/MARC Yearbook 2011-12/

Introduction

MARC Staff

Research Projects1 Counter-projects and Post-1968 Architectural Criticism at the Intersections of Social Critique,

Politics, and Aesthetics

2 Challenging Lock-in through Urban Energy Systems (CLUES)

3 Smell and the City

4 Art on Stilts in Singapore

5 Conditioning Demand: Older People, Diversity, and Thermal Experience

6 Zero-Carbon Habitation: An International Comparison

7 Multi-Faith Spaces as Symptoms and Agents of Religious and Social Change

8 EcoCities: The Bruntwood Initiative for Sustainable Cities

Research–led Teaching (some snapshots)1 Housing the Masses: Learning from Berlin

2 Courtyard Housing as Urban Catalyst

3 Mapping Controversies: Teaching Platform

4 Studio for the Study of Social Materialities in Cities of the Global South

Books1 PoliticsofUrbanRunoff:Nature,TechnologyandtheSustainableCity

2 Mapping Controversies in Architecture

PhD Student Research

MARC Autumn Lecture Series 2011

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3

5

7

9

11

13

15

17 19

21

23

25

27

29

31

33

39

The Manchester Architecture Research Centre (MARC) continues to develop its inter-disciplinary agenda to unpack, follow and engage with design practices, processes and products as they unfold in built environments. This yearbook captures the developing momentum of MARC’s research activity through our teaching, projects, publications, events and exhibitions. Through 2011/12 MARC has pursued research across a wide range of architectural studies, exploring issues of controversy,innovation,agency,imagination,conflict,faith,conservation,politics, heritage and sustainability.

ThisresearchstronglyinfluencedourjointteachingwiththeManchesterSchoolofArchitecture(MSA).OurMARCstudiosofferaninnovativemodelforbringingrecentdevelopmentsinthefieldofarchitecturaltheoryinto studio teaching and we are delighted that the work of our students has gained international acclaim at the Digital Design Festival in Paris for their work on Mapping Controversies. This innovative approach to pedagogy will continue in a new MARC initiative, the Studio for the Study of Social Materialities in the Global South, which brings together scholarly and practical expertise to develop MARC’s engagement with urban research in the Global South.

As you will read, our portfolio of funded projects continues to expand and we strive to disseminate the research results beyond academia, with our research on Multi-Faith Spaces, Smell and the City, and EcoCities allreceivingsignificantpressandpolicyattention.Moreacademically,wecontinuetopublishwidelyacrossthefieldsofgeography,planning,urban studies, architectural theory, and science studies, with two

notablebooksPoliticsofUrbanRunoff:Nature,TechnologyandtheSustainable City and Mapping Controversies in Architecture, both highly praised. MARC’s lectures and seminar series have continued to provide a platform for international debate and we are pleased to have hosted high profilespeakersfromavarietyofdisciplines,manyofwhomweplantocollaborate with in the future.

This yearbook also gives us the opportunity to document the projects of MARC’s vibrant PhD student community. While the range of topics is broad, the common thread is an emphasis on a pragmatist reading of each subject: from the practices of urban actors to network dynamics; from architectural innovations to architecture’s engagement with the real. By drawing on the pragmatist way of thinking, our PhD programme places distinctive emphasis on trans-disciplinarity, empirical depth, creativefieldwork,andmethodologicalrigour.

Wehopethatthisyearbookgivesaflavourofthebreadth,strengthandinnovative nature of our work and will encourage new connections with practitioner and academic communities during the next phase of MARC’s development.

Simon Guy, Director of MARCAlbena Yaneva, Co-director of MARC

/Introduction/

1 2

Prof Simon Guy, Professor of Architecture and Director of MARCSimon’s research aims to critically

understanding the co-evolution of design

and development strategies, and socio-

economic processes shaping cities. He is

a Professor of Architecture, the Director

of EcoCities and an Investigator on a

range of projects funded by the Economic

and Social Research Council (ESRC),

the Engineering and Physical Sciences

Research Council (EPSRC), Électricité de

France (EDF), and the Department for

International Development (DfID).

Dr Albena Yaneva, Reader in Architecture, Co-director of MARC, Head of Architecture Albena’s research interests include design

cognition, architecture in the making,

the pragmatist turn in architectural

theory, the politics of design, non-

representational theories in architecture,

and bringing the insights of controversy

studies to bear in architecture research.

She is the Principle Investigator (PI) of the

EU-funded project Mapping Architectural

Controversies.

Dr Ralf Brand, Senior Lecturer in Architectural StudiesRalf studies the synchronisation

of social and technical change in

a number of substantive issues.

He previously led a project on

architecture’s role in radicalisation.

He is currently the PI of a study on

multi-faith spaces. He is the Co-I

in projects that investigate older

people’s use of heating technologies

and also the assumptions of zero-

carbon home designers. All of these

projects have received external

funding from organisations such as

the AHRC and the ESRC.

Dr Isabelle Doucet, Lecturer in Architecture and UrbanismIsabelle’s research interests include

agency and architecture, architecture and

urban design’s being in-the-world, the

intersection of architecture (theory) and

the social, architecture and criticality, and

architecture’s engagement with the real

both as a discipline and profession.

Dr Chris Hewson, Research AssociateChris’s research interests include sacred

spaces, ecological buildings, sustainable

consumption, user involvement in green

issues, community media, and social

enterprise. Chris is a research associate

for the AHRC/ESRC project on Multi-Faith

Spaces.

Dr Victoria Henshaw, Research AssociateVictoria’s research interests include

the role of the senses in urban design,

regeneration and city management,

specificallywithrespecttothesenseof

smell. She is a research associate at MARC

supporting Professor Simon Guy on a

rangeofdifferentprojects.

