Managed decline

I guess you will have seen this story in the news:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-16355281

Maybe this could influence our project in someway?

Adaptation of existing form

I think this is a nice precedent for how some of the more substantial building develop, adapting the existing fabric.

http://www.haworthtompkins.com/built/proj04/index.html

Programme Diagram

Hi Matt

Just knocked up a quick axe to try and summarise the different programmes.  We could colour-code the buildings on the top part like Matt was describing.

Urbanisation of Panic

I was searching the Occupied London (an journal of theory and action that has spouted from the occupy london movement) website today and found article by Finoki. A couple of poignant points are extracted below.

"During the past centuries, the building of the modern urban environment used to be dependent on the rationalist plan of the political city. The economic dictatorship of the last few decades has accelerated the urban expansion. The interaction between cyber-spatial sprawl and urban physical environment has destroyed the rationalist organisation of the space."


"can the city be viewed as an architectural weapon to enforce a certain behavioral code, or to forcefully spatialize neo-liberalism in a way, to rear obedience (or addiction) to a rampant commerce?"

http://www.occupiedlondon.org/urbanisationofpanic/

Top result on Google

Matt

The google search "figure ground inversion" now lists our blog as the top result and we didn't even pay them.

DH

Production & manufacturing areas

Here is a view from within the "masterplan" of a typical space used for both subsistence farming and cradle-to-cradle manufacturing within the larger existing buildings. The new built-form is made from found materials and develops in an ad hoc manner enabling it to adapt as necessary.  There is still an element of nomadism about the whole thing.

There will hopefully more to follow and these images will get across that 'grittiness' we talked about, which the previous images weren't quite as successful in doing.

DH

Master Plan first draft

Heres the first draft of the masterplan during the last phase of development.  Here is has become a valid part of the city and is home to a society of people, formed from the occupy camp,  concerned with social justice and sustainability.  Infrastructure has reached an advanced level, figure-ground inversion has occurred, and as these means of living become more accepted, we it starting to affect surrounding areas.

The graphics need a bit of work on the plan but at least its establishing some principles.

This render is more successful but needs more context.

Build the Barricade-Riots Ensue- Forces Prevail

The diagrams below shows the relationship between the occupy camp and the wholesale markets  as eluded to in the previously posted timeline.  A narrative is portrayed whereby the occupies form an alliance with the market traders and set up a small camp outside the wholesale market. The occupiers then barricade the site to prevent the demolition of the wholesale site. Unfortunately riot police are sent to the site and the demolition succeeds. As a lack of surplus value prevails over the economy, the big city plan is not realised and the -now demolished-wholesale site become a large city centre void. 

 

Harvey At Occupy London

David Harvey recently gave a speech at the Occupy London Protest and made some very poignant points.

The excerpts below are taken from the transcript of the speech and are particularly  relevant to our project.

“Because until we know how to create democracy at the local level and then build that democracy into configurations that remain democratic right to the top, then we will not be able to implement a program. We will see good ideas co-opted by capital. And that is one of the most serious difficulties of any political movenent; you come up with good ideas, and then they co-opt them for their own purposes. No."


“And the other thing that needs to be established here is that, you know, we live in a world where people talk about the importance of public space. But most of the time the public is not allowed to be in that public space. What you’re showing is: people belong in this public space. And when we get in this public space, we can turn it from a public space into a commons. Into a political space. Where we can start to discuss and understand, and start to militate against the incredible, incredible concentrations of wealth and power."


You can watch the speech in its entirety from the following links

http://elainecastillo.tumblr.com/post/12786747720/video-and-transcript-of-david-harvey-speaking-at

http://davidharvey.org/

From Highgate to Wholesale

This timeline starts to zoom into our overall programme. The diagram shows how the camp develops it's initial camp at Highgate park, the alliances formed with other site inhabitants, the response of authorities and subsequent riots and the final reoccupation at the vacant wholesale site. This will be the first of a series of timelines looking at the development. The key conclusion to this timeline is the development of the movement into a not for profit organisation on a nation scale, 'Occupy NPO'.

M

Transition Sequence

The idea of this drawing is to outline the development from a small camp on highgate park, to a fully accepted part of the city:  from protest to habitation.  Its still fairly loose and it would be good on Tuesday to work on the area where the wholesale markets currently stand but I think it will give us a good grounding for the main mater plan and will serve as a useful explanatory tool when it comes to presenting.

D

Alliances

This post discusses the site alliances that will need to be established for the occupation to survive. The camp already fills a social role, looking after homeless people and unemployed youths and therefore forms alliances with the local charities that are dealing with these issues. The camp will also use the local market place for its food and, as such will form a economic alliance which will be succeeded by a political alliance. The church will also engage with the camp, on a moral level, offering its facilities as a forum of debate.

