SCIBE Feeds

SCIBE London is delighted to be partnering with The Architecture Foundation on our open call for innovative strategies to address conditions of scarcity in the built environment!

Based on the understanding that architects and designers hold the capacity to intervene in existing social, cultural, political, economic and environmental systems in ways that may exceed the production of objects alone, teams are invited to develop a future vision for Bromley-by-Bow, the area where SCIBE London primarily works, by proposing the devices and approaches that would be needed to achieve this vision, starting now.

The Architecture Foundation and SCIBE will be holding two events in July 2012, from which collaborating teams will emerge. The process is open to anyone, and we welcome proposals from beyond the fields of architecture and design, in particular those engaged with creative approaches to socioeconomic scenarios.

For more information and to download the full briefing document and registration form please visit our project page.

Scarcity and Creativity in the Built Environment (SCIBE) is a three-year collaborative project with teams in London, Oslo and Vienna, running from 2010 to 2013 and funded by the Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA). The project explores how processes related to architecture and urban design can be improved through design-led innovation under conditions of scarcity. Scarcity is here defined as insufficiency of cultural, social or economic resources associated with the objects that make up the built environment as well as with the processes of its production, distribution, appropriation and maintenance. Scarcity in this context can be both real (things really are running out), perceived (depending on the individual’s circumstances) or constructed (through the machinations of politics, policy and the market).

SCIBE London works primarily in Bromley-by-Bow – according to the Indices of Deprivation, the city’s most deprived ward in 2007 and number nine on the list in 2010. For instance, in 2001, 61% of households in Bromley-by-Bow were from ethnic minorities (particularly immigrants from Bangladesh); 43% of people aged 16-74 had no qualifications; at 8.3%, unemployment was at almost three times the national level; and almost 70% of tenure was council housing/housing association (London Census 2001).

The contested urban territory, with many aspects of inequality manifested spatially and socially, is located in-between central London, the Canary Wharf Estate and the site of the forthcoming Olympics.

Download the full briefing document and registration form.

Based on a thorough understanding of the current conditions of real, perceived and constructed scarcity in Bromley-by-Bow (as documented on the following pages), teams are invited to develop a vision for the area in 2062, and then propose the devices and approaches that would be needed to achieve this vision starting from now. Proposals should be based on a set of ground rules:

1. Future visions should be extrapolated from and respond to conditions found on the ground in Bromley-by-Bow today (i.e., they should not be invented ab initioor be generic). This is not to put a brake on the creativity of the proposals but to contextualise it.
2. Visions should address scarcity – real, perceived and/or constructed – in a manner that mitigates its triggers, conditions and effects.
3. Visions should work more with resources (infrastructure, people, materials, etc.) that are there already rather than bringing in new stuff.
4. Focus should be more on the means, actions, devices and methods of achieving the vision than the design of it as some form of ‘solution’.
5. Proposals can be at any scale.

Download the full briefing document and registration form.

Rather than run a traditional selection competition, The Architecture Foundation and SCIBE will be holding two events in July 2012, from which collaborating teams will emerge.

[1]

During the first stage (14 May to 2 July 2012), participants will be issued with the briefing document and prepare first responses to the issues raised. A maximum of 50 individuals or teams will present their responses during EVENT ONE on 2 July 2012, as part of the London Festival of Architecture. Participants can enter on their own or with a team of their choosing. They should register their interest by completing the REGISTRATION FORM and returning it via email to scarcityandcreativity[at]gmail.com before the registration deadline, 14 June 2012. They will then receive further information regarding all remaining registration formalities.

Event One will allow for new groupings and re-grouping of people interested in each other’s work. It is designed as an informal, collaborative afternoon: participants will have a strict 200 seconds to introduce their interests and approaches to the briefing document to everyone else. The presentation may be accompanied by a maximum 10 images, but equally could take a more informal or performative format. It is important, however, that the presentation conveys a clear and personal stance in relation to the wider project. After the presentations, there will be a networking event with food and drink, during which details can be clarified, names can be exchanged and new teams of like-minded people can begin to form.

We anticipate a healthy degree of mayhem and stimulation.

