Architectural Solutions for Urban Housing

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements 1.1 Introduction 2.1 Exploring the conflict between CIAM and Team X
2.2 Unite dhabitation 2.3 CIAM grid 1948 2.4 Urban re-identification 1953 2.5 Doorn Manifesto 1954 2.6 Dubrovnik, 1956

3.1 The Child and the City

3.2 Nagele Grid, 1956 3.3 The CIAM meeting of 1959 3.4 Municipal Orphanage 1955 60 3.5 Forum 1959 63

4.1 Urban Housing

4.2 Robin Hood Gardens 1966-72 4.3 Village Matteotti Housing Estate 1969 74 4.4 Spazio e Societa 1975 2000 4.5 Byker Redevelopment 1968 -81

5.1 Conclusion 6.1 Bibliography 6.2 Illustrations

Except where stated otherwise, this dissertation is based entirely on the authors own work Dissertation contains 6,799 words excluding the contents, bibliography and illustration pages.

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Alan Powers for giving me the space and opportunity to develop my own opinions of the growing field of architecture. I would also like to thank my family and fianc for their unwavering support.

1.1 Introduction:
CIAM (Congrs Internationaux dArchitecture Moderne) captured the spirit of the machine age but before it had done too much damage to the urban environment and in particular urban housing, some younger members began to question their architectural solutions. Under the leadership of Le Corbusier, CIAMs vision was of a utopia, a city which could provide the perfect life for its inhabitants. His vision inspired hope but ultimately failed to create such a place and resulted instead in destroying places and memories which are integral to a persons identity.

Hugh slabs or towers of housing rising majestically and disdainfully above the old towns set in sprawling parkland and totally divorced from the historic fabric. Peter Popham (The Experience of Modernism, R Gold, p. 5)

The younger members of CIAM believed that by erasing our historic fabric, we were also erasing our identity. Le Corbusiers vision lacked the sensitivity and recognition of historic value. The enormous concrete slabs effectively wiped out any memory of previous existence in the areas which they occupied. On a large scale the simplicity of modernism becomes dull and lifeless.

Historically town planning has always been an extension of architecture. The Roman architect Vitruvius wrote 10 books on architecture, which extended into street, housing and city planning. In Britain after the Second World War, urban planning came under the social democracy of the Labour government. The states more active role in planning started with the Town and Country Planning Act, 1943. By 1939, Forshaw and Abercrombie had already identified four major defects in their County Plan for London,

1) 2) 3) 4)

over crowding and out of date housing inadequate and misdistribution of open spaces the jumble of houses and industry compressed between road and rail communications traffic congestion

One of the first solutions to the housing problems in London was the White City Housing Estate in Hammersmith. It was recognized even a far back as 1936 that high rise housing solutions would need to have more space around them due to the amount of people per acre.

White City Housing Estate, Hammersmith, 1936

Figure 1.1 Forshaw and Abercrombie, County of London Plan, 1939

It is possible for a city to have an ideal arrangement for its industry, commerce and transport, to be equipped with magnificent public buildings and yet fail as a social community through lack of suitable housing conditions for large numbers of its inhabitants Patrick Abercrombie (Forshaw and Abercrombie, County of London Plan, 1943, p.74)

2.1 Exploring the Conflict between CIAM and Team X

In July 1933, the fourth CIAM meeting was on a cruise ship to Athens. The Ship set sail from Marseilles and all of the participants had been requested to provide an analysis of cities from within there own countries. After the ship landed in Athens the symposium continued on land. This select group provided le Corbusier with all the information he needed to write a document that addressed the issues of a modern city.

It was at the fifth CIAM meeting in 1937 that the term La Chartre dAthenes was first used and the discussions revolved around information collected in Athens. The sixth meeting was cancelled and the activities of CIAM ceased during the war. It was during this period that Le Corbusier wrote the

Athens Charter, which was eventually published in 1943. The document soon came to be regarded as a key expression of CIAMs town planning strategies.

The suburbs are often mere aggregations of shacks hardly worth the trouble of maintaining. Flimsily constructed little houses, boarded houses, sheds thrown together out of the most incongruous materials, the domain of poor creatures tossed about in an undisciplined way of life that is the suburb.

(Le Corbusier, the Athens charter, pp59-61)

As well as declaring the end of the suburb it also stated that technology made it possible to build high buildings, which when widely spaced could create large areas of green open space and parklands. The Athens charter is a 62 page document divided into 95 numbered clauses, each of which is given an explanatory note.

