URBAN TRANSFORMATION

3.1 Absorption of the line into urban blocks – Blurring the edge

3.2 Collective framework : Nurturing crossovers and collaborations

3.3 New urban relationships leading to a new urban ecology

Absorption of the line into urban blocks –Blurring the edge

If we looked at the range of changes happening underneath the arches not as a discrete element but as a starting point for a transformed understanding of an extended ground, the assemblage starts to almost look like a system of organization for rethinking future housing development. Here, one goes away from thinking of civic life being largely outside and simply contained in spaces. Instead, it begins to be a part of the life inside the buildings so that we begin to see almost from one network to another across the rail system. The ‘line’ no longer divides the urban blocks into irregular forms but becomes a mediator of sorts, to extend its productive environment that lies within, to the neighboring housing estates that were once over-protective when it came to the adjacency to the rail viaduct. Instead it makes the most of the asymmetrical nature of the armature and creates a hope for the future projects to take this condition into consideration with sensitivity.

An urban area which is in close proximity to the upcoming knowledge neighborhoods holds all the potential for establishing a framework for the new way of life. The absorption of the infrastructure armature into the urban blocks is the way ahead in other parts of London as well, which observe a similar condition that involves mobility patterns that disrupt the way streets and blocks work, driven by the post-war housing estate approach. The solution is applicable to varying dimensions of blocks, but here the context and concept intertwine with each other to challenge the linear morphologies.

There is also a layering and a sectional relationship between the consistencies in order to make full use of the vertical dimension by liberating ‘urbanity’ from the single floor ground and eventually creating a three-dimensional entity. Today we take for granted that urbanism happens at least at street level, and we approach the interaction between the building and the street as a field for creative experimentation. But what if the civic elements are not all in one level, that of the street? If we take some of the pressure of providing services and creating a productive civic realm, an active ground, off of the streets and instead make our units inside the building robust enough to carry the weight of the ground within then our buildings would not suffer from lack of freedom for the future needs. The living environment can be integrated with the services in a collective manner that leaves room for future adaptability.

collective framework : Nurturing crossovers and collaborations

The culinary industry has had its roots in the inner domestic character of every household. The emerging concepts such as cooking studios, culinary classes, weekend baking workshops or the more economy driven micro industries hold a lot of potential of partnership with the living environments. It is the mixed strata of people, people who work from home, families with young children and young entrepreneurs that would be an integral part of the partnerships that could lead to combined benefit to the society and the wider urban benefit as a whole.

The organisation of the residences for the future demands participation from not only the people who own the land and the households but also from people who migrate to live and work whilst leading a fulfilling way of life in central city neighbourhoods. In order to ensure an active and an equitable sharing of services, there has to be a dawn of new housing typologies that involve multiple professionals, partners and a wide cross-section of the society to come together and create an efficient community. The potential crossovers found in the Bermondsey area are between the retail, the culinary industry and the knowledge sector.

The relationship between the seasonality of items and supply chain needs to be more sensitive and thus could also be achieved through the crossover between the local transport network and the resource and storage facilities. One of the major shifts around 1915 is the act of cooking starting to become a family affair. Going beyond the necessary and minimal concepts of food consumption in a household, this opened up new doors and ideas of kitchen being a place of gathering.

This also indicates a change in the structure of the house, where the children were taught how to cook and be involved in the daily activities of domestic life. As Nicholas Rose talks about Maximising the Mind9 and the way Walkerdine talks about ways in the the child could be taught how parents could teach Mathematics to their children without even realizing it, by spending time together with doing activities that involve counting items in the basket, weighing anf measuring and so on. This also hints at changing attitudes of home-based learning making it an integral and incidental part of the day-to-day events.

New urban relationships paving a way to a new urban ecology

Through creating moments of opportunity that give rise to new partnerships being formed in various sectors which were not thought of before, can we expect the new way of life to influence the urban ecology. Through modulation in height and the opportunity to accomodate high rise buildings, the viaduct enriches the urban fabric.This leads us to think about the emerging reconceptualization, of patterns of livings, cooking and working. The field of food production and consumption had to face drastic repercussions due to the economic instability. By designing a robust system of housing that can hold a set of varied types, one can create an environment that is made of new urban relationships, between the local producers and consumers.

