The Pursuit of Happiness: MArch Dissertation

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS To what extent can design decisions made in model communities enable or disable the social wellbeing of residents?

JOSEPH BRADLEY

THE PURSUI T OF HAP P IN E S S

To what extent can design decisions made in model communities enable or disable the social wellbeing of residents?

Joseph Bradley University of Sheffield ARC556 180207947

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank my supervisor, Dr Jo Lintonbon, whose support and guidance has been invaluable.

I would also like to thank those whom I have met and spoken with during my case study visits, for their time and openness in conversation. Matt Fraser, Sandi Moore and Ian Watson - thank you to you all.

Abstract

Model communities often claim to be the solution to contemporary societal issues and are driven by various agendas (Graham, 2016).

The UK is in a housing provision crisis and more places to live must and will be provided at a rapid rate in coming years (Bowie, 2017). This study seeks to inform the model of imminent development by arguing the importance of enabling happiness through design. Argument will be made through analysis of three existing model community case studies and how design decisions employed in each may affect resident happiness. These case studies are: Saltaire, The Alton Estate and The Collective Old Oak. In addition, it will emphasise the ownership designers must take to understand how different agendas drive outcome. Social, political and economic agendas each have different requirements and, in turn, result in different designs.

Design is an equation of compromise (Ango, 2015) and this study will examine how – in design – social wellbeing and agenda is compromised by the presence of political and economic agendas.

Word Count: 6564

The Elthorne Estate in Archway, London.

Author’s own.

Preface Why I’m doing this...

Having lived and worked in London for two years, I have been immersed within our nation’s most unhappy place (Schoon, 2004, p.115). Whilst living in London, I lived with four friends. Our house was a rundown, Georgian townhouse located in a small enclave of surviving pre-war housing. On the previously bomb-damaged land that surrounded our house was the Elthorne Estate, a model community built in the 1970s. I worked in Victoria and caught the Northern Line each day from Archway Station. My walk to and from the station carried me through the Elthorne and usually consisted of: looking down at the floor; walking quickly and speaking to no one. As in every piece of architecture, the built environment that surrounds us is constructed through the design decisions of architects and urban planners. The embodied design decisions that surrounded me as I made my commute each day influenced my behaviour and – in turn – had a negative impact on my happiness.

Reflecting on my time in London, I know that had I lived somewhere else, somewhere that had more green spaces, fewer ‘Defensible Space[s]’ (Newman, 1972, p.1) and better community connection: happiness would have been closer.

Contents

Acknowledgements Abstract Preface Contents 1.0 Introduction 1.1 1.2 1.3 2.0

5 7 9 10

Research Design Happy Homes Toolkit Limitations and Assumptions of Study

Existing Context 2.1 2.2 2.3

3

20

Utopia and the Meeting of Human Needs Model Developments How Built Form Can Influence Happiness

3.0 Saltaire

32

3.1

Alton Estate

54

3.2

The Collective Old Oak

74

4.0 Conclusion References List of Figures Key Definitions 5.0 Appendices 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4

92 98 104 110 114

Happy Homes Assessments Archival Research Transcripts Consent Forms

The Pursuit of Happiness

1.0

INTRODUCTION ‘[M]odern cities are facing an epidemic of social disconnection that is shortening lives [and] weakening communities.’ - Charles Montgomery, 2017

Introduction

Figure 1.0.0 Social disconnection is currently widespread in the United Kingdom. Author’s own.

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The Pursuit of Happiness

The United Kingdom is in the midst of a ‘hidden’ national epidemic (Oakley, 2017), as levels of social disconnection soar (Oakley, 2017). Over nine million Britons report to be either often or always lonely and unhappy in their social situation (British Red Cross, 2016).

There are many reasons as to why one may become lonely or unhappy: the loss of a spouse; the breakdown of a relationship; moving to a new area for school or work (Mind, 2019). Another reason is where and how we live. Built form and the environments that surround us have a direct impact on our social interactions and overall happiness (Holahan, 1982).

The UK is currently in the ‘deep crisis’ (Bowie, 2017, p.1) of a housing deficit and must provide more places to live at a faster rate than at present to cope with a rising population (Bowie, 2017).

The current house-building sector within the architectural industry is not focused on social interactions or happiness, but on ‘three things completely unrelated to the experience of buildings: carbon emissions, safety and profits.’ (Channon, 2019, p.1).

History has shown that ignoring how buildings make us feel is dangerous and will make us less happy. A new model to how we design is needed if we are to design happy during the UK’s expected influx in home building (Montgomery, 2013).

I argue that these new places to live should be designed in a way that allows residents a chance of happiness. Cities design our lives and we should design happy cities (Montgomery, 2013).

Introduction

Figure 1.0.1 Drivers of loneliness and barriers to connection. British Red Cross, 2016.

Figure 1.0.2 Community-level drivers of loneliness.

British Red Cross, 2016.

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1.1 Research Design An extensive literature review was undertaken to form the basis of this study.

Reading initially focused on the UK’s current housing and loneliness crises. Followup reading considered proposed solutions to these crises and the current stock of model communities in the UK. The review then focused on social theory of how humans are affected by built environment, consulting writings of architectural, psychological, urban and utopian thought. Literature included public press and academic journals, alongside books, academic texts, and archival materials including photographs, film, personal accounts, historic publications and architecture and urban design publications.

Model communities have utopian roots. Theory of a defined utopia has remained unchanged since its coining by Thomas More in 1516 (Claeys, 2011). Therefore, I believe that analysis of previous attempts at forging model communities is valid in offering advice to those designing future model communities. Charles Fourier’s Phalanstère (1808) was one of the earliest architectural mappings of Utopia (Claeys, 2011). The Phalanstère (1808) set precedent for architects across Europe to pursue their ‘dream cit[y]’ (Graham, 2016). This study uses three contemporarily lauded examples of model communities (Balgarnie, 1877; Rogers, 1996; Architecture Magazine, 2017) designed in the wake of the Phalanstère (1808), to discuss how design decisions may enable or disable happiness. Examples span in time between this early attempt at utopian design and present day, in order to gather a ranged sample of utopian design history in the United Kingdom. The case studies that form this comparative study are: Saltaire (1853-1871), The Alton Estate (1952-1961) and The Collective Old Oak (2015).

Following selection, visits were made to each case study site, to photograph and

Introduction

document points of interest. This research narrowed to focus on unique places and spaces within the case studies and relate social theory of human happiness accordingly; and on the economic and political agendas that informed the design and building of these places.

Multiple frameworks of analysis of happiness in urban areas were considered in an effort to make a comparison between the three case studies. The most suitable framework was the Happy Homes Toolkit (Happy City, 2017): a toolkit of forty-seven criteria on how to design happy model communities.

Additional reading, walking tours and interviews with residents and workers of the case studies allowed for retrospective assessment of the case studies against the Happy Homes Toolkit (Happy City, 2017).

Assessment-informed thematic discussion forms the main body of this study, of which these themes are: authority, social hierarchy and nature. Reason for these themes is their close relationship with model communities and urban happiness. Authority is given to the designer through the inherent power of decision-making (Dovey, 1999); reform of existing social hierarchy is a common aim in the design of new model communities (Picon, 2013) and nature has unrivalled ability to make people happy (Mourato & MacKerron, 2013).

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The Pursuit of Happiness

1.2 Happy Homes Toolkit A framework developed from theories within Montgomery’s Happy City (2013), The Happy Homes Toolkit (Happy City, 2017) is a framework written to aid in happy design.

This study uses the framework as an assessment tool to score each case study in relation to it’s fulfilment of the 47 criteria, split across 10 categories, that make the framework.

Icons like these: represent the the 10 categories of the Happy Homes Toolkit can be found in the margins of case study discussions. Icons serve as an indication to the reader that the adjacent text is relevant to a criterion within the assessment of this case study.

Full assessments that respond to each criterion are included as an appendix in this study.

Introduction

Figure 1.2.0 The Happy Homes Toolkit (Happy City, 2017) is made up of 10 categories - each developed by a process of cross-industry collaboration.

Happy City, 2017.

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1.3 Limitations and Assumptions of Study I am aware of the limitations in this study; as such it is designed to be informative rather than definitive.

Firstly, this study places a great deal of faith in the Happy Homes Toolkit (Happy City, 2017). However the wide, cross-industry collaboration undertaken in its production validates the Toolkit as a reliable framework.

Secondly, I acknowledge that the three case studies that form this research span 150 years between their completions. With minimal exception, the Happy Homes Toolkit (Happy City, 2017) consists of 47 timeless design decisions recommended to produce a happy neighbourhood, each of which focus on social wellbeing. Though social wellbeing may not have been directly referred to in the age of the earliest case study, social commentators did refer to a morale and happiness, necessary amongst residents (Hole, 1866).

Thirdly, two of the case studies have now evolved beyond use of their intended audience; Saltaire & The Alton Estate. It is not possible to gather primary research on intended residents’ opinions of these case studies. This study instead uses archival material to unearth fragments of social history close to the time of the completion of the case study.

Furthermore, I conducted case study assessments against the Happy Homes Toolkit (Happy City, 2017) and whilst I remained open-minded in my approach, I could not change my position as an outsider. Efforts were made to mitigate this limitation, ensuring multiple visits to each case study on various days and times, alongside extensive wider reading.

Introduction

Please note that whilst this research is a study into how design decisions can either enable or disable future residents’ happiness, it does not suggest that built environment can cure any unhappiness generated through issues rooted deep in wider socio-economic and political policy (Graham, 2016).

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The Pursuit of Happiness

2.0

EXISTING CONTEXT ‘A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is the realisation of Utopias.’ - Oscar Wilde, 1891

Existing Context

Figure 2.0.0 Thomas More’s idea of Utopia. Holbein, 1518.

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2.1 Utopia and the Meeting of Human Needs Montgomery (2013) states that in order to design in a way that enables happiness, we must allow for a meeting of human needs (Montgomery, 2013).

However, what does it mean to meet our human needs? Maslow (1943) states that human need is hierarchical and can be allocated to three tiers. The first tier: basic need, consists of physiological and safety needs – needs of survival. The second, satisfaction: psychological need. This tier consists of belongingness, love and esteem needs – revolving around social connections and relationships with people and place.

Finally: self-fulfillment, the realisation of one’s full potential (Maslow, 1943). Distilling this model, it is possible to question: once one reaches a state of self-fulfillment; is that the ideal? Such question positions Maslow’s (1943) Hierarchy of Need within the utopic spectrum.

Ou-topia

– a compound noun with Greek origin, stemming from

the words ‘ou’ (not) and ‘topos’ (place) - Lexico English Dictionary, 2019

Originating in Greek language from the words ‘not’ and ‘place’, utopia has, ironically, been the driver for many architectural efforts (Claeys, 2011). Architects have long sought to draw utopia and in Jacobs’ (1961) opinion, all have failed. Jacobs (1961) states that utopists seek to socially reform through dictatorial design – a feat she claims can never be achieved given the organic layering present within built environment. Claeys (2011) suggests that this failure is inherent and lies within the

Self-actualization desire to be the most that one can be

Self-fulfillment needs

Existing Context

Esteem

Love & Belonging friendship, intimacy, family, sense of connection

Psychological needs

respect, self-esteem, status recognition, strength, freedom

Safety personal security, employment, resources, health, property

Basic needs

Physiological air, water, food, shelter, sleep, clothing, reproduction

Figure 2.1.0 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs shows depicts how one should ascertain mental completeness. The idea to become complete is utopic.

Author’s own, adapted from McLeod, 2018.

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The Pursuit of Happiness

root of the word: not a place. The meeting of human needs (Maslow, 1943) is utopic – and if utopia does not exist, does that mean it is not possible to wholly meet our human needs?

Arguably, whether or not utopia exists is irrelevant. It is the hope amongst architects that utopia exists, that is relevant. It is the hope that always gets it wrong and still insists there is a way to get it right (Jacobs, 1961). It is the hope that drives us forward in the ongoing pursuit of happiness.

Montgomery (2013) suggests a more liberal approach can lead – not to utopia – but to a society that harnesses the most potential for universal happy living (Montgomery, 2013). This approach offers guidance to producing a model community, but does not seek to produce the ideal. Kevin Kelly (2016) describes this attitude as a quest for ‘protopia’ (Kelly, 2016, p.13).

Existing Context

Figure 2.1.1 & 2.1.2 Charles Fourier’s Phalanstère (1808) was one of the first architectural Utopias. It was designed to provide for all parts of contemporary life.

Considerant, 1834; Fourier, 1845.

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2.2 Model Developments ‘In order to go forward and consider the city that might be, we must look at the many visions of our cities since the beginning of the massive urbanisation that marks this century. What have the proposals been? Have they been tested, and if so, what have we learned from them? What were the values that guided their authors, and to what extent has society itself changed in the unfolding of the saga of twentieth-century urbanism?’

- Mosche Safdie, 1997, p.10

A model community is the physical manifestation of an idea. Montgomery (2013) is explicit that his idea is one of optimistic guidance (Montgomery, 2013). Throughout history these ideas have competed with each other, through agendas: social, political and economic. The agenda encapsulated within the idea of a model community is the reflection of its designer: architect or funder.

‘Since the Enlightenment, architectural and city planning movements have increasingly promised to nurture the mind and soul of society.’

- Charles Montgomery, 2013, p.23

The agendas that form the ideas that lead to the design of model communities are often described as ‘reactionary’ to the contemporary urban ills their community faces (Jacobs, 1961, p.487). Designers of model communities see their idea as a solution to such ills (Graham, 2016) and their ambition has always been to transform society for the better, by means of a built idea (Jacobs, 1961).

Each of the case studies in this enquiry was ‘reactionary’ to contemporary urban ills. Saltaire (1853-1871) was built in response to the disease-ridden, overcrowded cities of the Industrial Revolution (Balgarnie, 1877); The Alton Estate (1952-1961) – in response to the post-war housing shortage (University of West England, 2008) and

Existing Context

Figure 2.2.0 Overcrowding and widespread disease in cities of the Industrial Revolution led to the conception of worker towns like Saltaire. Upton, n.d.

Figure 2.2.0 House building stopped during WWII, leading to a shortage in housing provision in it’s aftermath.

Wealden District Council, 2018.

Figure 2.2.0 The UK’s current loneliness crisis is a catalyst for socially-minded designers to build happy communities. Cadbury, 2019.

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The Collective Old Oak (2015) – in response to the UK’s current overpriced, rundown private rental sector and loneliness crisis (The Collective, 2019).

Each case study is an example of designers with differing design aims, united with an indirect aim to provide better places for people to live – happy places.

Many socially minded architects are now seeking to develop reactionary model communities that directly seek to enable happiness of future inhabitants. These include: the Lilac-curated, Danish-influenced co-housing model that encourages social interaction (LILAC, 2019), encapsulated within LILAC Low Impact Living Affordable Community (2012-2013) in Leeds and the Igloo sustainable development model: Footprint (Igloo, 2012) – part of which is dedicated to designing for greater ‘Health, Happiness & Wellbeing’ (Igloo, 2012, p.22). Montgomery (2013) proposes a set of techniques that aid the design of happier places to live in his book Happy City (2013), later developed into the Happy Homes Toolkit (Happy City, 2017). The Happy Homes Toolkit (Happy City, 2017) is an informative guidebook that relates happiness to urban and architectural design strategy.

Existing Context

Figure 2.2.3 LILAC: a model community built in reaction to the social disconnection crisis.

LILAC, 2017.

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2.3 How Built Form Can Influence Happiness All built environment has a direct impact on our social interactions and overall happiness (Holahan, 1982). This statement suggests that all design decisions that precede any resultant built environment have that same impact on our happiness.

This places responsibility with the decision-maker of model communities and provides power to the owner of such a role.

‘Placemaking is an inherently elite practice.’ (Dovey, 1999, p.1). As Jacobs (1961) suggests, decision-makers will wish inhabitants of a model community to interact with design in a certain way – to comply with their idea of social reform (Graham, 2016). Acquired power may be utilised to carry out design decisions that will achieve such interaction (Dovey, 1999).

Dovey (1999) explains that design decisions can ‘give power to’ or ‘power over’ (Dovey, 1999, p.9) residents in model communities, which Montgomery (2013) argues can affect happiness positively or negatively, respectively. Montgomery (2013) claims that liberation of residents in model communities through ‘giv[ing] power to’ (Dovey, 1999, p.9) helps to create social connections and livable places that reflect sense of self – key to the enabling of happiness (Montgomery, 2013). Jacobs concurs and states that liberal guidance, such as that of the Happy Homes Toolkit (Happy City, 2017) can alleviate the autocratic, ‘power[ing] over’ (Dovey, 1999, p.9) practice often seen in the design of model communities (Jacobs, 1961).

The following case study analyses aim to provide insight into how this acquired power may be used to make design decisions – and to what extent decisions related to authority; social hierarchy and nature enable or disable the social wellbeing of residents.

Existing Context

Figure 2.3.0 Pictured above, Albert Speer sought to ‘power over’ (Dovey, 1999, p.9) residents through exaggerating scale, in his design for Hitler’s idea of utopia: Germania. Kaushik, 2016.

Figure 2.3.1 Scale can be a tool used by the designer in determining the power either given to, or possessed over residents of communities. Wirkmeister, 2015.

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The Pursuit of Happiness

3.0

SALTAIRE Location: Shipley, Bradford BD18 Date built: 1853-1871 Architect: F. Lockwood & R. Mawson Commissioner: Titus Salt Tenure: Private rent and free of charge Number of dwellings: 450 rentable; 45 free of charge Dwellingtype: Row houses of four denominations:

workmens cottages; overlookers’

cottages; executive villas; boarding houses. Courtyard almshouses Amenities: Club & Institute; schools;

places of worship; shops; bathhouse;

parkland; allotments Built in response to: Disease-ridden cities of the Industrial Revolution Motivation: To provide a new type of model

community that improves the standard

of living amongst residents

Saltaire

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'Who builds a town round him; sends joy to each hearth; Makes the workman exult - mid his toil; And who, while supplying the markets of earth, Enriches his own beloved soil?

Such a man is a noble, whose name should be first In our heart, in our song, in our prayer!

For such should our cheers simultaneously burst; And such is the Lord of Saltaire.'

- Robert Storey The Peerage of Industry, 1866

Saltaire Figure 3.0.1 Saltaire: a place that sought to provide home, work and everything inbetween.

Author’s own.

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The nineteenth century saw the Industrial Revolution change working life in the United Kingdom. The working classes flocked towards newly constructed mills, where most mill owners took advantage of their desire to earn a living. Living conditions were poor and disease was widespread (Weber et al., 2008).

Several mill-owners sought to provide better living conditions for their workforce and pursued harmony between Capital and Labour – a movement known as ‘enlightened capitalism’ (Reynolds, 1983, p.263). Enlightened capitalists provided necessary amenities for their workforce, including homes, means of education and recreational facilities. Such generous provision displays a set of values later described as paternalism (Roberts, 1979).

Amongst this group of enlightened mill owners was Titus Salt.

In 1853, successful Bradfordian mill-owner – Titus Salt – opted to leave the industrial city. Relocating his business, Salt commissioned the construction of a new town: Saltaire (Weber et al., 2008).

Saltaire was built to house the workers of the established Salts Mill. The model community is arranged on an axial grid and buildings display an Italianate style, with differing degrees of ornamentation (Binns, 2013). Salt’s enlightened capitalism saw:

'the provision of comfortable dwellings, church, schools - in fact, every institution which could improve the moral, mental and religious condition of the workpeople.'

- Robert Balgarnie, 1877, p.86

Saltaire Figure 3.0.2 The Industrial Revolution saw cities quickly become overcrowded and disease-ridden.

DorĂŠ, 1872.

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Saltaire Authority Balgarnie (1877) states that Salt’s reasoning for construction of a new town was to give respite to his workers, by building a new town away from the ills of contemporary Bradford. Furthermore, Balgarnie (1877) suggests that this benevolence Salt showed to provide for his workforce, was an apportioning of his income to God. Whilst it is known that Salt was a Congregationalist Christian (Reynolds, 1983), left-leaning historians including Daniels (1980) suggest that Salt’s enlightened capitalism was more of a driver for benevolence than his commitment to religion. Daniels (1980) and Hole (1866) are in agreement that Salt speculated to accumulate. The facilities provided for Saltaire’s resident workforce were of a level of contemporary excellence – thus were a large expense (Reynolds, 1983). However through upfront investment, Salt saw a much greater return:

'a contented workpeople, is an ample compensation; and there is no doubt that, even in a pecuniary point of view, if all the saving effected by having steady, well-disposed and well-behaved workpeople could be accurately measured, Mr. Salt is a great gainer.'

- James Hole, 1866, p.68

Through being both employer and landlord of his resident workforce, Salt could maintain control over the inhabitants of Saltaire. According to Minton (2017), it is human instinct to seek security in the place that we live – ‘ontological security’.

(Minton, 2017, p.110) This security protects our identity, emotional being and sense of place: all things Montgomery (2013) claims important to maintain a happy life.

When ontological security is at risk, residents can quickly develop mental health problems and worsen existing ones. (Minton, 2017) Around Saltaire, one can see the Salt family crest adorned on all public buildings.

Saltaire

Dovey (1999, p.12) explains that authority is a form of ‘power over’ (Ibid, p.9) which is retained by ensuring unquestioned legitimacy to that power. Display of Salt’s benevolence by embellishing Saltaire’s public buildings with his family crest (Firth & Hitt, 2010, p.27) legitimises his authority given his philanthropic gestures – thus persuades residents to accept the authority imposed on them (Dovey, 1999).

In order to secure a home in nineteenth century Saltaire, residents had to work to pay the rent each week. Titus Salt used his position as landlord and employer to establish authority and – in turn – exploit the human need for ontological security, for financial gain. Arguably this counteracts Balgarnie’s (1877) claim that Salt was doing God’s work and instead suggests that Salt was playing God.

Figure 3.0.3 Saltaire was built on a model that saw power retained by Titus Salt through absolute control of the town’s finance. Author’s own.

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Saltaire Social Hierarchy Employment of a social hierarchy in Saltaire aided the legitimisation of Titus Salt’s authority. Hierarchy was demonstrated programmatically through housing allocation and architecturally through use of scale and ornamentation akin to places of worship (Binns, 2013).

Reference to divinity can be found embodied within the physical manifestation of Saltaire.

Victoria Hall

Entrance Hall

Steps

Walkway

Garden

Pavement

Victoria Road

The Saltaire Club and Institute, now known as Victoria Hall, was completed in 1871.

Built in an Italianate style, similar to other buildings in Saltaire, the Institute differs in its scale. Built for recreation and socialising between Saltairites: the Institute is, ironically, one of the most imposing buildings in Saltaire (Binns, 2013). A formal garden with a central promenade toward the entrance steps leads visitors inside, before ascending

Figure 3.0.4 A processional route is created in the movement toward Victoria Hall. Processions have military connotations and can lead to submissive behaviour on part of inhavitants (Dovey, 1999). Author’s own.

Saltaire

Figure 3.0.5 Victoria Hall dwarfs the human form. Heavily embellished, the Hall is a public display of Salt’s wealth to visitors.

Author’s own.

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to a double-height entrance hall, then through to the triple-height Victoria Hall – a room so grand that the building eventually took on its name (Watson, 2019).

