Tottenham Bottling Civic Front Section The proposition houses a business which deals with…
Unit 04: The Productive City
TUTORS: RORY CORR + BRENDAN HIGGINS
This unit is interested in the energy, output, workmanship, and resourcefulness of the city. It seems pertinent to ask what does productivity look like in today’s city, and what is its civic function? Although it touches on labour, politics and economics, really the aim of the unit is to deepen our collective understanding of material culture. Where do things come from; where do they go; what happens when they get there; and what happens when they cease to be useful?
London has always been a heady mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous – a city which has historically resisted many grand plans and concepts. The year starts with an investigation into the area of north-east London bounded by the North Circular Road, Lea River and Tottenham Town Centre. Skirting the London Boroughs of Enfield and Haringey, this section of the North Circular has since the 1920s carried material into and out of east London to be manufactured, fabricated, processed and sold, keeping alive the local, regional and national economy.
The pocket of space around Brantwood Road is more often seen as a neglected backland than an important conduit. It can seem disorganised, empty and leftover, but there is an energy to it which the unit sought to understand more fully. The students analysed through Surveys and Primer Projects what goes on in this area and why. They studied how it has changed, and how the built environment has been augmented to facilitate the activity, and vice-versa.
Each student chose a small industry to study. These vary but have certain things in common. They involve physical objects which are sold for money. They are businesses which deal with the pragmatics of manufacturing and selling in the city. Proposals had to be viable and rooted in the analysis carried out, be well-researched and well-articulated, and be appropriate for the location in which they are sited. The students wrote their own briefs and developed proposals for large, multi-faceted buildings which had a strong presence in this piece of city.
The unit was an opportunity to make proposals about how this part of town may be developed, intensified, and improved in an intelligent way. The projects speculate on how fabrication, manufacturing and selling may also have a civic face, and how industry, living, workspace, commerce and transport could be skilfully co-ordinated within the same existing, tight urban fabric. Here was a chance to re-cast the acts of work and making back into the forefront of civic life.
EMILY BENNETT
The Printworks The Printworks was formed from an innate understanding of the Industrial…
JAN STAWIARSKI
The Metalworks Aluminium processing is an industry with a truly crucial role in…
DOMINIKA MATUSIAK
Tottenham Natural Mill Development of Tottenham Over the last century, Tottenham had been…
RUBY HOLMES-SMITH
Gin Works A View from Brantwood Road Gin Works aims to tie together…
SU WU
Tottenham Bakery Tottenham Bakery Exterior The bakery industry is a huge business that…
Valerija Slahova
Tariff Leatherworks The Workers’ Entrance The facade celebrates a spectacle of weather, light…
EMILY TYERS
The Brewhouse Situated along Tottenham’s High street, Brunswick Brewery/Cooperage/Pub is in response to…
RACHEL LIVINGSTONE
Tottenham Hydroponic Farm Site Planimetric This planimetric drawing was created for an in…
IULIA POPESCU
Ethic Silk of Tottenham Interior Render of the Silk Showroom The silk showroom…
Natalie Ballone
The Ceramics Factory