ANTHONY TINO

IF A BUILDING IS A BOOK, THEN A NEIGHBOURHOOD IS AN ARCHIVE: CULTURAL POLICY AND SPATIAL PRACTICES 1

The sociologist Kenneth Thompson suggests that culture is not necessarily determined by economic forces, but ‘enjoys some relative autonomy and is the site of struggles over meaning’.2 With architecture, which demands enormous amounts of capital to complete projects, how can culture function beyond the principle of capital? Historically, iconic works of architecture have come to be associated with displays of political, religious and ideological power. Yet these structures, as lavish and ambitious as they were, have gone on to inspire culture far beyond what can easily be quantified within monetary terms.

Architecture plays a unique role within contemporary society in the sense that it is consistently in relation to people who interact with it. Without the presence of a human body, architecture has no meaning. More importantly, the social relationships which are shaped by a building or a community’s design will designate behaviour along power lines, notably that divide inhabitants from visitors. These delineations of power are often expressed architecturally within a building’s design.

How does this dynamic factor into contemporary architecture and design, especially within the public sphere? How is this at play within contemporary heritage and cultural institutions such as museums and public libraries, given efforts to break down these power distinctions? For museums or galleries as an industry, exhibitions which are temporary, rotate and provide new experiences to the visitor each time to build new associations based on entertainment. Exhibitions can serve the purpose of providing hegemonic legibility, inserting a mass-media element to the heritage sector.

The DCMS model of cultural industries would classify mass-media and associated formats as occupying the lowest or ‘least creative’ end of the cultural spectrum. But I would argue that mass media has been essential to maintaining architectural and heritage practices since at least the early twentieth century. From fliers posted in public places, cheap photocopies, and low-brow circulars to religious texts, novelty manuscripts and unique artists’ books, printed materials are simultaneously bound to heritage and defy easy categorisation within the cultural industries.

1 Adapted from Anthony Tino, ‘If a Building is a Book, then a Neighbourhood is an Archive: Cultural Policy and Spatial Practices’, MA Arts Administration & Cultural Policy dissertation, Goldsmiths University, submited fall 2022.

2 Kenneth Thompson, Media and Cultural Regulation (London: Sage Publications, 1997), 11.

There are some intrinsic aspects of books which make them particularly powerful vehicles of communication. Their circulation as a multiple defies certain spatial constraints that apply to other formats. While the multiple allows for many (even millions of) people to read the same text, those texts must also be consumed privately, creating an intimate relationship between the reader and the text. As with architectural spaces, meaning is manifested through the presence of a person. While the architectural historian Beatriz Colomina has theorised on how the public sphere has inverted architecture through the proliferation of the internet stating that ‘social life takes place not in the streets or even the living room, but in the car, the bathroom on the toilet – and above all in bed, floating alone without bedroom, house or city’, I would argue that the internet is following a trajectory already established by books and publishing in general.3 from Your House, edited by Olafur

Colomina’s theories would suggest that experiencing an architectural space can be accomplished through engaging with its mediation, suggesting that a building’s meaning extends into a much more sensory realm. In this way, the building can be read, like a book, within private spaces, rendering the previously perceived public sphere of architectural space much more metaphysical. Ultimately, the meaning of an architectural structure such as a building is drawn from one’s ability to understand its language, navigate its pages and index its information in a way that makes sense.

2006, Artist's book, 27.4 x 43 x 10.5 cm,

Bonakdar Gallery, New York 2006, published by the Library Council of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Courtesy of Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, © 2006 Olafur Eliasson

3 Beatriz Colomina, ‘Privacy and Publicity in the Age of Social Media’, in Public Space? Lost and Found, ed. Gediminas

Technology has provided opportunities for publications to break away from their physical constraints, further libera�ng the practice of publishing from restrictive definitions. Marian Macken writes that within the practice of book arts, this ‘includes multiple media such as video, performance, e-books etc… it is works that are a bound collection of ideas – bound in the sense of relating closely, rather than referring to a structure of format’.4 If these theories can liberate the book from its codex, then what perforations can be made within the heritage sector? How can we create an architectural literacy that is fluid within cultural analysis that replaces the model which positions the building as a stand-in for power and embrace a community consciousness?