Dr Andrew Karvonen, Research Fellow Andrew’s research interests include

urban political ecology, infrastructure,

sustainable development, technical

expertise and the politics of design. He

is a research fellow across a number of

projects for EcoCities and MARC.

Dr Alan Lewis, Research AssociateAlan’s research centres on the

intersection of policy and architectural

practice, with a particular interest in the

implications of an ageing population

for housing design. Alan is the Research

Associate for the EPSRC/EDF-funded

project ‘Conditioning Demand:

Older People, Diversity and Thermal

Experience’.

Dr Leandro Minuchin, Lecturer in Architecture & Global UrbanismLeandro’s research interests include the

politics of construction, appearance and

articulation in architectural and political

theory, architectural and material

imaginations, and the study of cultural

and political appropriations of concrete.

His publications look at these issues in

Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Dr Graeme Sherriff, Research Associate Graeme researches sustainable energy

and transport systems with a focus

on the technological and behavioural

developments that can help society

achieve them as well as the social justice

implications of energy futures. He has

workedintheacademic,public,andNGO

sectors. Graeme is currently a research

associate on the Challenging Lock-in

through Urban Energy Systems (CLUES)

project.

Dr Magda Sibley, Senior Lecturer in Architectural StudiesMagda’s main strands of research

are in heritage-led sustainable urban

regeneration, the courtyard housing

as a building type for sustainable low-

rise, high-density cities, and Hammams

(commonly known as Turkish baths).

Magda is involved in the Hammamed

project funded by the Euromed Heritage 4

programme.

/MARC Staff/

3 4

Counter-projects are a tool for

architectural critique and resistance

used by architects throughout the

1970s. It forms an instructive tool for

understanding how critique can be

processed not just through theory but

also through projects. In the form of

drawing-manifestos, counter-projects

criticisedtheexistingstate-of-affairsas

well as formulating concrete, alternative

proposals. By using architecture’s

medium par excellence – drawing – for

processing critique, the counter-project

forms a fascinating critical device that sits

between theory and practice; between

the analytical and the projective.

Counter-projects are largely associated

with the historicist branch of post-

modernism: the ‘Reconstruction of the

European City’ architects who included

Léon Krier and Maurice Culot; the

‘Critical Reconstruction’ in Berlin; neo-

traditionalism and new urbanism in the

US. Yet, this branch arguably underwent a

so-called ‘aesthetic turn’ and depoliticised

once they were gradually realised in

practice. So, counter-projects seemingly

lost their potential as a critical device for

architecture.

Funded by the School of Environment and

Development’s Research Stimulation Fund

(2012), Isabelle Doucet’s research revisits

the counter-project as an instructive

tool for understanding architecture’s

critical agency and the co-emergence of

politics and aesthetics in architectural

postmodernism during the 1970s.

Using the Archives d’Architecture

Moderne (AAM) in Brussels, the research

revisits the advocacy and activist

roots of counter-projects developed

in the 1970s, particularly those within

the teaching of the French-speaking

architecture school, La Cambre, under

Maurice Culot. The Architectural

Association archives in London are

used to explore counter-projects that

sprouted from education along a variety

of ideological and conceptual lines, such

as Bernard Tschumi’s ‘counter-design’ and

Archigram’s project-manifestos. Finally,

counter-projects emerging in Berlin in the

immediate aftermath of the fall of the

Berlin Wall will also be studied. Developed

by local as well as international architects,

these are instructive for understanding

the emergence of a global architecture.

/Research Projects/

/Counter-projects and Post-1968 Architectural Criticism at the Intersections of Social Critique, Politics, and Aesthetics/

5 6

MARC is one of the research centres

involved in this EPSRC-funded project.

SimonGuyandGraemeSherriffare

working with researchers from the

University of Exeter, University College

London, the University of Loughborough,

the University of Sussex and the

University of Surrey to explore the

co-evolution of urban energy systems.

Thesesystemsarebroadlydefinedand

includeenergygenerationandefficiency

technologies alongside governance, social

and economic dimensions. Combining

case study research in the UK and

overseas with projected energy scenarios

for 2050, the research is underpinned by

the policy relevance of climate change,

fuel poverty and energy security. Simon

and Graeme are responsible for the

‘synthesis’ role and they are working

acrossthesedifferentstrandsofthe

project to identify the linkages between

them and to explore the methodology

andfindingsthroughthelensesofco-

evolution of society and energy systems.

As well as contributing to academic

debates, the work has a practical aim

including, amongst other things, a tool

for strategic-level decision makers in local

authorities.

The Manchester team has co-organised

a series of four workshops that brought

together stakeholders from businesses

and local authorities in the UK with

representatives from overseas projects

for potential replication in the UK. These

workshops have provided insights into

the drivers for change, the barriers facing

actors when implementing projects,

andthecontextualfactorsindifferent

settings. The development of seawater

districtheatinginaformerfishing

towninTheNetherlandshasproveda

rich source of data for an exploration

of the ‘assemblage’ approach. Here,

stakeholders in the conventional sense

are conceptualised with the sea as a

source of energy, the behaviours and

expectations of the residents and the

resonance of the idea of the sea with the

historicallegacyoffishing.

A Delphi survey of urban energy

initiatives in the UK was also completed.

This approach comprises an iterative,

web-based survey in which questions

are based on the ‘results’ of the previous

stages. The survey was useful in testing

out some of the in-depth qualitative

case study and workshop research with a

wider audience.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/clues

/Challenging Lock-in through Urban Energy Systems (CLUES)/

7 8

The Smell and the City Project

investigates the detection,

representation, and recall of urban

odours. Led by Victoria Henshaw, in

collaboration with Dominic Medway

(Manchester Business School) and

Chris Perkins (University of Manchester

Geography), the project has gained

international media with features in

The Independent and BBC Radio 4 as

well as wider coverage in popular and

specialist media outlets across Belgium,

theUnitedStates,Australia,andNew

Zealand. Project activities have included

‘smellwalks’ in Manchester’s city centre

to investigate the odours in areas such

as Chinatown, Albert Square, the canal

network, and along the city’s busy roads.

