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Introduction
MARC Staff
Research Projects1 Counter-projects and Post-1968 Architectural Criticism at the Intersections of Social Critique,
Politics, and Aesthetics
2 Challenging Lock-in through Urban Energy Systems (CLUES)
3 Smell and the City
4 Art on Stilts in Singapore
5 Conditioning Demand: Older People, Diversity, and Thermal Experience
6 Zero-Carbon Habitation: An International Comparison
7 Multi-Faith Spaces as Symptoms and Agents of Religious and Social Change
8 EcoCities: The Bruntwood Initiative for Sustainable Cities
Research–led Teaching (some snapshots)1 Housing the Masses: Learning from Berlin
2 Courtyard Housing as Urban Catalyst
3 Mapping Controversies: Teaching Platform
4 Studio for the Study of Social Materialities in Cities of the Global South
Books1 PoliticsofUrbanRunoff:Nature,TechnologyandtheSustainableCity
2 Mapping Controversies in Architecture
PhD Student Research
MARC Autumn Lecture Series 2011
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The Manchester Architecture Research Centre (MARC) continues to develop its inter-disciplinary agenda to unpack, follow and engage with design practices, processes and products as they unfold in built environments. This yearbook captures the developing momentum of MARC’s research activity through our teaching, projects, publications, events and exhibitions. Through 2011/12 MARC has pursued research across a wide range of architectural studies, exploring issues of controversy,innovation,agency,imagination,conflict,faith,conservation,politics, heritage and sustainability.
ThisresearchstronglyinfluencedourjointteachingwiththeManchesterSchoolofArchitecture(MSA).OurMARCstudiosofferaninnovativemodelforbringingrecentdevelopmentsinthefieldofarchitecturaltheoryinto studio teaching and we are delighted that the work of our students has gained international acclaim at the Digital Design Festival in Paris for their work on Mapping Controversies. This innovative approach to pedagogy will continue in a new MARC initiative, the Studio for the Study of Social Materialities in the Global South, which brings together scholarly and practical expertise to develop MARC’s engagement with urban research in the Global South.
As you will read, our portfolio of funded projects continues to expand and we strive to disseminate the research results beyond academia, with our research on Multi-Faith Spaces, Smell and the City, and EcoCities allreceivingsignificantpressandpolicyattention.Moreacademically,wecontinuetopublishwidelyacrossthefieldsofgeography,planning,urban studies, architectural theory, and science studies, with two
notablebooksPoliticsofUrbanRunoff:Nature,TechnologyandtheSustainable City and Mapping Controversies in Architecture, both highly praised. MARC’s lectures and seminar series have continued to provide a platform for international debate and we are pleased to have hosted high profilespeakersfromavarietyofdisciplines,manyofwhomweplantocollaborate with in the future.
This yearbook also gives us the opportunity to document the projects of MARC’s vibrant PhD student community. While the range of topics is broad, the common thread is an emphasis on a pragmatist reading of each subject: from the practices of urban actors to network dynamics; from architectural innovations to architecture’s engagement with the real. By drawing on the pragmatist way of thinking, our PhD programme places distinctive emphasis on trans-disciplinarity, empirical depth, creativefieldwork,andmethodologicalrigour.
Wehopethatthisyearbookgivesaflavourofthebreadth,strengthandinnovative nature of our work and will encourage new connections with practitioner and academic communities during the next phase of MARC’s development.
Simon Guy, Director of MARCAlbena Yaneva, Co-director of MARC
/Introduction/
1 2
Prof Simon Guy, Professor of Architecture and Director of MARCSimon’s research aims to critically
understanding the co-evolution of design
and development strategies, and socio-
economic processes shaping cities. He is
a Professor of Architecture, the Director
of EcoCities and an Investigator on a
range of projects funded by the Economic
and Social Research Council (ESRC),
the Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council (EPSRC), Électricité de
France (EDF), and the Department for
International Development (DfID).
Dr Albena Yaneva, Reader in Architecture, Co-director of MARC, Head of Architecture Albena’s research interests include design
cognition, architecture in the making,
the pragmatist turn in architectural
theory, the politics of design, non-
representational theories in architecture,
and bringing the insights of controversy
studies to bear in architecture research.
She is the Principle Investigator (PI) of the
EU-funded project Mapping Architectural
Controversies.
Dr Ralf Brand, Senior Lecturer in Architectural StudiesRalf studies the synchronisation
of social and technical change in
a number of substantive issues.
He previously led a project on
architecture’s role in radicalisation.
He is currently the PI of a study on
multi-faith spaces. He is the Co-I
in projects that investigate older
people’s use of heating technologies
and also the assumptions of zero-
carbon home designers. All of these
projects have received external
funding from organisations such as
the AHRC and the ESRC.
Dr Isabelle Doucet, Lecturer in Architecture and UrbanismIsabelle’s research interests include
agency and architecture, architecture and
urban design’s being in-the-world, the
intersection of architecture (theory) and
the social, architecture and criticality, and
architecture’s engagement with the real
both as a discipline and profession.
Dr Chris Hewson, Research AssociateChris’s research interests include sacred
spaces, ecological buildings, sustainable
consumption, user involvement in green
issues, community media, and social
enterprise. Chris is a research associate
for the AHRC/ESRC project on Multi-Faith
Spaces.
Dr Victoria Henshaw, Research AssociateVictoria’s research interests include
the role of the senses in urban design,
regeneration and city management,
specificallywithrespecttothesenseof
smell. She is a research associate at MARC
supporting Professor Simon Guy on a
rangeofdifferentprojects.
Dr Andrew Karvonen, Research Fellow Andrew’s research interests include
urban political ecology, infrastructure,
sustainable development, technical
expertise and the politics of design. He
is a research fellow across a number of
projects for EcoCities and MARC.
