Architecture of

An Invitation
Generosity
:

Warning: Architecture profession you are about to graduate into may or may not meet your ideals!
2 AA Dip 20 | 2019-20 | superpool + civic

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AA Dip 20 | 2019-20 | superpool + civic

Architecture of Generosity: An Invitation

It is difficult to defend that a career in architecture will
necessarily result in the creation of social benefit. The
weakening of public institutions that have previously created
agency for communities, has reduced architects’ participation
in city making and narrowed it to the service of real-estate
development. Many times, in recent years, there have been
celebrations to a new generation of practice that defies this
constricted role. We have proof of concept of whatever it
takes to address our most pressing challenges. Yet, we are still
facing a crisis, not of resources, but of impact.
We will contribute to change in Custom House because change
is better done together - and this will require a shift in our
current mindset and approach:
From treating people as beneficiaries to
supporting them as active citizens
From working alone to working together with
common purpose
From single issues to root causes

This studio will look at new models of practice while From under-utilised individually owned assets to
fully-utilised collective assets
participating in the Custom House Partnership. We will join in
the creation of public spaces where agency comes alive and From reinventing the wheel to sharing everything
witness a neighbourhood coming together to crowd-source, that works
codify and open-source proven models of social enterprise
with community members and cooperatives. These models
can be then used to animate any space in their community
affordably, quickly and effectively for place-based social and
economic impact.
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AA Dip 20 | 2019-20 | superpool + civic

Superpool + Civic

Directed by Gregers Tang Thomsen and Selva Gurdogan,

Superpool is a research-based architecture and urban design
practice operating out of Istanbul and Copenhagen. This unit
is conceived together with Jonathan Robinson, founder of
Civic, a social enterprise based in London that is dedicated to
empowering communities to create place-based impact. The
unit will explore architectural practice as a social enterprise
in a real-life site alongside the engaged community of Custom
House Partnership.

What is a social enterprise?

The thinking behind current social enterprise models can be

traced to the mid 17th century1 – simultaneous with the first
phases of industrialization, a search also begins for models of
co-operative, mutual benefit enterprises. Structured as either
for-profit or non-profit, a social enterprise is a commercial
organization that has a specific agenda that operates to
achieve a balanced financial, social and environmental set of
objectives.
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AA Dip 20 | 2019-20 | superpool + civic

Is architectural practice a social enterprise?

One could argue that achieving a balanced financial, social

and environmental set of objectives is the goal of every
architecture project. Yet, there is an unrest in the scene - our
cities and impact upon the globe do not reflect this balance.2
Many scholars question the role of the traditional client-
architect partnership and pursue alternative and emerging
practices.3

The unit will start with the research of case studies on

architectural practice models and will have in-depth
engagement with a selected group. The short list below is a
teaser for the types we will identify together over the course
of the first semester.

Fab labs
Practices that specialize in the engineering and construction of experi-
mental and technically demanding projects creating a stream of revenue
to enable social agendas. (ex: www.situ.nyc)

Creative hubs
Practices that manage of co-working spaces to pool more funds and talent
to a core team. (ex: www.atolye.io - www.birmingham.impacthub.net)

Forensic architecture
100’S OF MODELS THAT WORK Practices that develop, disseminate, and employ new techniques for
evidence gathering and presentation in the service of human rights and
environmental investigations.(ex: www.forensic-architecture.org)

Online architecture services

Practices that create building systems that can be manufactured digitally
to provide services online. (ex: www.wikihouse.cc)

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AA Dip 20 | 2019-20 | superpool + civic

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Custom House is located in the London Borough of Newham,

Way Hastings Road
ha m Hallsville
N ew
Quarter
V ince n t Street

in close proximity to the Royal Victoria Dock. The dock was the
Bre n t Road
For
Way enue ds So
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social and economic heart of Custom House from 1855 until it

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closed in 1980.  Canning Thorn e St r ee

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Custom House is ranked within the worst 6% of England’s Rad Hallsville

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most deprived neighbourhoods. The area has been the

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attention of numerous regeneration efforts over the last thirty Peninsula
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years. Yet, the narrative from residents typically emphases the

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‘broken promises’ and the ‘ever dwindling community spaces

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and facilities.
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48% of residents were born outside of England, with many

N ew h am
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Trinity Royal
W est e rn G a teway Victoria
coming from Nigeria, Ghana, Bangladesh, India, Somalia and
Buoy Wharf A1020

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the Philippines. 32% of residents do not speak English. In

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recent years, Custom House community has begun to self- Buoy Wharf

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organise around civic renewal and a community owned vision

London
Docklands
Royal Docks
Open Water

of regeneration.
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AA Dip 20 | 2019-20 | superpool + civic

FREEMASON’S ROAD
What is Custom House Partnership?
The Custom House Partnership, being convened by Civic,
is supporting a group of ‘unlikely allies’ from residents
to entrepreneurs, the police to shop-keepers, doctors to
councillors to re-imagine andKITCHEN
re-make the placeINCUBATOR,
they call BAKERY, MICRO-MANUFACTURING,
home. Abandoned high-street shops and development land
adjacent to the Custom House DLR and Crossrail stationRETAIL, URBAN FARM
is being used as a platform for developing and proving a
radically different model of local economic renewal and
regeneration.
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Freemason’s Road
Goals for research phases:
Developing a critical understanding of the history of social
enterprises with a focus on the emerging models of architectural
practice
SHOP
Developing case studies on architectural practice models and
establish in-depth engagement with selected practices
Engaging with Custom House community
Exploring different forms of media for understanding and sharing
insights about context
Goals for design phases:
Designing a spatial intervention and / or a model of practice
Creating a body of material that expresses the issues and the
stances developed
Presenting to Custom House community
Making our learnings open-source

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AA Dip 20 | 2019-20 | superpool + civic

ECOSYSTEM CONVENORS WEEK IN THE

MAP LIFE

PEOPLE PEOPLE LIVED EXPERIENCE

ECONOMIC DEMOGRAPHICS SOCIAL ISSUES

DATA DATA DATA

How will we engage Custom House Partnership?

