The Airing Architectures Dirty Laundry Series: #03 ARTWASHING

Artists and gentrification already have an uncomfortable relationship. Creative communities have often drifted into less desirable areas where the rents are much cheaper, making unconscious changes around them and adding a ‘cool factor’ that in turn shifts the perception of a place. This process is old news and developers have cottoned on to the winning formula and sped up the process.

Depressed areas are now targeted by local authorities and developers for improvement and the first steps usually involve some eye catching murals or pop-up pavilions that become destinations in of themselves. In a digital age, we’ve seen cultural tourists flock to these places for Instagram moments, enjoying the contrast between bold artworks and gritty urban landscapes.

To distill this cheek-by-jowl affiliation between corporate bodies and artists even further, we are now witnessing a renewed vigour for the commissioning of pieces in or around some of the most bland and unexciting architecture and place-making. Here colourful bricolage or spray-painted ‘street art’ is used to dress up the banal, with little regard for existing communities or local heritage. In these circumstances, how do we apportion blame and complicity between the commissioner and the creative?

Featuring:

David Michon, Editorial Director (chair)

Will Jennings, Artist & Writer

Fiona Grady, Artist

Seyi Adelekun, Artist/Assemble

Tony Colville, Urban Splash

amongst others….

The Airing Architectures Dirty Laundry Series: #02 BAMEWASHING

Of the many massive social upheavals of 2020, the BLM protests made us ask difficult questions about persistent levels of racial inequality and how many of us are complicit with the current system.

This has resulted in some positive moves within the built environment, with public sector procurement going through a shake-up. Local authority frameworks are being re-imagined and outspoken critics are getting important airtime. Dare we hope that we might be experiencing a paradigm shift that will lead to communities receiving buildings that are actually designed by people who understand them? Or is it more a case of large practices playing the box-ticking game by tagging on a BAME-led practice to their tender entry?

It’s too early to tell if any of the current initiatives will bring about long-term change. All we can know is that we are in the messy period of transition and that things could easily slip back into existing patterns of privilege and old boy networks. We cannot assume that sticking a diversity plaster on procurement, or an in-practice workshop, will lead to wide-ranging systemic improvements. BAME isn't a genre of design, so why are developers looking for black excellence when white mediocrity was sufficient up until now?

Can we bring about a cultural and behavioural revolution that the architecture industry so desperately needs? More importantly how is this done in a competitive market ? And why do so many think it’s not really a problem in the first place?

Featuring:

Joseph Henry, Sound Advice

Jas Bhalla, Jas Bhalla Architects

Marsha Ramroop, RIBA

Peter George, Meridian Water

Sarah Akigbogun, Studio Aki

amongst others….

The Airing Architectures Dirty Laundry Series: #01 GREENWASHING

The science is clear on the construction industry, it's one of the biggest polluters and contributors to climate destruction. There is more and more of a push for projects, practices and the whole built environment to be sustainable, but even a term such as that can make the industry's path to real change unclear. With 'Sustainable' being used to describe everything from stuck-on solar panels, net-zero airports to open-plan offices, good and bad intentions can easily blur and the planet is no better off for it.

That's where questions, and more often accusations, of Greenwashing come in. Though grassroots organisations, community groups, press and commentators on social media can see through marketing speak, without regulation developers can use cosmetic green credentials to secure tenants and sail through planning, an architect can proudly cycle to MIPIM to pick up emissions heavy work and a glass skyscraper can be awarded a BREEAM rating and everyone pats themselves on the back with little to no consequences.

How can we really tackle the climate emergency in a way that makes the difference needed? What model should we use to judge a buildings success? Who loses out from ineffective Greenwashing?

Featuring:

Maria Smith, Buro Happold

Angela Dapper, Grimshaw

Sabrina Syed, Arch designer & writer

Joe Giddings, Architects Climate Action Network

amongst others….

There’s No L In Architecture: Musings On Making Less & More In The Coming New Year.

It’s been an interesting year to say the least. The world has witnessed unparalleled change and technology has had to step up and fill the void left behind by restrictions on work and social gatherings. But the architecture industry carries on regardless, as teams meet in virtual spaces and planning authorities make decisions via little Zoom boxes. Builders still build and investors want to put their money into something despite the empty office buildings and cafes in our city centres that were once buzzing with activity.

In the space of the last nine months we have shifted events and networking from almost exclusively physical environments to entirely digital. Following the initial excitement of meeting friends and colleagues for a drink while sitting at the laptop there was a glut of online activities (including a few our most exciting Negroni Talks ever produced). However, that sudden popularity peaked and then started to wane as we all realised that we’d rather take a screen break and go for a walk.

