing. 21. ibid.

(From right to left) Figure 12: Thurmastion Industrial Estate selection of views from Google Maps street view

Figure 13: Evington Valley Industrial Estate selection of views from Google Maps street view

Figure 14: Corona Works building in St Saviours Rd area selection of views from Google Maps street view 17

East Leicester become massive self-contained structures that rarely betray information about the activities they shelter. Jan Gehl documented the capacity of buildings to invite/repel or open up/close in through the qualities of their facades and position relative to the public realm22. Being structures built in the interest of profit and efficiency, urban production buildings overlook the quality of public space and as a result fail to provide the physical infrastructure where makers can commune and collaborate. Nor do they interact with their environments, containing their processes of production and closing in from public space, a decision that devoids the urban realm of the sight of people, what Jan Gehl would call “a lack of stimulation” characteristic of unsuccessful streets23. One might argue that it is high streets that pick up the slack in terms of quality urban space, offering not only places to convene, but also a stimulating environment through its numerous displays and the crowded nature of a local centre. The St Saviours Rd area’s high streets comprise of numerous food establishments, most of them takeaways, and a high number of clothing and home shops. Despite offering an improvement in the quality of the street environment, the display of goods devoid of hints to their social and geographical dimensions, perpetuate the myopic attitude towards consumerism that plague the textile industry. It seems curious for clothing shops just opposite textile factories to not make any reference to their sourcing or to the existence of a hub of clothing production just across the street.

22. Gehl, J. and Koch, J. (2011). Life between buildings. London: Island Press. 23. ibid.

Figure 15: (above) Window of Imperial Typewriter Building in St Saviours Road Area. Photograph by Financial Times. Figure 16: (right) Selection of photographs of East Park Road high street by author.

IV A different production geography

More permissive planning can allow and encourage the adjacency of production and public space to happen more often. Indeed, some urbanists believe that British planning has gone too far. This is what David Rudlin, chair of the Academy of Urbanism argues in his book “Climax City: Masterplanning and the Complexity of Urban Growth”. The system created in 1947 and its subsequent rigidly prescribing Acts of Parliament are strangling the growth of British towns and cities, giving birth to places no one foresaw such as seas of cul-de-sacs, industrial estates and retail parks. Indeed, shouldn’t use classes be reassessed regularly since they are subject not only to changes in culture and lifestyles but also to constantly evolving technologies? Use Class B1(c) (general industrial use permitted in residential areas) surely can apply to many more industrial activities now than 50 years ago. With the exception of “a very small group of the most annoying industrial activities”24, most are suitable for integration with residences, insists Jan Gehl. Besides the nuisance argument, the government believes that keeping work and living separate is what the English population prefers. The Workhome project of France Holliss argues differently. Holliss documented hundreds of homes that are also covertly used as offices, workshops and studios. She recorded through interviews a different attitude towards desegregation of uses that government statistics do. Holliss clearly identifies the workhome as a widespread undercover trend that is very likely to grow25. In the case of Leicester, it transpired from Dr. Hammer’s research that a considerable number of workers own industrial sewing machines which they use to continue working at home through the night to meet tight deadlines26. Besides this example of extreme working conditions, the residential neighbourhood surrounding St Saviours Rd has a surprising amount of industry cunningly integrated in the suburban blocks.

24. ibid. 25. Holliss, F. (2013). Beyond live/ work. Andover: Routledge Ltd. 26. Hammer, N., Plugor, R., Nolan, P. and Clark, I. (2015). New industry on a skewed playing field: supply chain relations and working conditions in UK garment manufacturing.

27. Digimap.edina.ac.uk. (2019). Historic Roam. [online] Available at: https://digimap.edina.ac.uk/ roam/map/historic [Accessed 18 Apr. 2019].

This trend is dominated by car repair services offered in residential neighbourhoods. These mechanics shops thrive on a legacy of industrial use inherited from times before the introduction of the Use Class Order Act. Back in East Leicesterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s heyday, plots of light industry were interspersed with residential units, resulting in a hybrid urban block27. Since the planning system is designed to kick in action at a change of use application but not to affect existing ones, these plots were able to retain their industrial uses. Most of them have remained in place instead of being changed to C residential use, which given their location would have been very easy to do.