Dr Alan Lewis, Research AssociateAlan’s research centres on the
intersection of policy and architectural
practice, with a particular interest in the
implications of an ageing population
for housing design. Alan is the Research
Associate for the EPSRC/EDF-funded
project ‘Conditioning Demand:
Older People, Diversity and Thermal
Experience’.
Dr Leandro Minuchin, Lecturer in Architecture & Global UrbanismLeandro’s research interests include the
politics of construction, appearance and
articulation in architectural and political
theory, architectural and material
imaginations, and the study of cultural
and political appropriations of concrete.
His publications look at these issues in
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Dr Graeme Sherriff, Research Associate Graeme researches sustainable energy
and transport systems with a focus
on the technological and behavioural
developments that can help society
achieve them as well as the social justice
implications of energy futures. He has
workedintheacademic,public,andNGO
sectors. Graeme is currently a research
associate on the Challenging Lock-in
through Urban Energy Systems (CLUES)
project.
Dr Magda Sibley, Senior Lecturer in Architectural StudiesMagda’s main strands of research
are in heritage-led sustainable urban
regeneration, the courtyard housing
as a building type for sustainable low-
rise, high-density cities, and Hammams
(commonly known as Turkish baths).
Magda is involved in the Hammamed
project funded by the Euromed Heritage 4
programme.
/MARC Staff/
3 4
Counter-projects are a tool for
architectural critique and resistance
used by architects throughout the
1970s. It forms an instructive tool for
understanding how critique can be
processed not just through theory but
also through projects. In the form of
drawing-manifestos, counter-projects
criticisedtheexistingstate-of-affairsas
well as formulating concrete, alternative
proposals. By using architecture’s
medium par excellence – drawing – for
processing critique, the counter-project
forms a fascinating critical device that sits
between theory and practice; between
the analytical and the projective.
Counter-projects are largely associated
with the historicist branch of post-
modernism: the ‘Reconstruction of the
European City’ architects who included
Léon Krier and Maurice Culot; the
‘Critical Reconstruction’ in Berlin; neo-
traditionalism and new urbanism in the
US. Yet, this branch arguably underwent a
so-called ‘aesthetic turn’ and depoliticised
once they were gradually realised in
practice. So, counter-projects seemingly
lost their potential as a critical device for
architecture.
Funded by the School of Environment and
Development’s Research Stimulation Fund
(2012), Isabelle Doucet’s research revisits
the counter-project as an instructive
tool for understanding architecture’s
critical agency and the co-emergence of
politics and aesthetics in architectural
postmodernism during the 1970s.
Using the Archives d’Architecture
Moderne (AAM) in Brussels, the research
revisits the advocacy and activist
roots of counter-projects developed
in the 1970s, particularly those within
the teaching of the French-speaking
architecture school, La Cambre, under
Maurice Culot. The Architectural
Association archives in London are
used to explore counter-projects that
sprouted from education along a variety
of ideological and conceptual lines, such
as Bernard Tschumi’s ‘counter-design’ and
Archigram’s project-manifestos. Finally,
counter-projects emerging in Berlin in the
immediate aftermath of the fall of the
Berlin Wall will also be studied. Developed
by local as well as international architects,
these are instructive for understanding
the emergence of a global architecture.
/Research Projects/
/Counter-projects and Post-1968 Architectural Criticism at the Intersections of Social Critique, Politics, and Aesthetics/
5 6
MARC is one of the research centres
involved in this EPSRC-funded project.
SimonGuyandGraemeSherriffare
working with researchers from the
University of Exeter, University College
London, the University of Loughborough,
the University of Sussex and the
University of Surrey to explore the
co-evolution of urban energy systems.
Thesesystemsarebroadlydefinedand
includeenergygenerationandefficiency
technologies alongside governance, social
and economic dimensions. Combining
case study research in the UK and
overseas with projected energy scenarios
for 2050, the research is underpinned by
the policy relevance of climate change,
fuel poverty and energy security. Simon
and Graeme are responsible for the
‘synthesis’ role and they are working
acrossthesedifferentstrandsofthe
project to identify the linkages between
them and to explore the methodology
andfindingsthroughthelensesofco-
evolution of society and energy systems.
As well as contributing to academic
debates, the work has a practical aim
including, amongst other things, a tool
for strategic-level decision makers in local
authorities.
The Manchester team has co-organised
a series of four workshops that brought
together stakeholders from businesses
and local authorities in the UK with
representatives from overseas projects
for potential replication in the UK. These
workshops have provided insights into
the drivers for change, the barriers facing
actors when implementing projects,
andthecontextualfactorsindifferent
settings. The development of seawater
districtheatinginaformerfishing
towninTheNetherlandshasproveda
rich source of data for an exploration
of the ‘assemblage’ approach. Here,
stakeholders in the conventional sense
are conceptualised with the sea as a
source of energy, the behaviours and
expectations of the residents and the
resonance of the idea of the sea with the
historicallegacyoffishing.
A Delphi survey of urban energy
initiatives in the UK was also completed.
This approach comprises an iterative,
web-based survey in which questions
are based on the ‘results’ of the previous
stages. The survey was useful in testing
out some of the in-depth qualitative
case study and workshop research with a
wider audience.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/clues
/Challenging Lock-in through Urban Energy Systems (CLUES)/
7 8
The Smell and the City Project
investigates the detection,
representation, and recall of urban
odours. Led by Victoria Henshaw, in
collaboration with Dominic Medway
(Manchester Business School) and
Chris Perkins (University of Manchester
Geography), the project has gained
international media with features in
The Independent and BBC Radio 4 as
well as wider coverage in popular and
specialist media outlets across Belgium,
theUnitedStates,Australia,andNew
Zealand. Project activities have included
‘smellwalks’ in Manchester’s city centre
to investigate the odours in areas such
as Chinatown, Albert Square, the canal
network, and along the city’s busy roads.
