DEPOT BEACH HOUSE. STUTCHBURY AND ASSOCIATES

This research combines multiple theoretical approaches to consider the relationship between architectural spatial configurations and spatial practices in one Camden housing estate. Two primary theoretical fields are reviewed and critiqued: semiotic and structuralism and theories of the everyday. A key focus is the way in which architecture is discussed in visual or aesthetics terms with little reference to its spatial characteristics. This is diagnosed in the literature of architectural semiotics and structuralism, history and criticism of housing and everyday accounts of architecture. Using the work of Henri Lefebvre and Michel de Certeau the argument is made that spatial configurations are intimately linked to spatial practices. This work is partly pre-figured by social and other critiques of the perceived autonomy of the architecture of the 1950s and 1960s. A review of key texts by Kevin Lynch, Jane Jacobs and Oscar Newman identify some of the potential of a socio-spatial approach to architectural criticism. Within the field of the everyday (and others) the tendency towards privileging agency is countered by de Certeau’s balanced account of the relationship between forms and practices. A review of some of the literature on Camden housing highlights the aesthetic bias setting up a sketch analysis of one estate focusing on the specificity of its spatial configurations and their relationship to practices. The case study looks at a few selected moments of a large estate in Camden, calling into play many of the issues raised, to show how specific configurations relate to present and historical forms, practices and interpretations. The intent is to provide a suggestive reading that reveals the weaknesses of previous reviews as well as pointing towards the development of a spatial approach to architecture which connects the specificity of forms to the way in which they are practiced thus highlighting the responsibility of forms.

This is a biography of a terrace house at 318 Claremont Road in Manchester. The biography draws on historical and architectural investigations as well as own experiences of living in the case-studied house during February to May 2014. The house is framed within a heritage discourse context including policies, issues and problems. Should this terrace house be looked upon as an example of that it is time to rethink current criteria for listed buildings? Or are there other ways to put the light on this ‘ordinary’ piece of heritage. The matter is to consider a significant heritage by investigating its tangible and intangible values of meanings, memories and identities.

2009

A. The fundamental claim for the significance of the St Lucia House is that it is a novel spatial configuration for housing that demonstrates an economically feasible, socially and environmentally sustainable and aesthetically and culturally desirable model of higher density family living for South-East Queensland. B. A secondary claim is that the St Lucia House demonstrates a high level of achievement in the art and science of architecture. C. A third claim is that the St Lucia House and associated publications have served to exemplify and influence academic, professional and public acceptance of a 'regional modernist' theoretical position and its values in Queensland.

Home in A Hybrid World, 2020

Chapter 5 of 'Home in a Hybrid World' (River Publ.)

Interstices: Journal of Architecture and Related Arts, 1992

2019

Students of Studio 15 at Brighton University’s School of Architecture & Design engage in a deep exploration of materiality, in the search for poetic architectural expressions that link materials with place. This book celebrates their work and explores the pedagogic context.

2013

Tech. She has recently published a book titled Time Matter(s): Invention and Re-Imagination in Built Conservation (Ashgate, 2013) and has also published in edited books and journals (ARQ, In.Form, Int.AR). She holds a Dottore in Architettura from the University of Genoa, Italy. She is a licensed architect in her native country, Italy.

A collective housing model that provides structure for a compact city, also introduces a fundamental challenge: maintaining a phenomenological relationship between the human and the natural landscape. This housing model relies on hyper-utility of the land, running the risk of reducing natural choreographies and processes. This investigation proposes the reevaluation of the relationship between human and landscape, recognizing the housing model as a space for the development of daily life, and where a person’s first social and environmental values are found. Currently, the concern for the environment is distorted with the introduction of “cleantech” technology that replaces the responsibility of humans over their resources. These are consumer based questions, and do not alter the essence of the human relationship with its natural resources. This investigation challenges that the dominant image of sustainability is a matter of technology. It focuses, instead, on the cultural and social dimensions of sustainability, particularly, the humanlandscape relationship and how it can be enhanced through the architecture of housing projects. This article consists of five chapters that center around the human-landscape relationship within the context of housing. To start, the first chapter outlines the concept of “landscape” addressed in this study, and analyzes the importance of its relationship with the social and psychological development of the human. The second chapter teases out the loss of this human-landscape relationship in Medellin, Colombia; a model of an emerging Latin American city in the 21st century. This study uncovers the denaturalization of the “prototype” housing model in this city by analyzing some housing projects built within this century. The third chapter contrasts these projects with examples from a global framework that favor cultivating a daily relationship between human and landscape, leading to an understanding of their codes and principles. Complied together, these become the “Landscape Manifesto”, which serves to both evaluate existing projects, and to serve as criteria to guide architects and housing developers alike. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the housing architecture can indeed promote permanent synergy with the landscape. And that architecture can become a generator of human consciousness towards the environment, and towards more sustainable daily habits.

Excerpt from essay: If so much has been said so far about the early Superarchitettura movement, it is because the leap taken by Superstudio towards a unified design philosophy can only be understood by focusing on its earliest experiments in domestic design: furnishings, objects and manifesto. The question, on how Superstudio’s domestic designs relate to the group’s monumental projects, can be answered, according to this interpretation, only once Superstudio strips away its pop sensibilities towards the domestic environment. Not an easy chore actually, if one considers that their line of furniture, objects and other household objects were in many ways successful examples of a highly decentralized and customized small scale design industry