Theuseofartificialscentingpracticesin

city centre marketing campaigns has also

been investigated with site visits and on-

site interviews in London, York, Glasgow,

and Manchester. The project team also

hosted two interdisciplinary workshops

with professionals and academics from

across the UK to discuss the research,

mapping, and marketing of smell in the

city, and to explore and develop creative

solutions to problems presented when

attempting to represent smell in the city.

The project blog is regularly updated

and an online interactive smell-map of

Manchester will go live during summer

2012, using crowd-sourcing in the

collection of data on smells that can

be detected in Manchester city centre

and how these are perceived. Victoria

also developed a free DIY Manchester

Smellwalk Map that is available for

download on the project blog website.

Future activities will include a smell

project to be delivered in September

2012 in conjunction with Studio X at

ColumbiaUniversity(NewYorkCity)and

a project organised in conjunction with

Yorkshire’s social enterprise for the built

environment, IntegreatPlus, and the

SheffieldCommunityNetworkaspartof

SheffieldUrbanDesignWeekinOctober

2012.

http://smellandthecity.wordpress.com/

/Smell and the City/

9 10

In Autumn 2011, Simon Guy joined forces

with Wolfgang Weileder, an artist and

ProfessorofSculptureatNewcastle

University, to deliver a project on climate

change and art in one of Singapore’s key

public areas. The project centred upon

STILT HOUSE – an installation taking

the form of two stilt houses that are

representative of the vernacular Malay

Kelong housing. By reinterpreting the

traditional pile housing typology, the

project encourages people to rethink

their relationship with the environment

in a number of ways depending upon

their individual positions. The installation

further challenged the rapid urbanisation

of the Singaporean nation-state through

its materiality by using innovative

recycled plastic panels as the primary

material composition, supported above

thegroundonscaffoldingpoles.

STILT HOUSE was one of seven

installations in Singapore’s public

spaces contributing to the Hub-to-

Hub symposium as part of ArchiFest

2011, Singapore’s annual festival of

architecture. The symposium showcased

installationsthatintervenedandreflected

upon issues of climate change with

respect to low-carbon lifestyle changes

and work/life balance; demographic and

social shifts; and immigration, identity,

and cultural diversity. The project was

constructed on-site by local workers led

by Wolfgang during the two weeks prior

to the start of Hub-to-Hub in mid-October

2011 and remained in place for one month

after the symposium. Simon interviewed

visitors to the project to gain insights into

local interpretations of the meaning of

the installation as well as the experience

of being within it. Simon and Wolfgang

presented their intentions for the STILT

HOUSE at the symposium’s culmination

event,heldatSingapore’sNational

Library Building. The project has since

been reported across the Singaporean

architectural media and will feature in a

forthcoming journal article while serving

as a foundation for further collaborations

between Simon and Wolfgang.

http://www.hubtohub.sg/exhibition.html

/Art on Stilts in Singapore/

11 12

The population in the UK is gradually

ageing as public health improves. Ageing

isexperiencedinmanydifferentways

but an important part of maintaining

a healthy and high quality life in older

age is in the management of thermal

comfort. Comfort is closely tied to energy

consumption and with rising fuel costs

and the need to reduce our carbon

footprints, a tension is emerging between

maintaining comfortable conditions for

health and well-being versus reducing

the energy consumed in our homes. This

research project examines two key forms

of future change: the demographic trend

of an ageing society and the development

ofenergy-efficientdomestictechnologies.

It aims to understand how older people

manage the thermal conditions in their

homes and how this is changing with

theintroductionofenergy-efficient

technologies such as ground source

heat pumps, solar hot water systems,

and mechanical ventilation with heat

recovery.

The project includes four UK universities

(Manchester,Lancaster,Cardiff,and

Exeter) as well as French energy

companyEDF.MARCstaffmembersare

coordinating the overall project while

also conducting empirical research on

extra care housing schemes. The project

team – comprised of Simon Guy, Ralf

Brand, Alan Lewis, and Andrew Karvonen

– is comparing and contrasting domestic

energy practices in buildings with

conventionalandenergy-efficientheating

technologies. Through interviews with

occupants, building managers, and design

professionals, the team is collecting

empirical data that will be relevant to

a wide range of academic disciplines

including architecture, sociology, urban

planning, building science, and geography.

The research team is also conducting

outreach activities with third sector

organisations, design professionals, and

building managers to better understand

the multiple issues that are embroiled in

providing desirable thermal experiences

for older people. The project will conclude

in2012andtheresearchfindingswillbe

disseminated on the project website,

through academic and trade journals, and

at various conferences.

http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/research/marc/research/conditioningdemand/

/Conditioning Demand: Older People, Diversity, & Thermal Experience/

13 14

Zero-carbon homes are an icon of low-

carbon policy ambition in the UK. The

Government’s 2016 target for new homes

is the subject of vociferous debates in the

homebuildingindustrywithsignificant

questions raised over how zero-carbon

habitation can be introduced in such

a short time period. The Zero-Carbon

project team – including Simon Guy, Ralf

Brand, and Andrew Karvonen, along with

Gordon Walker from Lancaster University

– is following this emerging debate

and exploring how the pursuit of zero-

carbon homes goes beyond the technical

and economic aspects of the building

industry and involves a whole host of

actors who shape domestic habitation

practices. The researchers are examining

the assumptions and expectations

about behaviours and practices that are

embedded in the zero-carbon regulations,

design strategies, and building processes.

