Political and Cultural Issues that Motivated Bill Dunsters Bedzed and Neave Browns Alexandra Road Housing - Coursework Example

Comparison of the Political and Cultural Issues that Motivated Bill Dunster’s ‘Bedzed’ and Neave Brown’s Alexandra Road Housing INTRODUCTION Architect Bill Dunster’s Bedzed Community Housing which was ready for occupation from the year 2002, and Neave Brown’s Alexandra Road Estate completed in the late 1970s, are both high density housing in London burroughs, each with its distinctive style and purpose. Though conceptualized and constructed nearly a quarter of a century apart, they epitomize urban housing designed with an emphasis on practicality, to meet the needs of contemporary political and cultural issues of their respective times. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to compare the political and cultural issues which formed the basis of Bill Dunster’s Bedzed community housing and Neave Brown’s Alexandra Road Estate housing, both being urban, high density schemes. DISCUSSION Beddington Zero (fossil) Energy Development (BedZED) designed by architect Bill Dunster with BioRegional for the Peabody Trust, is the ecological housing project in Hackbridge, Surrey in South London. It has the distinction of being the first carbon-neutral development in the United Kingdom. The project constitutes a combination of housing and work space, with eighty-two homes including fourteen home-work units, developed on a reclaimed sewage works (Wheeler and Beatley 2004) thus saving undeveloped greenfield land at the urban fringe (Low 2005). To ensure sustainability, the Bedzed Community Housing project has focused on social amenity, financial effectiveness, and reduced environmental impact. For social amenity, a variety of dwelling sizes, types and tenures were offered, besides community activities, living and working spaces, and proximity to wider community facilities. Financial effectiveness and reduced environmental impact was ensured through zero use of fossil fuel, 100 percent use of renewable energy, on-site ecological water treatment, use of recycled timber, bike facilities instead of using private car, recycling waste, bio-fuelled CHP (combined heat and power), using land as a finite resource, rainwater harvesting and water conservation (Twinn 2003). The Bedzed Community Housing (Figs. 1a and 1b) focuses on carbon neutral development which is essential in the political context for reducing demands on fossil fuel reserves and for countering climate change due to carbon emissions. Fig. 1 a. Bedzed Housing: Aerial Lateral View (Bedzed Project Team 2009, p.4) Fig. 1 b. Aerial View of Bedzed Housing in its Residential Area Setting (Bedzed Project Team 2009, p.35) “The buildings face south, with south-facing glass conservatories or sun spaces to trap the sun” (Low 2005, p.54). Further conservation of warmth is with insulation on walls and floors to retain the heat from sunshine and routine activities. The windows are triple glazed and the frames prevent the leaking out of warmth (Low 2005, p.54). Fig. 2. Bedzed: A Modern Green Lifestyle With an Innovative Approach (Twinn 2003, p.16) The Royal Commission’s recommended carbon reductions require viable green lifestyle initiatives, Figs. 2, 3 and 4. Kitchens are fitted with low energy lighting and energy saving appliances. Bedzed has a single central heat and power unit (Low 2005). Fig.3. Bedzed Natural Lighting: Kitchen Adjacent to Sunspace (Twinn 2003, p.13) Fig. 4. Bedzed Sunlit Interior: Live/ Work Space (Twinn 2003, p.16) The work spaces (Fig.5) in the south-facing houses are in the shade, and are lit by large triple glazed north facing skylights (Bedzed Project Team 2009). Fig. 5. Bedzed Interior: Work Spaces Lit by North-Facing Skylights (Bedzed Project Team 2009, p.7) Fig. 6. Bedzed: Grass-Turfed Sky Gardens on Sedum Roofs Above Work Spaces (Toolkit Part I 2002, p.13) Above the workspaces are small private turfed sky gardens (Fig. 6) composed of a root-resistant bitumen membrane covered with polyethylene foil, insulation board and topsoil or mineral fibre growing medium (Toolkit Part I 2002, p.13). A unique system of natural ventilation and solar heating (Fig. 7) includes a visually distinctive set of windcowls which rotate with the wind, capturing fresh air and extracting heat from outgoing air. The photovoltaic panels provide