XII Value

Tutor: Mhairi McVicar and Sarah Featherstone

‘A wonderful community utterly broken’, a residents group posted in response to a planning decision to permit a large scale residential redevelopment on a vacated riverside site in Grangetown. ‘Developments are killing off our city and communities. We want our city back’.

The residents’ comments capture a sense of threat voiced by established city communities and perceptions that developments are led by a focus on profit, rather than on establishing or maintaining a sense of community. As Grangetown and neighbouring areas in Riverside and Butetown respond to fears of gentrification and profit-led redevelopment, the question of the value of land is raised.

Who values this land, and for what purpose? What value does it offer, and who profits? What value is already in place; what of value has been lost?

The work of the 2019/20 Value Unit began in the Sustainable Studio in Cardiff, a creative co-working space under imminent threat of relocation under development proposals. A Sustainable Studio book produced by the Unit maps the social, economic, and cultural values of creative industries supported in spaces such as the Sustainable Studio. Individual theses test and challenge perceptions of value, adopting a stance towards degrowth and reuse in recognition of the environmental, cultural and economic value of existing social networks and physical infrastructure in Wales.

WSA On Display 2020

XII Value

GROUP WORK

LAUREN BEARMAN

TOM BEVAN

EMMA HALFORD

JOSEPHINE LERASLE

BARTOSZ ROBAK

ANANYA SUNEEL