As the cold nights draw in, we thought it was worth one last hurrah to meet and look at the year in review with old friends/ collaborators and newcomers for a good old gossip. We are therefore proposing a special talk to see out 2020 with a Negroni in hand and a chance to consider what 2021 will bring. One things for sure, we won’t be returning to business as usual.

Space Invaders: Architecture and A Freeing From The Physical.

In the 2009 trial of the founders of Pirate Bay, the defendants were quoted as requesting that the language of the court be amended "We prefer AFK (Away From Keyboard) to IRL (In Real Life)" they said, "because we think the Internet is real."

We've never been closer to breaking down the boundaries between physical and digital environments. However, the alternative worlds of VR, Triple A video games and MMORPGs, provide 'spaces’ - which millions (if not billions) of people inhabit and interact with one another on a daily basis - that are rarely looked at as architectural, design led endeavours.

Representations of buildings in video games frequently use recognisable forms to anchor us in familiar territory, and yet digital landscapes have the potential to expand our horizons and offer us unprecedented access, when compared to the restrictions and rules of the ‘real’ world. Can the digital ‘freedom’ suggested by video games be used to inspire a rethink of how to approach physical projects? Conversely can the ergonomic, sensory and poetic qualities found within designed material space inspire more ‘feeling’ in the virtual? What can each industry learn from the other to better realise the worlds they create? What is the role of architecture in an alternative reality?

Speakers:

Shumi Bose, Writer, lecturer and curator (chair)

Alexandra Lange, Architecture and Design critic

Will Wiles, Author

Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg, Space Popular

Gregarious Kythreotis, shed works

Ibiye Camp, Artist

Stand & Deliver: The Roll Of Finance In Architecture

On the development highways, when money flows, everything is good. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. It is an environment where money makes money and risks are calculated. It’s a numbers game.

Those with land ownership have the asset (the raw materials) and stand to offer those with financial backing and proven experience (the processing) to deliver development. Then its packaged up and sold in the marketplace for a profit thanks to professionals, agents and so on (the sales people). Everyone gets their cut. In this scene, ‘Architecture’ has become a side show to the act of building and an increasingly marginalised concern, because architects don’t tend to take on responsibility and risk in comparison with the high-stake players.

Finance in Architecture. Is it relevant? Is it of any value? Is it really worth talking about?

It is not just a question of how architecture embeds itself within the powerful spatial fix. Nor is it a question simply about the architects ethics, morality or address to the corrupting power of money. It is more a question of power itself. What if the architect was highwayman? Your money or your life?

Speakers:

Alpa Depani, London Borough of Waltham Forest (Chair)

Simon Allford, AHMM

Dr Julia King, LSE

Jack Self, REAL

David Ogunmuyiwa, ArchitectureDoingPlace

Is the icon in architecture about to disappear?

Love them or loathe them, there are a series of buildings and structures that have become ‘iconic’ around the world - drawing visitors from far and wide and reshaping city skylines. Many argue that these totemic built forms are key to local regeneration as they attract people and money. This is not a wholly new phenomenon but recent success has led to a new wave of marketing language around buildings, where any small flourish of form on a block of flats instantly makes the building an ‘icon’ within its area. We have also seen the rise of the ‘starchiect' alongside the growth of iconic architecture, where the cult of personality has become another tool for selling architecture to tenants and the wider public.

In a world disrupted by pandemics, physical mobility is potentially set to change forever and seismic shifts in culture will inevitably lead to new perspectives. How will we use buildings in the future and what will be important to most people living in towns and cities? Perhaps a quieter preoccupation with interior space and a less assertive design sensibility will take precedence over dramatic external forms. Are we seeing an end to the era of the icon?

Speakers:

Tom Dyckhoff, Writer, Broadcaster, Historian (Chair)

Peter Wynne Rees CBE, Professor of Places & City Planning

Adam Nathaniel Furman, Artist and Designer

Amanda Baillieu, Journalist and founder of Archiboo

Yasmin Al-Ani Spence, WilkinsonEyre

Thom Mayne, founding partner of Morphosis

Modern Architects Are Rubbish.

(Banality II)

Architects are supposedly part of the creative community so why are they so incapable of talking about cities and buildings in an engaging way? Unlike many artists, it is rare for architects to fearlessly pursue new ideas and commit themselves to provoking new ways of living and thinking. Are they too consumed with the making of architecture and the broader implications of their work to figure out a way to talk about it? Do architects need a reality check?