enough electricity to recharge several electric car-sharing vehicles (Wheeler and Beatley 2004). Figure 7. Bedzed Rooftops: Harnessing Renewable Energy Using Subspaces, Photovoltaics, and Wind Cowl Ventilation (Twinn 2003, p.14) Alexandra Road Housing Complex (Fig. 8) has been extensively acknowledged as one of the United Kingdom’s most ambitious housing schemes. The community housing of high density is in a 16-acre housing scheme in the London Borough of Camden. The project is designed by the architect Neave Brown of Camden Architects’ Department in 1968 and was constructed between 1972 and 1978. As Europe’s largest housing development scheme, the entire housing accommodates 1660 people in 520 dwellings. The tiered structure was listed Grade II in 1993 (Permanite 2009). In designing the Alexandra Road Estate housing scheme, Neave Brown applied the principles of the London terrace house on a vast scale. Alexandra Road housing is in the rail Camden frontage land in Camden (Sherwood 2002). Fig. 8. Aerial View of Alexandra Estate Housing as Part of the Urban Setting (Permanite 2009) Control of sound and vibration from the trains was a key concern. This resulted in the designing of three parallel rows of reinforced concrete dwellings. As seen in Fig. 8 “two rows of terraced apartments are aligned along the tracks with the higher 8-storey stepped building facing a lower 4-storeyed block, designed to block the noise of the trains from reaching the interior portion of the site” (Sherwood 2002). Along the southern border of the site is the third row of cluster housing, and between the second and third rows of dwellings is the open, four-acre public park (Fig. 9). The community centre is composed of a “school, reception centre, maintenance facilities, and the heating plant” (Sherwood 2002). The grouping of social services accurately reflects the character of the Welfare State. Fig. 9. Alexandra Road Estate: Public Park (Great Buildings 2009) Fig. 10 a. Neave Brown’s Social Equality: Terraced Dwellings with Access Stairs (Sherwood 2002) The lower row of buildings constitute maisonettes with shared access, terraces and gardens. Maisonettes are also provided in the top two levels of the higher buildings, with access from a continous gallery on the 7th floor. The lower floors in this block are entered from open stairs common for two dwellings on each floor. Parking space is provided beneath the building along the tracks. Poured-in-place concrete is used in the entire construction. An adverse outcome was the heavy cost of “complicated construction, unforeseen foundation problems, and inflation” (Sherwood 2002). Fig. 10 b. View Along the Main Pedestrian Walk: The Lower 4-Storeyed Row Faces the Higher 8-Storeyed Row of Cluster Houses (Sherwood 2002) Alexandra Road housing project has been described as “social democracy at work” and a “positive and courageous attempt to solve the problem of mass housing” (Maxwell 1993, p.42-43). The concept of liberation from outmoded social hierarchies held by architects was a reflection of the socialism that came to power in Britain in 1945. According to Neave Brown, modern design related not only to the usefulness of the overall layout, but to the addressing of functional and abstract aspects. For example, the street (Fig 10 b.) in Alexandra Road housing has been created “as the main experience of space in Alexandra Road” (Maxwell 1993, p.44). It is a true pedestrian way and forms a vital part of the access system, extending into flights of stairs leading to the houses, and a single elevated walkway at the fifth floor level. All the dwellings, including the highest are related to the street at ground level, due to the walk-up system of stairs (Fig 10 a.). Uniformity of design is further emphasized by the use of in-situ concrete in the construction of the entire housing development (Sharp 2002). Another example of functional design is the privacy provided to each home in the Alexandra cluster housing scheme, with cross-walls and staircase balustrades (Fig. 11 a. and Fig.11 b.), between the private terraces (Sharp 2002, p.356). Fig. 11 a. Privacy Created with the Help of Cross-Walls Separating the Houses (Nice Buildings 2009) Fig. 11 b. Privacy in Mass Housing by Cross Walls and Staircase Balustrades (Nice Buildings 2009) Both housing developments Bedzed and Alexandra Road have