Theuseofartificialscentingpracticesin
city centre marketing campaigns has also
been investigated with site visits and on-
site interviews in London, York, Glasgow,
and Manchester. The project team also
hosted two interdisciplinary workshops
with professionals and academics from
across the UK to discuss the research,
mapping, and marketing of smell in the
city, and to explore and develop creative
solutions to problems presented when
attempting to represent smell in the city.
The project blog is regularly updated
and an online interactive smell-map of
Manchester will go live during summer
2012, using crowd-sourcing in the
collection of data on smells that can
be detected in Manchester city centre
and how these are perceived. Victoria
also developed a free DIY Manchester
Smellwalk Map that is available for
download on the project blog website.
Future activities will include a smell
project to be delivered in September
2012 in conjunction with Studio X at
ColumbiaUniversity(NewYorkCity)and
a project organised in conjunction with
Yorkshire’s social enterprise for the built
environment, IntegreatPlus, and the
SheffieldCommunityNetworkaspartof
SheffieldUrbanDesignWeekinOctober
2012.
http://smellandthecity.wordpress.com/
/Smell and the City/
9 10
In Autumn 2011, Simon Guy joined forces
with Wolfgang Weileder, an artist and
ProfessorofSculptureatNewcastle
University, to deliver a project on climate
change and art in one of Singapore’s key
public areas. The project centred upon
STILT HOUSE – an installation taking
the form of two stilt houses that are
representative of the vernacular Malay
Kelong housing. By reinterpreting the
traditional pile housing typology, the
project encourages people to rethink
their relationship with the environment
in a number of ways depending upon
their individual positions. The installation
further challenged the rapid urbanisation
of the Singaporean nation-state through
its materiality by using innovative
recycled plastic panels as the primary
material composition, supported above
thegroundonscaffoldingpoles.
STILT HOUSE was one of seven
installations in Singapore’s public
spaces contributing to the Hub-to-
Hub symposium as part of ArchiFest
2011, Singapore’s annual festival of
architecture. The symposium showcased
installationsthatintervenedandreflected
upon issues of climate change with
respect to low-carbon lifestyle changes
and work/life balance; demographic and
social shifts; and immigration, identity,
and cultural diversity. The project was
constructed on-site by local workers led
by Wolfgang during the two weeks prior
to the start of Hub-to-Hub in mid-October
2011 and remained in place for one month
after the symposium. Simon interviewed
visitors to the project to gain insights into
local interpretations of the meaning of
the installation as well as the experience
of being within it. Simon and Wolfgang
presented their intentions for the STILT
HOUSE at the symposium’s culmination
event,heldatSingapore’sNational
Library Building. The project has since
been reported across the Singaporean
architectural media and will feature in a
forthcoming journal article while serving
as a foundation for further collaborations
between Simon and Wolfgang.
http://www.hubtohub.sg/exhibition.html
/Art on Stilts in Singapore/
11 12
The population in the UK is gradually
ageing as public health improves. Ageing
isexperiencedinmanydifferentways
but an important part of maintaining
a healthy and high quality life in older
age is in the management of thermal
comfort. Comfort is closely tied to energy
consumption and with rising fuel costs
and the need to reduce our carbon
footprints, a tension is emerging between
maintaining comfortable conditions for
health and well-being versus reducing
the energy consumed in our homes. This
research project examines two key forms
of future change: the demographic trend
of an ageing society and the development
ofenergy-efficientdomestictechnologies.
It aims to understand how older people
manage the thermal conditions in their
homes and how this is changing with
theintroductionofenergy-efficient
technologies such as ground source
heat pumps, solar hot water systems,
and mechanical ventilation with heat
recovery.
The project includes four UK universities
(Manchester,Lancaster,Cardiff,and
Exeter) as well as French energy
companyEDF.MARCstaffmembersare
coordinating the overall project while
also conducting empirical research on
extra care housing schemes. The project
team – comprised of Simon Guy, Ralf
Brand, Alan Lewis, and Andrew Karvonen
– is comparing and contrasting domestic
energy practices in buildings with
conventionalandenergy-efficientheating
technologies. Through interviews with
occupants, building managers, and design
professionals, the team is collecting
empirical data that will be relevant to
a wide range of academic disciplines
including architecture, sociology, urban
planning, building science, and geography.
The research team is also conducting
outreach activities with third sector
organisations, design professionals, and
building managers to better understand
the multiple issues that are embroiled in
providing desirable thermal experiences
for older people. The project will conclude
in2012andtheresearchfindingswillbe
disseminated on the project website,
through academic and trade journals, and
at various conferences.
http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/research/marc/research/conditioningdemand/
/Conditioning Demand: Older People, Diversity, & Thermal Experience/
13 14
Zero-carbon homes are an icon of low-
carbon policy ambition in the UK. The
Government’s 2016 target for new homes
is the subject of vociferous debates in the
homebuildingindustrywithsignificant
questions raised over how zero-carbon
habitation can be introduced in such
a short time period. The Zero-Carbon
project team – including Simon Guy, Ralf
Brand, and Andrew Karvonen, along with
Gordon Walker from Lancaster University
– is following this emerging debate
and exploring how the pursuit of zero-
carbon homes goes beyond the technical
and economic aspects of the building
industry and involves a whole host of
actors who shape domestic habitation
practices. The researchers are examining
the assumptions and expectations
about behaviours and practices that are
embedded in the zero-carbon regulations,
design strategies, and building processes.
