What can be considered a “Forgotten Space”?
What are the various reasons such spaces come to exist?
What methods can be implemented to rejuvenate such an area?
The
new mayor of Bristol, George Ferguson, a former president of the Royal
Institute of British Architects, or RIBA, recently called out to architects in
aid to generate a self-building boom within the city, in an attempt to make
public land available. He claims that the idea of self-building methods could
help improve the deficiency of housing within Bristol. The mayor specifically
appealed to architects as he claims that they are proficient in finding
solutions major builders would not attempt, in sites that people would not
begin to think of, by stating, “architects can be very good at discovering
sites that other people have not thought of”. However, what Mayor Ferguson did
not state in his article was what came under these mentioned sites.
London
is known to be one of the most popular cities in the world, one of the leading
cities in the multiple fields of arts, commerce, entertainment, culture,
fashion, media, tourism, transport and several others. Also being one of the
world’s leading financial centers, London is progressing at a rapid rate,
thanks to the efforts of several institutions, as well as the successful
attempts of Mayor Boris Johnson, such as the installation of hybridized buses,
the Barclays bicycle system and the soon-to-be 24-hour tube system. To top it
all off, with the hosting of the 2012 Olympics, London has become one of the world’s
foremost cities in all fields. However, despite London being a city with vast
potentials for development, and successive economic booms, there have been
pieces of dubious pieces of space that were neglected, left barren and unused.
It is such spaces that contain an endless number of opportunities and ideas
that could benefit the surrounding population and context.
The
RIBA considers “Forgotten Spaces” to consist of several forms of defection as
“a small or large-grassy verge, wasteland, unused car park, derelict building,
empty unit, underpass or flyover.” It is sufficient to discern then, that any
space that may have lost its usage, a space that may be in ruins, or a space so
overgrown with vegetation. Be that as it may, what are the reasons as to why
such spaces come to be “forgotten”?
One
of the many reasons as to why a building or a locality may be forgotten could
be due to financial drawbacks. It is unfortunate that in such a trying time,
people as well as large organizations have found that their economic conditions
have taken a drastic turn for the worse leading to circumstances where the
building or space being let is now unaffordable, and has to be abandoned. On
the other hand, a reason why a space is left abandoned would indicate that
there was a more positive opportunity to relocate in an attempt to achieve much
higher prospects, rendering the older location obsolete. With the current
global recession in full swing, there are several families and companies who
are dependent on jobs for survival. The worse the economy gets, the more
companies would have to lose employees in an attempt to save money, thereby
resulting in the loss of jobs and the employee’s main source of income. Other
structural and building issues could vital causes as to why spaces end up being
abandoned. With the added concern of asbestos and mold issues, the cost of
refurbishment tends to be a lot more expensive than the owner might deem
worthy.
The
industrial sectors, on the other hand, are at a constant state of concern. Due
to the constant development of products and items, the chance that an industry
will be rendered obsolete poses an imminent threat. This would lead to several
manufacturing sites, exporting sites and packaging sites all being left to
waste. For example, several industries have become antiquated within the past
decade, ranging from paper, to CDs and public pay phones. Several industries
that have been a large impact to the lives of the users lose their necessities
in an extremely short amount of time.
Another
large concern for the growth of disused spaces is the rapid movement of large
quantities of the population. This situation occurs in large numbers in the
Northwestern hemisphere, in the United States of America and Canada. Large concentrations
of the youth are more educated, exposed and well versed in multiple fields of
studies. With the added further education provided by universities and
colleges, the young adults realize that they are unable to secure employment
with a steady and beneficial source of income. It is because of this reason
that they leave the areas of familiarity, thereby decreasing the overall
population in the locality. Within the course of time, with the constant
decrease of population, the former needs of the town decrease, and fewer
businesses are required to support a constantly shrinking population.
Reasons for why building and spaces end up losing
their value and use differ from region to region. For example, in Korea, most
places are abandoned with the foresight of being demolished, so that new
buildings could be built in their place. The process usually takes a prolonged
time, leading to spaces being unused for equally prolonged amounts of time. In
Japan, on the other hand, there are a lot of abandoned sites spread throughout
the countryside, which were surprisingly successful in the 1990s, until the
rise in popularity of mass transportation for the public. This resulted in the
ability of the people to travel halfway around the city without multiple forms
of transport, which in turn led to the degeneration of several of these successful
sites.
It
is horrifying to realize that several of the situations mentioned above can
very easily exist in London, and most probably do. This leads one to ask the
question – what can be done to help save such a lost environment? Fortunately,
there exist an endless number of possibilities that could be undertaken in
order to revitalize a rejected area such as mentioned before. There can be
attempts made to provide the bustling urban city of London with a touch of
green space, providing a relaxing pit stop for the several business-oriented
individuals, to even a bath house to provide the ever-stressed Londoners with
an area for relaxation and ablution. The Royal Institute of British Architects
holds an annual exhibition entitled “Forgotten Spaces” that promote imagination
and innovative thinking – finding solutions to several such lost and forsaken
spaces within London. Open to entrants across the United Kingdom, the
competition appealed to architects, engineers and landscape designers to choose
an existing “forgotten” site within the Greater London area, and provide a
solution to reanimate it to befit the surrounding context.
