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DAVID CARR-SMITH - IMPROVISATION / DESIGN / ART / KITSCH / CHANCE
IMPROVISED 'ECO-VILLAGES' ... in process
"PURE
GENIUS" ECO VILLAGE, WANDSWORTH, LONDON
AN
ARTIST'S PUBLIC-SITE INSTALLATION WORKS
IMPROVISED OPEN-SITE: ("THE NOMADIC COMMUNITY GARDEN")
IMPROVISED VILLAGES: (WANDSWORTH & KEW BRIDGE 'ECO VILLAGES')
ALLOTMENT IMPROVISATIONS - PUBLIC, LEGAL, SOCIALLY INDORSED
TEMPORARY-ARCHITECTURE: ("FRANK'S CAFE" & "SOUTHWARK LIDO")
VERNACULAR - PRAGMATISM & STYLE: (BERDUN VILLAGE BARNS & HOUSES)
"HOME"
- MY LOCATION VIA MASS-PRODUCTS & TASTE - LIV-RM
"HOME"
- MY LOCATION VIA MASS-PRODUCTS & TASTE - HOUSE
"HOME" - MY LOCATION VIA PERSONAL CHOICES
ART - GOTHIC INTO RENAISSANCE INTO EARLY 20thC
ART - 20thC COLLAGE INTO MASS-MEDIA
.
IMPROVISED
VILLAGES - p1 - WANDSWORTH
This web-section shows villages improvised on open-sites. These unused areas of partially cleared urban land (often owned by local councils or 'developers') tend to be occupied by people who wish to establish a village of dwellings and communal structures that as far as possible is self-sustaining and minimally wasteful of resources
[1]. Developing such sites requires two modes of work: 1 'sculpting' the site: clearing routes, laying minimal services, providing for horticulture, establishing an entry system; 2 working on buildings and facilities
[2] that are improvised from
OPEN-SITE IMPROVISED
VILLAGES
IMPROVISED
VILLAGES - p2 - KEW-BRIDGE
After viewing the splendid apartments developed inside Adam's large squatted
factories [3] the small homes built on these open waste-ground sites may seem stunted and mean. However the former enjoy primary shelter, avoid most structural demands, usually have in situ services, and within their collectively owned closed volumes can comfortably organise cooperative work plans. In contrast each individual who chooses to live on a patch of open land must solve the urgent primary problem of constructing a weather-shelter and somehow ensuring access to life-supporting services - even if this only means 'camping': raising a bought tent, cooking on a butane-stove, excreting in the bushes. Such
rigors contrast with the first stage of factory squats that (in the absence of a comfortable admin office to doss in) provide at least huge enclosed flat concrete floors on which to plant
the encampment beginnings of ones home, light wood-stoves, and use the (usually still working) ubiquitous factory toilets and wash facilities.
Solving open-site living-needs takes much of the energy and resources that in the big factory squats is used for constructing living-space boundaries and elaborating the personal facilities of ones home.
Both the sites shown here are similar in overall organisation. An open site seems to attract a type of person who stakes
a claim to an independent patch of available land. The social rule of widest possible separation of strangers in any visibly limited place (eg bus/cafe/waiting-room) seems to apply to the disposition of dwellings on these open sites - its as if the opportunity to 'own' a patch of land is latent in each urbanite. At the earliest stage (ref
p2: Kew Eco Village) tents are scattered over the available area and
subsequent built houses and shared buildings and facilities tend to be
separated independent structures (ref
below: Wandsworth Eco-Village).
The 'apartment building' model that pertains inside the big factory squats [3] shows this spatial independence traded for the security of an enclosing/shared container divided into living-spaces separated simply by single walls, whose pattern reveals the ease and economy of sub-dividing a rectangular building. The group cooperation that is taken for granted during the 'growing phase' of these large enclosed eventually
densely-occupied developments, could be applied to a type of open-site village whose living places were grouped (even joined) with the shared buildings/facilities and the whole complex (or at least its basic structures) was worked on collectively. This physically much more efficient use of energy and resources would result in a 'centre' surrounded by 'land' where cultivation experiments would be unencumbered by a web of
arbitrary pathways
[4]. Might such an establishment be also more defensible ?
NOTES :
The effort of overcoming adverse external conditions however usually ensures that immediate practicality overwhelms ... and this can indeed be mistaken for ideological practice !
