PARASITIC GROWTH: ROBIN HOOD GARDENS

The main focus of this report will be to examine the creation and growth of parasites within the city as a strategy for future expansion.

There is a potential energy inherent in all built structures and in an attempt to accommodate growth, this energy can be treated in various ways. Sometimes it is wasted by simply tearing something down and replacing it. In other circumstances, buildings are renovated or re-used so that the building remains largely unaltered, accompanied by an input of new energy. There exists also an option, whereby a new entity is created, a parasite, which, combined with the existing context, creates a stratification rather than an addition, as well as a potential functional and aesthetic break.

Themes that I intend to explore in this report include the following:

An exploration of parasites across disciplinary boundaries (eg in biology, culture, etc)

Global and local examples of urban parasites

The manner of exchange between parasite and host

Permanence versus the ephemeral

Responsive/flexible urbanism

Urban rhythms and flows

Chaos theory as design strategy

In the design project, I will be focussing on the Robin Hood Gardens council estate. Located in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, Robin Hood Gardens was designed by Alison and Peter Smithson at the end of the 1960s and completed in 1972. It is historically significant in that its design was a reaction to Le Corbusier’s Unite d’Habitation and it embodied the then cutting-edge concept of “streets in the sky,” whereby pedestrian functions usually limited to the ground plane were lifted into the air in the form of elevated walkways. The complex’s design is also a striking example of the post-war Brutalist architectural style, and embodies a high level of intelligence and attention to detail on the part of its designers, in part as a response to its location adjacent to two busy roadways, one of which contains the portal of the Blackwall Tunnel. Unfortunately, due to decades of neglect, Robin Hood Gardens has become rundown and generally an unpleasant place to live. According to the BBC , more than 75% of its residents would like to see the complex demolished and replaced with a new solution. As the government has refused to place the buildings on the heritage list , relocation of its residents and its demolition is most likely imminent.

I will provide a redesign of Robin Hood Gardens, a more environmentally and culturally sustainable alternative to a simplistic demolition-as-upgrade solution. Moreover, this project will be in part a celebration of the beauty of the unfortunately long-neglected council estate. My principle strategy will be to carry out random “building cuts” which will at once function as new forms of open space, while also functioning as a platform onto which a parasitic growth of my designing will occur. This redesign will provide an increased density to the area, but moreover it will break up the rigidity of the complex and conform to the site’s natural rhythms and flows, while allowing the original architecture to coexist.

In many ways, the built form of Robin Hood Gardens is alienating and creates an almost inhuman experience for those who live within it. Part of the reason for this is its extreme standardization, rigidness, and presence of dark and claustrophobic spaces. Although its starkness is in many ways what makes the design so attractive, it produces a living environment with little differentiation, where individuality is difficult to decipher. The introduction of a parasitic element, an element of chaos, into the redesign of the complex will aid in fostering a sense of individuality and uniqueness for those living in Robin Hood Gardens.

Perhaps the most central strategy for the Smithsons in designing Robin Hood Gardens, was the creation of barriers to protect its inhabitants from the heavy vehicular traffic flows that surround the site. While their solution functions well, the resulting quiet inner space is extremely disconnected from the outside and resembles more of an enclosed prison yard than an attractive gathering space for residents. It is so quiet that it feels at times unsafe. I propose that the complex nature of the surrounding traffic flows not be ignored, by acknowledging, mapping, and mirroring them, creating new livelier flows of desirable (pedestrian) movement through the site. These flows will at once animate the site, and connect it to its surroundings.

In addition to my large-scale changes to Robin Hood Garden’s buildings and site, I will also make finer grain interventions.

I intend on employing a range of media for this project. This will include photography, physical models, three-dimensional models, computer aided design, and sketches. More specifically, I will be producing photomontages, elevations, plans, and collages, in addition to the models.

The written component of the report will be in bound A4 format, which will include both text and images.

REFERENCES

BOOKS

Allen, Jennifer. Parasite Paradise: A Manifesto for Temporary Architecture and Flexible Urbanism. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2003. Print.

BOW WOW, Made in Tokyo. 1. Tokyo: Kajima Institute Publishing Co., 2001. Print.

Diserens, Corinne. Gordon Matta-Clark. 1. New York: Phaidon, 2006. Print.

Gleick, James. Chaos. 3rd ed. London: Heinemann, 1989. Print.

Johnson, Paul-Alan. The Theory of Architecture: Concepts, Themes, & Practices. 1st ed. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1994. Print.

Lasdun, Denys. Architecture in an Age of Scepticism. 1st ed. London: Heinemann, 1984. Print.

Leyton, Michael. Shape as Memory. 1st ed. Basel: Birkhauser, 2006. Print.

Teymur, Necdet, Thomas A. Markus, and Tom Woolley. Rehumanizing Housing. 1st ed. London: Butterworths, 1988. Print.

WEBSITES

Las Palmas Parasite
http://www.kortekniestuhlmacher.nl/laspalmas.html#engtext

Stelarc
http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/