One
of the most eye-catching projects in this exhibition was the “Aquadocks”
project by Studio Pink. By transforming the disused space under the Silvertown
flyover in Newham into an active destination in the form of a public pool and
spa, this proposal also takes into consideration the various forms of
environmentally friendly transport, creating pedestrian and bicycle paths from
various public transport hubs towards the park. Located in the London
Docklands, this project reminisces the past active life of the area, by
mimicking the containers and ships that docked into the site with the designing
of a glass cube partially immersed in the pool, acting as a restaurant. This
project attempts to create a space of relaxation for what can be considered an
up and coming business hub of London.
Another
project that is extremely appealing is the Silvertown Brewery, in the same
location as the Aquadocks project, by three designers, Chris Allen, Marcus
Andren and Michael Gyi. They claim that their proposal aims at not using Silvertown
as a place of transit, as it is now, but as an actual destination for London.
By introducing a microbrewery and bowling venue, thereby enforcing London’s
emergence into the world’s brewing and beer scene. This project also provides
users with an attempt to learn the art of brewing. The design, as does the
Aquadocks project, focuses on attempting to convert this area into one of high
social activity while simultaneously look back at the vigorous industrial life
of the Docklands region.
One
of the “Forgotten Spaces” projects that takes a completely different abandoned
location within the BT Tower in Camden. Entitled “An Aerial View” by the architectural
firm OMMX, the proposal rekindles the long forgotten use of the BT Tower as a
pedestal for stunning aerial views of London, a project shut down over thirty
years ago. By installing a curtain that covers a cylindrical section of the
tower, and replacing the current material with glass, the project aims at
providing as little intrusiveness to the iconicity of the BT Tower. Using the
curtain as a façade and envelope provides the opportunity for an inhabitable
space within the tower. The designers chose to leave the majority of the
appearance of the tower as need be, only providing a slight furnishing to the
interior in an attempt to provide the opportunity for a variety of
programs.
A
project that aims at providing a slight hint of vegetation to modify the
emotions and senses of the users within London is the “Shed Zed” project by
Colour Urban Design Ltd. Situated on the west end of Croydon and taking use of
an abandoned retail park situated along Purley Way, this project tries to
create a localized watershed, inspired by the ideas of zero energy principles
to create a self-sustaining drainage system to provide renewable energy sources.
Compared to the other proposals of “Forgotten Spaces”, this is one of the few
projects that aims to combine both the needs of the users as well as the needs
of the city, providing a source for renewable energy along with an area of
comfort and relaxation through natural vegetation and water.
A
project that tackles the goals of the exhibition in a completely different
scale is “In the Canopy”, by Studio McLeod. This studio brings about the idea
that treetops are a forgotten space, and that “the canopy of a tree can offer
elevated views over our streets and parks, or provide an intimate space among
its branches and leaves”. This proposal, simple as it may be, involves
installing chairs elevated within London’s trees. The idea of using a tree as
an intimate space to be one with nature and to be gifted with spectacular views
can also be seen to expand, resulting in the idea of a “tree for two”, or even
a “family tree”, building from the idea of the tree house.
Finally,
one of the other projects that also tackle a smaller scale of a derelict space
is the “BikeBox” project by the designers Sam Rose and Hoi Kei Lo. This project
calls for converting the claimed “redundant” K6 telephone kiosks into a charity
cycle safety scheme, providing users with a place to store and even maintain
their bicycles. The designers claim that the only use for the telephone kiosks,
in the age of portable communication and wi-fi communication, is for tourists
to pose with for stereotypical tourist photographs of London. With the steady
increase in sustainable commuting systems, as well as Mayor Boris Johnsons
recent Barclays Cycle Hire scheme, the BikeBox is a simple modification to the
existing booth. By simply adding a plywood board within the booth, to contain
the tools for maintaining a bicycle, this project is simple, easy and can
benefit a large majority, if not all of the population of London’s bicycle
users.
It
goes without saying that with every rapidly growing city, there will exist
derelict and decaying spaces that are in need of use. What is of vital
importance is how we, as designers, see fit to bring about a social,
environmental or even economic change to the space and its surroundings. From
the above case studies, it can be clearly discerned that by providing a space
that attempts to bring about a relaxed state, to rekindle the views from a
space long forgotten and unused, or possible even provide the rapidly depleting
natural resources with a renewable replacement, architects and designers have
the ability to notice derelict and forgotten spaces, as stated by Mayor of
Bristol George Ferguson, and also possess the ability to transform a once
degenerating location into an active integral node of the rapidly progressing
city of London.
Works Cited:
1. Business
Insider. "21 Things That Became Obsolete This Decade." Business
Insider.
http://www.businessinsider.com/21-things-that-became-obsolete-this-decade-2009-12
(accessed December 14, 2013).
2. "RIBA:
Forgotten Spaces Exhibition 2013: London." RIBA Architecture.com.
http://www.architecture.com/WhatsOn/ForgottenSpaces/ForgottenSpaces2013.aspx#.Uq9REGRdWK1
(accessed December 14, 2013).
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