Previc (2009) explains that it is common for our eyes to roll upward when we consider distant time or space – both are often unfathomable concepts. Upon entering Victoria Hall, one cannot help but look upward. This reaction is human instinct and is an attempt to focus into the unreachable distance, something Previc (2009) refers to as extrapersonal space.

Ellard (2015) explains that this movement of the eyes into extrapersonal space is frequently seen in religious experience and commonplace in places of worship.

This is a look toward the heavens in seeking spiritual ‘connection with a greater existence’ (Ellard, 2015, p.173): with God. Ellard (2015) states that – in addition to ecclesiastical spaces – this ‘upward gaze’ (Ibid) can been found when entering all spaces of grand scale. The upward gaze is usually met with placidity in character and slower movement (Ellard, 2015).

Saltaire Institute, a secular building, was constructed using the scale of an ecclesiastical building in a period of history where most visitors would recognise spaces of such scale as a place of worship – triggering an upward gaze upon entry. Given the building’s secularity, the greater existence the upward gaze would seek would not be God, but the builder, the reason for its existence:Titus Salt. Visitors of Saltaire Institute were under Titus Salt’s watch without His physical presence.

Thus, Salt used religious architectural iconography as an influence on his resident workforce’s behaviour during their leisure time to ensure a well-behaved township.

Saltaire Figure 3.0.6 The attention of visitors of Victoria Hall is drawn toward the embellished void above them.

Victoria Hall Saltaire (n.d.).

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Housing in Saltaire can be placed into four categories: workmen’s cottages; overlookers’ cottages; executive villas and boarding houses. Boarding houses were intended as a transient residence for unmarried individuals. The three remaining categories were all family homes that varied in size, programme and quality of finish.

Workmen’s cottages were the most basic, then the overlookers’ cottages. The most decorated and largest of homes were the executive villas (Reynolds, 1983).

'Salt intended to provide a variety of houses to fit the needs of particular families - either for space, or in relation to family income, or to what status within the village and the factory seemed to indicate.'

- Jack Reynolds, 1983, p.267

Reynolds (1983) suggests that category of home correlated to resident status within Saltaire or in employment at Salts Mill. Jackson et al. (2010) find Reynolds to be incorrect in his claim, as census returns show that residency in Saltaire was determined on the net rent paid. For example a poorly skilled family with working children could afford a home of similar grandeur to that of a skilled couple (Watson, 2019). Though returns show resident status did not inform the home in which they lived – it does not confirm whether or not the designers of Saltaire intended for a status/dwelling correlation.

Arguably, the gradience of domestic quality on offer in Saltaire was part of Salt’s ambition to have residents seek ‘self-improvement’ (Weber et al., 2008, p.22). Weber et al. (2008) claim that Salt’s provision of means of self-improvement: the building of schools, libraries and the Saltaire Club and Institute demonstrated his desire to help others. Instilling a notion of self-improvement could have led residents to seek

Saltaire

holistic improvement in their lives. The home is often viewed as an extension of ones self (Gardner, 2008); as such, the existence of a hierarchy of dwelling types serves as a key benchmark for charting self-improvement. However, to seek improvement in household in Salt’s Saltaire would have meant working harder and longer to accrue revenue necessary to move upward in the housing hierarchy.

Figure 3.0.7 The four dwellingtypes in Salt’s Saltaire.

Author’s own.

Workmen’s Cottage

Executive Villa

Overlooker’s Cottage

Boarding House

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Saltaire Nature The enlightened capitalism employed at Saltaire welcomed many design decisions to the town that enabled social cohesion. One example of this is Saltaire’s relationship with nature.

Salt’s generosity provided the town with a small, but rich selection of outdoor spaces that presented the resident workforce with opportunity to enjoy the natural environment. Among these spaces was Saltaire Park, a 14-acre expanse of greenery free of charge to both Saltairites and the wider community. The park contained cricket and bowls greens, a lengthy promenade and a vast array of exotic flora from around the world. In addition, Salt made provision for a cluster of allotment gardens, with plots available for rent exclusively to his township (Weber et. al., 2008).

The biophilia hypothesis states that humans are happier in natural environments because they are where we evolved (Williams, 2017). However handling soil and plants – physically touching nature – has scientific benefit. Working with nature increases serotonin, a feel-good chemical that reduces anxiety in human beings (Breuning, 2012).

Whilst there were not enough allotments in Saltaire for everyone to partake in this most personal interaction with nature, the geographical location of Saltaire with connection to the nearby Shipley Glen and surrounding moorland provided residents with other opportunities for an increase in serotonin (Firth & Hitt, 2010).

Through facilitating access and exposure to a range of natural environments at differing levels of intimacy with nature, Salt promoted happiness amongst his resident workforce.

Saltaire

Figure 3.0.8 To promenade in Saltaire Park was a popular recreational activity. The main stretch included a pavilion where visitors could look back and admire the town from afar. Rock & Co., 1876.

Figure 3.0.9 William Gay’s planting in Saltaire Park has now matured after decades of being tended to.

The Park still serves as a popular attraction on the periphary of the town. Author’s own.

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'There is a profusion of peas, cabbages, rhubarb, goose berries, and other vegetables and fruits familiar in the mouth of the perambulating greengrocer, and the walks and beds are kept with scrupulous care and neatness.'

- James Burnley, 1875, p.212

Saltaire Figure 3.0.10 Saltaire was equipped with a cluster of allotment plots.

These plots are still in use today, gardened by greenfingered locals.

Author’s own.

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'The garden was not merely a biophilic intervention. It was a social machine.'

- Charles Montgomery, 2013, p.125

In addition to biological benefits, gardening was made a social act in Saltaire (Drower, 2019). Salt omitted public houses from the Saltaire masterplan, citing immorality (Reynolds, 1983). This design decision led to more frequent usage of allotments as social gathering spaces. Allotments served as a ‘rus in urbe’ (Drower, 2019, p.46) giving families a doorstep escape to the countryside, where they would spend the day tending to their crop and picnicking from their produce. Fertilisers and tools were shared amongst plot tenants and a healthy competition was maintained between cultivators (Drower, 2019).

Aside from this direct benefit to wellbeing, Salt benefitted his resident workforce’s wellbeing indirectly, through providing access to education via nature.

Whilst enjoying an evening promenade in Saltaire Park, local people had the opportunity to learn about the Park’s exotic flora. Salt ensured that each plant was labeled to enable the ‘acquisition of botanical knowledge’ (Saltaire, 1895, p.24).

Labeling of plant species is another example of Salt’s quest to provide opportunity for self-improvement (Weber et. al., 2008, p.22).

In addition to Saltaire Park and the allotment plots, Salt provided green space in the form of Alexandra Square: a garden at the centre of the forty-five almshouses and infirmary at the southern edge of Saltaire (Reynolds, 1983). Montgomery (2013) suggests that hospital patients and the infirm require less medication and recover from ailments more quickly when exposed to nature (Montgomery, 2013, p.110).

Saltaire

Though aforementioned studies are recent, knowledge of positive reaction in happiness to nature is biological (Williams, 2017). Whilst the cleaner air and open spaces for recreation and exercise were reactionary provisions to the sufferable conditions in contemporary Bradford (Reynolds, 1983), it may be argued that such provisions were organic. We may deduce that the design decision for Salt and his architects to provide the resident workforce with good access to nature is not based on theory, but is a reactionary motive that is rooted instinctively – given ‘his sole desire was that they should be all happy’ (Salt in Balgarnie, 1877, p.92).

Figure 3.0.11 The low-rise nature of the almshouses creates a strong physical connection between manmade and natural environments. Author’s own.

Figure 3.0.12 The matured planting in Alexandra Square’s central garden provides seasonal shelter to residents and visitors. Author’s own.

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Saltaire Summary 'Salt was plainly seeking to impose a lifestyle that he personally considered appropriate.'

- Sheila Binns, 2013, p.34

Saltaire reflects Salt’s desire to provide opportunity for prosperity, self-improvement and maintenance of a healthy, happy wellbeing for his resident workforce. However an ulterior agenda served to see Salt gain financially from his altruistic gestures.

Supporters of Salt maintain that he empowered residents to live their best life by providing them with access to good quality education (Weber et al. 2008). Whilst this may be true, Salt could afford to lose workers to more skilled occupations in other locations. Salt knew there was a plentiful supply of working class families looking to flee nearby disease-ridden Bradford in search of a happier life.

Saltaire was thus constructed as an extension of Salt’s business empire with an enlightened capitalist agenda informing the majority of its design decisions. This agenda led to a happy place to live (Balgarnie, 1877), though resident empowerment was limited by the paternalistic ordering of space and use.

Saltaire

Figure 3.0.12 Saltaire’s high turnover of residents (Jackson et al, 2010) was, in part, owed to Salt’s provision of tools of self-improvement for the township and part to competition from other mills. However this turnover had little consquence for the town, for there were always more families looking to escape the squalor of Bradford. Author’s own.

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3.1

THE ALTON ESTATE Location: Roehampton, London SW15 Date built: 1952-1955 (East) & 1953-1961 (West) Architect: London County Council Architect’s Department Commissioner: London County Council Tenure: Social rent Number of dwellings: circa. 10,000 population Dwellingtype: Slab block maisonettes; point tower

apartments; row maisonettes; bungalows Amenities: Library; community centre; schools;

places of worship; shops; green spaces Built in response to: Lack of housing provision in the United Kingdom following WWII Motivation: To provide a new type of model

community that improves the standard

of living amongst residents

Alton Estate

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‘...he had concluded that the best compromise might be five storey blocks set in green space. This ideal was approached for him most nearly... on the Alton East and Alton West estates in Roehampton.’ - Susie Harries, 2011, p.583

Alton Estate

Figure 3.1.1 Scaled site model of the Alton Estate, London County Council, 1953. Ovenden, 2016.

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‘aesthetically the best housing estate to date’ - Nikolaus Pevsner, 1960, p.704

Built in two phases – East (1952-1955) & West (1953-1961) – The Alton Estate was lauded by critics upon completion as the solution to counteracting contemporary socio-economic ills (Calder, 2017). At the time, the it was one of the largest residential estates in the world and because of this, workload and the responsibility of design was shared between two teams within London County Council Architect’s Department. Two competing ideologies developed following this separation. Alton Estate East practised a Scandinavian architecture, featuring brick-clad maisonettes and tower blocks, whereas Alton Estate West was inspired by Le Corbusier, including his Radiant City theory (1930) and the Unité d’Habitation (1947-1952) – a clean, modernist architecture from the Mediterranean (‘Alton Estate’, 1996).

This case study will focus on the Alton Estate West (AEW), given the prominence of the model it was influenced by in the discourse of model communities (Graham, 2016). Specific reference to East and West developments will be made clear.

Alton Estate

Figure 3.1.2 The Alton Estate is split between two distinct ideologies. Author’s own.

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The Alton Estate Authority ‘Alton has a strong tenants’ association, and I’m convinced this is an important factor in its success.

People need control in the running of their estates.’

- Richard Rogers in ‘Alton Estate’, 1996

London County Council (LCC) retained authority on the Alton Estate through tenants’ monthly payments. This authority encouraged good behaviour and conformity to rules amongst residents, exploiting human need for ‘ontological security’ (Minton, 2017, p.110) as previously discussed in the case of Saltaire. However in the case of the Alton Estate, whilst overall authority was retained in certain areas, control was relinquished in others.

LCC Architect’s Department made conscious effort to connect the new Alton Estate to the ancient village of Roehampton (Calder, 2017). At the easterly-end of Danebury Avenue there is a community library, a shopping precinct and a public plaza – all of which face outward, toward the established Roehampton Village. The result of this design decision suggests that these amenities are shared and although they are situated on the Alton Estate, they are not exclusively for the use of Alton Estate residents.

Alton Estate

Figure 3.1.3 Facing outward toward the ancient centre of Roehampton, the AEW Danebury Avenue shopping precinct and plaza displays a welcoming face to the wider area that surrounds this model community. Author’s own.

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Through provision of amenities for the wider community, LCC Architect’s Department gives opportunity for social interaction and enhances cross-community cohesion between different groups of people – those from inside and outside of the Estate (Montgomery, 2013). Regular social contact between different groups is proven to reduce social anxiety and ‘fear of the other’ (Ellard, 2015, p.135). The design decision to include these amenities enables the Alton Estate to sit harmoniously within its established surroundings.

Actively encouraging non-residents to enter the Alton Estate relinquished LCC’s authority of control over who accessed the estate. This produces a spatial syntax that minimises exclusivity and helps tie the Alton Estate into the established community (Montgomery, 2013).

Alton Estate

Figure 3.1.4 Building the Danebury Avenue shops into the foundations of AEW residential blocks creates inherent association with the new development of community amenity, resulting in greater connection between those within and outside AEW, Author’s own.

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The Alton Estate Nature ‘This is a great view of these white towers marching across the soft green landscape.’

- Richard Rogers in ‘Alton Estate’, 1996

AEW was built on the principles of the Radiant City (1930) (Frampton, 1980). The Radiant City was an idea that succeeded the Garden City (Howard, 1898) – a respected movement amongst theorists, though hampered by the inability of yielding highdensity development (Graham, 2016). Le Corbusier made high-density Garden Cities possible by constructing homes vertically in the form of towers in the park. Vertical residential construction and elevated carriageways left a large portion of earth untouched in Radiant Cities and enabled pedestrianisation within nature at ground level (Jacobs, 1961). AEW follows a similar approach to landscaping and as such, when viewed from afar much of the landscape surrounding the Unité d’habitationinspired slab blocks appears seemingly untouched, resulting in idyllic views where concrete and nature coalesce.

However the natural environment provided to frame the ‘white towers’ (‘Alton Estate’, 1996) is one of placed trees and precisely mown lawns. Montgomery (2013) explains that happiness is greater in genuinely natural environments than in those that have been orchestrated. ‘The ‘messier’ and more diverse the landscape, the better.’ (Montgomery, 2013, p.116) These findings are extended to wider urban life in Jacobs’ (1961) earlier theory that a cleansing of public space is harmful to urban life, leading to banal environments and resultant under usage. Jacobs (1961) describes how the simplification of public space was a technique employed by modernists like Le Corbusier to provide clean, crisp spaces that evoked the utopic vision previously confined to architectural drawings. However Jacobs (1961) and Montgomery (2013)

Alton Estate

argue that the modernist compulsion to strip public space bare voids resultant development of impromptu life and sterilises it.

Figure 3.1.5 At AEW, harmony is sought between the contrasts of sharp manmade mass and soft greenery. Author’s own.

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‘Instead of the confusion of the city street, Le Corbusier forsees the abstract beauties of skyscrapers in the park. His urbanism, with its emphasis on the natural qualities of green, space and light, purges away dirt, crows, chaos, humanity. Moving through the scenery of geometrical planes unhampered by pedestrians, his view effectively depopulates the city, makes it as idealized as an architectural drawing. Nothing interrupts the glide of surfaces… As a work of art Le Corbusier might like the look of his city on paper, but he never really addresses the problem of living in it.’

- Peter Jukes, 1990, p.227

Alton Estate

Figure 3.1.6 Le Corbusier’s ideology fails to address the issues daily life and inhabitance poses to it’s clean and crisp aesthetic.

Author’s own.

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‘The huge lawns that serve as ‘green space’ between the social housing tower blocks of the last century are deserts compared with what they could be.’

- Charles Montgomery, 2013, p.116

The Happy Homes Toolkit (Happy City, 2017) suggests that ‘clear and gradual transition’ (Happy City, 2017) should be made between private and public spaces. Such transition not only provides residents with a sense of security through demarcation of territory, but also enables recognition of ownership (Newman, 1972). Perception analysis of resident transition between street and dwelling shows the transition to be abrupt. Residents move from lawn, to car park, to shared front door, then onto the dwelling. From afar (before the car park is visible) Unités are positioned above the green lawns. Arguably, this physical connection implies ownership of the lawn and that this public space therefore belongs to the Unité and its residents. A contributing factor in this proposition is a lack of transitional markers in the approach to Unités, which results in a non-gradual transition between public and private (Montgomery, 2013). Confusion of ownership of the public lawns between Unités exacerbates under usage, in addition to the sterile environment borne through modernist simplification.

Alton Estate

Figure 3.1.7 There is an immediacy between the rolling lawns and the slab blocks of AEW that is idyllic from afar, but arguably too simplistic in practice.

Author’s own.

Figure 3.1.8 Transitions between supposed public lawns and the private residential Unités are abrupt and lead to confusion of privacy boundaries.

Author’s own.

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The Alton Estate Social Hierarchy ‘There is no logic that can be superimposed on the city; people make it, and it is to them, not buildings, that we must fit our plans.’

- Jane Jacobs, 1958

Though AEW was influenced by the Radiant City, LCC Architect’s Department – whilst seduced by contemporary architectural trends – did not slavishly follow the teachings of this ideology. Le Corbusier established a social hierarchy in the Radiant City whereby standard housing was built primarily of Unités, with low-density, low-rise buildings reserved for residents with higher income (Jacobs, 1961). This was not the case at AEW.

‘On the same site, there are terraced houses, tower blocks, maisonettes, and old people’s homes. Different sorts of housing to suit different people’s needs.’

- Richard Rogers in ‘Alton Estate’, 1996

The Alton Estate contained a designed social hierarchy – not related to economic agenda, but to user need.

AEW was more liberal in its social agenda than that of its parent-design. For example, bungalows were afforded to aged and less mobile residents and variety was offered to families as to the type of house that best suited them. AEW served as an inclusive community that sought to help a diverse mix of people find their home. Diversity in housing provision is an important factor in creating a happy neighbourhood: as through diversifying housing provision, a greater number of residents’ needs may be met. Meeting the needs of residents will improve chances of long-term inhabitation and as such will generate local social connection and a greater bond of trust between residents (Montgomery, 2013).

Alton Estate Figure 3.1.9 There is a rich variety of dwellingtypes offered at Alton Estate West, includes bungalows for the elderly, low-rise maisonettes for large families and slab block and point tower apartments for smaller ones. Author’s own.

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The Alton Estate Summary In designing AEW, architects utilised contemporary lessons and acknowledged their purpose. Design decisions made regarding the location and orientation of the library and shopping precinct on Danebury Avenue recognise the social importance of connecting new and established communities. Through this decision and the decision to provide a range of dwelling-types, trust was built amongst residents of the Estate and residents of Roehampton Village. However the influence of Unité d’habitation led to an expanse of dead space throughout the residential zone, due to inherent issues within the Radiant City theory.

The designers of the Alton Estate West were nevertheless modernist architects with conscience. Le Corbusier’s definitive rationalism was consumed, processed and distilled by London County Council Architect’s Department in their interpretation of what would best serve the future community.

Alton Estate

Figure 3.1.10 The Radiant City (1930) uses rigorous axial planning to support Le Corbusier’s desired social reformation based on zoning and compartmentalisation.

Kohlstedt, 2018.

Figure 3.1.11 Alton Estate West is informed by Le Corbusier’s teachings, but does not slavishly follow them. Being less rigorous in layout allows AEW to respond to the natural landform. Alton Estate Regen, n.d.

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3.2

THE COLLECTIVE OLD OAK

Location: Date built: Architect: Commissioner: Tenure: Number of dwellings: Dwellingtype: Amenities:

Built in response to: Motivation:

North Acton, London NW10 2015 PLP Architecture; The Collective The Collective Short-term private rent 546 Two-dios (studio with shared kitchenette); studios Bar & restaurant; supermarket; office space; lounges; terraces; canal-side patio; cinema room; library; laundry room; gym Lonliness crisis in cities of United Kingdom To provide a new type of model community that improves the standard of living amongst residents

The Collective Old Oak

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‘Modern Utopia Or Over-Organised Hell?’ - Hannah Foulds, 2017

The Pursuit of Happiness

‘The Collective [is] a property company that creates co-living spaces to build a more connected, inspired and collaborative world.’

- The Collective Foundation, 2019

This case study will focus on the one of The Collective’s three co-living communities – The Collective Old Oak (TCOO) (2016): situated in Willesden Junction, London (The Collective, 2019) The Collective delivers a housing model formed in reaction to the current private rental sector (PRS) (PLP, n.d.). Communities like TCOO offer residents an alternative to the modern norm. It is currently commonplace for residents of the PRS to live in poorly maintained, highly priced and overcrowded tenable properties. The Collective’s solution is to offer residents a compact private sleeping space that has access to all kinds of shared amenities not seen elsewhere in the PRS (The Collective, 2019).

P

Photograph of communal kitchen and corridors - boring spaces

The Collective Old Oak

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The Collective Old Oak Nature ‘Creating communities where people can live happy, full lives, is deeply ingrained in The Collective’s purpose.’

- The Collective Foundation, 2019

TCOO scores highly when assessed against the Happy City Toolkit (Happy City, 2017).

This is an unsurprising outcome given that The Collective has an in-house team of designers working to construct environments that fit with their ethos (Studio Weave, 2019). There is a distinction in The Collective between the treatment of private and public spaces. Public spaces have a higher quality of materials and finish than private spaces and host an abundance of plant life. As discussed previously, access to natural environment encourages affection towards place, builds social bonds and is proven to reduce stress toxins in the body (Montgomery, 2013). People are more likely to remain in ‘places of affection’ (Ellard, 2015, p.52) for longer periods of time (Ellard, 2015).

In contrast, ‘boring places’ (Ellard, 2015, p.107) – places that lack sense of natural environment – encourage building users to spend a lesser amount of time there (Ellard, 2015). Unfortunately, semi-private places in TCOO provide no ‘visual stimulation’ (Happy City, 2017) and should be considered boring. These boring places in TCOO include the communal kitchens, places that are reportedly barely used (Fraser, 2019).

‘You know what? Those spaces never get that busy. [T]he kitchens are more literally just for, like, cooking and eating.

I don’t think people normally hang out there – I honestly have never seen more than, like, four people in one of those kitchens before.’

- Matt Fraser, 2019

The Collective Old Oak

Figure 3.2.3 Semi-private places in The Collective Old Oak are fitted with an economic trim and atmosphere is dreary.

Author’s own.

Figure 3.2.4 Semi-public places have a greater level of finish and are inkeeping with TCOO’s on-trend persona.

Author’s own.

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Oldenburg’s (1989) study into ‘third places’ (Oldenburg, 1989, p.16-19) explains that humans have three places in their lives: the first and second being home and work. The third place is more fluid and is usually a place of recreation and socialising (Oldenburg, 1989). Third places created at TCOO include: the laundry-cum-TV room; the secret garden; the library; the bar and restaurant; the terraces; the lounges.

‘People can be more together’ - The Collective, 2019

At TCOO the architects chose to minimise the affectionate charm of private places in order manipulate resident behaviour and channel them toward the public, third places. This design decision encourages social interaction and helps personify The Collective’s philosophy.

The Collective Old Oak

Private (Member rooms) Semi-public (Kitchens) Third Places Ancillary

Level 9

Level 8

Level 3-7

Level 2

Level 1

Level 0

Figure 3.2.5 Third Places in TCOO. Author’s own.

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The Collective Old Oak Authority ‘The rigid, isolated object…is of no use whatsoever. It must be inserted into the context of living social relations.’

