The godless temple, ‘organon of the infinite’

This essay seeks to illuminate our understanding of ‘space’ by showing how Le Corbusier's concept of dwelling draws upon the notion of the secular sacred. The vehicle of analysis is the close correlation between the disposition of his own apartment, at 24 Rue Nugesser et Coli, Paris (1933), and a critical sequence of his Le poème de l'angle droit, published 22 years later. The correlation gives substance and structure to his repeated declaration to ‘make the house a temple’, in turn part of the universal claims of his concept of unité and therefore a significant element of his cultural aspirations regarding housing. The terms of reference for such a reformulation have their source in Romantic thought, with which this essay begins. However, the particular configuration of themes on which Le Corbusier's domestic symbolism depends—a primordial room oriented to the horizon, the contemplation of a paradigmatic woman by a creative male, a representational regime oriented to controlling the cultural background—is already present in certain Marian paintings of the fifteenth century. The configuration seeks to ensure a form of salvation re-interpreted by Le Corbusier in the light of artistic poésie and philosophical reflection. At the same date, Paul Valéry argues for the paradox of painting as a pure noumenal philosophy. This suggests that the long history of the secular sacred depends upon requiring the transcendent to be also transparent to thought, an ambiguity that lies at the heart of the universality claimed for ‘space’ by Sigfried Giedion.     

Organisation, ‘anchoring’ of knowledge,and innovative activity in construction

The construction industry is characterised by the widespread use of project organisation. It has been suggested that the relatively low level of innovative activity in the industry can be explained by the temporary nature of firm boundary‐crossing projects. Survey data from the Danish construction industry is used to investigate the importance of learning and ‘anchoring’ of project‐specific knowledge at the firm level for participation in innovative activities. The data cover both the overall Danish construction industry and a specific region, North Jutland, which has a relatively high specialisation of construction workers. Latent class and regression analyses reveal that firms that make extensive use of partnering, together with internal product and process evaluation and knowledge diffusion (labelled ‘knowledge‐anchoring mechanisms’), are more likely to participate in innovative activities than firms which make less use of these mechanisms. This indicates that construction firms are able to compensate for the problems that temporary interorganisational projects may cause in relation to continuous learning at the firm level.     

Virtual enclosure,ecosystem services,landscape’s character and the ‘rewilding’ of the commons: the ‘Lake District’ case

Abstract

It is paradoxical that, while there is a generally increasing recognition of the scientific and cultural importance of conserving ‘semi-natural’ pastoral environments, and the negative effects of their widespread abandonment and overgrowth, British ‘rewilding’ activists and environmental managers are effectively advocating policies that will have a similar negative effect on the character of the semi-natural pastoral commons of places like England’s iconic Lake District. This situation, it will be argued, owes to the mindset of ‘virtual enclosure’ whereby the character of landscape is pre-defined by an assumed, behind-the-scenes, Euclidean/Ptolemaic spatial logic that leads to the comprehension of nature as a bounded scenic property; an (e)state of nature with its own economic system and services. This mindset is antithetical to both the practice of pastoral commoning and much contemporary natural science and conservation policy. It fits well, however, with older teleological ideas of nature, as well as modern ideas of privatisation, private property and management control.     

The ‘Place’ of Cosmopolitan Architecture

The paper takes as its point of departure the necessity to open a space between the international and the national. That space will be as much political as will be one that allows for a certain architecture. For the sake of argumentation that space has been identified as the cosmopolitan. What characterises the cosmopolitan is the possibility that it is the form of modernity once the modem has been freed from the oscillation between the national and the international. Once modernity is introduced then the question to be addressed is not what is modern architecture but what is the architecture of modernity. Part of the argument developed here is that a beginning can be made once it is understood that modernity has to eschew the symbol. And yet, the symbols that proliferate are either national or international. Consequently, this gives rise to a complex interplay between the cosmopolitan, modernity and the possibility of an architecture that is non-symbolic. The question of how to think this complex set of relations is the project undertaken by the paper.     

‘Orthodox’ and ‘alternative’ explanations for the reduction of urban violence in Medellín,Colombia

In 2016, 43 of the 50 most dangerous cities in the world were located in Latin America. In reducing levels of urban violence and preventing future outbreaks, approaches developed in Western Europe and North America are the most influential and have been subjected to considerable testing in high-income urban environments.

