arch-peace: latest news

Visual Essay, the voting procedure

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:06 GMT

First and foremost, as Arch-Peace we thank all of you that participated in any way on this event, whether sending pictures or promoting it within your contacts and colleagues.

Now is the time for you to vote, we are looking for images that are graphically appropriate for an "end of the year" card (season's greetings). This means that it has to have the right balance between meaning and hope, according the Arch-Peace principles and ideals.

The images are now with a number, now have to vote for the top ten images that for you have what it takes to become the greeting card for this year.

You can cast the vote commenting here, through the Facebook event created to vote or sending a mail to gabriela@architectsforpeace.org.

AGM 2009

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:04 GMT

The Architects for Peace Annual General Meeting will be held on November 26th at Bldg 50, Orr Street, Carlton, Melbourne. This meeting is open to all members to attend.

Please find the agenda and proxy details for this year's AGM attached as a word document: http://www.architectsforpeace.org/meetings/Notice-of-2009-AGM-and-proxy.doc

Please read and if you would like to nominate or respond, do so before November 12th.

Members are the lifeblood of our organisation and we encourage you show your support and attend if you can. Thanks!

Visual Essay

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:22 GMT

Visual essay is a new category among our news. Members are invited to submit original photographs of their city/town or other visual clues on urban or architectural character. Among the submissions we will chose an image for our end of the year card (with due credit to the author).

Now we invite you to keep sending pictures, the deadline is November 8th at gabriela@architectsforpeace.org , or to vote to choose the winner.

You can find more details here.

Timor-Leste's weaving centres

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:57 GMT

East Timor Women Association (ETWA) is a Melbourne based, not for profit organisation run by volunteers. They provide and organise programs in support of East Timorese women through community oriented programs, particularly in the handcrafts industry. They aim to give women the opportunity to make real the benefits of sustainable handcrafts enterprises and through the richness of weaving, help them maintain cultural integrity.

3 community / weaving centres are proposed on 3 separate sites in remote villages on the eastern tip of the island of Timor Leste. Two centers will be located in the mountainous sub-district of Iliomar in the villages of Fuat and Cainliu and one in the flatlands of central Los Palos. Architects for Peace, pro bono team was first approached in April 2009. Deborah and Tyran, representatives of ETWA went to their annual weaving tour and at the same time they have gathered some site and land information for this building project.

ETWA has received support for materials from Rotary and is also working with the Alternative Technology Association to raise funds for solar panels in the three community- weaving centers.

A design brief including construction / design information packaged with maps, site photos, local building technology and avalilable building materials will be available around November. A call for expressions of interest will be published then. Please come back and check for updates.

We hope that that these buildings when complete, will announce a new chapter in the lives of the women in East Timor thereby generating a positive impact to the greater community.

Queries of this project can be emailed to probono@architectsforpeace.org

photos courtesy : ETWA

The Victorian Bushfires: Recovery + Reconstruction

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:36 GMT

PANEL TALK

EXHIBITION

At RMIT bldg 50, Orr St, Carlton (off Victoria St, between Lygon and Cardigan)

Entry by gold coin donation, refreshments provided.

The wake of the devastating Victorian bushfires of 2009 was met with a massive public outpouring of emotion and support and an equally powerful wave of criticism of existing defence mechanisms and political rhetoric that produced the 'we will rebuild' mantra. Nine months on, we will reflect on the progress and lessons learnt thus far and the ongoing longterm recovery process. What are the prospects for the longterm recovery and rebuilding of devastated communities? Are vulnerable communities any better prepared for this summer? How might built environment professionals respond to the challenge of planning and designing for areas at risk? These are just some of the questions that we will discuss in our November edition of Words@bldg50.

Instead of the usual presentation, we will have 4 speakers who will each present their views on the topic. The panel consists of:

DR SUSIE BURKE BA(Hons), PHD, MAPS. A psychologist working at the Australian Psychological Society. A significant focus of her work in the Public Interest Team at the APS is looking at the role that psychology can play in helping us understand the causes, impacts and solutions to climate change and other environmental threats, including natural disasters.

GREG BOX Manager of Arts, Culture & Heritage, Shire of Yarra Ranges. Greg oversees six cultural facilities, a cultural development program, an indigenous collection, public art and festivals and events. He was in control of Healesville Relief Centre on Sunday, 8 February.

PETER HOGG Architect, Director of Architeam Cooperative and founding member of Architects Against Climate Change. Peter developed a design for a 'Brutalist Bushfire Bunker', a climate responsive, low energy house that may be able to survive an intense bushfire and keep its inhabitants safe.

BEATRIZ MATURANA Architect, MA in Urban Design. President of Architects for Peace. Beatriz has worked in community development in countries including Nicaragua and East Timor, and is a passionate advocate for social justice. Her paper 'Victoria's Bushfires: isn't it time to reflect on new urban strategies?' was written in response to the 2009 Victorian bushfires.

Chair ANTHONY MCKINNENY Practicing urban artist, studio leader in the RMIT Art in Public Space program and Coordinator, Cultural Planning and Development at the City of Knox. Anothny has worked in the developing world in the area of cultural restoration after human-made and natural disaster.

As part of the Bushfire Panel discussion, an exhibition of design projects for areas affected by the bushfires this year will be presented on the night. These projects showcase different responses and solutions to the reconstruction process.

