Towards A Social Architecture

Since its sudden and dramatic formation upon winning the competition to design Paisley Civic Centre in 1963, Hutchison, Locke and Monk (HLM Architects) has consistently served and adapted to the changing requirements of Britain’s welfare state, and has instinctively dedicated its professional services to community architecture. Conceived from the perspective of founding partner Tony Monk, this book reveals the inside story of how the partnership has grown over 50 years to become a leading UK national practice. It sets out the early influences and progressive design philosophy of HLM Architects and analyses how they developed their design ethos from late-modern through contextual post-modern architectural styles by the early 1980s, and then matured into producing its own contemporary designs, explaining why these changes took place over that period. As well as reflecting the transformations in the social and political landscapes and in aesthetic approaches, it also inevitably records the changing social history of the architectural profession from labour-intensive manual presentations using drafting pens and drawing boards, through to the slick mass-produced computer modelling that accompanied the digital revolution, and the fundamental adjustments needed to meet the realities of managing an efficient modern commercial business. Working with the HLM Board, the authoritative contributors are Directors who have used their knowledge and experience in responding to government legislation with innovative architectural solutions in their specialist fields. HLM Chairman Christopher Liddle is a leading exponent of defence and custodial procurement, alongside Caroline Buckingham in education and Leslie Welch in healthcare. Their award winning projects now help formulate current policy. The critical Introduction by Dr Edward Denison re-examines the practice’s philosophy and contribution to the evolving welfare state during the second half of the twentieth century. The conclusion is a perceptive assessment of the future direction of the architectural profession and a statement of HLM’s continuing commitment to improving our society. The complex relationships described shed new light on previous architectural theories and, in doing so, this book adds to the knowledge of post-war British architecture.

Should all-inclusive engagement be the major task of architecture? All-Inclusive Engagement in Architecture: Towards the Future of Social Change presents the case that the answer is yes. Through original contributions and case studies, this volume shows that socially engaged architecture is both a theoretical construct and a professional practice navigating the global politics of poverty, charity, health, technology, neoliberal urbanism, and the discipline's exclusionary basis. The scholarly ideas and design projects of fifty-eight thought leaders demonstrate the architect's role as a revolutionary social agent. Exemplary works are included from the United States, Mexico, Canada, Africa, Asia and Europe. This book offers a comprehensive overview and in-depth analysis of all-inclusive engagement in public interest design for instructors, students, and professionals alike, showing how this approach to architecture can bring forth a radical reformation of the profession and its relationship to society.

Across the world, the housing crisis is escalating. Mass migration to cities has led to rapid urbanisation on an unprecedented scale, while the withdrawal of public funding from social housing provision in Western countries, and widening income inequality, have further compounded the situation. In prosperous US and European cities, middle- and low-income residents are being pushed out of housing markets increasingly dominated by luxury investors. The average London tenant, for example, now pays an unaffordable 49 per cent of his or her pre-tax income in rent. Parts of the developing world and areas of forced migration are experiencing insufficient affordable housing stock coupled with rapidly shifting ways of life. In response to this context, forward-thinking architects are taking the lead with a collaborative approach. By partnering with allied fields, working with residents, developing new forms of housing, and leveraging new funding systems and policies, they are providing strategic leadership for what many consider to be our cities’ most pressing crisis. Amidst growing economic and health disparities, this issue of AD asks how housing projects, and the design processes behind them, might be interventions towards greater social equity, and how collaborative work in housing might reposition the architectural profession at large. Recommended by Fast Company as one of the best reads of 2018 and included in their list of 9 books designers should read in 2019! Contributors include: Cynthia Barton, Deborah Gans, and Rosamund Palmer; Neeraj Bhatia and Antje Steinmuller; Dana Cuff; Fatou Dieye; Robert Fishman; Na Fu; Paul Karakusevic; Kaja Kühl and Julie Behrens; Matthew Gordon Lasner; Meir Lobaton Corona; Marc Norman; Julia Park; Brian Phillips and Deb Katz; Pollyanna Rhee; Emily Schmidt and Rosalie Genevro Featured architects: Architects for Social Housing, Shigeru Ban Architects, Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO, cityLAB, Frédéric Druot Architecture, ERA Architects, GANS studio, Garrison Architects, HOWOGE, Interface Studio Architects, Karakusevic Carson Architects, Lacaton & Vassal, Light Earth Designs, NHDM, PYATOK architecture + urban design, Urbanus, and Urban Works Agency

The Social (Re)Production of Architecture brings the debates of the ‘right to the city’ into today’s context of ecological, economic and social crises. Building on the 1970s’ discussions about the ‘production of space’, which French sociologist Henri Lefebvre considered a civic right, the authors question who has the right to make space, and explore the kinds of relations that are produced in the process. In the emerging post-capitalist era, this book addresses urgent social and ecological imperatives for change and opens up questions around architecture’s engagement with new forms of organization and practice. The book asks what (new) kinds of ‘social’ can architecture (re)produce, and what kinds of politics, values and actions are needed. The book features 24 interdisciplinary essays written by leading theorists and practitioners including social thinkers, economic theorists, architects, educators, urban curators, feminists, artists and activists from different generations and global contexts. The essays discuss the diverse, global locations with work taking different and specific forms in these different contexts. A cutting-edge, critical text which rethinks both practice and theory in the light of recent crises, making it key reading for students, academics and practitioners.

Published to accompany the exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 28 Sept. 2010-3 Jan. 2011.

This book is an all-in-one primer for anyone aiming to build on-line communities. It covers the theory of Social Architecture, and the tools you need to build a community. It explains the ZeroMQ community in detail, including its collaboration process (C4). This is a powerful book for anyone building an Open Source community, or an on-line community in other areas.

This book offers new ways of investigating relationships between learning and the spaces in which it takes place. It suggests that we need to understand more about the distinctiveness of teaching and learning in post-compulsory education, and what it is that matters about the design of its spaces. Starting from contemporary educational and architectural theories, it suggests alternative conceptual frameworks and methods that can help map the social and spatial practices of education in universities and colleges; so as to enhance the architecture of post-compulsory education.

Socially engaged architecture is a broad and emerging architectural genre that promises to redefine architecture from a market-driven profession to a mix of social business, altruism, and activism that intends to eradicate poverty, resolve social exclusion, and construct an egalitarian global society. The Routledge Companion to Architecture and Social Engagement offers a critical enquiry of socially engaged architecture’s current context characterized by socio-economic inequity, climate change, war, increasing global poverty, microfinance, the evolving notion of professionalism, the changing conception of public, and finally the growing academic interest in re-visioning the social role of architecture. Organized around case studies from the United States, Brazil, Venezuela, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Nepal, Pakistan, Iran, Thailand, Germany, Australia, Taiwan, and Japan the book documents the most important recent developments in the field. By examining diverse working methods and philosophies of socially engaged architecture, the handbook shows how socially engaged architecture is entangled in the global politics of poverty, reconstruction of the public sphere, changing role of the state, charity, and neoliberal urbanism. The book presents debates around the issue of whether architecture actually empowers the participators and alleviates socio-economic exclusion or if it instead indirectly sustains an exploitive capitalism. Bringing together a range of theories and case studies, this companion offers a platform to facilitate future lines of inquiry in education, research, and practice.