In 2011 and 2012, the project team
conducted case study research on a
diverse range of zero-carbon housing
developments to understand how
low-carbon living is being scripted into
the design of domestic buildings. The
findingswillbepublishedinacademic
and trade journals and will inform the
ongoing negotiations around zero-carbon
housing in the UK. This project is one of
seven undertaken by the Sustainable
Practices Research Group (SPRG), a
consortium funded by the EPSRC, the
Department for Environment, Food and
RuralAffairs(Defra),andtheScottish
Government. SPRG research teams are
conducting multilevel analyses of three
environmentally-sensitive practices
– eating, water-use, and sheltering –
and are also devising a series of action
research interventions with stakeholder
organisations in the vein of ‘interactive
social science’.
www.sprg.ac.uk
/Zero-Carbon Habitation: An International Comparison/
15 16
Organisations are increasingly attempting
to accommodate religious diversity via
the provision of multi-faith spaces (MFS).
Some are small and mono-functional
(located in airports, universities, hospitals,
shopping malls, and so forth); others
take the form of dedicated buildings or
complexes,wheredifferentreligions
inhabit and utilise their own sacred
space(s), while sharing collective ‘secular’
facilities.Here,individualsfromdifferent
faith traditions can, notionally, come
together to pray, relax, learn and discuss.
Within these spaces a tentative
rapprochement between belief systems
might occur. As a consequence, MFS have
received overt political endorsement
with the Department for Communities
and Local Government (CLG) noting
the importance of ‘shared spaces for
interaction’. However, despite the
hope that they may help shape a more
integrated, inclusive and tolerant society,
MFS have so far received little attention
as works of architecture, or spaces that
shape, and are shaped by, ongoing socio-
religious discourses.
Ralf Brand, along with research
associate Chris Hewson, Andrew
Crompton (University of Liverpool),
and the theological associate, Revd. Dr.
Terry Biddington (Chaplain to Higher
Education in Manchester), aim to better
understand the genesis of such spaces
(as an academic concern) and to assist in
their further development (as a practical
intention). They have visited over 250 such
spaces in a wide range of institutional
contexts and in ten countries. Their
conclusions are based on several focus
groups, a large number of in-depth
qualitative interviews, observations, user
feedback, the analysis of guest books, and
an online survey.
The project outputs include peer-
reviewed journal papers and conference
dissemination, a best practice
compendium and a professionally
curated, travelling exhibition that is
available to hire free of charge. The aim is
to engage policy practitioners, academics,
stakeholders, and the general public in an
ongoing dialogue around the continued
expansion of multi-faith facilities.
www.manchester.ac.uk/mfs
www.multi-faith-spaces.org
/Multi-Faith Spaces as Symptoms & Agents of Religious & Social Change/
17 18
EcoCities is a joint initiative between
The University of Manchester and the
Manchester-based property company
Bruntwood, funded by a donation
from The Oglesby Charitable Trust. The
interdisciplinary endeavour began in 2008
and the research team is led by Simon
Guy (MARC) and John Handley of the
Centre for Urban and Regional Ecology
(CURE). Central to EcoCities’ work is the
concept of building adaptive capacity to
help cities develop the skills, knowledge,
and expertise necessary to adapt to the
impacts of climate change. The core
aim of EcoCities has been to undertake
research to support the process of
planning for a changing climate in Greater
Manchester. It is hoped that the research
outputs will also have wider relevance for
other urban areas engaged in responding
to the challenges and potential
opportunities linked to climate change.
This year saw the release of Four Degrees
of Preparation, an EcoCities internet
resource designed to support decision
making on climate change adaptation.
The website is a unique, standard-setting
climate change adaptation intelligence
resource that will inform policies,
strategies, and action that are developed
by stakeholders in Greater Manchester
and beyond. Through a spatial portal,
individuals and organisations have the
opportunity to visually investigate climate
change hazards and vulnerabilities locally,
so building Greater Manchester’s capacity
to adapt to unavoidable climate change.
Four Degrees of Preparation was launched
at the Adapting the City summit in May
2012 that brought together around 150
decisionmakersfromacrosstheNorth
Westtoreflectontheimplicationsof
climate change adaptation for Greater
Manchester and its surrounding region.
Social and natural scientists connected
with private, public, and community
sectors including representatives from
Manchester City Football Club, United
Utilities, Red Rose Forest, Arcon Housing
AssociationLimited,NewCharterHousing
Trust, and The Oldham College. Sir Richard
Leese, leader of Manchester City Council,
opened the event by noting that ‘Greater
Manchester is leading the way on such
an important issue, and one that has the
potential to impact hugely on people’s
everyday lives, our public services, our
businesses’ productivity, and our city’s
infrastructure.’
www.adaptingmanchester.co.uk
www.manchester.ac.uk/ecocities
/EcoCities: the Bruntwood Initiative for Sustainable Cities/
19 20
This research-led studio used Berlin as a
historical and contemporary laboratory
of how ideologies, utopias, and creativity
are expressed through architectural and
urban projects. The city was interpreted
as an instructive ‘laboratory’ for
architecture and urban design. Since
Berlin was forced to radically rethink and
innovate ways to house the masses at
variouspointsintime,itoffersahistorical
‘hotbed’ of housing experiments. The
students conducted design research
through three historical/typological
Berlin moments: the nineteenth-century
Mietskaserne, inter-war siedlungen, and
post-war Trabantenstaedte respectively.
Informed by these historical and
typological ‘lessons’, Isabelle Doucet
andGriffEvanshelpedtheirstudentsto
produce typological housing experiments
in Manchester.
The studio projects were not about
a building but the design research in
itself. Presented in the form of an ‘active
archive’, the projects were constructed
along a real-time recording of learning
andusedasatoolforcriticalreflection
across the three exercises. Students
experimented through conceptual
drawings, models, diagrams, and
writings. The selection and mastering of
representational tools was considered
to be part of the research. As such,
the ‘active archive’ functioned as an
intense learning device that assisted in
identifying (urban) catalysts in housing
typology.