Yellow Urban Alternatives for a Green and Orange Context

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:36 GMT

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Belfast, the home of the Titanic, is a city evolving out of a history of conflict and distress. It is witnessing continuous civil and urban transformations; a transition from a troubled urban entity to a lively vibrant city. When I went to the city about 7 years ago for a short visit, the city was starting to get out of its sleepy, scary, and dark image—from what I felt and was told. Since March 2008 however, I was attracted by Belfast’s new image as a tourist destination with historic depth, unparalleled in many cities. I was also ensnared by the idea that a city I have seen a few years ago has changed beyond recognition and keeps changing for the better.

The Urban Reality of Belfast
Despite the fact that Northern Ireland’s peace process began in the mid 1990’s, the city is still essentially divided between the two dominant communities, Catholic and Protestant. While the east and south of the city are diverse enough, these single-identity communities continue to exist in many parts of the north and west. They are partially separated by ‘peace walls’. Records indicate that the number of these walls has increased since the beginning of the peace process. At the last count there were 41walls or similar such constructions. Here I relate to my earlier editorial of February 2008(1) and insert Robert Frost’s famous Poem: Mending Wall. Frost reminds us of offensive building acts when he says: Before I built a wall I'd ask to know... What I was walling in or walling out... And to whom I was like to give offence. Introducing diversity is thus a critical challenge to Belfast’s urban designers and architects, which keeps posing itself on any urban discourse about the city’s future.

Looking at the urban reality of Belfast, one can argue that the city still suffers the impact of thirty years of civil conflict. Such an impact continues to be felt as much in the current urban growth of the city as it was during periods of contention. Notably, the structure of governance remains centralized—yet locally unaccountable to a great extent —while the development of civil society, especially in the center, north and west of the city, is typically hindered by importunate sectarianism. As well, the economic life of the region continues to be distracted and misrepresented by state financial backing and also by the very recent paramilitary intrusion(2). In parallel to these realities, corporate and business actors dominate the development process, yet security and protection mindsets keep producing urban fragments and in some cases intentional community segregation, admitting and fostering the presence of “single-identity communities.”

The Building Initiative and the Yellow Space Metaphor
In response to these urban and institutional realities, an advocacy group of committed architects and urban designers from the University of Ulster formed the Building Initiative (BI)(2). It is a project by Antje Buchholz, Miriam de Burca, Gregor Harbusch, Orla McKeever, Deirdre McMenamin, Conor Moloney, Jürgen Patzak-Poor and Dougal Sheridan. The BI is supported by the University of Ulster and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s Special Initiative for Architecture and the Built Environment.

The BI produced a traveling installation that was first shown in Belfast and was recently packaged in a publication titled “Yellow Space” to explore possibilities for city living as a neutral reality. The BI and its underlying Yellow Space event and activities suggest a critique of current urban design and development strategies by paving the road for introducing a series of ‘Civil Enterprise” sub-initiatives amenable to the creation of accessible, integrated places. The team proposes a balanced approach that integrates both top down instruments and bottom up strategies together with capacity building(3). Remarkably, the BI opposes practices characterized by heavy discourse on identity politics and attempts to introduce the politics of place.

Figure 1:

The Yellow metaphor as an active neutrality

Figure 2:

A traveling installation – a catalyst for yellow urban alternatives

Yellow is utilized as a metaphor for the types of desired spaces the BI calls for. The team argues that Yellow is often used as a sign for shared objects such as the yellow book, the city cabs, and the post-it notes. It represents an active neutrality – a common ground – a common language created through usefulness. It imbibes the qualities of diversity, access, utility, positive dialogue, and consensus—qualities that are under risk in most contemporary cities, not just Belfast.

Color is loaded with meaning…. So was the BI team successful in identifying Yellow for their responsive initiative? One would conceive more qualities of Yellow as a striking color based on research on color and color therapy. As infants, children have a natural preference for Yellow as a luminous color, they start liking it but they grow less fond of it as they mature. Also, Yellow comes as the sixth preferred color in international ranking(4). Yellow was described as a color that demands attention. For Van Gogh, Yellow was an obsession, and he often wrote about seeking the "high yellow note," a quest to paint life in scenes of both health and disease, which indicates ultimate neutrality by utilizing Yellow to express polar qualities.

While the BI team envisioned the multifaceted nature and impact of ‘Yellow,’ I should refer to the Yellow Arches of Belfast, which express another historical depth to the predilections of Yellow. While most cities worldwide have their landmarks in building forms, Belfast has its own and unique landmarks; Samson and Goliath cranes that were built for the construction of battleships and cruise liners. Samson and Goliath are monstrous Yellow arches that stand in the old Harland and Wolff shipyards on the banks of River Lagan. Each crane has a span of 140 meters (459 ft) and can lift loads to a height of 70 meters (230 ft), with a combined lifting capacity of over 1,600 tonnes, one of the largest in the world(5) .

The Yellow Space as one of the important outcomes of the Building Initiative asks two simple yet striking questions: How Yellow is Belfast and how can it become more Yellow? Simply, if cities had a color – would that color be Yellow! While my discussion with many Northern Irish friends tells me that there is no preference for stereotyping, there is a tremendous degree of success in selecting Yellow as an in-between color and a metaphor for urban neutrality, where Orange typically represents the Protestant community and the Green represents the Catholic community.

Initiatives within the BI
A series of events were conducted as part of the overall BI. The installation included a series of photographs that represent urban alternatives from cities such as Amsterdam, Berlin, Budapest, San Diego, and Zurich. Images from these cities were displayed to show how people are taking initiatives through socio-economic and socio-cultural activities that cross the boundaries of identity, income, social class, and ethnicity. The argument is that initiatives in those cities share the idea of creating yellow places. The intention of the BI team is thus to expand possibilities rather than impose ideals, and concomitantly, attempt to apply lessons learned from those cities. Two modes of actions were conceived as the backbone of the initiative; instrumental actions through yellow initiatives including thematic workshops, actions plans among other activities, and communicative actions through constructing yellow objects where the purpose is to demonstrate possible ways in which people can take initiatives. The object was a yellow news stand which distributes free copies of the yellow press, a newspaper that outlines the activities and reports on the projects, workshops, and other related events.

