23 10 310 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/3e93200ae4698dfbcef7803ee18bb5df.pdf dfd052f301f373b7df9234507ba78f13 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Education Description An account of the resource Many NAM members were engaged in the field of architectural education, either as staff or students, and pursued new ideas for course content and pedagogy, reassessing existing course structures and priorities in conventional architectural training. The concern to focus on socially necessary buildings and to find new and meaningful ways of engaging with building users and the wider community- both central NAM themes - illuminated much of the discussion. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Education : Discussion Paper Subject The topic of the resource 2 sides Description An account of the resource When the Education Group was working on the paper for the Blackpool Conference we were concerned with providing a critique of the arch-= itectural education scene and a set of proposals for change within it as a springboard for action rather than as a conjuring up of a utopic vision of what the ideal school of architecture might be like. Aware of the dangers of falling into the "manifesto trap" and creating there= by an elaborate and imaginary system of rules for reform, the need for an independent voice in education seemed clear enough, and that the professional and educational bodies which regulate the process of ed- ucation could not be counted upon for producing the changes we thought were necessary in order to overcome their drift and inertia and stake in maintaining the status quo. The question this raises is that of what NAM's role can be within the educational debate. Looking at it from the students' point of view, NAM's general outlook can perhaps be useful. Students are both users of the educational system and workers within it, and in common with users and workers elsewhere they often have little chance to articulate their experience within the system or do anything to effect their circumstances. Thus surely NAM's aim of “radicalising the consciousness of the profession" should extend also to the individual student and educational scene generally- and as a radical movement it ought to attempt to provide the structure to consolidate and unite student and staff criticism in order to present a coherent alternative policy based on a direct contact with the schools and a variety of student/ staff opinion in them. Nevertheless, we need not be moved by the prospect of an incipient NAM Student and Schools organisation into an attitude of waiting to see what everyone thinks before we come out in favour of one position or another. To date we have noted our dissatisfaction with the conflict that exists between educational ideals and professional and organisational require- ments. With regard to education, John Hajnal notes in his book "The Stu- dent Trap"' that the sheer morass of regulations which university and college curricula become bogged down in, and their preoccupation with such nebulous concepts as "performance" and "assessability" mitigate against a concern for educational ideals and mark a tendency to adopt systems of administrative ease rather than systems geared to the needs of the individual student, and likewise that the adoption of standards themselves and means whereby students can be assessed on a common level reduce the educational content of courses. The maintenance of such notions as rigid curricula which are laid down in advance of a two-or three years' course and in which students do not have a choice between options must by now be indefensible for they provide a straight jacket designed for a mythical and non-existent average student. Courses must be allowed to be more responsive to student criticism and encourage a questioning of professional attitudes, for in a changing society it is willful to persist in an attitude of "no-change" in education. Similarly, we must note that in terms of the structure of the profession Parts I & II and RIBA course requirements for recognition fit into the same ideological framework as the Feegeale and Registration Act; thay are concerned with a profession which seeks to limit the variety of people who enter into it and maintain a "professional monopoly" over its patch. Thus we have concluded that in order to allow for a greater freedom for both students and a wider variety of courses, it will be necessary to seek for a relaxation of the controls that exist at present. In doing so we need to overcome the discontinuity between teorey and practice - between academic qualiftations and the acquisition of technical skills in order to avoid being caught between the extremes of a general approach which attempts to cover everything and succeeds in covering little in depth and that of a harrow over=specialisation which produces the inability to view the problems of architecture in their totality. Yet in terms of education we are also dealing with less easily definable concepts such as notions on what constitutes good design. We should not let such labellings as "design competence"! obfuscate the primary coal of the educational process as being the training of the Student not merely to enter a profession, but to design pleasing and Stimulating enviroments; to question the basic nature of his training and assunp= tions and attitudes towards design. The flaw in the NAM outlook which we should not be afraid to admit to is that eventually the issues of architecture are unquantifyable, in that one can envisage