/Housing the Masses: Learning from Berlin/
/Research-led Teaching (some snapshots)/
21 22
This research-led studio focused on the
idea of courtyard housing as an urban
catalyst for developing high-density,
low-riseecocities.TheUNESCOWorld
Heritage Site of Fez in Morocco was
used as a laboratory for urban and
architectural experimentation. The
students, led by Magda Sibley along with
GriffEvans,investigatedvernacularforms
of courtyard housing in the city through
literature reviews, architectural analyses,
and the development of 3D modelling to
understandtheconfigurationofliving
spaces around courtyards and its impact
on urban form. These preliminary studies
were followed by a trip to Fez to provide
Three key sites were selected for students
to investigate and use as a basis for the
development of a sensitive programme of
urban intervention through reinterpreting
thecourtyardconfiguration.Eachsite
presenteddifferentchallengesinorder
to lead to a variety of group strategies
and individual projects that addressed
environmental, social, and cultural
problems.Thefinalprojectsfellinto
three categories: adaptive reuse of
heritage courtyard houses; contemporary
reinterpretation of vernacular typologies
(such as the Islamic public bathhouse and
the caravanserai); and projects addressing
environmental challenges such as
river pollution and the landscaping
of public spaces inside the medina.
This year, example projects included a
water treatment installation and urban
agricultural gardens, a refuge centre for
women, a centre for the homeless, a
language training centre for children, and
a hammam/glass making workshop.
thestudentswithfirsthandexperience
of the courtyard housing typology. The
exercise challenged pre-conceived ideas
about external facades and landmark
buildings through their experience of
inward looking buildings and blank walled
alleyways.
/Courtyard Housing as Urban Catalyst/
23 24
Bringing the latest research and
scholarship developed in the EU-funded
project MACOSPOL to education, Albena
Yaneva has developed an interactive web-
based platform ‘Mapping Architectural
Controversies’ (MAC) that is dedicated
to students and researchers working on
debates and controversies surrounding
urban design. The platform serves as
a database on controversies, provides
tutorial guidance for the Mapping
Controversies teaching and learning
methods, and showcases some initiatives
in enhancing the public understanding of
controversies.
The three objectives of this innovative
research-based teaching platform are:
1) to reconnect and strengthen the
synergies between Humanities and
Technologies. By so doing it aims at
overcoming one of the main weaknesses
in architectural education today – the
gap between theory and practice; 2) to
encourage work across disciplines as
it connects architectural studies with
methods drawn from an existing body
of research on analysing controversial
issues in science and technology studies
(a tradition known as STS); 3) to address
a broader audience interested in the
design of cities, spatial networks, and
built environments as well as planners,
policy-makers, politicians and citizens.
Acting as a knowledge-transfer facilitator
the platform allows the University to
participate in current public debates on
architecture and media discussions on
topical urban issues.
Aspecificcollaborationhadbeen
established with related programs from
an international teaching consortium that
gathers schools using similar teaching
methods including France, USA, Germany,
Belgium,Switzerland,Netherlands,
and Italy. In recognition of the quality
of the work carried out in Manchester,
the best student outputs from the last
three years are regularly uploaded on the
websites of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) and Sciences-Po as
examples of good practice.
The best controversies websites from
2011/2012 were presented at the French
Festival Futur-en-Seine in Paris on 15 June
2012. Futur-en-Seine is an international
Digital World Festival that shows the
latest digital innovations to French and
international professionals. It allows
entrepreneurs, designers, and researchers
to engage in discussion on digital
technologies with the general public.
The winning projects from Manchester
include:
Liverpool Waters
Students: Helen Cross, Katie Molloy,
Dominic Patel, Melissa Steen
http://controversies.msa.ac.uk/blogs/
liverpoolwaters/
London River Park
Students: Reece Singleton, Maddi
Mooney,HannahBellerby,AdamDuffill,
Katie Williams
http://controversies.msa.ac.uk/blogs/
riverpark/
The case study on the London Olympic
Stadium Design has witnessed a high
amount of public interest.
www.mappingcontroversies.co.uk.
http://www.futur-en-seine.fr/scenelive/
cartographies-de-controverses-16h/
/Mapping Controversies: Teaching Platform/
25 26
Studio for the Study of Social
Materialities in Cities of the Global
South
Struggles to develop, transform, and
adapt the physical fabric of expanding
metropolises have become salient and
definingfeaturesofcontemporary
urban experience. In this context, an
understanding of the tools, methods,
and knowledge that articulate and
sustain socio-infrastructural networks
that make the city becomes paramount.
Leandro Minuchin launched a new
initiative to examine the role of
materials and construction practices
in the consolidation of urban forms of
association and solidarities.
The studio will develop practical
and architectural solutions towards
assembling more egalitarian socio-
material relations in cities of the Global
South. Structured as a multidisciplinary
collective, it draws inputs from
architectural design, planning, geography,
and development studies. It explores
the richness and innovative quality of
techno-popular knowledge involved in
transforming local peripheries and the
role of construction in the articulation of
alternative urban futures.
The initiative is fostering links between
academics, students, social movements,
architectural organisations, and public
agencies involved in the development of
new forms of materialisation and with
the dissemination of novel constructive
mechanisms. A digital portal will be
developed to research and compile
examples of successful constructive
innovations and to investigate ways of
enhancing the sharing and reproduction
of these constructive knowledges. At the
launch two-day workshop in Manchester,
MSA students were joined by scholars
from UK universities and a member of
GIROS, an Argentinian social movement.
Combining paper and design sessions, the
workshop exposed students to current
theoretical debates on materiality and
local politics and enabled them to identify
suitable case studies for urban research.