In 2011 and 2012, the project team

conducted case study research on a

diverse range of zero-carbon housing

developments to understand how

low-carbon living is being scripted into

the design of domestic buildings. The

findingswillbepublishedinacademic

and trade journals and will inform the

ongoing negotiations around zero-carbon

housing in the UK. This project is one of

seven undertaken by the Sustainable

Practices Research Group (SPRG), a

consortium funded by the EPSRC, the

Department for Environment, Food and

RuralAffairs(Defra),andtheScottish

Government. SPRG research teams are

conducting multilevel analyses of three

environmentally-sensitive practices

– eating, water-use, and sheltering –

and are also devising a series of action

research interventions with stakeholder

organisations in the vein of ‘interactive

social science’.

www.sprg.ac.uk

/Zero-Carbon Habitation: An International Comparison/

15 16

Organisations are increasingly attempting

to accommodate religious diversity via

the provision of multi-faith spaces (MFS).

Some are small and mono-functional

(located in airports, universities, hospitals,

shopping malls, and so forth); others

take the form of dedicated buildings or

complexes,wheredifferentreligions

inhabit and utilise their own sacred

space(s), while sharing collective ‘secular’

facilities.Here,individualsfromdifferent

faith traditions can, notionally, come

together to pray, relax, learn and discuss.

Within these spaces a tentative

rapprochement between belief systems

might occur. As a consequence, MFS have

received overt political endorsement

with the Department for Communities

and Local Government (CLG) noting

the importance of ‘shared spaces for

interaction’. However, despite the

hope that they may help shape a more

integrated, inclusive and tolerant society,

MFS have so far received little attention

as works of architecture, or spaces that

shape, and are shaped by, ongoing socio-

religious discourses.

Ralf Brand, along with research

associate Chris Hewson, Andrew

Crompton (University of Liverpool),

and the theological associate, Revd. Dr.

Terry Biddington (Chaplain to Higher

Education in Manchester), aim to better

understand the genesis of such spaces

(as an academic concern) and to assist in

their further development (as a practical

intention). They have visited over 250 such

spaces in a wide range of institutional

contexts and in ten countries. Their

conclusions are based on several focus

groups, a large number of in-depth

qualitative interviews, observations, user

feedback, the analysis of guest books, and

an online survey.

The project outputs include peer-

reviewed journal papers and conference

dissemination, a best practice

compendium and a professionally

curated, travelling exhibition that is

available to hire free of charge. The aim is

to engage policy practitioners, academics,

stakeholders, and the general public in an

ongoing dialogue around the continued

expansion of multi-faith facilities.

www.manchester.ac.uk/mfs

www.multi-faith-spaces.org

/Multi-Faith Spaces as Symptoms & Agents of Religious & Social Change/

17 18

EcoCities is a joint initiative between

The University of Manchester and the

Manchester-based property company

Bruntwood, funded by a donation

from The Oglesby Charitable Trust. The

interdisciplinary endeavour began in 2008

and the research team is led by Simon

Guy (MARC) and John Handley of the

Centre for Urban and Regional Ecology

(CURE). Central to EcoCities’ work is the

concept of building adaptive capacity to

help cities develop the skills, knowledge,

and expertise necessary to adapt to the

impacts of climate change. The core

aim of EcoCities has been to undertake

research to support the process of

planning for a changing climate in Greater

Manchester. It is hoped that the research

outputs will also have wider relevance for

other urban areas engaged in responding

to the challenges and potential

opportunities linked to climate change.

This year saw the release of Four Degrees

of Preparation, an EcoCities internet

resource designed to support decision

making on climate change adaptation.

The website is a unique, standard-setting

climate change adaptation intelligence

resource that will inform policies,

strategies, and action that are developed

by stakeholders in Greater Manchester

and beyond. Through a spatial portal,

individuals and organisations have the

opportunity to visually investigate climate

change hazards and vulnerabilities locally,

so building Greater Manchester’s capacity

to adapt to unavoidable climate change.

Four Degrees of Preparation was launched

at the Adapting the City summit in May

2012 that brought together around 150

decisionmakersfromacrosstheNorth

Westtoreflectontheimplicationsof

climate change adaptation for Greater

Manchester and its surrounding region.

Social and natural scientists connected

with private, public, and community

sectors including representatives from

Manchester City Football Club, United

Utilities, Red Rose Forest, Arcon Housing

AssociationLimited,NewCharterHousing

Trust, and The Oldham College. Sir Richard

Leese, leader of Manchester City Council,

opened the event by noting that ‘Greater

Manchester is leading the way on such

an important issue, and one that has the

potential to impact hugely on people’s

everyday lives, our public services, our

businesses’ productivity, and our city’s

infrastructure.’

www.adaptingmanchester.co.uk

www.manchester.ac.uk/ecocities

/EcoCities: the Bruntwood Initiative for Sustainable Cities/

19 20

This research-led studio used Berlin as a

historical and contemporary laboratory

of how ideologies, utopias, and creativity

are expressed through architectural and

urban projects. The city was interpreted

as an instructive ‘laboratory’ for

architecture and urban design. Since

Berlin was forced to radically rethink and

innovate ways to house the masses at

variouspointsintime,itoffersahistorical

‘hotbed’ of housing experiments. The

students conducted design research

through three historical/typological

Berlin moments: the nineteenth-century

Mietskaserne, inter-war siedlungen, and

post-war Trabantenstaedte respectively.

Informed by these historical and

typological ‘lessons’, Isabelle Doucet

andGriffEvanshelpedtheirstudentsto

produce typological housing experiments

in Manchester.

The studio projects were not about

a building but the design research in

itself. Presented in the form of an ‘active

archive’, the projects were constructed

along a real-time recording of learning

andusedasatoolforcriticalreflection

across the three exercises. Students

experimented through conceptual

drawings, models, diagrams, and

writings. The selection and mastering of

representational tools was considered

to be part of the research. As such,

the ‘active archive’ functioned as an

intense learning device that assisted in

identifying (urban) catalysts in housing

typology.