A 'central' social/kitchen building / toilets and wash facilities / visitor-reception office / store-area / garden.
Ref the previous website IMPROVISED ARCHITECTURE IN AMSTERDAM INDUSTRIAL SQUATS.
Any apparent 'village plan' is less an imposed system than an ad hoc web of 'automatically' established connecting routes between the focii of isolated structures that were themselves located via the un-analysable calculations and ruminations of individuals.
"PURE
GENIUS" ECO VILLAGE (5-05-1996 to 15-10-1996)
GARGOYLE
WHARF, YORK RD x BRIDGEND RD.,
WANDSWORTH, LONDON
[
info on the site is at
The "Pure Genius" Eco-Village was originated on an urban 13 acre walled site of ex-industrial polluted 'wasteland' owned by Guinness. Its occupiers aimed to originate, demonstrate, and enjoy a community that was as far as possible self-sustaining in terms of housing and communal services. They set up systems of permaculture that would recycle organic waste, increase the land's fertility and/or circumvent its damage, and which were intended to provide a significant proportion of their food. The most resourceful built dwellings for themselves from scrap materials [1] and cooperated in building and developing a communal 'roundhouse' or 'village-hall'. After only five months the project and its natural environment were stupidly and wastefully [2] destroyed by the land's legal owners.
NOTES :
Bill Knight remarked that: 'There are only six habitable buildings built on site, the rest are trailers etc'.
'stupidly and wastefully' - because it was subsequently left empty (even of plants and creatures: stripped to its soil !) for ## months before its (financial) 're-development' ensued - during which time this valuable and rare social, practical, aesthetic experiment could have been allowed - for the experiential needs of us all ! - to continue its unpredictable and informative evolution.
.
THE SITE AND SHARED FACILITIES
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ECO-VILLAGE
SITE: NEAR ENTRY - RUBBLE MAZE |
ECO-VILLAGE
SITE: NEAR ENTRY - RUBBLE 'DRAGON' (pic 8-6-96 / to NNE) |
ECO-VILLAGE
SITE: BLACKSMITH WORKSITE |
ECO-VILLAGE
SITE: WASH-PLACE [01] - PLUS 'PERMACULTURE' GARDEN Also
intended to demonstrate 'permaculture' to site visitors. |
ECO-VILLAGE SITE: WASH-PLACE [0 2] - (PART OF A 'PERMACULTURE' SYSTEM)(pic 6-6-96 / to NW) |
ECO-VILLAGE
SITE: TOILET (BLUE) -
BACK
The two site toilets
'manufactured' agricultural compost. |
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|
ECO-VILLAGE
SITE: TOILET
(GREEN) [01]
- ENTRY |
ECO-VILLAGE
SITE: TOILET
(GREEN)
[02] -
INTERIOR |
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ECO-VILLAGE
SITE: RIVER-WALL MOSAIC Made
by an anonymous visitor. |
ECO-VILLAGE
SITE |
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ECO-VILLAGE:
COMMUNAL BUILDING
[01]
- STRUCTURAL DESIGN: BILL KNIGHT Designed
principally by Bill Knight, a civil engineer, with the input of other site-users. Its
wood structure's strength was calculated by AutoCAD.
