Urban Life Support- Design Unit Cardiff University

In light of present global crises such as population expansion, natural resource depletion and environmental disasters, there is an urgent need to align urban development and architecture with nature. This year we will research Tottenham which has seen a typical city development from an agricultural landscape in the 18th Century to an industrial landscape fuelled by railway expansion and good access to river transport in the 19th and 20th centuries. New ideas are now needed to rehabilitate and heal this post industrial landscape.
The studio will review how urbanism, renewal projects and landscape can establish a better engagement with the Lea Valley and how landscape and architecture can play a positive role in the regeneration and healing of Tottenham.

The Study Area

The Lea Valley represents a rupture in London’s urban grain – a corridor of relatively undeveloped land forming a ‘clearing’ between dense urban communities lying to the east and west, with much of this land protected as open space or industrial land. The presence of large-scale transport infrastructure, particularly running north-south along the Valley, has reinforced the resulting sense of division – discouraging communities on either side of the Valley from using or traversing its landscapes. The Valley is still very much industrial – with large areas of protected Strategic Industrial Land, and clusters of high technology businesses replacing more traditional industry. But the re-shaping of its industrial landscape, and the value of its proximity to central London, have begun to encourage major transformation in recent years.

‘The London Plan’ has established an ‘All London Green Grid’. The aim of this initiative is to understand and shape the strategic role of landscape at a city-wide scale. The Lee Valley Regional Park Authority is a significant regional asset forming the eastern edge of Tottenham. It includes the Walthamstow Wetlands and the 10 reservoirs that make up the site are an internationally and nationally recognised ecological resource and wildlife habitat. The Park was created for the development, preservation and management of recreation, sport, entertainment and the enjoyment of leisure.
The studio will focus on one small part of this large green network focussing on the connection from the Lee Valley at Tottenham Hale across to Tottenham High Road and to Tottenham Green, the administrative centre of Tottenham. The Lea valley is currently severed from the heart of Tottenham by rail and road infrastructure; the West Anglia railway and Watermead Way road.

Health

The gains in life expectancy in the early 20th century owed much to environmental public health measures including the provision of clean water, food and air, healthier housing, and safer workplaces. The improvements in public health in London were made through the work of engineers such as Joseph William Bazalgette. With London’s dramatic increase in population in the early 1800s it became essential that sewage was managed in a more effective manner to prevent outbreaks of cholera, typhoid and dysentry. Bazalgette was responsible for the construction of the underground sewage system and pumping stations such as Abbey Mills in the lower Lea Valley. Many of these sewers are still in use today. In Markfield Park, the Tottenham sewage treatment works and pumping station were constructed to deal with a rapidly expanding population. This was a far sighted and essential piece of the borough’s infrastructure and the works were operational for over one hundred years until 1964.

There were significant changes to urban environments that affected health including increased highway construction, more access to personal automobiles, abundant cheap fuel, and a shift from central cities perceived as being infected and diseased towards suburbia. These systemic changes led to a dramatic shift in individual behaviour toward largely sedentary lifestyles. Simultaneously, primary public health issues shifted from those relating to infectious diseases to chronic diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, obesity and chronic respiratory diseases. These are often called diseases of energy, relating to the imbalance of our energy intake (food) and our energy out (exercise), and along with other factors can dramatically impact life expectancy and quality of life, often varying drastically from one neighbourhood to another within the same political boundaries.

The Key Questions

We will discuss the following questions to help us during our journey:
1. How can landscape and nature contribute to health and well being?
2. How can we use the water network and canals as an ordering device for our new urban interventions?
3. How can we make landscape an integral part of urban design practice. Can landscape become an ordering device for urbanism and make the city a healthier place?
4. Can an urban environment recover from illness and if so, what treatments exist? Do new ones need to be invented?
5. How can architecture help local entrepreneurship strengthen both the economic and social vitality of a neighbourhood?
6. How can an intensification of development connecting to the Lee Valley and a better relationship with the Lea River encourage investment in the area providing more jobs and stopping the flow of money and people to central London.
7. The Lea Valley has been traditionally famous for food production. Can modern production techniques which produce much higher yields create opportunities for food production and cultivation.
8. Can infrastructure projects such as sewage treatment plants and recycling centres create opportunities for wealth and job creation in Tottenham?

Tottenham and The Lee Valley: A brief Historical Background

The River Lee was a fundamental reason for early human settlement in the area and the Tottenham Marshes are on a flood plain of the River Lea. Over a thousand years ago the land either side was true marshland, before giving way to dense forest. The first reference to the River Lea is from the 9th century where Tottenham was on the frontier between Alfred’s Saxon Wessex and Danish Essex when the River Lea was established as part of the border between the Saxons the Danes. Medieval Tottenham made good use of the river Lea and the marshes. Fisheries were established by building weirs, there was the flour mill, and the marshes themselves would have produced reeds for thatching and the meadowland nearby for hay which supplied both food and fodder for the horses in London. There were also a number of farms who grew arable crops and raised some livestock on the alluvial soil that bordered the River Lea. Tottenham was also home to many farms and market gardens producing vegetables, salad crops and garden plants for the population in London. The rich soil along the banks of the River Lea was ideally suited for this purpose.