2.2 Unit dhabitation

After the war France was suffering from an acute housing shortage. The government appointed Raoul Dautry to be the minister in charge of reconstruction and planning. He was an enthusiast of le Corbusiers modern architecture and commissioned him to build a block of flats

in Marseilles. Unite dhabitation was an architectural solution to the housing shortage and was also an opportunity for Le Corbusier to put into practice the ideas he had been working on.

Le Corbusier disliked the idea of green bands on the outskirts of towns and as an alternative proposed vertical garden cities. The building was considered a communal apartment block and included shops, a nursery school, a gymnasium, a running track, a theatre and roof

gardens. Included in the design was a hotel which along with the other apartments is still in use today.

The block is raised from the ground by large supporting pillars, resulting in 90% of the ground space being free. The Unite is composed of 23 different types of living units and contains 337 apartments. The raising of the structure from the ground seems to have no function, other than to be aesthetically pleasing.

Figure 2.1 Unite dhabitation, Marseilles, 1945

Unite dhabitate is a practical way of understanding how the Athens charter in practice might take effect (see figure 2.1). He saw the apartments in Marseilles as a standardised unit which could be evenly spaced out in parkland. The circulation of automobiles and pedestrians would be segregated; the roads for vehicles would be raised high from the ground or underground. The result of this would be that the maximum ground space could be used as an uninterrupted park for pedestrians. All of the amenities would be contained within the individual units.

Figure 2.2 Standard size unit in a green town

Le Corbusier hated the street and this scheme reflected his feelings towards it. He believed it was from an old tradition and no longer had a function that was viable.

It is the street of the pedestrian of a thousand years ago, it is a relic of the centuries: it is a nonfunctioning, obsolete organ. The street wears us out. It is altogether disgusting! Why, then, does it still exist? (Le Corbusier, Moos, 1979, p196)

2.3 CIAM grid 1948

Figure 2.3 ASCORAL, CIAM grid 1948

1) Dwelling (green) 2) Working (red) 3) Cultivating the body and the mind (yellow) 4) Circulation (blue)

The grid was devised by ASCORAL under the leadership of Le Corbusier and presented at the seventh CIAM meeting; the first assembly after the war. The theme of this conference was the Athens charter in practice. The main objective of the meeting was to consider the challenges that

modern society poses for urbanisation (Risselada, 2005). The Athens charter was simplified into
four functions; each was given a colour and placed on the ASCORA grid (see Figure 2.3). The purpose of this grid was to simplify the analysis and understanding of urban planning in terms of the

Athens Charter. The seventh and eighth CIAM meetings were both about developing another document that would be a natural progression from the Athens Charter.

The CIAM Grid was also the precedent for future presentations within CIAM. The Guidelines for these grids was defined by CIAM and were intended to be an aid in the analysis of various subjects and designs. This system allowed other members of CIAM to make presentations in a way that could be discussed and analysed.

The grid system opened up the way for the younger generation of CIAM to put forward their ideas. In effect it gave them the freedom to challenge the leadership and strategy of Le Corbusier. The initial feelings of the young Team 10 were expressed in their reaction to the eighth CIAM meeting in which they wrote

Man may readily identify himself with his own hearth, but not so easily within the town which he is placed. Belonging is a basic emotional need its associations are of the simplest order. From belonging and identity comes the enriching sense of neighbourliness. The short narrow street of the slum succeeds where the spacious redevelopment frequently fails.

Team 10 response to the CIAM 8 report 1951

(Modern architecture, a critical history p.271)

This initial statement was later built into a comprehensive argument in the form of the Urban Re identification Grid and responded to what they saw as a need for identity within the community.

2.4 Urban Re-identification 1953

Alison and Peter Smithson became members of MARS (Modern Architectural Research Society), the English branch of CIAM in 1951 and almost from day one were seen as provocative. After the architectural success of the Hunstanston School in Britain, the Smithsons began to identify the main problems with the Athens Charter. These were illustrated to some degree with their Urban Re identification Grid at the ninth congress of CIAM in 1953.

Figure 2.4 Urban Re-identification Grid

It was at this meeting that the Smithsons put forward their ideas of human association in the form of a project. Using a combination of photographs by Nigel Henderson (see figure 2.4) and the Golden Lane project they put forward the working class streets of East London as potential inspiration for a new architecture and urban design. It was here they presented their concept of streets in the

air. The street' was a substantial component of the Smithsons ideas and were intended to be used
as part of a system, designed to develop an urban pattern for a city based on human association.

