Land // Recolonising the post industrial landscape by Saskia Blake

LAND //

Recolonising the post-industrial landscape of the Valleys

Saskia Blake

150169

Unit // Urbanism and Societal Change Institute // Architecture, Urbanism and Landscape Tutor // Kathrin Gimmel Unit Directors // Deane Simpson, Charles Bessard Spring 2017

How to read the program Research

Proposal

nb. All drawings, maps, graphs, diagrams and photographs have been made by the author unless otherwise stated.

Contents Thesis statement

Societal Change // Political context

Societal change in the welsh valleys

6-7

Loss of Community // loss of identity

8-9

What’s left of the miners Hall?

10-11

Failed economic investment

12-13

The future of the Valleys?

14-15

Proposing Land Reform

Land Reform In Treherbert

Treherbert’s Compulsory Purchase Order

Changing Ownership

20-21

Treherbert’s Community Land trust

22-23

Land Reform structure

24-25

Exploring Ownership Structures

Structure Treherbert’s Community Land Trust

Site

Plan of Treherbert

30-31

The Town

32-33

Residents And Culture

34-35

The Building

36-37

Analysis Maps

39-50

Design Layers

Project Scope

Design Layers

Landscape Program

58-59

Linking Landscape and Architecture

Architecture Program

Phasing Time line

Initial m² Study

Scope // Deliverables

Appendix

1 // Site Images 2// Statistics and Graphs 3// Climate Site Conditions 4// Building Vacancy 5// Advisory Panel 6// References 7// Discussions of Ownership 8// Land Reform 9//Depopulating the Valleys 10// Current Approach to Regeneration 11//Ministerial Task Force Meeting 12//Bibliography 13//CV

65 66-69 70-71 72 73 75 76-79 80-81 82-83 85 86-87 88-89 90-81 92

Tredegar

Ebbw Vale

Merthyr Tydfil

Treherbert Blackwood

Rhonda Valley

Pontypridd

Cardiff

The Welsh Valleys

Thesis Statement

This project is an exploration into the interplay between architecture and the planning scale. By setting up a strategy plan for the town of Treherbert, I will design architecture which explores how we can begin to spatialise the planning scale. Pursuing the moment when a building becomes the symbolism for a planning logic. This is a dual scale exploration. Working simultaneously with planning and architecture to show how findings in one can impact the other. Creating a dialogue between both the built form and the programmed landscape. Based on the principles of Land Reform, I will argue that a ‘Large scale asset transfer’ should take place in the town of Treherbert. Transferring ownership of land to the residents of the town. The project will explore the consequences of land reform for the population. In this program I will provide the structure of Treherbert’s Community land trust which I propose is set up - in order to facilitate the project. A strategy plan, and a building design is produced. The focus will be on how this new landscape and architecture begins to transform the daily lives of the inhabitants. At the planning scale working with an

organisational planning logic which can help to empower the community in Treherbert. To re-form the lost connection to the landscape which brought them into being. Designing a structure for how the town can slowly divide, allocate and reprogram land. At the architectural scale, the principle built form is the headquarters for Treherbert’s Community land trust. Which will provide the symbolic and spatial presence for the potential future for Treherbert. By using the old miners welfare hall present in the town - the building seeks to link the future with the past. The strength of the project is based on the creation of potentials. As an architect I wish to explore the physical, spatial and visual potentials of Land Reform. I seek to expand the role of the architect, and question the division between the planning and architectural scale.

The Program I have used this program to set up the planning structure for Treherbert’s Land reform. Proposing both organisational, and physical composition of land reform for Treherbert. By doing this in the program I am providing the framework from which to explore the architectural and spatial consequences, throughout my diploma project.

Societal Change // Political context Societal change in the Welsh valleys Loss of Community // Loss of identity Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s left of the miners hall? Failed economic investment The future of the Valleys?

Societal change in the Welsh Valleys

Rapid industrialisation of Britain throughout the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, followed by financial globalisation and the pursuit of Neo-Liberal economic policies has resulted in a legacy of environmental and social destruction in an increasingly unequal society. Some of the most acutely affected by our pursuit of exponential economic growth are post-industrial towns and urban peripheries.

By the end of the 1980’s just 4,000 miners in 7 pits remained. Compared with the 271,000 miners employed in 1920, its clear the employment loss was catastrophic.2 The communities of the Valleys were faced with the closure of the industry that not only defined them, but created them.

The geographical logic that brought them into existence has gone. Grounded by the receding tide of globalsation and marginalised by governmental economic policy these areas face an existential crisis – survive or disappear as quickly as they formed. For the Welsh valleys this was the coaleries. In the 20th Century, the collieries across the UK were no longer economically competitive. In 1983 the South Wales coalfields were making a loss of £2,500,000 a week.1 The combination of the mines unable to compete in this new global market and Margaret Thatcher’s pursuit of laissez faire economic policies through the privatisation of previously nationalised industries; destroyed the industry and the communities that had built them.

1 684) 10

Davies, J. (1994). A history of wales. (p.

2 686)

Davies, J. (1994). A history of wales. (p.

Societal Change // Political context

“…an entire country is now rapidly being defined down to a handful of postcodes, cutting out whole regions, industries and demographics.” Aditya Chakrabortty

Bruce Davidson, photographing the valleys in the 1960’s, Miners walking home form work

Societal Change // Political context

Loss of Community // Loss of identity

The closing of the mines produced unemployment and economic uncertainty. It also brought with it a loss of identity. The mines not only created Jobs, they created communities. ‘Miners halls’ and ‘Miners Welfare’ buildings in these towns provided libraries, social spaces, and sporting facilities, even educational programs. All funded by the mining communities themselves, but subsequently lost in the years which followed the decline of the mining industry.1 Interviewed for a documentary about the last mine in The Rhonda valley, a miner describes the true impact of the identity lost with the industry. “As Mining goes something else goes with it, a community, a spirit and our ability to fight back”.2 Mine work was grueling and dangerous work, but the attrition the miners faced- brought them together.

Stills from the documentary ‘last pit in Rhondda’

1 Power, R. P. (2008). “After the black gold”: A view of mining heritage from coalfield areas in brittain. 2 Last Pit in the Rhondda. (1984, July BBC Arhcive.

Societal Change // Political context

The National Union for miners was once the most powerful union in the UK, but that has all been lost since the closure of the mines - the workers lost their rights - their jobs - their ability to care for themselves.

Authors Sketch of abandoned miners hall - Merthyr Tydfil

Societal Change // Political context

What is left of the miners hall?

During the height of the mining industry in the Welsh valleys, almost every town had their own miners welfare building. Today Just 20 buildings and 8 welfare schemes remain across the region. Once the focal point of the community - They were constructed and funded from the miners welfare fund, and maintained from donations of the community. The buildings represented the power and presence of the miners union in the community. With the aim to educate and empower. Today they have become relics of a lost society. Housed in often drab, dilapidated buildings across the valleys - They seem to speak of a lost fight. Where miners halls have been maintained they have become community centres, locals drink, darts & snooker teams practice and the odd community groups gather. Miners welfare buildings present in the valleys today

Although they undoubtedly provide an important space for their town, the drive for their existence has been lost.

Societal Change // Political context

Caerphilly

Abercrave

Abercwmboi

Brynamman

Bancffosfelin & Crwbin

Nantyffyllon

Neuadd Carwe

Onllwyn

Cwmgwili

Mountain Ash

Tylorstown

Fernhill (Treherbert)

Societal Change // Political context

Failed economic investment

Over the past 15 years an estimated £1.2bn of EU funds and £300m of Welsh government funds1 have been injected in into The Valleys.

In an interview with Sue Essex in July I asked her about the success of the funding schemes introduced into the valleys region.

Despite these sums, Ebbw Vale (town within the valleys) voted to leave the EU by 62% to 38% - one of the highest “leave” votes in the UK.2 To understand why a community which received so much money from EU membership and still voted leave, we need to understand that the money has made little impact on the daily lives of the inhabitants. With the Welsh Valleys continuing to top the Index of Multiple Deprivation tables across the UK. This investment hasn’t had the impact that was expected.