- Walter Benjamin, 1934, p.87

Approaching from Willesden Junction, as one travels through the Old Oak Lane Conservation Area, past the two-storey, London-yellow railway cottages (Warshaw et. al., 2007): the two gleaming silvery blocks of The Collective Old Oak emerge.

‘The machine-like building is cut off from its surroundings, isolated, an island. The building with a lively building edge, is connected, part of the social fabric, part of the town, part of the lives of all the people who live and move around it.’

- Christopher Alexander, 1977, p.754

The Collective Old Oak is alien in form and fabric to its surroundings. Little attempt is made through design decisions to relate TCOO to the locality (PLP Design & Access Statement, 2013, p.29 & p.32) and its exaggerated form prevents connection between street and building (Happy City, 2017).

This design decision is intended to separate TCOO from the wider community in which it sits. Dovey (1999) explains how built form can assert ‘power over’ (Dovey, 1999, p.9) people. One form of powering over, is to spatially dominate through ‘exaggerated scale’ (ibid.), which ‘belittle[s] the human subject’ (ibid.).

The Collective Old Oak

Figure 3.2.6 The Collective Old Oak domineers over it’s surroundings on the approach from Willesden Junction.

Author’s own.

Figure 3.2.7 The context in which TCOO sits, consists of, low-rise semidetached and row housing, built in vernacular style.

Author’s own.

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‘We believe being a part of community leads to more fulfilling lives for everyone’ - The Collective, 2019

Supporting this theory of exclusion, TCOO’s ground floor boundary treatment is distinctly different to that seen elsewhere on Old Oak Lane. Treatment is plain and offers little information as to the internal programming of the building. Such treatment is proven to make passers by move more quickly and discourages interaction (Montgomery, 2013).

‘The experience of entering a building influences the way you feel when inside the building. If the transition is too abrupt, there is no feeling of arrival, and the inside of the building fails to be an inner sanctum.’

- Christopher Alexander, 1977, p.594

This shielding of the interior of TCOO from outsiders is aided by a setback in massing and a linear street planter, used to segregate building access and thoroughfare. These features are part of a transitional buffer zone, a technique employed by Oscar Newman’s Defensible Space theory (1972) to offer comfort of security to residents by signifying a transition between public and private space (Newman, 1972).

The Collective Old Oak

Figure 3.2.8 The Collective Old Oak viewed from Old Oak Lane.

Google, 2018.

Figure 3.2.9 Planters and level changes serve as key transitional markers (Newman, 1972) in protecting the interior of TCOO from outsiders. Author’s own.

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The Collective Old Oak Social Hierarchy When visiting TCOO, the author found that staff most commonly refer to residents as ‘members’ (Fraser, 2019). This confirms the existence of outsiders and further reinforces the idea of exclusivity.

Exclusion of the wider community is part of the social hierarchy incumbent at TCOO. In a dystopian, High Rise-style (Ballard, 1975) arrangement: according to Foulds (2017), rents on lower floors of TCOO are cheaper than those on upper floors. Inherently, the better views are found on the upper floors and, as explained in the Happy Homes Toolkit (Happy City, 2017), the human body undergoes positive chemical reaction that promotes happiness when able to regularly view nature. Therefore, through pricing structure, TCOO is able to put a price on happiness.

‘An incubator to grow a type of person in – in a community.’

- Matt Fraser, 2019

However, the aspect of the private member room is one of few variables at TCOO. Treatment of the boring residential corridors and the member rooms are each identical (Fraser, 2019) and void of personal character. The decision to design, then enforce neutrality avoids offense of taste and prevents opportunity for personalisation and display of identity. Ability to personalise one’s surroundings is key to supporting social wellbeing (Montgomery, 2013).

‘[Becoming a different kind of person while you stay here is] what we really try and promote… [T]hat’s something that we really try and sell as a benefit. You come here to grow as a person.’

- Matt Fraser, 2019

The Collective Old Oak

Prevention of displaying identity is common in institutional buildings. Goffman (1961) explains that prisons and asylums will strip inmates of personal identity to reach tabula rasa. The institution then moulds inmates in its image. When the author asked a staff member at TCOO if there was a change in personality between members arriving and leaving TCOO, the response was that The Collective actively seeks to alter members’ social being by forging more outgoing Londoners during their stay (Fraser, 2019).

Figure 3.2.10 The Collective Old Oak is reported by it’s staff to serve as an incubator to grow a particular type of people. Author’s own.

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The Collective Old Oak Summary The Collective acknowledges human social need and actively designs and programmes to enable the highest level of satisfaction of human social need. As a service provider, it is in the best interest of The Collective to achieve high levels of satisfaction – for this will allow continued revenue growth. However TCOO is a good piece of social architecture, responding to the current PRS crisis.

Nevertheless, TCOO is universally good for just one type of person: the outgoing, young professional. The Collective has constructed a social haven that provides utopia for a select demographic, chosen through interview (Studio Weave, 2019).

Strongly linked with utopic principles (Worthington, 2019), TCOO cannot be the solution to the current PRS crisis, for it is an exclusive piece of architecture that separates itself from the wider community.

The Collective Old Oak

Figure 3.2.11 It is imperative to The Collective Old Oak’s financial model that residents/members are happy - without enabling happiness of residents, commercial viability is nullified. Author’s own.

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4.0

CONCLUSION ‘Whatever creates or increases happiness or some part of happiness, we ought to do; whatever destroys or hampers happiness, or gives rise to its opposite, we ought not to do.’ - Artistotle, Rhetoric

Conclusion

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Analyses show that the design decision-maker of each case study sought happiness amongst future residents. Usage of authority, social hierarchy and nature was employed through the case studies as necessary to fit informing ideas and agendas.

A key trend that appears from employment of financial agenda within the design of model communities is that of exclusivity. The Alton Estate has limited financial agenda driving the design, which enables cohesion with existing communities. On the other hand, Saltaire and The Collective Old Oak seek to serve as new communities, isolated from existing communities. Displaying the image of exclusivity as a perk of being part of the community case studies protects the incumbent financial model.

A happy community that has an exclusive ideology will inherently marginalise and prevent a portion of society from enjoying such happiness – therefore these exclusive communities are not the sole solution in how to create a happy model community.

However the documented success (Hole, 1866 & Foulds, 2017) of these two very different case studies shows how happiness can be achieved in varied settings. This can be attributed to each individual’s multifaceted and personal emotional response system: everyone is unique (Novander, 2006, p.39).

‘Me, myself and I Have just one point of view We’re convinced There’s no one else like you’ - Billie Holiday Me, Myself & I, 1937

Conclusion

Such uniqueness across human emotion suggests that any utopia sought by the likes of Fourier and Le Corbusier would differ from person to person, as such – everyone’s utopia is different. As claimed by Jacobs (1961), a single utopia does not exist.

The author proposes that ‘protopia’ (Kelly, 2016, p.13) should instead be sought: a place of tomorrow that improves upon today.

This happy evolution of model community should be sought by first designing a community of happy places (Happy City, 2017), connected by happy spaces: a community that harnesses the positive impact nature has on our wellbeing, whilst avoiding heavy reliance on the enforcing of authority and social hierarchies. Overreliance of authority and social hierarchies in communities can be detrimental to social wellbeing; instead autonomy amongst residents should be encouraged (Montgomery, 2013).

Figure 4.0.0 There are no two people, the same.

Birdwell Primary School Class One, 2000.

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‘The places we call beautiful are, by contrast, the work of those rare architects with the humility to interrogate themselves adequately about their desires and the tenacity to translate their fleeting apprehensions of joy into logical plans – a combination that enables them to create environments that satisfy needs we never consciously knew we even had.’

- Alain de Botton, 2006, p.194

Architects of model communities will always retain a sense of authorship of their idea.

In order to achieve this happy model community, as architects, we must relinquish such authority. It is only when we can look within ourselves and critique our idea with absolute integrity that we will be able to consider how the agendas behind design will impact on people’s happiness.

Finally, the author states that it is the responsibility of the architects and planners of the places we live to ensure that our homes and neighbourhoods allow fulfilment of our human needs and, in turn, enable us to live happy lives. To understand how we may enable happiness, we must first examine the triumphs and tribulations of those who have come before us, in pursuit of it.

Conclusion

Figure 4.0.1 Inclusive design practice relinquishes the power of the architect and opens the driving ‘idea’ up, to scrutiny. Author’s own.

Figure 4.0.2 Sole authorship of design retains the power of the architect, which can leave flawed underlying agendas unchecked.

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Graham, W. (2016) Dream Cities: Seven Urban Ideas That Shape the World. USA: Harper Collins.

Harries, S. (2011) Nikolaus Pevsner: The Life. Great Britain: Pimlico, 2013.

Holahan, C. J. (1982) Environmental Psychology. USA: Random House.

Hole, J. (1866) The Homes of the Working Classes with Suggestions for their Improvement. Reprint, London: Garland, 1985.

Jacobs, J. (1961) The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Reprint, New York: Modern Library, 2011.

Jackson, N; Lintonbon, J; Staples, B. (2010) Saltaire: The Making of a Model Town. Salisbury: Spire Books.

Jukes, P. (1990) A Shout in the Street: The Modern City. Great Britain: Faber and Faber.

Kelly, K. (2016) The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future. USA: Penguin.

Minton, A. (2017) Big Capital: Who is London For? London: Penguin.

Montgomery, C. (2013) Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design. Reprint, London: Penguin, 2015.

Newman, O. (1972) Defensible Space: Crime Prevention Through Urban Design. New York: Macmillan.

Oldenburg, R. (1989) The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community. 3rd Ed, New York: Marlowe & Company, 1999.

Pevsner, N. (1943) An Outline of European Architecture, 6th Ed, London: Penguin Books, p.704, 1960 [Online] Available at: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.69467/page/n73 (Accessed: 01 August 2019).

Previc, F. H. (2009) The Dopaminergic Mind in Human Evolution and History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Reynolds, J. (1983) The Great Paternalist: Titus Salt & the Growth of Ninteenth-century Bradford. Great Britain: The Camelot Press.

Roberts, D. (1979) Paternalism in Early Victorian England. Reprint, United Kingdom: Routledge, 2016.

Safdie, M. (1997) The City After the Automobile: An Architect’s Vision. Reprint, United Kingdom: Routledge, 2018.

Saltaire (1895) Saltaire, Yorkshire: A Sketch History. Sir Titus Salt, Bart, Sons & Co. Ltd, pp. 24, 29.

Schoon, N. (2001) The Chosen City. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.

Weber, D. & Barlo & Shaw (2008) A Visitor’s Guide to Saltaire. Great Britain: Nemine Juvante.

Wilde, O. (1891) The Soul of Man under Socialism [Online] Available at: https://www.marxists.org/reference/ archive/wilde-oscar/soul-man/ (Accessed: 10 Aug 2019).

Williams, F. (2017) The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier and More Creative. USA: W. W. Norton & Company.

Website Ango, S. (2018) Design is Compromise. Available at: http://stephanango.com/design-is-compromise (Accessed: 10 September 2019).

Architect Magazine (2017) The Collective Old Oak. Available at: https://www.architectmagazine.com/ project-gallery/the-collective-old-oak (Accessed: 20 September 2019).

Calder, B. (2017) ‘Britain’s Most Important 20th-Century Housing is Under Threat.’ Apollo Magazine, 21 December [Online] Available at: https://www.apollo-magazine.com/britains-most-important-20thcentury-housing-is-under-threat/ (Accessed: 5 September 2019).

Collective,The (2019) About The Collective. Available at: https://www.thecollective.com/about-us (Accessed: 10 Aug 2019).

Collective Foundation, The (2019) About Us. Available at: https://thecollectivefoundation.com/about-us/ (Accessed: 10 Aug 2019).

Foulds,,, (2017) ‘Co-living Spaces: Modern Utopia or Over-Organised Hell?’, The Londonist, 12 April [Online] Available at: https://londonist.com/london/housing/co-living-spaces-modern-utopia-or-over-organisedhell (Accessed: 01 August 2019).

Jacobs, J. (1958) ‘Downtown is for People’ in Nin-Hai Tseng (2011) Fortune Classic, 18 September [Online] Available at: https://fortune.com/2011/09/18/downtown-is-for-people-fortune-classic-1958/?fbclid=I wAR2gkG2rkkL6fL3GSUh0GVtAgX7jUUBJsIwCckGKTpXzsn0YYQmuR2wVplw (Accessed: 10 Aug 2019).

Lexico English Dictionary (2019) Utopia. Available at: https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/utopia (Accessed: 14 Aug 2019).

LILAC (2019) Community. Available at: https://www.lilac.coop (Accessed: 01 August 2019).

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Montgomery, C. (2017) Tackling the Crisis of Social Disconnection. Available at: https://thehappycity.com/ crisis-of-social-disconnection/ (Accessed: 10 August 2019).

Oakley, L. (2017) ‘Older people and loneliness: five things you need to know’, British Red Cross, March 21 [Online] Available at: https://blogs.redcross.org.uk/health/2017/03/older-people-loneliness-five-thingsneed-know/ (Accessed: 04 July 2019).

PLP (n.d.) The Collective Old Oak, London, UK. Available at: http://www.plparchitecture.com/the-collectiveold-oak.html (Accessed 04 August 2019).

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Journals/Reports/Theses British Red Cross (2016) Trapped in a Bubble: An Investigation into the triggers of lonliness in the UK [Online] Available at: https://www.redcross.org.uk/get-involved/partner-with-us/our-partners/co-op## (Accessed: 15 Aug 2019).

Daniels, S. J. (1980) Moral Order and the Industrial Environment in the Woollen Textile Districts of West Yorkshire, 1780-1880. PhD thesis. University College London, United Kingdom [Online]. Available at: http:// discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1317591/1/254829.pdf (Accessed: 01 Aug 2019).

Igloo (2012) Footprint [Online] Available at: https://www.blueprintregeneration.com/wp-content/ uploads/2015/07/footprint-pdf.pdf (Accessed: 29 March 2019).

Happy City (2017) Happy Homes: A Toolkit for Building Sociability through Multi-Family Housing Design [Online] Available at: https://thehappycity.com/resources/happy-homes/ (Accessed: 01 July 2019).

MacKerron, G. and Mourato S., (2013) ‘Happiness is greater in natural environments’, Global Environmental Change 23 (5), pp.992-1000 Science Direct Elsevier [Online] Available at: https://www.sciencedirect. com/science/article/pii/S0959378013000575 (Accessed: 03 August 2019).

Maslow, A. (1943) ‘A Theory of Human Motivation’ Psychological Review. 50(4), pp.370-396. Ovid [Online].

Available at: https://www.ovid.com/site/catalog/journals/index.jsp (Accessed: 28 March 2019).

Mind (2019) Loneliness. [Online] Available at: https://www.mind.org.uk/media/34882109/loneliness-2019pdf-version.pdf (Accessed: 04 July 2019).

Picon, A. (2013) ‘Learning From Utopia: Contemporary Architecture and the Quest For Political and Social Relevance’. Journal of Architectural Education, 67 (1), pp. 17-23 DASH Harvard [Online]. Available at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a261/46014d418ce9b612e7048e30ac5a71ad5e77.pdf (Accessed: 25 July 2019).

PLP Architecture (2013) The Collective Old Oak, London: Design and Access Statement. [Online] Available at: https://www.ealing.gov.uk/info/201155/planning_and_building_control (Accessed: 20 March 2019).

Studio Weave (2019) Living Closer: The Many Faces of Co-Housing. [Online] Available at: https://www. housinglin.org.uk/_assets/Resources/Housing/OtherOrganisation/LivingCloser_StudioWeave.pdf (Accessed: 15 August 2019).

Warshaw, J. et al. (2007) Old Oak Lane Conservation Area Appraisal March 2007 [Online] Available at: https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/opdc_-_lb_ealing_old_oak_lane_ca_appraisal_report. pdf (Accessed: 01 August 2019).

Film ‘Alton Estate’ (1996) Building Sights, Series 4, BBC Television, 24 June. [Online] Available at: https://www.bbc. co.uk/programmes/p01rtkbd (Accessed: 24 August 2019).

Interview Fraser, M. (2019) ‘The Collective Old Oak’. Interview with Matt Fraser. Interviewed by Joe Bradley for The Pursuit of Happiness, 27 August.

Watson, I. (2019) ‘Saltaire’. Interview with Ian Watson. Interviewed by Joe Bradley for The Pursuit of Happiness, 3 September.

Music Roberts, A. & Kaufman, A. S. (1937) Me, Myself & I. Re-release, Spain: Ediciones del Prado, 1995.

Poetry Storey, R. (1853) ‘The Peerage of Industry’ in James, J. (1866) (compiler) The lyrical and other minor poems of Robert Story, with a sketch of his life and writings. London: Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, p.169 [Online] Available at: https://archive.org/details/cu31924013555309/page/n7 (Accessed: 01 August 2019).

Design Fourier, C. (1808) Phalanstère. Theoretical.

Howard, E. (1898) Garden City, Theoretical.

Jeanneret, C. E. (1930) Radiant City, Theoretical.

Jeanneret, C. E. (1947-1952) Unitè d’habitation. Marseille.

LILAC (2012-2013) Low Impact Living Affordable Community. Leeds, West Yorkshire.

Lockwood, F; Mawson, R. (1851) Saltaire. West Yorkshire.

PLP Architecture (2015) The Collective Old Oak. London.

Stjernstedt, R. et al (1952-1961) Alton Estate. Roehampton, London.

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LIST OF FIGURES

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Introduction Figure 1.0.0 Figure 1.0.1 Figure 1.0.2 Figure 1.2.0

Social disconnection in the United Kingdom [Illust.].

British Red Cross (2016) Trapped in a Bubble: An Investigation into the triggers of lonliness in the UK, p.21 [Online]. Available at: https://www.redcross.org.uk/get-involved/partner-withus/our-partners/co-op## (Accessed: 15 Aug 2019) [Figure].

British Red Cross (2016) Trapped in a Bubble: An Investigation into the triggers of lonliness in the UK, p.26 [Online]. Available at: https://www.redcross.org.uk/get-involved/partner-withus/our-partners/co-op## (Accessed: 15 Aug 2019) [Figure].

Happy City (2017) Designed to Engage: Policy Recommendations for Promoting Sociability in Multi-Family Housing Design, p.11 [Online]. Available at: https://thehappycity.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/11/Designed-to-Engage-report.pdf (Accessed 01 July 2019) [Figure].

Existing Context Figure 2.0.0 Holbein, A. (1518) Map of the Island of Utopia [Online]. Available at: https://www.britannica. com/topic/Utopia-by-More (Accessed: 01 April 2019) [Illust.].

Figure 2.1.0 McLeod, S. A. (2018) Diagram of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs [Online]. Available at: https:// www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html (Accessed: 29 March 2019) [Figure].

Figure 2.1.1 Considerant, V. (1834) Social Destiny [Online]. Available at: https://www.familistere.com/ fr/decouvrir/une-architecture-au-service-du-peuple/phalanstere-familistere-et-citesouvrieres (Accessed: 10 April 2019) [Illust.].

Figure 2.1.2 Fourier, C. (1845) Plan of Phalanstère [Online]. Available at: https://www.familistere.com/ fr/decouvrir/une-architecture-au-service-du-peuple/phalanstere-familistere-et-citesouvrieres (Accessed: 10 April 2019) [Illust.].

Figure 2.2.0 Upton, S. (n.d.) Marx and Dickens: an Exploration of Historical Attitudes Towards the Victorian Slum [Online]. Available at: https://samuptonblog.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/marx-anddarwin-an-exploration-of-historical-attitudes-towards-the-victorian-slum/ (Accessed: 10 August 2019) [Photograph].

Figure 2.2.1 Wealden District Council (2018) St. Paul’s Cathedral [Online]. Available at: http://www. bushywood.com/building/History_House_Building_UK_WWI_WWII_Shor tages.htm (Accessed: 10 August 2019) [Photograph].

Figure 2.2.2 Cadbury (2019) In a typical week almost 2.6 million people aged 65 and over speak to three or fewer people they know. [Online]. Available at: https://foodanddrink.scotsman. com/producers/cadbury-dairy-milk-announces-partnership-with-age-uk-to-help-combatloneliness/ (Accessed: 14 September 2019) [Photograph].

Figure 2.2.3 LILAC (2017) Lilac Grove [Online]. Available at: https://www.lilac.coop/resources/ (Accessed: 17 September 2019) [Photograph].

Figure 2.3.0 Kaushik (2016) A model of Welthauptstadt Germania [Online]. Available at: https://www.

Figure 2.3.1 Saltaire Figure 3.0.0 Figure 3.0.1 Figure 3.0.2 Figure 3.0.3 Figure 3.0.4 Figure 3.0.5 Figure 3.0.6 Figure 3.0.7 Figure 3.0.8 Figure 3.0.9 Figure 3.0.10 Figure 3.0.11 Figure 3.0.12 Figure 3.0.13 Alton Estate Figure 3.1.0 Figure 3.1.1 Figure 3.1.2 Figure 3.1.3 Figure 3.1.4 Figure 3.1.5 Figure 3.1.6 Figure 3.1.7 Figure 3.1.8

amusingplanet.com/2016/06/the-schwerbelastungskorper-and-hitlers.html (Accessed: 05 August 2019) [Photograph].

Wirkmeister, S. (2015) New York 60s. Germany: Hirmer, p.8, [Photograph].

Ordnance Survey (2010) ‘Saltaire 1890s’, Tile York 3920111003-1, n.t.s. Digimap [Online].

Available at: https://digimap.edina.ac.uk (Accessed: 5 July 2019) [Map].

Saltaire: home, work and everything inbetween [Photograph].

Doré, G. (1872) Over-London by Rail [Online] Available at: http://broughttolife. sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/objects/display?id=6845 (Accessed: 10 July 2019) [Engraving].

A conflict of interests in the financial model of Saltaire [Illust.].

Charting transition markers between Victoria Road and Victoria Hall [Illust.].

Victoria Hall [Photograph].

Victoria Hall Saltaire (n.d.) Victoria Hall Ceiling [Online]. Available at: http://www. victoriahallsaltaire.co.uk/planning-a-party/ (Accessed: 10 August 2019) [Photograph].

The dwellingtypes of Saltaire [Illust.].

Rock & Co. (1876) Saltaire Park [Etching] Saltaire Collection, D3-080 Roberts Park, Saltaire Stories, Saltaire. [Photograph].

Saltaire Park Promenade today [Photograph].

Saltaire allotements [Photograph].

Almshouse gardens [Photograph].

Ibid. [Photograph].

Turnover of residents in Salt’s Saltaire [Illust.].

Ordnance Survey (2010) ‘Alton Estate 1960s’, Tile TQ272274, n.t.s. Digimap [Online].

Available at: https://digimap.edina.ac.uk (Accessed: 5 July 2019) [Map].

Ovenden, J. (2016) Scaled site model of the Alton Estate, 1953. [Online] Available at: http://www.presidentsmedals.com/Entry-15210 (Accessed: 26 July 2019) [Photograph].

Representation of Alton Estate’s two architectural ideologies [Illust.].

Relationship between Roehampton Village and Alton Estate [Illust.].

Danebury Avenue shopping precinct [Photograph].

White towers [Photograph].

The Radiant City’s struggle to handle everyday inhabitance [Photograph].

Abrupt shift between lawn and block [Photograph].