Along with this grid they also presented there competition entry for the Golden Lane Housing Scheme. Although they never won the competition the scheme was a powerful tool in convincing CIAM to reconsider the principles put forward in la Chartre dAthenes. The four defining points of the Urban- Re-identification Grid were House, Street, District and City these directly contradicted the

four functions of the CIAM grid. It was this presentation which laid the ground work in preparation for their statement on Habitat.

Around the same time, AD (Architectural Design magazine) 1953 75 was being used by the Smithsons to develop their own opinions of the growing field of Architecture. It was in 1953 through this publication that Alison Smithson first used the expression New Brutalism. She used the phrase to describe a small house in Soho which they were working on. They defined New Brutalism as architecture that was a direct result of the way people lived and built.

Kenneth Frampton describes the design language of their New Brutalism as having numerous references to the British warehouses of the late 19 century. The Soho House was designed to be built in brick, with exposed concrete lintels and unplastered interiors.

With New Brutalism the Smithsons were effectively exploring how materials can bring life to a person by connecting them to the place in which they live. The combination of materials is a true expression of the new and old. The new construction retains the memories of the past in the same way a Team 10 plan would be sensitive to the memories of a town. The Soho House is in fact the start of something much bigger. An example is the Robin Hood Gardens proje ct in which the memory of Londons urban garden is used.

Alison Smithson edited all the work in the magazine which related to CIAM and Team 10. In May 1960 the Smithsons used a special edition of the publication to give the new emerging organization a name, CIAM Team 10. It was also Alison Smithson who entitled the first meeting as Team 10 on its

own in the July edition of that year.

Alison Smithson became the unofficial chronicler of the group through her publications about Team 10, including the Team 10 Primer (1962, re-edition 1968).

(Van Den Heuve, http://www.team10online.org)

The two main papers which stated the intent of Team 10, The Doorn Manifesto (1954) and The Aim of Team Ten (1962) were both edited by Alison Smithson. Team 10 Primer was also compiled and edited by Alison Smithson and first published as a book in 1968.

Alison and Peter Smithson met Aldo van Eyck at the ninth CIAM meeting. A & P Smithson Aldo Van Eyck, Jaap Bakema, Giancarlo de Carlo, Georges Candilis and Shadrach Woods were all from the younger generation of CIAM and later formed the core of Team 10.

2.5 Doorn Manifesto 1954

As a result of the ninth CIAM meeting there was a growing dissatisfaction within CIAM about using the functional city as a tool for planning. As a group they were looking for a new direction and as a consequence there were a number of interim meetings.

The manifesto on habitat was compiled at an interim meeting by a small number of the younger CIAM members including Aldo Van Eyck and Peter Smithson. This meeting in Doorn January 1954 was attended by members who all had an affinity with the importance of human associations. Peter Smithson used the Valley Section to illustrate the areas which would need high density housing (see

figure 2.6). He borrowed this Section from the sociologically based diagram drawn by the Scottish
town planner Patrick Geddes.

Figure 2.6 Valley Section Diagram

Peter Smithson also used this diagram to illustrate the problems of circulation within the context of community. He stated any community must be internally convenient (habitat, Smithsons, 1954) and therefore density must increase as population increases. i.e. (4) being least dense (1) being most dense. His final point was that the solutions to urbanisation would be found in architectural invention rather than in culture or social behaviour. This statement on habitat was subsequently given the name Doorn Manifesto by Alison Smithson.

2.6 Dubrovnik, 1956

Figure 2.7 A & P Smithson, scale of association diagram

The whole problem of environment was the topic of the Tenth CIAM meeting in Dubrovnik. The Smithsons presented a scroll and a set of panels representing five different dwelling types. A & P Smithson had formulated a comprehensive proposal which revolved around the scale of association diagram (see figure 2.7). The idea was concerned with the different levels of human

association and provided a framework for the issues of urbanisation to be solved.

The

main

concepts

discussed

in

relation

to

the

scale

of

association

were identity,

cluster and mobility. The movement between the house, street, district and city was described
as mobility. Clusters were defined as groups of houses on a street, and in turn the group streets formed within a district and so on. The mobility available between these different associations generated different levels of identity, family, neighbourhood, town etc. They were also trying to identify patterns of growth in order to facilitate extension and renewal.

The tenth CIAM meeting was organised by Team 10 under the supervision of CIAM advisory board. Thirty five grids were presented in total at this meeting seven of which were from members of Team 10. The presentation made by the Smithsons, which broke the strict rules of the ASCORA grid, was put forward as an example for a different type of presentation. Le Corbusier along with the other founding members of CIAM never came to this meeting.

3.1 The Child and the City

At the same meeting in Dubrovnik 1956, Van Eyck also made two presentations supporting the importance of human association.

