TrustNews Mar 20
Sandys Lecture
The Civic Voice — 21 January 2020 at Senate House, University of London
Laura Sandys introduced lvan Harbour as a “rock star" in the field of architecture but, today, without his guitar! Be that as it may, Ivan is an architect and senior partner at Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners and twice winner of the prestigious Stirling Prize, for Terminal 4 at Barajas Airport, Madrid, in 2006 and Maggie's West London, a cancer support centre, in 2009. Alongside high-end projects he also involves himself with low- cost housing issues and promoting mixed-use civic redevelopment.
Ivan Harb0ur's lecture took us at a breathless pace through the topics that most concerns him beginning with a cri de coeur about the state of things architectural: the loss of streets and social housing; a suburban tree-for-all where developers (not an architect in sight or on site) encroach on the green-belt; the building of spread-out estates with no sense of urban planning; houses that mimic eclectic vernacular styles that meet certain tastes; densities that allow for one car per bedroom! The image of king penguins huddled together neatly summed up lvan's ideas about increasing housing density which he felt might be answered by a return to terraced building where close proximity leads to better community since everyone knows each other. He emphasised also the importance of mixed-use areas, business and residential, as these make places with social and economic benefits, giving Poundbury as a good example of this - though he admitted the architectural styles were possibly not to everyone’s taste!
Ivan felt that meeting constraints and embracing technical challenges inspire architects, and a project that he was obviously proud of was one that involved a restricted brown-field site on a long disused part of dookland overlooking Sydney Harbour. Despite attendant difficulties that added expense, his high-rise block of a zero-carbon design with apartments above and shops and cafes below, the control of one developer, with recycling and being car-free, created a successful, popular meeting place. The slides testified to an attractive, buzzy, busy area full of life, regenerated from a hitherto dead, neglected suburb of Sydney. Ivan feels that utilising brown-field sites has particular value in the cityscape, citing part of West Kensington, in partnership with Transport for London, for a mixed housing development, and another project in Tower Hamlets where the old, disused gas-holders were harnessed as shells that when opened up gave new interesting spaces in a re-designed residential area. On the outskirts of Florence he redeveloped an area that brought together small, undistinguished and untidy suburban settlements to become a whole community with a grand new piazza as its proud focal point, now re-named Scandicci.
The importance of adding value through patronage involving local collaboration with the council met with success in Hammersmith with the re-development of their old Town Hall. (lvan said that when they used to have their studio in Hammersmith there was little communication, if any!). Ruthlessly inclusive of all groups of stakeholders and with their consensus, the zero-carbon development offered a new Town Hall on top of the old, a town square, pedestrian access, a residential street with ground floor start-up units, 52% affordable housing, open access for all services and a marketable office block to generate income. Could a lesson be learned here?
Building better by improving construction methods, accounting for environment, energy considerations, conservation and flexibility could be resolved by modular construction methods which offered an easier, less costly means of maintaining existing communities. The Lewisham Council scheme for homeless families with pre-fabricated balconied unit blocks of 24 opening onto airy communal spaces, that also provided entrepreneurial units, seemed a way forward to meet urgent housing and employment needs. He felt such flexibility within a place gave more opportunity for an appropriate response and should be considered in the future.
Ivan Harbour’s stimulating talk was copiously illustrated with slides to emphasize the numerous points made. Much of his work can be seen on various websites under his name and that of his practice, which incidentally is in the Shard
Arthur Morgan