street: a public thoroughfare, in a town or city, including the sidewalk, adjacent
houses, lots, lawns, and trees.
2
boundary: something that indicates bounds or limits; a limiting or bounding line.
3
street
4
boundaries
5
6
1. introduction
origins main terms
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2. what’s happening on our streets? current situation growth and evolution of London suburbs street spaces in former industrial suburbs case study: Enfield, North-East London initial site research durants rd
16 18 20 22 28 38
3. narratology in spatial design
narrative in space 4. narratology applied overview of proposed methodology implementation phase 1 outcome phase 1 implementation phase 2 outcome phase 2
48 62 64 80 90 102
5. prototype
t-bar potentials materials
106 108
making of... unfolding... a day in the life of...
110 112 114 7
1. introduction
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origins This project is born of my fascination for urban space and for the small and vernacular; it began while I was a student of architecture in Berlin from the late-nineties to early oughties. My learning was informed by the formal education I was getting at university on the one hand and by the constantly metamorphosing city that I was living in on the other. At the time I moved to Berlin in the mid-nineteen-nineties, the city was still in a state of post-Wall semi-anarchy. In urban spatial terms there was no such thing as a defined place; things were always changing. Many of the buildings in the district of Mitte, at the heart of the city, were occupied by artists, who had found them empty after the Berlin wall fell and who were trying out alternative forms of living. The city was a spatial laboratory. I became intrigued by the way that people adapted the spaces originally planned by architects to their own needs. It gave me a sense of how flexible space actually can be and what little means are needed to create new worlds. I was a member of an artistic collective called the ALM, which occupied a former East German residential building. The freedom that we had to shape that space made appropriation of space an ever-present issue to me. Living in a spatial laboratory showed me that a city can actually be a good place to live, whether you are rich or poor, especially if you have the ability to contribute to your own environment. In comparison to London, Berlin is a safe city. When bicycles are stolen or someone is mugged, the response I get in the UK to my disbelief is, “Oh, well, that’s city life I suppose”. My experience shows that it does not have to be. According to the UN HABITAT study “The State of the World Cities 2008/2009-Harmonious Cities”, by 2050, 70% of the world’s population will be living in cities; Europe, North America and Latin American have already reached those levels. These statistics prove that it is worth investing energy in exploring how cities can become better places to live. Urban space and particularly suburban space in London can be bleak, uninviting or even downright scary; it is worth asking how that can be changed.
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The work of such practices as raumlabor in Berlin, AAA (atelier d’architecture autogérée) in Paris and Muf art and architecture in London confirm that there is in fact a demand for a more bottomup approach to spatial design. “Architecture and urban planning always tells a story, the story of public space. While public space was considered static and materialistic as Modernism began, since the last decade our perception of it as transitive and permanently subject to modification is growing. But what exactly is public space? Does it really exist or is it just a civil-liberal construct? ... The most effective way to get a grasp of it is through definite action, such as urban interventions, which sound out various areas between publicity and privacy and concretise them.”1 This quote substantiates the basic assumption of this project, that if our cities are to be improved, it is necessary to examine both the physical and social layers that comprise them and to intervene on both. Using a phenomenological approach and the theory of narratology as a framework, I examine how appropriation of urban space by its users can be encouraged and what the effects of that are. 1
raumlaborberlin (2008), Acting in Public, Berlin, p.135
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terminology Boundary: My initial research revealed that an important aspect of how urban space is used
is the definition of public and private property with the result that the term boundary becomes significant. In the physical world, a boundary is a real or imagined line that marks the edge or limit of something1. The term is also used in psychology in relation to personal boundaries. Personal boundaries are guidelines, rules or limits that a person creates to identify for him- or herself what are reasonable, safe and permissible ways for other people to behave around him or her and how he or she will respond when someone steps outside those limits.2 Both physical and personal boundaries define how public space is used.
Urban: The term urban means relating to, or characteristic of a town or city3. An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.4 Phenomenology: Although this term is used in many different fields including architecture, philosophy, and psychology, within this context the archeological definition coined by C. Tilley in his book A Phenomenology of Landscape in 1994 is meant. In archaeology, phenomenology applies to the use of sensory experiences to view and interpret an archaeological site or cultural landscape.5 While Tilley suggested it to be a useful technique that can be used to discover more about historical peoples and how they interacted with the landscapes in which they lived, in this context I propose its use as a design tool with which to discover how people interact with the environments in which they now live. Narrative Ecology: The framework is a collection of interrelated concepts informed by ecology theory using narrative techniques, based on the belief that the component parts of a design solution can best be understood in the context of the relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than in isolation. The methodology begins the process of searching, evaluating and understanding the research, while the actor stories conclude the process by putting forward both 1 2 3 4 5
Cambridge English Dictionary http://www.outofthefog.net/CommonNonBehaviors/Boundaries.html http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_gb0916490#m_en_gb0916490 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_area http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology_%28archaeology%29
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plausible and alternative design realities.The Narrative Ecology framework attempts to act as a reasoning, problem-solving and decision-making framework for the design process, determining the comprehensive components and processes, as well as the inter-relationships found within them, in order to inform design development.6
The Diegesis: The diegesis is the world of the narrative. It includes objects, events, spaces and the characters that inhabit them, including things, actions, and attitudes not explicitly presented in the work but inferred by the audience. That audience constructs a diegetic world from the material presented in a narrative‌7 Spaces: A space can be defined as an actor embodied in the virtual or physical built environment, and therefore exerting a presence that can be defined in terms of a spatial analysis of light, volume, obstacles and flow routines, amongst others.8 Character: is a human or human-like entity. Characters are any entities involved in the action that have agency. 9
Agency: is the capacity of an entity to cause events10 Things: Things are designed objects, products or services, with specific roles. As actors, these exert a design-centered view of the world of activities and meaningful relationships which participants have with it.11 Event: The fundamental unit of the action. Also called an “incident�, an event can be an act (a kick or a kiss) or a happening when no character is casually involved (a bolt of lightning). 12 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
http://macpfne.kosawese.net/index.php/discipline/view/Narrative%20Ecology http://macpfne.kosawese.net/index.php/term/view/The%20diegesis http://macpfne.kosawese.net/index.php/term/view/Spaces Porter Abbott, H (2002), The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative, p. 230 Porter Abbott, H (2002), The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative, p. 228 http://macpfne.kosawese.net/index.php/term/view/Things Porter Abbott, H (2002), The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative, p. 232
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2. what’s happening on our streets?