Figure 3:

Yellow is portrayed as urban neutrality that could promote dialogue and engagement, identity within diversity, access and usefulness.

The Yellow Space publication also outlines a number of thematic workshops addressing potential projects and critically analyzes them in terms of challenges, context, opportunities and objectives. Among these projects are a proposal for a new type of public space—a bonfire recycling center, a preservation proposal of the Castle-Court Shopping mall area in the city center, a proposal for the creation of a pathfinder scheme to develop a model for future mixed use developments, and investigating contested spaces without challenging territorial boundaries of different communities. An important outcome is also a website that outlines the thesis of the BI project and how it could be applied to other cities such as Manchester(6).

Figure 4:

Dialogical integration and initiatives across the boundaries of identity

Figure 5:

The Yellow Press: April and Sept 2008 issue covers

The Woodvale Hub—a Park for Everyone and a Community Shared Space
Woodvale Park is an important contribution of the BI. Located in the north west of the city, the park is over 120 years old. As a typical Victorian park, it has a bandstand, flowerbeds, and large trees. A road was proposed through the park involving destruction of many features and demolition of many trees. The ‘Friends of Woodvale Park’ was formed to resist the implementation of the proposal, which was rejected. The group then approached the BI team to engage in discussions on social issues and potentials the park could offer. A series of workshops and exploratory events were carried out in local schools and in the park. They involved gaming techniques, discussions with youth about the values and qualities of the park, then with architecture students at the University of Ulster for generating ideas. These resulted in a design brief and a proposal that accommodated needs and concerns of different parties.

As a citizen-led enterprise (7), the proposed project includes a HUB (Hybrid Use Building), which would be made up of indoor and outdoor spaces for a wide range of events and activities relating to both the park and the wider communities. These could include a new path and gate between the park and the adjacent shopping centre, community gardens, a sheltered outdoor seating space for events like cinema or concerts, an indoor multi-use space, a multi-purpose sports pitch and café or kiosk. Notably, a strategy has been developed so that different parts of the proposal can be added over time based on funding.

Figure 6:

Deirdre McMenamin and Dougal Sheridan of the BI leading a design workshop and a group discussion on the future of Woodvale park.

The “Plug-in Path” is a central design component introduced to provide a short cut and direct connection between the park and the nearby shopping centre. This is to increase the movement of people so that the feeling of safety is enhanced. The Plug-in Path is a programmed surface - i.e. it contains lighting, seating, play equipment, etc as well as an electricity and water supply which can be tapped into as required. It contains everything needed to allow different events to take place including a food market and outdoor concerts. The Plug-in Path connects all the HUB facilities; it is the shared surface that is used by everyone from all age-groups.

“Community Gardens” are an important component of the design concept; plots of land gardened essentially by the local community. They were introduced to imbibe the attitude of sharing, the sense of ownership and partnership. The intention is to grow them collectively, with everyone working together. The BI team, together with different parties involved, conceive these gardens as providing a leisure activity for families, children and adolescents, a place to communicate and to learn about nature and growing food. By offering a self-fulfilling, relaxing, and engaging environment, these community gardens have the capacity to address different types of people including the working class, the unemployed, minority groups, the disabled, children, seniors and the under-represented.

The Future Yellow Culture of Engagement in Belfast
Instilling the culture of collaboration and engagement seems to be one of the important drivers for the activities of the building initiative, the Yellow space events and activities, and other Yellow efforts. In this respect, I argue that techniques of participation and collaboration including gaming simulations, workshops, and public discussions are not new and have emerged since post World War II in many parts of Europe and since the civil rights era in the United States. What is new here is that such efforts are unique to the context of Belfast. Ranging from awareness and public responsiveness, to democratizing planning and design decisions, the BI and its underlying activities address all segments of Belfast society including lay people, school children, youth, architecture students, politicians, and decision makers, photographers, artists, architects-urban designers, and journalists. Through several sub-initiatives, specific events were tailored to these segments.

Figure 7: Different stages of developing the proposed design scheme for the new Woodvale Park

Simply, the BI manifests the need for new roles that architects, urban designers, and planners can play. It clearly articulates the shift from the ‘Egoist-Architect’ and the ‘I-give-the-people-what-I-want’ syndrome to the enabler-facilitator-advocate-Architect/Planner whose role is not to clearly solve people’s problems, but to create a process that enables people to solve their own problems. I would end by saying that the BI is not about ‘design activism’; it is a conscious endeavor that needs to be celebrated for its mission, scope, and process. Currently, the Woodvale project has been taken over by the city council, which is moving forward with the project in consultation with a committee of community representatives. Still, the outcomes and the impact on the decision making process, and uniting the single identity communities remain a challenge. With these and other similar efforts, the culture of engagement, collaboration, and urban and housing diversity, that continued to be a taboo for three decades, could be rediscovered. Belfast could be more Yellow. Other towns and cities including Armagh, Derry, Portadown could also be Yellow when similar initiatives take place.

Credits
Images presented in this editorial are property of the Building Initiative team, and reproduced from the Yellow Space publication. Thanks are due to Deirdre McMenamin for providing the initial visual and textual material for this editorial.