The tripartite philosophy of integration through form and way of life works in an intertwined way. The integration of the rail viaduct into the disposition of housing is a starting point for a new typology that not only embraces the condition of the adjacency to the viaduct, but also derives benefit by bringing in the quality of the light industries and the resources that come with it into the building. The way in which services have been looked at in the past few years has to change in order to cultivate a holistic living environment that is spatially capable of adapting to future needs. Blurring the ‘Line’ deals with issues of form and structure that leads to a new, richer lifestyle that nurtures the changing patterns of domesticity.

The ‘Line’ is not only the rail viaduct, or an infrastructural armature that runs through the city, it is also the line that lies at the horizon, creating skylines. The line has been strictly looked at something that is resistant to change, but what we fail to realise is that the modulation of heights enables and is enabled by the line and the freedom of light and air that comes with it. When we take a step away from the traditional ways of protective housing estate environments and have a broader sense of understanding the importance of deriving value from infrastructural and industrial armatures, we can come closer to the space which is not the edge, which does not divide, but becomes a space of amalgamation of different environments.

By using the structural grid as a tool to create opportunity for the manipulation of spaces and functional demands, the final metaphor of blurring the ‘Line’ is to soften the boundaries between the strictly private notion of the kitchen. It is not about generating a kitchenless typology in modern households but about finding new ways of approaching matters of seasonality, wastage and convenience. When the pantry steps out of the domestic circle and becomes a way of economically optimizing resources, the concepts of collectivity and sharing are achievable. As Moneo suggests, the idea of type is not something that operates as a frozen mechanism, but also initiates a way of thinking ahead of the present, incorporating the future into the moment and denying the pre conceived notions from the past.

In the continuous process of transformation, it is through the changing understanding of the form and type that allows for the overlap of different types to produce a new one. Linearity is a tool that can accomodate the varying demands of modulation, variation and layering. The formulation of new types of linear morphologies can create a moment of impact in architectural development , setting out new formal relationships that generate a new ecology. If we look at the infrastructural armatures around the city in a similar manner, there would be a whole new urban ecology that could shape the urban area and the diagram of the neighborhood.

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List Of Figures

Cover and page transitions photos / drawings by author

Figure 1 https://www.levittbernstein.co.uk/project-stories/bermondsey-spa/

Figure 2 https://assemblepapers.com.au/2019/11/20/lived-solidarity-housing-co-operatives/

Figure 3 photo courtesy by author

Figure 4 photo courtesy by Papa, Dominic

Figure 5 https://fieldwork.format.com/393-macaulay-rd-kensington

Figure 6 https://www.archdaily.com/953637/hackney-school-of-food-surman-weston

Figure 7 photo courtesy by author // manchester

Figure 8 photo courtesy by author

Figure 9 photo courtesy by author

Figure 10 https://www.ahmm.co.uk/projects/office/google-berlin/

Figure 11 photo courtesy by author

Figure 12 google images https://discover.events.com/gb/england/canary-wharf/e/sports/ber mondsey-beer-mile-day-evening-pub-crawlssouth-272237281

Figure 13 photo courtesy by author

Figure 14 photo courtesy by author

Figure 15 https://www.levittbernstein.co.uk/portfolio/bermondsey-spa/

Figure 16 https://www.levittbernstein.co.uk/portfolio/bermondsey-spa/

Figure 17 https://www.levittbernstein.co.uk/portfolio/bermondsey-spa/

Figure 18 https://www.levittbernstein.co.uk/portfolio/bermondsey-spa/

Figure 19 drawing by author

Figure 20 drawing by author

Figure 21-23 photo courtesy by author

Figure 24 drawing by author

Figure 25 drawing by author

Figure 26 drawing by author

Figure 27 https://www.archdaily.com/978388/the-history-of-kitchens-fromthe-great-banquets-to-the-built-in-furniture

Figure 28 https://www.archdaily.com/978388/the-history-of-kitchens-fromthe-great-banquets-to-the-built-in-furniture

Figure 29 https://mei-arch.eu/en/projects/schiecentrale-4b/

Figure 30 https://mei-arch.eu/en/projects/schiecentrale-4b/

Figure 31 https://mei-arch.eu/en/projects/schiecentrale-4b/

Figure 32 https://mei-arch.eu/en/projects/schiecentrale-4b/

Figure 33-49 drawing by author

Figure 50 https://www.archdaily.com/978388/the-history-of-kitchens-fromthe-great-banquets-to-the-built-in-furniture

Figure 51 drawing by author

Figure 52 drawing by author

Figure 53-63 drawings by author