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current situation Depending on the area, suburban street spaces, in London can be extremely bleak and are often perceived to be dangerous by the people who live in them and who walk through them. “Don’t go near the alleyway at night, that’s where the junkies hang out”. “I’ve lived here for 15 years and I don’t know anyone on this street”. “Its always dirty, there’s always rubbish flying around”.1 The main objective of this project is to examine suburban space on a micro level to discover why it has become so desolate and under-used. My intention is to use the tools of narrative environment design, ignoring the legal constraints of ownership and regulations in as far as possible, to propose how it could be made more vibrant and relevant in today’s society. Questions of ownership and the boundaries of public and private are of course central to these issues.
1
Conversations that I had with residents of Durants Road in North-East London in Autumn 2010.
16
“I’ve lived here for 15 years and I don’t know anyone on this street.” “I’d move away if I could afford it”
1
“People are very unfriendly around here.” 17
evolution of London suburbs In the late nineteenth century, suburbs, particularly in West London, were built for white-collar workers in the city. However, as industry moved from the centre to the periphery, smaller suburban terraced houses were built for factory workers, increasingly in East London. “As production expanded to meet consumer demand, this suburbanisation of industry expanded too. Growing firms moved to greenfield sites where land and rates were cheaper… This was a strong trend in the early years of the century… Most of those migrating businesses moved to north London, especially along the Lea Valley (Enfield, Edmonton, Tottenham…).”1 London City Council (LCC) was set up under the 1888 Local Government Act2 to take care of administrative issues, which included regulating housing at first and as its powers grew over the years, also involved building houses. “The Housing of the Working Classes Act (1890) gave it compulsory purchase powers for land for housing”3. It was replaced by the Greater London Council (GLC) in 1965. Industry continued to grow and expand in East London peripheral areas such as Enfield and Edmonton well into 20 th century. “London kept on growing both in area and population, because its economy was so prosperous. While many other parts of the country stagnated in the 1920s and sank into deep depression in the early 1930s, London’s economy flourished.”4
2 3 4
Inwood, Stephen (1998) A History of London, London, p.440 Porter, Roy (1998), London - A Social History, Harvard, p.328 Inwood, Stephen (1998) A History of London, London, p.724
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This meant that houses for the workers in those factories were also required; these continued to be built by the council. However, the success of such areas as industrial production locations began to wane in the 1960s. “In the thirty years from 1966, manufacturing in London lost nearly 80 percent of its jobs. By the early 1980s every part of London was affected. Areas like Part Royal, west Middlesex and the Lea Valley, which had developed as industrial areas in the 1920s and 1930s, and which were still gaining jobs in the 1950s, saw the practical end of their industrial existence by 1985.”5 This generated unemployment and the corresponding social problems, which were reflected in their urban spaces, which are still frequently bleak and problematic to this day. “In the 1950s and 1960s, Britain set about dealing with the degraded legacy environments of its city centres. In the 1970s and 1980s it was the turn of the inner cities – the rings of early nineteenth century industrial housing, warehousing and small industry. The degradation of large industrial sites was taken on in a concerted way in the 1990s. Over the next 20 years it will be the turn of the British suburb – where over 80 per cent of urban Britons live. Cities are spatial manifestations of individuals’ compulsion to cooperate together in the pursuit of personal advancement, wealth, health and happiness. Civic goods such as open space make this cooperation possible but the problem of free riding means that demand for such goods always outstrips supply. This is the curse of the city.”6
5 6
White, Jerry (2002), London in the Twentieth Century, London p. 206 Webster, Chris (2007), Property Rights, Public Space and Urban Design, Cardiff
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streets in former industrial suburbs The areas that I have been looking at developed in the early 20th century. Much of the upper Lea Valley area was covered in market gardens and orchards at the turn of the century. As industry moved outward, housing estates were built there in the 1920s and 1930s. At the time most people used public transport along the main traffic arteries leaving smaller streets empty and available as social spaces in the city. One resident of Durants Road in Enfield told me that there were only three cars in the street in 1970. In 2011 the street is lined on both sides with parked cars and, although in a residential area, is frequented by enough traffic to make cars the dominant force in that space.