This article focuses on Medellín, Colombia. By drawing from qualitative data collected in Medellín, the article scrutinises claims that the social urbanism policies caused the significant reduction in homicides. An alternative explanation for the reduction in homicides is then presented, focusing on the methods of the perpetrators of violence.     

Conceptualizing ‘the Urban’ Through the Lens of Durban,South Africa

Contemporary urban theory raises many questions about how ‘the urban’ is being conceptualized in a fast changing world that is approaching an urban epoch. Evolving debates about what it means to be urban, including the similarities and differences between so-called northern and southern cities, the future of cities, the way to manage and sustain cities, and cities’ relationships to the new Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, reveal the need for urban theory that can explain and provide insights into contemporary urban governance, processes, and outcomes. This special issue uses Durban as a lens to provide insight into the changing nature of cities in the Global South and Africa in particular, which encapsulate and reflect both formality and informality; tradition and modernity; uneven and unequal growth and social transformation; environmental crises and ‘resilience and sustainability’. This paper reflects on the dominant processes shaping the development of the city, revealing the challenges, tensions, and opportunities that emerge as the city assembles new ways of being urban, through the rationalities, knowledge, experiences, practices and actions of the state, citizens, and the private sector.     

‘The spring of hope,the winter of despair’: an unfinished narrative of Mediterranean cities

Early in 2011, a powerful surge of protest calling for political and social change swept along the North African shoreline. Not for the first time, and almost certainly not for the last, the established rhythms of urban life in the region were to be severely disrupted. The patient work of well-laid plans counted for little as people took to the streets and military governments resisted; overnight, public squares became places of protest and even battlegrounds. Tunis, Tripoli and Alexandria – the three cities that feature in this paper – were by no means the only places to feel the strong winds of change. Moreover, all three of the case studies have long histories and, as with so many other cities around the Mediterranean, turbulence is nothing new. It is hard to think of other parts of the world where cities have so often experienced changing fortunes: at one moment in history nourishing the growth of civilization, at another trapped in a spiral of decline. Located between three continents, in a region of geological as well as geopolitical instability, Mediterranean cities are familiar with bad times as well as good. This paper explores the nature of this volatile process and its impact on urban life and form.     

The Villages,Florida: Small-town Metropolitanism and the ‘Middle of Nowhere’

With over 110,000 inhabitants , The Villages is the world's largest retirement community. Its numerous distinct ‘villages’, surrounded by artificial landscaping and golf courses and served by three ‘downtowns’, cater to those who crave the idealised rural life of times gone by while also offering the convenience and stimulation of the modern metropolis. Deane Simpson , leader of the Master's programme in Urbanism and Societal Change at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, investigates.     

‘A University is a society’: an environmental history of the METU ‘campus’

The formation of a ‘society’ was the major goal of the founders of the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Turkey, which was established in 1956 and became a significant source of intellectual, ideological and architectural capital for its region. The university was designed as a total entity, a three-dimensional modern grid spread over the barren Anatolian prairie, and, in half a century, succeeded in transforming its immediate environment into an ‘ideal landscape’. There has been no publication to date documenting the formation processes of the institution, nor its impact as an environmental revolution. In opposition to the consensus that the development of this university was rooted in the United Nation's programmes for higher education in the developing world and the United States' post-war policy in the region, this paper suggests that the METU Project was rather indicative of the Turkish Republic's desire for modernisation in all of its social and ideological programmes. This paper examines the METU Project in a bid to understand how the Anatolian prairie was transformed into an urban environment, and the unique ways it is perceived in the surrounding political contexts of institutional and everyday life. By compiling an environmental historiography, the intention is to find answers to the questions of how, and to what extent, the ideal landscape was influential, and how it was presented with architecture through social and political practices.     

The Rise of the ‘Invisible Detail’: Ubiquitous Computing and the ‘Minimum Meaningful’

The architectural detail has provided the essential material building block for conveying an idea. Carlo Ratti and Matthew Claudel of the SENSEable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ask how this, though, is all set to change in a digital context. As technologies shrink and vanish from sight, what might become the new minimum meaningful unit for architecture? How might a new relational scale establish itself, at the level of the ‘invisible detail’ or the microchip? How might this, in turn, change the very nature of buildings as they become highly responsive, human-occupied transmitters?     