circumstances more ideal than the present in which the political structure of the pro= fession and our society generally could be more sympathetic towards the induction of an architecture of quality rather than Quantity, but that one nevertheless cannot simply through political changes guarantee this. The educational context is the one in which the philosophical and qual- itative aspects of design should be most strongly pursued and least frustrated by the mediation of technique, profession and theories about what educational theorey ought to be about. Nevertheless we must not forget that in architectural education, we find also the first link in the chain of alienation between architects and "the people"; that an abstract and disembodied view of architecture rather than a specific and human one, is the one which most students come across. For the student may emerge from his training without ever gaining any contact with the people who will be effected by his or her ideas; and certainly such notions as accountability to the user seldom permeate to the academic level. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource NAM Education Group Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Allan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Undated https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/9030ff5d04eac2bfcf238734ca9493ff.pdf ed4e598a42c56a79e9bc6ba83b4c1c28 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Education Description An account of the resource Many NAM members were engaged in the field of architectural education, either as staff or students, and pursued new ideas for course content and pedagogy, reassessing existing course structures and priorities in conventional architectural training. The concern to focus on socially necessary buildings and to find new and meaningful ways of engaging with building users and the wider community- both central NAM themes - illuminated much of the discussion. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Education and the Profession Subject The topic of the resource 5 pp report for Conference Workshop (2nd Congress assumed) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource NAM Education Group Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Allan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1976 Description An account of the resource One of the underlying themes of the New Architecture Movement is that the kind of architecture we possess is governed more by political and economic factors than by such notions as taste, aesthetics and social conscience. Further that we work within a self—interested rather than disinterested profession, the structure of which is such that the maintenance of its privileged position within society overrides its potential social usefulness. In the educational context this split between ideals and practice manifests itself in the contradiction that exists between the traditional role of the educational process in terms of imparting knowledge and learning, to stimulate understanding and discourse and the use of it as a means of preparing students to enter a particular career. Or to put it bluntly there can be a world of diff— erence between learning about architecture and following the require— ments of a degree course, and that architecture may be about something else. Following on from this, the nature of architectural education tends to have less to do with encountering the specific problems of architecture, and on the contrary takes its lead more from the require— ments of its controlling political forces. Thus when we talk of arch— itectural education we are trying to look at something balanced between two powerful institutions each with its own structure, allegances, in— terests and mythologies; the educational heirarchy in the form of the universities and polytechnics on the one hand, and the "profession" of architecture on the other. Nevertheless, it is increasingly a difficult balance to maintain, for the problems of education can be seen as aris— ing from the conflict of interests inherent in the different character— istics of each. Moreover, it is a conflict that tends to find its res— olution in the form of a "sell—out" of educational ideals and standards in the name of professionalism. The "de—schooling" arguments of Ivan 111 ich certainly outline the prob— lern, in emphasising the difference involved between ' 'skill teaching" and what he calls "liberal education", or the "open—ended exploratory use of acquired skills". He demonstrates how the one is measurable, can be learnt from anyone who has that skill; in the manner of for example, learning a language or learning to drive a car, whilst the other can be termed as education for inventive and creative behaviour. Most schools of architecture obviously try to encompass both aspects of learning, yet in arriving at a compromise between the two they invar— iably fail to do particularly well in either. Thus instead of arguing on whether students should learn the skills involved in archi tecture first, and then be allowed to go on to create or visa versa, we must indeed question whether the schools are the best places to achieve both of these aims of learning in the first place. So, if one can learn a skill from anyone who hac that skill, an architectural student can learn to draw from thousands of architects and technicians; he can learn build inc construction from thousands of builders, and so on. Infact in— directly he does, for a tremendous amount of what we learn, we learn casually, and not as a result