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2011
1970
1945
1930
1910
case study
Apart from British cities further north, London’s East end was a major hub of industrialisation in the UK during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Various locations presented themselves as possible test sites for this study. Hackney Wick was one because of its proximity to the city centre and the Olympics, the Isle of Dogs was another because of its rich industrial and domestic history.
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Enfield, London
I have ultimately chosen to focus on Enfield, a former industrial suburb in the Lea Valley in North-East London. My own observations and conversations with residents of Enfield, reveal a discontent with the current state of urban space in the area, which not only refers to the state of the built environment. “This area has gone down, it used to be the best.” “People are very unfriendly around here.” “I’d move away if I could afford it.” 1
The local council’s 2010 Shaping Enfield’s Future – Place Shaping Strategy2 demonstrates that there is a contradiction between its objectives and the reality on the ground. Enfield is a large borough, some parts of which are well-balanced. Perhaps this document proves that the council’s plans are too generic to cover such a large, diverse area and to really address the problematic zones effectively. Although it does briefly address problematic areas, it comes across as an
1 Conversations that I had with residents of Durants Road in North-East London in Autumn 2010
advertising brochure.
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2 http://www.enfield.gov.uk/ info/823/community_development-regeneration_projects/364/shaping_enfields_future/1
LO CK FI EL
D AVE
MIL
LMA
BRIMSDOWN RD
OC
EN
ST
GRE
KIN GS TE WA R NE
LA
ENFIELD TOWN
ANDR
A RD
URY RD
H E RT F
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BUSHHILL PARK
A R D
N S WA Y
ORD R D
QUEE
ALEX
SOUTHBURY
ALM
SO UT HB
WHA
PONDERS END
RF
RD
RSH
LA
industry in Enfield 1947
This diagram is based on the 1947 “Industries of Enfield – The Handbook of the Enfield District Manufacturers Association�. It lists all of the industries that operated in the area in 1947, including their addresses and phone numbers. None of them still exist today. Enfield does not receive much attention these days despite its rich industrial history. There is a stark contrast between its vibrant industrial past and its current status as a forgotten dormitory town on the periphery of London. Although a large number of famous products that shaped the way that we now live were invented and manufactured there, its railway stations are now mostly used by commuters into the city of London and many of its streets are bleak and deserted. 25
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goods produced in Enfield
Enfield developed into an important hub of production from the start of the industrial revolution into the 1900s. This map gives a snapshot of the factories that were based in Enfield in 1947. Ferguson produced the first ever television set in Enfield in 1939 and the first dishwasher was manufactured by Hotpoint there. The world’s first ever ATM was installed in Enfield Town in 1967. The UK government-owned Royal Small Arms factory, built at Enfield Lock in 1812, produced the infamous Enfield Rifle. And the Royal Enfield factory produced its famous bicycles and motorbikes there from 1893 to 1971.
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initial site research The area of study lies between the railway stations: Enfield Town, Southbury, Ponders End, Brimsdown and Enfield Lock. I began by combing through the area and taking note of how people shape their own spaces. One of my major observations was the discrepancy between the decrepit street space and the energy invested in shaping private space. The three main characteristics that I found were elaborate add-ons to houses, creative fences and lots and lots of weather-beaten old furniture. I therefore archived the ways in which people shaped and defined their spaces in three categories: additions to buildings—“altered architecture”; fences, walls etc— “boundaries”; thrown away furniture—“discarded”.
altered architecture
boundaries
discarded 28
Enfield Lock
Brimsdown
Enfield Town
1
Southbury
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Ponders End
altered architecture The “altered architecture� category consists of small spaces that people add on to their homes. They often clash with the original style of the building and seem to be made with random components, which makes them very charming. I was fascinated by the possible narratives that could be hidden in those add-ons. What change or desire in someone’s life had led these pieces to be added on? A porch could mean a drafty sitting room or it could be a kind of moat, providing a bit more distance to the street. A front extension could mean that a new baby or a large flatscreen TV have made the sitting room too small. Considering that people would have had much more
back garden
contact to their neighbours when these houses were built, it seems a luxury to have so much private space and to be able to make that even bigger. As these houses get fatter and fatter, the quality of the street space around them appears to get increasingly meagre.
extension
extension
porch
extension front garden
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street
31
boundaries private The “boundaries” category consists of the structures that people use to define the line between their property and the public realm. The spectrum of fences, walls and barriers is broad to say the least. I was again fascinated by the possible narratives that could be hidden in them. Apart from the legal necessity of defining the boundaries of one’s property, the creativity with which they have been fashioned is captivating.