Highgate Park Occupation

This image shows how the occupy movement could evolve and migrate towards the southern gateway. The city wide map shows the potential sites that could be occupied by the movement. The nomadic nature of the camps would then allow the movement to gain resources, people and media coverage. The highgate park map then shows how the occupy camp forms a micro city within the southern gateway site.

Occupy Bristol

Hi Matt

Is this where you spent last weekend?  I notice that once again there is a religious building at the heart of the camp.  I wonder whether we could make a bit more of that in our scheme?

Re-tooling [manufacturing]

Finally done the re-tooling diagram.  Have added the time element too as suggested by Sophie.  The diagram shows the transition from an economy based on raw materials and waste, in which the industrial tycoons exploit the labour force, to a post capitalist economy based on ethnical and biological nutrients and a closed system in which there is no such thing as waste.  This is an amalgamation of Guattari's and McDonough's ideas.

Having done it, I'm not sure whether it would work with general roles of the protesters but I will take a look.  It might be that a different kind of diagram is needed for that.

Anyway, let me know what you think.  Hopefully there aren't too many gaping holes or spelling mistakes!

Cheers

D

Figure Ground Inversion [precedent]

In their master plan for new york 2106, Terreform One propose an inversion of figure and ground to create a city that is self-sufficient.

Here I have taken the same idea and applied it to a typical block in the Southern Gateway, except there is the additional factor of temporary occupation weaved into it.  The idea is that the area is car free, and the green productive space works simultaneously as public space and as productive green space.  I don't think I am proposing this as a final solution, but rather just a diagram of how a process can transform the urban fabric.  Let me have your thoughts!

D

Re-skilling

Hi Matt

Manufacturing is a huge part of Birmingham's past and I think Guattari's idea about re-skilling the workforce could provide another dimension to the project.

In recent history, the car industry has suffered massive decline in Birmingham and there are a lot of people with valuable skills with no jobs.  In the future scenario this problem would only get worse.  I think this reskilling of the car manufacturing workforce could be another valid way of tying this into the wider Birmingham context.

Perhaps I'm getting too hung up on this reskilling thing, but I think it works well alongside the more politically driven stuff and gives us a bit more meat for designing the 'master plan'.  I've also read a bit more of the cradle-to-cradle text and I think this could feed into whatever industry we decide to create.   DO you have any thoughts?

Dave

City Occupation

The map below shows the nomadic nature of the occupy movement within Birmingham and the sites that it may, over time, occupy. Three of the sites have already been occupied by the movement (St Phillips Cathedral, Victoria Square and City Garden) whilst the others are chosen because they are space in which, as david harvey describes, "The results [of neoliberalism upon urbanisation] are  indelibly etched". 

Our scenario predicts that the occupation movement, after developing momentum and resources through its nomadic movements, will occupy the southern gateway site and begin to evolve from occupation to habitation. 

Occupy Birmingham Interviews

On 1st November we interviewed members of Occupy Birmingham to find out more about the protest.  This video gives short summary of our discussions and serves as a 'prologue' to this project:

Occupy Europe Occupy UK

Here's a couple of maps looking at how the occupy movement has spread on a national scale and on a European scale (still need to do the map for global) . I've also drawn a nexus map showing the potential for these movements to interconnect be it virtually or physically.

Protest in motion

The map below depicts the migration of the occupy Birmingham protest camp. The camp originally tried to set up outside the city cathedral but were told by the church dean that they were not allowed. They then moved to Victoria Square where they were able to occupy for 14days. This prominent location got the protest into local media and encouraged debate and discussion on a daily basis. After being evicted to make way for the German Market the occupy camp is now located behind the Symphony Hall In the City Centre Garden.

Although the protesters are struggling to occupy public space for a prolonged period the nomadic nature of the camp may be advantageous. They continue to occupy the city without breaking any laws or getting on the wrong side of the police/council and therefore have a constant voice. The nomadic nature of the protest may also give it chance to grow organically, raising  numbers and capital to finally develop a more permanent occupation.

Public Place

This is a bit of a tenuous link but I thought I'd throw it in anyway. For my BA final year project I set up a stall giving out free alcohol at Wolverhampton train station, during the rush hour. The work was related to the loss of public houses as places of social interaction. The idea was that, even though the architecture was temporary, the relationships formed between commuters during the intervention might encourage them to talk during the commute the following day.

It was interesting when we went to the occupy camp in Victoria square on Tuesday how the camp formed a hub for discussion and debate between the general public. These types of space seem to be disappearing from the public realm thus creating a state of apathy. This could be one of the issues we address in our master plan.