/Studio for the Study of Social Materialities in Cities of the Global South/
27 28
Literature.
Precipitationincitiescausessignificant
long-termproblems:flooding,erosion,
water pollution, and in the worst cases,
human fatalities. In the twentieth
century, municipal engineers developed
a complex network of technical and
natural systems to treat and remove
thesetemporarywaterflowsfromurban
areasasquicklyaspossible.Urbanrunoff
is typically in the domain of technical
experts and environmental managers
but a closer reading reveals a multitude
of such nontechnical issues as land use,
quality of life, governance, aesthetics,
and community identity. Moreover,
urban drainage is emerging as a central
component of larger debates on creating
more sustainable and liveable cities.
Reviews:
‘Historians, geographers, and others will
appreciate Karvonen’s work because
he recognizes that understanding how
relations play out across space and
through time is critical to building more
just urban communities.’ Geoffrey
Buckley, Environmental History
‘…provides a salient history of urban
water governance, a critical theoretical
interpretation of human–nonhuman
relations, and valuable suggestions for
moving forward.’ Michael Finewood, The
Professional Geographer
‘…the book is neither abstract political
theory nor a how-to manual of best
managementpractices.Instead,itoffers
a productive synthesis of these two poles
and thereby produces a useful ‘‘third
way’’ resource for urban practitioners.’
Gale Fulton, Journal of Planning
In October 2011, Andrew Karvonen
published a research monograph,
PoliticsofUrbanRunoff:Nature,
Technology and the Sustainable City
(The MIT Press), that explores the
unique relationships between nature,
technology, and society produced
byurbanrunoff.Usingtheoretical
insights from urban environmental
history, human geography, landscape
and ecological planning, and science
and technology studies as well as
empirical evidence from two in-depth
case studies, Karvonen proposes a new
relational politics of urban nature that is
situated, inclusive, and action-oriented.
/Politics of Urban Runoff: Nature, Technology & the Sustainable City/
29 30
In April 2012, Albena Yaneva published
a research monograph Mapping
Controversies in Architecture (Ashgate).
The book sets the question of how
can we conceptualise architectural
objects and practices without falling
into the divides of architecture/society,
nature/culture, materiality/meaning.
Mapping Controversies provides a new
research methodology and teaching
philosophy that allows these divides
to be crossed and assists in following
debates on contested urban knowledge.
Engaging in explorations of recent and
ongoing controversies, such as the 2012
Olympics stadium in London, the book
offersground-breakingcomputational
visualisations of the variety of factors
that impinge on design. It places
architecture at the intersection of
‘Mapping Controversies is a fresh and
highly productive challenge to the
tendency of architectural theory to
represent architecture as a static object.
Yaneva’s innovative methodology,
hybridizing parametric animation
and ‘post-parametric’ computation,
unfolds buildings as multi-dimensional
controversies. In doing so, she extends
a powerful platform for discourse well
beyond the architectural community.’
Ariane Lourie Harrison, Yale School of
Architecture, USA
‘Yaneva brilliantly proposes a new and
robust ethnographic approach to built
form: mapping the controversies in
which they emerge and seeing them
as ‘connectors’ with unique properties
-neitherjustreflectionsofsocietyor
constructors of it, nor as cold materials
- but as dynamically tying together
differentmedia,materials,peoplesand
things in a distinctly architectural way.
the human and the non-human; the
particular and the general.
Reviews:
‘By crossing the tools of science studies
with the digital techniques of mapping
controversies, this book renews the
critiqueofarchitecture.Itoffersa
new way to place architecture and
design as one of the most exciting
ways to explore the common world
because it takes controversies as the
normalstateofaffair.Withmanylively
examples it is a masterpiece of theory
made empirical.’ Bruno Latour, Institut
d’Études Politiques de Paris, France
This represents a profound shift in the
way we can think anthropologically
about the analysis of buildings and what
buildings ‘do’ and how they emerge
socially and materially in the widest
possible sense.’ Victor Buchli, University
College London, UK
‘Yaneva makes a heartfelt attempt to
address the very real problem currently
threatening the academic understanding
of architectural history; namely, the
reading of buildings as the crystallised
effectsofthepoliticalandeconomic
world that produced them. It’s the type
of view that sees the Dome as Tony Blair’s
ideas incarnate, utterly negates not just
the technological aspect of architectural
production but its complexity. It ignores
the way buildings emerge from a set of
social concerns, as much as they address
them. Yaneva should be praised for
raising concerns about this trend….’
Tim Abrahams, The Architects’ Journal
/Mapping Controversies in Architecture /
31 32
Nilan BayatAchieving Higher Efficiency in the
Existing Terraced Housing Stock in the
UK: Architects as Intermediaries in the
Refurbishment Decision-Making Process
With the UK statutorily committed to
an eighty per cent reduction in CO2
emissionsby2050,theretrofitofexisting
housing represents a major challenge
since it is responsible for the second
largest share of those emissions. Most of
the housing stock is already constructed,
which means that the adaptation of
existing homes is an urgent policy
objective. Terraced housing is a prominent
UK building type and is, typically, highly
energyinefficient.
Taking this building type, the research
investigates the current decision-making
processes during refurbishment projects
toexplorehowenergyefficiencyis
negotiated between architects and other
construction professionals through UK
case studies. By accounting for the current
decision making processes between
architects and construction professionals,
the research will identify the current
challenges and opportunities in achieving
energyefficientretrofitsofexisting
terraced housing in the UK to inform
future practices.
Julie CrawshawBeyond Targets: Articulating the Role of Art
in Regeneration
Art is understood as an instrument
in support of economic development
and social renewal. In order to better
articulatetheeffectsproducedbyart,
instead of focusing on policy this thesis
rather describes what happens in practice.