[2]

All teams are invited to continue their work and prepare a more considered response to the briefing document during the second stage (3 July to 23 July 2012). Groups may be supplemented with particular expertise (i.e., members added to the team), but only those with a majority of people who attended Event One will be allowed to enter EVENT TWO, which will be held on 23 July 2012.

Each group (we anticipate around 12 groups) will have a strict ten minute slot, followed by ten minutes of questions from both the floor and the selection panel. The panel will consist of representatives of The Architecture Foundation, the SCIBE team, the Young Foundation and the local community. Based 50% on popular vote among everyone present and 50% on the selection panel’s choice, four teams will be selected to work with the SCIBE team.

[3]

During this stage, the selected teams will receive thorough feedback to help them develop their projects further. This will involve up to four structured workshops to assist in the development of ideas and provide community contacts. The competition organisers will make an effort to connect the winning teams with funding sources or other support to help them realise any of their ideas. The selected teams will be paid an honorarium of £4000.

The selected teams will be invited to present their ideas at the 3rd European Urban Summer School (TIMES OF SCARCITY – RECLAIMING THE POSSIBILITY OF MAKING, 21-30 September 2012, University of Westminster) and to exhibit and publish their work, as relevant, in SCIBE-related exhibitions and publications.

We hope the collaborative and research-based nature of the project will allow all teams and individuals to supplement their own working methods and learn new skills for their future practice.

Download the full briefing document and registration form.

14 May 2012 | Call for Entries

14 June 2012 | Registration deadline (registration form can be downloaded here).

2 July 2012 | EVENT ONE

23 July 2012 | EVENT TWO

30 July 2012 | Announcement of winning teams

August 2012 | Start of collaborative project

Download the full briefing document and registration form.

Questions regarding the Call for Collaborations can be sent to scarcityandcreativity[at]gmail.com until the registration deadline, 14 June 2012. Answers will be posted here.

SCIBE London is delighted to be partnering with The Architecture Foundation on our open call for innovative strategies to address conditions of scarcity in the built environment!

Based on the understanding that architects and designers hold the capacity to intervene in existing social, cultural, political, economic and environmental systems in ways that may exceed the production of objects alone, teams are invited to develop a future vision for Bromley-by-Bow, the area where SCIBE London primarily works, by proposing the devices and approaches that would be needed to achieve this vision, starting now.

The Architecture Foundation and SCIBE will be holding two events in July 2012, from which collaborating teams will emerge. The process is open to anyone, and we welcome proposals from beyond the fields of architecture and design, in particular those engaged with creative approaches to socioeconomic scenarios.

For more information and to download the full briefing document and registration form please visit our project page.

Last week, the Reykjavik team published an article in Fréttablaðið (the only newpaper in Iceland delivered to all households) with an illustration showing the extent of built environment in the making during six years before the crisis hit. Seeing the 24% increase in the footprint of the capital city triggered extensive blogging activity among readers, partly on facebook and partly on the blog of Hilmar Þór Björnsson – one of the most read architect bloggers in Iceland!

The SCIBE team has explored in detail the relationship between Iceland’s economic development, resource use and the built environment. Here more!

Call for international students!

The aim of the workshop is to trigger a new kind of discussion among stakeholders cultivating win-win combinations for the different actors, flows and spatial features in the Reykjavik capital area after an economic meltdown. The workshop is in cooperation with the Master-program in planning department at the Agricultural University in Reykjavik.

Several local lecturers participated at the two weeks intensive SCIBE-workshop at the Icelandic Academy of the Arts, August-September 2011. This was highly successful in bringing local resources to the fore, shifting focus for the making of an environment that has lately been thoroughly dependent on foreign resource-flows. Four different scenarios entailing basic needs – water, food, dwelling and mobility – were points of departure.

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Following Jeremy Till’s lecture at Tent City University on the steps of St Pauls in November 2011, an abbreviated version of his talk has been published in The Occupied Times of London

The SCIBE London team will host the 3rd European Urban Summer School (EUSS), in collaboration with AESOP / ECTP-CEU / IFHP / ISOCARP, at the University of Westminster, School of Architecture and the Built Environment. The EUSS, under the topic ‘Times of Scarcity: reclaiming the possibility of making‘, aims to bring together postgraduate students, emerging and experienced academics and young and established design and planning professionals from all over Europe (and further away) to develop a better understanding of some of the most pressing contemporary issues related to the built environment and to amplify and strengthen the links between planning- and design-relevant research and professional practice. Application is now open – more here!