Transition markers in the route from public to private are minimal in the slab blocks of AEW [Diagram].

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Figure 3.1.9 Figure 3.1.10 Figure 3.1.11

Mix of dwellingtypes on the Alton Estate [Photograph].

Kohlstedt, K. (2018) Plan of the Radiant City [Online]. Available at: https://99percentinvisible. org/article/ville-radieuse-le-corbusiers-functionalist-plan-utopian-radiant-city/ (Accessed 15 August 2019) [Illust.].

Alton Estate Regen (n.d.) Aerial view of Alton Estate [Online]. Available at: https://www. altonestateregen.co.uk/regeneration/history-of-the-area (Accessed 15 August 2019) [Photograph].

The Collective Old Oak Figure 3.2.0 Ordnance Survey (2010) ‘Old Oak Common’,Tile TQ2146382544, n.t.s. Digimap [Online].

Available at: https://digimap.edina.ac.uk (Accessed: 5 July 2019) [Map].

Figure 3.2.1 Barczyk, F. (2019) The Collective [Online]. Available at: https://www.thecollective.com/ the-journal/meet-the-illustrators-who-brought-our-community-to-life-franziska-barczyk (Accessed: 16 August 2019) [Illust.].

Figure 3.2.2 The Collective (2017-2019) Various at The Collective Old Oak [Online]. Available at: https:// www.instagram.com/thecollective_living/ (Accessed: 16 August 2019) [Photograph].

Figure 3.2.3 Boring places - semi-private spaces [Photograph].

Figure 3.2.4 Third places - semi-public spaces [Photograph].

Figure 3.2.5 Third Places in TCOO [Illust.].

Figure 3.2.6 The Collective Old Oak dominates the surrounding residential area with it’s exaggerated scale [Photograph].

Figure 3.2.7 Low-rise residential development surrounds TCOO [Photograph].

Figure 3.2.8 Google (2018) The Collective Old Oak [Online] Available at: https://www.google.co.uk/ maps/ (Accessed 04 October 2019) [Photograph].

Figure 3.2.9 Transitional markers upon entering TCOO [Illust.].

Figure 3.2.10 The Collective is an incubator to grow a particular type of person [Illust.].

Figure 3.2.11 The Collective’s commercial model is reliant on it’s ability to make residents happy [Illust.].

Conclusion Figure 4.0.0 Figure 4.0.1 Figure 4.0.2

Birdwell Primary School Class One (2000) Self Portraits. [Illust.] Author.

Sharing design authority [Photograph].

Architectuul (2019) Le Corbusier in his Studio [Online] Available at: http://architectuul.com/ architects/view_image/le-corbusier/5169/ (Accessed 07 October 2019) [Photograph].

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KEY DEFINITIONS

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Key Definitions

Authority

The inherent power given to the one that holds the role of decision-maker - this may be architect or commissioner.

Community

A localised group that has collective meaning.

Defensible Space

Derived from Newman’s (1972) theory: space may be orchestrated in order to reduce the risk of occurance of crime - this is usually to the detriment of social wellbeing.

Diversity

Mix of demographic within a given community. Diversity is important in communities in order to maintain a rounded view of the world.

Enlightened Capitalism A movement, with origins in the Industrial Revolution, that saw commercial strategy

veiled by philanthropic gesture.

Garden City

A movement of model communities that was the forerunner to modernist model communities like the Radiant City.

Happiness

A state of mental contentment where we require no change to feel sense of positivity.

Model Community A community that is founded on a set of predetermined principles.

Ontological Security The necessity humans have to be secure in their dwelling.

Place

A location with a defined purpose, a destination.

Private Rental Sector One of the three established housing sectors in the United Kingdom. This sector is

privately run by individual landlords and operates on short and long term tenancy

agreements. The other two sectors are owner-occupancy and social rental sector.

Protopia

An attitude that seeks to improve on the present situation, links to Utopia.

Radiant City

A spatialised architectural theory, developed by Le Corbusier, that sought social reform through radical modernist design that focused on spatial cleansing.

Social Hierarchy

The social structure that governs a community.

Social Wellbeing

The condition of an individual’s mental state, with respect to happiness.

Space

An area that exists and is not tied to a single place.

Third Place

People have three places: home, work and somewhere else. The ‘somewhere else’ is the third place, which is usually a place for recreation and enjoyment.

Unité

Reference to Le Corbusier’s mid-twentieth century project: Unité d’habitation. This building employed Le Corbusier’s earlier teachings of social reform and remains highly commended for it’s contribution for discourse on social architecture.

Utopia

A place of perfection, paradise.

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5.0

APPENDICES 5.1

Happy Homes Toolkit (2017) Assessments

• The Alton Estate

• The Collective Old Oak

5.2 5.3

Key Wider Reading Transcripts

• The Alton Estate (Monologue of Richard Rogers)

• The Collective Old Oak (Interview with Matt Fraser)

5.4

Consent Forms

• Saltaire

• Saltaire (Interview with Ian Watson)

Appendices

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5.1

ASSESSMENTS

Appendices

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SALTAIRE Happiness Rating:

6.8

Comfort

8

Culture and Values

4

Doing Things Together

7

Exposure

8

Feeling Safe

9

Nature

7

Participation

4

Social Group Size

9

Tenure

4

Walkability

8

Saltaire

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Route undertaken that informed assessment against the Happy Homes Toolkit (Happy City, 2017) Date: 19th August 2019 Legs:

Exhibition Road Car Park to Saltaire Club & Institute Saltaire Club & Institute to Salts Mill Salts Mill to Alexandra Square Alexandra Square to Boat House, via Saltaire Park (now Roberts Park) Boat House to Congregationalist Chapel Congregationalist Chapel to Dining Hall Dining Hall to Victoria Road tunnel Victoria Road tunnel to Exhibition Road Car Park, via several residential streets and backs

Saltaire

START FINISH

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Photographs from Assessment Walk

The newest houses in Saltaire show more embellished facades.

The domestic scale of Saltaire is dwarfed by the Saltaire Club & Institute.

Victoria Hall is the most grand secular room in Saltaire.

Exhibition Road Car Park to Saltaire Club & Institute

Saltaire

The Saltaire Club & Institute is fronted by a formal garden.

Rooms in Saltaire Club & Institute varied in scale and decoration in order to suit a variety of activities and occasions.

Saltaire Club & Institute to Salts Mill

Victoria Road is lined with shops. As well as this cluster of shops, Salt dispersed corner shops throughout the town.

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Saltaire had few spots of nature within the town and relied much upon the surrounding landscape for provision of greenery.

Salts Mill set precedent for the Italianate architectural style of Saltaire - a style, inspired

by Roman and Greek culture, it embodies power and knowledge and is able to intimidate outsiders.

Salts Mill to Alexandra Square

Provision of amenity in homes varied - some contained private gardens.

Critics have long argued if these gardens denote resident status.

Saltaire

Opposite the almshouses was located an Infirmary.

Salt showed compassion toward the aged and the ill.

Though currently rundown, the almshouses incorporate porch-like structures that provide climatic shelter.

Alexandra Square to Boat House, via Saltaire Park (now Roberts Park)

The first-built houses in Saltaire show much less embellishment in their facade treatment.

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Though functional, the alley between houses in Saltaire would have provided an arena for close, casual encounters between residents.

Titus Salt made his philanthropy known.

As depicted here on the worker’s Dining Hall, public buildings throughout Saltaire are adorned with his crest - a shield with an open ‘giving’ hand in the centre.

Saltaire Park is located adjacent to the residential part of Saltaire and was easy access to nature for Saltairites. Further afield are natural environments such as Shipley Glen and Baildon Moor.

Saltaire

In addition to shelter at the almshouses, Saltaire Park was equipped with gender-specific pavilions to shield residents in time of inclement weather.

Religion was placed in high order at Saltaire.

The entrance to the Salts Mill offices is located at the end of a promenade that leads from Salt’s place of worship.

Boat House to Congregationalist Chapel

Congregationalist Chapel to Dining Hall

Now part of Shipley College, the interior of the Dining Hall is a lofty space that displays good levels of natural light.

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COMFORT - People are more likely to engage with others in environments that feel pleasant and comfortable

Natural light - Maximize access to natural light in interior shared spaces

8

Evidence: Dining Hall and Victoria Hall, two examples of good natural daylight in public buildings Comment: Grandure is afforded to public buildings of Saltaire Reading: Binns (2013) for Italiante architectural style in Saltaire. Dovey (1999)

refers to embodied knowledge in architectural styles denoting positions of power Climate-appropriate shelter - Offer local climate-appropriate shelter from weather in 7 outdoor recreational spaces Evidence:

Comment: Reading:

Porches available to sit out on in Almshouses. Saltaire Park pavillions. Main Pavillion for if weather worsened Altruism on Titus Salt’s part - designer/funder acknowledges this need Photo taken from first site visit

Sound insulation - Ensure sound insulation between apartments to eliminate unwanted 10 noise Evidence: No personal evidence gathered Comment: Historic context must be taken into account here. Insulation quality of

finished homes, poor by todays standards. Cutting edge at the time of building Reading: “housing provided of the highest quality” https://www.visitbradford.com/saltaire-history.aspx Sun and shade - Design comfortable spaces where residents can enjoy sun and shade Evidence:

Comment: Reading:

9

Roberts Park pavillions. Benches/seating around parks/squares that have nearby foliage for natural shading - Weeping Willows Altruism on Titus Salt’s part - designer/funder acknowledges this need See Roberts Park info sheet from archive visit

Saltaire

Visual stimulation - Ensure abundant, pleasant visual stimulation along building edges and pathways. Ban blank, boring spaces Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

7

Building edge treatment varies across the town. Close to Victoria Road has more pleasantries, such as decorative low walls etc. Most houses have no variation in edge treatment and are accessed off the street. Gardens are present in some houses. Vibrancy and commotion would have been present in tight rear alleyways. Richness of materiality mitigates monotony of housetype - to some extent Gardens built more often for later houses, as homes became more grand.

Earlier houses, gardens limited to the more expensive ‘managerial’ homes.

Jackson et al (2010) & Watson (2019). Newman, Defensible Space (1972) - clean streets, visibility

Essential amenities - Offer access to seating, drinking water and toilets in all outdoor spaces shared by more than 100 residents

6

Evidence: Seating provided in all parks/squares - drinking water and toilets not.

Comment: Small village and historic context must be taken into account. Not far for

people to go home to their own toilet/get a drink - a 5 minute walk.

However, given that each home was equipped with a fresh water supply,

this could have been implemented in Roberts Park etc Reading: No reference found as to existence of water fountains etc ever being in Saltaire Park

CULTURE & VALUES - People feel a stronger sense of

belonging and attachment to places that reflect their culture, values and sense of self Aesthetic complexity - Vary building height, composition, balconies and façade materials to increase aesthetic complexity and the uniqueness of each unit

8

Evidence: All facades contain openings, with variation in form along streets. Material

consistent, style varies between house status and timeline of building.

Streets generally follow a pattern of home organisation, the assembly of

which can lessen the effect of ubiquity. Contract 10, March 1860 varies

from N/S orient., creates a complexity to town and breaks up would-be monotonous massing 129

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Comment:

Reading:

This evidence is purely functional and is resultant of necessary openings and arrangement of various qualifications of household. Architects developed style as each phase passed, but there was a notion to give lesser embellishment to a lesser house Material consistent with that available at time of building - efficient. New fashion at very end of building stage, near hospital/almshouses Jackson et al (2010, p.96) axial plan and house arrangement/pattern layout of styles. Watson (2019) comments on style developing as phases progress - architects and funder rethought strateg

Spaces for co-creation - Designate exterior spaces or walls for residents to co-create art installations. Community artists can help residents realise their vision Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

No evidence Not applicable in this historic context. Allotments available for creation of food, sometimes worked together - autonomous Drower (2019)

Customise front doors - Allow residents to paint or customise their front doors Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

4

4

Town remains uniform in its appearance and follows a strict set of rules.

Uniformity rules. Gardens were the way to express ones household Historic context should be taken into account here - possible that home decoration would have been seen as a frivolity. More minor rulings would imply that to physically alter the outward appearance of the home would have been against Salt’s policies See interview with I. Watson (2019); expected decoration to take place inside, but not outside. Implies town to be kept pristine on outward face

Co-design with future residents - Invite future residents into the development design process

0

Evidence: No evidence Comment: Not apparent that residents were ever consulted on the following phases

of building of Saltaire. House design changed with each phase of building

- suggested that this was architects trying to improve/refine their design,

play with decoration. Note: move away from L-shaped houses after first

phase - was this to maintain ‘eyes on the street’. Power of design held by managerial persons.

Reading: Jackson et al (2010, pp.107-108) & Watson (2019) for L-shape homes.

Binns (2013) for decoration. Dovey (1999) & Till’s Architecture Depends (2009) for power/role of architect

Saltaire

DOING THINGS TOGETHER - Residents who have

opportunities to do meaningful or enjoyable things together are more likely to develop a sense of trust and connection Community gardens - Design community gardens where all people can interact and work 10 together Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

Allotments - between mill and school. Also - between park and church.

Note that whilst these allotments were provided, a tenable taxation was required. Saltaire Park, Alexandra Square; Victoria Square all provided - in addition. Free of charge, except SP on specific occassions These gardens promote healthier living, give reason, responsibility and purpose to residents - along with added enjoyment of better, or varied, foods. Larger gardens such as Saltaire Park encouraged and enabled a wide variety of activities. i.e. cricket; bowls; croquet; promenade; gymnasium, etc... Labelling of species meant in SP meant that this knowledge could be transferred to allotments, grow your own etc...

Drower (2019): A history of gardening in 50 objects. “rus in urbe” social getaway, place for cooperation, togetherness, healthy competition, etc… In addition, horticultural info sheets on SP fro archives

Shared corridors - Create features and activities in shared corridors that offer opportunities for neighbours to engage in a casual way Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

No evidence - but have photos, present day Alleyways between the houses would have created close encounters between neighbours. Various activities would have taken place here - in and out of toilets; coal bunkers; cooking in the rear of the house with the door open; children playing.

Watson (2019)

Shared dinners - Offer facilities and systems that enable shared dinners to bring residents together Evidence: Comment:

9

7

Shared dinners provided by Titus Salt for workers in his Mill.

Meals were not free, but subsidised, for workers. The Dining Hall, first built as a school, was not large enough for the population of the finished Saltaire. A similar occurance happened with the town Bathhouse - this 131

The Pursuit of Happiness

Reading:

was used much less due to its low capacity and Victorian attitudes on privacy in respect to shared bathing Watson (2019)

Community-managed childcare - Create a community-managed childcare programme that gives families flexibility and fosters shared responsibilities Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

3

No evidence Historic context - parents would have worked 6 days per week. Good wages at the Mill meant that is was common for only one parent to work and usually the mother would stay at home Watson (2019)

Interact with pets - Create public or semi-public amenities that draw pet owners and other users together, such as an outdoor station to repair bikes at which you can also wash dogs

6

Evidence: No evidence Comment: It is reported that pets were not allowed in Saltaire. However dogs were

walked in Roberts Park and societies made for various animals. Possible

that pets were kept in allotments Reading: https://www.hebdenbridgetimes.co.uk/news/antiquarians-the-history-of titus-salt-salts-mill-and-saltaire-1-8202289

EXPOSURE - People who live in spaces that give them a

greater sense of control over their exposure to others are more likely to build positive social connections Private and public realm - Design spaces to create a clear and gradual transition between public and privates realms

7

Evidence: Semi-private space, some had gardens, accessed via job role/importance.

Public buildings had varied approaches to reflect their importance - i.e.

transition into church was a axial promenade, steps and garden into

Victoria Institute. Semi-public yardspace acted as transition space for the poorer households Comment: Social hierarchy dictated the transitions between public and private

realms. The poorest of Saltaire had no transition to their private realm,

Saltaire

Reading:

whereas the most wealthy had a large garden in which they could grow visually shielding foliage. Transitions always clear, but often not gradual when it came to theleast wealthy parts of Saltaire. Row house yardspaces would have served as transition space for the poorer households.

Jackson et al (2010) & Watson (2019), re: differing housetypes and rents

3-4 storey buildings - In multi-storey developments, favour 3-4 storey buildings that offer a 10 connection between dwellings and the street Evidence: Buildings vary between 1 storey (almshouses) and 3 storeys (boarding houses) Comment: Historic context: dwellings to have more than 3 storeys were uncommon.

Massing was taken account of through having varied dwelling/street

relationship between different housetypes. i.e. older generations in 1

storey, young single people in 3 storey, families in 2 storey, etc.

Reading: Firth Hitt (2010) & Reynolds (1983) Setback from public realm - In single family and townhouse settings, creating a setback of about 3.5m between the sidewalk to the household entrance will maximse social use of space Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

The poorest houses have no transition between house and street. As property value increases, setbacks are made more evident. The wealthiest homes have large gardens that separate them from the street.

Better job/higher wages/net household income granted more defensible space. Safety made exclusive to the wealthy. Working parents wanted their families to be safe. To be safe, you had to work hard and working hard made Titus Salt money. Double-edged sword/altruism.

Newman (1972)

Amenity spaces - Create amenity spaces that are open to the community and others that are just for development residents Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

5

9

Saltaire Park and Victoria Square open to the public. Alexandra Square semi-public, shared amenity for the almshouses. Allotments private amenity for paying residents A variety of amenity spaces were offered in Saltaire, which range from the most public of spaces, through semi-public; to the private rented spaces for residents only. Victoria Institute exists for residents to have element of autonomy in creating their own socities etc and spaces are on offer for societies to use. Diversity of spaces creates potential for rich social interactions - opportunity given, social wellbeing enabled to be fulfilled.

Reynolds (1983) 133

The Pursuit of Happiness

FEELING SAFE - People are more likely to building trustful and meaningful relationships in environments that feel safe

Eyes on courtyard - Design courtyards so that neighbours can easily keep and eye on them from their homes Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

Almshouses were the only pure courtyards in the development. Row housing could be seen as courtyard in that a shared space was there, even if it was linear.

It is said that the watchtower on Titus Street was to keep an eye on residents so that they remained well-behaved.

Jacobs (1961) eyes on the street situation; Watson (2019); Reynolds (1983)

No leftover spaces - Avoid producing dark and/or leftover spaces Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

9

10

Strict axial plan meant that there were little or no leftover spaces or awkward nookes for illicit activity to happen in. L-shaped houses in first contract did have hidden spaces.

Plan changed for second contract to eliminate any hidden spaces such as those created by the L-shaped plan in the first housing contract. This made the eyeline through streets much cleaner and surveillance easier.

Jackson et al (2010) & Watson (2019)

Visual connections - Offer balconies and porches to create a visual connection between residences and the street

7

Evidence: Due to the low-rise nature of development, balconies were not used.

Porches however, were used. Porches were reserved for the almshouses

and the more expensive villas/executive households.

Comment: Use of porches in the almshouses and the executive villas create a

connection to the adjacent amenity spaces - whether this be semi-private

or semi-public, and give ownership of these amenity spaces to the

residents of these homes, through the physical connection by means of a

porch. Porch acts as a bridge between dwelling and amenity space.

Reading: See photo from first site visit: lady sitting out on her porch with a book and cigarette

Saltaire

Social concierge - Appoint a social concierge to organise common activities such as dog 10 walking, daycare, gardening and workshops, which help build supportive networks Evidence: Socities in Victoria Institute all set up by residents and run collectively

- their responsibility. The Institute was run by the Salt organisation and

thus whilst in the Institute, residents were under surveillance. A quarterly

fee was applicable to members - this equates to roughly £10 in todays money.

Comment: Residents had autonomy when it came to their social activities. The

facilities/amenities created were to their disposal and the Salts/Mill were

involved only for the organisation of large events. Such events as to take

place in Roberts Park and a chargeable entry fee was placed. The rules

residents lived under were strict and this gave some freedom to residents.

Reading: See Watson (2019). See John Unwin diary, cricket etc… https://saltairevillage.info/Saltaire_WHS_Institute.html http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-converter/#currency-result Clear wayfinding - Ensure that access pathways are clear, visible and intuitive to navigate

9

Evidence: Saltaire is a relatively small development, which uses main arterial roads to

promote easy travel and wayfinding. Predictability of axial plan makes

wayfinding somewhat intuitive Comment: Author was still able to get lost and have to refer to map when in the

streets. This was due to the near-monotony of earlier contracts with N/S orient. Housing.

Reading: Jackson et al (2010)

NATURE - Access to nature is strongly linked to positive neighbourhood relationships and trust among community members

Windows to nature - Locate windows where residents can see trees and abundant natural features

6

Evidence: Larger houses such as executive villas have aspect that allows for green

views across valley to north. Workmen’s cottages and overlooker’s

cottages generally have little or no visible natural environment from their windows.

135

The Pursuit of Happiness

Comment:

Reading:

Visibility of nature from within the home is more easily accessible in more expensive homes. This adds another dimension to the social hierarchy within the housetype matrix at Saltaire Jackson et al (2010); Firth & Hitt (2010); Watson (2019)

Aromatic vegetation - Include aromatic vegetation to distinguish various environments: For example, lavender boosts feelings of calm in relaxing spaces Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

William Gay was the landscape architect employed to work alongside Lockwood & Mawson in the designing of Saltaire Park. Planted flora was evergreen and has now matured in present day. Lavender can be smelt in the eastern end of the park today.

Cannot be confirmed with resources available, but I would suggest that aromatic vegetation was present in the first planting of Saltaire Park given its presence today and various conservation/horticulturalist group’s efforts to preserve original planting Information cards from archival visit

Space and guidance - Offer residents in apartments appropriate space as well as manuals for growing plants in their units and in semi-private areas Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

8

Allotments provided for use of some residents - not enough plots to go around. Guidance not made explicit, but additional knowledge was provided in the labeling of exotic species within the Park Cannot be confirmed with resources available, but I would suggest that aromatic vegetation was present in the first planting of Saltaire Park given its presence today and various conservation/horticulturalist group’s efforts to preserve original planting Saltaire (1895, p.24)

See + touch nature everywhere - Ensure that people can see or touch nature everywhere in their homes and in all areas of the development Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

8

4

Nature zoned to: few front gardens; allotments; Saltaire Park. Generally separated from homes Zoning is in line with the ambition to seek cleanliness and order in contrast to Bradford’s disarray. Stark contrast was seen as a good solution.

Reynolds (1983); Balgarnie (1877) - clean streets

Saltaire

Biodiversity - Favour biodiversity and endemic species in green space

9

Evidence: Exotic flora planted in Saltaire Park, to the design of William Gay Comment: Research suggests Gay used both endemic and imported flora that gave

visitors a wider view of the world, whilst being able to appreciate their origins Reading: Reynolds (1983); Saltaire (1895, p.24); The Naturalist, p.35, re: Undercliffe

Cemetery; https://www.ynu.org.uk/sites/default/xyzerrt/documents/ Naturalist%201085%20complete%20PP.pdf

PARTICIPATION - Residents who are involved in project

design and site management processes are more likely to develop a sense of belonging and contribute to their community Flexible spaces - Include flexible shared private spaces that can be used for groups to meet, 10 to work, to play or to host guests Evidence: Saltaire Institute - variety of room shape/size on offer for autonomous

socities to rent out Comment: Salt provided opportunity for his residents/workers to enjoy activities in

their spare time. Taxed them for it by placing rent on rooms - relatively

small payment, only for upkeep. Compare to price from John Unwin’s accounts Reading: https://saltairevillage.info/Saltaire_WHS_Institute.html 2s 6d per quarter http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-converter/#currency-result Design process - Identify and engage possible future residents to be part of the multifamily housing design process Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

0

No evidence Power retained by Salt and funders/architects - their input the only input, did not give any responsibility to residents.