Bibliography

Colomina, Beatriz. ‘Privacy and Publicity in the Age of Social Media’. In Public Space? Lost and Found, edited by Gediminas Urbonas, Ann Lui and Lucas Freeman. Cambridge, MA: SA+P Press, 2017

Macken, Marian. Binding Space: The Book as Spatial Practice. London: Routledge, 2018. Thompson, Kenneth. Media and Cultural Regulation. London: Sage Publica�ons, 1997.

4 Marian Macken, Binding Space: The Book as Spatial Practice (London: Routledge, 2018), 3.

ARCHITECTURE: PERSPECTIVES FROM BAN MEMBERS

The perspectives below were written by BAN Members in response to an invitation to reflect on their research and curatorial practice in the context of architecture.

Valeria Carullo

When I completed my master’s degree in architecture, I was s�ll convinced I was going to become an architect; however, I’ve had a passion from photography since I was a teenager and serendipity (and an EU grant) led me to a work placement at the RIBA Photographs Collec�on. This was the beginning of a career I never imagined for myself, although history of art and architecture had always been among my favourite subjects –knowledge in these areas is of course essen�al in order to work with architectural archives and collections.

I suppose being a curator fits my skills like no other job and I feel privileged to curate such an amazing collection, and lucky to have been able to combine two of my passions, architecture and photography – and what about my love of literature, cinema and all the other visual arts? Developing knowledge of my subject in the context of these disciplines has made me a beter curator, because none of them exists in isolation. Curating an architectural exhibition, for example, presents its own set of challenges, because o�en requires representing in two dimensions what can intrinsically only be understood as volume.

Film, photography and the graphic arts can complement drawings to develop a creative narrative that, of course, cannot replace the experience of visiting a building or an urban environment but can help us interpret both. An interdisciplinary approach is also implicit when it comes to curating architectural photography, which in itself requires knowledge of two disciplines; in addition, architecture and photography have often influenced each other in the course of their history. Finding the time to keep up to date with contemporary architectural developments too is a big challenge, because we collection curators tend to work with historic material, but I believe it is also an important aspect of our job.

Having completed a master’s degree in architecture and worked both as photographer’s assistant and assistant curator, I have now been Photographs Curator at the Royal Institute of British Architects for twelve years. My main area of research is the relationship between modern architecture and modern photography in the interwar years.

Caroline Dakers

I am a cultural historian with a background in English Literature and my approach to architecture almost always involves the construc�on of narra�ve.

Clouds: The Biography of a Country House (Yale University Press, 1993) is a key example. While the design of the Victorian architect Philip Webb was of significance, I was more interested in how his patrons (Percy and Madeline Wyndham) used their ‘power-house’ as a place for social, ar�s�c and poli�cal networking. Henry James was a guest and maybe used it as the model for The Spoils of Poynton (1896–1897).

The Victorian ar�sts’ studio-houses at the centre of The Holland Park Circle (Yale University Press, 1999) were designed by leading architects of the day, Richard Norman Shaw, Philip Webb and George Aitchison. My focus, however, was on their effectiveness as ‘showcases of art’, supporting their owners’ (the artists) ambitions not only to make money but also to be accepted in society as gentlemen. Writen up for public consumption, the houses were also effective in hiding the artists’ private lives.

For several years, I have been creating narratives around the iconic buildings on the Fonthill estate, close to where I live in Wiltshire. Here, the central focus is on the cycle of destruction, since the sixteenth century, followed by re- and new building.

In my forthcoming book, Bohemian or Gentleman (Princeton University Press), I return to the studio and its allure for the general public, continuing the narrative up to the Second World War. I also look at the extraordinary number of art schools built across the whole country in the second half of the nineteenth century. These schools were the subject of civic pride, along with new libraries, museums and galleries – a sad contrast with the government’s current attitude to art education.

I am pleased my early research has a continuing life. My MA at the Royal College of Art on Victorian country-house collections fed into the Paul Mellon project on Art and the Country House, while Clouds is the starting point for my essay on Webb’s patrons to be included in the catalogue for the forthcoming Webb exhibition at the Bard in New York and at the V&A.