62 Lancaster Road

14 Lancaster Road

Figure 17: (right) Diagrams and photographs of mechanics shops in the St Saviours Road area

When it comes to mixing working and living, the Japanese lead the field, Holliss emphasises. This is true for a number of reasons, among which their much more relaxed planning system that is very permissive of mixed uses, perpetuating a work/live practice that has been developing uninterrupted since feudal times. A longeval typology is the machiya, the merchants’ and their families’ homes and workplaces, long and thin buildings comprised of a sequence of rooms, courtyards and public areas, with a street frontage that would sometimes open so as to allow passers-by to see through the entire depth of the plot 28 (Figure 18). The site in Leicester demonstrates a pronounced tendency towards hybridisation of working and living uses within the urban block, but also a further mixing within the workplace uses, one that touches on ideas of transparency and awareness. As the mechanics shops show, service-based businesses inadvertently have a high degree of ‘production’ transparency. If it can be said that repair shops, hairdressers’ or seamstresses produce objects, theirs is a production process that is indivisible from the concept of transparency. Their supply chains are inevitably very clear and customers’ awareness of the processes required by their work very high. There are numerous such shops in East Leicester, yet the degree to which architecture celebrates the social and geographical transparency of these economic processes is disappointing. As is the case with most of the shopfronts on English high streets, they are subject to strict planning regulations, and to a document that most local councils issue, namely the “Shopfront Design Guideline”29. The provision of service based business is the life line that high streets cling to in their decline. It is the streets with restaurants, hairdressers, repair shops, tailors, bike shops that remain central to urban life, such as for example the well functioning Mill Road in Cambridge, a collection of bakers, second hand shops, barbers, hairdressers, restaurants and bars. Jan Gehl makes an additional point: seeing people at work is a higher enjoyment for passersby than shopfronts that simply display goods. While carrying out his research on the main attractions on a pedestrian street in Copenhagen, he noticed that the building works of extending a department store attracted more pedestrians to the two gates that allowed them to see in than the fifteen display 22

28. Holliss, F. (2013). Beyond live/ work. Andover: Routledge Ltd. 29. Leicester City Council (2017). Shop Front Design Guide. Leicester.

1 main entry 2 entrance hall 3 shop 4 formal private entry 5 formal entry room 6 garden 7 private entry 8 sitting room 9 passageway and kitchen 10 service kitchen 11 toilets 12 bath 13 storehouse 14 rear garden 15 guest room

Figure 18: (top right) Diagram of the japanese machiya, image from the book Beyond live/work by F. Holliss Figure 19: (right) Photograph showing the shopfront of RIMAS a clothing shop with bespoke tailoring services in St Saviours Road area. Photograph taken by author 23

windows of the actual department store together30. Indeed some service businesses sometimes cross over to being essentially production on the street and present an appealing addition of variety and information to the public space. Small scale production is easily housed inside retail units, yet its exposure and impact depends on architecture to open it up or closed it in. The examples of “workaholic windows” from Studio Bow Wow’s ‘window behaviourology’31 in Figure 20 illustrate how architecture can allow the passer by, the citizen, the customer, to understand with a glance processes of production that the cities economies rely on. It becomes clear that exposure through visibility is a simple quality to attain architecturally; nevertheless the drive for uniformity and ‘properness’ in England’s planning system inadvertently suffocates any such endeavour through an excess of guides and rules. Blackhorse Lane Atelier32 is the only artisanal denim workshop in London. Envisioned as a socially and environmentally sustainable factory of denim garments by industry veteran ‘Han’ Ates, it creates a unique shopping experience, yet its architecture does not help its transparency cause. [diagram] Despite the openness of their policy, it takes a bold, determined character to cross the concrete front yard to the shopfront lookalike entrance that does the job of welcoming any curious member of the public, who once crossing the threshold finds himself in a hallway with a staircase. Only once crossing yet another door does one find himself in the atelier.

30. Gehl, J. and Koch, J. (2011). Life between buildings. London: Island Press. 31. Tsukamoto, Y. and BowWow, A. (2012). WindowScape: Window Behaviourology. Page One Publishing, pp.156-194. 32. Blackhorse Lane Ateliers. (2019). About | Blackhorse Lane Ateliers | London’s Only Craft Jeans Maker. [online] Available at: https://blackhorselane.com/about/ [Accessed 19 Apr. 2019].