Figure 3.1 Lost Identity Grids

The Lost Identity Grid (see figure 3.1) consisted of four panels and looks at the relationship between the child and the city. Van Eyck designed and built nearly one thousand playgrounds during his life time. As well as being places for children to play, they were also an intervention in the city which incorporated the Team 10 ideas of growth, mobility, cluster and change. The playgrounds created

something coherent beyond the habitat of a family which enabled mobility and helped form clusters within the community. As children connected in these places growth occurred to form groups outside the family units. These panels directly relates to the Urban Re -identification Grid presented by the Smithsons at the ninth CIAM meeting. Van Eycks presentation is an interpretation of the house, street, district and city from a childs point of view. Van Eyck was also closely associated with a Dutch group of young painters and poets called Cobra. The group Cobra was very active in the 1940s and had an affinity with the idea of play as a creative and cultural force. If childhood is a journey, let us see to it that the child does not travel by night

(Van Eyck, In search of the Utopia of present p.56)

The experience of these playgrounds was considered by Van Eyck to be an essential part of a childs growth and sense of place within a community. The panels outlined the problems which faced the city and illustrated design solutions in a poetic way. These solutions were low cost and offered immediate improvements and moved the focus of architecture onto the children of the city. This change of emphasis is consistent with my interpretations of human scale as human importance. Since man is both subject and object of architecture, it follows that its primary job is to provide the former for the sake of the latter (Van Eyck, Projekten, 1948 - 61 p.89)

3.2 Nagele Grid, 1956

The second presentation Van Eyck made, involved the construction of the Nagele Village in the Netherlands, 1948. The village was sited on a large single stretch of reclaimed land. The hierarchy of this design was concerned with an open centre rather than the institutionalised buildings used in a traditional town plan. The houses are all positioned with an equivalent relationship to an open space. The village also contains a dispersed composition of churches, shops and schools. Van Eycks Nagele village proposal was perceived at the time, understandably, as anti -establishment.

Figure 3.2 Plan for Nagele village

One of the arguments put across in the Nagele Grid was defined and protective. Van Eyck used a plantation of trees to encircle the housing as protection from the windy weather. These trees also formed an internal horizon which connects the housing with the open space in the centre. Place is the appreciation of space; that is how I see it. If I say: space represents the appreciation of it, my purpose is again to dethrone abstract properties to it academically. Now space-meaning need not be pre-ordained or implicitly defined in the form. It is not merely what a space sets out to effect in human terms, that gives it place value, but what it is able to gather and transmit. Aldo Van Eyck

(Team 10 Primer p.94)

This project represents an important phase of Van Eycks thinking with respect to his shift from 'space and time' to 'place and occasion'. It is a solid example of his meaning and the kind of architecture and urban planning it would produce. In this apparent change of emphasis he is actually defining space and place in real terms. He also believes that the emotional content of a space is considered to give it place value. Architecture can be compared to a musical instrument, which is used to gather and transmit feelings and emotions. The most important aspect of the village is the people who live in it and their relationship to the each other, which is in effect, governed by the open central space. The design was generated and then later, defined by the generic form of the community. The wind breaks have a social and symbolic function transforming the entire village into a centre without the traditional thinning out of public amenities into housing. We could when designing a building, decide that we are concerned primarily with the composition of light space and materials, ignoring the site and working from a detached, artistic and structural viewpoint. Our main constraint in this exercise would be the time in which we had to design and build. The resulting spatial arrangements may be aesthetic and the spatial experiences may be exciting, dynamic etc. This would be autonomous art, a pleasurable experience at most, with no relationship to anything but the abstract notions of art and science. The hierarchy would be about the spatial experience rather than human activities. From the start Van Eyck is involved in how a structure will work on an everyday basis and it is from these roots the building grows. With this method of working he engages with the social structure of the community and the building is consequently a natural extension.

3.3 The CIAM Meeting Of 1959

The end of CIAM was announced at the Otterlo meeting in 1959. Le Corbusier had already sent his letter of resignation to tenth CIAM meeting at Dubrovnik along with letters from other founding members of CIAM. It is those who are now 40 years old, born around 1916 during wars and revolutions and those then unborn, now twenty five years old, born around 1930 during the preparation for a new war and amidst a profound economic, social, and political crisis, who thus find themselves in the

heart of the present period the only ones capable of feeling actual problems, personally, profoundly, the goals to follow, the means to reach them, the pathetic urgency of the present situation. They are in the know. Their predecessors no longer are, they are out, and they are no longer subject to the direct impact of the situation. Le Corbusier

(Frampton, Modern Architecture, p.271)

Figure 3.3 BY US FOR US The BY US FOR US diagram presented by Van ( see figure3.3) Eyck at the Otterlo meeting in 1959 marks the succession of CIAM by Team 10. At this meeting Van Eyck also presented his design for the municipal orphanage in Amsterdam.