Instead of looking at solid material
objects set apart from their surroundings,
following the tradition of pragmatism
this research traces art as a continuous
experience as part of the movements of
the city.
Through adopting a range of
anthropological positions, the research
offersanuancedviewofwhatart
does. Through in-depth interviews and
ethnography, this thesis traces the agency
of humans and non-humans to describe
themicroreflectionsamidstthecreator’s
‘inner’ human materials and the ‘outer’
physical materials of construction. To the
stable language and ambitions of policy
weopposethefluidnatureofpractice.
Instead of delivering against macro policy
objectives, rather we notice that the
movementsofartignitespecificeffectsof
urban regeneration.
Mahmoud ElwerfalliContemporary Courtyard Housing in the
Arab World: Re-interpreting the Courtyard
Housing Typology for High Density Urban
Housing in Libya towards Environmental
and Social Sustainability
In the Arab world, the courtyard house
traditionally played an important role
and led to the development of low-rise,
high-density compact historic cities. Over
the last two centuries, it has fallen out of
fashion in favour of medium- to high-rise
apartment buildings and individual villas.
Unlike the vernacular courtyard house,
these disregard regional characteristics
and local climate.
The courtyard house also provides key
lessons in passive low-energy design and
environmental sustainability. Therefore,
itoffersamodelforfuturedwelling
in the Arab world. Emergent forms of
new courtyard housing are hybrids that
draw upon both individual villas and the
vernacular courtyard type. This research
will critically investigate emerging forms
of courtyard housing, primarily in Libya. It
analyses contemporary courtyard housing
projects with a focus on distinctive social
and environmental attributes.
Elnaz GhafoorikoohsarArticulating the Role of Urban Cultural
Heritage in Support of Community-Based
Urban Regeneration in Run-Down Areas in
England
The election of a Coalition government
intheUKandfiscalretrenchment
has reawakened ideas on community
empowerment as the key to regenerating
Britain’s cities in a time when economic
resources are lacking. Urban cultural
heritage may be an asset since it is
known to bridge communities through
their built environment. This research
will use case studies of deprived and
diverse communities to gather evidence
of community interaction and to explore
the role that cultural heritage may play
asa‘catalyst’affectingtheprocessof
community-based local regeneration.
Ambrose GillickSynthetic Vernacular: the Co-Production
of Architecture
In the Global South, external actors are
typically involved in the reconstruction
of the built environment following
disaster. Often, they privilege resilience
to environmental forces over local
socio-cultural and economic norms,
resulting in urban frameworks that lack
theflexibilitynecessaryfornon-formal
settlements. This research proposes
that those housing programmes that
synthesise contemporary technological
and environmental learning with
vernacular traditions and knowledge are
likely to prove more sustainable. This
‘synthetic vernacular architecture’ can
provide a framework for the organic
processes of community and settlement
growth over time in response to
emerging environmental change. As a
concept, it will have a broad application
across the globe since future cities
may need to embrace and assimilate
vernacular knowledge and processes, in
wayssimilartothoseidentifiedinthe
research if they are to become socially,
economically and environmentally
sustainable.
/PhD Student Research/
33 34
Liam HeaphyManaging Climate Model-Based
Uncertainties for Policy-Making on Climate
Change and the Built Environment
Climate change is framed as a global
issue but its impacts are local. Predicting
those impacts of a changing climate
on cities presents a challenge for both
researchers and decision-makers who
connect the large uncertainties inherent
in predicting the future of non-linear
global systems with locality-based
empirical studies. Though climate
modelling is a global research program,
it is increasingly made to be relevant for
local decision-making.
This research looks at the practice
of climate modelling and its relation
with the urban environment through
the provision of climate projections.
Stemming from existing research into
the role that models play in advancing
scientificknowledge,climatemodels
are used as the point of interest to
understand how they become involved
in a chain of research endeavours that
link climate research with policy-led
adaptation planning.
Övgü PelenThe Living Legacy of Modernism: Catalysing
the Industrial Past
Old industrial sites in the contemporary
world can be transformed through reuse,
conservation, preservation, and so on.
The project builds on from the idea that
buildings and sites change with time. By
looking at the ‘life’ of industrial sites and
accounting for the rhythm of numerous
alternations they undergo, a focus on the
micro-scale is maintained. An in-depth
exploration of a site at a micro scale is
crucial for understanding some of the
manifestations of societal change at the
macro level and for grasping the cadence
of cultural, economic and political
transformations.
TheSalıpazarıwarehouses(currently
named ‘Galataport’) in Istanbul – and
their several changes in use – are the
most relevant example of post-industrial
transformation from Turkey. Using the
warehouses as a case, this study will
contribute to a better understanding of
thecurrentphenomenaofgentrification,
urban regeneration and neo-liberal
planning in Turkey.
Elisa PieriUrban Futures: How issues of Security
and Aspirations of Cosmopolitanism
Reconfigure the City Centre
In the wake of terrorist attacks, security
has increased at national borders and
within cities. At the same time, political
actors promote cosmopolitanism and
multiculturalismtoengenderspecific
identities (such as that of the ‘European
Citizen’) and shape new boundaries and
agendas. Urban built environments have
become sites of the contested visions of
cosmopolitanism and securitisation.
Manchester city centre provides a useful
case study to explore the visions and
valuesofdifferentstakeholdersabout
what constitutes a ‘good city’. The
research looks at the use of public and
private spaces in the city centre and
the security practices in place including
those for events as wide-ranging as
street festivals, public celebrations
and large private events. Moreover,
it questions the discourses that city
councillors, developers, businesses and
citizens use to imagine the future of
the city and highlights the overlaps and
tensions generated by the aspirations
and practices of cosmopolitanism and
securitisations in city centre spaces.