I again speculated on what these boundary markings said about their owners. Did they express a desire for more privacy, aspirations for greater things, fear of being broken into… I do feel that these boundaries are telling us interesting little secrets about the society that we are living in.
private
semi-private public 32
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discarded
The “discarded” category consists of the unwanted furniture that people put in their front gardens. I found an incredible amount of old furniture in the streets of Enfield. The spectrum was huge, from wardrobes, to mattresses, to sofas, to toilets even. I was again captivated by the stories told by these witnesses to people’s lives. This furniture that was once an intimate part of somebody’s life behind the façade was now put on display for all to see; the stained mattress, the battered sofa... Its presence is further evidence of a turn away from the street into the private sphere, making the front garden a no-man’s-land. 34
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initial insights The three categories that I defined—altered architecture, boundaries and discarded—are spatial expressions of people’s relationships to their city. I felt that I was getting to know these people without ever meeting them. However I also noticed that the gap between public and private seemed to be widening with an ever-increasing tendency to turn away from the public realm into the private sphere. I found the dismal state of the streets sad and imagined, perhaps somewhat idealistically what the streets would have been like when they were built. People would have known each other better as they would have worked in the Enfield area, rather than commuting into the city as they do now. And it would have been much more common to go in and out of each other’s houses (this was confirmed to me in a later conversation with Pat who lives with her husband in Durants Road). My next step was to carry out research using the tools of narratology to test whether these assumptions were true. I took a situation in this case a meal (in the narrative sense “the thing” was a table set for a meal), from the private realm to the public. My aim was to connect back to past times while also throwing a spanner in the works of the current dynamics in the space. The objective was to get to know the people who live in and use this dismal street, to discover the invisible layers hidden in the street and to ultimately take it to a further step of installing one or more permanent “things” in the street. These “things” would give the people using the street “agency”, making them “characters” in the new narrative ecology of their urban surroundings. I zoomed into one particular street in Enfield for these nexxt steps. I chose Durants Rd, a quiet residential street located between Southbury and Ponders End railway stations.
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Why is this relevant? There was a lively debate about the state of architectural education in the UK at a meeting titled “Engaged and Enraged” at Public Works in east London in April 2011. The debate also branched out into the state of architectural practice. Architectural education gives architects the capacity to understand the complexities of space including the social dynamics associated with it. However, the reality of architectural practice is all about building. The structures that would be needed to take into account such factors as social dynamics are not in place. Narratology has the capacity to provide a bridge between the physical and the intangible aspects of space, particular urban space where social dynamics have a significant role to play. Some of the comments made at the Engaged and Enraged meeting confirm that there is a layer missing in the design of space: “If the architect is not sure that he/she can improve the existing space it is better to leave the area as it is. Architecture does not mean constructing. Transforming urban spaces you are “transforming” / changing the way that people are going to relate.“ “Enraged about lack of critical self-reflection in architecture and its education, which is much better developed in fine art education. The architect needs to be aware of his own motives and responsibility.“
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Ch
a rc
roft
Ga
rde
n
Colmore Rd
Du
ran
ts P a
rk
Bur
Av e
slan
dR d
durants road
Dur
ant
sR d
Enfield Town
1
Southbury
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Ponders End
Having combed through a large area of Enfield to gather my archive of the spaces there, I zoomed into one specific street—Durants Rd— that is located between Southbury and Ponders End railway stations. The following short description gives an idea of how the area developed over the years, “Durants Road was developed from
1888 and Nags Head Road from 1890. By 1914 much of the area had been built up, but there was still open country separating Ponders End from Enfield Highway to the north and Edmonton to the south. Housing development resumed after World War I. The gaps separating Ponders End from Edmonton and Enfield Highway were
finally closed. Much former market garden land was built upon. By 1939 the area was virtually fully developed. After World War II much of the older part of Ponders End was in a rundown state. From the fifties onwards there was much council redevelopment particularly in the South Street and Alma Road areas. Today Ponders End is an uneasy 39
mixture of old and new: the Mill buildings survive in the shadow of the Alma Road tower blocks.”
evolution of durants rd
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There was loads of jobs. You could leave your job in the morning and get a new one in the afternoon.
We moved here in 1939, we were the first people to live in this house.
There was a nightingale used to sing on that wire and the old lady in no. 150 used to whistle to it.
Ken no. 124
Cliff no. 130 All these houses are rented out. No-one cares anymore. This used to be the best street.
There were 3 cars on this street when I moved here.
Pat no. 52
Kathleen no. 127
man from no. 151
1930s
1950s
1970s 41
1990s
2011
interview with Pat No. 52 People have told me that there are lots of properties rented out here now. Would you agree with that? Yes, It’s become more fluid and the university is gone now as well. All the students have gone. It closed last year or maybe the year before.
Are any other people who you grew up with still living here? One just moved away and one lives down the road. I was a nurse before I got married. Michael was an engineer for 30 years. It was in Brimsdown where all the factories were, but they’re not there anymore.
All the industry is gone now. Do you think that’s why people have moved away? Well, I don’t think so. As people have died off other people have bought the houses. Nowadays people buy houses to rent them out. Before this house next door was sold people grew up there when I was little and they moved out and sold it to somebody. They went back to Bangladesh but they rented it to the council so every year there’d be a new family in there.
So you wouldn’t get to know them then?
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No, you’d see them for a little bit and then they’d go. What’s happening is that you don’t get to know people. The people on that side have only been there for just a year. Tracey’s got the house on the other side now. She’s been there about 10 or 11 years. But we are friendly with Tracey.
Do you think people meet through the church? No, we’ve got a mosque on the doorstep so we’ve got a lot of Muslims around here.