My current research is towards: two books: ‘Bohemian or gentleman? The image of the artist in the popular imagination 1850–1950’ (Princeton University Press); and an edition of essays, ‘Alfred Morrison 1821–1896. Millionaire Shopping’ (UCL Press); two contributions to exhibition catalogues: ‘The Little Holland House Salon’ for Patledom at Watts Gallery; and ‘Webb’s patrons’ for Philip Webb at the Bard NY and V&A; and four essays for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Sigismund Goetze, Laura Alma-Tadema, Helen Thornycroft and Clara Montalba.

Alexandra Banister

My research examines women’s voices in the shaping of modernity in the context of Bri�sh architecture of the interwar period. My PhD thesis – ‘Designing the Domes�c: Women's Wri�ng on Architecture and Design’ – forms part of a larger ongoing shift in the way women’s roles in the making of the built environment is understood. It builds on existing work that re-evaluates traditional architectural histories by positing that women played a larger role in the demand for, and the design of, modern ways of living than previously suggested.

Seeing architecture very much as a collaborative and collective endeavour, my work aims to connect the dots between these networks of women in the interwar period: from architects and designers, to planners and policymakers, housewives and professionals, to journalists and social commentators. Key to this is an engagement with what I term ‘architecture on the page’: the premise that architectural history comprises more than just physical buildings, but also the formulation and dissemination of ideas through the writen word.

An unexplored site for these discussions are the pages of women’s magazines. Through their architectural and design features, such as photospreads of the homes of prominent social and cultural figures and through recommendations for new labour-saving devices, and their international subscription schemes which took these titles to colonised nations, these magazines engaged with a diverse readership of women. In highlighting these previously unheard voices – both in terms of readership and contribution – and by considering architecture through writing, we can expand the architectural canon to reveal women’s contributions.

Alexandra Banister is currently completing her PhD at Oxford Brookes University. She serves as a Trustee of the Design History Society and has previously worked at the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, the Royal Institute of British Architects, and Sotheby’s Institute of Art.

Moira Lascelles

What is in a discipline? I studied History of Architecture and when I graduated, I worked as a curator looking at ways to engage those beyond the architecture profession in the world of architecture. Because the built environment is vital to all of us but is often shaped by a small handful of individuals.

While working for the London Festival of Architecture and as Deputy Director of the Architecture Foundation I found new and innovative ways of bringing architecture to life – making it relevant to those who may never have thought about what architects do. I worked on events and exhibitions but quickly was taken by the power of working on live projects as a way of bringing ‘architecture’ to life. I activated sites across the city, turning forgoten pockets of the public realm into community gardens, transforming vacant buildings into artist studios or thinking about new ways that architects and designers could bring new life to the high street. These projects saw me working not only with architects but also with communities who may never have thought about these projects as ‘architecture’ but who, through engagement with them, began to see the power that architects and designers can have.

And then, in 2019, I transitioned to the ‘artworld’ becoming Deputy Director and now Executive Director of UP Projects, a leading public art commissioning organisation that specialises in social practice – meaning we engage communities through the process of creating ambitious public art projects. Although in some ways the two worlds are quite different with their own unique eco systems, in many ways, the work I am doing is the same… just now the creatives I work with often (but not always) define themselves as artists. At UP Projects, I have continued to work to activate sites across cities through performance, new commissions and meanwhile projects that have allowed people to feel more empowered to have a say in what their neighbourhoods or public spaces should look like.

And though these projects are now defined as public art, they are not far off what I was doing when I was situated within the world of architecture. I work often as part of wider design teams with architects, planners, landscape designers, projects managers and others to bring places to life through the integration of artist-led work. Because ultimately the goal is the same – to ensure our built environment reflects the diversity of the communities it serves and that creative practice (be that architectural or artistic) is harnessed as an agent for social change.

Moira Lascelles is Executive Director of UP Projects, the UK’s leading public art commissioning organisation specialised in social practice. Moira’s curatorial practice is firmly situated within public contexts, working beyond the walls of the gallery to engage communities and the broader public in artist-led live projects, commissions and events. Past clients and partners include the British Council, the GLA, the London Legacy Development Corporation, the V&A, the Barbican and the Royal Academy of Art. She is an Arts Emergency Mentor and a member of the Curatorial Panel for the London Festival of Architecture 2024. Moira holds a first-class master’s degree in History of Architecture and German from the University of Edinburgh.