3.4 Municipal Orphanage 1955 60

Figure 3.4 Municipal Orphanage Plan, Amsterdam, Aldo van Eyck

Van Eyck offered the orphanage in Amsterdam as a model for the city. All of the ideas implemented in this project were meant to be interpreted as a blue print for the design of the urban environment. The duality between architecture and urban design frustrated van Eyck and fuelled his struggle to find a way of unifying them. In the light of what the other creative fields have managed to evolve a relaxed relative concept of reality what architects and urbanists have failed to do amounts to treason.

Aldo Van Eyck

(Van Eyck, Projekten 1948-1961 p.89)

The orphanage, which used to house just over 100 children, has from the outset a distinct feeling of infinity due to the attention Van Eyck has paid to the articulation of numbers and their configuration. The multiplication of the individual units is done in such a way that the identity of each unit is read as part of the whole. Both the spatial dynamic and the circulation of these units are governed by diagonals. This type of duality is called a twin phenomenon by Van Eyck. It is this sensitivity he feels is missing from the city, in particular the sequences between spaces. He believes that irrespective of the function or area a space occupies its relationship with other spaces and the whole needs to be addressed. Like the Nagele village the orphanage has been decentralized into a number of communal areas with interconnecting internal streets. The residential units are arranged along these streets in a staggered formation giving each of them individual outdoor spaces. He calls this sequence or journey between places the traffic space. He is considers the places in between places, as places, resulting in the growth or dispersion of a pattern. In this situation the design has evolved from the daily life patterns of the staff and residents. It is this spatial continuity and his poly-centric ideas, which he says should be conceived as a city.

Figure 3.5 Orphanage, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 1960 to 1961

4.1 Architectural Solutions

In the summer of 1960 the group now called Team 10 held their first meeting in Bagnols-sur-Ceze, South of France. Although Team 10 had formed a group now it wasnt until 1961 that The Aim of Team 10 was published in a special edition of AD. This was in response to the public dissatisfaction shown by the founding members CIAM regarding its end. This aim as described later in the publication Team 10 Primer was to provide the following; Meaningful groupings of buildings, where each building is a live thing and a natural extension of the others. Together they will make places where a man can realize what he wishes to be. Alison Smithson, 1962

(Smithson,Team 10 primer,p.3)

According to le Corbusier the street is a non-functioning relic of the past. For Team 10 the street brings us from the past into the present. It is the pathways, in which the journey through a towns spaces is made possible. If we replace our towns with parkland and concrete slabs we will be erasing any memory of the past. The past is an integral part of the present, both in the identity of a town and a person. Memories are an important factor in living and a place can remind us where we have come from and who we are today.

4.2 Robin Hood Gardens 1966-72

Figure 4.1 Robin Hood Gardens Plan

Team 10 believed social housing should be integrated into its environment rather than isolated as an object within it. They preferred high density low rises and experimented with the tree height for a limit. The only example of this kind of building by Alison and Peter Smithson is the Robin Hood Gardens, located in Poplar, East London.

We can see Van Eycks defined and protective idea in the Robin Hood Gardens scheme. The
buildings protect the central garden from noise and additional protection is given by a concrete fence angled in a way to reflect the sound back into the street. A view from the pavement allows one to see the physical manifestation of the Smithsons concept streets in the air which, breaks up the composition while providing a sense of human importance. There is some variation in the volume of spaces related to the entrances and circulation which draws the eye into the building. The Robin Hood Gardens were built around the idea and use of public gardens in London. The public gardens in Hanover Square, Soho Square etc have a long history, and are very popular with local Residents, businesses and tourists. The difference here is the garden use is restricted to the residents only. The buildings both have a very definitive beginning and end mainly due to the positioning of the site which is dominated by traffic noise. They wanted to create a quiet garden which in turn would become an open centre. Thus the two buildings are both positioned with a corresponding relationship to the open space garden. Unfortunately unlike the Nagele village designed by Van Eyck there are no internal horizons to connect the two facades with the garden. If the internal streets had been on the garden side the buildings would have had visual lines connecting them to the open space. This would have reinforced the protective nature of both buildings as well. With the streets placed on the road side of the buildings, it leaves the circulation of the occupants exposed to the noise of traffic. The Golden Lane project, which had been such a powerful tool in the early days of Team 10, was reworked into the Robin Hood Gardens scheme. The Smithsons set out to prove that high density and tight restrictions on budget would not necessarily result in a lower standard of living. Although both the schemes include the streets in the air concept, the architectural hierarchies are quite different. Golden Lane is based on the idea of multiplicity. The building block was intended to be used as an element in a super structure ( see figure 2.4 and 4.3).