A ‘Strategy-as-Practice’ exploration of lean construction strategizing

A growing body of work emerging from the management and organizational studies literature is the ‘Strategy-as-Practice’ (SaP) perspective, which focuses on the ways in which strategy is actually enacted within organizational settings. This perspective is used to examine the diffusion of lean construction. In recent years lean construction has grown in prominence to become one of the primary performative improvement recipes for the construction sector. However, rather than providing a stable strategy around which more collaborative, intelligent and efficient project-based organizations develop, this research reveals how the lean concept transforms during its journey with unintended organizational consequences. An ethnographic case study, informed by SaP, demonstrates how a lean strategy and its effects on organizational practice and culture cannot be understood separately from material and embodied practices and power effects. As well as contributing to the examination of lean construction practice, the findings show how strategy is enacted within construction organizations and the ensuing effects of social power. A new trajectory is opened for research into strategizing within construction organizations, which provides ways to explore actual practices and spaces where strategizing occurs.     

A practitioner's view of the ‘Regenerative Paradigm’

The Building Research & Information special issue titled ‘Regenerative Design and Development’ (2012, volume 40, number 1) describes emerging theory and practices. This commentary reflects on some practical aspects of understanding and implementing regenerative development. Design professionals can certainly engage with the concepts of regenerative design to increase social and natural capital. Its scope provides for increased boundaries of practice by considering not only the building as an artefact, but also the potential to broaden the brief and engage with wider issues: the surrounding site, the encouragement of a low-carbon lifestyle and providing a positive contribution to eco-services. Drawing on some experience from practice, key challenges are raised: What impediments are likely to arise? What methodologies are needed for overcoming impediments and integrating these ideas into practice? How can the regenerative concept be applied to an urban context? Concern is expressed about how the complexity of systems thinking can be translated into the decision-making processes without adding undue complication. An important implication of regenerative development is for the existing building stock to be treated as a valuable resource of embodied carbon; its prolonged life and avoided demolition are fundamental.

Le numéro spécial de Building Research & Information intitulé « Conception et Développement Régénérateurs » (2012, volume 40, numéro 1) décrit la théorie et les pratiques émergentes. Le présent commentaire réfléchit à certains aspects pratiques de la compréhension et de la mise en oeuvre du développement régénérateur. Les professionnels de la conception peuvent certainement adopter les concepts de la conception régénératrice afin d'accroître le capital social et naturel. Son champ d'application permet d'élargir les limites de la pratique en envisageant non seulement le bâtiment comme un artefact, mais également les possibilités d'extension du cahier des charges et de prise en compte de problèmes plus larges: le site environnant, l'encouragement d'un style de vie bas carbone et la fourniture d'une contribution positive aux éco-services. En s'appuyant sur une certaine expérience issue de la pratique, les défis majeurs sont soulevés: quels obstacles sont susceptibles d'apparaître? Quelles méthodologies sont nécessaires pour surmonter ces obstacles et intégrer ces idées dans la pratique? Comment le concept régénérateur peut-il être appliqué à un contexte urbain? Des inquiétudes sont exprimées quant à la manière dont la complexité de la pensée systémique peut trouver sa traduction dans les processus de prise de décision sans ajouter d'excessives complications. Une implication importante du développement régénérateur est que le parc bâti existant doit être traité comme une ressource précieuse de carbone intrinsèque; il est essentiel d'en prolonger la durée de vie et d'en éviter la démolition.

Mots clés: cadre bâti, cadre de conception, pratiques de conception, conception régénératrice, construction durable, développement durable     

Housing Market Renewal: Evidence of Revanchism or a Response to ‘Passive Revanchism’ Supporting ‘Citizenship of Place’?