Watson (2019)

137

The Pursuit of Happiness

Co-design - Create a policy that brings together users, City representatives and developers to co-design semi-private shared spaces during the design and rezoning process

0

Evidence: No evidence of such in Saltaire. All decisions appear to have been made

by Salt Comment: As above Reading: Daniels (1980) Collective community models - All levels of government should promote, privilege and fasttrack collective community models such as co-housing

6

Evidence: Victoria Institute served as a space for collective recreation Comment: Political discussion was punished by the Firm, see park rules. Only

collective model available was that of recreation.

Reading: Information cards for Saltaire Park collected from archival visit; see Park rules section

SOCIAL GROUP SIZE - Social group size has a direct influence on the quality and intensity of trusting relationships that people develop

Entrance for fewer households - In standard multi-family buildings, aim for a maximum of 8 households sharing a main entrance Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

N/A

Not applicable due to historic context Arguable that the entrance for households was that of the entrance to the street. Closest household access from street beginning would have included 10 households - 20 households per street on average.

Photographs from site visit

Create sub-clusters - In standard multi-family housing, create sub-clusters where no more than 12 households share a semi-private space

8

Evidence: Sub-cluster would have consisted of the families whom use a particular

alley in row houses. Average was roughly 20 households per alley. 10

households using same route to leave alley in shortest distance.

Comment: Semi-private space to rear of row houses in alleyway would cater to 20

households, 10 households if taken that residents would take the shortest alleyway route Reading: As above

Saltaire

Cohousing clusters - In cohousing communities, aim for clusters of 25-30 households

10

Evidence: Cohousing not yet an urban strategy in this era Comment: Each street consisted of, on average, 20 households. Streets were

individual communities/shared strong connections, by evidence of street parties etc...

Reading: https://saltairevillage.info/people_dewhirst_genealogy.html

https://saltairevillage.info/people_Dewhirst.html - street party evidence https://saltairevillage.info/people_Bank_Geoff.html

TENURE - The longer people stay in their community, the greater the bonds of trust and local social connection

Diverse housing forms - Include a diverse range of housing forms such as row houses, 10 townhouses, stacked townhomes and apartments Evidence: Four different housetypes: cottages to two standards; villas; and boarding houses/apartments Comment: Homes built to suit the different social situations of workers Reading: Jackson et al (2010); Reynolds (1983); Watson (2019) Wide range of bedrooms - Ensure a mix of dwelling types offering a wide range of bedrooms in homes

8

Evidence: As above Comment: Variety in housetypes led to variety of bedroom size/amount within each housetype Reading: Jackson et al (2010); Reynolds (1983); Watson (2019) Housing with flexible spaces - Design housing with flexible spaces, such as dividable rooms secondary suites and exterior additions

4

Evidence: Housing was not flexible in terms of divisable space; could be used as required.

Comment: Smaller houses were limited to essential rooms. Executive villas and the

overlookers houses with more bedrooms and parlours were where

families could utilise flexible spaces. As above, more work made a better life 139

The Pursuit of Happiness

Reading:

Jackson et al (2010); Reynolds (1983); Watson (2019)

Co-locate children and seniors - Co-locate daycare and seniors’ centres to offer social opportunities and multi-generational support Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

Children located adjacent to Mill throughout daytime, nearby parents.

Older generations sent to almshouses on periphery of town, furthest from the Mill.

Whilst the paternalistic notion to house the elderly for free and with pension is a good action, in doing so - Salt cuts off pensioners from the town once they are either infirm or too old to work. Creates ghetto for the elderly. This said, the town is so small that the elderly are still located on Victoria Road and within a few minutes of the town - just they are physically removed. Must have ‘good moral character’ to live in Almshouses.

Montgomery (2013, p.54) - health risks of ‘social desert’…

Discover Saltaire 2019 Leaflet, ‘good moral character’ https://saltairevillage.info/saltaire_history_0053_The_rules_of_Saltaire. html#hospital_byelaws - almshouse rules

New tenure - Introduce new tenure arrangements, such as shared ownership with public support Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

2

0

Tenure options did not change until the Mill dissolved and houses went into private ownership through sale to a local estate agent Capital and power held onto by the Mill - possibly to ensure that the Mill maintained authority across the town Watson (2019)

Mix of tenure options - Provide a mix of tenure options, from subsidised rental to full ownership, in new developments

0

Evidence: Homes were not available to purchase and no tenure option was available

alternate to a monthly rent Comment: This option of tenure was usual for this time period and must be noted.

However this tenure meant that power of housing security rested with

the landlord. Housing security a large factor on wellbeing, highly

documented in present day climate - this would have ensured that Salts

workers earned their keep.

Reading: Reynolds (1983, p.257); Daniels (1980, p.269); Dovey (1999) - ontological security

Saltaire

WALKABILITY - Mixed-use neighbourhoods that

encourage walking are most likely to be associated with positive social encounters and a strong sense of community Flexible parking - Arrange parking, residences and common space to maximise face-to-face encounters in pleasant areas of the development Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

4

Not applicable due to historic context Rear alleys would have created face-to-face encounters due to the tight nature of them. Architects more about zoning and planning effeciency this meant that there was an attitude of ‘this part is housing’ and the easier houses tesselated, the better. Close encounters in row house alleys would have merely been a product of this - not an active design decision.

Photographs from site visit

Active facades - Ensure that development edges have active facades and opportunity nodes 10 that interest pedestrians on commercial corridors Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

All façades contain openings and maintain a distinct difference to shops in their appearance. Shops much more open in their façade, windows etc…

Shops much more intricate in their façade/edge treatment than the standard workers cottage. Entranceways, windows etc…

Watson (2019)

Local shops - Include an everyday public destination on-site, such as a grocery store, coffee 10 shop, or community service Evidence:

Comment: Reading:

Shop units provided in Saltaire. Gentleman’s agreement that there would be no undercutting of duplicate items, each shop would stock different provisions. A butcher; a baker; a grocer; a confectioner; etc…

The town included everything that one may require in the historic era Firth & Hitt (2010); https://saltairestories.org/qr-tour/18-shops-in-saltaire/

Missing middle - Enable missing middle (or medium-dense) housing types in all areas within a 5-minute walk of shops, services, green space and transit Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

8

Small development, however each street had its own shop, with the main shops located on Victoria Road. Gave hierarchy to commercial units Though different shops were available, the commercial centre (all specialist units) was in Victoria Road. This placed high importance on and magnetised residents to the VR spine - hierarchy in urban spatial syntax Watson (2019); Jackson et al (2010) 141

The Pursuit of Happiness

THE ALTON ESTATE Happiness Rating:

4.7

Comfort

5

Culture and Values

4

Doing Things Together

3

Exposure

6

Feeling Safe

5

Nature

4

Participation

2

Social Group Size

5

Tenure

5

Walkability

8

Alton Estate

143

The Pursuit of Happiness

Route undertaken that informed assessment against the Happy Homes Toolkit (Happy City, 2017) Date: 27th August 2019 Legs:

Roehampton Lane Stop M to Danebury Avenue Plaza Danebury Avenue Plaza to lawn off Highcliffe Drive Lawn off Highcliffe Drive to lawn off Danebury Avenue Lawn off Danebury Avenue to Roehampton Library Roehampton Library to Medfield Street Stop F

Alton Estate

FINISH START

145

The Pursuit of Happiness

Photographs from Assessment Walk

Danebury Plaza is a modernsit public space that relies on cleanliness to maintain aesthetic quality in it’s strippedback design principles.

Roehampton Lane Stop M to Danebury Avenue Plaza

Alton Estate West’s maisonettes are shielded by high brick walls, which separate from adjacent green spaces.

Danebury Avenue Plaza to lawn off Highcliffe Drive

Blank facades and inactive walls make for a visually unstimulating experience.

Alton Estate

Concealed spaces are plentiful in the maisonette blocks.

Parking takes up a lot of space on the estate.

Here, we see that architects originally fenced off this grass - preventing access to it.

147

The Pursuit of Happiness

Fences are still present in other places. With no doors from the adjacent dwellings to directly access the grass: whose is it?

Community amenities are spaced plentifully throughout AEW, including this row of shops to the south of Danebury Avenue.

Some current public art is present close to the ecclesiastical centre of AEW.

Alton Estate

As mentioned in ‘Alton Estate’ (1996), there is a strong community spirit on the Alton.

Clubs and groups have access to several buildings throughout AEW.

Lawn off Danebury Avenue to Roehampton Library

The masses of publiclyintended space remains sparse of life.

149

The Pursuit of Happiness

Concealed spaces become forgotten.

Whilst the Alton Estate uses a masterplan of gargantuan scale, attention has been paid to the most intimate of details.

Roehampton Library sits close to the established Roehampton Village as a peace offering to the community in-situ before the arrival of the Alton Estate.

Lawn off Danebury Avenue to Roehampton Library

Alton Estate

151

The Pursuit of Happiness

COMFORT - People are more likely to engage with others in environments that feel pleasant and comfortable

Natural light - Maximize access to natural light in interior shared spaces

8

Evidence: Community facilities such as the Roehampton Library have ample access

to natural light Comment: Sense of openness and visibility was a key concept in the modernist

movement - meaning that natural light was afforded to most spaces within AEW. Reading: ‘Alton Estate’ (1996) Climate-appropriate shelter - Offer local climate-appropriate shelter from weather in 5 outdoor recreational spaces Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

Little manmade shelter is offered to residents across the lawns. Shelter takes the form of foliage, the underside of slab blocks ay be used for cover in inclement weather Modernist crisp edges do not permit purpose-built shelter - instead, structures built for other use must be reappropriated Jacobs (1961)

Sound insulation - Ensure sound insulation between apartments to eliminate unwanted noise Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

Stacked soundproof units was the concept of the Unités. Units at AEW were not constructed in this manner Possible reason for this is that the homes at AEW were social homes funded by the public purse. Expense in properly soundproofing units was an unaffordable luxury Marmot, A. F. (1981) ‘The Legacy of Le Corbusier and High-Rise Housing’

Sun and shade - Design comfortable spaces where residents can enjoy sun and shade Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

3

9

The towers in the park concept lends itself to wide open spaces shaded by both towers and trees Harmony is struct in natural and manmade environments where buildings and trees serve as shading devices ‘Alton Estate’ (1996)

Alton Estate

Visual stimulation - Ensure abundant, pleasant visual stimulation along building edges and pathways. Ban blank, boring spaces Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

4

The Alton Estate is plentiful in blank spaces, with many high walls and opening-less facades throughout Historic context of contemporary urban design theory saw the emergence of strategies biased against the working classes that sought to fortify new communities in order to prevent crime Newman (1972); Udall, G. et. al. (1978) An Introduction to Housing Layout: A GLC Study. London:The Architectural Press.

Essential amenities - Offer access to seating, drinking water and toilets in all outdoor spaces shared by more than 100 residents

3

Evidence: Whilst visiting AEW, it was notable that there were very few opportunities

to sit within public spaces of the community Comment: The modernist movement took opportunity to build out utopic drawings.

This meant that the messy items this criterion recommends sometimes

fell by the wayside. In addition, emerging theories on community safety

steered designers away from seating areas in order to reduce risk of crime occurance Reading: Newman (1972); Udall, G. et. al. (1978) An Introduction to Housing

Layout: A GLC Study. London:The Architectural Press. Jacobs (1961)

CULTURE & VALUES - People feel a stronger sense of

belonging and attachment to places that reflect their culture, values and sense of self Aesthetic complexity - Vary building height, composition, balconies and façade materials to increase aesthetic complexity and the uniqueness of each unit Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

9

Units are uniform in outward appearance in their dwellingtypes.

Identity is established through uniform treatment of units - however monotony is prevented through the provision of multiple dwellingtypes, which steers the community from a boring atmosphere ‘Alton Estate’ (1996); Graham (2016) 153

The Pursuit of Happiness

Spaces for co-creation - Designate exterior spaces or walls for residents to co-create art installations. Community artists can help residents realise their vision Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

Some examples of community art visible upon visit. However no evidence found of community art at the time of completion Public art and co-creation are concepts more modern than the Alton Estate and thus historic context should be taken into account.

Montgomery (2013)

Customise front doors - Allow residents to paint or customise their front doors Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

4

Customisation to this degree not present. However displaying of identity through personalisation of one’s dwelling is evident in how residents of the Alton Estate decorate their external spaces such as balconies and gardens, with flowers and the like.

The Alton Estate relies upon uniformity and in order to control behaviour, authority must be retained.

See interview with I. Watson (2019); expected decoration to take place inside, but not outside. Implies town to be kept pristine on outward face

Co-design with future residents - Invite future residents into the development design process Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

2

0

No evidence The modernist movement is one of the most social reform-seeking movements in architectural history. The responsibility felt in finding the answer to ‘correctly’ socially reform public meant that knowledge of architectural theory was a necessity. There was no room for co-design.

Frampton (1980); Jacobs (1961)

DOING THINGS TOGETHER - Residents who have

opportunities to do meaningful or enjoyable things together are more likely to develop a sense of trust and connection Community gardens - Design community gardens where all people can interact and work together Evidence:

3

There were no defined community gardens in the design for the Alton Estate, instead: the public lawns.

Alton Estate

Comment:

Reading:

Historic context is relevant in this point, as the Alton Estate was developed when the United Kingdom was undergoing a period of globalisation that meant homegrown foods were becoming less important. Omission of public garden is detrimental to the wellbeing of residents and reinforces the modernist ‘see, but do not touch’ mentality.

Jacobs (1961); Montgomery (2013)

Shared corridors - Create features and activities in shared corridors that offer opportunities for neighbours to engage in a casual way Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

External shared corridors such as the alleys between blocks and the passageways to stairwells are blank.

Leaving these spaces blank is a way of hurrying residents to their destination in order to reduce risk of crime. This results in a lesser degree of social connection.

Newman (1972); Udall, G. et. al. (1978) An Introduction to Housing Layout: A GLC Study. London:The Architectural Press.

Shared dinners - Offer facilities and systems that enable shared dinners to bring residents together Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

1

There are no places for shared meals within the Alton Estate.

Community activity is limited in the Alton Estate to acts that are explicitly public. Eating and resting are more intimate activities and do not feature in the architect’s plans for communal activity.

Jacobs (1961); Graham (2016)

Community-managed childcare - Create a community-managed childcare programme that gives families flexibility and fosters shared responsibilities Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

2

6

Though I have found no evidence, it can be expected that crèches were available in the vast array of community facilities at the Alton Estate, both secular and ecclesiastical.

Described by Rogers as ‘typically English’ in ‘Alton Estate’ (1996), a personal view is that - fifty years after its completion, it still feels as such.

Whether community childcare was or was not present in the conception of the Alton Estate is this subject of this point, however - I sidetrack. The village-feel to the Alton Estate (astonishing giving the scale of the highdensity residential blocks) makes me suspect that typical English traditions were the norm on the Alton Estate.

Paxman, J. (2007) The English: A Portrait of a People.

155

The Pursuit of Happiness

Interact with pets - Create public or semi-public amenities that draw pet owners and other users together, such as an outdoor station to repair bikes at which you can also wash dogs Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

2

No evidence Possible that keeping pets was not permitted in the social housing of the Alton Estate. No evidence of such semi-public amenities, instead a plethora of hurrying spaces and Defensible Spaces.

Newman (1972); Udall, G. et. al. (1978) An Introduction to Housing Layout: A GLC Study. London:The Architectural Press.

EXPOSURE - People who live in spaces that give them a

greater sense of control over their exposure to others are more likely to build positive social connections Private and public realm - Design spaces to create a clear and gradual transition between public and privates realms Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

2

Transitions between private and public realms are abrupt. The slab blocks have an immediate transition from public lawn to semi-private circulation and the maisonettes use high, impenetrable fencing to separate the semiprivate from public.

Absence of gradual transition between domains leads to confusion in perceived ownership of communal spaces.

Montgomery (2013); Jacobs (1961); Newman (1972)

3-4 storey buildings - In multi-storey developments, favour 3-4 storey buildings that offer a connection between dwellings and the street

7

Evidence: Residential buildings exceed the aforementioned recommendation, but do appear to seek connection between dwelling and street.

Comment: Variety in dwellingtype, where some are 3-4 storeys and less, means that

connection may be preserved and the residents (such as young families)

that require better connection - may have it.

Reading: Pevsner (1943); Harries (2011) Setback from public realm - In single family and townhouse settings, creating a setback of about 3.5m between the sidewalk to the household entrance will maximse social use of space Evidence:

Single family dwellings are uncommon on the Alton Estate - the old

6

Alton Estate

Comment:

Reading:

people’s bungalows are the nearest thing to this. Such a setback is seen, but it shielded by fenced garden.

Social interaction of this sort is seemingly discouraged - possibly in order to limit spaces for loitering, in effort to maintain safe spaces.

Newman (1972)

Amenity spaces - Create amenity spaces that are open to the community and others that are just for development residents Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

9

Community spaces are located throughout the Alton Estate, with amenity spaces open to the wider public toward the established Roehampton Village on the eastern boundary of the estate. Amenity spaces include: shopping precincts, a libary, churches, community centres, club/societal buildings, council/administration offices, etc...

The scale of the Alton Estate lends itself to the creation of amenity spaces exclusive for community use in the centre and more open amenity spaces on the periphary.

Montgomery (2013); ‘Alton Estate’ (1996)

FEELING SAFE - People are more likely to building trustful and meaningful relationships in environments that feel safe

Eyes on courtyard - Design courtyards so that neighbours can easily keep and eye on them from their homes

7

Evidence: The open spaces at Alton Estate lend to this concept and low-rise development usually has an inward face that can oversee activity.

Comment: Smaller design interventions such as high privacy screens of brick wall and

fencing undermine the larger design principles of observation as a result

of building orientation/massing.

Reading: Jacobs (1961) eyes on the street; Newman (1972); ‘Alton Estate’ (1996)

No leftover spaces - Avoid producing dark and/or leftover spaces Evidence:

2

Leftover spaces are abundant at Alton Estate. These are the undefined 157

The Pursuit of Happiness

alleys between maisonette gardens, the stairwell bottoms and the

passageways from the reappropriated parking areas. They are generally

the spaces that result from the functionality of larger design decisions/

moves. They are the complex tying spaces that need specific care and

attention in order to design well.

Comment: Modernist attutude to zone and compartmentalise each piece of space

can falter when working at such a scale. There are transitions between

spaces and the Radiant City model struggles to address these, resulting in leftover spaces.

Reading: Jacobs (1961); Graham (2016); Jukes (1990) Visual connections - Offer balconies and porches to create a visual connection between residences and the street

4

Evidence: Porches are notably absent in the Alton Estate. Balconies are present in most dwellings.

Comment: The transition between street and dwelling is made abrupt through

absence of markers of intimacy gradient. Balconies at AEW offer little

connection to the street, given the divorce already made between

dwelling and street through modernist design to use pilotis and physically

separate homes from the earth.

Reading: Alexander (1977); Frampton (1980) Social concierge - Appoint a social concierge to organise common activities such as dog walking, daycare, gardening and workshops, which help build supportive networks

8

Evidence: Whilst there is no evidence of a social concierge, the many community

facilities at AEW offered chance for socities to carry out this role autonomously.

Comment: Responsibility for their own societal activities empowered residents of

the Alton Estate and could be a contributing factor as to why in ‘Alton

Estate’ (1996), Richard Rogers commented on strong community spirit

and in the present day, galas and community festivals are still held.

Reading: ‘Alton Estate’ (1996); photos from visit Clear wayfinding - Ensure that access pathways are clear, visible and intuitive to navigate

5

Evidence: The organic nature of the estate layout does not lend itself easily to good wayfinding. I got lost and had to consult a map several times when walking through the estate and it is noticeable that there are now many information boards showing maps of ‘You are

Alton Estate

here’ etc...

Comment: Possibly due to the organic layout and possibly due to the monotony of colour palette and visuals at AEW, it is hard to self-navigate after having first arrived.

Reading: ‘Alton Estate’ (1996); Graham (2016); Harries (2011)

NATURE - Access to nature is strongly linked to positive neighbourhood relationships and trust among community members

Windows to nature - Locate windows where residents can see trees and abundant natural features Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

Almost all dwellings in Alton Estate look out towards trees - however the lawns are not natural features. Their mown grass represents a manmade attempt at a natural feature and thus is not a true natural feature.

The towers-in-the-park concept lends itself to this point and makes for a pleasant and calming viewing from within dwellings.

‘Alton Estate’ (1996); Montgomery (2013)

Aromatic vegetation - Include aromatic vegetation to distinguish various environments: For example, lavender boosts feelings of calm in relaxing spaces Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

0

There is no evidence of any such planting. Foliage at the Alton Estate is limited to mown grass, well established endemic trees and any flowers that may have been planted in gardens/in pots on balconies by residents.

To the modernist movement, visuals were arguably the most important feature of design. Function followed form.

Jacobs (1961); Frampton (1980)

Space and guidance - Offer residents in apartments appropriate space as well as manuals for growing plants in their units and in semi-private areas Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

7

3

Most residents have access to a recessed deck balcony or garden/yard area where they may grow their own plants in private areas.

This provision is minimal and does not allow the benefits of growing your own produce to be fully appreciated by residents of the Alton Estate.

Montgomery (2013); ‘Alton Estate’ (1996); photos from visit

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The Pursuit of Happiness

See + touch nature everywhere - Ensure that people can see or touch nature everywhere in their homes and in all areas of the development

6

Evidence: Natural indicators surround the dwellings.

Comment: Whilst natural may be seen at all times, touching it is discouraged sometimes by use of force through inclusion of fences around grassy areas.

Reading: Photos from visit; Newman (1972) Biodiversity - Favour biodiversity and endemic species in green space Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

6

Most foliage is endemic.

Species are limited at the Alton Estate to the locally available experimentation and interest in plant attributes did not contribute to the visual aspirations of the modernist ideology at AEW. Jacobs (1961)

PARTICIPATION - Residents who are involved in project

design and site management processes are more likely to develop a sense of belonging and contribute to their community Flexible spaces - Include flexible shared private spaces that can be used for groups to meet, 4 to work, to play or to host guests Evidence: Spaces are made less flexible by instead having a plentiful amount of dedicated spaces.

Comment: This spreads the community thin across many backdrops, instead of

forging a centre of the community.

Reading: Montgomery (2013); Ellard (2015) Design process - Identify and engage possible future residents to be part of the multifamily housing design process Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

No evidence Power was important in the modernist movement and the design authority was exclusive.

Jacobs (1961)

0

Alton Estate

Co-design - Create a policy that brings together users, City representatives and developers to co-design semi-private shared spaces during the design and rezoning process Evidence: Comment: Reading:

No evidence As above Jacobs (1961)

Collective community models - All levels of government should promote, privilege and fasttrack collective community models such as co-housing Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

0

4

Autonomy given to residents in recreational activity - no higher decisionmaking responsibilities granted, those kept exclusive.