/Housing the Masses: Learning from Berlin/

/Research-led Teaching (some snapshots)/

21 22

This research-led studio focused on the

idea of courtyard housing as an urban

catalyst for developing high-density,

low-riseecocities.TheUNESCOWorld

Heritage Site of Fez in Morocco was

used as a laboratory for urban and

architectural experimentation. The

students, led by Magda Sibley along with

GriffEvans,investigatedvernacularforms

of courtyard housing in the city through

literature reviews, architectural analyses,

and the development of 3D modelling to

understandtheconfigurationofliving

spaces around courtyards and its impact

on urban form. These preliminary studies

were followed by a trip to Fez to provide

Three key sites were selected for students

to investigate and use as a basis for the

development of a sensitive programme of

urban intervention through reinterpreting

thecourtyardconfiguration.Eachsite

presenteddifferentchallengesinorder

to lead to a variety of group strategies

and individual projects that addressed

environmental, social, and cultural

problems.Thefinalprojectsfellinto

three categories: adaptive reuse of

heritage courtyard houses; contemporary

reinterpretation of vernacular typologies

(such as the Islamic public bathhouse and

the caravanserai); and projects addressing

environmental challenges such as

river pollution and the landscaping

of public spaces inside the medina.

This year, example projects included a

water treatment installation and urban

agricultural gardens, a refuge centre for

women, a centre for the homeless, a

language training centre for children, and

a hammam/glass making workshop.

thestudentswithfirsthandexperience

of the courtyard housing typology. The

exercise challenged pre-conceived ideas

about external facades and landmark

buildings through their experience of

inward looking buildings and blank walled

alleyways.

/Courtyard Housing as Urban Catalyst/

23 24

Bringing the latest research and

scholarship developed in the EU-funded

project MACOSPOL to education, Albena

Yaneva has developed an interactive web-

based platform ‘Mapping Architectural

Controversies’ (MAC) that is dedicated

to students and researchers working on

debates and controversies surrounding

urban design. The platform serves as

a database on controversies, provides

tutorial guidance for the Mapping

Controversies teaching and learning

methods, and showcases some initiatives

in enhancing the public understanding of

controversies.

The three objectives of this innovative

research-based teaching platform are:

1) to reconnect and strengthen the

synergies between Humanities and

Technologies. By so doing it aims at

overcoming one of the main weaknesses

in architectural education today – the

gap between theory and practice; 2) to

encourage work across disciplines as

it connects architectural studies with

methods drawn from an existing body

of research on analysing controversial

issues in science and technology studies

(a tradition known as STS); 3) to address

a broader audience interested in the

design of cities, spatial networks, and

built environments as well as planners,

policy-makers, politicians and citizens.

Acting as a knowledge-transfer facilitator

the platform allows the University to

participate in current public debates on

architecture and media discussions on

topical urban issues.

Aspecificcollaborationhadbeen

established with related programs from

an international teaching consortium that

gathers schools using similar teaching

methods including France, USA, Germany,

Belgium,Switzerland,Netherlands,

and Italy. In recognition of the quality

of the work carried out in Manchester,

the best student outputs from the last

three years are regularly uploaded on the

websites of the Massachusetts Institute

of Technology (MIT) and Sciences-Po as

examples of good practice.

The best controversies websites from

2011/2012 were presented at the French

Festival Futur-en-Seine in Paris on 15 June

2012. Futur-en-Seine is an international

Digital World Festival that shows the

latest digital innovations to French and

international professionals. It allows

entrepreneurs, designers, and researchers

to engage in discussion on digital

technologies with the general public.

The winning projects from Manchester

include:

Liverpool Waters

Students: Helen Cross, Katie Molloy,

Dominic Patel, Melissa Steen

http://controversies.msa.ac.uk/blogs/

liverpoolwaters/

London River Park

Students: Reece Singleton, Maddi

Mooney,HannahBellerby,AdamDuffill,

Katie Williams

http://controversies.msa.ac.uk/blogs/

riverpark/

The case study on the London Olympic

Stadium Design has witnessed a high

amount of public interest.

www.mappingcontroversies.co.uk.

http://www.futur-en-seine.fr/scenelive/

cartographies-de-controverses-16h/

/Mapping Controversies: Teaching Platform/

25 26

Studio for the Study of Social

Materialities in Cities of the Global

South

Struggles to develop, transform, and

adapt the physical fabric of expanding

metropolises have become salient and

definingfeaturesofcontemporary

urban experience. In this context, an

understanding of the tools, methods,

and knowledge that articulate and

sustain socio-infrastructural networks

that make the city becomes paramount.

Leandro Minuchin launched a new

initiative to examine the role of

materials and construction practices

in the consolidation of urban forms of

association and solidarities.

The studio will develop practical

and architectural solutions towards

assembling more egalitarian socio-

material relations in cities of the Global

South. Structured as a multidisciplinary

collective, it draws inputs from

architectural design, planning, geography,

and development studies. It explores

the richness and innovative quality of

techno-popular knowledge involved in

transforming local peripheries and the

role of construction in the articulation of

alternative urban futures.

The initiative is fostering links between

academics, students, social movements,

architectural organisations, and public

agencies involved in the development of

new forms of materialisation and with

the dissemination of novel constructive

mechanisms. A digital portal will be

developed to research and compile

examples of successful constructive

innovations and to investigate ways of

enhancing the sharing and reproduction

of these constructive knowledges. At the

launch two-day workshop in Manchester,

MSA students were joined by scholars

from UK universities and a member of

GIROS, an Argentinian social movement.