“I personally redid some of the funding formula; the reason a lot of people can stay there, which they (the Welsh government) never say publicly, is that the formulas were re-jigged…that allowed hospitals to be built, schools to be built, GP’s to be funded. That was the philosophy…Put the funding in, European funding included, and some of those things (economic Regeneration) will happen. I think the truth is that it hasn’t happened in the way we thought.”

Between 2005 and 2009 GPD performance per head fell from 79% in 2005 to 68% of the European average3

It is disheartening to reconcile the scale of the failure for these communities. App 2

1 Valleys and West Wales Poorest in the UK and Further Behind European Average, http:// www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-17353478 2 EU Referendum Results. http://www. bbc.co.uk/news/politics/eu_referendum/results database

Societal Change // Political context

Coming into Treherbert from the North. Taken Oct 2016

Policy has always been directed at re-creating economic growth on the principle of labour for the Valleys - the 40 hour week with a pension. This has been tried (through the inward investment programes of the 1980s and 90s) and failed to deliver. App 9 We need to come to the conclusion that we canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t replicate the life-time, full employment of the mines and steel works because they are, and will continue to be, unable to compete in a globalised manufacturing markets. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to look for an alternative future for the Valleys Region. App 11

Sue Essex,

Member of the National Assembly for Wales for Cardiff North from 1999 to 2007. She was the Welsh Assembly Government Minister for Finance, Local Government and Public Services in the Second Assembly 2003-07. Interviewed in June 2016.

Communities first

Welsh Governmental program introduced in 1999, providing funding for Delivery Bodies within local authority areas to narrow the economic, education/ skills and health gaps between our most deprived and more affluent areas. - Is being disbanded due to lack of impact

Societal Change // Political context

A Future for the Valleys

Globally post-industrial cities/towns and their peripheries are shrinking. Increasingly we are seeing large urban areas depopulate, whole regions left to decay. We can no longer view the world in terms of singular continuous growth, rising populations and exponential blanket urbanisation. Instead we live in a binary world where shrinkage and growth co-exist; where decline and subtraction are as fundamental to the way in which we think about urban planning as growth and building. Capital creates space however “The flow and dynamics of the market and technology move faster than the physical structure which it creates… leaving in its wake abandoned factories - depopulated towns.” Klaus Ronneberger1 The Valleys Region is one such consequence of physical space created from market forces. Their very creation was based on the economy of the coal mines. Now the market has moved on; one could argue that the towns should move too. It is no longer feasible to support communities which aren’t economically viable producers. However the problem with the Valleys is that the communities aren’t leaving, the population isn’t naturally declining yet.

Planners and engineers overseeing the subtraction of the Welsh town, Capel Celyn to make way for a resevoir. 1956

So the question becomes, how can we support a population to give them the opportunity to stay in place, rather than be forcibly evicted?

1 ing cities

Oswalt, P. & Bundes, K.D., 2005, Shrink-

Societal Change // Political context

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The economic rational for the place has not been re-established. I think that there is going to be a series of solutions that will work... And this is the time to re-think the way funding is spent - and now is absolutely the time because European funding is going to go.â&#x20AC;? Sue Essex

I believe there is huge potential for large-scale land asset transfer within The Valleys. To support the population to help them stay in place, and ease the struggles of daily life, and become economically, culturally re-connected to the landscape.

App 10

The effect of large-scale land reform has historically had enormous economic and spatial implications for communities and entire countries across the World.

App 8

Land reform can never replace or even support the size of the population in the way the manufacturing or coal industries managed to but they might just be able to create a new positive link between the community and its landscape, allowing them to become more independent and less reliant on ever decreasing government support for survival. This should not be seen as a solution and cannot solve the many problems which face the population. But it could be one of many potential life lines for the valleys region.

Societal Change // Political context

Proposing Land Reform Land Reform In Treherbert Treherbert’s Compulsory Purchase Order Changing Ownership Treherbert’s Community Land trust Land Reform structure Exploring Ownership Structures Structure of Treherbert’s Community Land Trust

Land Reform in Treherbert

Treherbert Uses section 226 of the town ×× Given the undulating nature of the land, ×× and country planning act to complete a Compulsory purchase order on the surrounding land of Treherbert.

×× The

government is forced to relinquish control of NRW land, and private owners forced to sell. Signing over a freehold agreement to a community land trust.

×× A community Land Trust is set up

varying tree cover, wind/ sun exposure the programing of the land will vary depending on the specific site conditions.

×× The App 7

TCLT will explore how the implementation of different ownership models would affect how the landscape is divided, used and built upon.

×× There is a potential for the towns in the

to act as a the coordinator and overall manager of this land.

×× Treherbert’s Community Land Trust is a Company which is ‘limited by guarantee’ which means that it can carry out commercial activity but profits must be ploughed back into public service objectives rather than distributed to shareholders. The shareholders are all residents of Treherbert.

×× A strategy is designed to co-ordinate and manage the distribution of different uses of the land.

22 Proposing Land Reform

valleys to create a network of supply between valley towns. Co-ordinating production/ use on the small regional level to the much larger valley wide level, connections which aren’t currently there.

Treherbert’s Compulsory Purchase Order

80 Brook St Blaenrhondda Treorchy CF42 5SF UK

Information Access Officer Homes and Communities Agency Fry Building 2 Marsham Street London SW1P 4D

Your Ref: JS/A/2/539 Our Ref: DN5042/60/1/19 Date: 28 January 2016

Direct line: 0191 226 5152 www.gov.uk

Dear Sir/ Madam Town and Country Planning Act 1990 ACQUISITION OF LAND ACT 1981 Treherbert Community Land Trust (STATION HOUSE, MIDLAND ROAD) Treherberts COMPULSORY PURCHASE ORDER 2017 (“the CPO”) 1. Following the public local Inquiry held at Treherbert town Hall, George Street, Treherbert , Rhondda Cynon Taf on 25 October 2017 before Mr Martin Whitehead LLB BSc(Hons) CEng MICE (“the Inspector”), appointed by the Secretary of State to hear objections to and representations about the above named CPO submitted by Treherberts Community Land Trust. This letter conveys the the decision by the residents to complete a compulsory purchase order, to aquire in the form of a free hold agreement from the Governing body of National Resource Wales the land which suround Trehertberts limits (see atached map). 2. An Inquiry had previously been held into objections to this Order on 14 January 2017 by a different Inspector. The first Inspector closed the Inquiry without making a recommendation because he had heard legal submissions regarded as inadmissible that breached the “without prejudice” rule in evidence for the statutory objector. This became the subject of the Secretary of State’s decision letter of 21 May 2017 advising the parties that the Inquiry would be reopened and that any document submitted under cover of a “without prejudice” marking would be inadmissible at this second Inquiry. The Inspector appointed to hold the reopened Inquiry, confirmed at paragraph 1.2 of his report (a copy of which is enclosed with this letter) that he did not take part in the previous Inquiry and had

Treherberts CPO presented to NRW For expanded version contact spblake@gmail.com

Town and Country Planning Act 1990 Part IX ; Acquisition for planning and public purposes; Section 226 (1)A local authority to whom this section applies shall,

[F4(1A)But a local authority must not exercise the power

on being authorised to do so by the Secretary of State,

under paragraph (a) of subsection (1) unless they think

have power to acquire compulsorily any land in their

that the development, re-development or improvement

area F1. . . —

is likely to contribute to the achievement of any one or

[F2(a)if the authority think that the acquisition will facil-

more of the following objects—

itate the carrying out of development, re-development

(a)the promotion or improvement of the economic

or improvement on or in relation to the land,]

well-being of their area;

(b)[F3which] is required for a purpose which it is neces-

(b)the promotion or improvement of the social well-be-

sary to achieve in the interests of the proper planning

ing of their area;

of an area in which the land is situated.

(c)the promotion or improvement of the environmental well-being of their area.]

