Nice quote on History

Eric Hobsbawm in his book Age of Capital quotes Pierre Nora as having written “Memory is life. It is always carried by groups of living people, and therefore it is in permanent evolution. It is subject to the dialectics of remembering and forgetting, unaware if its successive deformations, open to all kinds of use and manipulation. Sometimes it remains latent for long periods, then suddenly revives. History is always incomplete and problematic reconstruction of what is no longer there. Memory always belongs to our time and forms a lived bond with the eternal present; history is a representation of the past.”

Given the current times we live in, with ever increasing polarised world, with events and the past constantly being reconceptualised, one would assume studying history becomes ever more important, but we all know, there are very few professional historians and even lesser poets. World in state of global amnesia.

Nice quote / gloomy thoughts.

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Past 4 decades of liberalisation has led us to where we are, privatised water supply sector that is dumping sewage in waterways, privatised energy providers profiteering from energy crisis, a liberalised housing market that has amplified the housing affordability and access crisis, a privatised railway network that prioritises dividends over investments, an NHS that is slowly being privatised through underfunding of the public component, a private postal service, a privatised educational sector that further increases disparity and polarisation. 

Is this conversation within the scope of an architect / planners / sustainability expert? We write long reports on textures, colours, placemaking..."happiness" even and yet we skirt the very foundations that exert direct influence on our lives.

An article on Canary Wharf and the tax break it received from the state.

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Gentrification Cover Page

Tower top study and trailing thoughts

 

What if top two sought after floors for Penthouses spread through, not two but 13-14 floors creating additional value through multiple duplex-penthouse like conditions. Is there a possibility to illustrate creation of greater value through eroding the top of a high end residential tower on prime city land?

A study I am doing while in Athens (Greece) surrounded by Athenian Polykatoikias that seem to rather nonchalantly provide much needed semi public open spaces in the form of terraces for predominant housing units in the city. A good book for reading up on these is The Public Private House: Modern Athens and its Polykatoikia by Dr Richard Woditsch. Some preview images in here.
What is interesting is Athens celebrates and appreciates terraces as an architectural element integrated within its urbanity while other cities have moved away from provision of terraces or balconies for their citizens and thereby leading to its value as a luxury add on (penthouse flats).
The terrace or the balcony works as a transitionary zone, neither completely public nor private it allows for a degree of openness towards the street frontage facilitating passive surveillance and safer streets, animates the façade and street section (vs brick clad "dignified" monoliths of London's new built developments), facilitates micro-climate through planting and thereby temperature variations, allows for distributing accessible per capita open space. What is most endearing is this element of architecture is not exclusive or luxury, it is available for most of the citizens who live in Athens.

There is value in this architectural element especially in post pandemic times, so as a design professional always ask why no terraces and balconies? Why could there be terraces during council estates or when they built the Barbican in London and not now? How did Charles Correa manage to give terraces in Mumbai to LIC residents and now they aren't possible despite the boom in real estate? and if someone responds the math doesn't add up...keep calm and carry on, but aware you are in less generous city.

Something about exclusivity of architectural elements by class that is rather pissing off, imagine if access to lifts were based on being wealthy and the rest had to take the stairs? or if there was segregation of toilets by class? because the math for providing everyone a higher spec did not add up? wouldn't that be outrageous?