Figure 20: (series above) Window behaviourology studies in the book WindowScape; a sewing shop in Turkey and a silver smith in Bosnia Figure 21: (right) Photographs of Blackhorse Lane Atelier building at 114 Blackhorse Lane London

V A different labour geography

Yet once inside, the particularity of the space becomes apparent. The experience of buying jeans here is unique, in that the first view when entering the shop are piles of jeans and machinists labouring at denim garments. At the end of this brightly lit, open plan, rich space is the impromptu office of Han, who is ready to welcome every client and walk him through the process undergone by his potential new purchase. Straight across from the machinists there is the large kitchen of GatherE17, a fine dining restaurant that ‘pops out’ whenever the denim atelier closes for the day, taking over the space with fine chinas and candle lit dinners. This creative reconfiguration of workspace and retail demonstrates that dedicated retail space is not necessary when the point of retail is the same as the space of production. Moreover, inventive use of space can make production space a flexible multi purpose asset in the city. According to 2012 reports Leicester city has 550000 m2 of B1, B2 and B8 area33, and 200000 m2 of gross retail space34. If approached creatively, 750000 m2 of closed off area can be returned to Leicester’s public space. Pullens Estate is a so-called ‘craft center’ of south London. An association of makers from a diversity of background, the Pullens Estate allows them to collaborate and develop community. Initially built by James Pullen between 1887 and 1901, it comprised of 684 flats organised in 12 residential blocks whose ground and first floors opened into workshops clustered into yards. Protected as a conservation area after half of the flats were demolished, the other half survives, including three of the yards. Iliffe Yard, the largest of the three, was built as a connection route between Amelia Street and Crompton Street, initially bearing the name of Iliffe Street Yard. According to records very rarely have the residents living in ground floor and first floor flats worked in the workshops directly connected to their homes, as Pullen envisioned. Nevertheless, the workshops were always occupied and in demand. Currently the yard is protected 26

33. PACEC Public and Corporate Economic Consultants (2008). Leicester and Leicestershire HMA Employment Land Study. Leicester Shire Economic Partnership. 34. Property Consulting Group (2008). Leicester City Retail Capacity Study 2007. Leicester City Council.

Figure 22: (right) series of photographs inside Blackhorse Lane Ateliers 27

by large, original victorian iron gates, giving the community of makers privacy and security to extend their paraphernalia into the commonly owned yard and even work outdoors on fine weather days. When the yard is open to the public, currently on a biannual basis, it is a popular destination in the area and greatly boosts the sales of the yard’s designers, furniture-, film-, shoe, musical instruments-makers, photographers, print workers and typography specialists to name a few trades located here35. Thanks to the community naturally created by the design of the yards, the Iliffe Yard makers are able to collaborate and pool resources. Their website was built by the local brand design agency, their logo put together by the letterpress printer and the marketing managed by a team of volunteering makers36. This type of built environment that enhances collaboration and development of social capital is what Eric Klinenberg calls “social infrastructure”37. In his book, “Palaces for the People”, Klinenberg argues that social infrastructure is an overlooked by modern societies yet a critical aspect of the built environment. By studying the aftermath of the 1995 heat wave in Chicago, Klinenberg discovered that beyond levels of deprivation and social position, the physical environment played an important role in the residents’ resilience: places with vacant lots or bombed out areas had higher mortality and illness rates than the areas with a cohesively built fabric. High streets sometimes provide such valuable social infrastructure. Suzanne Hall’s study of the Walworth Road, a highly culturally diverse high street in south London, focused on the way business owners, locals and member of the wider locale interacted in the many small shops along the street. Her empirical study brings to fore extremely complex social networks through which all parties developed mechanisms of adapting to change and dealing with differences38. A large, highly vulnerable workforce is the key condition that allows Leicester’s informal economy to thrive. According to Dr. Hammer’s research, illegal factories segment their workforce according to the individuals vulnerability, with people unsure 28

Figure 23: (above) Pullens Yards marketing poster featuring the letterpressed logo

35. Exploringsouthwark.co.uk. (2019). Pullen’s Estate - Exploring Southwark. [online] Available at: http://www.exploringsouthwark. co.uk/pullens-estate/4591957956 [Accessed 18 Apr. 2019]. 36. Atelierworks.co.uk. (2019). PULLING TOGETHER | Atelier Works. [online] Available at: http:// www.atelierworks.co.uk/dev/ branding/pullens-open-studio.php [Accessed 12 Apr. 2019]. 37. Klinenberg, E. (2018). Palaces for the People. London: Penguin Random House. 38. Hall, S. (2012). City, Street and Citizen. New York: Routledge.