pedestrian, non-vehicular streets. Another similarity is the feature of flexibility. Bill Dunster’s flexibility in the design of Bedzed uses space for living, for work, or as both living-and-work spaces. However, Neave Brown’s design promotes flexibility by using limited spaces according to an understanding of how people tend to use a house over time. The Alexandra Road mass housing scheme is based on the concept of zones. From an initial structure providing bedrooms on the ground floor and living rooms upstairs, the ground floor can be separated for different user or purpose. Similarly, flexibility enables the joining together of single units to form larger housing units (Schneider and Till 2007). The philosophical rationale of social housing of Alexandra Road housing scheme became temporarily non-functional after the election of Margaret Thatcher’s conservative government in 1979. “The Alexandra Road housing was however one of the most successful mass-housing projects ever constructed” (Macdonald 2000, p.30). CONCLUSION This paper has highlighted Bill Dunster’s Bedzed community housing of 2002 and Neave Brown’s Alexandra Road Estate of 1979. The key political and cultural issues of their respective times that crucially motivated the development of these urban housing schemes have been investigated. Higher density housing schemes are required to accommodate increasing numbers of households. Thus, affordable housing addressing the challenge to reduce carbon emissions is considered to be a crucial issue in the new millennium, as implemented in the Bedzed high density housing development. Self-sufficiency, access to public transport, and the concept of community are found in both housing schemes. While social equality and democracy form the core of Neave Brown’s Alexandra Road mass housing design, Bill Dunster’s Bedzed community housing is based on the concept of sustainability and green lifestyle in both construction and occupation. ------------------------- BIBLIOGRAPHY Ashden (The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy). (2009). BioRegional Development Group, U.K. Case Study Database. Retrieved on 10th January, 2009 f from: http://www.ashdenawards.org/winners/brdg Bedzed Project Team (2009). Bedzed toolkit part II. A Practical Guide to Producing Affordable Carbon Neutral Developments. BioRegional Solutions for Sustainability. Retrieved on 8th January, 2010 from: http://www.bioregional.com/files/publications/BedZED_toolkit_part_2.pdf Great Buildings. (2009). Alexandra Road Housing. London, England, U.K. Retrieved on 11th January 2010 from: http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgibin/gbi.cgi/Alexandra_Road_Housing.html/cid_1006719259_alex_006.html Low, N. (2005). The green city: sustainable homes, sustainable suburbs. London: Routledge. Macdonald, A. (2000). The engineer’s contribution to contemporary architecture: Anthony Hunt. London: Thomas Telford Publishers. Maxwell, R. (1993). Sweet disorder and the carefully careless: Theory and criticism in architecture. Edition 2. New Jersey: Princeton Architectural Press. Miles, M. (2008). Urban utopias: The built and social architectures of alternative settlements. London: Routledge. Nice Buildings. (2009). Alexandra Road Estate. Retrieved on 11th January, 2010 from: http://www.nicebuildings.com/alexandra/frames.htm Permanite. (2009). Case study: Alexandra Road. Europe’s longest roof gets a state-of- the-art renovation. Retrieved on 8th January, 2010 from: http://www.iko.com/WWProj/alexandra_road_aa.pdf Schneider, T. and Till, J. (2007). Flexible housing. Italy: Elsevier. Sharp, D. (2002). Twentieth century architecture: A visual history. Edition 3. Great Britain: Images Publishing. Sherwood, R. (2002). Alexandra Road. HousingPrototypes.org. Retrieved on 9th January 2010 from: http://housingprototypes.org/project?File_No=ENG001 Toolkit Part I. (2002). Bedzed toolkit part I. A Guide to Construction Materials for Carbon Neutral Developments. BioRegional Solutions for Sustainability. Retrieved on 8th January, 2009 from: http://www.bioregional.com/files/publications/BedZED_toolkit_part_1.pdf Twinn, C. (2003). BedZED. The ARUP Journal, 1/2003. pp.10-17. Retrieved on 8th January, 2010 from: http://www.arup.com/_assets/_download/download68.pdf Wheeler, S.M. and Beatley, T. (2004). The sustainable urban development reader. London: Routledge. Read More