Reading place, presentation for English Heritage, Nottingham, 2014 by Peter Larkham

The original caption to this photo (of Stockholm) says “where are all the visible landmarks”?

Then original caption to this photo (of Stockholm) says “where are all the visible landmarks”?

The artificiality of the aerial view?

Air photography – and maps – are not how most people perceive most places, despite the current ease of access to Google views!

What constitutes context?

There are many factors, identified in standard texts including English heritage’s guidance on conservation area character appraisal etc.

• History, archaeology, topography, vegetation, street patterns, plot patterns, building patterns, building forms, architectural styles & details, “urban grain”, public realm, land use, and more ...

“Context” = features in/of surrounding area.

“Character” = features shaping a unique identity.

“Significance” = key to both: identification of what is important.

A key attribute:

The ability to recognise detail. While “the big picture”, the “overview”, is important, it is made up of details (even if some planning inspectors seem to have different views!).

A key attribute:

The ability to identify patterns

• Scale?

• Nature?

• Time?

• Variation in

space?

What if the context is varied?

Be aware of change over time


Cincinnati, courtesy of Brenda Case Sheer


Courtesy of M.P. Conzen

Be aware of change over space

What about temporary things?

Land uses (legal and otherwise)

Buildings



Buildings (how temporary is “temporary”? 70 years?)



Buildings (how temporary is “temporary”? 70 years?)

Vegetation?

Hierarchy of features

In urban morphology studies, the “streets, plots, buildings” hierarchy is crucial

Courtesy of Karl Kropf

Streets

Blocks/Plots

Buildings

Variation within one building type

Details

Colour

Places are not uniform (common characteristics indicate periods/units)

Works for more recent, and residential, areas

Even the uniform semi suburbia

… isn’t actually very uniform!

Ludlow

Topography

Land use (ground level, but could be other levels)

“plan units” (ie development history and key features)

M.R.G. Conzen’s classic study of Ludlow (data from 1940s/50s)

Building types and ages

Combining these characteristics gives a very fine-grain study of context – certain aspects anyway!

Relict features

Small scale might be significant

Context-informed design?

The impact of context on design

Perhaps more often seen as lack of impact?

“Who gave that planning permission”?

The shock of the new?

The problem of the icon?

An example

Lleida (northern Spain): repositioning as a tourist-historic city in the 1980s

A series of distant views of the CitadelOriginally the Cathedral; been in military occupation for c100 years

Solutions?

• Between the substantial buildings fronting the Plaça and the citadel there is, obviously, a substantial hill – a major access problem.

• There is also an area of tightly-packed vernacular low-status housing.

• This housing could not be allowed to remain on the tourist route.

• The hill access had to be resolved to allow ready access.

• So….

Note the tower

The high-tech access answer – a lift

“The impact of context on design”?

How bad is it?

In these examples, is there evidence of serious interaction between understanding context and informing a design process?

In these examples, is there evidence of serious interaction between understanding context and informing a design process?

Some examples from a small historic town of worldwide significance, strong design policies, vociferous public input …

Within 150m we can see:

Impact of…scale? Dominant style? Brick patterning?

Bold design, within a context-set envelope?

Successful?

The same principle in Birmingham?

Finally,

Examples to discuss

Some examples for discussion

(very) context aware –but is it “fake”?

Reading place, presentation for English Heritage, Nottingham, 2014 by Peter Larkham

Education

Transcript of Reading place, presentation for English Heritage, Nottingham, 2014 by Peter Larkham