23 Proposing Land Reform

Changing Ownership

Existing ownership structure

24 Proposing Land Reform

Changing ownership

Proposed ownership structure Treherbertâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Community Land Trust Land

NRW Land

25 Proposing Land Reform

Treherbertâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Community Land Trust

Spatial // societal agenda

Treherbertâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Community land trust (TCLT) has been formed as a reaction to the governments past failed economic regeneration programs. As the current Conservative government continues to cut welfare support budgets and as the loss of EU funding begins to be felt it is time to rethink the approach to investment and regeneration in the area. As a trust, it aspires towards greater financial autonomy, through new programming and productions created from the potentials in the landscape.

Treherbertâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Community Land Trust will be based within the old miners hall within the town. From there it will co-ordinate and develop the new land for Treherbert. This will never provide full-time, paid jobs with secure pensions but, it is re-creating a lost economic link between community and landscape. An economic link that used to be there through mining the land.

26 Proposing Land Reform

Treherbert’s Community Land Trust FAQ’s

×× What is the benefit of having a Community land trust rather than individual owners?

By organising and co-ordinating various potentials for the land around Treherbert- TCLT can maximise the economic and spatial potentials within it. As a trust, TCLT is a company Limited by Garuteewhich has the ability to attract large funding grants form both governmental and private organisations. It is also able to if necessary take out private loans and a reduced risk to individuals in the town.

×× What

will the Community Land trust build/ create?

++ The community land trust is responsible for

the development of the land which surrounds the Treherbert boundary as defined by the Compulsory purchase order acquisition from National resource Wales. +Initially will Renovate and transform the old miners hall into the TCLT head quarters. ++ Set up /build satellites to the main TCLT hub which facilitates various programs and uses. Each satellite is built when the felling of diseased trees in the area provides material within which to build them. Program of each satellite will depend on the location of free land and the decision of the residents of the town. ++ Fell and maintain of surrounding forested areas. ++ Create new pathways infrastructure which link both existing and proposed development for the town.

liability for the company’s debts. Which means the risk for residents is greatly reduced, in-case of unforeseen and unfortunate circumstances, such as the sudden withdrawal of financial support from a body such as the local authority. ++ As a company TCLT has the ability to make a profit, however all of the profit is invested back into the company, to continue their work. ++ Parcels of Land can be rented out to private investors, developers, companies. This can either be under a short leasehold or long term rental period. The land will always be owned by TCLT, only the built infrastructure, buildings can be owned by an external investor.

×× What are the potentials within the land? ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++

Renewable energy production Small scale food production Small holdings Forestry school / management Timber production Animal grazing. More potentials will be uncovered as time continues.

×× How

do individuals get involved with the new development?

++ Involvement with the project is optional, however participation is encouraged.

++ All planning meetings for the project will be public and held monthly.

++ Workshops will be held to help educate and encourage engagement with the project

×× What effect would it have on residents lives?

The effect it has depends on the willingness and desire to participate in the trust and their programs. The impact will vary from new cultural and spatial links to the landscape to part time employment, education and economic production.

×× Does anyone have access to the land?

Yes everyone has the right to access the land. The limitation exists in the organisation and ability to build on the land.

×× Who works for the TCLT? ×× How does TCLT access funds to develop Initially the TCLT will be made up of a mix newly acquired land? ++ As a Company TCLT can attract large funding

from both governmental and private organisations. ++ Loans could also be taken out from both the private and public sector. ++ As company limited by guarantee, it protects the people running the company from personal

between existing council members, external consultants and local residents. Encouragement for residents to engage With the aim to eventually have mostly resident run organisation.

National Resource Wales (NRW): largest government funded body in Wales. Owns large areas of the welsh landscape. 27

Proposing Land Reform

Funding Potential

Initial Funding Need draft

Draft Cost of Architectural scale work

5,000 strong population 1739 unemployed - each receives £12,000 a year in benefits

×× Refurbish the Workman’s hall - £1m

Means that the government injects a total of £2,000,000 a year in welfare support for the working age unemployed every year alone.

×× Animal Sheds. - £400,000 ×× Hydro scheme - provide energy for green houses. - £300,000

I predict the project could create around 100 part time jobs - potentially supplementing their income for around £5,000 year.

×× Hydroponic green houses - £1.2m ×× Pathways Light Infrastructure -

Initial Cost providing work

£2m

×× Wood procesing workshop - £500,000 Could potentially create small low paid part time work.

×× Consultancy Budget - £200,000

30 - small holding (animal)

Need - Initial capital investment of £5.6m 20 - Forestry maintenance.

This production could mean a projected return on investment of 10 years.

20 - run co-ordinate CLT services. 30 - small farm production (vegetable) This would mean a small economic production of £500,000 a year.

28 Proposing Land Reform

Funding Potential

Comparative community projects

Current funding available to be able to implement this scheme.

Hastings Pier -2013 Initial Cost - £14.2m Heritage Lottery Fund, awarded a project grant of

Welsh Government // Rural Communities Fund-£23m

£11.4m Community share scheme which attracted over 3,000

Lottery //

shareholders and raised close to £600,000

Funding capital and revenue projects that encourage

And private Benefactors made up the rest

co-ordinated community action -£17.8 m a year

Coin Street - 1984

Grants / private companies //

Intial Cost Land - £1m

Council.

“In speaking to these energy companies they have millions of pounds of community funds. And they said well we don’t know how to talk to communities.” Gemma, working for CREW (regener-

Runs as a Company Limited by garuntee

ation wales)

Initial purchase of the land bought from the Greater London Enterprise Board and the Greater London

The GLC initially loaned the money. Coin Street has subsequently repaid these loans and financed its developments by borrowing from banks and the Nationwide Building Society. Loans and interest must be repaid out of commercial income. Initially this was primarily from temporary uses of the land such as car parking, but CSCB subsequently developed a diverse range of income streams including commercial tenancies, venue hire, and fees.

In perspective the government with Help from EU funds has fully funded these project in a town in the Welsh Valleys // Ebbw Vale has received unprecedented funding over the last 15 years: “The Works” (a new college)-£350m; Heads of the Valleys road, £80m; a new railway, £30m; town centre regeneration, £12.2m.

29 Proposing Land Reform

Exploring potential ownership structures for Treherbert During the design process of the strategy - I will explore how different ownership models and structures - influence the spatial qualities of the land.

Common Land

Re-introducing common land to treherbert, where residents all have the right to graze animals on said land. small Andels-ownership structure set up for facilitation of animal shelters at the bottom of the land.

By Creating a gradated structure of different levels of co-operative and private organisational structures.

Andels-plots

Collectivised ownership based off of the model of andels bolig. For a small fee an individual can become a member, this gives you the right to a plot of land which you can farm on. There will be also be a small monthly charge to go towards funding water electric provision to plots. No economic production just facilitation of use of land.

Co-operative Company

Run as a not for profit organisation. As a branch of TCLT they are owned by the community. All profits fed back into the town, development of the company.

For profit / co-operative food production

Privatised food production - within a collectivised structure of a farming association. Ref Danish collectivised farming structure 19th C. Allows for private investment and competitive pricing structure. App 7 30 Proposing Land Reform

Public to Private

TCLT Land

Run like national trust land ownership and use/access are separated. Would allow the land to be used recreationally by all residents.

Structure of Treherbertâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Community Land Trust

Governance

Treherbert Council They meet quarterly to set out strategy agendaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s for the trust- run though community and democratic involvement.