An important development was the establishment of The Great Western Railway at the end of the nineteenth century which accelerated development in the area including construction of housing for working people. The railway together with the improvements made to the Lea navigation encouraged many industries to open new businesses along the banks of the River Lea in the Tottenham and Edmonton areas. Foremost of these industries was Furniture manufacturing as it was now possible to transport vast quantities of timber virtually direct to their front gates. Undoubtedly the most notable of the companies operating in Tottenham was that of Harris Lebus who set up their business in Ferry lane Tottenham at the end of the 19th century. Other local furniture manufacturers included Nathans , Beautility, Limelight and The Great Eastern Cabinet Co.

Another important event that occurred in recent times was the establishment of the Lee Valley Regional Park. The Regional Park was first proposed in Professor Abercrombie’s Greater London Plan published in 1945, and took legal form through the Lee Valley Regional Park Act of 1967. Tottenham today is part of the London Borough of Haringey, situated in central north London. With a population of over 90,000, making up around 40% of Haringey’s total, it has high public land ownership and low land values. It is ethnically diverse with over 200 languages spoken. It has some of the most deprived wards in London; a large youth population and high unemployment. There is a large transient population and a large problem of overcrowding. There has been very little executive presence in the borough since 1965 when Haringay Council took administrative control over the area. Tottenham is however relatively well connected and is in a key strategic growth area within the Upper Lee Valley Opportunity Area and the London-Stansted-Peterborough growth corridor.

Research Methodology Phase 1

The first weeks of the studio will focus on research which will focus on the following:
1. Looking at the relevant planning documents that affect the study area such as core strategies, adopted plans, the Lea Valley Development Planning documents and The London Plan including The Green Grid.
2. Reviewing the GLA documents including the report by Stuart Lipton: ‘It took another Riot’.
3. Review Tottenham and The Lea Valley in relation to the greater London region.
4. Review relevant data from Haringay Council, the Census and the Office of National Statistics on population density and age distribution (by ward); population projections; employment hotspots and demographics in Tottenham.
5. Review relevant data on areas of high crime and areas of high unemployment.
6. Review data on levels of economic activity (and location) and areas of deprivation (by ward).
7. Review of old maps and photographs of the area. This can continue when we visit the site visiting local museums such as The Bruce Castle Museum http://www.haringey.gov.uk/haringey_history_toolkit.pdf
8. Analysis of physical structure of the area including: location of stations and infrastructure; location of derelict buildings and empty sites; location and quality of parks and public spaces; quality of the housing and types of housing; locations of listed buildings; location of shops; shopping centres; offices and schools.
The outcomes of these first few weeks will be drawings and diagrams plotting all of the above giving everyone a fine grained understanding of the site prior to the site visit.
During the site visit there will be an emphasis on immersing oneself in the site, a process of acquiring knowledge through walking, talking to people and observing the rhythms of daily life. This is a type of anthropological/sociological study looking at more fine grained understandings of people and place. The creative and interpretive possibilities of mixing methods, lens, data sets and perspectives will influence the acts of design and intervention.

Research Phase 2: The Outcomes of the Research and Production of a Masterplan

Following the site visit and research the process of design will begin which will focus on our theme of ‘Urban Life Support’. We will be encouraging a creative response to the data and site visit looking at addressing the real issues that exist on the site and developing a conceptual framework for the site.
We will investigate tools to help us achieve this from architecture, urbanism and landscape with the focus on water and canals; identity and history; the intelligent grid and the five minute city.

Water and canals:
The aim of your study should be to intensify the experience of close contact with water in the city district; provide good conditions for rowing, sailing and busy activity on the water; use existing and new canals to serve as a structuring element from a point of view of urban planning and to create identity and a special character.

Identity and History:
The strategy adopted should respect the special nature of the area, reinterpreting it and emphasising its qualities.The traces of culture already found in the area must be developed and become active parts of the masterplan. The development of the new green structure in the study area should be based on a thorough mapping of the natural and landscape qualities of the area.

‘The five-minute city’

The five minute is a reference to the time it takes to walk four hundred metres, and the concept is to promote sustainable modes of transport in Tottenham. The ambition is to ensure at least one-third of all traffic in the area should be cyclists, at least one-third should be public transport,and car traffic should account for no more than one-third. In Tottenham it should be easier to walk, cycle or use public transport than to travel by car. That is why the design should be laid out on the basis of the five-minute-city principle.

The intelligent grid

A dynamic principle for the development of the area based on agreed lot and plot sizes and size of spacing of roads. We will review the work of Kelvin Campbell to help us lay out a new grid that could extend from the Lea River to Down Lane Park and beyond. The intelligent grid structures functions and urban typologies relative to public transport, and should respond to climatic conditions found in the area.

Research Phase 3: Second Semester

At the completion of the first semester each student will have chosen a site for further development in the second semester. The project should engage in a dialogue with Tottenham and The Lea Valley and will test the urban idea in general which means, when having started up the second part you will modify the part one by the new set of investigations made at close-up (loop).
We will develop the masterplan based on the principles established in the first semester. Our detailed proposals should focus of creating a healthier city by creating new recreational centres; mixed use centres; different types of retail offer; better housing; better defined public spaces; creative hubs; community centres; walkways; cycle routes; food production centres; parks and green connections, new landscape interventions and new ideas for buildings and structures supporting recreation.
Students are expected to further their research into various social and cultural influences that will translate directly into complex internal programmes and spatial organisations. The end result should culminate into a fully functioning architectural proposition that is well integrated into the urban, social and natural environment. All of the typologies are to include ideas for surrounding streets; landscape and sustainable design plus well defined public spaces.

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