Bibliography
(1) Salama, A. M. (2008). "What's War/Peace - Construction/Destruction got to do with Architecture?" Editorial: Architects for Peace, February 13, 2008, Melbourne, Australia
(2) Building Initiative, Yellow Space--Belfast: Negotiations for an Open City. School of Art and Design, University of Ulster, Belfast, United Kingdom.
(3) For more discussion on these approaches, please see: Salama, A. M. (2009). Sustainability / Trans-disciplinarity: A concern for people and environments between confusing terminology and outdated approaches http://www.intbau.org/essay20.htm
(4) Barett, J. (-------). The Color of Learning: http://www.excellence.dgs.ca.gov/MaxStPerformance/S4_4-2.htm accessed July 31, 2009.
(5) Bishop, E. (2008). Belfast: Troubles Seem So Far Away http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/citybreaks/3483579/Belfast-Troubles-seem-so-far-away.html Telegraph, 19 Nov 2008
(6) The Building Initiative Website http://www.buildinginitiative.org/
(7) Jennifer Cornell is the main community leader who has driven the project and was a catalyst for attracting attention to the project.

Ashraf M Salama
Architects for Peace, September 2009

Dr. Ashraf M. Salama is member of the editorial board of Architects for Peace. He is an architect, scholar, and professor of architecture, currently holds a reader in architecture position at Queen’s University Belfast, United Kingdom, the chief editor of Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, collaborating editor of Open House International-OHI, editorial board member of Time-Based Architecture International, and International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

One Answer

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 05:02 GMT

In my previous editorial (September 2008) I posed a single question – ‘what role can architects play in improving the lives of the poor?’ I wrote the editorial as I was preparing to coordinate groups of postgraduate architecture working on two community development projects – the first in rural Thailand and the second in Australia’s ‘top-end’.

I stated in my editorial that many architects have worked in the community development field and spoke of their hopes, their shortcomings and of their varying states between. I spoke of cases where communities were reluctant to be involved, where local politics intervened, where architects failed to understand their clients, and of the effects when collective spirit is destroyed. I mentioned that in projects such as these there was much to go wrong. I spoke of the need to look for (and embrace) small victories and have modest aims. What did I do with my two projects and what were the outcomes?

In the last year I have coordinated two projects with Melbourne School of Design students from the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne. The first project was in rural Thailand and the second in one of Darwin’s ‘town camps’. In both cases our team consulted with a variety of stakeholders, designed and then built shelters at full-scale alongside local workers. Working with partner organizations we addressed ‘real-world’ problems and engaged with issues of sustainability in their many complex forms – cultural, environmental, economic and technical.

We knew that in projects like this excellent preparation was the key. A series of preliminary exercises had the students conducting research, convening seminars, designing prototypes, documenting the construction process and scheduling and sourcing construction materials. This enabled them to confidently begin prefabricating some building elements in the Faculty workshop. Once the prefabricated components were complete the teams moved to the University’s rural campus at Creswick for on-site construction. Here the students gained confidence, their familiarity with the tools and materials grew and their problem solving skills were put to the test over a three-day period.

Students learning to use construction tools in the workshop

Prototypes under construction at the University's rural campus

These preliminary exercises led towards the main component of each project – students forming partnerships to work outside the university on outreach projects. In both projects the subject coordinators have worked alongside students and community representatives building structures of significant size and complexity.

In 2008 a group of sixteen Melbourne School of Design students worked with students from Bangkok’s Thammasat University, Population and Community Development Association (a Thai NGO) and the Ban Nong Thong Lim community to build a sala (pavilion) for patients waiting at the government health clinic. Community representatives requested that the sala work in the traditional way and be open air and welcoming to the people using the clinic. A wise choice of construction technologies was a key consideration. After so much regional deforestation most contemporary construction in Thailand now uses concrete – but this creates all sorts of environmental problems.

The sala under construction by the health clinic.

The sala nearing completion

Our sala, built with steel framing and composite materials, tested possibilities to link traditional lightweight construction techniques with contemporary construction materials. In a broader sense this was testing possibilities that new housing could be built with traditional ideologies – reducing the need for air-conditioning and maintaining the open-air spaces that enhance community cohesion – as well as using new materials with lower environmental costs. The project will continue with an ongoing research project investigating links between construction technologies, environmental costs and the cultural behaviours that accompany various uses of space. In 2010 a new team of students from both universities will again collaborate with the NGO and Ban Nong Thong Lim community to investigate housing types using lightweight materials.

The second of our on-going projects is located in Australia’s ‘top-end’. Although the climate and need for housing is similar to Thailand there are vastly different cultural contexts. The federal government’s Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program (SIHIP) and well-publicised ‘intervention’ program have brought indigenous housing to the attention of mainstream Australia. Whereas the agencies once responsible for indigenous housing in the Northern Territory were criticised for too little consultation the claim today is that there is too much consultation with too little housing being built. Today’s media provides many commentaries speaking of the vast sums allocated by the federal government but with little (or no) housing having been recently built. Paradoxically there are reports from the communities themselves that the consultation process is inadequate. How much consultation with indigenous communities is the ‘right’ amount? How should this consultation process be managed and with what outcomes in mind?

With these questions in mind two groups of Melbourne School of Design student have been involved in subjects that work with two indigenous communities in Darwin’s ‘town camps’. At the community’s request early projects looked at providing design ideas for housing ‘long-grassers’ – generally itinerant young men who have been held responsible for many of the problems facing indigenous communities. However after consultation students were invited to recycle one of the derelict houses in the Gudorrka Community. The steel framed houses (nicknamed ‘chicken coops’ by all concerned) were in appalling condition with no bathroom or cooking facilities and no outdoor shaded areas.