['Roundhouse'
extracts below are from Bill Knight's account of
the whole site:
http://www.tlio.org.uk/campaigns/wandsworth/purebill.html
]
We
needed to build a big structure as a focus for the village. It was agreed to
build a round house to take two hundred people. A simple sketch and a little
thought and I had a list of timber sizes and lengths we were looking for and
fixings we would need to hold it together safely. The building had to be
flexible and able to be erected on hard or soft land as we still didn't know
were we were going. [Paragraph
removed ....] The
wood for the roundhouse was finally located, Brendan had been bringing in bits
from a mysterious source but there wasn't enough. Then on a bus up the A40 I
spotted it, a huge pile from the demolition of the houses to widen the road. A
quick visit from Jacqueline and I, some negotiations with the contractors and we
had a truck load delivered to our storage space. [Paragraphs
removed ....] [On
the site ....] Unloading
over, there was a little time before the meeting to find a place for the
roundhouse. [....] Meantime Steve, Gary and I found our spot. It was large enough
for the roundhouse and left space all around for an outer circle of homes. There
was a space to the west which was grassy and raised up perfect for watching a
play or band in the roundhouse. I guestimated where the centre pole should go
and scratched a cross in the ground. [Paragraph
removed ....] Back
at the roundhouse site we began to dig the hole for the central post, the only
bit which needed to go into the ground. Amazingly we had picked a point between
two huge chunks of concrete a foot from each other with another piece about four
foot down making the perfect foundation. Soon the post was up and by the end of
the day the central section of the building was nearing completion. Steve and I
spent much of the next three days working with a small group to get the rest of
the frame up. Plywood was cut and nailed on the central roof and a tarpaulin
formed temporary walls. Old light fittings found in Ken's van were nailed to
four of the eight posts and filled w ith candles. As the sun set over Wandsworth
bridge directly in front of the one open side it cast a golden light into the
building. To me it took on the air of a temple, peaceful and calm with people
sitting happily talking up plans for the rest of the site, playing music and
reading poetry. [Paragraphs
removed ....] I
returned on Saturday lunch time to find a transformation. The wind generator
span on the roof of the roundhouse above solar panels, the walls were finished,
thin branches formed patterns in the windows and more candle holders made from
reclaimed copper pipe spiralled around the central post. Gardens were full of
plants and seedlings had already begun to sprout. The irrigation system for the
gardens was working. Locals wandered around the site and a party spirit was
building up. That evening was the high point of the occupation for me. The
efforts of so many different people had come together and created a truly unique
place in the heart of a city. Bands played late into the night as two hundred
people danced inside the roundhouse. |
ECO-VILLAGE:
COMMUNAL BUILDING
[02]
|
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ECO-VILLAGE:
COMMUNAL BUILDING
[03] - INTERIOR Steve Jones notes: "We
built the roundhouse based on a central 'king post' with lateral rafters to
posts forming a 6 sided structure. This was further extended out and clad in
salvaged cladding found on site. We waterproofed the structure using discarded
plastic 'For Sale' signs. A nice irony!" |
ECO-VILLAGE:
COMMUNAL BUILDING [04] - INTERIOR The big open 'porch' has been closed with plastic sheeting. |
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ECO-VILLAGE:
COMMUNAL BUILDING
[05] - INTERIOR: STOVE The
stove is a fire-brick box clamped between two halves of an oil-drum. On the wall
behind are lists of "Suggested
Guidelines" for maintaining the "project": dealing with the
site, its inhabitants
and visitors, external authorities, etc.. |
ECO-VILLAGE: COMMUNAL BUILDING
[06] -
WITH ADDED ENCLOSURES The white yurt was for food storage(?) and the blue canvas(?) enclosure for food preparation. |
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ECO-VILLAGE: COMMUNAL
BUILDING
[07]
-
WITH
ADDED ENCLOSURES |
ECO-VILLAGE: COMMUNAL
BUILDING
[08]
-
WITH ADDED ENCLOSURES |
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ECO-VILLAGE:
COMMUNAL BUILDING [08]
- FOOD
PREPARATION ENCLOSURE |
ECO-VILLAGE:
COMMUNAL BUILDING
[09] -
WITH ADDED ENCLOSURES By
this time, the plastic-sheeted enclosures - whose harmonious shapes and
dispositions expressed the ecology of expanding possibilities and
needs - have been replaced by a 'shed' whose mean and inelegant awkwardness (probably) expresses a hasty response to a
degenerative/diminishing factor: food thieves! ... a vector of defense and depression opposed to that
which formed the physical means of opening potentials. |
.
INDIVIDUAL HOMES
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(JOE
?) WOMAN'S LIVING-PLACE [01] The
functional parts of this living-place are separated. An arch defines the
'camp's' entry; the blue plastic-covered bender is for sleeping; the open
shelter (with an "at work" sign) is a kitchen. |
(JOE
?) WOMAN'S LIVING-PLACE
[02]: BENDER ENTRY |
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|
(JOE
?)