The basis of this project is that people used to know each other and that no longer seems to be the case. Oh, yes, we used to leave doors open. And we never put a lock on the back gate. But now…
I imagine that people would have gone in and out of each other’s houses... Yes, You knew everybody, literally everybody, I mean, I can remember all the people that lived round here. In the war and just after the war there used to be all us kids out playing on the street because there wasn’t the traffic. We used to play rounder’s in the street and all sorts of things like that. The siren went and our mothers used to come out and get us, “Get in, get into the shelter”. But we went to school down the catholic school and if the sirens went in the daytime my mum used to come down and get us.
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So you went to the school on this street? Yes, I did during the war, I’m not a catholic. And then after the war I went to school in Southbury, We used to just go over the park too, there used to be a gang of us. We used to go to the park and take jam sandwiches, we’d be gone all day. Our parents didn’t worry about us. Where those tower blocks are was all allotments, greenhouses, and where the college is that was all allotments. Down Bursland and Holmbridge that was all allotments, that was French’s orchard. There’s a bungalow in Durants Park avenue that belonged to French’s and Mr French he used to frighten the life out of us kids, he’d only got one leg. But we used to go scrumping over his orchards.
It must’ve been a nice place to grow up. It was. We used to all go to the park in the summer and your parents didn’t worry about you. We were playing out there.
What about your kids? I’ve got 2 but I would never let them play out. It had changed by that time, there was more traffic. My kids were always in the back garden, always. We’ve got quite a long garden.
Would your kids move back here?
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No they wouldn’t come back and live because its gone down, because this area’s gone down. It’s changed gradually. My children were brought up here and then they moved out so they see the change when they come back. I mean, we used to have trams here up the top, I grew up with trams as well. But because its all changed gradually, you don’t notice it.
When did they take away the trams then? Oh, I don’t remember, I think it was before we got married. We’ve been married 49 years next month. Michael used to work with Cliff. His house is unbelievable. His house has been like that for years. They stopped his overtime but it didn’t change anything. The cats belonged to his wife. The lady who lives next door but one, she’s only lived here 3 years. She said, “If I’d known it was this dirty around here, I wouldn’t have moved here.” There’s a lot of rubbish flying around. That’s why I keep a black bin out there, because I’m always finding rubbish in my front garden.
Was this area bombed? Yes, it was. Just opposite the school down there, there was a milk yard and that got bombed and we had a lump of doodle bug in the front garden and they came along and said “we’re looking for that!”. Because all the windows went in the house. We had a Morrison shelter indoors and an Anderson shelter in the garden. All 3 of us, me, my brother and sister, we used to sleep in it, I was 8 days old when the war started. I do remember the end of it though.
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3. narratology in spatial design
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47
what is narrative?
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how is it relevant to street design?
49
narrative
50
is the representation of an event or series of events.
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the diegesis
is the world of the narrative.
52
it includes objects, events, spaces and the characters that inhabit them including things, actions and attitudes not explicitly presented in the work but referred to by the audience.
53
a space can be defined as an actor embodied in the virtual or physical built environment, and therefore exerting a presence that can be defined in terms of a spatial analysis of light, volume, obstacles and flow routines, amongst others. 54
55
the street is a public thoroughfare, in a town or city, including the sidewalk, adjacent houses, lots, lawns, and trees.
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as it stands, the street is not a narrative environment. without an event or an action you have a ‘description,’ an ‘exposition,’ an ‘argument,’ a ‘lyric,’ some combination of these or something else altogether, but you won’t have a narrative. 57
the street as it stands is not a narrative environment, the tools of narrative design can be applied to change the dynamics although
of the streetscape. Instead of only investing money in streetscene improvements such as paving stones and park benches, it should also be invested in adding a
narrative layer to the street, which would involve soft rather than hard changes. The main elements of a narrative environment are a space, a character,
the space is a given, it is
a thing and an event.
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the street.
the characters are also given.
they are the people who use the street, although until the narrative has been constructed, they are passers-by rather than actors.
the thing is a designed object
which is installed on the street. it has a specific role as an actor, its objective being to enable meaningful relationships to develop between those who use it.
the event
is an act, which takes place as a result of and using the thing. it makes people characters and changes how they experience the street. 59
4. narratology applied
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overview of proposed methodology The tools of narrative have been applied in two phases in this project to come up with a design proposal for this prototypical street, Durants Road. Phase 1 involves placing a temporary narrative “thing” in the space as a device to reveal the hidden layers that comprise the street. Phase 1 thus uncovers who the users of the street are and what their conflicts with each other and the street are. Conflict is an important device in narrative because it defines the obstacles that the characters will have to overcome. The drama is inherent in the process of overcoming the “narrative” conflict. Phase 2 takes the insights gained in phase 1 a step further. A more permanent “set of things” is installed in answer to the conflicts that have been discovered in phase 1. These things invite the users of the street to interact with them. They are thus designed to give the users of the street “agency”, making them characters in a new narrative, that of their own street.