Combining paper and design sessions, the

workshop exposed students to current

theoretical debates on materiality and

local politics and enabled them to identify

suitable case studies for urban research.

/Studio for the Study of Social Materialities in Cities of the Global South/

27 28

Literature.

Precipitationincitiescausessignificant

long-termproblems:flooding,erosion,

water pollution, and in the worst cases,

human fatalities. In the twentieth

century, municipal engineers developed

a complex network of technical and

natural systems to treat and remove

thesetemporarywaterflowsfromurban

areasasquicklyaspossible.Urbanrunoff

is typically in the domain of technical

experts and environmental managers

but a closer reading reveals a multitude

of such nontechnical issues as land use,

quality of life, governance, aesthetics,

and community identity. Moreover,

urban drainage is emerging as a central

component of larger debates on creating

more sustainable and liveable cities.

Reviews:

‘Historians, geographers, and others will

appreciate Karvonen’s work because

he recognizes that understanding how

relations play out across space and

through time is critical to building more

just urban communities.’ Geoffrey

Buckley, Environmental History

‘…provides a salient history of urban

water governance, a critical theoretical

interpretation of human–nonhuman

relations, and valuable suggestions for

moving forward.’ Michael Finewood, The

Professional Geographer

‘…the book is neither abstract political

theory nor a how-to manual of best

managementpractices.Instead,itoffers

a productive synthesis of these two poles

and thereby produces a useful ‘‘third

way’’ resource for urban practitioners.’

Gale Fulton, Journal of Planning

In October 2011, Andrew Karvonen

published a research monograph,

PoliticsofUrbanRunoff:Nature,

Technology and the Sustainable City

(The MIT Press), that explores the

unique relationships between nature,

technology, and society produced

byurbanrunoff.Usingtheoretical

insights from urban environmental

history, human geography, landscape

and ecological planning, and science

and technology studies as well as

empirical evidence from two in-depth

case studies, Karvonen proposes a new

relational politics of urban nature that is

situated, inclusive, and action-oriented.

/Politics of Urban Runoff: Nature, Technology & the Sustainable City/

29 30

In April 2012, Albena Yaneva published

a research monograph Mapping

Controversies in Architecture (Ashgate).

The book sets the question of how

can we conceptualise architectural

objects and practices without falling

into the divides of architecture/society,

nature/culture, materiality/meaning.

Mapping Controversies provides a new

research methodology and teaching

philosophy that allows these divides

to be crossed and assists in following

debates on contested urban knowledge.

Engaging in explorations of recent and

ongoing controversies, such as the 2012

Olympics stadium in London, the book

offersground-breakingcomputational

visualisations of the variety of factors

that impinge on design. It places

architecture at the intersection of

‘Mapping Controversies is a fresh and

highly productive challenge to the

tendency of architectural theory to

represent architecture as a static object.

Yaneva’s innovative methodology,

hybridizing parametric animation

and ‘post-parametric’ computation,

unfolds buildings as multi-dimensional

controversies. In doing so, she extends

a powerful platform for discourse well

beyond the architectural community.’

Ariane Lourie Harrison, Yale School of

Architecture, USA

‘Yaneva brilliantly proposes a new and

robust ethnographic approach to built

form: mapping the controversies in

which they emerge and seeing them

as ‘connectors’ with unique properties

-neitherjustreflectionsofsocietyor

constructors of it, nor as cold materials

- but as dynamically tying together

differentmedia,materials,peoplesand

things in a distinctly architectural way.

the human and the non-human; the

particular and the general.

Reviews:

‘By crossing the tools of science studies

with the digital techniques of mapping

controversies, this book renews the

critiqueofarchitecture.Itoffersa

new way to place architecture and

design as one of the most exciting

ways to explore the common world

because it takes controversies as the

normalstateofaffair.Withmanylively

examples it is a masterpiece of theory

made empirical.’ Bruno Latour, Institut

d’Études Politiques de Paris, France

This represents a profound shift in the

way we can think anthropologically

about the analysis of buildings and what

buildings ‘do’ and how they emerge

socially and materially in the widest

possible sense.’ Victor Buchli, University

College London, UK

‘Yaneva makes a heartfelt attempt to

address the very real problem currently

threatening the academic understanding

of architectural history; namely, the

reading of buildings as the crystallised

effectsofthepoliticalandeconomic

world that produced them. It’s the type

of view that sees the Dome as Tony Blair’s

ideas incarnate, utterly negates not just

the technological aspect of architectural

production but its complexity. It ignores

the way buildings emerge from a set of

social concerns, as much as they address

them. Yaneva should be praised for

raising concerns about this trend….’

Tim Abrahams, The Architects’ Journal

/Mapping Controversies in Architecture /

31 32

Nilan BayatAchieving Higher Efficiency in the

Existing Terraced Housing Stock in the

UK: Architects as Intermediaries in the

Refurbishment Decision-Making Process

With the UK statutorily committed to

an eighty per cent reduction in CO2

emissionsby2050,theretrofitofexisting

housing represents a major challenge

since it is responsible for the second

largest share of those emissions. Most of

the housing stock is already constructed,

which means that the adaptation of

existing homes is an urgent policy

objective. Terraced housing is a prominent

UK building type and is, typically, highly

energyinefficient.

Taking this building type, the research

investigates the current decision-making

processes during refurbishment projects

toexplorehowenergyefficiencyis

negotiated between architects and other

construction professionals through UK

case studies. By accounting for the current

decision making processes between

architects and construction professionals,

the research will identify the current

challenges and opportunities in achieving

energyefficientretrofitsofexisting

terraced housing in the UK to inform

future practices.

Julie CrawshawBeyond Targets: Articulating the Role of Art

in Regeneration

Art is understood as an instrument

in support of economic development

and social renewal. In order to better

articulatetheeffectsproducedbyart,

instead of focusing on policy this thesis

rather describes what happens in practice.