of programmed instruction. Why then must the student be forced into a situation where he is told to learn things he could learn better elsewhere? And why is anyone surprised when he does not learn them? Education then creates its own myths which tend to reduce a discussion of the subject away from fundamentals conviction that towards our educational a technical institutionscode which engenders the complacent provide around the only such solutions issues as to the course problems content, of learning. the desirability Thus discussionof lec— centres tures as opposed exclusion to seminars, of all else. or exams We as have opposed consequently to continual built all assess—this ment, or into is a disunited to system the which and ineffectual. is somehow so Student solid that criticism all protest is dismissed becomes as futile being, of small value simply by virtue of the fact that each student is there for only 3 or 5 years; certainly not long enough to guarantee change within a system which moves slowly if at all. So it is that one of the most powerful of arguments placed in the path of student action and participation in education, intake is the will need be to followed demonstrate through that and the taken reformsad— demanded by one particular vantage of by the next. Furthermore, students are generally on their own in the action they take. It is usually seen within the context of a spec if ic situation within a specific school or university. It is isolated, lacking in support and in solidarity from amongst the students themselve Yet many student criticisms of schools of architecture, such as unfair assessments (or criticism hardened into judgement) too much pseudo aca— demic activity, too many staff waiting for retirement and who have lost touch and yet remain impossible to unseat, poor quality of teaching, innovation discouraged by glib references to RIBA course requirements, and school heads a law unto themselves, are not unique to architectural students, and in many respects are little different from the criticisms level led generally against our entire further education system. Never— theless, the relationship of architectural education to the profession is such that these problems become amplified by the addition of others general to the profession itself. For this reason it is just possible that the question of student action within architecture is an academic one in the first place. Architectural students are not renowned for their militancy or willingness to stick their necks out for some cause. Nor are qualified architects either. Thus somewhere along the line we have all been conned into thinking that there is something else at stake; something which places us apart from other groups of students or professional workers and which makes ours t a special case. Using an ideological shorthand, one way of looking at this problem is to talk about the "professional and elitist myth" which pervades the education and practice of architecture. The sheer length of time it takes to train as an architect and the number of academic and professional qualifications involved in doing so, is such that we are all causally implicated in maintaining the status quo. For the myth of the competance of the profession exists in order that those who use its knowledge and skills may remain dependant on it; moreover, it hides the profession's inability to cope with the problems of our enviroment. The force on architectural education is therefore one which attempts to re— create within each student a sense of its mystique. This is reflected in most schools in the continual emphasis on professionalism; of pres— entation in terms of speech, behaviour, drawings, the preparation of briefs for students' schemes and in criticism. From the beginning the aim is to concentrate the student's attention on professional trivia, rather than at any stage allow him to come to terms with why he is there at all. Surely this is from the onset one of the largest stumbling blockij in the way of any attempt to reform or change the profession, and which enables us to have an interest in opposing anything which makes it easiel for people to become architects by coming up through the "trade", or which allows a relaxation of academic entry requirements. Thus the pre— dominantly middle class nature of the profession is maintained, and in the office this manifests itself in the two—tier structure that exists between qualified architects and the technicians. Education consequently plays itc part in dividing the profession and in excluding from its ranks large form the numbers same of tasks.skilled and underpaid technicians, who can and do per— Educational autonomy in architecture is thus less certain than in many other disciplines. The realities of RIBA recognition of decree courses and control via its educational section is such that the profession is committed to controlling the education of architects, thereby putting every student in the impossible situation of having to prove his worth to a profession which has restricted his education in the first place. Furthermore, the nature of the educational heirarchy is such that it is self—perpetuating and reinforces the structure and characteristics of the profession by inculcating its values into students from the onset of their academic careers. If one is dissatisfied with the quality of architecture today, then surely the malaise in architecture must stem from a malaise in educational practice, and the manner in which it tends to limit itself solely to functional and technical considerations, with— out reference to the aesthetic, social and politic? 