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31 May 2012 Application deadline

15 June 2012 Notification of selected participants

31 July 2012 Final registration deadline (incl. payment of registration fee)

21-30 September 2012 3rd European Urban Summer School

The Directorate responsible for planning at the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment (I&M) is encouraging young planning professionals to provide new ideas on the forms, methods and possibilities in spatial planning needed to face present-day challenges facing our human settlements. It is therefore using the European Urban Summer School (EUSS) as the main forum to organise an International Young Planning Professionals Award (YPPA), giving them the opportunity to present their proposals on planning methods, explaining why these ideas can be considered innovative and of a broader, more general application.

The competition aims to promote innovative ideas on spatial planning in Europe and arouse thinking on the role of the urban planner in time of rapid urban transformation in economic, demographic and political terms. The theme of the competition will be decided year by year by the promoter institutions.

The theme of the YPPA in 2012 is ‘Adaptive cities: new ideas for action. Trends, perspectives and challenges of spatial development in a phase of de-growth and decline in Europe’. This will be fully in line with the theme of the 3rd EUSS, ‘Times of Scarcity- Reclaiming the Possibility of Making’, being held from 21st-30th September 2012 at the University of Westminster, London.

“De-growth is not the alternative to growth, but rather a matrix of alternatives which would open up the space for human creativity again…” (Serge Latouche)

“Large cities, major revolts” (Walter Benjamin)

Since 200 years, urbanization has been almost continuous and the processes of growth have prevailed globally. Nevertheless, during the last decade, another trend has emerged in Europe: not all cities are growing, and many face the prospect of a long-term stagnation and a process of (demographic) shrinkage. The causes of this urban decline are different: the phenomenon of de-industrialization, the process of sub-urbanization, the population decline, the economic and political transition which are taking place in the post-communist countries and the effects generated by environmental disasters. The shrinkage, such as growth, involves profound changes of the principles of urban planning perspectives and models of intervention in the territory.

The institutions have so far been able to react to the effects of the shrinkage but not to plan proactively in order to turn the decline into an opportunity. The aim of the competition is to find and evaluate new tools for spatial planning, collecting research and projects about planning on the specific aspects of the shrinkage and with a multidisciplinary and integrated approach.  Which are the distinctive characters of a shrinking city?  Can the causes be identified?  How local governments can modify existing urban and regional plans in the medium or long term to fill the gap between growth oriented policies and shrinking population and tax base? What could be the role of planners in this context? These are questions to which the new generations of planners have to answer.

An international jury will judge the proposals/entries:

Willemieke Hornis Directorate for National Spatial Planning, Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment

Piotr Lorens International Society of City and Regional Planners- ISOCARP

Derek Martin International Federation of Housing and Planning – IFHP

Izabela Mironowicz Association of European School of Planning – AESOP

Young Planning Professionals (<35 years old) are invited to participate in this competition. Admissions will be accepted for individuals from all over the world. Every copyright infringement will imply the immediate exclusion from the competition.

There will be a maximum of five prizes, consisting of free registration at the EUSS, reimbursement of travel and accommodation costs and a small cash prize.

The prizes will be awarded during the European Urban Summer School at the University of Westminster, School of Architecture and Built Environment, London UK in September 2012. The prize winners will be invited to present their works during the opening days of the EUSS.

13 April 2012……………….Online announcement

27 May 2012……………Abstracts submission deadline

4 June 2012………………..Notification of 15 selected abstracts to deliver full papers

22 July 2012……………….Full papers submission deadline

29 July 2012……………….Winners’ announcement on the website and at Ankara AESOP Congress

15 August 2012…………….Confirmation of winners’ participation in EUSS

19 August 2012…………….Confirmation of the participants from a reserved list, in case some of the winners are not able to participate in EUSS.

