Bit of Narrative (Draft)

A trip across the pond

A few snaps from the University's New York/ Chicago trip relating to the project.

Informal Markets site study

A few slides for interim crit on Tuesday below

Harvey addiction

watch this from about 59 minutes in.. bloody good

http://media.sas.upenn.edu/Humanities/harvey.mov

Occupation , Expropriation, Demolition

As well as the St Paul's eviction on Monday night Ken Clark and his bailiffs also altered the urban fabric of the City of London. A former School building had been expropriated by the movement as a school of ideas (see images below). However after the illegal eviction of the occupiers, bulldozers were moved into demolish the building. This does not only show the disregard for the notion of squatting but also of architecture. It suggests that a pile of rubble is more suitable that a school.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/gallery/2012/mar/01/occupy-london-finsbury-square-in-pictures#/?picture=386743926&index=17

http://occupyLSX.org/?p=3815

On a related note an activist in Lewisham has expropriated an empty council house for the homeless (see image and link below)

http://londonist.com/2012/02/lewisham-activists-reclaim-council-houses-for-homeless-families.php

Mobile Markets

More Bike adaptations

Kind of reminds me of your market stalls - http://www.bow-wow.jp/profile/2003/WhiteLimousine/index.html

And for the ultimate Occupy experience, how about the bicycle caravan:

Found here:  http://popupcity.net/

The People's Bank - Schedule of accommodation

This is the first draft of the Schedule of Accommodation. The total area is just over 1200 sq m, so  I need to decide if that is going to be enough building for the Synergies project.

The People's Bank [synopsis update]

“Modern bourgeois society, with its relations of production, of exchange and of property, a society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells.” (Marx, Engels, 1848)

The project is the culmination of an investigation into protest as a construct of the urban environment, based in Birmingham’s southern gateway.  The Urban Synergies project envisions a scenario set in 2030, in which the Occupy Movement (originating from Occupy Wall Street) has established a permanent presence - a shadow city (Neuwirth, 2005) - in Birmingham, in its quest for social, economic and political reform.

The Occupy Movement has traditionally been given the label ‘anti-capitalist’. However, whilst the majority of the movement’s protests takes on a somewhat socialist spirit, the issues against which the movement campaigns are actually diverse and wide ranging, and it is recognised that “we will need [money], but [its methods of exchange] have to be revolutionarily transformed” (Harvey, 2009) so that it does not continue to act as “an instrument of oppression” (Lechevalier, J. quoted in Dana, C.A, 1896).

Founded in Marxist and Anarchist theories of dialectical materialism (philosophy of motion and change) (Trotsky, 1939), labour value and mutualism (Dana, C.A, 1896), and Guattari’s Three Ecologies (2000, p.41), the project explores the role of the bank in a post-capitalist society. It is based on Pierre-Joseph Proudhon’s ‘Bank of the People’ and the aims of the Alternative Banking Group.

In the same way the bank’s economics challenges capitalist banking methods and motives, the architecture of this new bank challenges the traditional typology of the bank, helping to strengthen the ABG’s core principles, namely that it is:

• Accessible to all equally
• Democratically run
• Robust
• Transparent
• Moral
• Environmentally sustainable.

1. Dana, C. A. (1896) Proudhon and his "Bank of the People" Benj. J. Tucker: New York
2. Guattari, F. (2000) The Three Ecologies, Continuum Publishing: London
3. Harvey, D. (2009) Their crisis, our challenge Available: http://www.redpepper.org.uk/Their-crisis-our-challenge [accessed 27th February]
4. Marx, K. Engels, F. (1848) Manifesto of the Communist Party
5. Neuwirth, R. (2005) Shadow Cities, Routledge: London
6. Trotsky, L (1939) The ABC of Materialist Dialectics

An old snap

Picture from night markets in Damascus, Syria.

Renewable source of energy for night lighting?

Field Journal- Informal Markets In Europe

I have recently been reading a particular text that is very relevant to the study into informal markets as a hub for political discourse and occupation of public space. Some of the poignant quotes from the texts are extracted below.

Informal markets generate sites of counter-globalisation based on a deterritorialisation of cultures.

A striking facet of the many contradictions produced by the global economic system is the resurgence of markets as prime sites of struggle relating to questions of governance and self-governance. Markets have turned into a stage upon which battles over existing societal order and alternative forms of organisation are smouldering.  

The underbelly of the liberalised capital market performs a shadow play, whose relation to the homogenising force of globalisation, is most of all characterised by a paradoxical production of micro sites of cultural heterogeneity. 

Source: http://www.field-journal.org 

Amalgamation of informal market stalls

Mobile Architecture- Informal Markets

A couple of prototypes for type one and two market stands.

Their crisis, our challenge

I haven't read this in full but it might be help full for you alternative banking scenario.

In a far reaching interview with Red Pepper, David Harvey argues that the current financial crisis and bank bail-outs could lead to a massive consolidation of the banking system and a return to capitalist 'business as usual' - unless there is sustained revolt and pressure for a dramatic redistribution and socialisation of wealth

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/Their-crisis-our-challenge/

The Politcal Economy Of Public Space

A recent trip to Marakech and The Reading of Harvey's The Political Economy of Public Space Have lead me to produce the graphic below.