The forces behind new buildings – The Who, The What and The Why – remain unseen, unknown and something of a mystery to the general public. Architecture appears to exist as a kind of mask, impenetrable, impersonal, unrepentant and concealing as much as it reveals. When many buildings are as dull as dishwater, is this blandness a true reflection of the designers behind them? What language architecture speaks and how easily it can be understood are important questions to determine if it can successfully connect with us as people and have meaning in our daily lives.

In stark contrast, artists seem to be much more successful inquisitors by observing, inhabiting, and representing the built environment in a fashion that sparks interest and debate. Whether it is painting, sculpture, collage, film, literature or music, art has consistently addressed the implications of architecture on society, space and place and in doing so has communicated fundamental truths and experiences that shape our understanding of the human condition.

Does this mean that there’s a better conversation about architecture taking place in the art world? Should architects get out of their bubble, redefine themselves, and engage with the broader creative community to better understand the realities they’re creating with their built forms and lofty visions?

Speakers:

Sam Jacob, Sam Jacob Studio (Chair)

Marc Isaacs, Film Maker

Andrea Luka Zimmerman, Artist

Hettie Judah, Writer

Priya Khanchandani, Writer and Curator

Nick Rosen, Author

The Joy Of Architecture: Does Fun Follow Form, Function Fear & Finance?

Where is the fun in contemporary architecture? As a process, creating buildings seems to revolve around function, finance and fear rather than freeing things up for flexible flights of fancy. To add insult to injury 99% of the time the end product is uninspiring and distinctly average. So do architects actually enjoy what they spend most of their time doing?

Through building we create new realities, and in doing so we have a choice whether we make earthbound Heavens or accidental Hells. In the C21st can architecture be rediscovered as a liberating and democratising force able to help create a better world for all, with buildings standing for a celebration of life itself?

What makes a building a piece of ‘Architecture’ should help define what ‘A Joy In Architecture’ is, and yet in answering this question a trap can be seen to await designers, because a kind of ‘Joyless-ness’ frequently ends up being the result of their labours, be it in the nobility of obsessively-detailed-material-craft at one end of the spectrum, or the gimmickry of brightly coloured ‘tack on’ shapes at the other.

It seems that in Britain today, rational and formulaic brick boxes have become a lazy shorthand for design quality and appear to be the height of our collective ambition. Tasteful, inoffensive aesthetics are the order of the day and whilst this might please planners looking for ‘something that fits in’, do the general public agree? More conservative organisations argue that people crave traditionalism as a return to a golden age of architecture, but buildings should be about more than just an external aesthetic. These are the places we live and work within and the quality of every space we occupy has an emotional & psychological impact on us in our daily lives.

Is it any surprise that we’re in this position when the built environment is seen first and foremost as an investment opportunity rather than an opportunity to create amazing places and spaces? Where’s the joy in Architecture?

Speakers:

Dr Jane Clossick, London Metropolitan University (Chair)

Lee Ivett, Baxendale Studio

Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg, Space Popular

Alpa Depani, London Borough of Waltham Forest

Francis Terry, Francis Terry and Associates

Alfredo Caraballo, Allies & Morrison

Procurement is a pain. For architects seeking work in the public sector, progressive design & building knowledge is often overlooked for the cheapest and quickest means to meet the end. The requisite qualification seems to be held within organisations and methods that are perceived as being ‘risk adverse’ and in those parties who can offer fees that are just crazy small. Part of this problem is how the public sector is required to comply with OJEU standards and the accompanying bureaucracy.

The alliance between private and public bodies, whilst deemed necessary in our current times, remains unperfected and flawed. If a post-Brexit economy is to be better as some proclaim, then will Britain’s public sector both simplify and open up its tendering procedures to alternatives, so that maybe architects with smaller, more dynamic and hungrier practices can win a job once in a while? Can public projects take on a new dimension through their delivery. We doubt it. The clues are in the Grenfell tragedy: a multitude of invested interests, subcontracts and cutting corners at many levels being a structural problem through its procurement.

The bidding for public work may be competitive and no doubt in many cases ‘rigged’ through frameworks of bidding, so we ask if there is scope for new forms of competition, new ways of assessing what is of value, and how to ensure a culture of attaining value for money exists and becomes the norm. Can there be a public sector emancipated from conservatism, blown budgets, and the inefficiencies and fears of Little Britain politics?

Speakers:

Russell Curtis, RCKa (Chair)

Rae Whittow-Williams, Greater London Authority

Merlin Fulcher, Architects' Journal

Hilary Satchwell, Tibbards

Lisa Woo, Enfield Council