Instead of looking at solid material

objects set apart from their surroundings,

following the tradition of pragmatism

this research traces art as a continuous

experience as part of the movements of

the city.

Through adopting a range of

anthropological positions, the research

offersanuancedviewofwhatart

does. Through in-depth interviews and

ethnography, this thesis traces the agency

of humans and non-humans to describe

themicroreflectionsamidstthecreator’s

‘inner’ human materials and the ‘outer’

physical materials of construction. To the

stable language and ambitions of policy

weopposethefluidnatureofpractice.

Instead of delivering against macro policy

objectives, rather we notice that the

movementsofartignitespecificeffectsof

urban regeneration.

Mahmoud ElwerfalliContemporary Courtyard Housing in the

Arab World: Re-interpreting the Courtyard

Housing Typology for High Density Urban

Housing in Libya towards Environmental

and Social Sustainability

In the Arab world, the courtyard house

traditionally played an important role

and led to the development of low-rise,

high-density compact historic cities. Over

the last two centuries, it has fallen out of

fashion in favour of medium- to high-rise

apartment buildings and individual villas.

Unlike the vernacular courtyard house,

these disregard regional characteristics

and local climate.

The courtyard house also provides key

lessons in passive low-energy design and

environmental sustainability. Therefore,

itoffersamodelforfuturedwelling

in the Arab world. Emergent forms of

new courtyard housing are hybrids that

draw upon both individual villas and the

vernacular courtyard type. This research

will critically investigate emerging forms

of courtyard housing, primarily in Libya. It

analyses contemporary courtyard housing

projects with a focus on distinctive social

and environmental attributes.

Elnaz GhafoorikoohsarArticulating the Role of Urban Cultural

Heritage in Support of Community-Based

Urban Regeneration in Run-Down Areas in

England

The election of a Coalition government

intheUKandfiscalretrenchment

has reawakened ideas on community

empowerment as the key to regenerating

Britain’s cities in a time when economic

resources are lacking. Urban cultural

heritage may be an asset since it is

known to bridge communities through

their built environment. This research

will use case studies of deprived and

diverse communities to gather evidence

of community interaction and to explore

the role that cultural heritage may play

asa‘catalyst’affectingtheprocessof

community-based local regeneration.

Ambrose GillickSynthetic Vernacular: the Co-Production

of Architecture

In the Global South, external actors are

typically involved in the reconstruction

of the built environment following

disaster. Often, they privilege resilience

to environmental forces over local

socio-cultural and economic norms,

resulting in urban frameworks that lack

theflexibilitynecessaryfornon-formal

settlements. This research proposes

that those housing programmes that

synthesise contemporary technological

and environmental learning with

vernacular traditions and knowledge are

likely to prove more sustainable. This

‘synthetic vernacular architecture’ can

provide a framework for the organic

processes of community and settlement

growth over time in response to

emerging environmental change. As a

concept, it will have a broad application

across the globe since future cities

may need to embrace and assimilate

vernacular knowledge and processes, in

wayssimilartothoseidentifiedinthe

research if they are to become socially,

economically and environmentally

sustainable.

/PhD Student Research/

33 34

Liam HeaphyManaging Climate Model-Based

Uncertainties for Policy-Making on Climate

Change and the Built Environment

Climate change is framed as a global

issue but its impacts are local. Predicting

those impacts of a changing climate

on cities presents a challenge for both

researchers and decision-makers who

connect the large uncertainties inherent

in predicting the future of non-linear

global systems with locality-based

empirical studies. Though climate

modelling is a global research program,

it is increasingly made to be relevant for

local decision-making.

This research looks at the practice

of climate modelling and its relation

with the urban environment through

the provision of climate projections.

Stemming from existing research into

the role that models play in advancing

scientificknowledge,climatemodels

are used as the point of interest to

understand how they become involved

in a chain of research endeavours that

link climate research with policy-led

adaptation planning.

Övgü PelenThe Living Legacy of Modernism: Catalysing

the Industrial Past

Old industrial sites in the contemporary

world can be transformed through reuse,

conservation, preservation, and so on.

The project builds on from the idea that

buildings and sites change with time. By

looking at the ‘life’ of industrial sites and

accounting for the rhythm of numerous

alternations they undergo, a focus on the

micro-scale is maintained. An in-depth

exploration of a site at a micro scale is

crucial for understanding some of the

manifestations of societal change at the

macro level and for grasping the cadence

of cultural, economic and political

transformations.

TheSalıpazarıwarehouses(currently

named ‘Galataport’) in Istanbul – and

their several changes in use – are the

most relevant example of post-industrial

transformation from Turkey. Using the

warehouses as a case, this study will

contribute to a better understanding of

thecurrentphenomenaofgentrification,

urban regeneration and neo-liberal

planning in Turkey.

Elisa PieriUrban Futures: How issues of Security

and Aspirations of Cosmopolitanism

Reconfigure the City Centre

In the wake of terrorist attacks, security

has increased at national borders and

within cities. At the same time, political

actors promote cosmopolitanism and

multiculturalismtoengenderspecific

identities (such as that of the ‘European

Citizen’) and shape new boundaries and

agendas. Urban built environments have

become sites of the contested visions of

cosmopolitanism and securitisation.

Manchester city centre provides a useful

case study to explore the visions and

valuesofdifferentstakeholdersabout

what constitutes a ‘good city’. The

research looks at the use of public and

private spaces in the city centre and

the security practices in place including

those for events as wide-ranging as

street festivals, public celebrations

and large private events. Moreover,

it questions the discourses that city

councillors, developers, businesses and

citizens use to imagine the future of

the city and highlights the overlaps and

tensions generated by the aspirations

and practices of cosmopolitanism and

securitisations in city centre spaces.