David Harvey, discusses the effects of hausmanisation in creating a public space for the rich alone. He uses Baudalaire's poem, the eyes of the poor to highlight this. In the poem the female character, whilst looking out upon the boulevards of Paris, proclaims to her husband that "Those people are insufferable with their great saucer eyes. Can't you tell the proprietor to send them away?"

In conclusion Harvey states that,


"the character of public space counts for little or nothing politically unless it connects symbiotically with the organization of institutional (in this case commercial though in other cases it may be religious or educational institutions that need to be placed in the forefront of consideration) and private spaces. It is the relational connectivity between public, quasi-public and private spaces which counts when it comes to politics in the public sphere."




http://davidharvey.org/media/public.pdf

Demolition to Expropriation

The timeline below shows the evolution of the site as outline in the city as body politic below.

Market Interrelations

The slides below show thee dependance of the markets upon the wholesale market and the knock on effects of its closure.

The City as a Body Politic

Occupation of public space as a political act has allowed a system of non-hierarchal government to entrench itself deep within the organizational and administrative operations of the occupy movement. As the process of occupation develops, the ephemeral nature of the protest camp, and its subsequent urban form, is superseded by a more permanent habitation. Through a combination of appropriation and expropriation of the city’s existing void spaces, a burgeoning new body politic evolves from the roots of the occupy movement.

One such burgeoning void space is that of the former bullring markets, once set for redevelopment under the big city plan. The demolition of the wholesale markets, as a result of managed decline and privatization, has a detrimental effect upon the indoor, outdoor and rag markets. As the relationship between produce (wholesale market) and trade (market) is severed, the market traders are unable to sustain and compete with the business model as it currently stands. As such they are forced to vacate the market infrastructure and trade elsewhere. This leads to the emergence of informal markets across the southern gateway site, adopting the nomadic/ephemeral tactics previous employed by the occupy protests.

The vacant market site then falls into disrepair as private investment stagnates and the state is forced to follow a policy of austerity imposed by the IMF/World Bank. The indoor market eventually has to be demolished as it falls victim to arson and is deemed unsafe. The occupy movement then decide to expropriate the Rag market building to ensure that it does not suffer the same fate. The threshold location and the nature of the internal spaces result in the building becoming the political heart of the movement. The now demolished wholesale market is adopted as a public space that forms counter-spectacle to that of the Selfridges commodity-spectacle. The informal markets relocate upon this threshold space. As a result of the amalgamation of Market traders and customers, innumerable small eating and drinking establishments emerge, becoming centers of sociality and politics.

The former rag market, as a house of government, then connects symbiotically with this heterogeneous space creating a relationship between the private, public and commercial spaces. This therefore creates a radically different spectacle to that of the Selfridges site to the north. It develops a counter spectacle, a public space for the public, the city as a body politic. 

Future History

Good link for inspiration and developing the context of the project:

http://www.futuretimeline.net/index.htm

Post-capitalist bank (?)

“Modern bourgeois society, with its relations of production, of exchange and of property, a society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells.” (Marx, Engels, 1848)

The project is the culmination of an investigation into protest as a construct of architecture and an ‘urban design’ exercise based in Birmingham’s southern gateway.  The Urban Synergies project envisions a scenario set in 2030, in which the Occupy movement (originating from Occupy Wall Street) has established a permanent presence - a shadow city (Neuwirth, 2005) in Birmingham in its quest for social, economic and political reform.

Founded in Marxist theories of dialectical materialism (philosophy of motion and change) (Trotsky, 1939) and value, and Guattari’s Three Ecologies (Guattari, 2000), the project explores the role of the bank in a post-capitalist society.

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

Marx, K. Engels, F. (1848) Manifesto of the Communist Party

Neuwirth, R. (2005) Shadow Cities, Routledge:  London.

Trotsky, L (1939) The ABC of Materialist Dialectics

ABG Statement of Need

In the context of deepening recession and increased unemployment, the occupation of the southern gateway has come to a critical threshold by the year 2020:  the crossover from nomadic occupation of open space, to permanent habitation and formation of place.

The Occupy Movement has traditionally been given the label ‘anti-capitalist’.  However, whilst the majority of the movements protests takes on a somewhat socialist spirit, the issues against which the movement campaigns are actually diverse and wide ranging.  Money is not therefore to be ignored by the movement.  It has a purpose but for different ends.

The goals of the Alternative Banking Group are inextricably linked to the goals of the occupation, and other socialist groups. It is therefore agreed that a post-capitalist bank should form part of the permanent occupation of Birmingham's southern gateway, founded upon the following principles:

• Democratic decision making by the bank’s customers

• Accessibility to all

• Stability

• Non-profit

• Competitiveness

• Transparency

• Equality amongst its workers

In the same way the ABG will challenge capitalist banking methods and motives, the architecture of this new bank should challenge the traditional typology of a bank, and strengthen the ABG’s principles. 

Masterplan

“Southland wasn’t constrained by it’s material conditions. Instead the human spirit radiated out from the metal walls and garbage heaps to offer something no legal neighborhood could: freedom.” (Neuwirth, 2005).