The 'chicken coop' house before renovation

The interior of the 'chicken coop'

With $50,000 funding from a variety of sources the sixteen students, two staff and help from local men and children we ‘blitzed’ the house over a ten day period and recycled it into a respectable house. The new residents – one of whom had been born in the house three decades ago – were eager participants in the process and are delighted with the outcome.

A verandah was added to provide much needed 'indoor/outdoor' space

The new interior

We reclad the interior, enclosed two more bedrooms, built an internal bathroom, tiled the wet areas, installed a new stainless steel kitchen and added louvres to the windows.

The renovated house has significantly less environmental impact than a new house, cost one-tenth as much and was completed in a vastly shorter time-span. It also linked the indoors with outdoors to provide greater levels of comfort and a closer connection with the land. This project did not end there – the students then used their experience to design some further facilities for this community and the neighbouring ‘Knuckies Lagoon’ mob. Their designs are being reviewed by both mobs, and local government funding agencies, before another group of students comes to continue the project in 2010.

The new verandah becomes an ‘oasis’ for people to gather

Have I learned something useful?

These projects revealed their small victories and there was much for us to learn. It seemed – to use the words of one of the local agencies providing the funding – that we worked with the community rather than for it. This is an interesting distinction. The students, and I give them heaps of credit for this, really engaged with the local people of all ages. Unlike building contractors – who are on wages and predetermined schedules – we made the time to consult, get to know the people and involve them in the process. In the indigenous community the kids were really drawn to us and we should make an effort to further include them in the future (alongside their parents). We were also flexible enough to be able to change our plans as we went through the construction phase – buildings were rotated minutes prior to earthworks beginning, additional items were added or deleted as we went along and so on. The construction processes were fluid and dynamic.

These structures, in both Thailand and Darwin, are only parts of a larger process. The intent has been to use the construction processes and outcomes as a way to stimulate further discussions with the community groups involved. Marginalised communities are not well used to making decisions about their environments and their shelter. Traditionally they have had little or no choice. The process of talking, designing and then building together opens up many opportunities for a more useful dialogue which then enriches the ideas, processes and outcomes for the next project and so on.

The bottom line is that I am convinced that there is a need for architects in community development projects such as these. Traditionally projects might have the involvement of bureaucrats, aid workers, engineers, accountants, builders, anthropologists and the like, who do have great skills but remain narrow in focus. Not many can balance the complex and interlinked variety of needs and at the same time produce a tangible outcome. At the same time we are fortunate that we work within the university structure that enables these projects to develop in a ‘laboratory’ (to use a popular word at this time) setting free (or relatively free) from commercial obligations.

David O'Brien
Architects for Peace, October 2009

Meeting Mike Davis

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:34 GMT

Interview by Orhan Ayyüce

Mike Davis and I met on a summer day in San Diego. He graciously drove his truck and showed me his collection of “interesting sites” he planned for us to see in the area. As we were visiting those places, we talked about variety of subjects.

His selection of the sites, was nothing less than socio-cultural paintings in action, plus a rough sketch of complex connections, drawn by him.

He and his wife picked me up from the Greyhound bus station in downtown San Diego. We then got their twin kids from the school, after stopping at the neighborhood Starbucks, we stopped by his house, and shortly after, him and I changed to his pickup truck.

As soon as we were in the cab, I asked him if they like watching movies and he said,

“Yes, and we like foreign films too.”

I reached to my bag and gave him a copy of ‘The 10th Victim’ by Elio Petri, a 1965 Italian science fiction I brought with me.

On the freeway to first site, the conversation steadily jumped from Turkish films of Yilmaz Guney whom Davis knew, to Jazz scene in Istanbul, then to The French anarchist movement, and Avant Garde without losing a beat.

“Didn’t write a word until I was thirty years old... I am a self-taught writer. Started in UCLA as a student to study economics as a freshman.”

As the words to be said piled up, I heard the slowing thread noise from the tires and the changing gear of the transmission, an exit from the freeway and find myself looking at a panorama of a town from the higher elevation beyond the cinemascopic windshield.

Mike Davis said, “This is El Cajon,” with four words and with a space on either end.

El Cajon is a balmy and seemingly ordinary town near-east of San Diego. A small city that could easily worked into a novel. I initially associated it with Steinbeck gone south kind of space.

The place, meaning 'the drawer' attributed to the geographical shape of the location, a boxed in valley, started out as a farming town producing grapes, oranges, raisins from deeply drawn, lengthy, farm sized lot divisions and tract maps.

In the beginning late 19th century, the fertile valley was populated by 563 people, 98 percent white, including some east coast transplants, small farmers and gold prospectors, two Chinese, ten Indians, and one Japanese as written in an essay by Victor Geraci called, El Cajon, California 1900. This statistical narration is relatively descriptive of San Diego County's 35,000 strong population back then.

Later, the military personnel who work at various bases in the vicinity moved there.

El Cajon is where Mike Davis grew up in a neighborhood, made up by Irish immigrants, appropriately called “Boston Colonnade.”

During the 60’s Hell’s Angels made El Cajon one of their concentrated settlements, numerous bike shops and biker oriented business opened up and sustained to this day.

Most recently, Chaldeans arrived in El Cajon. The Chaldeans are Iraqi Christians, who survived the invasions and wars throughout the history in their native land in Middle East, until the ongoing Gulf Wars. As a direct effect of the wars and complex conflicts there, most of the community relocated on the other side of the globe as forced immigrants. For the Chaldeans, in fact, the Gulf Wars were the 'Mother of all Wars' causing mass exhodus. Many of the Chaldeans now live in Detroit, Chicago, El Cajon, San Jose, and Turlock, and in the South of the US border, Oaxaca.