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implementation - phase 1 In phase 1 the choice of “thing” is derived from the research carried out as shown in chapter 2. The “altered architecture” category shows how people like to extend their own spaces and the “boundaries” category demonstrates how people draw the line between their private space and the public realm. While people go to great efforts to shape their private environs, the public realm is empty and desolate. The “discarded” category shows that the most people will contribute to their front gardens, the area bordering on the public realm, is to store their old furniture there until it is picked up (or not) by the refuse collection. My prerogative here is to explore how the urban realm and the dead space that is the front garden could be livened up and used more effectively. The “thing” that I installed in phase 1 therefore derives from my observations of the “altered architecture” and “boundaries” categories. People add extensions onto their houses to create more space for the rituals and events of their everyday lives. At the same time there is plenty of space outside on the street that could be used for just that, and that used to be used more for such things in times gone by. However, the boundary between public and private i.e. between house, front garden and street have become so defined that under normal circumstances, no-one would ever consider doing such activities as eating and sleeping on the street.
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The narrative “thing” in phase 1 is therefore a table set for a meal. It represents a situation that normally takes place behind the façade of the house, in the clearly private zone. It takes place in the public zone outside the unused front garden of a house. I set up a table for a meal on four occasions in 1 month and asked people if they would like to join me. One idea behind this was to see how people would react to a shift in commonly accepted boundaries. The table became an information-collecting device. It allowed me to get into conversation with passers-by and residents of the street. I discovered many facts about people’s lives i.e. their own narratives, their dreams and aspirations, found out where people live, who knows who, how people perceive the street. I was also able to observe the flows of people through the street over the course of a day and to define dead and alive spaces. By returning to the same street repeatedly, I established a trusting relationship with people there and I learned much more than I would have by asking questions directly using a questionnaire. Because it was a temporary intervention, the meal opened people to the idea of a more permanent boundary breaker as proposed in phase 2.
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boundaries and flows
inaccessible space
flows of movement
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In my study of the zones of public to private in chapter 2, I defined the front garden as a semi-private zone. It is an in between area, that is connected to the pavement and that is rarely used. One resident of Durants Road said he found it intimidating when people spent time in their front gardens with large groups of friends and he was obliged to walk past them. However, I still feel that the front garden has the potential to be used more effectively. The road itself, which according to Pat who I interviewed, used to be where the children played, is completely owned by cars. Obviously, they drive down the centre and park on the edges. This leaves the small strip of the pavement for the pedestrian, between a desolate row of front gardens and a car-occupied road. Correspondingly, the main flows of movement follow the narrow strip of the pavement. Saint Mary’s catholic primary school is situated at the lower end of Durants Rd. There is lots of pedestrian footfall on the street between 8.45 and 9.15 in the morning and between 2.45 and 3.15 in the afternoon. Apart from those main windows of activity, the street is fairly quiet at other times of the day. I met some people walking to get the paper at the newsagents, walking to the nearby Tescos supermarket or walking their dogs at other times. 67
a thing things are designed objects, products or services, with specific roles. as actors, these exert a design-centered view of the world of activities and meaningful relationships which participants have with it. 68
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The narrative “thing” in phase 1 is a table set for a meal. It represents a situation that normally takes place behind the façade of the house, in the clearly private zone. I set up my table on the pavement on four occasions in 1 month and asked people if they would like to join me for a meal. This diagram has zoomed in on the part of the street that I was working in. It shows the positions of the table on each of the four occasions.
day 1
days 2+3
day 4
The diagrams on the following pages show Durants Rd with boundaries and movement flows. They depict how those boundaries began to dissolve the more often I went to the street and how my presence changed the movement flows. 71
phase 1 - day 1 On 22 November 2010, I put a table set for breakfast for 2 people outside no. 71 Durants Rd between 8.30 and 9.30 am. Parents walked passed me with their children on the way to school. Some said hello, some smiled, some changed to the other side of the road. The woman who lives in no.71 came back from Tescos at about 9am. She asked me what I was doing and went inside. Before I left I knocked on her door and asked if I could use her toilet. She opened the door a tiny crack and said “no�.
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phase 1 - day 2 On 26 November 2010, I put a table set for lunch for 4 people outside no. 113 Durants Rd between 2.30 and 3.30 pm An Irish woman who came by the last day passed again and greeted me warmly. She was on the way to pick up her kids from school. I got chatting to the man who lives in 151. He told me about his African neighbours in 153. He said won’t tell them his name, they have to call him neighbour. He told me that Chris Hughes who won Mastermind was born in 146 and about the old woman who lived at 150 who used to whistle at the nightingale early in the mornings. He said that this used to be the best street. He moved here 40 years ago. He and 3 others had a car and a telephone. It was a lot better then. A lot of people have moved away and rented out their properties to people from all over the world. The tenants don’t care, its really gone down. I met Namu who lives in 129. He recognised me from last time. He was off to buy the paper. Ken, who told me he’s 70, came out of his house and took pictures of me talking to Hazel, who’s in her 80’s. Several other people stopped for a chat or to have a bite to eat. 74
A woman from Burlands Rd comes over. She works in Tescos. She gives me a candle.
Ken lives here. He hurt his leg in a motorbike accident so he cant bend down.
Cliff, the cat man lives here. He’s very smart but he lets himself go.
Chris Hughes from mastermind was born here. The old lady who lived here used to whistle to the nightingale on the wire.
Namu lives here. He’s originaly from Pakistann. He’s off to get the paper.
An Indian man has lived here for 40 years. He was the first to have a car and a telephone.