Figure 2.4 Golden lane housing plan 1952, Works and Projects, p.36

The golden lane housing plan as it would be in as a super structure

Figure 4.3 Golden Lane City, Works and Projects, p.35

The site (Robin Hood Gardens) has therefore been organised to create a stress-free central zone protected from the noise and pressures of the surrounding roads by the buildings themselves. Vidotto

(Smithson, Works and projects p.122)

Robin Hood Gardens is a good solution to urban housing which is about protecting the historic memories of London. The Smithsons have focused on the London garden to maintain the historic fabric of the site. At a glance the building could be disregarded as another modernist disaster, but on analysis one realizes that the intentions and resulting effect is quite different.

Figure 4.2 Streets in the air a view from Robin Hood Gardens
The circulation on the south side receives the sun and connects with the skyline. The scheme when compared to most of the housing solutions for London is actually very successful. It retains the memory of a feature in London that is widely appreciated, the urban garden. Its geometry is about human circulation; the hierarchy of spaces begins with the access points and follows the pedestrian streets. For me this confirms the intention of providing a housing solution which is about the people who will be living in the building.

4.3 Village Matteotti Housing Estate 1969 74

The Village Matteotti Housing Estate in Italy, designed by Giancarlo De Carlo is another human based solution to high density housing. The estate was commissioned by the Italian National Steel Corporation in 1969 as a housing development for steel workers and their families. From the outset De Carlo wanted the future residents to be involved in the design process. He set up an exhibition of alternative housing designs intended to persuade the residents that low rise, high density housing would be the idea solution. He formulated a number of design principles which included separating the pedestrian and vehicle traffic and individual outdoor spaces for every

dwelling. After discussions with the residences it was also decide that every home would have a direct entrance from the street. On this point we should be very clear, and therefore it is indispensable first of all to clarify the basic differences between planning for the users and planning with the users Giancarlo De Carlo

(Giancarlo De Carlo, 1992 p.211)

This quote defines the basic difference between the Smithsons, Giancarlo de Carlo and Ralph Erskine. The Smithsons plan for the users, Erskine and De Carlo plan with the users. De Carlo sets up a dialog with future users using an exhibition and Erskiine sets up an open office in Byker to connect with the individuals who have been allocated housing. Planning with the users is a psychological tool used by some designers to stay in touch with the future residents, while they are designing. The actual input users have on the future housing in minimal, it is the architect who designs the building. The most important point is that the building is focused on the user. This can be done in a number of different ways as illustrated by the examples I have used.

Figure 4.3 Village Matteotti Housing Estate plan

In Matteotti De Carlo uses similar strategies to the ones Van Eyck has used in the Municipal Orphanage. De Carlo has used a three dimensional network of circulation and amenities to decentralize the hierarchy of spaces. All of the individual homes relate to the whole through the circulation and the dispersion of amenities. The pedestrian circulation is made up of two systems, the first is on ground level and the second runs along the tops of garages and interconnects the adjoining blocks with bridges (figure 4.5). De Carlos circulation is an interesting interpretation of the Smithsons idea of streets in the air.

Figure 4.5 View of the pedestrian bridge

The mathematics of the individual units is based on five main prototypes, which each have three variations. Each of these is laid out in three different ways, thus providing 45 distinct types of apartment. The resulting pattern means that the identity of each unit is read as part of the whole. This system is very similar to the multiplication Aldo van Eyck uses in the Amsterdam Orphanage.

Figure 4.4 View of the street

4.4 Spazio e Societ (1975 2000)

At this point it is worth noting that De Carlo took over the Italian version of the French journal Espaces et Socits. He established the magazine under the Italian name of Spazio e Societ (Space & Society). Spazio e Societ was a journal about architecture in use on a daily basis. De Carlos strategy was to use the community as an integral part of the design process. His magazine was about the way everyday people used architecture and written in a way that everyday people could read it.

4.5 Byker Redevelopment (1968 -81)

In 1968 Ralph Erskine began designing the Byker Housing Estate in Newcastle upon Tyne. The regeneration was part of an effort to rebuild a largely derelict neighbourhood. This process had the added complication of co-ordinating the demolishing of old buildings with the construction of new ones.