SUPPLY CHAINS CHALLENGING OPERATING Designing each student’s engagement with Custom House
ISSUES CONSTRAINTS Partnership in a meaningful, mutually beneficial and ethical
way will be the core conversation of this unit. How will we
design our architectural practice in Custom House? Will we
be creating spatial propositions? Creating an architect-in-
CHALLENGES CHALLENGES
VALUE FLOWS
residence program? Organize block parties for co-creating
public spaces? Could we use this diploma unit to test our
CRADLE TO COMMUNITY MOOD future practices?
CAREER DIARY

LIVED EXPERIENCE LIVED EXPERIENCE LIVED EXPERIENCE

POLICY DIRECTIONS OF ASSET MAP

AGENDAS TRAVEL

POLICY POLICY ATLAS

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ATLAS OF IDEAS ASPIRATIONS MARKET
 Tutors
AA Dip 20 | 2019-20 | superpool + civic

Selva Gürdoğan is an architect.

After her employment at Office for Metropolitan
Architecture, in 2006, Selva initiated Superpool together
with Gregers Tang Thomsen. Between 2013-2019, she
co-directed Studio-X Istanbul, an urban laboratory of
Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture,
Planning and Preservation. Since 2018, she is leading
the effort on behalf of Superpool to establish City and
Children Studies Master Program at Kadir Has University in
collaboration with Bernard van Leer Foundation.

Gregers Tang Thomsen is an architect.

After his employment at Office for Metropolitan
Architecture, in 2006, Gregers co-founded Superpool and Who else will be our conversation partners?
directs all design projects out of Superpool’s Istanbul and
Copenhagen offices. Between 2013-2019, he co-directed Once the scope of architectural practice is expanded beyond
Studio-X Istanbul, an urban laboratory of Columbia traditional client-architect partnerships, a new window opens
University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and
Preservation. Since 2017, Gregers is leading Superpool’s
up for collaborations. Neither Superpool, Civic, Custom House
participation to Urban95 program initiated by Bernard van Partnership nor this unit are isolated forerunners - we are
Leer Foundation. joining other creative minds and voices who are imagining
place-based changes in many places around the world.
Jonathan Robinson is an entrepreneur, author and Over the course of the unit, we will share experiences with
anthropologist. collaborators from Istanbul, Amman, Tirana, Madrid and New
Jonathan is a founder and former global director of Impact
Hub that incubates thousands of social enterprises from
York.
over 100 physical spaces around the world. Jonathan is a
co-founder and director of Civic. He has launched social
ventures with partners ranging from the Cabinet Office,
British Council, Tate Modern and the Guardian Media
Group, to Unicef and peace entrepreneurs in Afghanistan.

Tatjana Crossley is an architectural designer based in

London. Her research focuses on sensorial experience
and psychology of immersive spaces. She completed her
PhD at the Architectural Association, Master’s at Harvard’s
Graduate School of Design and Bachelor’s at Rice University
and worked at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in San Francisco.
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 Reading List
AA Dip 20 | 2019-20 | superpool + civic

A New View of Society and Other Writings; Robert Owen, 2019

A World of Three Zeros: The New Economics of Zero Poverty; Zero Unemployment, and
Zero Net Carbon Emissions, Muhammed Yunus, 2018
Architecture from Without, Theoretical Framings for a Critical Practice; Diana Agrest,
1991
Are We Human?: Notes on an Archaeology of Design; Beatriz Colomina, Mark Wigley,
2019
Atlas of Emerging Practices: Being an Architect in the 21st Century; Gianpiero Venturini,
2019
Banker to The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty; Muhammed
Yunus, 2008
Cities for People; Jan Gehl, 2010
Empathy, Form and Space: Problems in German Aesthetics; ed. Robert Vischer, 1993
Essential Proudhon; Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, 2012
How to Study Public Life; Jan Gehl, Birgitte Svarre, 2013
New Architects 3: Britain's Best Emerging Architects, 2016
Phenomenology of Perception; Maurice Merleau-Ponty
See Yourself Sensing: Redefining Human Perception; Madeline Schwartzman, 2011
Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature; Donna Haraway, 2015
Social Audit: Management Tool for Co-operative Working; Freer Spreckley, 1981
The Production of Space; Henri Lefebvre, 1992
The Listening Society: A Metamodern Guide to Politics, Book One; Hanzi Freinacht, 2017
The World as Will and Representation; Arthur Schopenhauer, 1966
What is an Apparatus?: And Other Essays; Giorgio Agamben, 2009

MAY WYNEE SITE

May Wynee Site
ORKSPACE, MAKER & SHOW SPACES, SHOPS, EXHIBITION SPACE, FOOD & DRINK,
LEISURE & GROWING SPACE AND LANDSCAPING
References
1 - A Way Propounded to Make the Poor in These and Other Nations Happy; Pieter
Corneliszoon, 1659
2 - The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities Are Increasing Inequality, Deepening
Segregation, and Failing the Middle Class-and What We Can Do About It; Richard
Florida, 2018
3 - Atlas of Emerging Practices: Being an Architect in the 21st Century; Gianpiero
Venturini, 2019

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