This could be viewed as a veiled version of giving power to in attempt to satisfy community empowerment needs.

Dovey (1999)

SOCIAL GROUP SIZE - Social group size has a direct influence on the quality and intensity of trusting relationships that people develop

Entrance for fewer households - In standard multi-family buildings, aim for a maximum of 8 households sharing a main entrance

6

Evidence: Main entrance numbers varied across dwellingtypes. Maisonettes were

close to this number, slab blocks were much higher.

Comment: Community feeling more evident in the low-rise developments, with less

rubbish and waste collecting near entrances - more pride taken in where people live.

Reading: Photographs from site visit Create sub-clusters - In standard multi-family housing, create sub-clusters where no more than 12 households share a semi-private space Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

5

Again, maisonettes and the low-rise developments are similar in numbers.

Passageways between blocks are not conducive to good social interactions however and will not aid in creating trusting relationships.

As above 161

The Pursuit of Happiness

Cohousing clusters - In cohousing communities, aim for clusters of 25-30 households Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

5

Clusters in the slab blocks equate to this number of households.

Lack of visibility in the slab blocks mean that this cluster goes unnoticed and the trusting relationships struggle to be forged.

Jacobs (1961); Graham (2016)

TENURE - The longer people stay in their community, the greater the bonds of trust and local social connection

Diverse housing forms - Include a diverse range of housing forms such as row houses, 10 townhouses, stacked townhomes and apartments Evidence: Housing forms vary between bungalows, maisonettes, slab blocks and point blocks.

Comment: Homes are built in varied forms to suit the needs of varying demographics.

Reading: ‘Alton Estate’ (1996); Frampton (1980) Wide range of bedrooms - Ensure a mix of dwelling types offering a wide range of bedrooms in homes

9

Evidence: As above Comment: Variety in housetypes led to variety of bedroom size/amount within each housetype Reading: ‘Alton Estate’ (1996); Frampton (1980) Housing with flexible spaces - Design housing with flexible spaces, such as dividable rooms secondary suites and exterior additions

5

Evidence: Housing was not flexible in terms of divisable space; could be used as required.

Comment: Less intimate spaces in the homes could be reappropriated, however

given these dwellings were built as social housing - there was not a lot of

room for flexibility.

Reading: ‘Alton Estate’ (1996); Frampton (1980)

Alton Estate

Co-locate children and seniors - Co-locate daycare and seniors’ centres to offer social opportunities and multi-generational support

6

Evidence: The elderly were to be housed in the bungalows in the centre-west of

Alton Estate West. Family homes and schools were separate and

disconnected with these bungalows - there was no direct link between the two.

Comment: Whilst the elderly are catered for in purpose-built accommodation, they

are somewhat segregated.

Reading: ‘Alton Estate’ (1996); Jacobs (1961); Alexander (1977) New tenure - Introduce new tenure arrangements, such as shared ownership with public support

0

Evidence: Tenure options did not change until the Right to Buy scheme was introduced.

Comment: Designers never intended dwellings to leave the socially rented sector.

Reading: Harries (2011); Udall, G. et. al. (1978) An Introduction to Housing

Layout: A GLC Study. London:The Architectural Press.

Mix of tenure options - Provide a mix of tenure options, from subsidised rental to full ownership, in new developments Evidence: Comment: Reading:

0

As above.

As above.

As above.

WALKABILITY - Mixed-use neighbourhoods that

encourage walking are most likely to be associated with positive social encounters and a strong sense of community Flexible parking - Arrange parking, residences and common space to maximise face-to-face encounters in pleasant areas of the development

4

Evidence: Parking is convoluted at the Alton Estate and appears makeshift. Some garages exist for parking amenity.

Comment: The differential ratio in vertical dwellings to horizontal parking means that parking is more sprawling that the compact nature of the towers - social connections not made.

Reading: Photographs from site visit; ‘Alton Estate’ (1996) 163

The Pursuit of Happiness

Active facades - Ensure that development edges have active facades and opportunity nodes 10 that interest pedestrians on commercial corridors Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

Commercial corridors have active frontages.

These corridors open outwards toward other communities and offer a welcoming face to those from outside of the Alton Estate.

‘Alton Estate’ (1996); Frampton (1980)

Local shops - Include an everyday public destination on-site, such as a grocery store, coffee shop, or community service Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

Most relevant shops built on-site.

The town included most of the things that one may require in this period.

However strategic planning meant that a full life required use of amenity in the adjacent Roehampton Village, which promoted community diversity and built trust relationships.

‘Alton Estate’ (1996)

Missing middle - Enable missing middle (or medium-dense) housing types in all areas within a 5-minute walk of shops, services, green space and transit Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

8

9

Shopping precincts, greens and public transport infrastructure are located throughout the estate.

The large nature of the Alton Estate means it is necessary to create these multiple community ‘centres’ - leading to the formation of identity surrounding them and the forging of individual neighbourhoods that build the overall estate.

Photos from visit

Alton Estate

165

The Pursuit of Happiness

THE COLLECTIVE OLD OAK

Happiness Rating:

5.9

Comfort

7

Culture and Values

5

Doing Things Together

3

Exposure

7

Feeling Safe

8

Nature

4

Participation

10

Social Group Size

5

Tenure

3

Walkability

7

The Collective Old Oak

167

The Pursuit of Happiness

Route undertaken that informed assessment against the Happy Homes Toolkit (Happy City, 2017) Date: 27th August 2019 Legs:

Willesden Junction to TCOO Entrance Lounge TCOO Entrance Lounge to Residential Upper Floors Residential Upper Floors to Communal Areas Communal Areas to Outside

The Collective Old Oak

START Level 9

Level 8

Level 3-7

Level 2

Level 1

FINISH Level 0

169

The Pursuit of Happiness

Photographs from Assessment Walk

The wider approach to TCOO is through industrial and disused parts of West London.

TCOO’s surrounds are of a working class environment.

TCOO makes physical connection with the canal bankside, providing pleasant outdoor amenity for residents in summer and access to a route to wider natural environment.

Willesden Junction to TCOO Entrance Lounge

The Collective Old Oak

Immediately inside the entrance of TCOO is a cosy lounge space to throw one into an immediate sense of homeliness.

Residents at TCOO are registered to the site and collect mail as they would in any other tenable property.

Co-workers sit and chat with their morning coffee in the entrance spacecum-co-working space of TCOO.

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The Pursuit of Happiness

Knowledge of sense of community is important to the outgoing ethos at TCOO.

TCOO provides ground floor co-working spaces of varying degrees of intimacy and focus. This cafe space is a silent office area by day and doubles as the main private event room at night. Access restricted to members and payees only.

Corridors on the upper residential floors of TCOO are bleak. They have no character and hurry residents along to where they need to be.

TCOO Entrance Lounge to Residential Upper Floors

The Collective Old Oak

Rooms are stripped of opportunity of personalisation and members that rent ‘twodio’ double studios are half of one room.

Surrounding HS2 groundworks are the current aspect from the rooms at TCOO. The model community is an island of exclusive luxury amongst infrastructure and the working class heritage.

The mirror to ‘A’ of Room 10.11 at TCOO.

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The Pursuit of Happiness

Semi-private kitchen spaces are dark and modest in finish.

Residential Upper Floors to Communal Areas

Semi-public spaces are vibrant and are designed with an ‘Instagrammable’ aesthetic.

The outdoor terrace at TCOO is a haven of apparent natural environment in an otherwise, grey landscape.

The Collective Old Oak

TCOO tries it’s utmost to create social opportunities in all spaces. Here, the utility room containing irons and washing machines is equipped with televisions, sofas and coffee tables.

TCOO prides itself on having everything you could ever need under one roof: work, play, rest and sustenance. The north of the ground floor contains the on-site supermarket.

Communal Areas to Outside

TCOO’s cosy entrance space is protected from outsiders by means of Defensible Space (1972) tactics such as these transitional marker planters.

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The Pursuit of Happiness

COMFORT - People are more likely to engage with others in environments that feel pleasant and comfortable

Natural light - Maximize access to natural light in interior shared spaces

4

Evidence: Windows are relatively small and ambient lighting is relied upon in many shared spaces.

Comment: The central location of the shared spaces in the building plan means that

opportunity to naturally light is limited.

Reading: PLP Architecture (2013) Climate-appropriate shelter - Offer local climate-appropriate shelter from weather in 8 outdoor recreational spaces Evidence: At ground level, the canalbank terrace is sheltered by the building mass.

The roof terrace at level 2 uses huts, pavilions and canvasses to provide shelter.

Comment: Outdoor spaces are few at TCOO, but the spaces that are present use a

mixture of large and small scale pieces of design to provide climate appropriate shelter.

Reading: Photo taken from first site visit Sound insulation - Ensure sound insulation between apartments to eliminate unwanted 10 noise Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

No personal evidence gathered Can be expected that TCOO resident rooms are designed to good specfications.

PLP Architecture (2013)

Sun and shade - Design comfortable spaces where residents can enjoy sun and shade

7

Evidence: At ground level, the canalbank terrace is shaded by the building mass.

The roof terrace at level 2 uses huts, pavilions and canvasses to provide shade.

Comment: Outdoor spaces are few at TCOO, but the spaces that are present use a

mixture of large and small scale pieces of design to provide shade.

Reading: Photo taken from first site visit

The Collective Old Oak

Visual stimulation - Ensure abundant, pleasant visual stimulation along building edges and pathways. Ban blank, boring spaces Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

3

TCOO has a dramatic contrast in spaces that are and are not boring.

More public spaces are made stimulating and the private spaces are made boring through design and execution.

Spaces that are expected to receieve high levels of socialising are prioritised in visual stimulation.

Jacobs (1961); Montgomery (2013)

Essential amenities - Offer access to seating, drinking water and toilets in all outdoor spaces shared by more than 100 residents

9

Evidence: Outdoor spaces may utilise the furniture and amenities from adjacent

indoor shared spaces.

Comment: This flexibility empowers residents in being able to craft their own environments.

Reading: Jacobs (1961); Studio Weave (2019)

CULTURE & VALUES - People feel a stronger sense of

belonging and attachment to places that reflect their culture, values and sense of self Aesthetic complexity - Vary building height, composition, balconies and façade materials to increase aesthetic complexity and the uniqueness of each unit Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

2

There is minimal aesthetic complexity at TCOO. Units are made indistinguishable by means of uniform treatment throughout.

In it’s most radical sense, this uniform treatment strips residents of their identities and creates a datum for new residents entering TCOO. Goffman (1961)

Spaces for co-creation - Designate exterior spaces or walls for residents to co-create art installations. Community artists can help residents realise their vision Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

8

No direct evidence Community events are held almost daily, which include creative group workshops. Community artists are often part of these events.

The Collective (2019) 177

The Pursuit of Happiness

Customise front doors - Allow residents to paint or customise their front doors Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

0

Personalisation minimal in residency at TCOO. Uniformity important short term tenancies from a managerial point of view. However the control of environment is also a determining factor.

Fraser (2019); Goffman (1961); Montgomery (2013)

Co-design with future residents - Invite future residents into the development design process

8

Evidence: ‘Town Hall’ events held.

Comment: The Collective gathers feedback from residents to inform their commercial

model going forward toward new projects and developments. This gives

a voice and sense of worth to the residents in their relatively short term living at TCOO. Reading: Fraser (2019); Igloo (2012)

DOING THINGS TOGETHER - Residents who have

opportunities to do meaningful or enjoyable things together are more likely to develop a sense of trust and connection Community gardens - Design community gardens where all people can interact and work together

0

Evidence: No living natural environment available.

Comment: Residents can work to grow their own plants, but that provision is not

aided by the design of TCOO. TCOO operates on an attitude of

immediacy and the growing of plants does not conform to that idea of convenience.

Reading: The Collective (2019); Fraser (2019) Shared corridors - Create features and activities in shared corridors that offer opportunities for neighbours to engage in a casual way Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

4

Shared residential corridors on upper floors are minimal in design and do not contribute to the enabling of social interactions.

Hotspots of socialising are instead favoured at TCOO, where members are expected to move towards if in need of socialising.

Fraser (2019)

The Collective Old Oak

Shared dinners - Offer facilities and systems that enable shared dinners to bring residents together Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

7

Opportunity is provided for shared dinners at varying levels of intimacy.

Small tables for two in ‘two-dios’, group tables in shared kitchens and the restaurant space at ground floor level provide a range of shared eating spaces. However the more private arenas are discouraged from inhabitation through bleak execution in design and finish.

Fraser (2019); The Collective (2019); Alexander (1977)

Community-managed childcare - Create a community-managed childcare programme that gives families flexibility and fosters shared responsibilities

0

Evidence: Children not permitted Comment: TCOO operates an adults-only policy, which results in an exclusion of a societal demographic.

Reading: The Collective (2019) Interact with pets - Create public or semi-public amenities that draw pet owners and other users together, such as an outdoor station to repair bikes at which you can also wash dogs Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

3

Pets not permitted. Bike sheds located to the rear of the development.

The more messy areas of TCOO are isolated and thus do not enable for opportunistic social interaction.

PLP Architecture (2013)

EXPOSURE - People who live in spaces that give them a

greater sense of control over their exposure to others are more likely to build positive social connections Private and public realm - Design spaces to create a clear and gradual transition between public and privates realms Evidence:

Comment:

8

Gradiance in intimacy within TCOO is aided inherently by its splitting across many floors. However where the definitive public realm meets the privacy of TCOO at the main entrance - a transition is sought to protect the innards of the building.

Transition markers are used as liberal design barriers to prevent unwanted 179

The Pursuit of Happiness

Reading:

access to particular areas of TCOO - the first being unwanted visitors entering the building.

Newman (1972); PLP Architecture (2013); Alexander (1977)

3-4 storey buildings - In multi-storey developments, favour 3-4 storey buildings that offer a connection between dwellings and the street

3

Evidence: TCOO is 9 storeys plus ground.

Comment: TCOO appears to make distinct separation from the street and surrounding communities.

Reading: PLP Architecture (2013); Fraser (2019) Setback from public realm - In single family and townhouse settings, creating a setback of about 3.5m between the sidewalk to the household entrance will maximse social use of space

8

Evidence: The building is setback from the public realm to a degree similar to 3.5m.

Comment: This setback is managed by means of transitional markers like planters and

changes in level in order to determine who uses this space for casual socialising.

Reading: Newman (1972) Amenity spaces - Create amenity spaces that are open to the community and others that 10 are just for development residents Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

Amentiy spaces in TCOO are endless. These spaces at ground floor are open to both members and paying visitors. The upper floors contain amenity spaces that form the inner sanctum for members only.

Though Fraser (2019) explains that the ground floor facilities such as the bar and coffee shop are open to the general public, there is a distinctly exclusive atmosphere within TCOO that I believe would discourage such trade. This atmosphere results in less diversity and little trust between the model community and the surrounding Old Oak Common.

Fraser (2019); Jacobs (1961); Oldenburg (1989)

FEELING SAFE - People are more likely to building trustful and meaningful relationships in environments that feel safe

The Collective Old Oak

Eyes on courtyard - Design courtyards so that neighbours can easily keep and eye on them from their homes Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

The entrance lounge of TCOO is the embodiment of the courtyard. The reception desk and seating areas are each positioned in a way that enables monitoring of who enters TCOO. Outsiders are carefully watched by inhabitants of TCOO, suggesting a lack of trust with other communities.

Jacobs (1961); Fraser (2019)

No leftover spaces - Avoid producing dark and/or leftover spaces Evidence: Comment: Reading:

10

All space serves a purpose and is well travelled in TCOO. A commercial asset, TCOO cannot afford to have space go untravelled.

Montgomery (2013); The Collective (2019); Minton (2017)

Visual connections - Offer balconies and porches to create a visual connection between residences and the street Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

9

2

No such connection is attempted.

The large fee of membership at TCOO means that in order to maintain sense of exclusivity and value for money, the members must be getting certain perks. Spatialising this exclusivity is important to the commercial model of The Collective.

See photos from visit.

Social concierge - Appoint a social concierge to organise common activities such as dog 10 walking, daycare, gardening and workshops, which help build supportive networks Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

The Collective have staff specifically employed to keep residents happy.

These staff members act as a social concierge and a one-stop-shop for resident’s needs. This improves the convenience of TCOO and takes up less time in the lives of residents. Autonomy and empowerment are reduced, but there is benefit for members.

Fraser (2019); Montgomery (2013)

Clear wayfinding - Ensure that access pathways are clear, visible and intuitive to navigate Evidence:

7

Floors are structured in an identical manner, banked by residential rooms and with central shared/third places. This requires residents to merely 181

The Pursuit of Happiness

Comment:

Reading:

remember which floor a particular shared place is on. However it was evident upon my visit that Matt Fraser lost his orientation more than once when travelling between floor and shared places.

Convenience is important to the living in TCOO - the financial implications of mitigating monotony were seemingly too much for The Collective and instead, the building is repetitive and unmemorable.

Fraser (2019)

NATURE - Access to nature is strongly linked to positive neighbourhood relationships and trust among community members

Windows to nature - Locate windows where residents can see trees and abundant natural features Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

3

Very few views out of TCOO include aspect of natural feature.

The location of TCOO in an industrial part of West London means natural environments are sparse - this location is owed to aspects of land speculation. As a result,The Collective provide faux natural features in lieu of the real thing - clearly acknowledging the effect nature has on happiness.

Minton (2017); Bowie (2017); Montgomery (2013)

Aromatic vegetation - Include aromatic vegetation to distinguish various environments: For example, lavender boosts feelings of calm in relaxing spaces

2

Evidence: No evidence.

Comment: Such limitation in growing environments mean that aromatic vegetation is

not present. However it should be noted that - whilst waiting for Matt

Fraser to arrive to take me on a tour of TCOO - I noticed a strong floral,

perfumy scent that seemed to be pumped into the space by means of mechanical ventilation.

Reading: Site visit experience Space and guidance - Offer residents in apartments appropriate space as well as manuals for growing plants in their units and in semi-private areas Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

4

No evidence of such space provided.

Autonomous acts are severely limited at TCOO, to a such a degree that makes members seem to be spoonfed ‘happy’ activities by employees.

Fraser (2019)

The Collective Old Oak

See + touch nature everywhere - Ensure that people can see or touch nature everywhere in their homes and in all areas of the development Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

7

Faux natural environments created throughout TCOO, with inclusion of roof terraces of astroturf and shared indoor spaces with names such as ‘The Secret Garden’.

The Collective’s in-house designers clearly acknowledge the importance presence of nature has on our wellbeing, given their efforts to stage natural environments. It should be noted that, to call a shared space on the upper residential floors ‘secret’ further strengthens argument of exclusivity in design.

Jacobs (1961); Montgomery (2013); The Collective (2019)

Biodiversity - Favour biodiversity and endemic species in green space Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

3

No genuinely green spaces.

The few plants that inhabit the shared spaces of TCOO are common IKEA-type succulents and ferns.

Site visit photos

PARTICIPATION - Residents who are involved in project

design and site management processes are more likely to develop a sense of belonging and contribute to their community Flexible spaces - Include flexible shared private spaces that can be used for groups to meet, 10 to work, to play or to host guests Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

Most shared spaces at TCOO are flexible.

Packing the most activity into the shell is important to the commercial functioning of the building.

Minton (2017)

Design process - Identify and engage possible future residents to be part of the multifamily 10 housing design process Evidence: ‘Town Hall’ events are held.

Comment: Resident comments and suggestions are taken into account in ambition to make The Collective model better.

Reading: Fraser (2019) 183

The Pursuit of Happiness

Co-design - Create a policy that brings together users, City representatives and developers to 10 co-design semi-private shared spaces during the design and rezoning process Evidence: Comment: Reading:

As above As above Fraser (2019)

Collective community models - All levels of government should promote, privilege and fast- 10 track collective community models such as co-housing Evidence: Resident forums allow for the creation of action groups.

Comment: The collective attitude forged through emphasis on the importance of

shared spaces and constant interaction is a social tool that empowers residents.

Reading: Fraser (2019); Jacobs (1961)

SOCIAL GROUP SIZE - Social group size has a direct influence on the quality and intensity of trusting relationships that people develop

Entrance for fewer households - In standard multi-family buildings, aim for a maximum of 8 households sharing a main entrance

2

Evidence: Each residential floor contains circa 60 member rooms Comment: There is a multitude of dwellings on each floor that prevents close bonds being formed.

Reading: PLP Architecture (2013); Fraser (2019) Create sub-clusters - In standard multi-family housing, create sub-clusters where no more than 12 households share a semi-private space Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

4

Resident rooms are clustered around kitchens, which are shared by upwards of a dozen people.

Trusting relationships and bonds do not develop between residents because of the sparse social hotspots in the residential domain of TCOO. Photographs from site visit; Fraser (2019)

The Collective Old Oak

Cohousing clusters - In cohousing communities, aim for clusters of 25-30 households Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

8

Each branch of residential floor away from the liftshafts contains a number of member rooms similar to this recommendation.

The boring nature of the upper floors means that time is not spent in these spaces to form trusting relationships.

Fraser (2019); photos from site visit

TENURE - The longer people stay in their community, the greater the bonds of trust and local social connection

Diverse housing forms - Include a diverse range of housing forms such as row houses, 2 townhouses, stacked townhomes and apartments Evidence: Comment: Reading:

All dwellings are in the PRS and are either ‘two-dios’ or studios.

All dwellings are identical single room apartments.

PLP Architecture (2013); Fraser (2019); Montgomery (2013)

Wide range of bedrooms - Ensure a mix of dwelling types offering a wide range of bedrooms in homes Evidence: Comment: Reading:

2

As above As above PLP Architecture (2013); Fraser (2019); Montgomery (2013)

Housing with flexible spaces - Design housing with flexible spaces, such as dividable rooms secondary suites and exterior additions

8

Evidence: Flexibility is offered in all areas that are not explicitly private.

Comment: Restriction is placed on the most intimate of places that focuses resident’s attention toward the more public areas of TCOO. Reading: Fraser (2019); Foulds (2017) Co-locate children and seniors - Co-locate daycare and seniors’ centres to offer social opportunities and multi-generational support Evidence:

6

Children are not permitted, but ages from 18 and above are integrated 185

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Comment:

Reading:

as one, throughout TCOO. Once inside the community, there is an attitude of inclusion and togetherness amongst The Collective.

Fraser (2019)

New tenure - Introduce new tenure arrangements, such as shared ownership with public support Evidence: Comment:

Reading:

No option in new tenure arrangements The financial model The Collective operates requires that there no change in ownership.

Foulds (2017); The Collective (2019)

Mix of tenure options - Provide a mix of tenure options, from subsidised rental to full ownership, in new developments Evidence: Comment: Reading:

0

0

As above Authority over the community is held by The Collective Fraser (2019)

WALKABILITY - Mixed-use neighbourhoods that

encourage walking are most likely to be associated with positive social encounters and a strong sense of community Flexible parking - Arrange parking, residences and common space to maximise face-to-face encounters in pleasant areas of the development

8

Evidence: Parking is extremely limited, due to location. Instead, reliance is placed

upon public and shared transport.

Comment: Shared transport, such as car clubs, are conducive to developing social

wellbeing as they encourage interaction with others and being part of a team.

Reading: Fraser (2019); The Collective (2019) Active facades - Ensure that development edges have active facades and opportunity nodes that interest pedestrians on commercial corridors Evidence: Comment:

0

Facades are not active.

