Professional Studies in Architecture

A Primer

Stephen Brookhouse

• Publisher: RIBA Publishing
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000705140
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture générale

For students of architecture, this primer defines the critical subject area of professional studies which runs as a thread through the new RIBA validation criteria for Parts 1 and 2. Suitable across the whole 5-year Masters Architecture degree course, it gives students the conceptual resources and tools they need to investigate professional issues. Using short case studies that relate to the RIBA Plan of Work, it bridges the gap between the needs of the student and the overly technical information sources used by practicing professionals.

1
Setting the Scene

Introduction

Design is the architect’s core activity and we deploy our design skills to create buildings, structures and settings that people use and enjoy. At the end of the day it is the product that we stand back and critically evaluate or admire. This includes its physical properties – how it responded to the site and its context – how it performs in response to environmental conditions – heat, wind and rain. But what about the processes that took place that we cannot see that led to the physical product? How did the design respond to political, social and historical factors and Society’s views of what it will accept – some of which may conflict with what the architect intended? These may have more influence on your design than the physical environment. How did a team of people come together to transform the design into a physical reality? How were they organised? How was the creative design process, which you know can be ill-defined and difficult to explain, managed in a way that satisfied the key stakeholders in the project – the client and the users? How did the project team manage the risky processes of construction? There is a product and there is a process but what characterises the knowledge, skills and professionalism of the key players – and the architect in particular – in this process? This book aims to explore and answer these questions and in doing so illuminate the processes that all contribute to successful architectural design and the construction of the built environment.

Professional studies in architecture, as a subject, often sits awkwardly with the core work in the design studio. The subject is frequently taught as sets of rules that are to be followed and a view of the architectural profession that bear little relation to your experience or your studio work. Although this book does not promise to fully integrate the subject areas with your design work it does aim to make the topics accessible in a way that is relevant to your work both in the studio and the early years in architectural practice. It does this in two ways: first, by explaining the context of each topic – and how seemingly impenetrable obstacles to building design have evolved due to social and political pressures as a set of invisible and changing constraints; and second, by acting as a filter for what is a very complex, detailed and evolving subject area. There is a trade-off between making the topic accessible and making it comprehensive. Therefore each chapter is intended as an introduction to the context and principles that govern each topic. Once you understand these you can then more confidently drill down to the detail covered in the main points of reference cited at the end of each chapter that practicing architects will routinely refer to.

The topics that comprise professional studies as a subject area have not been brought together before in one place nor been discussed and explained in this way. In explaining the context of each topic the aim is also to create links between subjects where relevant, rather than discuss them as separate ‘stand-alone’ subjects. For example, the concept of ‘safety’ in design, construction and building occupation has been a major concern of Society for centuries but has emerged as a fragmented set of different rules and regulations. The design of the urban and rural environment has developed in two very distinctive ways: how to stimulate and control development and how to preserve our heritage and quality of life.

To introduce the key themes of the book I want to take you on a short imaginary journey – a mini architectural tour. None of the buildings are particularly important or memorable but the journey raises questions that give a context to the topics discussed in the book. You can perhaps think of the book as an ‘app’ – a voice that gives many of the answers to the questions on the journey, that will help to also raise relevant questions giving appropriate answers to the unseen constraints that act on your design decisions and the processes and professionalism required to make your designs a reality.

HERE WE GO…

I am standing on a ridge in the Chilterns – part of a rough semi-circle of hills about 50 kilometres to the north of central London. I am surrounded by countryside – most of it is used for agriculture but some of it is set aside for recreation – rambling primarily. Looking along the ridge I can also see a monument to long-forgotten wars, The Boer Wars, fought in another hemisphere. Why do we remember it and does it have a significance other than remembering past losses?

THE BOER WARS WERE A CATALYST FOR SOCIAL CHANGE – ESPECIALLY HOUSING AND LAID THE FOUNDATIONS FOR MODERN TOWN PLANNING LEGISLATION.

The monument sits surrounded by land owned by the National Trust – an organisation that cares for and protects some of our heritage. Why is this ‘open-access’ land privately owned?

THE NATIONAL TRUST GREW OUT OF A PRESSURE GROUP IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY IN RESPONSE TO THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. IT HAS MORE MEMBERS THAN ALL OUR POLITICAL PARTIES COMBINED.

Beyond the monument I can see the silhouette of a ‘barrow’, a large ancient burial mound, grazed by sheep. Built by our ancestors these massive earthworks are some of the first major man-made interventions in the landscape: its historical value is now largely forgotten and its purpose misunderstood. Is this protected too?