“Nowadays, writing comes out fairly easy. When you are a young writer, you have the ideas, as you get older you get much more efficient with them.”

Shortly after the panoramic experience, we stop at the biker stronghold strip of El Cajon, called 'Iron Valley' by Mr. Davis. I am told, currently the Hells Angels are pressured by the "City" to earthquake proof their establishments or “leave.” A hastily passed building ordinance creating social alienation and financial hardship on some of the bike shops and subculture of Hells Angels specifically, as if the pressure is not enough on them. There is a feel of summary judgment for otherwise colorful community, I thought.

Knowing a little about Route 66 and the money biker tourism pumps into the economy, it's not good. Consider the currency left by tourists who visit the West, buy & rent Harley Davidsons to become the wild ones, on their paid vacations, touring the American West all the way to Texas Panhandle, with some bikes choppered for real ‘bad’ riders, later redeeming their business class mileage upgrades, heading back home, in many cases shipping the bikes to their countries.

You cannot write off the legitimacy of the majority bikers because of the busted methamphetamine gang.

A mile later, Davis point out the big televangelist church building to address recent mayor’s and city council’s moral preferences. It is like El Cajon wants to become a 'Heavens Angels' city.

Just as we were talking about these things in the cab, a sharp right turn in downtown area where the City activated a revitalization plan, not unlike you see everywhere else with festival banners, median planters and storefronts.

And after a left turn, we are in the parking lot of:

UNARIUS ACADEMY of SCIENCE

UNARIUS for “Universal Articulate Interdimensional Understanding of Science.”

This is El Cajon’s even more eccentric tenant.

We walk inside the Academy where there are two Unarius members, Billie McIntyre and Priscilla Morse volunteering to care for the friendly institution.

With an echoing voice Mike Davis says, "Hello Ladies," as we approach. He reminds them he was the guy who brought the French radio station people recently and they remember, “Oh yeaah,” in unison.

Here in this well established academy, past lives, creative spiritual present and heavenly futures unfold, as the ladies start to explain some of the principles of their studies.

El Cajon is outside, but inside there is a whole universe ‘not’ caught in the banal reality most of us know and experience. If you think about commitment to higher elevations and philosophical terrains, this is it with its visual aids.

In Donna Kossy’s KOOKS, it is stated members take it as an offense when referred as religion.

Decie Hook, the current manager of the URIEL Academy in El Cajon says, “We are a scientific research organization,” standing in front of an inspirational artwork on the wall.

After enrollment, Unarius students find out from the higher beings about their past lives, and than develop a constructive and alternative present and promising future lives. As they recognize their own past mistakes here on Earth and on other planets, they try to purge all that through the study of Urariun principles, which were put forward by Archangel Uriel aka, Ruth Norman Uriel (Universal Radiant Infinite Eternal Light).

Indeed, Universal Radiant Infinite Eternal Light is the guiding beacon of the site planning of the city, The Star Center, they have designed for their planned future community.

Ms. Hook explains the city via the eight foot diameter model as we listen carefully.

The Star Center developed around the central energy beamed from a Tesla tower and radiating sections, neatly and architecturally articulated with glitter and automated walkways connecting the residential areas sliced between the leisure and agricultural fields. The way Ms. Hook explains the Star Center, everything has that robotic technology and ease we see in the futuristic films and science fictional speculations.

The clusters of neighborhoods around the smaller energy towers replicate the bigger pattern. Macro to micro, a well visited concept in recent urban design circles, brought to Star City of Unarius by the more intelligent visitors in 'us' and ‘over there’ all the same...

I notice the wall surrounding the ideal city and ask, “why, to defend the place?”

Ms. Hook explains, “the walls are there because there is no life outside of them...”

I decide not to go any further.

The conversation with the “ladies” continues into the material found in the Academy's website. I turn off the tape recorder and start to walk around like I am in a museum and take pictures of some paintings done by the students. At one point Mike Davis turns to me and says, “Everything in here is American folk art.”

My curiosity with the place is etched around the Utopian city of Unarious, the Star Center. The capitol in which all the past lives fixed to perfection and justice and equality for all.

If anything, this is even more complete as utopian cities go, than many I've been seeing in design blogs, providing the spiritual guidelines as well as the political and social infrastructure on top of the highly configured physical environment with jewel like attention to detail and the scientific co-operation and know how of their interplanetary higher intelligence brothers and sisters.

If we are going to be open to the futuristic illustrations of post apocalyptic societies ahead of us, why not them, why not the UNARIUS?

I feel Mr. Davis’ fascination with the place and kind of understand it.

He buys two of their books, I pick up all the free brochures. We say our goodbyes to the ladies and walk out.

Outside on the sidewalks of El Cajon is a different world. The folk art is there, but just a different reality.

A couple of heroin junkies with fallen teeth pass by us as we are walking on Main Street sidewalk and I ask Mike Davis,

“have you been in jail?”

He says he has for minor stuff and a thrown out felony for civil rights and resistance related issues...

Better and classier than my own past of unpaid traffic tickets turned arrest warrants and barfly incidents ending in jails, overnight and longer. We briefly talk about county jails and this conversation terminates as we pass by another couple sitting in front of abandoned shop with a Colt45 halfway sticking out from the brown bag.

Passing by the well stocked Iraqi grocery stores, the Chaldian Community seems to be doing better and money is trickled down to El Cajon by a distant war in Iraq. Some are hired by US Government as translators and perhaps with the promise of speedy US Citizenship. I observe this through the passport and a plane ticket inspired recruitment brochure of National Guard at the reception area of the Ali Baba’s Restaurant where we sit down in the all mirror area to have lunch.