Management

Treherbert Community Land Trust

Owned by the Treherbert Council. Company ltd. by garutee. Has members which act as garutess- rather than shareholders. They have a board of Director sourced Externally to Community. Main purpose is to organise funding / grants / Operational level management and large infrastructure projects

Operational

Treherbert Community Land Trust Operational body which manages various subsideries. This allows you to set up specialist companies raise cash for specific purpose. Also allows for variety of management and ownership principles to be set up within the same body.

park land

Allotment gardens

Common Land

Agriculture

Forestry management

Each subsidery is managed seperately with individual agendaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, use of subcontraction, property ownership, ownerhsip structures

A common link between each operational body is the seperation and diferentiation between the i value of the land and the value of the built product on the land. When a land is leased for use - the renter pays for the land which goes to the community land trust and to the body which built the infrastructure / built work. This protects the land for Treherbert - and ensure value increase as development continues. Nb. Operational subsideries are only exemplory in this management structure

Created with advise form Kat Swade - from shared assests

31 Proposing Land Reform

Site Plan of Treherbert Analysis Maps The Town Residents And Culture The Building

Site Plan

The Building

Site

The Town

Nestled at the top of the Rhonda Valleys, lies Treherbert, a small town with a population of nearly 6,000 people. Half of the working age population of Treherbert is unemployed, and or has no qualifications of any kind. The need in this town for a new future and an alternative to factory work or mining is paramount. app 2 The land owned by NRW is currently largely forested its maintenance contracted out to large multinational corporations, with no involvement from the local community The same is true of the large wind farms which adorn the tops of the hillsides. The electricity which is produced in these farms is sold into the national electricty market with no benefit to the community. In a distorted echo of the previous coal age â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a landscape despoiled by energy production but with no lasting economic benefit to the community.

An area of future economic potential in the landscape are large areas of forested land which need to be felled within the immediate area. All of the Larch trees in Wales are being felled to stop the spread of a disease (P Ramorum). This felling will produce millions of tonnes of timber and leave a denuded and ugly landscape. This is a huge resource for the local residents to utilize and will also free up about 40% of the surrounding land of the Treherbert area for future economic activity.

Site

pg 37

The Town

Landscape dominates the skyline - Oct 2016

Site

Residents and culture

The Residents in Treherbert experience physical isolation due to the geography of the valleys: the long sprawling towns are one way in and one way out, all the way to Cardiff over an hour away. In addition they experience psychological isolation, leaving the valleys isn’t in the culture of the population, whether it is if for work or leisure. A feature by Sky News, interviewing a young couple living in the Hearts of the Valleys region explores this key issue. The young man describes Cardiff as “a different planet”, he recounts his only visit to Cardiff as app 9 “Into the train station and back out again”.1

In the landscapes some of the residents have already been illegally maintaining the forest, in order for them to make the forest more usable as a recreational space. This has created tension between, NRW and the local inhabitants around the discussion of the use of their surrounding land. NRW has been trying to limit access to the land because as they see it, the residents are not using the land properly. Residents in the town use the forest to have bonfires, drink and play music. There is a tradition of, clearing small patches to grow vegetables and keep horses. Activities which do not meet the economic or biodiversity objectives of NRW.

Historically the residents walked to work to the mines, in Treherbert 1/3 of inhabitants still do. Not only did they walk to work but they used to physically enter the landscape to the mine. Today this connection has been largely lost. Connecting to Cardiff City, where there is work means 1.5 hour long commutes. Given the low pay and zero hour contracts on offer, commuting doesn’t tend to make economic sense. Instead keeping work and economic activity local seems to be a more viable solution.

“…drop the hi-vis and hard hats of infrastructure spend. Such offerings might draw multinationals into central London; they don’t work here.” Chakrabortty writing for the Guardian about a valleys town Pontypool.

1 Tackling UK Benefits Culture; ‘In Merthyr’. (2010, September 7). 38

Site

Residents and culture

Residents enjoy using the existing landscape to socialise

Residents enclosing small plots of land to keep horse

Residents creating informal gardens on the hillside

Site

The Building

pel

Cha

oo Br t kS

It was one of two in the town - the second of which was burnt down in the 60â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Main access road

It is unassuming in character, built in 1912 - it is crafted from stone. In the 1920â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s it functioned as a cinema - seating up to 500 people at a time.

Allotment Gardens

Post Office Church Later Extension Original Miners welfare building

Terraced housing

Basket Ball court

Burnt out infant school

Road to old mine

Situated in an offshoot of Treherbert, called Bleanrhondda - the Building is set on a small side street, tucked away from pedestrian and car traffic.

Over the last century Additions and extensions have been made to the building, including a porch covering a large part of the front facade and an extensive concrete and corrugated iron extension towards the back which more than doubles the footprint of the building. The building although not central in location is walking distance from the main high street and train station in Treherbert. page 41 The building is enclosed by landscape to the East and Residential properties to the West.

Site

The Building

Front elevation from Chapel Street

31 6 20 3

Kitchen / Bar

Games room

Indoor Boules court

Meeting/training rooms

Toilets

Stage

Original Hall built in 1912

Entrance from Chapel St

Site

Light in the Landscape

Site

Analysis Maps

Contours

miners hall

Water

miners hall

Roads // Pathways

miners hall

Rail and Road connectivity

miners hall

Road Rail

Forest cover

miners hall

Forest to fell

miners hall

Habitat

miners hall

Map of Functions

miners hall

Business Community Place of Worship Mixed Use School Residential 53

Open Access Rights

miners hall

Walking Distances in minutes

miners hall

Analysis Maps

Typical Housing in Treherbert

Design Layers Project Scope Design Layers Program Landscape Linking Landscape and Architecture Program Architecture Suggested Room Program Scope // Deliverables

Project Scope

This project explores a range of scales to fully understand the spatial qualities produced by the planning scale. By introducing the architectural scale to the project, we can begin to unpick the interplay and relationship architecture can have with a strategy plan such as land reform. Architecture alone can’t solve the problems which face the Welsh valleys- but architecture as part of a planning logic has more potential. Reaching beyond its walls into a new scale. In order for Treherbert’s Community Land trust to plan , manage and facilitate Land reform in Treherbert; a space needs to be created in the town. This will act as the centre for Treherbert’s new future. To engage the public with their new asset ‘land’. Creating the symbolism the project.

The transformation of Treherbert’s miners welfare hall, into the centre for the Community Land Trust, aims to create a flexible and responsive architecture which is in a direct dialogue with the programmatic needs of the surrounding landscape. The centre will have satellite programming in the landscape. These satellite interventions will be explored in less detail than the TCLT. Instead their role will be largely indicative of programming and will be explored through the scale of 1-500. Explorations on the strategy and planning level of Treherbert’s Land reform, have been partly investigated within the program. However this will be taken further throughout the thesis.

Placing the centre of Treherbert’s Community Land Trust in the old miners welfare building re-establishes the building as the focal point for the community. As a key working method I will explore both scales simultaneously, using explorations and discoveries in one to influence and inform the other.

Design Layers

Landscape Impact of a variety ownership models / programming on the Landscape. Satellite programming for the Main TCLT Hub

Architecture TCLT housed in the old Miners Welfare Building

Design Layers

Program Landscape

Treherbert Community Land Trust

Potential +New centre for TCLT In existing workman’s hall Responds to +Existing empty building +Previous use of the building +Proximal location to land

Allotment Gardens

Potential +Mainly recreational Responds to +North facing hillside +Exceptionally steep terrain +Small amount off felling large forest cover +Area of exceptional beauty

Potential +Plots for allotments on lower edge Responds to +South facing hill side +Areas which need to be felled +Proximity to existing allotments +Proximity to dwellings/township +Reasonably gentle slope lower level.

TCLT Trust land

Common Land

Potential +Grazing animals +Wind turbine upper hillside +Animal shelter / sheds Responds to +South facing hill side +Wind exposure upper level +Areas which need to be felled land +Proximity to dwellings/township

Forestry School / Timber production

Food production

Potential +Greenhouse‘s to provide space for small scale food production, creates small economic production +Hydro power scheme to run green houses Responds to +South facing hill side +Large non-forrested area +Flat landscape +Access to renewable energy source +Ground is only suitable for lightweight structures.