1 implications of architecture. Thus many schools still remain comrnitted to the well—worn dogmas of Eauhaus rhetoric in a period in which its products are increas— inc-Iy under fire for the simplictic and general approach to design that :he" have come to represent to the popular imagination. "Value judcement" is still a dirty word in some places where staff labour under the mig— apprehension that a building well—detailed or which conforms to "func— t ional desicn criteria" is a building well designed. Inspite of having lower staff—student ratios, better equipment and more nomey available than at any other period in the history of architectural education, many schools still fail to provide the kind of stimulating background essential for learning. The best many students can expect are the fac— ilities to involve themselves in their own work whilst trying as hard as possible to make what they are interested in fit in with what their tutors consider they should be interested in. Or else the schools fail in their attempt to provide a "general" education which combines both the sciences and humanities in their outlook. For in seeking to please everyone they fail ultimately through producing an architectural education determined by Committee, creating as a result an education "by lowest common denom— inator". 2here are too few brave or innovatory spirits in education today who are prepared to take the risk to create a stimulating laboratory o: ideas recenerative to the profession. Instead of seeking new and alter— native paths we operate in an atmosphere of "degree—factory", intent on producing architects who have been socialised into accepting the "mores" and values of the profession as a whole. If we wish our architectural education to be more closely related to the needs of etudents and of the individual people for whom they intend to design, any changes must take into consideration the influences of the educational and professional institutions. They must loosen the hold of the traditional teaching establishments, so that skills may be learnt from anyone and everyone who has the ability to teach and demonstrate them, and they must loosen the power of the profession so that the rel— ationship between users and designers is no longer clouded by the myth of professional expertise and competance. ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT EDUCATION GROUP Frances Bradshaw David Somervell Andrew Fekete PROPOSALS FOR ACTOONg 2 Enable a wider group than at present to become the designers of the buildings around us. 3 1.1 Reform gchoolg' intake requirements. Portfolio, demonstrated practical experience and motivation to be major selection criteria. Relegate academic qualifications; i.e. A—levels, to a secondary position. 1+ 1.2 Discourage the school—leaver deferred strongly from entering case.straight into schools of architecture; places in every 1.3 Encourage mature students from every sphere to pursue a course in architecture. Carpenters, jewelry designers, site agents, brickies, graphic designers, artists, HND, OND, all to be considered along with the present typical intake. Part-time and non—standard, (i.e. timid-career") courses to be an in— tegral part of the school. 5 1.5 Special entry facilities between to schools be used of more architecture fully. and indeed from othe 6 Encourage trangfer disciplines and crafts. 1.6 Remove the archaic ruling, whereby a transferring student must obtain "permission" from his former head to enrol elsewhere. Direct transfer to be facilitated without penalty o? repeated years. 1.7 Entrance to be determined by a full representative panel drawn from the whole school community. A system of appeal to full school council. 1.8 A more intensive three .years to be the basic length of study. App— lication for higher study to be determined in a similar fashion to in— itial entry. All these acknowledge that the architect's work covers an extrem— ely wide field and the aim is thug to introduce a correspondingly varied group into the schools. 2 Ensure a more dynamic outlook from the staff in the schools. C 2.1 Tutors must be predominantly drawn from the world of the practice of their skills. 2.2 Re—assess the value of "specialist" teaching staff + facilities. Does a school really need a full time acoustician, colour psychologist, or wind tunnels and so on? Remove the academic window dressing! 1 2.3 Appointments to be made by a full representative panel drawn from the whole school community. A system of appeal to full school council. 2.4 Appointments to be of only 3 or 5 year tenure. Headships where applic— able on the same terms; to rid the ech0016 of the system of sinecure. 2.5 Encourage part—time and visiting tutors. These aim to reduce the debilitating stagnation inherent in our present authoritarian system of sinecure, hierarchy and privilege , and engure an adaptable staff more appropriate to a learning as opposed to a teaching enviroment. The school as a resource centre. Remove any pretence that the schools can produce "The Architect". Dig—establish the schools. Remove the control now veeted in central bodies and the local architectural establishment. Discontinue reg— istration. Encourage the full use of schools and their resources by local comm— associations, unity groups. enviromental These might include: groups and tenants' go on.co—operatives, amenity Schools to be accountable to the local community. Those groups it serves to be amongst the wide range of interests represented on an open