Like De Carlo, Erskine also believed in participation from the future residents early in the design process. He set up a studio in the area so as to build up a relationship with the local community. Erskine was interested in the branch of sociology that is concerned with studying the relationships between human groups and their physical and social environments. He put this study into practice by having an open door policy with respect to the neighbourhood residents who were welcome to come in with their comments and criticisms. After a family was assigned an apartment they were also invited to the office to discuss the interior layout, finishes and the general plan of the area. Erskine used all of this information to inform his final design for the district and individual homes.

Figure 4.6 Entrance from the main road

The Byker housing forms a wall to protect the residents from the noise of a busy road situated along the edge of the site (see figure 4.6). The windows are small and the walls are high to reduce the amount of noise which is allowed to penetrate into the apartments, communal path ways and green areas. Within this wall the individual apartments form a complex pattern. The arrangement of the communal areas and housing is similar to Van Eycks Nagele village. There are a number of open green areas which form focal points for the corresponding housing. In consistency with Van Eycks

ideas, Eskine uses the internal walkways, galleries and bridges to visually and figuratively connect with the open spaces. Erskine has used the internal street circulation to create communities within the community. The Byker neighbourhood is in effect made up of family units grouped together within the larger group of Byker. This is a model example of how to use the human associationstrategy to solve urban housing issues.

Figure 4.7 View from one of the courtyards inside Byker

Ralph Erskine was a member of the Team 10 who effectively addressed these issues of urban growth in his Byker redevelopment scheme in Newcastle. Although he was not as involved in the generation of ideas emerging from Team 10, he has put into practice some of the ideas and theory which they spun.

Figure 4.8 Byker Housing Estate Plan

At the time Byker was the largest housing complex in Britain and one of the largest in Europe. It had more than 2,000 houses and flats, shops and a church, all shielded from the roar of the motorways and the bitter wind from the North Sea by the cliff face of the 10-storey Byker Wall. The estate also became a listed building in 2003 and part of the cultural heritage of the north-east.

5.1 Conclusion

Figure 5.1 African Village

This African village (see figure 5.1) is a good way to illustrate what is lost in Le Corbusiers philosophy regarding urban housing. If we look at the spaces we can see they have a complexity in sizes and shapes. We would know the chiefs hut because it would have a slightly bigger space around it. There is a growth and dispersion of space. The difference between what Le Corbusier proposed and the village according to the Peter Smithson is that the village has a sense of belonging and identity. The spaces inside Le Corbusiers standardised unit would be artistically composed, although the outside spaces and repetition would be bland. It is widely assumed that Le Corbusier s vision of a perfect city is an analogy to inspire hope. Although it does perform this function, Le Corbusiers utopia is set out quite specifically in the Athens charter. Proposing the death of the street can hardly be seen as an analogy, it is quite precise. Ending the suburb, could be interpret as improving the suburb, but again he is quite clear about his feelings. He regarded the suburb as one of the greatest evils of the century (Gold, p.75). Team 10, have a reasonable and sensitive approach to urban housing and town planning. On the surface all of the strategies used by the various members and participants of Team 10 are

different. Van Eyck looks at the activities of intended participants to generate the generic form of a place and consequently builds a counter form. Eskines approach is to study human groups, their relationship to the environment and design a building based on all the information he has gathered. De Carlo is taking a more involved interest in the everyday use of a building and believes in a continual interaction with the user during the design process. De Carlo is concerned with breaking the barriers which exist between architects, builders and clients. The Smithsons defined New Brutalism as architecture which responded to the way in which people lived and built. Architecture as defined by Team 10 in 1962 is to create living buildings which are a natural extension of each other. At the centre of all these different approaches is Alison and Peter Smithsons recognition of the sensitivity required to produce architecture of value. The scale of human association is at the heart of this argument. Le Corbusier acknowledges his inability to understand what is expected of him in his letter of resignation from CIAM. His vision of utopia, love and enthusiasm for architecture inspired hope and the international platform which he created was passed on to the younger members of CIAM. The discussions and debates which arose consequential developed human based strategies for creating architectural solutions. More importantly these architects have all questioned the purpose of architecture and the role of the architect. The result is a reservoir of information regarding the creation of relevant architecture. The design strategies which have been created though this process are still unresolved in the studio today. In my opinion the heavy handed autonomous compositions of Le Corbusier are still dominating the discussions of space, light and materiality. We make circulation and programmatic models illustrating the proposed experience of the users. This is all presented in terms of the context and how the building is made accessible. We explain the importance of the surroundings and the views which are available from various positions within the building and outside. But we dont consider the importance of the building for the community or the effect it will have on the place. If the space around a building grows bigger than any other space in the urban environment, it will become a centre. A new centre which doesnt acknowledge the historic fabric of a place will essentially destroy the memories of a place and consequentially its identity.