39. Hammer, N., Plugor, R., Nolan, P. and Clark, I. (2015). New industry on a skewed playing field: supply chain relations and working conditions in UK garment manufacturing. 40. Twitter.com. (2019). www.tmal. co.uk (@tmalleicester) on Twitter. [online] Available at: https://twitter. com/tmalleicester [Accessed 18 Apr. 2019].

of their own rights or with poor language skills being most likely to accept worse working conditions39. Despite the extent of exploitation and the relatively large local workforce, the only initiative for a union was the Textile Manufacturer Association of Leicestershire, chaired and run by business owner Saeed Khilji alone and whose activity beyond May 2017 is untraceable40. How much can the segregated, closedin nature of the East Leicesterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s geography of production be considered a poor social infrastructure that prevents the local workforce from coalescing and asserting their rights?

Figure 24: (right) Series of photographs and diagram showing Pullens Estatesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Iliffe Yard

The interaction between the process of production and the consumer changes both parties’ attitude towards objects. Not only through a wider understanding of their social and geographical dimensions but also through a much more meaningful sense of ownership. Hall studied the importance of the relationship between maker and wearer in Reyd’s tailor shop on the Walworth Road. Reyd himself recognised this dimension of his work: “What we’re doing is moulding the jacket. And we’re moulding it not just to the body but to the mind.” On this street Reyd’s skill became a cultural asset, but it was recognised as such thanks to the frequency of visits to his shops. As Hall observes: “For skill to be cultural - to be made visible - it required an audience and a venue.”41 How then would full exposure of production impact the attitudes towards objects of consumption? There are various degrees of exposure and openness to the public space that this notion can be explored through. The practices of production in Pullens Estate flirt with enhancing the value of the object being produced by exposing to the public the spaces and processes of production biannually, while Blackhorse Lane Atelier candidly declares the added value of an open production process. Yet it is not in England’s closely controlled urban environments but in the public space of South East Asia that public production processes can be observed. Squares covered in fresh ceramics, saris drying on steps of monuments, tailors and sewers labouring at garment in the streets, these practices blur the line between public space and production and illustrate the different relationship to making that countries like Thailand, India or Nepal have.

41. Hall, S. (2012). City, Street and Citizen. New York: Routledge.

Figure 25: (left) Sari folding on the ghats (series of steps leading out to a water body) in Vrindavan, India Figure 26: (right) Series of photographs of public space sari and ceramics production in Nepal and India 30

VI Conclusion

The global reign of neoliberalism dictates an unsustainable need for economies to produce at increasing rates in order to stay stable. As a result, world markets such as the wearing apparel currently values $1400b and growing. This growth enabled by a fast and cheap system is defined by a myopic operating system that sacrifices social and environmental sustainability for the sake of economic viability. All along the supply chain from production to consumption there are sustainability imbalances that have reached a tipping point: the environmental issues of sourcing, the social unsustainability of the drive for cheap labour, the crisis of the high street. The system needs to change. Planning is one the main reasons behind the segregated nature of British cities. A lifting of the English planning systemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stringencies would potentially be an affront to English values, but in a world where colonialism is universally condemned and the British identity has been tainted by messy political affairs, isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t it a good time for a new set of values to reinvent Britishness? Planning system allowing, architecture can promote strong social infrastructure, can creatively integrate making and selling, can open up the process of labour to consumers for a more transparent, inclusive landscape of consumption, can help revive public space. Production and public space are not on speaking terms in the UK but have a tight relationship in other cultures - what can the UK learn from cultures that produce differently?

Figure 27: (right) drawing by author of an integrated geography of production Figure 28: (opposite) Map by author. Leicester geography of production to consumption and its workforce 32

Town Centre Retail Area Retail Areas Residents employed in the textile industry Industrial estates Leicester map 1:200000 33

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