Contextualising Practice Introduction

For the CP unit I chose Contexts and Contents - Space, Architecture and Design. Analysing products and spaces seemed interesting; I watched a Phillippe Starck documentary a while ago that showed his philosophy of design as well as the objects he made; it was fascinating to see one man's individual thoughts played out, and assumptions made by him and other designers. Hopefully this course will challenge assumptions I make about ideas, objects, texts and spaces by encouraging me to look at them in a new way.

In our lecture by Michael Coates, architecture featured strongly, and was referred to as 'mother of the arts'. It does seem to be a recurring theme with my work; I use nature or mark making but end up forming grids and clear edges, and actively study buildings from time to time. It combines perspective with form, colour and purpose and as mentioned, defines our environment. 

When it comes to talking about contents, the example of a1950s fitted kitchen was given, as something innovative that encouraged aspiration when it came to the home, and you could just look at the physical furniture or delve deeper to analyse the ideas behind it, and the impact it had at the time.

Buildings can be treated as symbols; The Empire State Building in New York, for example was a beacon of power that literally dwarfed everything around it. Contrast this with 1970s council estates in Britain; architecturally duller perhaps, but their impact has been far-reaching, as this week's assignment showed. The mis-match between designers' intentions and residents' realities was brought to the fore when it was pointed out that although designed with large windows, each flat had put up net curtains for privacy, so light wouldn't reach the rooms inside, and the allocated front gardens were empty except for a solitary rose bush. You could assume that the people living there don't care about gardening or just want privacy, but if they cared about the building and saw it as a home they would invest more time and energy in their surroundings. In other words, the estates failed the people they were there to provide for, by giving them a cheap, over-designed roof over their heads instead of a home to be proud of in the middle of a community.

Although not discussed at the first meeting, the reading task, an excerpt form Hanley L. Estates: An Intimate History, was interesting enough for me to finish. It didn't really add much to my overall thoughts about government housing; the idea that council estates were originally meant as a saviour for poor, slum-dwelling people, but lacked a sense of community and were just plonked down, away from the rest of society with no transport, facilities or greenery isn't new. The author wonders why there was no community feel and it wasn't like a town, when she also mentions the speed of development; the two are related, as there was no time or money allowed for a natural evolution of buildings, or adaptations along the way. The residents would have little or no say in design and no incentive to build ties to each other if they didn't want to be there and had no control over the future of the estate. She says that growing up this environment sticks with you throughout your life, but this would apply wherever you grew up, whether in an estate or a gated mansion. Each I imagine have their challenges or limits and could be looked back on with a different perspective if you moved away. Her individual experiences were worth hearing but just looking back without looking towards the future left me underwhelmed and waiting to be challenged.