21-30 September 2012….European Urban Summer School

Applications (application form containing personal information and abstract) have to be submitted to scarcetimeseuss@gmail.com with “YPPA Award Application” in the subject heading no later than May 27, 2012. Applications submitted after this date will not be considered. Successful applicants will be notified by June 4, 2012.

Applications will contain:

• An abstract which describes new ideas for adaptive planning in times of shrinkage; explains the role of planner in the present situation; provides at least one project-example of adaptive planning; and demonstrates the applicability of the ideas and experiences in other European contexts.

In order to be able to evaluate the papers according to homogeneous and defined judging criteria, the submitted abstracts should reflect the following standards:

• Total length: abstracts will be limited to 6000 characters, including spaces.
• Text format: a frequent paragraph/new line separation is recommended for easier reading and quick understanding of main paper contents.
• Language: The official competition language is English. Any text written in different language will be ignored.

The abstracts themselves should not contain information about the author or any other sign of recognition, on penalty of disqualification. Please use the official application form for the submission.

After the winners’ announcement, the award winners will be asked to submit:

• A complete essay on the proposed topic describing a planned project or a project being implemented and explaining why this project is innovative, how it can be broadly applied in other situations, what the planning community as a whole can learn from different aspects of the project.
• A short presentation (ppt, pptx, pdf) that explains the essay and the project. The power point presentation should have a maximum of 15 slides.

• Innovative idea: It will be evaluated the ability to define an useful framework, developing original and creative approach for evaluating different situations and exploring principles and issues for further investigation; the ability to develop innovative perspectives for the spatial planning in Europe. The abstract can be based on an original project developed by the author or the analysis of an existing project which is relevant for the proposed theme. It is essential that the author shows an ability to analyze the chosen project in an original way.
• Applicability: It will be evaluated the ability to compare experiences at different scales and to formulate practical recommendations and learn lessons relevant for other European cases.
• Coherence: It will be evaluated the level of coherence between the theme of the competition and the ideas and experiences presented in the abstract. The abstract should fit together into a coherent whole, with an introduction of the main ideas, a review of prior research or relevant projects and conclusion. These parts should be interconnected.
• Overall quality: It will be evaluated the coherence and relevance of the abstract for the proposed competition theme; the ability to structure the ideas logically and to present the analysis, experience and recommendations in a clear and synthetic document; the critical understanding of concepts derived from practical experiences/projects and academic literature on the subject. It will be evaluated the level of clarity and coherence of the abstract.

The Jury reserves the right to not consider in the evaluation phase the abstracts that do not meet the criteria mentioned in the guidelines. The Jury’s decision is final and sovereign in order to determine the winning abstracts according to the evaluation criteria. Moreover the Jury can allocate the prize following different terms in case of ex-aequo or similar level of works.

Websites: www.aesop-planning.eu; www.ifhp.org; www.isocarp.org.

Email: g.maci@ifhp.org

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Prospective participants – Young Planning Professionals* - can apply to the 3rd European Urban Summer School by submitting their response to the following task:

• Identify one instance of ‘scarcity’ in the context of the built environment and propose a physical or process-related response.

Issues and responses may be presented as text, drawings, photographs, videos or in any other desired form. The electronic application process (via email to scarcetimeseuss@gmail.com with ‘Participant Application’ in the subject heading) will close on 31 May 2012. The selected participants will be notified by 30 June 2012. The participation fee of 200£, non-refundable and payable upon registration by 31 July 2012, will cover teaching and teaching materials (not travel or accommodation).

* A Young Planning Professional is any person involved in planning with less than 5 years of professional experience.

Experienced professionals and academics can apply to teach and tutor at the 3rd European Urban Summer School, ‘Times of Scarcity – reclaiming the possibility of making’.  The organisers will cover the costs of travel and accommodation for those travelling from outside of London.

Prospective tutors can apply by submitting their CV and a short outline of a lecture or workshop around planning, design or research that they could offer at the EUSS to scarcetimeseuss@gmail.com with ‘Tutor Application’ in the subject title.  The electronic application process will close on 1 July 2012 and selected tutors will be notified by 1 August 2012.