Potential +Forestry school +Timber production +Central management for Treherbert’s forest. +Recreational routes Responds to +Large areas of to be felled land +North facing slope (not suitable for growing) +Sheltered from high winds +Set back form the town

The felling of trees in the landscape presents a potential in freed space for new programming. It also creates a potential in the timber produced. This allows us to no only re-program the site it also presents an ability to build architecture. In some areas this could create a potential for a strong link / interplay between the landscape and the built forms. 66

Design Layers

Program Landscape This is the initial proposed programming / potentials highlighted for Treherbertâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Land reform. With the Centre for TCLT in the old workmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s building at the centre the landscape is programmed in response to the site characteristics. The programming of the project seek to reengage the community with the landscape. By playing with various ownership models and programmatic responses to the sites

nb.

The program might change as project progresses.

Land division in Treherbertâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s land reform

Design Layers

Linking Landscape and architecture

Developing the program for the architecture and the landscape is a process and something which plays out in phases, rather than all at once. This allows for a delicate and responsive approach.

Initially TCLT sets up their headquarters in the old miners hall.

Over time increased adaptation and new programming is introduced. This will be determined by the inhabitants, and when funding and investment becomes available As the project expands so to does the Centre for TCLT, adapting, expanding and responding to the needs in the land. My design proposal should be read as one of many potential scenarios which come from land reform.

The landscape programming would begin with felling the of the forest and timber production. As a response to the immediate need to remove the trees, coupled with the need for the production of timber to build the architecture within the project.

At the centre both physically and conceptually lies Treherbertâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Community Land trust. This diagram represents the vital link between the decisions made at the centre and its affect on the surrounding landscape. Reciprocally the effect the landscape has on the centre, which physically responds to the changes in the landscape.

Design Layers

Program Architecture

Hillside

Existing Extension

++ Engage public with Land Reform process ++ Engage with decision making ++ Inspire population about the potentials in land reform. ++ Inform population potential impact of the Reform ++ Encourage development of own projects whilst supporting engagement with TCLT. ++ Make the most of existing resources in the town. ++ Teach new skills to work with and manage land and resources.

Original Building

Terraced housing

TCLT objectives as a Trust

Architectural response to objectives ++ Create Visual Icon / symbolism project ++ Use existing resources in the town, materials, craftsmen ++ Modest, Humble Architecture ++ Responsive to shifts in landscape programming Potential programming of TCLT building ++ Debating Room ++ Meeting rooms ++ Office space for operational bodies ++ Bar ++ Canteen ++ Carpentry Workshop ++ Games room ++ Educational Facilities Potential satellite programming ++ Timber manufacturing ++ Green houses for food production ++ Animal sheds ++ Market hall to sell produce / other manufactured items

Design Layers

Felling commences around wood processing Building

The Landscape.

Animal shelters built - On common land

Public realm // re-linking the town to the Landscape

Divison and alocation of plots produced. water supply added

Wind turbine constrcuted - to provide elcectrcity for the town

All new built material comes from the larch trees which have been felled on the land

Operational body for common land set up

Operational body for allotments formed

Operational body for Food production created

Operational Body to form recreational Trust Land

TCLT sets up in the Old miners welfare hall

Meeting // Debating Hall built within the building - formalise the debates

The Building

Terracing of the landscape increase allotments provision

Build infrastructure and buildings for food production

Land transfered to Trust

Set up TCLT

Empty Public building is converted into a market hall to sell products produced from land.

Hydro Energy implimented in Stream

Build wood processing building

operational body for forest management set up

Footpaths, benches, signage and pavillion structure built

Program building 1st instance // Governance office // Debating space // Opperational office forrest management.

Build wood workshop in the Welfare building

Office space added to building to manage common land

Office space added to building to manage alottment land

Office space added to building to manage Food production land

Course is taught on providing key managerial skills to run TCLT

Meeting Rooms built

New Entrance created on the building.

As TCLT grows - so to does the building Visible signs begin to appear on the exterior of the building

Debate helddecision made to create common land

Debate helddecision made to create more space for allotmentsland

course begins about horticulture/ agriculture management

Canteen is created for those working in the landscape and locals provide cheap food grown on the landscape

Office spcae added to manage trust land

Public Realm works carried out for building entrance Postions the building in the town - physically and symbolically

Teaching space created Course tought about thow to maintain and manage hydro-scheme.

Carpentry and joinery Courses begin Debate helddecision made to fell and create architectural materials as first act

New Bar is Added

Debate helddecision made to create land to produce food

Debate helddecision made to pursue funding for recreational land

Note //

This should be read as a first scenario play-out of Land Reform. This will be developed throughout my diploma project

Preliminary m² Study the building

This is an initial study to the m² need of new and existing programming compared to the m² of the existing building.

Scope // Deliverables

I will explore large parts of the project through varying representational tools and techniques, using the process of making and drawing as a design tool in itself.

Debating / meeting Hall

240m²

Bellow are suggested deliverables in May

They do not indicate design . Kitchen

Canteen

14m²

45m²

Bar

×× Models

23m²

++ 1-5000 // 1-1000 // 1-500 ++ using models as a sculptural tool I will explore

the nature of adaptation and impact which land

Boules Court

reform has on the landscape.

60m²

Class / lecture Room

×× Drawings

++ Plans :: Sections :: Elevations ::Visualisations

64m²

72m²

at // 1-500 // 1-200// 1-50

++ Exploring materiality, light and symbolism of

56m²

the architecture. Wood Workshop

29m² Meeting Rooms

Office Space

950m²

Design Layers

1-500

Original Miners Welfare Building

Design Layers

Appendix 1 // Site Images 2// Statistics and Graphs 3// Climate Site Conditions 4// Building Vacancy 5// Advisory Panel 6// References 7// Discussions of Ownership 8// Land Reform 9// Current Approach to Regeneration 10//Depopulating the Valleys 11//Ministerial Task Force Meeting 12//Bibliography 13//CV

Site photographs Taken Sept 2016

Old Entrance to the mine at the former Fernhill Colliery site

Appendix

Site photographs Taken Sept 2016

Rows of Terraced housing

Appendix

Exploring colour and texture in Treherbert 78

Appendix

Informal architecture in the landscape Appendix

Statistics and graphs Economy Out of Work Benefits claiments total

Economic activity

UK Total 11.5%

UK Total 77.9%

Wales Total 14.9% Wales Total 75.2%

Rhondda CynonTaff Total 14.9% Treherbert Total 50% Break down of benefits Job Seekers ESA And Incapacity Benefits Lone Parents Carers Others On Income Related Disabled Bereaved Main Out-Of-Work Benefits

Treherbert

2.2% 11% 1.6% 2.6% 0.3% 1.2% 0.2% 15.2%

All Usual Residents Aged 16 to 74

4091

In Employment

2039

Not In Employment; Total

2,052

Housing benefits Claiments

Wales Total 9.5%

Rhondda Cynon Taf Total 11.6%

Treherbert Total 16.5%

Map showing levels of deprivation in dark blue. The valleys light up as the most deprived area in the whole of Wales.

Appendix

Statistics and graphs Employment by industry

Age Distribution

Age distribution pop // 2 013

Age distribution pop // 2 001 95-99

95-99

90-94

85-89

80-84

75-79

70-74

65-69

60-64

55-59

50-54

45-49

40-44

35-39

30-34

25-29

20-24

15-19

10-14

4-9

4-9 0-4

0-4 1

100

200

300

400

500

100

200

300

400

500

Jobs By Industry Employment by industry

Human Health And Social Work Activities

Wholesale And Retail Trade; Repair Of Motor Vehicles And Motorcycles

Manufacturing

Education

Construction

Accommodation And Food Service Activities

Human Health And Social Work Activities

Wholesale And Retail Trade; Repair Of Motor Vehicles And Motorcycles

Manufacturing

Education

Construction

Accommodation And Food Service Activities

Administrative And Support Service Activities

Professional, ScientiďŹ c And Technical Activities

Other

Mining And Quarrying

Administrative And Support Service Activities

Professional, ScientiďŹ c And Technical Activities

Other

Mining And Quarrying

Appendix

Climate

Temperature avg. by month

Sunlight hours avg. by month

Rainfall avg. by month

Wind direction and speed avg. yearly

Appendix

Building Vacancy In Rhondda Fawr and Treherbert

Vacant buildings in treherbert

Vacant buildings in Rhondda Fawr The building vacancy rate in treherbert is moderate for residential buildings at a rate of 10%. However more prominent are the larger community and public buildings which have fallen into disrepair over the years. In the valley Rhonda Fawr where treherbert lies, a recent study revealed that there weer 43 buildings which are currently disused or underused. Including ++ Five former churches/chapels; ++ Five former club houses; ++ Eight buildings with a former community use ++ Eight former retail units.