I believe the inactivity of facades at TCOO is due to an active design decision to ‘keep out’ outsiders and preserve an aura of exclusivity, which

The Collective Old Oak

Reading:

protects the legitimacy of the commercial model of TCOO. Photos from site visit

Local shops - Include an everyday public destination on-site, such as a grocery store, coffee 10 shop, or community service Evidence:

Comment:

Reading:

A supermarket is incorporated into TCOO at the southernmost end of the ground floor.

Convenience is key at TCOO and having a shop on hand is important to that. What this does, is prevents residents from frequenting stores in the established surrounding community and thus disables the building of strong community links with further afield peoples.

Photos from site visit; Jacobs (1961)

Missing middle - Enable missing middle (or medium-dense) housing types in all areas within 10 a 5-minute walk of shops, services, green space and transit Evidence:

Comment: Reading:

The compact nature of TCOO means that every amenity on offer is within a short walk.

The point of convenience is reiterated.

PLP Architecture (2013); Jacobs (1961)

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5.2

ARCHIVAL RESEARCH A selection of archival research not referred to directly in the main body of this study The Diary of John Unwin (Saltaire Collection) Roberts Park Information Cards (Saltaire Collection) The Collective Old Oak Design and Access Statement (Ealing London Borough Council Planning Portal)

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The Diary of John Unwin A daily account of life in Saltaire in 1897. This diary includes all financial, organisational and personal details of John Unwin’s life for this calendar year. John lived with his family at 20 Fanny Street.

Unwin, J. (1897) The Diary of John Unwin. Saltaire Collection C3a-012, Saltaire Stories, Saltaire.

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Roberts Park (originally Saltaire Park) Information Cards A series of information cards produced for public knowledge of Roberts Park, Saltaire.

Roberts Park Information Cards (n.d.) Roberts Park Information Cards. Saltaire Collection D3073b Roberts Park, Saltaire Stories, Saltaire.

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Roberts Park Information Cards (n.d.) Roberts Park Information Cards. Saltaire Collection D3071a Roberts Park, Saltaire Stories, Saltaire.

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Roberts Park Information Cards (n.d.) Roberts Park Information Cards. Saltaire Collection D3073a Roberts Park, Saltaire Stories, Saltaire.

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Roberts Park Information Cards (n.d.) Roberts Park Information Cards. Saltaire Collection D3071b Roberts Park, Saltaire Stories, Saltaire.

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Roberts Park Information Cards (n.d.) Roberts Park Information Cards. Saltaire Collection D3075b Roberts Park, Saltaire Stories, Saltaire.

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Roberts Park Information Cards (n.d.) Roberts Park Information Cards. Saltaire Collection D3076a Roberts Park, Saltaire Stories, Saltaire.

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The Collective Old Oak Design and Access Statement Document submitted for planning permission by PLP Architecture, explaining the design nature of The Collective Old Oak. PLP Architecture (2013) The Collective Old Oak, London: Design and Access Statement.

[Online] Available at: https://www.ealing.gov.uk/info/201155/planning_and_building_control (Accessed: 20 March 2019)., p.29

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PLP Architecture (2013) The Collective Old Oak, London: Design and Access Statement.

[Online] Available at: https://www.ealing.gov.uk/info/201155/planning_and_building_control (Accessed: 20 March 2019)., p.29

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5.3

TRANSCRIPTS

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Interview: Saltaire Transcript from walking interview with Lead Volunteer at Saltaire History Archive, Ian Watson.

Recorded on Tuesday 3 September 2019 11:34. Duration: 42 minutes, 25 seconds Joe Bradley:

So do you live in Saltaire, Ian?

Ian Watson: Well, a few hundred yards outside - I was born in the village. Both my mother’s parents came into the village as children in the 1880s. My grandmother wasn’t born here, like I say, she was a child when she came here. My mother was born here, I was born her This is the site of the old Sunday School. And if we just go down to the railway, that’s a good place to start.

JB:

When was it demolished again – the Sunday School?

IW:

I think around the 80s, let’s see what it says on this noticeboard here.

JB:

So you can remember it growing up then?

IW:

Oh yes, I remember it well. This was the Congregational School.

JB:

It says ’72, yeah. Before everything was Listed, eh. Sacrilege now.

IW: Yes, I think a lot of the houses and particularly the village would have changed before the restrictions came in and so it was too late to save them. I don’t think there’s a single original door left, now.

JB: Right, yeah. And on that note, to what extent would residents have been able to make their house a home? In their own personalisation of it? Not so much changing the front door.

IW: Well once they’re in, you know, I’d have thought that they’d be able to decorate it themselves.

Probably in the early days most of the decoration would have been a whitewash, colour wash rather than paper. That would have come in a bit later I think. [passing between Dining Hall and Salts Mill worker entrance] JB:

The tunnel’s just under there, isn’t it.

IW: The tunnel, yeah. It goes through there. The layout of these steps has changed on at least three occasions over the years and we tried to get the precise dates – because you see this layout is a V-shape and we have plans which show it going the other way round.

JB:

Right, so like a central entrance and then –

IW:

– yeah either side and then there’s another drawing which shows just one set of steps. So

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we’ve never been able to pinpoint precisely when these changes took place.

JB: That’s frustrating – you’d have expected with the symmetry that’s around us that it’d have been a flight down there to match this side.

IW: that way.

Yes – I think that was the original layout if I remember rightly, and then they’ve changed it to

JB: Hmm, yeah. And at dinner times and such, when people were coming through from working in the mill and they went through the tunnel beneath us and into that building, would it have been that there were gates up here? Could people have passed over the top as well?

IW: Yeah they could have. I think a lot of people would have gone home anyway – it wouldn’t have been able to cope with everybody. It’d’ve been more to do with people who came from say, Bradford or Bingley or Burleigh, eating here. Most local people would have just had a five or ten-minute walk home and then come back again.

JB: Ok – and I read something the other day about the dining tables in there, they would have had a panel shielding – it was on the Saltaire History Club – there was a board shielding, so that each table became a sort of private booth to eat in. That would have been an open plan space and I thought that might have been very strange, no?

IW: Hmm, I’m not sure. Sometimes you don’t always know where people get their information from, their sources and things. [continuing walk down Victoria Road towards Roberts Park] JB:

And that was Titus Salt’s office, there on the end?

IW: That was his office, yes. So all this now dates from 1853 and the mill on the other side of the canal was a lot later. Most of these are extensions too.

JB: And that part of the mill on the other side of the river – that part was built when they needed somewhere to separate and segregate different parts of the process a bit more? Because that on the other side of the canal, is that all the washing facilities for the raw wool that was brought in?

IW:

Yeah, that’s it. I mean, originally it was the gasworks for the old mill.

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JB:

Oh right?

IW: Yes, part of the original – so they were all gasholders and things. Then this lot was built in the early 1900s when the gasworks weren’t needed. This bit here, this bit is relatively new because it was built about 50 years after the mill. Originally there was a wide platform going along the canal and they filled it in.

You can barely tell the difference, you’d only know it if you know that because it does look fairly integrated.

I mean, that bottom bit built in rubble or stone, that’s part of the original warehouse and that new bit has been put on top. So they were expanding right up until the years before the First World War, you know it was booming. It was only after the First World War that it – they had a rough period in the 70s and 80s, 1870s and 80s, but then continued expanding as I say, up to the First World War. Then after the war things started to decline more seriously.

JB: Right. And was that because of competition, that decline in the 70s and 80s – people had caught up?

IW: Yeah, the French were innovating and introducing new machinery. I mean, the growth in this area was due to the fact that you had some of the sons of some of these old mill-owners developing new techniques and new machinery and designing new cloths. Originally this area, historically, has produced very poor quality goods for working class people. Woolen goods, reyt thick heavy coating material. And all the good quality stuff was down in the southwest in Somerset, or in East Anglia. These young entrepreneurs Titus Salt and so on developed all the new machinery, new yarns and they started to produce then.

It basically ruined the industry, particularly in East Anglia, and a large number of people from Norfolk and Suffolk came up here to work when they lost their jobs down there. Quite a few people from Somerset too. And then, the 1870s and 1880s, the French then started to do the same thing, you know, developing new techniques, new designs. Fashions change.

JB:

Yeah, so everybody felt it at some point – sooner or later.

IW: Oh yes, particularly the people who’ve been producing for a long time. They’ll lose out before they can reinvent their trade. [walking past Congregationalist Church and stables] JB: Were there allotments further down that way as well? Because there are some allotments up there, aren’t there?

IW: Before the First World War, there were allotments between the river and the canal. Then that was converted into playing fields and now the allotments are behind here.

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JB: Yeah – I thought I saw that, just behind the church, when I came the other week. The allotments, when Saltaire was first founded – what was the organisation behind them? Presumably not everyone had their own allotment – was there a waiting list and – IW: Yes, there would have been a list of people with a coordinating plot of land and they would have had to pay rent on them. There are some surviving records for the allotments, unfortunately there are no plans relating to those records – so we don’t know who owned which piece.

JB: Right – and there wasn’t any kind of communal pot in which produce went? It was always: you grow it, you eat it?

IW:

Oh I would have thought so, yes. Again, it’s one of those things we don’t know too much about.

[walking onto William Henry Street] JB: Another thing I wanted to ask was: in Roberts Park, I was reading that after William Gay had designed it, the plants and the trees were all labeled. All the trees that are in Roberts Park right now, they were planted by the architect?

IW: I wouldn’t like to say – I know someone who has done a survey on the Park. I don’t know if you saw that, erm, the new Agatha Christie film: the ABC Murders that was on television a few years ago?

JB:

I didn’t watch it, no.

IW: It was filmed on here. The setting, it was supposed to be London, so why they chose to film it here – I don’t know! [laughs] JB: It was here, was it? [laughs] Like I say, I came up a couple of weeks ago and they were filming just here. They were filming up this street, the programme I mentioned earlier about the football: The English Game.

IW: So this lot here, these were the first houses to be built – started in 1853, just as the mill opened. And you can see that they have little sculleries sticking out of the back.

JB:

Okay, yeah.

IW:

If we go to some a bit further up, we’ll see a change. This is an example of one of the mysteries

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of Saltaire, we don’t know exactly what happened, or why.

JB: Would these here have been the coal bunkers? There’s two doors there, one would have been the privy as well?

IW: Yes, yes. That’s right. So, when they got to this point of the building – this block is three streets deep – when they got to this point, they stopped work. There was, what’s talk of, a strike. I’ve got another theory, because when He was building this area, He didn’t own the next plot of land. The whole point was that he bought the land for the village in bits.

JB:

And then he just built it in phases, didn’t he.

IW: He built it in phases. So when he’s building this – he didn’t own the next bit, so whether it stopped for that, or for this so-called strike, I’m not sure. I don’t think there’s any documentary evidence.

What happened whilst the work had stopped, Salt and his architects had obviously had a rethink of what they’d done and when they started building again, they started with a new design, which included a flat back. That then became the standard for the rest of the village.

JB: there.

Yeah, because having walked around the rest of the village, there’s nothing else like this type is

IW: No – it’s a one-off. It’s one of those things that we don’t understand why it is how it is. I mean, the Salt family’s scattered all over the country and we do have contact with some of them, not with a lot of them. So we don’t know what kind of things the family has got – JB:

Yeah, any documentation or things like that.

IW: We actually had a distant relative of Mawson, part of Lockwood & Mawson, come to visit us last week.

JB:

Really? [surprised]

IW: Yeah, but he hasn’t got any records. He’s not a descendant, just a distant relative through one of his brothers.

JB:

Ok.

IW:

And he’s said that a lot of the family records have gone to another branch of the family, but he

Appendices

doesn’t know what there is. That’s the way things go, isn’t it.

JB: Right, yeah. Because it said on those original plans we were looking at earlier with Sandi – the plans of the bathhouse: that said ‘Lockwood Mawson & Mawson’ .

IW:

Yeah.

JB:

Two of them?

IW: Yeah, two brothers. Lockwood went down to London eventually, so the partnership split up.

I think there were two brothers and a son, continued for several years after that.

JB:

Did a good job while they worked together though, eh?

IW: These few here are better houses and then you get the ordinary terraced houses a bit further along. These are smaller, but then as you get further up the hill – houses get bigger and better.

JB:

As the town ages.

IW: Yes. They obviously changed their minds about what type of houses they wanted as time progressed. There were often gaps of over two years in the building of Saltaire, it wasn’t a continuous building. They’d reach a position, then used to stop for a few years, then start again. All the details of every individual contract identify that.

JB:

The supervisor for this research project is Dr Jo Lintonbon –

IW:

Oh right, yes, that book.

JB: And so that book is about those contracts and it’s been interesting having that information available whilst learning more about the building of Saltaire.

IW: I mean, the most fascinating thing about that one is the way that she proved how the minor designs within the buildings changed at different times. There are not many people that have seen that.

JB: What seems clear is that they started with those first few houses, then immediately started on these Overlookers’ Houses, the managerial houses, then as you say, the more standard worker cottages on following streets. The social hierarchy is made clear in the size of the dwelling.

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IW: Well there used to be a theory that workers of different grades were allocated to different houses and possibility it might have happened in the first instance. But the census records show that, prove, that different types of workers lived in different houses. You know, if you could afford the rent for this house, then you could have it – regardless of what your job was.

JB:

But did you not have to have the means of paying the rent for that property though?

IW: Oh yes. Well a young couple getting married, say. Say they move into one of these small houses down here. 10 years or so later – JB:

Once their kids are earning?

IW: When their kids are working, they’ve got more money coming in and you could afford to buy a better house – rent a better house. So here’s an example of the houses being built in pairs and on this particular street, the doors are in the middle of the pairings and the windows on the outside. And I think, if we go to the next one, we’ll find it’s the other way around. Minor differences on the gutterings, the window-ledges – loads of changes as you go from one street to another.

JB: Fascinating like that isn’t it – so many minor detail changes. And of course, these were the baths, weren’t they?

IW: The bathhouse, yes. Yes, so on that one, you get the doors on the outer edge of the pair and the windows in the middle. And I think they’ll be stone supports and those over there will be wooden.

JB:

Yeah, they look to be wood.

IW:

Those ones don’t seem to have any real support at all.

JB:

No.

IW:

All these changes that you get, they’re all original.

JB: I don’t know whether it’s the way they’ve painted those, but those ones look a much more basic window framing.

IW: Yes, possibly. The only problem today that you wouldn’t have had in Salt’s time is that the streets are constantly lined with wheelie bins [laughs]

Appendices

JB:

[laughs] everyday is bin day.

IW: That’s it, there’s nowhere for them to go. Back then, of course there was no waste that would require a wheelie bin.

JB: Yeah. A few weeks ago when I was last here, I was walking down one of the backs and it was just a slalom course dodging wheelie bins! And now of course, if you want a nice pure photograph, you have all the cars lining the roads.

JB: All these doors here are modern. Now, there is a story, and I’m not sure how true it is – but if somebody takes their door off its hinges, they can’t put it back on again.

JB:

Really – why?

IW:

Because the law, I don’t know, but the powers that be produced a set of designs –

JB:

What, designs that are appropriate?

IW:

Yes.

JB:

So now, anyone that needs a new front door, they must have it approved?

IW:

Yes, it must be of an approved design.

JB: And so the hope is that everybody sooner or later will need a new front door? They’ll get it looking how it used to? [laughs] To be honest, a lot of them are of that type there – similar to this.

IW: These end ones with the big windows would have been the shops. They tended to have shops at the ends of the street, shops at the top on the main road and then shops on the main street. Nobody’s more than a few minutes, five minutes walk from a shop.

[Have now reached the outside of 47 Titus Street] JB:

From their shop, yeah. That’s a grand window isn’t it – the side of that house.

IW: That tower, there – again, there used to be a story that it was a firewatchers house, but people have been up and realized that you can’t see the whole of the village from there. So the idea that it would be a firewatchers house is a bit off – there’s certainly no records to confirm that.

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JB: I read a story, in fact it was this morning, in the Sheila Binns book. She said that it was one of the managers houses, the Overlookers’ post – so that they’d be able to see the villagers and what their activities were. Again, I can’t see that you would be able to see the entire town’s activities from up there.

IW:

Yes, you wouldn’t even see one over there I wouldn’t have thought.

JB:

Yeah, about six or seven houses. Maybe that’s another fable of Saltaire – I don’t know.

IW: One thing that was enforced in the village was the amount of smoke released into the air, black smoke. They had ‘X’ amount of time to burn off smoke in the mill.

JB: So Salt kept it clean and tidy – the air. Because that’s one of the big stories as well, I’m not sure if it was a fable or not – but that residents couldn’t hang their washing out in public.

IW: Yeah, there doesn’t seem to be any logic in it. When you think of how many people lived here, the large families – again, you wouldn’t have been able to all use the washhouse. There might have been a rule about possibility not putting it across the front street, but they all had their own back yards – which they would have been able to use. And here’s the Methodist Church.

JB:

Yeah, this one’s rebuilt isn’t it.

IW:

It was, yes.

JB: I wanted to ask you a few questions about Victoria Hall as well – because another one of the stories that’s always told about Saltaire is to do with the consumption of alcohol and drinking. As a result of the prohibition, did Victoria Hall form the cornerstone of society in Salt’s era of Saltaire – that building?

IW: Well, yes – I mean, once it had been built it was the main public hall for the entire area, not just for Saltaire. And it certainly was licensed for drinks for specific events. The board who ran it would apply for license for alcohol for particular events.

JB:

So it was the board that ran it?

IW: It was a charitable trust that ran it after Titus Salt’s time. First of all, when Sir Titus Salt died, initially his family ran everything still, but then they gave up and they handed it over to a group of trustees and eventually those trustees for whatever reason couldn’t keep it going and they basically handed it over to Shipley Council. So ended up, all these – the almshouses up there, the halls. The schools were handed

Appendices

over to the local board of education, actually the County Council took over the schools and the charity that ran the Institute and the almshouses ended up under the control of Shipley Council. So the Council nominated members of the board, now it’s Bradford of course.

JB: And back when it was first built, all the games rooms and such in there – who was the organiser of all that?

IW:

Well there would have been a management committee.

JB:

So it would have just been a normal club and you have your games socities and –

IW:

Yeah, that’s it – yes.

JB:

Ah right.

IW: The official name, of course, is The Institute. It says there Victoria Hall, it’s actually wrong – because Victoria Hall is the largest room in the Institute.

JB:

Ah, so they just named it after that back room?

IW: Yeah, the main, big hall. That’s Victoria Hall, so all the main events taking place in that big room – the name became synonymous with the building.

JB: It kind of took over. And I’ve read that there were different rooms for different games and socities – but was it more that a society would rent out a particular space?

IW: I suppose they’d go to the society and tell them what events you were holding and they’d say – well we have such a room available. Now, when I was a kid, these two ground floor rooms were the library. Originally created by the village, by the committee itself – virtually taken over by Shipley, so it was the Shipley library. There was another one, the Carnegie library – this is on the other side of Shipley – but Shipley itself, didn’t have a library. It was just the Saltaire library and the Carnegie library. In the 19… late 60s early 70s, Shipley was doing a major redevelopment in the centre of town and they got a contractor to do the work and they said one of the conditions of building this contract is you’ve got to build us a town central library. Of course once that was built, this closed and the Carnegie library closed.

JB: Right. And so, when Sit Titus Salt and Lockwood & Mawson put their masterplan together – you mentioned those rooms were the library to begin with. So that was always the library from day one?

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IW: Well, we’re not certain – there’s another place just above the shops that we think might have originally been the library before this was finished – but once this building was finished it would have been the main social club for the village. The library would have been in there.

JB: type.

When I was here a few weeks ago – they’d boarded that shop up and made it look a period

IW: We were talking only the other day about these lions. Made by a sculptor called Thomas Milne and originally built for Trafalgar Square in London. When they were finished, London didn’t like them so the commission was void and Salt acquired them.

JB:

I wonder why that was – they’re great!

IW:

Do you still want to go in the Hall?

JB: come in.

Yeah, let’s pop in – let’s – please. So was this always a place that was open and anybody could

[enters The Institute] IW:

Oh, I think so, yes.

JB:

I’ll take a photo of that there. There’s his portrait upstairs as well, isn’t there.

IW:

Yes. We’re trying to identify where all of these busts of him are.

JB:

All of them – is there a lot?

IW:

Several, yes.

[enters Victoria Hall] JB:

Looks as though there’s a show on later this evening.

IW:

Yes.

JB:

Sounds as though there’s something going on upstairs too.

Appendices

IW:

I think they’ve got a lot of students in today, starting their new courses.

JB:

So is a lot of it still under ownership of the education board, then?

IW: Yes, it’s still run by the governors of Shipley College, but they seem to be slightly separate because the caretaker who you were talking to before – she’s in charge of this building as well.

JB:

Right.

[leaves The Institute and precedes down Mawson Street towards Exhibition Road] IW:

She’s in charge of all the school buildings.

JB:

And then these look more grand in their appearance, grander still.

IW:

Again, just ordinary houses, but –

JB:

– more embellished. Circular tops to ground floor openings, yeah.

IW: That book by the architects suggests that the actual draftsmen doing the detailed drawings were allowed a certain amount of leeway in their design. Maybe so they weren’t having to do the exact same drawing over and over again.

JB:

Well, I presume as well, it’s in the architect’s interest to develop their design.

IW: Well I mean, right at the top of the village they have some houses which have – what do you call it, polychromatic facades – which is multi-coloured stone. That came into fashion in the very late 1860s, just as the village was being completed at the top of the hill.

JB:

So there’s just a few of them?

IW: Just a few at the top. You can see a few in Bradford because the same people did – what is known as the Wool Exchange in Bradford – and they’ve got the exact same thing, same date – so it’s one of those things where you can actually date the building from the architectural design.

JB:

Ah right, interesting.

IW:

Busy roads today.

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JB: It is, it’s chockablock isn’t it – first day of school though today by the looks of things. I thought the almshouses were interesting as well, when I went up to look at those before. That provision for his workers, for once they had past the age of their working life – [enters Shipley College Exhibition Building] IW: – it’s one of those things where, the original idea didn’t quite work out because again, the census returns tell us that they weren’t all actually pensioners living in those houses. And it’s suggested that many older people preferred to live with their relatives anyway.

JB: So he’d cut off those old people in those almshouses, but they would have instead wanted to be supported?

IW:

Yes, that’s it.

JB:

Because what provision would they have had – and what support would they have had?

IW:

There were certainly private pension schemes.

JB:

Once they’ve passed on to live in those houses?

IW: Yeah, so the Salt’s trust would have provided those pensions, but again – we haven’t got the earlier records available.

JB:

But if they were incapable of taking care of themselves or what not –

IW:

No, there was nothing, only their own pension.

JB: So they would have had to pay for people to help them should their families not be available.

Maybe that was why people chose not to live in the almshouses, but with their family then – so their family could be there to look after them?

IW:

Yes, I’m sure that happened.

JB: You can see the carvings on some of the almshouse doors, can’t you. It’s interesting to see – some of them lived there for fifteen, twenty years.

Appendices

IW:

Oh yes, I’m sure there were plenty of people lived there for a long time.

[returns to Saltaire Stories archive centre] JB: around.

Thank you for that, Ian – really appreciate your time and words there as we were walking

IW:

Not a problem, I enjoyed that.