Mr. Davis orders the special stew made of innards of lamb including head meat and other delicacies whereas I order the simpler ground beef kebab, perhaps one of the most delicious one I have had west of Turkey.

I ask if he cooks. Having come from a butchers union background in his youth, he says, “Sure.”

He is the cook in the house and they are usually cholesterol heavy meals, which him and his family trying to cut down a little.

I describe him a Turkish soup recipe after observing his stew. In return gesture, he gives me his recipe of Egyptian ’fatta’ he learned how to cook from his Egyptian roommate when he lived in Europe.

Lunch conversation slides into one of the important highlights of his life when he met Vietcong people in Paris circa 1973.

Mike Davis has actively started working against Vietnam War since 1964.

I ask,

“how did you start writing?”

“Didn’t write a word until I was thirty years old... I am a self-taught writer. Started in UCLA as a student to study economics as a freshman. It is a most painful way of becoming a writer, I was one of those people who would go through whole stack of paper for the first paragraph” he adds, “nowadays, writing comes out fairly easy. When you are a young writer, you have the ideas, as you get older you get much more efficient with them.”

He continues, “I recently taught creative writing in UC Irvine... For me, learning to write creatively was so brutal. I wouldn’t recommend that to anybody. Some of the students have this fantastic talent but they are so absorbed writing about themselves. A lot of them didn’t have a lot of experience in life. And, I am socially conservative and can’t really stand this mode of people exposing themselves so much... Particularly this premature self exposure about yourself and your family and all... Internet is full of that.”

“I am socially conservative and can’t really stand this mode of people exposing themselves so much... Particularly this premature self exposure about yourself and your family and all... Internet is full of that.”

I add, “I notice that as well. A lot of people are excessively self-absorbed for some reason. I mean, art can be autobiographical and all, but... Self expression is really saturated and overrated. Everything becomes me and myself.”

We talk a little about if that has to do with self gratifying life styles, the social status of the parents, the homogeneity of education.

Eventually the conversation evolves into the issue of scarce availability of architectural education to poorer communities and social disconnect of the architectural profession.

Mike Davis says, “I had a student once in Los Angeles, her project was a crematorium for the homeless people on the banks of LA River. I have never seen a proposal morally so screwed… It is funny, I get invited to a lot of schools to talk about architecture.

Michael Rotondi invited me to teach architecture in Sci Arc and I told him that I don’t have a clue about how to teach architecture. He said, that’s fine. We have a lot of people know about architecture but not enough people know about Los Angeles. You teach about Los Angeles.”

I tell him that I have, among few others, read his; City of Quartz, Let Malibu Burn, Ecology of Fear, Vigilante Man, Learning from Tijuana, and the City of Slums. And I am not really fascinated with the 'slums' subject in the same way many in the media and academia are these days. I tell him also, many in the developed Western countries are fascinated by it because they have never seen anything like it in their highly regulated environs. They are fascinated by how it looks physically and organically. Growing up, I had been to and stayed in many places what we call Gecekondu in Turkey, omnipresent in the fringes of almost every city.

I ask him, “What do you think of the current interest in slum communities. It is almost unfortunately 'redeeming' to talk about slums and their informality? The architecture is high on slums, minus the critical process and minus the perception of poverty and political injustice...”

He answers after a secondary pause,

“I had a student once in Los Angeles, her project was a crematorium for the homeless people on the banks of LA River. I have never seen a proposal morally so screwed…”

“You know, in architecture school most people talk about icons and counter icons, rather than try to understand the larger social networks, hierarchies, and conditions that produce particular types of urbanisms. That is taken to its highest level of trendiness by Rem Koolhaas. His stuff on Lagos is crazy... In my mind it is a sleazy apology for social evil.
Sure, if you want to see human self organization at work, go to Lagos, but face the poverty and oppression by the military regime, destruction of formerly proud communities... Maybe he should talk to my friend Chris Abani about that stuff... Chris would laugh at his hyperbolic formal exercise...”

“How about an extreme perhaps opposite situation; Dubai?” I ask.

“Dubai maintains legally administrative super structure. That is the Monarchy’s business model. They adopted the rules of London Stock Exchange. They have all these mini structures from there on; internet city, sex industry, tourism, free trade zone and so on. Singapore meets Las Vegas,” he answers.

I add, “Dubai is one large real estate corporation. “The future” is only a condo or a mistress away… And, Dubai has a lot of enemies these days.”

He completes my words,

“Mmm… And, they can buy out anybody…”

“What would make a successful urban design?” I ask,

As an answer Mr. Davis goes on to explain his urban design studio he taught in Sci Arc in 90's;

“We took three blocks west of Harbor Freeway around Beaudry Street in Los Angeles just west of downtown. First we broke down the community to its atoms and after that we start to develop reality based solutions. If we were dealing with graffiti, we explain to community that we will designate an area where graffiti people do their art and so on.

We developed community gardens, set up swap meets, create some economic sustainability. Our solutions are based on reality rather than an abstract building form that solves all the problems of the community only on paper.

I was influenced by the Whole Earth Catalog…

We

U.S. immigration detention

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:34 GMT

Janet Napolitano, the U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security, has announced the construction of two model immigration detention centres in the United States, and the conversion of nursing homes into detention centres.

Currently, 66% of the 32,000 illegal immigrants held in custody are 'rented out' to 312 county jails and private prisons. The system cannot accommodate them - another 19,000 people are fitted with electronic bracelets and are required to check in regularly. Not only are the prison conditions inhumane for the men, women and children incarcerated, they are expensive. The cost of housing detainees is US$2.4B annually.

Those not held in actual jails are mostly held in buildings that were built as jails, according to Napolitano's report.