Housing occupancy rate/ Residential

At Least One Usual Resident No Usual Residents

Appendix

2,573 264

Appendix

Advisory panel

Sue Essex

Richard Essex

Ian Thomas

First Welsh MP for Blanaeu Gwent

Co-ordinator of Regeneration Skills Collective Wales & Fellow of CREW.

Treherbert Local and activist

Mark Lang

Jemma Bere

Kat Swade

Senior Researcher CREW, regeneration Wales

Policy and research manager Keep Wales tidy

Director at shared Assets Lead concultants at the coin street community project.

She was the Welsh Assembly Government Minister for Finance, Local Government and Public Services

Appendix

Reference projects architecture Lina Bo Bardi - SESC The SESC, a project which had great ambitions beyond its built form. Transforming a former workhouse in to a centre for leisure, where the community could come together. ‘The rehabilitation of a former factory – a place of hard work; of suffering, for many; a testament to human labour – and its transformation into a place of leisure, without erasing its history’ Gion A Caminada - Vrin Caminada’s intervention in the struggling town of Vrin was to implement a series of well designed and functional private and communal building which would help kick start the town. The project was a success- it put vrin on the map as an architectural destination - it was the first village to be awarded the swiss heritage society’s wakker prize. Ise Jingu

The Ise Jingu shrine in Japan in Nagoya, is one of the most sacred buildings in Japan. Although among architects it is best known for the fact that it is torn down and rebuilt every 20 years, using the surrounding forestry as its key construction material. This process of rebuilding not only maintains the building it also allows the skill and crafts which go into creating a building like this to be passed down through the generations. Isam Naguchi

Exploring the sculptural landscape

Rafael Guastavino

UC Berkeley’s Hearst Mining Building

Appendix

“I pose a question to myself what those old architectural systems may give us. Where is the substance of those constructions? How can they be transformed for the new kinds use to meet the requirements of the present time?”

Reference projects architecture Dorte Mandrup Community involvement in creation

Russo-Georgia Friendship

Laululava - Song Festival

A Kotli, H Sepmann, U Tolpu 1960 Symbolism of Russian Avant Garde

Kay Fisker Symbolism of the welfare state

Borge Mogensen Symbolism of the welfare state

Appendix

Reference projects - Organistions

Samsø

Samsø is the first 100% carbon neutral Isalnd. Run mainly of of solar power and 11 onshore and 10 offshore wind turbines. Local ownership of the energy production is vital with 90 % of the windmills on Samsoe owned by the local people.

Coin Street London Coin Street Community Builders (CSCB) is a company limited by guarantee established by local residents in 1984 following a campaign against large scale office proposals. n 1984, with the GLC facing abolition, the community acquired the land as CSCB for £1m in order to implement its development plan. Several projects on the initial site, as well as on other sites in the proximity, have been completed. These include four housing co-operative schemes, a park, a riverside walkway open to the public, as well as community facilities including a new community and sports centre.

Letchworth Garden City // Heritage fund In 1962, an Act of Parliament transferred the assets, role and responsibilities of First Garden City Ltd to a public sector organisation - Letchworth Garden City Corporation. 33 years later, a further Act of Parliament wound up the Corporation passing the £56 million Estate to Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation. Much Like a Community Land Trust. Thier portfolio consists of a wide range of property including 185,567 sq ft of offices, 181 industrial units and 125 shops, spread across the 5,500 acre Garden City Estate. This combined with IT businesses, Farming and property development, funds the city. “All our charitable commitments are funded through income generated from our own activities and operations. We do not fundraise.”

Appendix

Reference projects - Organistions

Un-monestry “idealistic people playing in the ruins created by failed government intervention and receding faith in conventional democratic accountability at the scale of individual communities.” Kieran Long writing for the design commision about un-monestry.

Set in Matera, Italy, and heralded as a commune for the internet age, it is a collective with an aim to explore a new kind of local community in an increasingly globalised age. Based in a monetary, instead of religious ideology they would promote, open source software, horizontal governance with “wifi and solar panels”

El Campo de Cebada When a development project fell through after the 2008 crash a 5,500sqm space was left empty in central Madrid. This prompted a group to form a collective and gain temporary use of the space. Utilities were added and slowly sporting facilities and cultural spaces appeared.

Knoydart // Community Land Trust The Knoydart Foundation is a company limited by guarantee with charitable status. The community buyout came to fruition in March 1999. The company is a partnership of local residents, the Highland Council, Chris Brasher Trust, the Kilchoan Estate and the John Muir Trust. It aims to preserve, enhance and develop Knoydart for the well being of the environment and the people. Key objective

++ To relieve the poverty of the unemployed inhabitants of the Knoydart Peninsula by providing or assisting in finance and opportunities for employment and appropriate training or retraining.

Appendix

Discussions on Ownership

Italian Commons movement

Philosophy of Ownership

The Italian commons movement was created as a reaction to the privitisation of public utilities such as water in Italy in 2011. The movement is based based on the principles of inalienable rights to commons such as water, culture and education. This movement is just one of many around the world, where local people are pushing back against the failures of the state and the destructive forces of the multinationals on marginalised communities.

“challenging the assumptions underpinning the liberal constitutional form, namely of private property, and providing a much needed channel for political confrontation where parliamentary politics has failed to protect the public from predatory private actors” Saki Bailey Social movements like these are giving new meaning to the current understanding of sovereignty. With projects such as un-monestry and El Campo de Cebada, Spain - paving the way for the power of collective action where markets and governments have failed to provide.

Land bank in detroit

Property as a right Hegel For Hegel property and its ownership in essence ‘embodies freedom’. He puts forward the notion that true expression of our personality and in a way even our existence can be said to be largely based on our ability to own and use objects external to ourselves. In that way the right to ownership is an inalienable right, to own is to be human. John Locke “Locke’s notion of property conceives of it as a natural right based on the labour one exerts in the state of nature to appropriate objects, removing them from their common status in the world.” Which means that for Locke one can claim ownership of property which you have put labour into. For example the apple that you pick is your property, however a limit is set to the amount any individual can conceivably consume.

Property as attrition

Marx For Karl Marx private property is related to the ability to own the means of work and production, and through that, a tool by which one could alienate labour. Through property one can exploit the labour of those who work it. Ownership of property is a means by which you create profit through the exploitation of others. Pier Vitorio Aureli Aureli follows Marx’s thesis up with, ‘Property as a twofold condition that sanctions individuals to dominate others while tying these individuals to the more stable power structure- the legal, juridical and financial framework. 1 So for Aureli – owning 1 Aureli, P V. A room against ownership,( 2014). Appears in, Real estates: Life without debt (J. Self & s. Bose, Eds.). London: Bedford Press

Appendix

Discussions on Ownership

property (owning debt) makes you more vulnerable and more controlled by the existing system than by not owning at all. Because it encourages behaviours which plays into and benefits the neo-liberal system, and makes you susceptible by market forces which are external to you. Hannah Arendt Owning property is a tool with which to alienate others and your property from others. ‘society when it first entered the public realm, assumed the disguise of an organization of property owners who instead of claiming access to the public realm because of their wealth, demanded protection from it for the accumulation of more wealth’.2 David Harvey “the poor, beset with insecurity of income and frequent financial difficulties, can easily be persuaded to trade in that asset for a cash payment at a relatively low price”3 He criticises the practice of giving land ownership and rights to informal settlement dwellers in places like Rio. Highlighting the danger of being bought out when all you have is the land you live on.