David Harvey- Rebels on the Street and The Right to the City.

I have recently been reading two different articles by author and distinguished professor of anthropology, David Harvey.

The first, ' the right to the city' was published in the New Left Review in September 2008. The article is written before the current occupy movement but its rhetoric is very apt for our project.  A couple of quotes from the text are as follows:

'The results [of neoliberalism upon urbanisation] are  indelibly etched on the spatial forms of our cities, which increasingly consist of fortified fragments, gated communities and privatised public spaced kept under constant surveillance."

"[Under these conditions] [e]ven the idea that the city might function as a collective body politic, a site within and from which progressive social movements might emanate, appears implausible. there are, however, urban social movements seeking to overcome isolation and reshape the city in a different image from that put forward by the developers, who are backed by finance, corporate capital sand an increasingly entrepreneurial minded local state apparatus."

http://newleftreview.org/?view=2740.

The second article is taken directly from david harvey's website. The article 'rebels on the street' discusses the current occupation of Wall Street. He begins with a thorough criticism of the Wall Street Party and its implications both nationally within the US and globally. He then begins to discuss the future of the movement. One particularly pertinent  point is quoted as follows. 

"All this has to be democratically assembled into a coherent opposition, which must also freely contemplate what an alternative city, an alternative political system and, ultimately, an alternative way of organizing production, distribution and consumption for the benefit of the people, might look like. Otherwise, a future for the young that points to spiraling private indebtedness and deepening public austerity, all for the benefit of the one percent, is no future at all."

http://davidharvey.org/2011/10/rebels-on-the-street-the-party-of-wall-street-meets-its-nemesis/

I think this backs up and can give some legitimacy to our master plan proposals

Matt

Protest Clash

We went to the 'Occupy' site in Birmingham's Victoria Square today to talk to the protesters to try and get some information from them and to hear their views. However we were met by a fence that was barricading us out/them in. The EDL (English Defence League) were marching through the street that day, with opposition from the anti fascist movement, and as such a heavy police presence was required. As a result we've had to postpone out interview. We have however drawn up some interesting maps showing how the police secured the area surround the 'Occupy' camp. They claimed that they were protecting the government building but the town hall building (no 2) was left open.

Programme of events

This is the first draft of our timeline we planned out in studio on Tuesdsay.  It probably still needs quite a bit of work if it is to be plausible.  One of the problems is exactly the same as the anti-capitlist protestors are having - most of the land is privately owned, so there needs to be some incentive to let the protestors stay.  I had some ideas about a temporary tourist economy that could be developed initially until the movement became more universally accepted as a legitimate society.  I'll bring a print on Tuesday and we can take another look.  I feel as though this is an important piece of work to get right if the project is going to have any credibility.

Occupation of Public Space

An interesting article in this weeks BD magazine. There is a debate currently going on at bdonline.co.uk that I will post relevant discussions about. 

Street Protest Architecture - Dissent Space in Australia

Hey Dave,
I've found a good article on street protest architecture which if worth having a look at. I've summarised some of the points the article raises below.

PROTEST STRUCTURES

- Protest structures help to bring human and domestic elements into public and political life.
- Protest structures are frequently misunderstood as the antithesis of architecture, but on the contrary, their architectural role in democratic cities is significant.
- In the avant guarde traditions of art, the case of experimental protest constructions is of interest because its suggests where our unsettled society may be going, rather that only where it has been.
-Protest architecture is not so much driven by the construction of materials and shelter as it is by the relations and tectonics of people and ideas. 


COLLAPSIBLE ARCHITECTURE

-The notion that architecture might be collapsible , tentative, and ephemeral (my new favourite word) developed especially in the political climate of the 1960s.
-In Paris in 1968, inflatables played a key role as architecture for protest
-The structure were theatrical, colourful and transportable, well suited to a new culture of mobile and global people's movements that came to a flashpoint in Paris in May 1968.

PROTEST ARCHITECTURE AS A DEMOCRATIC TOOL

-Hundreds of citizen of the comparatively affluent community of Perth had responded to a campaign including email and text-message communications to join the spontaneous protect march, only hours after the new allied bombing had started (IRAQ PROTEST)
-At the street level there are allegiances built by social justice communities and activist groups, coming together at meetings and rallies, supported by an enormous internet network available to the ubiquitous middle classes

Reclaim The Streets, King Street, Perth — 31 August 2002 (photos D Narbett/Perth Indymedia, copyleft, compiled by Gregory Cowan -- Perth's first Reclaim the Streets, marking and protesting Australia's non-participation in the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.)