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An African family moved in here 3 years ago. They’re renting.
phase 1 - day 3 On 13 December 2010, I put a table set for breakfast for 2 people outside no. 113 Durants Rd between 9.00 and 10.00 pm It was a very cold day and hardly anyone was out. The lady at 113 offered that we could come in and warm up in her house. I went in to use the toilet a bit later. The lady who lives in no. 115 told us that she and her neighbours pass tea to each other over the back fence in summer. Ken from 124 passed on his way to Enfield Town. A few days later I was there to take photos. I met Ken, he asked me in for a cup of tea and biscuits. We chatted for about an hour in his living room.
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An Indian lady invites me in to warm up. I go into her house for a bit before I leave.
Ken seems happy to see me again. he invites me in for a cup of tea and biscuits.
I meet Cliff. He is very curious. His wife is in a home so he takes care of the 12 cats.
The woman who lives here tells me that they pass tea over the back fence in summer.
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phase 1 - day 4 On 3 January 2011, I put a table set for lunch for 4 people in the alleyway between 1.00 and 3.00 pm. Namu from 129 came to say hello, he greeted me like an old friend. Mrs O’Brien from 137 came out for a chat. She stayedfor a few minutes and told me about her recent pneumonia and about Clifford, the cat man who lives across the street. She left and Ken joined us. He knows Clifford. He’s apparently very smart and nice but a bit scatty. Ken knows about Chris Hughes too and he knows the man from no. 151 to see.
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A Polish family with a small son called Anton lives here. They are renting.
I knock on Ken’s door. He comes over for a cup of tea and a chat.
Winston lives here. His family is from Jamaica and he loves Reggae.
An African family has been living here for 1 year. They are renting.
Angela lives here. I haven’t met her yet An old Cypriot lady lives here. Mrs O’Brien comes out in her slippers. She’s just been in hospital with pneumonia
The woman who lives here comes out in her pyjamas. She’s wondering what I’m doing.
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outcome of phase 1 My observations: People perceive the neighbourhood to be more dangerous than it is. I was warned by several people that I should be careful in the alleyway. However, my experience was that hardly anyone uses the alleyway and nothing remotely threatening happened while I was there. People told me that they found the neighbourhood unfriendly yet they themselves were very friendly and welcoming to me. Out of twenty encounters one was hostile and that person immediately backed down when I explained what I was doing. What people said: There is a conflict because people who own the houses are moving away and renting them out. The tenants usually don’t stay for more than a year. Those who own their houses feel frustrated by the lack of interest from tenants to keep the street looking nice. Would like the neighbourhood to be more friendly. Would like to have opportunity to get to know the neighbours. Would like the alleyway to be safer. Characters: By placing the “thing” i.e. the table in the street four times, I got to know many people who live and use Durants Rd. They told me about their needs, wishes and frustrations, giving me a good idea of the conflicts and potentials in the area. The second phase of the study is to make a proposal for more permanent “things” to be installed on Durants Rd. On the one hand they react to specific requests from people who live there and nearby. And on the other hand they address more general issues such as the perception of unfriendliness, danger and bleakness. The objective is to change the flow patterns and make current boundaries more porous. This will be achieved by engaging the characters who I met and giving them agency to interact with the installations in their street.
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boundaries
A comparison of the accessible spaces before and after my table intervention shows that while the boundaries were solid before, after four appearances on the street they had begun to become more porous. I had been allowed to enter several front gardens and had been invited into 2 houses. Similarly, the presence of the “thing” on the street changed the usual flows of movement, steering them towards where the action was.
before adding “thing”
after adding “thing”
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flows of movement
before adding “thing”
after adding “thing”
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a character is a human or human-like entity. characters are any entities involved in the action that have agency.
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oh, you’re back!
I’ll just have a piece of cheese
what’s this about?
Lives here in No. 71
Irish lady, son goes to Saint Mary’s
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Hazel, lives nearby
I would sit out if there were more seats on the street
my son said he thought he was seeing things! those mince pies look nice
African lady, son goes to Saint Mary’s
works in Tescos lives in Bursland Rd
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Lives nearby
hello again! In summer we pass cups of tea over the back fence.
its so cold! you can come in and warm up if you like.
Lives at No. 115
Lives at Nr 109
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Namu, lives at No. 129
You should organise a street festival!
Lives nearby
be careful in this alleyway, the junkies hang out here
I can’t bend since the accident, so I can’t do my front garden.
Mrs O’Brien, lives at 137
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Ken, lives at No. 124
implementation - phase 2 Phase 1 allowed me to identify conflicts and potentials. I will use those as the basis for the interventions in phase 2. CONFLICTS: RENTED VS OWNED. People who own their houses complain of a lack of interest in improving the quality of the street from people who live there for a year or two. UNFRIENDLINESS: People complained that the street is unfriendly although they themselves showed me that they are willing to be friendly. DIRTINESS: there is the perception that the street is dirty and unkempt RACIAL TENSIONS: many of the people who own their houses and have lived in the street mentioned that they felt uncomfortable with the fact that so many English people have moved away and so many foreigners have moved in. They complained about bad behaviour and unfriendliness. LACK OF SPACE: people said that although it would be nice to have the street livened up, there is no room to do so. They were unwilling to have anything installed in their front gardens and accepted the presence of traffic on the road as a given. ALLEYWAY: the alleyway is perceived to be dangerous and used by junkies. I believe this to be untrue as I saw no sign of needles nor anyone hanging around there.