Maria PrietoArchitectural Publics: Articulating
Practice and Innovation in the Office for
Metropolitan Architecture (1970-2000)
The purpose of this study is to provide
a better understanding of the diverse
andfluidrolesoftheuserasacritical
source of innovation in architectural
design. It asks: what is the role of the user
in design practices? How do architects
imagine, dramatize and give power to the
user? What kinds of pleasure practices
(understood as joy of making and joy of
discovery) can lead to the formation of
new types of publics?
By addressing these questions, the
project explores the relationship
between architectural production and
consumption. As well as shedding light on
the political dimensions of design, it will
uncover its intrinsic social dimensions:
collective ways of sharing, experimenting
and producing the materiality of
architecture.
Drawingonethnographicfieldworkat
theOfficeforMetropolitanArchitecture
(OMA) to trace their use of archives, the
collection of previous design materials
and the ongoing reconceptualisation
of ideas and designs for current
commissions, the thesis empirically
unpacks the synergies between
innovation, pleasure and the formation
of publics in various user-led design
innovation processes in OMA during the
period 1970 – 2000.
Reyhan SabriWaqf Conservation Strategies and their
Impact on the Built Heritage in Cyprus
In aiming at sustainable policies,
architectural conservation has
highlighted the importance of tracing
the impact of diverse historical and
geographical approaches towards the
care of heritage buildings. This study
explores the Waqf institution in Cyprus
– primarily constructed for religious
and commercial purposes – over the
course of its long history from the late
sixteenth-century, when Cyprus was
under the Ottoman Empire, through to
the present day.
This investigation will help to understand
the versatile nature of conservation
practices of the Waqf institution in Cyprus
as well as informing the formulation
of future policies for sustainable
conservation.
/PhD Student Research/
35 36
Katerina SevastyanovaWater meets Energy: The Mediation of
Solar Thermal Technology and Occupiers’
Resistance
This project aims to understand how solar
thermal technology in newly built and
retrofittedUKhousesisframedbysocial
practices.
Using both quantitative and qualitative
methods, the project uncovers the role
of supply-side actors in deciding which
technology is installed and how it should
shape domestic practices. Additionally,
the research scrutinises the interaction
between occupiers and solar thermal
systems. It examines whether occupiers
have changed their hot water-related
routines as expected or whether they
resist changes to their routines and the
organisation of daily life.
Viktoria WesslowskiFacilitating Sustainable Social Practices
This research aims to gain a better
understanding of how to facilitate
sustainable social practices, thereby
decreasing the environmental impact of
human activity without reducing quality
of life. Programmes targeted at changing
behaviour by providing information
often fall short of expectations in terms
of behavioural changes. Using an in-
depth case study of cycling promotion
in Santiago de Chile, this study explores
whether, and how, infrastructure can
be planned and designed to make
sustainable practices more attractive
than unsustainable alternatives.
The research traces the politics of
technical and legal decisions regarding
the provision of cycling infrastructure
to suggest that facilitating sustainable
social practices requires a profound
understanding of the practice and
its infrastructure requirements.
However, the provision of the required
infrastructure is not a purely technical
issue but an inherently political process.
Sercan YalcinerExploring the Transferability of Sustainable
Building Codes
Building codes, such as LEED in the USA
and BREEAM in the UK, are a key policy
instrument in regulating energy demand
and improving the sustainability of
structures. While developed countries
have already adopted codes, less
developed countries struggle to muster
the resources and capacities to establish
their own building codes and they often
adopt existing versions uncritically and
without questioning their suitability.
This research will use the example of
BREEAM and investigate its application
in three case-study countries to map the
underlying challenges to understand
potentialbenefitsofBREEAMforless
developed countries.
Yasser ZareiM. Phil. Completed July 2012.
The Challenges of Parametric Design in
Architecture Today: Mapping the Design
Practice
Parametric design uses parameters to
defineaformwhenwhatisactually
inplayistheuseofrelations.Defining
such relationships has not previously
been considered as part of design
thinking.Nowdesignershavetwoextra
capabilities: ‘relate and repair’. The
hallmark of this approach to design is
bringing a new outlook to the nature
of design by coupling problem-setting
with problem-solving. Yet, the accuracy
of claims regarding parametric issues
isunverifiedandelementsofitremain
vaguelydefined.Thisresearchclarifies
these issues by drawing comparisons
between traditional Computer-Aided
Design (CAD), Building Information
Modelling (BIM) and parametric design as
employedinarchitecturalfirms.
/PhD Student Research/
37 38
4 October 2011
Hilde Heynen (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)
‘Architectural theory today’
11 October 2011
Yvonne Rydin (University College London)
‘Using an ANT perspective to analyse the planning of sustainable commercial office development’
18 October 2011
Wendy Pullan (University of Cambridge)
‘Conflicts in cities’
24 October 2011
Mario Carpo (Yale School of Architecture)
‘The alphabet and the algorithm’
1November2011
Richard Hayes (Rafael Vinoly Architects)
‘Agency and activism: the Yale Building Project’
8November2011
Jane Rendell (University College London)
‘Site-writing: the architecture of art criticism’
15November2011
Łukasz Stanek (CentreNationaldelaRechercheScientifique,Paris)‘Henri Lefèbvre on space: architecture, urban research, and the production of theory’
22November2011
Matthew Gandy (University College London)
‘Entropy by design: Gilles Clément, Parc Henri Matisse and the limits to avant-garde urbanism’
/MARC Autumn Lecture Series 2011/
39 40
Editorial team:
Albena Yaneva, co-director of MARC
Andrew Karvonen, engagement co-ordinator for MARC
Susan Stubbs, MARC administrator
Design:
Nick Hamilton
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