IT IS AN ‘ANCIENT MONUMENT’ – A RELIC OF OUR PAST, PRESERVED BY THE GOVERNMENT FOR THE NATION. THE ACT OF PROTECTION – ONE OF THE EARLIEST EXAMPLES IN THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY OF STATE INTERVENTION TO PRESERVE THE PAST – BUT CONVENTION AT THE TIME SAW THE BARROW AS AN OBJECT IN AN OPEN-AIR MUSEUM RATHER THAN AN ENVIRONMENT TO BE PRESERVED. IT TOOK MANY YEARS BEFORE THE ‘ATMOSPHERE’ OF THE PLACE BECAME SUFFICIENTLY VALUABLE TO PRESERVE.

Looking the other way all I can see are fields and woodland dotted with small villages with large churches – their towers standing out. Nearby is a small ancient quarry, now pasture – but fenced in – with signs and interpretation panels telling us that it is now home to rare wild orchids. Is it also protected?

YES, IT IS AN AREA OF ‘SITE OF SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC INTEREST (SSSI)’. IT IS VALUED FOR ITS ECOLOGY AND HABITAT.

And why, when London is not far away by road or train is there little housing or other development?

YOU ARE STANDING IN THE ‘METROPOLITAN GREEN BELT’ – AN AREA AROUND LONDON AND OTHER MAJOR CITIES THAT OWE ITS ORIGINS TO CONCERN IN THE 1930S ABOUT UNCHECKED URBAN SPRAWL AND LED TO WIDESPREAD PROTECTION OF RURAL AREAS FROM DEVELOPMENT OF ANY KIND OTHER THAN AGRICULTURE.

The ridge borders an agricultural plain. Nearby, to the north, about 10 kilometres away I can see a small market town, Aylesbury. In the middle on a small hill sits a church, St Mary’s – I can see its tower. Jumping in my car, (there is no public transport to speak of) I drop down to the plain and head towards the town.

As I get closer the road is bordered by non-descript semi-detached houses built in the 1930s. They are only one house deep with fields beyond.

THIS IS THE TYPE OF URBAN SPRAWL OR ‘RIBBON DEVELOPMENT’ THAT LED TO THE GREEN BELTS. FURTHER DEVELOPMENT IS NOW CLOSELY CONTROLLED BY LEGISLATION.

As I get into the town I get snarled up in traffic. In the middle there is a ring road – impossibly close to the town centre – that cuts the town in two. It is a dual carriageway that forms a circle with roundabouts at key junctions and cuts through the pattern of streets and houses. Why was this built and why is it so close to the town?

THE RING ROAD WAS BUILT IN THE 1960S IN RESPONSE TO GREATER CAR OWNERSHIP AND THE SUBSEQUENT TRAFFIC CONGESTION. IT USED THE TEMPLATES SET OUT IN AN INFLUENTIAL BOOK PUBLISHED IN THE EARLY 1960S – ‘TRAFFIC IN TOWNS’ – THAT IMPORTED AN AMERICAN MODEL OF SEGREGATED CIRCULATION, TRAFFIC GRIDS AND NODES AIMED AT KEEPING TRAFFIC MOVING IN URBAN AREAS. BY SEPARATING PEDESTRIANS AND TRAFFIC ROAD SAFETY WOULD ALSO BE IMPROVED. THE NEW TRAFFIC ROUTES ALSO AIMED TO CREATE BOUNDARIES AND OASES THAT WOULD PRESERVE THE ATMOSPHERE AND VIBRANCY OF TOWN CENTRES. TOWNS AND CITIES JUMPED ON THE BANDWAGON – AND THE LEGACY CAN BE SEEN IN THE WAY THE URBAN LANDSCAPE HAS BEEN CARVED UP AND STREET PATTERNS DESTROYED IN THE HOPE OF KEEPING TRAFFIC MOVING.

Crossing the dual carriageway that cuts through the town I struggle to find a parking place in the multi-storey car park but having got there and back on foot I can walk up the High Street past the charity shops and estate agents windows. Where have all the ‘real’ shops gone?

THEY HAVE BEEN DISPLACED OR CLOSED DOWN AS A RESULT OF THE EDGE-OF-TOWN SHOPPING CENTRES WITH AMPLE PARKING – AN EXAMPLE OF HOW THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT PLANNING SYSTEM CAN FACILITATE GROWTH AND CHANGE BUT ALSO HAVE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES.

Climbing towards the church I enter an area of calm and quiet – the streets are too narrow to take too much traffic. Is this one of the oases envisaged by Traffic in Towns and has the traffic zoning worked?

YES, IT PROBABLY HAS WORKED – BUT LOOK CLOSER.

The scale and age of the housing around the church and its churchyard are very different. The streetscape is primarily made up of housing – with some offices in what were houses, a pub or two and a few small corner shops selling most things that you need. Although when you look closely there is considerable variety in style and scale. There is a sense of continuity and history – all the properties were built at least a hundred years ago and some must go back to the seventeenth century. Some of the houses and the rectory by the church in particular stand out as being well-designed. The area seems frozen in time. There are no neon street signs or modern buildings. This may be an oasis but why are there so few – if any – new buildings? It must be possible to pl...