Lease hold agreement Give ownership of a property or land for limited time, usually around 100-150 years. This agreement allows you to use the property exactly as it were your own but at the end of the lease hold agreement the ownership of the land is returned to the original owner. Is use full at restricting land inheritance, and also devalues the land for future or potential development. Properties without owners / commons or the distinction between owners and access rights. Examples would be common land for grazing or the many publicly owned forest’s and woodlands viewed as commons in which every person has the right to use, and the right to consume anything which it produces. Non profit organisations Where creation of ownership conditions are separated from the right to access, for example national trust forestry/woodlands. Andelsbolig Is a form of living where you become member of an association and via this membership, has the right to use an apartment owned by the association. All “members” have to buy the right to membership, which then again gives you the right to use one specific flat in the association’s property. When you buy an Andelsbolig you do therefore not buy property in itself, but you buy the right to use a part of a property

2 Arendt, H. (1958) The Human Condition, (Chicago, University of Chicago Press). P68 3 Harvey, D. (2003), The right to the city. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 27: 939–941. doi:10.1111/j.0309-1317.2003.00492.x

Appendix

Land Reform

During the American occupation of Japan after WW2 The economist, Wolf Ladejinsky implemented one of the most profound and radical land reform since the enclosures of 18th Century Britain. Having already eradicated the feudal landlords in Japan, this was Stage 2 Re-distribution. Its aim was to democratize land and landownership. Using the principles of John Locke1, Ladejinsky completed a compulsory purchase order on 2.3million landlords, selling the land to the 4.7 million farmers who worked them, at a fraction of the cost. A key aim of this transfer of ownership was to eradicate absentee landlords, who had very little connection to the land that they were renting out. By 1950 90% of Japan’s farmland was owner occupied. This transfer is what Ronald Dore called the ‘democratisation of the villages’.2 The security the farmers now felt in this new capacity as owner-occupier, gave them new confidence to voice opinions about village affairs, without fear of eviction3. Andro Linklater in fact attributes land reform to Japan’s current economic success, although this might be hard to prove, it is certainly a seductive conclusion.

Which put forward that one person could own: three hectares of rice paddy land or six hectares of dry farmland. Any land in excess of this was forcibly bought by the government for a fraction of its’ worth and sold onto to the farmers who worked the land.4 By 1956, 106,490 landlords had transferred land to 1 million owner occupiers, a staggering redistribution. According to Linklater, large parts of the success of Taiwan’s land reform was the creation of regional agricultural markets between these parcels of land. Linklater also comments that “80% of the start-up loans for new businesses in the1960’s used these same small fields (gained through land reform) as collateral”. During the period of land reform in the 1950’s Taiwan’s economic growth rate per year was an impressive 7%. The impact of land reform exceeds purely economic implications, by 1959 96% of farmer’s children attended school. Raising one fifth from the days before land reform. 5

A second example of Stage 2 land reform was in Taiwan, which again was implemented by Ladejinsky. At first he forcibly sold off large swathes of public land, before he essentially copied what he had done in Japan, with the introduction of the land-to-the-tiller program. 1 “Locke’s notion of property conceives of it as a natural right based on the labour one exerts in the state of nature to appropriate objects, removing them from their common status in the world.” 2 Dore, R. (2012). Land reform in japan. London: Bloomsbury. (Original work published 1984) p.440 3 Linklater, A. (2014). p.804

4 Yueh, J. Y. (n.d.). Sharing successful land reform with the rest of the world. Taiwan Today. Retrieved November, 2016, from http://taiwantoday. tw/ct.asp?xitem=63286&CtNode=428 5 Thuemmel, t. (1969). Reviewed work(s): The role of land reform in economic development: A case study of taiwan by anthony Y. C. Koo. The Journal of Developing Areas, 3(4), 589-592

Appendix

Land Reform

Appendix

Depopulating the valleys // ‘Urban restructuring’

An economic argument for a planned retreat from The Valleys, displacing citizens into surrounding capital regions such as Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, could be made. The cost of dismantling the housing stock, re-location / re-housing of inhabitants would be large. But then so is the cost of maintaining the current infrastructure: power, schools and hospitals. But Investing in a final plan of shrinkage could be the cheapest option for future administrations. The current rhetoric around shrinkage and subtraction is largely around empty plots and population decline. Detroit is often exemplified when discussing shrinking cities. Since the collapse of its industry in the mid 20th Century, Detriot saw a population loss of over 50% since the 1950’s, and a current building vacancy rate of around 20%.1 The valleys region although similar in its economic shrinkage, differs from Detroit in two key aspects. The population of The Valleys has and continues to be stable. In the local authority of Rhonda Cynon Taf it is growing in real terms, from 223,301 in 2001 to 240,332 in 20132. In addition vacancy rates in Treherbert are only at 9.3%3. For many shrinking regions across the world, economic shrinkage has been followed by physical and population, shrinkage. This is not currently the case in South Wales. 1 Oswalt, P. & Bundes, K.D, 2005. P661 2 Jackson, A. (n.d.). Local authority population projections for wales 2014-based: Further results. [Data file] Excel doc, retrieved oct 2016, http:// gov.wales/docs/statistics/2013/131220-local-authority-population-projections-2011-based-variant-projections-revised-en.pdf 3 Household Spaces, 2011, Retrieved November, 2016, from http://www.neighbourhood. statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView. doa=7&b=13696818&c=treherbert&d=14&e=61&g =6495179&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&o=362&m=0 &r=1&s=1479132620595&enc=1&dsFamilyId=256

How do you close a community? 1// Halt migration into the valleys region 2// State buys up every house that comes on the market and knocks it down. 3// Cut off investment into the valleys, stop investing in schools / infrastructure/ hospitals 4// provide housing or economic incentives to move elsewhere. Essentially create an environment in which people will have no choice but to leave. However this form forced of ‘Subtraction’ as Keller Easterling puts it “would offer…debilitating attrition”4. To ‘subtract’ from the valleys would mean forcibly evicting thousands from their homes, cutting funding to the point that the valleys were no longer inhabitable. A slow, painful and by all means aggressive act of subtraction. Much like the compulsory purchase orders being placed on residents in owner occupied council flats across the UK.

4 Easterling, K. (2014). Critical spatial practice 4: Subtraction. Berlin: Sternberg Press

Appendix

Current Welsh Government approach to regeneration

The current big infrastructure investment program to be partly funded by the EU is the Cardiff Capital Region Metro costing £2bn. This is following the centralised planning logic of Britain today - economic investment is best centred towards a singular place and region. This logic falls down at two points. Firstly getting the residents to Cardiff is going to take more than the physical existence of infrastructure given the culture of the valleys. Historically the residents walked to work - in Treherbert 1/3 of inhabitants still do. Secondly the landscape of the valleys means that connection to Cardiff is still going to mean 1.5 hour long commutes. Given the low pay they are likely to get the commute will not make economic sense.

“Londoners enjoyed public investment (transport) of £2,731 per head, far outstripping any other region. The North -east received a measly £5 per head.”2 Increasing London’s wealth means that statistically the UK can been quoted as having a GDP performance of 110.7% of the European average. The reality is large areas of the UK are massively underperforming – dwarfed by the global economic and financial centre in London. The plight of the Welsh Valleys is shared with many other post-industrial communities, both within the UK and across the developed world. “To be born in many places in Britain is to suffer…a truncation of opportunity, of education, of access to power, of life expectancy.,”

“…drop the hi-vis and hard hats of infrastructure spend. Such offerings might draw multinationals into central London; they don’t work here.”