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The Pursuit of Happiness

Monologue: The Alton Estate Richard Rogers’ monologue from BBC Television special: ‘Alton Estate’. First broadcast: Monday 24th June 1996. Duration: 9 minutes, 24 seconds.

RICHARD ROGERS: Throughout the Industrial Revolution, people have tried to escape from the slums, and architects have dreamt of cities in the sky, cities and towers amongst green landscapes. What we see here, on the edge of Richmond Park, is probably the most exciting statement of that utopian ideal.

People can see, from their buildings, this park, and, as we look at it, so we can imagine, not only cities of today, but cities of the Renaissance, the San Gimignanos, the idea of a new world. The Alton Estate is one of the best examples of public housing anywhere in the world. It stands next to Roehampton village with its pubs and churches, but it’s got a neighbourhood feeling all of its own. There are shops, schools, libraries and sports clubs. It’s a thriving community. It was built in the ‘50s by the London County Council, as an early example of mixed development. On the same site, there are terraced houses, tower blocks, maisonettes, and old people’s homes. Different sorts of housing to suit different people’s needs.

Alton was designed by a group of young architects working for the council under Leslie Martin, chief designer of the Royal Festival Hall.They were excited by new ideas being tried out in Europe, and believed in the social importance of architecture. They wanted Alton to be a modern utopia. Its fame spread from Baghdad to Belgrade, and people came from all over the world to see it. The site is magnificent. It used to be occupied by several Georgian mansions set in landscaped gardens. The council architects were just as imaginative when they designed the new estate.This is a great view of these white towers marching across the soft green landscape. It’s a very English view of landscape. Capability Brown worked here before and you can see this tradition. And against that are much more cubistic, much more stark buildings which float above the landscape, but yet, at the same time, mark the sky with their crisp whiteness.

[BLACKBIRD SINGS] Alton was built in two main phases by rival teams from the LCC, as if a theoretical debate was being argued out in practice. The east side shows the influence of Scandinavian architecture. The buildings are modern but they are made of traditional materials. Both the towers and the maisonettes are clad in brick.

There are trees everywhere, and the overall effect is very natural. It’s what I’d call a soft approach. The towers are 11 storeys high, but they retain the feel of an English house, just built upwards. Alton West is quite different. The architecture feels Mediterranean, presided over by Le Corbusier. The buildings are arranged in more formal patterns.There’s a tremendous feeling of space.The blocks are like a stripped-down version of a Palladian house, precise, geometrical, beautifully detailed, their balconies etched into the walls.

They have weathered remarkably well, and look as good today as when the estate won an architectural award in 1959. These great slab blocks are probably the most distinctive feature of this estate, floating

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over the ground, like ships in the air. The columns allow the green space to float through. And the houses, these two-storey houses, are plugged into the concrete framework, like a traditional house, two storeys, bedrooms upstairs, living room downstairs, terraced. Facing south, they get maximum light, and, of course, the great view. The idea is Mediterranean, and comes specifically from Le Corbusier’s Marseilles block.

He dreamt of a vertical world surrounded by trees, with buildings stacked up within a steel or concrete frame, letting in the maximum light, giving people maximum views, and creating a really healthy new world.

Today, there’s almost a vendetta against high buildings which ignores the fact that many people enjoy living high up. Inside, the flats are airy and beautifully light. They may not be large, but they’re a fine example of low-cost housing. For too long, council housing has been a dirty word. People forget there are as many good estates as there are bad ones. Alton is living proof that you can create a totally modern environment and keep a strong sense of community. Eve, what do you feel about the architecture and the landscape?

EVE O’ROARTY (SECRETARY AT ALTON TENANTS ASSOCIATION): I think it’s exceptional.

They’ve not bunched it all together, they’ve left us this lovely area where we hold an annual festival, and there’s space everywhere. You’re not condensed. It’s lovely. There’s so little being built now, and so many homeless. Hardly any general stock being built at all. The figure’s on one hand, the amount of houses or flats being built. They should do it like this. They’re all individual types, not one lot of concrete jungle. You have your own units, and that’s different. No other estate is like this.

RICHARD ROGERS: Alton has a strong tenants’ association, and I’m convinced this is an important factor in its success. People need control in the running of their estates.Today, we’re facing a severe housing shortage. In the past, governments from both were involved in massive construction programmes reaching up to 300,000 units per year. Today, we’ll be lucky to reach 6,000 units. It’s a disgrace. Nowadays, there’s a lack of vision and concern about public housing. We only remember the mistakes, and not our successes. Alton is proof of what is possible. We should be proud of this great estate.

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Interview: The Collective Old Oak Transcript from walking interview with Sales Executive at The Collective Old Oak, Matt Fraser. Recorded at 10:10am, Tuesday 27th August 2019. Duration: 26 minutes, 14 seconds [standing in ground floor bar area, having entered from lobby] Joe Bradley:

You mention that this is a public space. Is it often that the public do come in?

Matt Fraser: Yeah, yeah – a lot actually. We don’t do that much marketing and stuff in like the local area, erm – you know, it’s not sort of like the busiest part of London – but people that are familiar with the area know it’s here and yeah, it’s a really nice place for food and drink basically. The bar is open, there are lot of places like the HS2 site is right there, lots of like other offices and stuff, so people kind of are quite familiar with having this sort of nice restaurant here because, you know – there aren’t many nice restaurants and stuff.

JB: Ok. And as a member of staff, do you see it going the other way as well? Do you get clusters of residents getting together, I don’t know, down at the Fisherman’s, the pub down the road and going out into the community?

MF: I mean, I work onsite here, so I’m sort of more familiar with what’s happening here, but yeah – there are a few like, nice pubs and stuff along the canal which we recommend to people. There’s like a really nice Lebanese place, erm – and yeah, people from this building, I’m sure do bring quite a lot of business to those places out there. But the idea is that the building is quite self-contained and we have, you know, a supermarket on site, a restaurant on site and that people don’t necessarily have to travel that far, basically – they can get what they want.

JB:

[points to northern patio on canalside]

And it gets quite busy on the terrace as well?

MF: It does, yeah – so there’s Wi-Fi and people will just get set up on their laptops and stuff through summer. We also have another terrace I can show you, erm – but yeah, it’s really just for then, you know, people who smoke tend to use that terrace throughout the year. And then we have a couple of kayaks so some people go out in the kayaks and clean up the canals like once a month or something and get together. Yeah, but people do like the outside space and they do use it, sure.

And reception is 24/7 and they’ll take deliveries, packages for you and there’s a system where when something arrives – they’ll send you an email to say that your package is here and they’ll obviously hold it for you, that kind of thing. And you have your own postbox as well, so it’s like your own registered address here, you know it’s not like you’re in a hotel stay or anything like that – it’s an official address. Minimum stay here is four months, so the whole idea is that you kind of see familiar faces, it’s not a quick or a high turnover.

JB:

And what’s the average that people do stay?

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MF: So our data shows there’s like 70% young professionals, so between the ages of 22 to 35, working in London. Erm, and then about 20% students and then the rest is miscellaneous – but then you get sort of, some people working freelance and they love the fact that they can work and live in the same place. Some people, you know, there are some entrepreneurs that have their own businesses and use this space. There’s a lot of people that just need accommodation in a relatively central part of London and it happens to be in this co-living space and they’ve really bought into the whole concept. It’s like a real mix.

JB:

You can pay to use the co-working spaces as well, the co-working offices upstairs?

MF: Erm, so we used to have an extra workspace on the first floor that is being converted into music studios – so this is the only official co-working space. But erm, yeah.You need to – you need to have like a – a key card to use it if you’re a resident here. A few people from the outside also pay to actually use the space, but they’re in a minority – it wasn’t designed for that – it was designed for the people that live here.

JB:

It’s certainly a nice place to come and work.

MF: Yeah, definitely. There’s also the kitchen, kind of, bar area you can use to make coffees and food like food and stuff throughout the day – which everyone uses.

JB: Ok, I’ll just go over and have a quick look at that. Yeah, it is like an office, but in the style of a more relaxed café space.

MF:

Yeah - have you been to see a WeWork space before?

JB:

I haven’t yet, no.

MF:

It’s like comparable.

JB:

Ok, right.

MF: So also this room doubles up into an events room as well. So, I’ll show you the events board.

We have things like a weeknight run, Friday night drinks and the whole idea is that of community tables and we provide a brunch once a day – it’s a good way for people in the building to get together and meet each other and sort of hang out basically. So yeah, that’s why there’s a sound system, a DJ booth set up – so yeah, it’s really useful for that.

So I’ll show you, we’ve got a gym on the ground floor. Sorry about the noise, this is the builders in creating

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the music studios on the first floor. Sadly, members here won’t get free access or anything like that. But yeah, so this is the space. [enters gym] JB:

Thank you.

MF: Cool, erm – so the gym, the gym actually used to be owned by a separate company, but all of our members had access to it and we just took it over quite recently.

JB:

Right, ok.

MF: So, it’s like a mix of cardio and weights and… And out the back as well, so we used to have – well, there used to be a café that was run by a separate company and now we’re kind of seeing what we can do with the space, but either we’re gonna extend the gym or we’re gonna put a barbers in there apparently. That’s like the…

JB:

[surprised/curious tone] Oh right?

MF:

Yeah, yep – why not? [laughs]

JB:

Not got one of them yet?

MF:

Yeah, exactly [laughs]

JB:

Just ticking them all off [laughs]

Both:

[laughs]

MF:

That should feed the demand of the 540 people living here, so yeah.

JB:

Yeah, what percentage does it usually run at? Capacity?

MF: Occupancy? So it depends, we’re doing a lot of work on the third floor. So minus the third floor, we’ve got about 460 rooms in use and it’s about 97% occupied at the moment. So four hundred and? I don’t know.

So the building’s only been open for three years, but after the first year of it being open to the public, erm

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– it’s been running between 97 and 100% occupancy. So it’s pretty impressive.

JB: Very. And just going back to the average stay, which you mentioned. Over that time, do you see people that come – do they change at all? When they leave, do they change and become a different kind of person to whilst they’ve been living here?

MF: Well, I mean – that’s what we really try and promote. You know, and that’s what – I mean, it’s quite a hard question because I’ve actually only been here for two months so I haven’t seen the whole progress. But, in my training days – that’s something that we really try and sell as a benefit. You come here to grow as a person. For example, you know, you meet – you can live with a lot of people that you wouldn’t necessarily, sort of, just get the chance to live with in any other situation. It’s quite a new concept in that way – there are lots of events and stuff. For example, yoga, a coding club, parkrun – all these things happen quite consistently so you can pick up new skills and stuff. And yeah, I think it just opens you up to other people’s perspectives, a new way of living and yeah I do think people do grow and take their experience away with them. It’s not just some kind of hotel that you’re here to stay the night in.

JB:

So kind of like an incubator, to grow –

MF:

- yeah -

JB:

- a type of person.

MF:

- in a community. Exactly, yeah. Of course.

[enters lift] I’ll show you – I’ll show you two types of rooms. Erm, we’ve got en-suites and studios. En-suites are, make up 90% of the building, studios make up 10% and then on each floor there is some kind of communal space, I’ll show you like three or four examples basically. Like the library, the secret garden, some of the communal kitchens as well – so yeah.

JB: Alright, thank you. And you mentioned about the ages of people that you get staying here.

What percentage of older people do you find staying here?

MF: We actually see quite a lot of older people and especially recently and we’re trying to work out exactly why. My theory, it’s just my hypothesis [exits lift] is that like some people in their mid-to-late twenties, early thirties – they come here and they draw parallels with, I don’t know, with student accommodation, or they might be like they might be like – I should be past this stage in my life and I should get

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my own space by now. Whereas I think some of the older people, I think they just come here and they just see the raw functionality of all of it. [enters en-suite room lobby] Like, my room’s cleaned once every two weeks, the whole place is really hygienic – it’s really nice. It’s all really modern, I have access to so many spaces that I wouldn’t get in my own place and I just see the benefit and like, there’s no ego involved in it basically. That’s what I think, so yeah. So, both of the en-suite rooms, both of them are identical – throughout the building they’re the same dimension, same spec and then, yeah, you have your own bathroom and then you share this kitchenette, which has one other person. So when you sign up, you basically say your age, your gender and what you’re up to in London and we do our best to kind of like plant you up with someone who suits you. This is a seriously hot weekend where all the heat rises in the building, it’s not normally like this.

JB:

[laughs] sweltering at the moment.

MF:

Yeah, yeah. So you can fit about three suitcases under the bed – it lifts up here, as you can see.

JB:

Hmm, yeah. All the space saving, kind of, techniques.

MF:

Yeah

JB:

I’ll just take a picture outside as well.

MF:

Sure.

JB:

[points out of window] What’s that development going on at the minute?

MF: So there’s a lot of residential going on at the moment. This – I think they’re paving the way for like some of the HS2 stuff, I think some of the offices and also, potentially – you can see on the other side the tracks where some of the trains are being held, so it might be for that as well. The whole area’s undergoing a lot of regeneration. There are just residential developments going up everywhere.

JB: Ok – I’ll just take that picture as well there, to match the other one – that’s quite nice. And do you mind if I have a look at the en-suite.

MF:

No, yeah – of course. Go go, have a snoop around.

JB:

Cool, thanks. Yeah, there are certain parallels to student accommodation, aren’t there?

MF:

Yeah, definitely.

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JB: I can see that from when I was at university. And in terms of personalisation and things [points at picture frames on the wall] I know you’ve got photographs and pictures on the walls, is there any kind of MF: So, I think the idea is that you should give the room back looking how it was when you got it.

So, we have lots of show room stuff in here at the moment – these are the show rooms that we use. So for example, the books – this, that – it’s not provided.

JB:

So all the rooms have no pictures on walls or anything like this?

MF: No, you can add yours – you just kind of have to give it back looking how it was basically and I think that’s kind of like, up to your discretion to decorate how you want.

Cool, alright – well I’ll show you the communal kitchen. [leaves bedroom, walks down corridor and enters communal kitchen] So every floor has one communal kitchen – so I’ll show you the one on this floor. And the idea is that you get, like an oven, a dishwasher, and there’s air conditioning, which is quite nice. And yeah, they’re cleaned everyday and it’s just a nice space to kind of like, break out of your room.

JB: Yeah, and is this – I was looking at the plans just before I came in – this floor, is this the amenity space for this floor?

MF: For this floor, yes. On the top two floors – sorry – on the top three floors, we have, we just have a small kitchen, but on the lower floors, we have as well as the shared kitchen, we have like – a library, or a games room, or a spa – and I’ll show you a few of those basically, but for the top three floors, yeah. [leaves communal kitchen] JB:

And is it most nights where people get together and that’s the socialising space?

MF: You know what? Those spaces never get that busy. The main socializing space is the bar and kitchen downstairs, and the reception – and the co-working space when it’s used as an events room. Or, the secret garden is really popular – the kitchens are more literally just for, like, cooking and eating. I don’t think people normally hang out there – I honestly have never seen more than, like, four people in one of those kitchens before.

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JB:

Right, okay.

MF: I’m gonna show you – so I’m gonna show you the library and then I’ll show you the games room. And then I’ll show you the studio, and then what’s another place? And then I’ll show you the laundry facilities as well.

JB:

Is the, is there the garden as well?

MF: Oh yeah, so the fourth floor yeah, we’ll see that – that’ll be on the same floor as the studio.

Yeah, the secret garden’s, like, the place to come. I won’t talk in here just ‘cause it’s a library. Erm, but yeah.

JB:

Ok.

[enters library] MF:

[whispers] erm, could you not take pictures at this end of the room please?

JB:

[whispers] Of course, yeah.

MF:

[whispers] Thanks.

[leaves library]

That member, in particular, is really – I mean, she doesn’t like the fact that I do tours all day with her in there. And, I mean, she gets really offended when I have people in there taking pictures and stuff of the room. She thinks people are, like, taking pictures of her or something.

JB:

I can imagine, that must be really frustrating. How often are the tours?

MF: So I do, on average, I reckon – err, I’ll take you to the games room – on average I do about, it honestly, it depends, but at the moment about five a day.

JB:

[surprised tone] Really?

MF: Yeah, five or six a day, of prospective people coming round looking to live here. Quieter times, maybe I’ll do three? Erm, but yeah, this time of year it’s definitely the busiest time of year. Yeah, the run up, second half of August, September is, like, super super busy for us. Then it’ll all quieten down afterwards.

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[enters games room, two residents playing on games console on large television near window] Yeah, so – snooker, pool [piercing fire alarm goes off] I’m pretty sure we don’t need to worry about that. [laughs] [inaudible] JB:

Am I ok to take some photos in here?

MF:

Yeah, yeah of course

JB:

Was it just that person in particular up there?

MF:

No, just that person up there, yeah

[fire alarm stops] JB:

Ah, that’s better

[leaves games room] MF: So there’s a few co-living variations and stuff in London, but no one’s ever tried to do it on this level or scale before and have as many amenities and community spaces as possible. Whereas I think some of the other places, like Tipi, maybe have, like, slightly larger room? Erm, and then you get these pods with like five rooms and quite a large shared kitchen, but you don’t have of course the, like, shared spaces which are quite cool.

JB: Right, and as The Collective are bringing more and more developments forwards and adding to their portfolio – is there any, kind of, feedback from the users of the building that goes into MF:

Yeah, definitely

JB:

Is that a common trend in the design process?

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MF: So we have a Town Hall that happens once a quarter, which is basically an opportunity for people living here to, like, speak to the general manager and kind of say, like, what they’re happy with, rights to the building, what they’d recommend changing – you know, things like that. And then obviously, from having – so this building was the first building we built and there were a lot of learnings that have gone on to our Canary Wharf building, basically, erm – so, like, I mean, there are a lot of learnings. One of the main ones is that people really like their own private space – where do we, we’re on four? Actually, I’ll show you the Secret Garden first – erm, people like their own private space, so the one on Canary Wharf is just studios, we don’t have any of the en-suite setup where you share a kitchenette. So that was one key learning, and another thing they actually did – they’ve consolidated all of the communal spaces on the bottom three floors and I think the idea for that is that you’re trying to group as many people as you can together when they, like, to hang out – whereas here, it’s all very spread out, which is great, with quiet spaces and things like that – but maybe it doesn’t encourage as much social interaction.

JB:

Hmm, yeah - ok.

[enters Secret Garden] MF:

So yeah, I’ll show you the terrace.

JB:

Is this – this room’s referred to as the Secret Garden?

[looking out of window towards roof terrace] MF: Yeah. So yeah, down there we have barbecues and stuff – beers. Some yoga classes happen out here as well, it gets all the sun in the afternoon and the evening and, yeah, it’s one of the more hot spaces on the weekend, basically.

JB:

Right, yeah that afternoon sun must be great over there.

[leaves Secret Garden] So you’ve been here for a couple of months now?

MF: I’ve been here for a couple of months and I actually did an internship here two years ago, a summer internship, so I guess I have seen some of the progression and stuff. It’s been amazing how the company’s transformed. At the beginning it was very much the guinea pig building, like, the CEO before – he had his own house in Central London that he converted into studios and this was the first place he decided to take co-living up on quite a big scale. And we’ve had to learn along the way.

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[enters another guestroom – a studio room this time] JB:

So these are now, the rooms that have gone forward in later developments?

MF: The studios? Yeah, exactly – the ones in Canary Wharf are actually quite a bit more modern than this – and what we’re in the process of doing at the moment is actually converting our en-suite rooms into studios. So these dimensions are actually very similar to the en-suites you saw upstairs – the difference is, like, you have the wall partition so the conversions are done by putting the wall partition and a kitchen top on the side that doesn’t have a kitchen.

JB: surface?

Right – because if it is the same dimension, it is literally those two steps, that wall and that work

MF:

It is literally that, yeah. And you pay an extra fifty quid a week for the extra privacy, I guess.

JB:

Hmm…

MF:

I’m sure for a lot of people, it’s worth it.

JB:

Ok, very nice – thank you.

MF: So, I’ll take you down to, like, the laundry room – and then, yeah, you should have a pretty good idea of what’s going on in the building.

JB:

Definitely, yeah – it’s been really helpful, thank you.

MF:

Are you – are you going to go to other co-living spaces?

JB: So the way that this project is going – it’s a case study project and this will be one of those case studies and it’s about model residential development in solution to contextual housing crises. And so this being a suggested solution to the idea that rents are rising and people are living in shared houses with tiny bedrooms – this offers the solution that you maintain a good room, but there’s then everything else that’s on offer here.

MF:

Exactly, yeah – and you, kind of, I guess, with the loneliness crisis as well.

JB:

That’s it, yeah – so the social wellbeing sense. And the other two case studies are the Alton

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Estate down in Richmond, kind of a model 50s, 60s council estate that, again, that was seen as a solution to the then current socio-economic issues MF:

Ok, is it like a big, high rise one?

JB: Yeah, so they’ve got the big pin, point blocks and then they’ve got the big slab blocks as well – they have a variation. And then the third one is a, an industrial town up in – near Leeds, it’s called Saltiare.

That was built as a solution to some of the squalor MF:

- yeah, yeah -

JB:

- people were living in throughout the Industrial Revolution.

MF:

Yeah, ah – that’s super interesting.

JB:

So, yeah.

[enters laundry room] MF: So it costs, like, £1.50 per wash and dry – it’s like a card system that you use, ‘cause obviously you don’t have like a washer and dryer in your bedroom. And then, yeah, ironing boards and irons – you have, like, Sky TV, and for people who don’t wanna use the dryers, you can hang your stuff naturally. So, yeah…

JB:

Alright, thank you

MF:

Did you manage to do viewings of the Richmond building and the industrial town?

JB:

Yeah, so the industrial town, I – I’m from Barnsley originally -

MF:

- oh right, yeah -

JB: - so I’m not far away. So I’ve been up there a couple of times and then I’ve come down today, yesterday tomorrow – a few days, and I’m going down to Richmond this afternoon. But yeah, it’s really interesting to see this, here.

MF:

And is it, like a Masters that you’re doing – and it’s like your final thesis? Or is it a PhD, or? -

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JB:

No, no – it’s a Masters. So to be an architect, you’ve got to do two degrees -

MF:

Yeah

JB: And, yeah, this is my Masters – I did my first one, I was at Cambridge for my first degree, then I moved back home and went to Sheffield for my MF:

Nice

JB: But yeah, it’s going well – this is the last year. The way the course is structured is that you write your thesis over the summer, then you can put into practice a design project. So you do the written part now and this next year, maybe I’ll put my slant on the things that I’ve been researching.

MF: Cool – at, like? So the work that you’re doing now will be really valuable for when you actually put it into practice? ‘Cause I did my Masters in Real Estate and, like, my thesis was not practical at all in anyway whatsoever [laughs] JB:

[laughs]

MF: So it would’ve been great if it was, it would have felt, like, a lot more rewarding. So, but yeah – do you have, like, any other questions or things about – you could always, I’ll WhatsApp you afterwards, but if you do have any questions about your project or whatever, you can let me know JB:

Ah yeah, I’m really grateful for that – yeah, thank you.

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5.4

CONSENT FORMS

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Consent Forms All interviews that informed this study were conducted in accordance with University of Sheffield protocols.

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Cover Images Self-Portraits of Birdwell Primary School Pupils, 2000.