Maria PrietoArchitectural Publics: Articulating

Practice and Innovation in the Office for

Metropolitan Architecture (1970-2000)

The purpose of this study is to provide

a better understanding of the diverse

andfluidrolesoftheuserasacritical

source of innovation in architectural

design. It asks: what is the role of the user

in design practices? How do architects

imagine, dramatize and give power to the

user? What kinds of pleasure practices

(understood as joy of making and joy of

discovery) can lead to the formation of

new types of publics?

By addressing these questions, the

project explores the relationship

between architectural production and

consumption. As well as shedding light on

the political dimensions of design, it will

uncover its intrinsic social dimensions:

collective ways of sharing, experimenting

and producing the materiality of

architecture.

Drawingonethnographicfieldworkat

theOfficeforMetropolitanArchitecture

(OMA) to trace their use of archives, the

collection of previous design materials

and the ongoing reconceptualisation

of ideas and designs for current

commissions, the thesis empirically

unpacks the synergies between

innovation, pleasure and the formation

of publics in various user-led design

innovation processes in OMA during the

period 1970 – 2000.

Reyhan SabriWaqf Conservation Strategies and their

Impact on the Built Heritage in Cyprus

In aiming at sustainable policies,

architectural conservation has

highlighted the importance of tracing

the impact of diverse historical and

geographical approaches towards the

care of heritage buildings. This study

explores the Waqf institution in Cyprus

– primarily constructed for religious

and commercial purposes – over the

course of its long history from the late

sixteenth-century, when Cyprus was

under the Ottoman Empire, through to

the present day.

This investigation will help to understand

the versatile nature of conservation

practices of the Waqf institution in Cyprus

as well as informing the formulation

of future policies for sustainable

conservation.

/PhD Student Research/

35 36

Katerina SevastyanovaWater meets Energy: The Mediation of

Solar Thermal Technology and Occupiers’

Resistance

This project aims to understand how solar

thermal technology in newly built and

retrofittedUKhousesisframedbysocial

practices.

Using both quantitative and qualitative

methods, the project uncovers the role

of supply-side actors in deciding which

technology is installed and how it should

shape domestic practices. Additionally,

the research scrutinises the interaction

between occupiers and solar thermal

systems. It examines whether occupiers

have changed their hot water-related

routines as expected or whether they

resist changes to their routines and the

organisation of daily life.

Viktoria WesslowskiFacilitating Sustainable Social Practices

This research aims to gain a better

understanding of how to facilitate

sustainable social practices, thereby

decreasing the environmental impact of

human activity without reducing quality

of life. Programmes targeted at changing

behaviour by providing information

often fall short of expectations in terms

of behavioural changes. Using an in-

depth case study of cycling promotion

in Santiago de Chile, this study explores

whether, and how, infrastructure can

be planned and designed to make

sustainable practices more attractive

than unsustainable alternatives.

The research traces the politics of

technical and legal decisions regarding

the provision of cycling infrastructure

to suggest that facilitating sustainable

social practices requires a profound

understanding of the practice and

its infrastructure requirements.

However, the provision of the required

infrastructure is not a purely technical

issue but an inherently political process.

Sercan YalcinerExploring the Transferability of Sustainable

Building Codes

Building codes, such as LEED in the USA

and BREEAM in the UK, are a key policy

instrument in regulating energy demand

and improving the sustainability of

structures. While developed countries

have already adopted codes, less

developed countries struggle to muster

the resources and capacities to establish

their own building codes and they often

adopt existing versions uncritically and

without questioning their suitability.

This research will use the example of

BREEAM and investigate its application

in three case-study countries to map the

underlying challenges to understand

potentialbenefitsofBREEAMforless

developed countries.

Yasser ZareiM. Phil. Completed July 2012.

The Challenges of Parametric Design in

Architecture Today: Mapping the Design

Practice

Parametric design uses parameters to

defineaformwhenwhatisactually

inplayistheuseofrelations.Defining

such relationships has not previously

been considered as part of design

thinking.Nowdesignershavetwoextra

capabilities: ‘relate and repair’. The

hallmark of this approach to design is

bringing a new outlook to the nature

of design by coupling problem-setting

with problem-solving. Yet, the accuracy

of claims regarding parametric issues

isunverifiedandelementsofitremain

vaguelydefined.Thisresearchclarifies

these issues by drawing comparisons

between traditional Computer-Aided

Design (CAD), Building Information

Modelling (BIM) and parametric design as

employedinarchitecturalfirms.

/PhD Student Research/

37 38

4 October 2011

Hilde Heynen (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

‘Architectural theory today’

11 October 2011

Yvonne Rydin (University College London)

‘Using an ANT perspective to analyse the planning of sustainable commercial office development’

18 October 2011

Wendy Pullan (University of Cambridge)

‘Conflicts in cities’

24 October 2011

Mario Carpo (Yale School of Architecture)

‘The alphabet and the algorithm’

1November2011

Richard Hayes (Rafael Vinoly Architects)

‘Agency and activism: the Yale Building Project’

8November2011

Jane Rendell (University College London)

‘Site-writing: the architecture of art criticism’

15November2011

Łukasz Stanek (CentreNationaldelaRechercheScientifique,Paris)‘Henri Lefèbvre on space: architecture, urban research, and the production of theory’

22November2011

Matthew Gandy (University College London)

‘Entropy by design: Gilles Clément, Parc Henri Matisse and the limits to avant-garde urbanism’

/MARC Autumn Lecture Series 2011/

39 40

Editorial team:

Albena Yaneva, co-director of MARC

Andrew Karvonen, engagement co-ordinator for MARC

Susan Stubbs, MARC administrator

Design:

Nick Hamilton