This year, the European Urban Summer School will be hosted by London’s University of Westminster, founded as Britain’s first polytechnic in 1838 and has developed into a hub for business, professional and academic life. The School of Architecture and the Built Environment (SABE) is one of the country’s leading centres in the field. The main partner in facilitating the EUSS is the Scarcity and Creativity in the Built Environment (SCIBE) project team.

Potential participants and tutors at the 3rd European Urban Summer School,TIMES OF SCARCITY – RECLAIMING THE POSSIBILITY OF MAKING, are encouraged to apply via email as early as possible in order to be considered (see here for details on the application process for participants and tutors). The EUSS 2012 Joint Committee (Deljana Iossifova and Jeremy Till (University of Westminster), Maros Finka (AESOP), Dominique Lancrenon (ECTP-CEU), Piotr Lorens (ISOCARP), Derek Martin (IFHP) and Izabela Mironowicz (AESOP)) will select up to 60 Young Planning Professionals and the most suitable tutors.

Based on existing research into the perception and modes of scarcity in the study area, the SCIBE team will provide EUSS tutors and participants with an in-depth briefing document identifying its economic, cultural, social and environmental assets and shortcomings. Participants will then work from a grounded understanding of contemporary issues in the study area to develop proposals for solutions and test those using long-term future scenarios.

Facilities for lectures and workshops, working space and internet access for up to 60 participants will be provided at the University of Westminster’s recently refurbished Marylebone Campus. In order to facilitate communication with the local community in the study area (Bromley-by-Bow), workshops and events will also take place in the Kingsley Hall community centre during weekends.

Apply as participant or tutor!

Times of Scarcity – Reclaiming the possibility of making…

The EUSS is an invitation – a call to arms – to engage in the quest for and development of new ways of thinking about and new tools in response to emerging issues of scarcity – a condition generally defined by the insufficiency of cultural, social or economic resources. But scarcity is about more than simple resource depletion:  it is embedded in political, social and ecological systems. How and by whom is scarcity generated, engineered, constructed and perceived? What are we, as practitioners in an urban context, to do under conditions of scarcity in the built environment? The EUSS is an invitation to reclaim the possibility of making the city in our times of scarcity.

London is the capital city of England, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. It is now considered a leading global city, the most visited city in the world and its largest financial centre. London will be the host the Summer Olympic Games 2012. In September 2012, the city – its population and infrastructure – will be beginning to recover from the Event and to cope with its legacy.

Participants in the EUSS will work and test their ideas on the case of a ‘deprived’ East London ward surrounded by highways and railway lines and located in-between central London, the Canary Wharf Estate and the Olympic site: Bromley-by-Bow. This is a contested urban territory typical of London, with many aspects of social inequality manifested spatially and socially. Sixty-one percent of households in this area are from ethnic minorities (particularly immigrants from Bangladesh); 43% of people aged 16-74 have no qualifications; unemployment is at almost three times the national level; almost 70% of tenure is council housing/housing association. The area features almost five times the national level of overcrowding and residents exhibit exceptionally poor health.

Spectacular event architecture, hastily refurbished façades in anticipation of Olympic visitors and the everyday reality of historically neglected East London all offer the context for EUSS explorations: a charged territory awaiting the engagement of young planning and design professionals and their proposals for intelligent, creative interventions.

How to apply to the EUSS as participant or tutor?

In 2010, the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) launched a new annual event: the European Urban Summer School (EUSS) for young professionals. AESOP wanted to bring together young professionals and both experienced academics and practitioners from across Europe to discuss planning issues and invited European partners from other planning organizations to cooperate in this project. All partners offered their teaching resources at European Urban Summer School. The idea was to facilitate trans-European exchange and to foster a debate on the most important planning topics. It was supposed to promote all involved actors as bodies being able to help politicians and other stakeholders in spatial development and management issues.

The European Urban Summer School is intended as a platform for debate and exchange and is run on minimum fees for participants. Tutors do not get any gratification for their work.

The first EUSS took place in Poland (2010), the second in Portugal (2011).

In 2012, the following organisations have joined the EUSS: European Council of Spatial Planners (ECTP-CEU), International Federation for Housing and Planning (IFHP), and the International Society for City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP). The event is one of the first projects within the framework of Decade of Planning 2011-2020.

Read here about this year’s topic and how to apply as participant or tutor!