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POTENTIALS: People were delighted by my “table” intervention. They proved their ability and willingness to be open and friendly. People made comments such as “You should organise a street parts”, “You should come for the royal wedding”, “This is lovely, we should do things like this more often.” PROPOSAL: I intend to use the trusting relationship that I have built up with people on Durants Road to install more permanent narrative “things” to change the dynamics of the street and give the people who live there agency. A Durants Road User Group will be established with those who showed interest in taking the project further during phase 1. They will be responsible for organising making workshops and maintenance of the installed “things”. My first proposal is to install 4 “things” one after the other. Each of them addresses a specific wish expressed by a resident in conversation with me. Together they address several of the conflicts revealed by phase 1. Durants Road User Group a group of people who have gotten to know each other around the phase 1 “thing” during my interventions and who wish to take the project further to the next level. Furniture-making workshops workshops organised by the Durants Road User Group to collect old furniture and to make it into flower-beds, tea-bars and seating. 91
things The four permanent “things” are: mini-flower bed - slots onto the garden wall - made from recycled furniture
I can’t bend since the accident, so I can’t do my front garden.
In summer we pass cups of tea over the back fence.
mini flower-bed
tea bar
tea bar – a refillable pullout teabar with seating to be installed on the pavement - made from recycled furniture seating – seating that stacks up and can be stored by the side of the pavement - made from recycled furniture alleyway projector – a projection screen and projector that is stored above the alleyway and can be lowered when required.
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be careful in this alleyway, the junkies hang out here I would sit out if there were more seats on the street
seating
cinema 93
The mini-flower bed, tea-bar and seating can all be made from recycled furniture. Returning to the discarded category from chapter 2, the furniture which I found lying around all over the place can be used to make these new elements.
mini flower-bed The mini-flower bed is a reaction to the comment of one Durants Road resident that he would love to fix up his front garden but he is unable to bend since he had a motorbike accident. It can be made cheaply from the old furniture that is lying around in the street. It is designed to be made easily to slot onto the front garden wall. On the larger scale, it is intended to beautify the street and to liven up the front garden zone without obliging people to commit too much time and energy to it. People will have the opportunity to make their own at the furniture-making workshop organised by the Durants Road User Group.
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tea-bar The tea-bar is a reaction to one resident’s comment that she and the neighbours like to pass tea over the back fence to one another in the summer. She also mentioned that she would like to get to know more neighbours. The tea-bar is made from old furniture. It can be unobtrusively placed in front of a garden wall and folded out when required. It is provided by the Durants Road User Group and made from old furniture in a furnituremaking workshop. The tea-bar is based on trust. It contains everything that is needed to make a cup of tea. Hot water is kept in thermos flask, which is filled at regular intervals.
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seating The seating is a reaction to one resident’s comment that he would spend more time in the street if there was somewhere for him to sit. Again it deals with the lack of space by providing fold-away seating made from old furniture.
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cinema The cinema is the mother ship of the permanent “things�. It is a reaction to the fact that the alleyway is perceived as a dangerous place to be. Several residents told me to be careful around the alleyway. Another reason to install a gathering place in the alleyway is that there is a lack of space for community events and it is unused in its present state. The cinema consists of a projection screen and projector that is stored above the alleyway and can be lowered when required.
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outcome of phase 2 These proposals will bring together the residents to work on their neighbourhood. They will demonstrate the value of old furniture by upgrading it from waste to special spatial elements. The flower beds will liven up the front garden space, the seating and the tea bar will bring life to the pavements and the cinema will make the alleyway into a communal space. Boundaries will become looser, the space will be perceived and used differently, the street will become a place of exchange.
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5. prototype
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prototype tea-bar In a trial for phase 2 of the project I made a prototypical tea-bar. My intention was to test how feasible it would be to make it from discarded furniture and to test whether people would use it in the street. It was extremely easy to find the furniture that I needed in the street although as most of it is made from laminate, I did have to buy some solid wood for the frame. The procedure demonstrated to me that if people are to make their own tea-bars in future, it would be necessary to organise furniture-making workshops to show which materials are useful for what purposes.
When installed on the street, the tea bar proved to be a good research device, like the table in phase one. People were shy about using it at first but once encouraged by me they were happy to have a cup of tea at the teabar. Alone and detached, it requires explanation and encouragement. It would be stronger and more autonomous if made by people themselves and in unison with the other 3 proposed “things�.
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potential materials
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making of...
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unfolding...
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a day in the life of...
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many thanks to: Inigo Minns, Tricia Austin, Angela Hill, Ciaran Hill, Ken Langley, Pat at no. 52, Anastasia Masadi, Pamela Parker, Vlad Ivanov, Ashley Fowler, Duarte Silva, Marie Dumas, Iain Lumsden, Rui Pignatelli, Dilys Stinson, Sylvia Komin, Eva Hannapi, Suvi Hein, Manu Luksch, Mona Jabaji, Lena Kramer, Lourina Botha, Melissa Bliss, Lucy Orta
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