WOMAN'S
LIVING-PLACE
[03]: 'WOMAN AT WORK' SIGN |
|
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ANJA BRINKMANN & SIMON CHAPMAN YURT
[01]
-
GARDEN |
ANJA BRINKMANN & SIMON CHAPMAN YURT
[02]
- GARDEN |
ANJA BRINKMANN & SIMON CHAPMAN YURT
[03] - GARDEN |
ANJA BRINKMANN & SIMON CHAPMAN YURT
[04] - GARDEN: WHEEL-BARROW SEAT |
ANJA BRINKMANN
& SIMON CHAPMAN YURT
[05]
-
INTERIOR (pics 6-6-96 / to SSW) |
ANJA BRINKMANN
& SIMON CHAPMAN YURT
[06]
-
INTERIOR |
|
|
(UNKNOWN) WOMAN'S HOUSE |
|
GREEN DAVE 'ECO-HOUSE' "NEMESIS"
[01] - FRAME
[The following account by Green Dave of his self-made house is copied from http://www.tlio.org.uk/campaigns/wandsworth/puredave.html ]
Live the Future Now! My EcoHouse, Nemesis, was designed from start to finish to maximise energy efficiency. The south facing side was high and made almost entirely from glass, with a conservatory to store/trap heat. The north was low to the ground to minimise heat loss from cold northerly winds. The whole structure was built on a rectangular chassis base raised approx. 6" above ground to accommodate under the house (this prevents poisonous gas building up in the house, especially necessary in areas of high contamination or where there is a risk of radon gas; radon gas is a naturally occurring gas that is emitted through the ground from granite rock.) The ground clearance and rigid base structure was also designed to enable the whole unit to be moved in one piece if desired. To have insulation filled cavity walls and a turfed roof helps moderate extreme temperatures and provides extra food growing space and wildlife habitat, blends house into the natural environment. The side walls were to be covered with vines for the same reasons as the turfed roof, vines would be grown in pots attached to the structure, so would be moved with the house without disturbance. Plumbing
Electricity
|
GREEN DAVE 'ECO-HOUSE' "NEMESIS"
[02] -
FRAME+ROOF |
GREEN DAVE 'ECO- HOUSE' "NEMESIS" [03]
|
GREEN DAVE 'ECO- HOUSE' "NEMESIS"
[04] |
BRENDEN ROCK HOUSE
[01]
- FRAME [Brenden's account of his experience of the occupation is at http://www.tlio.org.uk/campaigns/wandsworth/purebren.html ] The house is an octagon based on a 6' module: centre square = 6' / from square to corners = 6'.
Brenden said he was influenced by an American Indian hut. |
BRENDEN ROCK HOUSE
[02]
|
BRENDEN ROCK HOUSE
[03]
- GROUND-LEVEL SPACE & BED PLATFORM |
BRENDEN ROCK HOUSE
[04]
-
ON BED PLATFORM |
BRENDEN ROCK HOUSE
[05]
-
GROUND-LEVEL SPACE |
BRENDEN ROCK HOUSE
[06]
-
GROUND-LEVEL SPACE - STOVE |
MIKE TULL HOUSE
[01]
- SITE: JETTY INSTALLATION |
MIKE TULL HOUSE
[02]
-
RIVER FACE |
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|
MIKE TULL
HOUSE
[03]
|
MIKE
TULL HOUSE
[04]
|
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MIKE
TULL HOUSE
[05] - INTERIOR |
MIKE
TULL HOUSE
[06]
-
INTERIOR: CORNER VIEW OF BEACH (pic 6-6-96 / to SW) |
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|
CORIN JETTY HOUSE - IN
PROCESS The beginning of a house construction. The jetty-banner reads "Land and Freedom". |
.
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- KEW BRIDGE >
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AN ARTIST'S PUBLIC-SITE INSTALLATION WORKS
IMPROVISED ARCHITECTURE IN AMSTERDAM INDUSTRIAL SQUATS & COLLECTIVESIMPROVISED OPEN-SITE: ("THE NOMADIC COMMUNITY GARDEN")
IMPROVISED VILLAGES: (WANDSWORTH & KEW BRIDGE 'ECO VILLAGES')
ALLOTMENT IMPROVISATIONS - PUBLIC, LEGAL, SOCIALLY INDORSED
TEMPORARY-ARCHITECTURE: ("FRANK'S CAFE" & "SOUTHWARK LIDO")
VERNACULAR - PRAGMATISM & STYLE: (BERDUN VILLAGE BARNS & HOUSES)
"HOME"
- MY LOCATION VIA MASS-PRODUCTS & TASTE - LIV-RM
"HOME"
- MY LOCATION VIA MASS-PRODUCTS & TASTE - HOUSE
"HOME" - MY LOCATION VIA PERSONAL CHOICES
ART - GOTHIC INTO RENAISSANCE INTO EARLY 20thC