RECONCILIATION PLACE AND PROTEST SPACE

- The Government of the time reacted quickly to pass new legislation to prevent camping in public space.....allowing the government to evict the peaceful protesters  (in response to aboriginal tent embassies)
-When in 2003, electrical power was cut off to the information office- one of the oldest parts of the tent embassy, the environmental group Greenpeace supplied Photovoltaic Panels to provide adequate energy. 
- Globaal activist groups such as reclaim the streets, critical mass, and space hijackers continue this idea, with ideas emanating from their ideological and activist centres through networks of virtual solidarity to the corners of the globe.
-The notion of justice both locally and globally is of interest to a large number of citizens in the modern city, despite the apparent lack of a place for these issues to be aired.

RECONCILING NOMADIC AND SEDENTARY CIVIC ARCHITECTURES

- activist spatial occupations of the city can be seen as attempts for the New Word city to reclaim the citizen expression of the freedom of the peripatetic and peregrine in the classical city.
-For there to be a freedom to walk (let alone dwell and protest) in a public space, there must be public spaces in which to wander, and a social belief in their importance.  
- Australian architecture is developing as an agency of protest occupations in public space. this model suggests a potentially valuable strategy for building the city by addressing the equilibrium of forces of the sedentary and the nomadic


SOURCE:
http://bad.eserver.org/issues/2004/65/cowan.html

The March

The slide below could show a potential march route that could begin to inform our master plan. The Big City Plan Describes Bradford Street as 'performing a central roll in linking the City Core and Irish Quarter. The slide and photo bellow show the street potential linking the two sides of the site.

Mapping of skills and skill transfer

Further to the post on Guattari here is a nice nugget:

"It seems to me that mass media fatalism equates to a misunderstanding of a number of factors:

(1)  sudden mass consiousness-raising, which always remains possible;
(2)  the progressive collapse of Stalinism in all its incarnations, which leaves room for other transformative assemblages of social struggle;
(3)  the technological evolution of the media and its possible use for non-capitalist goals, in particular through a reduction in costs and through miniaturisation;
(4)  the reconstitution of labour processes on the rubble of early twentieth century systems of industrial production, based upon the increased production - as much on an individual basis as on a collective one - of a 'creationist' subjectivity (achieved through continuous training, skill transfer and the 're-tooling' [ressourcement] of the labour force, etc)." (Guattari, 2000 p.40-41)

I've underlined the aspects which I think are of particular relevance or that could provide some theoretical grounding to what we propose.

Do you think its worth carrying out a mapping of current skills on the site based on the employment sectors research?  We can then try to transpose them onto some sort of new industry maybe?

The Three Ecologies

In short, (which is pretty much impossible because this text is so broad) Guattari suggests that there is little point in addressing environmental concerns without addressing social and mental issues.

I think there are a few themes to pick from this:  Firstly, Guattari appears to be anti-capitalism - or rather the effects of capitalism, such a mass media serialisation, globalisation etc. - so to a certain extent what we are proposing (a post-capitalist economy) is in keeping with his ideas.

Secondly, he proposes a society where we are increasingly different.  I think this is something we need to weave into our narrative somewhere.

Guattari, F (2000). The Three Ecologies. London: Continuum.

Concrete Island

Back to what I was blogging about before:  Do you think we could use this novel to inform a narrative/ character to drive the project?

The story effectively involves an Architect (Maitland), who crashes his car into a left-over piece of land in the middle of a motorway interchange and cannot escape. It is very much a contemporary version of Robinson Crusoe.

Maitland is a symbol for a society founded on capitalism and consumerism.  The island serves two purposes in the novel.  Firstly, it is used as a way of embodying the mental struggles that he goes though on the island.  Secondly, it is representative of the kind of alienating, non-place, urbanism of the capitalist society.

Through the course of the novel we see his attitude change from one of needing to escape to one of needing to dominate the island and everything on it.

There are quite a few themes in this we could pick up on.  The nature of the island for example could be related back to the islands of void in our site.  Any thoughts?

Ballard, J.G. (2011). Concrete Island. 4th ed. London: HarperCollins.

City of Quartz

This is more a continuation of the site analysis really, but it might be useful to weave in:

In 'City or Quartz' Mike Davis provides a commentary on the modern history of LA. One notable theme that I picked up is that of the importance of property and land values:

"…[they] love their children… but they love their house prices more" (p.153)

In the eternal quest to increase their self worth (solely in terms of capital) the white middle-classes ended up causing racial and class antagonisms and segregation.  Here we see the effects of a society driven by capitalism.

There is an interesting quote from the head of Harris Homes:

"[The Joshua Tree] is a very bizarre tree. It is not a beautiful tree like pine or something. Most people don't care about the Joshuas."