John Lanchester writing for the London Review of Books3

Chakrabortty writing for the Guardian about a valleys town Pontypool.1

Centralised economic investment mirrors the pervading English paradigm where public/ private investment is directed unflinchingly towards London:

1 Just about managing? In towns like Pontypool that’s a dream, Guardian. Retrieved November 25, 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/ commentisfree/2016/nov/22/just-about-managingpontypool-south-wales-poverty-post-industrialtruth-britai

2 Chakrabortty, A. (2016). ‘It doesn’t pay to work’, P. 36. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Lanchester, J. (n.d.). Brexit blues. London review of books [Web page]. Retrieved July 28, 2016, from the http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n15/johnlanchester/brexit-blues database

Appendix

Current Welsh Government approach to regeneration

100% 1%

Stark contrast between commuting to Cardiff Vs commuting to London. Consequence of single focussed point of economic production. (Graphics produced by the Guardian)

Cardiff Capital Region Metro costing ÂŁ2bn

Appendix

Ministerial Task force on the Valleys:: Meeting Minutes // statement Tuesday 5th July 2016

Alun Davies Minister for Lifelong Learning & Welsh Language

Mohammad Asghar (South Wales East) (Conservative)

×× outlined how the Valleys have felt “left behind

×× Cited ONS statistics of 1 in 8 children living

and left out” and as a result he was

in long-term workless households,

establishing the Ministerial Task force.

with many in the South East Valleys. He

He described them as having to deal

welcomed anything that attempted to

with being at the “bottom of health,

break the cycle of unemployment, poor

wealth and well being league tables”

health, lack of educational achievement. He stressed it was vital for businesses

×× He said the priority will be to listen to

to be involved, although also asked

people in the Valleys, with an “in-depth

how consultation with local govern-

conversation” about their quality of

ment and third sector would work.

life, economic development, business

×× He stated communities have been

efficiency, employment and skills,

deprived since the decline of coal and steel, without the Welsh Government managing to do anything about it so far.

and sustainable development.

×× The need to not just have Welsh Government action, but to be a catalyst for bringing people together, and to ensure tackling poverty is a driv-

Alun Davies

er for all policy interventions.

×× Stressed that he said in his statement that he

Bethan Jenkins (South Wales West) (Plaid Cymru)

would be consulting with private, public and third sectors. He criticised Mr Asghar

need to engage with and empower communities to take their own decisions. She discussed how the EU referendum captured people’s disenfranchisement and argued that outcomes were key to measuring the success of the efforts, describing it as the most “elementary” as well as the most important.

×× Post-Brexit, there had been an evaluation of how EU investment has impacted the Valleys?

Appendix

for criticising the Welsh Government when the UK Government’s welfare reform had had such an “extraordinary” impact on “some of the most vulnerable and poorest families”, as well as local businesses and communities.

Ministerial Task force on the Valleys:: Meeting Minutes // statement Tuesday 5th July 2016

Dawn Bowden (Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney) (Labour)

×× Pointed out that UKIP had not even “both-

Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore)(Labour)

×× Speaking on the South Wales Metro, argued for ensuring people can get into the Val-

ered to stay in this Chamber” when they

leys, not just out to the cities. He hoped

repeatedly “laud” their representation

they would not “throw the baby out

in the Valleys. She went on to praise

with the bath water” and not abandon

the potential for promoting the environment, heritage and tourism in her constituency. The Minister con-

digital inclusion initiatives, Flying Start, apprenticeship programmes

curred with the potential of recreational

edly agreed with his points, particularly

activities in the Valleys, citing examples

on having a robust transport system

of heritage rail, cycling and “telling the

that looked at links between trains

story of the Industrial Revolution”.

and buses, to enable people to access

and others. The Minister wholeheart-

as many opportunities as possible.

Adam Price (Carmarthen East & Dinefwr)(Plaid Cymru)

×× Wondered whether there should be a

David Melding (South Wales Central) (Conservative)

×× Stressed that economic inactivity was

“fundamental rethink”, given that communities felt so isolated in how they

not the same as unemployment and

voted at the EU referendum, particularly

that local delivery schemes had to

in how urban success does not “trickle

involve local people. He believed that

down” to other areas. The Minis-

particularly needs and preferences from

ter agreed and said this was an opportunity to rethink approaches. He cited the Deep Place study in

the communities themselves may be

Tredegar and its “holistic approach” to

Generations Act would address some of

economic development sitting along-

this. He also believed the “casual-

side environment, social, energy and community policy, acknowledging that

isation of the economy” needed to be looked at, where people are on zero

solving unemployment in Cardiff did not

hours, reduced and part-time contracts.

different from the Welsh Government’s. Alun Davies hoped that the Future

help Merthyr. He welcomed conversations across the Siambr on this matter.

Appendix

Bibliography Adams, M, 2015, Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World, North Atalantic books, California Adamsom, D. & Lang, M. 2014, April 1. Toward a new settlement : A deep place approach to equitable and sustainable places (Deep place study). CREW. Arendt, H., 1958, The Human Condition, 1 ed. Univercity of Chicago Press, Chicago. Bill Clinton, Home Ownership Proposal. (1995) c-span Chakrabortty, A. 2016, ‘It doesn’t pay to work’, in J Self, S Bose & F WIlliams (eds), Home Economics, The Spaces, REAL Foundation, pp. 34-7. Just about managing? In towns like Pontypool that’s a dream, Guardian. Retrieved November 25, 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/22/ just-aboutmanaging-pontypool-south-wales-poverty-post-industrial-truth-britain

Dore, R., 2012, Land reform in Japan, Bloomsbury, London. Easterling, K. 2014. Critical spatial practice 4: Subtraction. Berlin: Sternberg Press Friedman, M. & Stiglitz, J.E., 2016, Dr. Smith Goes to Washington: Market Economies Face New Challenges, The Making of Modern Economics: The Lives and Ideas of the Great Thinkers, p. 441. Goodbun, J., Klein, M., Rumpfhuber, A. & Till, J., 2013, The Design of Scarcity, First ed.

Strelka Institute For Media, Moscow.

de Graaf, R 2015, Building Capitol, Architectural Review,May 2015, pp. 36-45. IMF, WORLD ECONOMIC OUTLOOK, Retrieved October, 2016, Hetherington, P., 2015, Whose land is our land? the use and abuse of Britain’s forgotten acres, Policy Press, Chicago, IL. Howell John, & Simmons Richard. ed. by Designing democracy: how designers are changing democratic spaces and processes, Design Commission, 2015. J Self, S Bose & F WIlliams Real Estates: Life Without Debt, 2014, Bedford Press, Kersely, R. (2014). Global wealth report 2014 . Credit Suisse . Credit Suisse LACHAPELLE, P.R. & McCOOL, S.F., 2005, Exploring the Concept of “Ownership” in Natural Resource Planning, Society & Natural Resources, 18(3), pp. 279-85.

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Appendix

Bibliography Lanchester, J, Brexit Blues, London Review of Books. Retrieved July 28, 2016, Linklater, A., 2014, Owning the Earth : the transforming history of land ownership, Oswalt, P. & Bundes, K.D., 2005, Shrinking cities, Hatje Cantz ; New York : Distributed by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Ostfildern-Ruit [Germany]. Saki Bailey and Ugo Mattei, 2012, Social Movements as Constituent Power: The Italian Struggle for the Commons, Indiana University Press

Sandel, M.J., 2012, What money canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t buy : the moral limits of markets, Allen Lane, London;

New York.

Thuemmel, t., 1969, Reviewed Work(s): The Role of Land Reform in Economic Development: A Case Study of Taiwan by Anthony Y. C. Koo, The journal of Developing areas, 3(4), pp. 589-92.

Yueh, J.Y, Sharing successful land reform with the rest of the world, Taiwan today.

Appendix

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Saskia Blake spblake@gmail.com

Professional Experience

2015-2016 Svendborg Architects, http://svendborgarchitects.dk Copenhagen

Intern // Free lance Architect Architecture

2014-2015 Adams & Sutherland http://www.adams-sutherland.co.uk London

Architectural Assistant Landscape // Public Realm // Architecture Model maker

01, 2014 Pipers Models London 09-12, 2013 Duke of Edinburghâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Award London

Research assistant

07-08, 2013 Chair London exhibition committee Glasgow

Curator

06-08, 2012 Tessellate a+d (architects), Melbourne, Australia

Architectural assistant Architecture

Education

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20-2017 KADK, Urbanism & Societal Change

Architecture M(Arch)

2010 - 2013 Glasgow School of Art, Architecture

Architecture B(Arch)

Appendix