Napolitano:

With only a few exceptions, the facilities that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) uses to detain aliens, were built, and operate, as jails and prisons to confine pre-trial and sentenced felons. ICE relies primarily on correctional incarceration standards designed for pre-trial felons and on correctional principles of care, custody, and control.

The number in detention on any particular day pales beside the number processed through the system annually - now over 400,000.

NYT article October 5th, 2009
Napolitano's Report
Detention Watch Network

Hard data for urban scenarios: UN Human Development Report '09

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:27 GMT

As professionals of the built environment we are often confronted with questions and sometimes decisions regarding the future of our cities. Migration and uncontrolled flux of peoples across the globe—due to climate change, pollution, wars or poverty—are some of these ‘apocalyptic’ scenarios presented to us. These scenarios, usually used as topics for students’ projects (particularly in architecture), are frequently offered devoid of any form of tangible hard data.

Whether we have any input in determining the future of our cities or not is another question. However, a good grasp of what is really going on the ground can only assist our response.

The recently published UN "Human Development Report 2009" offers some insights on what is really going on in terms of migration and it claims that:

Migration not infrequently gets a bad press. Negative stereotypes portraying migrants as ‘stealing our jobs’ or ‘scrounging off the taxpayer’ abound in sections of the media and public opinion, especially in times of recession. For others, the word ‘migrant’ may evoke images of people at their most vulnerable. This year’s Human Development Report, Overcoming Barriers: Human Mobility and Development, challenges such stereotypes. It seeks to broaden and rebalance perceptions of migration to reflect a more complex and highly variable reality

And,

The report suggests that the policy response to migration can be wanting. Many governments institute increasingly repressive entry regimes, turn a blind eye to health and safety violations by employers, or fail to take a lead in educating the public on the benefits of immigration.

Find the UN Human Development Report 2009: here

post: Beatriz C. Maturana

Presentation @ Kinglake :. Sunday 27 September, 12 noon :. Community centre design-build project by Prof. Silvia Acosta and Monash University students

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:15 GMT

We’re breaking out of our usual monthly talk cycle to bring you a special extra September edition of words @ bldg 50, and an insight into the rebuilding process on the ground at Kinglake, a Victorian community seriously affected by the bushfires earlier this year.

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Prof. Silvia Acosta, from the Rhode Island School of Design (who joined us at http://vimeo.com/6142200), her colleague Adrienne Benz, and their second-year students from Monash University are currently working on building a community centre at Kinglake, VIC, as part of the University's first design/build project with faculty from abroad. The open-air community centre will feature indoor/outdoor seating areas where the community can interact, barbeque and is equipped with cooking facilities, and a fire pit area that ensures the space can be used both day and night. The structure, composed of donated and salvaged materials, has been designed by the Monash team in creative and unconventional ways. Currently, the project is still in its construction phase.

On 27 September 2009 (this Sunday), Architects for Peace along with Prof.Silvia Acosta's team will hold a presentation as a wrap up to the project talk near the construction site as the project draws to a close. However, more volunteers may be needed to complete the project, and so expressions of interest are welcome. Please contact Eleanor (eleanor at architectsforpeace dot org) for more information.

We hope to see you there!

Venue: Communal Dining Hall @ Kinglake Temporary Housing Village

Time: 12:00 noon

How to get there:

By car is the best way. We will be meeting at our usual Words venue (RMIT building 50, Orr St, Carlton) at 10.30am on the day to car-pool if you’d like a lift. Otherwise please park at shops nearby to allow resident use of village car park.

The project

(plan by Emergency Architects Australia)

GOOGLE MAP LOCATION

Kinglake Some Background..

Kinglake was one of the worst affected towns by the Victorian bushfires earlier this year in February. Hundreds of homes were destroyed. The town has a history of bushfires when extreme weather conditions occur. A temporary village is currently under construction in the area and due to open on 3 October 2009, thanks to the pro bono efforts of Emergency Architects Australia, AR Group Architects, and Antarctica Group, under the direction of the Victorian Bushfire Recovery and Reconstruction Authority. The village will house up to 55 temporary housing units, communal buildings and recreational facilities and be in place for two years. It is anticipated that the lightweight communal shelter currently being built by Silvia and students will be dismantled after this time and relocated to the permanent centre of Kinglake.

Now we are talking...

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:16 GMT

On Sunday 13.09.09, Architects for Peace had its first international internet meeting to establish the arch-peace Advisory Committee. The team is composed of 14 arch-peace members, who during the last years have actively and consistently contributed to arch-peace, met to discuss direction of the organisation: Anthony McInneny, Prof. Ashraf Salama, Beatriz C. Maturana, Dr. Ceridwen Owen, Dr. Darko Radovic, Eleanor Chapman, Gregory Cowan, Prof. Lou Sauer, Prof. Hans Haenlein, Dr. Matthew Bond, Peter Johns, Sarah Bridges, Dr. Sidh Sintusingha and Tulio J. Mateo.

As now we count with some years of experience, we are to embark on an even more ambitious path with a more inclusive agenda aiming to strengthen the participation of members from all different nations here represented. This newly formed advisory team will now undertake the task of articulating the direction of Architects for Peace, its principles, objectives and its future international activities, including projects, international membership and events. This is a very important stage in the life of this young organisation.

With your help, we can achieve some of our many goals, including: to be a portal for projects and activities that benefit larger sectors of the community and to be a network for campaigns that, in the realm of the urban professions, contribute to peace, social justice and the ecology. Together with your contribution—in your own language—we can achieve these goals.

Cheers!

Beatriz C Maturana (President) and the Architects for Peace Advisory Committee