Research Specialisation - Statement of Intent

Úna Haran

Site-Sensing

This paper describes the interactions between place making, heterogenous local histories
and folklore. The research seeks ways to engender a feeling of rootedness in situations
where new populations or additions to existing populations are created by the provision of
new housing. While sense of belonging (to a place) is subjective, feelings of disconnection
can be harmful to communitiesi, therefore it is necessary to consider methods of fostering
connection (to place) as an integral part of the design of such places. This requires a
reading of the ephemera of site and community: by acknowledging the essential mutability
of folklore and tradition along with the associated cultural belongings and rituals carried
by new residents, the paper considers the potential for myth and magic to form in these
new community-place complexes.

The research itself is located in the South Downs and concentrates on that which is
specific to this place, recognising the diverse historic and cultural input that has layered
over and meshed with the indigenous. It follows from a studyii which focussed on the
pragmatic, economic, ecological, climatic and pathological implications of the degree of
agency which a dweller has to intervene in their home, referring to the British Anarchist
Tradition and self-build movements. This previous research found that there were
benefits to a greater degree of agency for dwellers; in this thesis, I intend to expand on the
subject by focussing on the social, cultural and emotional implications of inhabiting
actively. Rather than concentrating on the scale of a single home or small group of homes,
I will consider inhabitation at the scale of a village and that of a landscape. This research
will examine inhabitation beyond the personal territory and across inter-generational time,
detailing many activities relating to landscape inhabitation including the act of moving
through a landscape under one’s own power.

Since the subject matter of this paper contains intangible and subjective elements, it
employs creative practices as part of the core research method, in the tradition of Jane
Rendell’s site writing. Since Rendell’s method is specific to her, I will be working to
devise a method which is specific to me while existing in the tradition of evocative spatial
writing which was introduced to me by Rendell’s work. In this way I intend to integrate
critical spatial practice with sited storytelling. The primary method of research for the
thesis is the collation and cross referencing of literature including historic, geographic,
folkloric and social texts, with inclusions from a wide variety of types of material including
fiction, zines and oral histories.

The text aims to provide insight into ways of placemaking which exceed the aspirations of
standard planning guidance and argue that the ephemeral, cultural and folkloric aspects of
a place are not fixed or archaic and that they are not expendable.

Method: the text will take the form of an academic paper with inserts of creative writing,
note-taking and material which occupies the shared space between writing, drawing and
mapping. My notebook will be the vector for these inserts, since I have already developed
a personal note-taking practice which I believe will lend itself to the fluency and sitedness
of my research. I will take fragments of my research and pieces of source material with me
to the site of the project which is a transect line connecting Lewes with Brighton Palace
Pier via Kingston and Whitehawk Camp. I will walk this line over two days, recording
the journey by annotating maps which I will prepare myself from selected source material
including Ivan Margary’s Roman Roads of Britain maps. I will embed some of my work
into the route in some way, possibly by reading excerpts at key points along the walk.

Timeline :

8th March: Initial tutorial to review plan and materials

11th March: Peer review
15th March: Walk 1, Kingston to Lewes loop
29th March: Tutorial about Walk 1, introduction and fragments
2nd April: Walk 2 (Part A): Lewes to Castle Hill
3rd April: Walk 2 (Part B): Castle Hill to Palace Pier via Whitehawk Camp

Key texts:

Iain Biggs: Deep Mapping (A Partial View; Notes Toward and As An “Essaying” Of
Place)
Stephen Cairns: Drifting – Architecture and Migrancy
Cosgrove/Daniels: The Iconography of Landscape
Göksenin/Finch: Place Attachment and Sense of Belonging
Edwin Heathcote: The Meaning of Home
Tim Ingold: The Temporality of the Landscape
Avril Maddrell: Complex locations: historiography, feminism and difference
Avril Maddrell: Cultural geography: a critical dictionary of key concepts
Avril Maddrell: Mapping the Visible and Invisible Topographies of Place and Landscape
Through Sacred Mobilities
Doreen Massey: The Doreen Massey Reader
Susan Owens: Spirit of Place
Jane Rendell: Art & Architecture: A Place Between
Jane Rendell: Gender, Space & Architecture (form rather than subject specifically)
Phil Smith: Mythogeography
Phil Smith: Mythogeography Starter Kit
Phil Smith: Walking’s New Movement
Alfred Watkins: The Old Straight Track
Hugh Warwick: Linescapes
W.R. Lethaby: Architecture, Mysticism and Myth
Wrights & Sites Collective: The Architect-Walker: Manifesto and Manifestations
Wrights & Sites Collective: Simultaneous Drift
Hellebore (zine)
Weird Walks (zine)
Folklore (journal)
Active Inhabitation

Haran, Úna Graínne. "Manifesto for Active Inhabitation." Masters of Architecture Student
paper, University of Brighton, 2020.
Inalhan, Göksenin, and Edward Finch. "Place Attachment and Sense of Belonging." Facilities
(Bradford, West Yorkshire, England) 22, no. 5/6 (2004): 120-28.
https://doi.org/10.1108/02632770410540333.
http://brighton.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwrV1LT8MwDL
bGDhMg8Rggxku9IARSWVtnyXociIkLYkhwgMsUtwlDGt3EisTPJ-
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hmLsKM3FHWrAcbG7U9lvMv1xrBtwuij365p7f5Ddh-
Uvms8BVNO3d3UItVItjjJt_ATgWOSU.

i
Göksenin Inalhan and Edward Finch, "Place attachment and sense of belonging," Facilities (Bradford, West
Yorkshire, England) 22, no. 5/6 (2004), https://doi.org/10.1108/02632770410540333,
http://brighton.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwrV1LT8MwDLbGDhMg8Rggxku9IARSWV
tnyXociIkLYkhwgMsUtwlDGt3EisTPJ-ljbAMOSNzdqE0dx5_92QbA4NxzF2yC52lFnEjGGJmjbowg-
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nrcMlofpuXpcBFjiFALCIw6JrngiLn-eNSc7dWWbo7cxF11-
GjfOeSgUIZvDa6lBeFzXd5_MeP24C1wnl1Orm2bUJFJXVY7czkIupQK6n0dViZaXa4BSc9G7F3ZJrKaGBjko5MYmdiY
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WLcgWoyStQuOMosg8ZjI4P3jWdj0KeyHm0rZKiV4NSAs_I39Md5N45-
hmLsKM3FHWrAcbG7U9lvMv1xrBtwuij365p7f5Ddh-Uvms8BVNO3d3UItVItjjJt_ATgWOSU.
ii
Úna Graínne Haran, "Manifesto for Active Inhabitation" (Masters of Architecture Student paper, University of
Brighton, 2020).