The project explores the idea of protest as a construct of architecture, and the tension of threshold spaces. It is driven by economic and
political issues and is intended as a critique of consumerism and the kind of insatiable capitalistic thirst described by Mike Davis (1999).

An initial study into the void spaces of Birmingham’s ‘Southern Gateway’ has opened up the idea of Eutopia (literally ‘no place’) and how this could be reappropriated as a ‘shadow city’. Reading of Guattari (2000) has led to an investigation into how the existing skill-set of the labour force in Birmingham could be reappropriated leading to a new ‘creationist subjectivity’.

The project imagines a future scenario in the context of an ever-worsening jobs recession, the collapse of the European currency, and an increasingly polarised society. As global unrest escalates, the Occupy movement gains momentum and a nascent community forms, which relies on illegal occupation of the Southern Gateway’s voids (once set for redevelopment under the Big City Plan).

The threshold between the Bullring Shopping Centre and the site of the now demolished wholesale markets develops into a ‘soapbox’ area: A space for occupants of the shadow city to petition for their community to be acknowledged as a legitimate form of urban development.

With increasing ‘third-worldization’ of the UK, as seen with the squatter ‘cities’ of the developing world, in the absence of any alternative solution to homelessness and unemployment, the authorities are left will little alternative but to allow the Occupiers to remain and for a shadow city, with its own systems, infrastructure and economy, to develop.

David, M. (1999) City of Quartz, Pimlico:  London.
Newirth, R. (2005) Shadow Cities, Routledge:  London.
Guattari, F. (2000) The Three Ecologies, London:  Continuum Publishing, p41.

Master Plan Model Model

Image of complete model below

Penny Farthing Norias

Image of model below complete with figure ground inversion, river, aqueducts and pennys for norias

Reclaim the Streets- Figure Ground Inversion

The images below show a couple of movements that contribute towards the figure ground inversion.

Firstly the poster below is from the political movement reclaim the streets. Here the streets are occupied to put across political messages

The second image shows a brimingham critical mass meet. Here cyclists gather on mass to reclaim the street from vehicles using their numbers to aid the take.

Possible building schedule

Noria Visual

Public Square Visual

Expropriation for Governance

The image below shows how the site will be adapted to develop an architecture of governance. As the market infrastructure fails after the closure of the wholesale market its indoor market becomes the base for political debate and, sitting adjacent to the public space of protest, become a commons. The previous alliances with the church remain and the building discontinued to be used as a debate chambers. The slide also show the live work units that sit along the march route.

Expropriation for Production

The slide below show the manner in which the existing fabric is expropriated for production. Using the re skilling  diagrams previously posted the sites are split up into the following schedules,

-Production development and testing
-Production and assembly
-Hire maintenance
-Logistics and management

Expropriation for Education

The image below shows how some of the existing fabric will be adapted as part of the evolution of the site. As economic downfall causes buildings decline, and previously gentrified housing to become vacant, the sites are expropriated by the occupy movement.

The slide below shows how the existing fabric could possible be adapted to form a free university and student housing block.

Occupy, Resist, Produce.

In relation to your previous post about managed decline I was reading a book by Naomi Klein called the shock doctrine. In the opening chapter she discusses how under neoliberal politic/economics a new form of disaster capitalism has emerged. Here capitalists take advantage of diasters, whether they be hyperinflation or tsunamis, to enforce privatisation, tax reductions, deregulation etc. She describes how after the new orleans floods the,

'public school system had been almost completely replaced by privately run charter schools. Before hurricane Katrina, the school board had run 123 public schools; now it ran just 4.

http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine

Another piece of work by Naoimi Klein that related directly to our project is her documentary film 'The Take'. The film adopts the subheading of occupy, resist, produce. A summary of the documentary is listed below,

In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave. All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act - the take - has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head. Armed only with slingshots and an abiding faith in shop-floor democracy, the workers face off against the bosses, bankers and a whole system that sees their beloved factories as nothing more than scrap metal for sale.

http://www.thetake.org/

Downfall to Decline

The image below shows the manner in which, after the managed decline of the site, a crisis in global economics leads to a lack of surplus capital and disposable income. As such the site remains unsold and remains a void within the city centre core.

Tourist Economy

The mock covers below aim to show how the short term tourist economy helps the occupy movement to gain financial momentum. The images on the front of the covers aim to highlight how the tourist experience would be an inclusive within a heterogeneous space, as opposed to enclavic tourist spaces as termed by Tim Edensor. Tim Edenser describes how


Enclavic tourist space is akin to Sibley’s ‘purified’ spaces, which are strongly circumscribed and framed, wherein conformity to rules and adherence to cen- tralized regulation hold sway (1988: 412), or may be typified as ‘single-purpose spaces’. Carefully planned and managed to provide specific standards of cleanli- ness, service, décor and ‘ambience’, the continual upkeep of enclavic spaces is crucial to minimize underlying ambiguity and contradiction. 


http://www.nyu.edu/classes/bkg/tourist/a019896.pdf

Visuals

Some visuals of the masterplan made nice and dirty!