forum. This forum to have the important function of stiumulating, informing and of reacting to the aims and achievements of the school. The emergent Schools of Architecture Council, once freed of its negative, determining policing role to act as a federation bringing schools to— tether to share common intereste and to develop free exchanges of people and ideas. This federation is to relate to and to be funded by each school's forum, so involving the widest possible spectrum in a contin— '-ting diologue. The whole school community to be responsible for the nature of the courses within and the activities generated by each school. Thus the reputation and respect for a school will rest with the collective out— look and aspirations of all involved within the school community. All executive decisions to be taken by a representative council directly accountable to the school community. Decision—makins on policy, proposals for introduction of specific pro— jects, internal management, student + staff intake, all to be an integral part of the learning experience in the life of the school. The reformed administrative staff, freed of their onerous policing and checking tasks, to service a network akin to Illich's "Ekill—exchance centres They must relate the needs and aspirations of individual Btu— dents to the inspiration and abilities of tutors such that groups come together which are matched appropriately to problems and projects pro— posed in the school 'B forum. Structure the courses within the schools to enable all mose from the wider intake to grasp and develop the skills an architect deploys. These must allow for part—time students and staff, married folk and those with other commitments. Abandon the hidebound notion of "year" banding and instigate vertical projects wherein groups of different outlook and experience can inter— act. Tutors joining these courses would merely offer their grea ter ex— perience and maturity to the learning process. Use the educational potential of the schools' immediate built enviroment to the full: — real experience on building sites, and in the study of the building process — ongoing studies of building performance: failures, inadequacies as well as exemplars. — socio—political studies in support of and leading to actual build— inc projects. — small works projects. — public and private response to buildings in use. These aim at democratisinc and de—institutionalisinc the schools as they are now: to provide an active and involved learning exper— ience. https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/a114c9fc0437cb74ba5d62926965d909.pdf 7fe162720c4893a762b4494a7e6a47ec Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Feminist Group Description An account of the resource This developed a feminist agenda within the NAM critique. Alongside feminist consciousness raising and other feminist political groups, women within NAM came together to develop a feminist understanding of the built environment and building industry. The group acted to advise women in a range of campaigning issues. A special issue of Slate on feminism was produced in July/ August 1978. Emerging from the group was a' Feminist Design Collective' which became ‘Matrix' in 1980, producing the book ‘Making Space - Women and the Manmade Environment', which has been on architecture booklists for 35 years, and the design practice and Technical Aid Centre. <br /><br />The majority of this archive is held at the <a href="http://www.matrixfeministarchitecturearchive.co.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bishopsgate Institute</a>. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource WOMEN AND SPACE Conference Programme Subject The topic of the resource Conference Programme WOMEN AND SPACE (2 pages) : Feminist Anthropology, Architecture and Community Description An account of the resource 1.00 p.m.: Lunch break. 2.00 pie SJ. 1b) i 1d) 19 Soe OPW) 2._ 30: Workshops. ————ee . Design Workshop (Anne Thorne). 445: Discussion. . Weekend \ehbol , Caxton House, 129 St John's Way, London N 19 (Archway tube) Admit One (£2 paid) KATE YOUNG ' Vib VENNESS ~ WOMEN AN SPACE aeee feminist architecture, antthitopology and community Saturday 10, Sunday 11 March - 10 am prompt to 5.30 pm each’ day | . Re ie”ag ee EG | j for women's solidarity of these different kinds of urban locality. is from the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex University; a is a social anthropologist. She will say a few words on the effectu which the installation of piped water had on women's social life in a village in Mexico in which she did her field-work. = ,poaweA WA - pofrrervere 1 ly Ay?) 2 we af Veep mind Brattonafcrew « DENISE ARNOLD ” is a practising architect, and will look at the influence of design guides in reinforcing the privatisation of the nuclear family and the isolation and oppression of women within the context of mass housing. chairs the Housing Committee of the Islington (Labour) Council, and has been an active campaigner for working-class women's rights for a number of years. She will be discussing the practical difficulties which she has faced both inside and outside the council aS planning and architectural policies have changed within the area in recent times. PEGGY LAGLE is a N.U.P.E. shop-steward and women's representative on Greenwict. Trades Council. She will say a few words on “What kind of housing Etc like to see", particularly in the light of her experience living ina 30 year-old 8—storey block of flats. ite sasDa CN! i aes problems and Housing since the nineteenth century (Julienne Hanson). The political struggle for good: housing (Val Venness). Cuba: community, buildings, living and working spaces (Dr. Mo Mowlan). History and women's spaces’ (Susan House as an image of self-psychological perception (Claire Cooper). Design Guides, co-ops, creches, society co-operative dwellings {Sarah Strong). . Walker). ~AMFWh ere) 18 uF Sunday: 10.00 a.i.: SUSAN WALKER is an archaeologist at one: of the major London museums, participating in the preparation of an exhibition on everyday life in classical antiquity. She will be looking atywomen and physical space in antiquity, both in ceremonial and domestic life. JULIENNE HANSON will talk on developments in housing forms since the nineteenth century. She will be looking at life in traditional urban streets and in their modern counterparts~--high-density, high-rise estates and low-density ,.ldow=rise suburbs——-and will be examining the consequences for- women's solidarity of these-different kinds of unban locality. KATE YOUNG is from the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex University, ava is a social anthropologist. She will say a few words on the effects which the installation of piped water had on women's social life in a village in Mexico in eee did her Pield-wopk ee : POU seein — pptwevt -e { yng, fend May) Yo aif wee mut Bir afar af srowTy « DENISE ARNOLD ” is a practising architect,’ and will look at the influence of design guides in reinforcing the privatisation of the nuclear family and the isolation and oppression of women within the context of mass housing. > as ViL VENNESS 4 chairs the Housing Committee of the Islington (Labour) Council, and has been an active campaigner for working-class women's rights for a number of years. She will be discussing the practical problems and difficulties which she has faced both inside and outside the council @S planning and architectural policies have changed within the area in recent times. PEGGY EAGLE is.a N.U.P.E. shop=steward and women's representative on Greenwictk Trades.Council. She will say a few words on “What kind of housing I'd like to see", particularly inthe Light of her experience living in a 30 year-old 8-storey block of flats. 1.00 p.m.: Lunch break. 2.00 p.m. Soe Des SH OW 2.30: Workshops. Housing since the nineteenth century (Julienne Hanson). The political struggle for good*housing (Val Venness). Cuba: community, buildings, living and working spaces (Dr. Mo Mowlan). History and women's spaces’ (Susan Walker). House as an image of self-psychological perception (Claire Cooper), Design Guides, co-ops, creches, society co-operative dwellings (Sarah Strong). . . . Design Workshop (Anne Thorne). | anW> Whe '. 10.00 a.m.: ANN BLISS 2,00 p.m, P\fZ EROGRAMME Saturday: 1.00 p.m.: Lunch break. WOMEN AND SPACE; Feminist Anthropology, Architecture ana Community. Weekend School: March 10-11, 1979. SHIRLEY ARDNER CLATRE COOPER 1. Women: and Builders (lea by Krystyna Domanska). 2. Women in Housing Co-ops (Seeenany 3. The St. Francis Sq. Case Study (Claire Cooper). 4. Women and Space (dulienne Hanson, Bill Hillier). 2. Women, Space and Human Evolution (Denise Arnold, Chris Knight). 6. Defining Female (Shirley Ardner),. ; £.00 poms: SHOESWRING THEATRE: "HOUSEWORK", tL will be looking at present-day housing from the standpoint of her own personal experience as.a woman with two young children and as qa social work assistant, and will talk about why she has, found anthropological knowledge concerning women in other cultures relevant.! BILL HILLIER and JULIENNE HANSON and teaching on the comparative study of architecture and spatial organizatioinn different cultures, BILL HILLIER will look at the social forces behind changes in urban Space which have taken place in the twentieth century. He will suggest a framework for discussing the relationship between the built environment and forms of community. JULIENNE HANSON will sketch an overview. of how different societies organize the relationships between men and women in space, suggesting how the organization of space can be used in weakening or strengthening women's solidarity. iS a social anthropologist at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford. Her topic will be ‘Defining Female'—-the title of a book which she has recently edited, and which was sponsored by the Oxford University Women's Studies Committee. trained in &eography and urban planning, has worked as a planner and researcher in Britain, Sweden, Fuerto Rico and the USA, She is now Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture and Landscape at Berkeley. She will be talking about St. Francis Sq., a case study of an inner city multi-racial housing co-operative in San Francisco, both as researcher and as resident, i Pee Pay 4.00 p.m.: Workshops. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource NAM Feminist Group Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Murray Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 10-11 March 1979 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/db7e42d171efce2e86ec1a3796030199.pdf 8adcd7600e7651b0413ddb5d7e541884 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Feminist Group Description An account of the resource This developed a feminist agenda within the NAM critique. Alongside feminist consciousness raising and other feminist political groups, women within NAM came together to develop a feminist understanding of the built environment and building industry. The group acted to advise women in a range of campaigning issues. A special issue of Slate on feminism was produced in July/ August 1978. Emerging from the group was a' Feminist Design Collective' which became ‘Matrix' in 1980, producing the book ‘Making Space - Women and the Manmade Environment', which has been on architecture booklists for 35 years, and the design practice and Technical Aid Centre. <br /><br />The majority of this archive is held at the <a href="http://www.matrixfeministarchitecturearchive.co.