In England, housing market renewal (HMR) proved an urban policy cause célèbre held to be representative of state-sponsored gentrification. This paper considers some critiques and explores the relocation experience of a group of residents in South Yorkshire, England during the implementation of HMR policies during 2005–2007. This paper argues that: (i) from the mid-1970s, ‘place-based citizenship’ and participation standards had been eroded and the introduction of HMR was an antidote to state neglect; (ii) state failure in addressing ‘slow-burn’ shocks such as deindustrialisation and housing market restructuring can be viewed as a form of ‘passive revanchism’ and (iii) HMR can be viewed as a means of addressing deficits in participation standards that arise from differential experiences of place: the term ‘citizenship of place’ is therefore used to signal the call for a more nuanced account of policy interventions such as HMR in order to assess how complex processes of restructuring affect citizens across spatial and temporal scales.     

The difference of ‘being diverse’: City branding and multiculturalism in the ‘Leicester Model’

This city profile on Leicester focuses on the representation of ethnical diversity in city branding. Through a historical approach, the paper discusses how the local authorities have taken advantage of the arrival of different migration flows into the city, in order to redefine its post-industrial identity in terms of multiculturalism, tolerance and inclusivity. In so doing, the paper emphasises the combination of deliberate marketing communicative activities, the provision of services for attracting and retaining foreign businesses and the creation of an open urban milieu where various ethnic groups are free to express and celebrate their own cultures through festivals and events. The paper identifies the alignment between place communication and place ‘offerings’ development as the crucial element underpinning Leicester's model for multicultural cooperation and critically assesses the recent challenges that are being posed to the sustainment of a multicultural city image.     

Bugs,Bats and Animal Estates: The Architectural Territories of ‘Wild Beasts’

For architecture, animals and insects have conventionally represented the threat of infestation - a parasitic and insanitary uninvited presence. Could the animal world, however, offer previously untapped opportunities for design innovation? At a time when the relationship between architecture and nature is coming under question, Ben Campkin takes the opportunity to bring attention to the wider social and geographical processes lying beneath the occupation of the man-made environment by insect and animal life. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hans Scharoun’s ‘Dwelling Cells’ and the autonomy of architecture

This article traces a genealogy of three Berlin housing projects: Hans Scharoun’s housing estate Charlottenburg Nord (1956–1961); the Siedlung Siemensstadt (1929–1931), planned with Martin Wagner; the pre-modern reform block of Nonnendamm, designed by Johnson and Josef Feldhuber (1910–1912). Whilst for Scharoun the inversion of the figure of the perimeter block of Nonnendamm through the Zeilenbau organisation of Siemensstadt exemplifies modernism’s radical break from the past, it is the variegated form or Gestalt of Charlottenburg Nord that verifies the essential nature of a dwelling cell, or neighbourhood.

By contrast, this paper argues that Scharoun’s dwelling cell is the result of a continuous trajectory of typological reasoning. Each of the key spatial components of Nonnendamm—the figure of the block, the façade, the ground and the void—are taken up, hyper-articulated and re-configured, all in the service of the coherence and differentiation of a segment of the urban population. This trajectory exemplifies how modern architecture’s impetus for experimentation is taken into the service of and propels the broader reflection across disciplines regarding how to house and group the urban population.     

‘Observing cities’ social inequalities: a cartographic case study of Aveiro,Portugal

The aim of the study is to present a methodology and an instrument to study cities through a case study undertaken in the county of Aveiro, in Portugal. More specifically, it is to establish a typology of social areas, via the concerns that define quality of life. The data are from 1991 (the last published census), collected by INE (National Agency of Statistic), and desegregated for sub-sections (each subsection has about 300 inhabitants). Seven indicators were chosen, submitted to principal component analysis, and 4 factors were extracted: socio-professional status, ageing of population and buildings, accommodation capacity and precarious housing conditions. The cluster analysis permitted the identification, within each factor group, of sub-sections with different quality of life: high-medium, medium, low-medium and low.     

Where is the ‘Social’ in Constructions of ‘Liveability’? Exploring Community,Social Interaction and Social Cohesion in Changing Urban Environments

Ongoing changes in the urban environment have renewed interest in the transformation of cities and suburbs as liveable places. This article examines the limitations inherent in a functional (objective) notion of liveability that commonly underpins government policy directions. Through an examination of key debates in the literature we consider how the delivery of the social (subjective) dimension of liveability, linked to community, social interaction and social cohesion, poses unique challenges for policy makers, urban planners and developers. We argue for a deeper understanding of the social constructs of liveability that acknowledges the complexity of changing urban environments in contemporary society.