I think we can liken 'the Joshuas' to the markets, and the house builder to the Big City Plan in this case.  BCP is prepared to wipe out the markets in the name of 'progress'.  The only thing is I am sure, that like the Joshua trees in LA, there are people that care.

Davis, M. (1998). City of Quartz. 2nd ed. London: Pimlico.

Postscript on the Societies of Control

In this essay, Deleuze discusses the way in which control has changed throughout history and how 'societies of control' have superseded 'disciplinary societies'.   Disciplinary societies are embodied by machines and factories, and are about organising production.  Societies of control on the other hand are embodied by computers and corporations and rely on much more subtle means of control.

I think we can relate this to our project.  I would say that most of the site still falls into the category 'disciplinary societies', whereas the Bullring is definitely a 'society of control'. As to how we can use this yet, I'm not sure, but we are heading towards a politically driven project so I figured it would be a useful discussion point.

Perhaps we could implement a disciplinary society?  Although in the Three Ecologies, Guattari says that we cannot return to past values.  More on this later.

Deleuze, G. (1997). Postscript on the Societies of Control. In: Leach, N. Rethinking Architecture. Oxon: Routledge. p309-313.

Void Analysis

"…Repressed memory, rejection, absence of control have produced a system of empty spaces (the sea of the archipelago)…today’s city contains nomadic spaces (voids) and sedentary spaces (solids) that exist side by side in a delicate balance of reciprocal exchange…"(p23. Careri, 2002)

You can see from the mapping exercise we carried out that there is a lot of 'void' space in the site.  In this case, we defined void as being devoid of occupation.  So it includes derelict buildings as much as brownfield sites.

There is a lack of community leading to a sense of anxiety and alienation when within the site: It is a Eutopia (literally "no place").

This could provide a nice link to J.G. Ballard's Concrete Island, which I will post about shortly.

Robert Neuwirth on our "shadow cities" | Video on TED.com

Thanks Matt

I really like the idea of this project being driven by a political agenda and it seems that what you are proposing isn't that dissimilar from Robert Neuwirth's 'Shadow Cities' in a lot of respects.

Take a look at this video:

In Protest, the Power of Place

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/sunday-review/wall-street-protest-shows-power-of-place.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&sq=wall

http://occupyLSX.org/

http://www.birminghammail.net/multimedia/news/video/2011/10/23/protesters-occupy-victoria-square-to-protest-against-banks-97319-29647095/

Protest Quarter Slides

Hi Dave,

Here are my initial slides looking at the occupy wall street movement. I was thinking to move forward we could start looking at the void areas your group identified and start to map out how these could become squats for protesters. Could then look at defining a route for marches etc. Ill follow this post up with a few articles on the occupying areas thats going on.

Political quarter

Hey guys,

I was thinking for our master plan we could maybe look at a political quarter. Using the history and the market marches etc as precedent. The market area could become a soap box area. Maybe using modern day technology for the communication?

photo upload

hey matt just to let you know i have uploaded a few photos on mediafire i found from books when doing my historical research, hope they are helpful

Hey guys,

Here are some slides I have done:

The first one is a general one of Racism and sexism in Birmingham, showing percentages

The second is the front page which i thort shut be kept simple, hope u think its ok

The third is a page of psycho analytic study of the site, i have done few more (looking at control etc) so don't think we need to put our photos together on mon/tues unless there's any you really want in the presentation, by the way I re-visited the site on friday just to get a feel for the inside of the site as we missed most of it init, the feeling I got from it was that the heart and soul of the site lay at the market, and the further away I got the more lifeless the site became,

The fourth one is an analysis of the boundaries of the site looking at the main features that enclose the site

See you Tomorrow (Matt on Tues) and hope the works going ok!!

Amandeep

=)

Muslim CCTV surveillance scheme

Here's the article for the CCTV story we we're talking about while on site.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/17/birmingham-stops-muslim-surveillance-scheme

Utilisation of Space

Hi Guys,
Here's one of the slides i've done for the presentation. It shows how the market stall utilises every inch of space. I took the information from my day working on the markets. You can see on the previous post  me and Tony (The Italian Stalion) working the fruit and veg store. 'POUND A BOWL'

I also got shown around the wholesale markets on Saturday. The contrast between the wasted space there and the utilised space of the market stand might be a good point of comparison to inform our masterplan.

Regards

Matt

Blog Open

Hi All,

The Blog is now open for us all to use. Please add any work you do or information that you may think may be useful to share. I've emailed us all the URL and passwords so that we can each post using the posting tab.

Regards,
Matt