Too often there is an artistic sensitivity, but no sensitivity towards the people who live in a place, immediately and historically. The result is autonomous art, a three dimensional sculpture with little or no meaning, which is consequently given a programme. Many people fail to see the contradictions in le Corbusiers architecture, his work is about function, yet composition always dominates. On a larger scale even this dominating feature is compromised, only to become bland and repetitive. When the geometry of a site reflects the needs of the users it generates a place. A Place has a meaning and significance; it is not just a monument to the efforts of science and art. Understanding how humans associate is the key to building places of value according to Team 10.

6.1 Bibliography
Le Corbusier, Oeuvre complte. 1934-1938, London, Thames and Hudson, 1966 Le Corbusier, Oeuvre complte. 1938-1946, London, Thames and Hudson, 1966 Aldo Van Eyck, Projekten, 1948 1961, Groningen, Johan van de Beek, 1981 Aldo Van Eyck, Projekten, 1962 1976, Groningen, Johan van de Beek, 1983 Rudi Fuchs, Aldo van Eyck: the playgrounds and the city, Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, 2002 Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture: A Critical History, London, Thames and Hudson, 1992 John R. Gold, The Experience of Modernism, London, E & FN Spon, 1997 Max Risselada and Dirk van den Heuvel, Team 10 in search of a Utopia of the present, Rotterdam, Nai Publishers, 2005 Jean Jenger, Le Corbusier Architect of a New Age, London, Thames and Hudson, 1996 Royston Laudau, New Directions in British Architecture, London, Studio Vista, 1968 Lewis Mumford, The City in History, London, Martin Secker and Warburg Ltd, 1963 S. Von Moos, Le Corbusier: Elements of a Synthesis, Cambridge, MIT Press, 1979 Alison Smithson [edited by], Team 10 Meetings, New York, Rizzoli, 1991 Alison Smithson [edited], Team 10 Primer, London, Studio Vista, 1968. Alison and Peter Smithson, Without Rhetoric, an architectural aesthetic, London, Latimer New Dimensions, 1973. Alison Smithson [Documents compiled by], The Emergence of Team 10 out of C.I.A.M., London, Architectural Association, 1982

Catherine Spellman and Karl Unglaub, Peter Smithson: conversations with students, New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 2005 Nigel Taylor, Urban Planning and Theory since 1945, London, SAGE Publications, 1998 Marco Vidotto, Alison + Peter Smithson Works and Projects, Barcelona, Gustavo Gili, 1997 Benedict Zucchi, Giancarlo De Carlo, London, Butterworth Architecture, 1992

6.2 Illustrations
Figure 1.1 Forshaw and Abercrombie, County of London Plan, London, Macmillan, 1944, Plate XXVII Figure 2.1 Le Corbusier, Oeuvre complte. 1938-1946, London, Thames and Hudson, 1966 p.176 Figure 2.2 Le Corbusier, Oeuvre. 1938-1946, London, Thames and Hudson, 1966, p.176 Figure 2.3, Max Risselada and Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia of the present, 2005, p.19 Figure 2.4, Max Risselada and Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia, 2005, p.31 Figure 2.5, Vidotto, Works and Projects, 1997, p.37 Figure 2.6, Spellman, Conversations with students, p.38 Figure 2.7, Max Risselada and Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia, 2005, p.52 Figure 3.1, Max Risselada and Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia, 2005, p.56 Figure 3.2, Max Risselada and Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia, 2005, p.59 Figure 3.3, Aldo Van Eyck, http://www.team10online.org/ Figure 3.4, Van Eyck, Projekten 1948 - 61, 1981, p.53, Figure 3.5, Van Eyck, Projekten 1948 - 61, 1981, p.71 Figure 4.1, Vidotto, Works and Projects, 1997, p.123 Figure 4.2, Max Risselada and Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia, 2005, p.177 Figure 4.3, Max Risselada and Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia, 2005, p.220 Figure 4.4, Max Risselada and Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia, 2005, p.221 Figure 4.5, Max Risselada and Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia, 2005, p.221 Figure 4.6, Photograph by McPherson 2005 Figure 4.7, Photograph by McPherson 2005 Figure 4.8, Max Risselada and Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia, 2005, p. 224 Figure 5.1, http://depts.washington.edu/envhlth/info/images/autumn2002/villagescene.jpg Front and back cover, Max Risselada and Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia, 2005, p.224, p.59, p.220, p.123