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bishopsgate Institute</a>. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource BUILDING A FUTURE FOR WOMEN IN ARCHITECTURE Subject The topic of the resource NAM Feminist Group Poster Description An account of the resource oe} >) ce PeAADC ECC| SNOV-ZASSINA SAWIGLA BAM ERVIN REE TIM) Le’ : 5 : 4 :Ei : =] s red ea SPO. tek Ahh = FiMMSH Ak) AF che at is-= :‘owe rue’- aeA teete En Lnenenehrae A,DESIGNINGFROMOURSELVESWITHOURSISTERS... MOAT TRRTs lait set iae = WE AS WOMEN MUST FIND OUR OWN IDENTITY IN THE ENVIRONMENT BY “ONINOLLIGNOD U0 ONIKOOUMAO Ad a. ROPRE IDENTITE DANS ENVIRONNEMENT ““ENAINNOLLIINOD (RLLON ENVINOHUAS Na UT RACY THAN 4) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource NAM Feminist Group Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Murray Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1978? https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/79fe4a306cfa379b3460ce25aacf97f2.pdf 431469fb840ba56f27d5482be0f903f5 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Professional Issues Description An account of the resource A cohort of NAM members became engaged with the professional registration body, standing as elected councillors on the Architects Registration Council and its various committees. Hitherto entirely dominated by the RIBA bloc, the Council began to yield to a new dynamic through NAM's involvement, enabling fresh perspectives on such issues as mandatory fee scales, greater lay representation on the body, ethically-based standards of professional conduct, etc. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource NAM questions findings of RIBA earnings survey: Letter published in AJ 4 May 1977 (P2 overleaf) Description An account of the resource The editor reserves the right to shorten letters unless writers specify otherwise, Short letters can be dictated to Fane Pike over the telephone on Thursdays, for possible inclusion in the following issue of the Af. partners’ profits are greater as well. Profits vary with the size of practice. The RIBA’s method of averaging out apparently random samples, or of relating partners’ income to age is therefore of dubious value as a source of knowledge about the state of the profession, Presumably for this reason, the National Board for Prices and Incomes, in its 1968 Survey of architects’ fees and costs, used size of practice as the only relevant yardstick for comparing) incomes. This was also the method used in our submission to the Monopolies Commission, and we enclose copies of the relevant tables showing figures references and sources, We would draw your attention to the main findings: 1 There is a considerable difference between the average income of partners in small and large firms. In 1974 these incomes were £6129 and £22 327 respectively. 2 There is an increasing trend towards larger offices, the percentage of medium and large practices almost doubled as fees are exempt from the ‘social contract’, inflation has created something of a bonanza for the partners. For example it appears that it is not unusual for partners’ incomes (clear of overheads but not taxed) ina medium/large firm to range from £45 000 to £65 000. Other returns show even higher incomes. next visit to one of our sites in case he should run into one of the World’s End team. Peter A. Kreamer London SW1 Henry Herzberg replies: Iam sorry that Mr Kreamer feels that we failed to give sufficient credit to Bovis. No ‘side swipe’ was intended: the words complained of are a plain statement of fact. NAM< questions findings of RIBA earnings survey From Dan Bullen of the LondonGroup,NAM between1958and1972.The Whataboutthebuilder? FromG.WigglesworthRIBA Sir: We would take issue with the findings of the RIBA’s 1976 earnings survey (AJ 6.4.77 p635). While we are not surprised that the RIBA’s interpretation attempts to show that there is a trend towards the reduction of differentials between partners and salaried staff, we would point out that our 1976 submission to the Monopolies Commission showed the exact Opposite, It appears that it is the method of presentation of the RIBA’s results which is particularly misleading. All your readers know that the income ofa medium to large sized practice, doing medium to large sized jobs is considerably greater than that ofa two person firm eking out a living on kitchen conversions. Consequently the Prices and Incomes Board found that while comprising only 30 per cent of all practices (32-1 per cent according to the RIBA), these firms received 81 per cent of all fee income. In 1972 the same group of offices employed 82 per cent of salaried architects in private practice. 3 At the same time as partners in medium/large firms were averaging £22 327 per annum, the average income of all salaried architects in private practice was £4743. The differential between partners and salaried architects thus increases in relation to the size of practice. We are in the process of updating our data, and we would welcome further information from salaried architects regarding their partners’ profits. At this preliminary stage itappears that From Peter A. Kreamer of Bovis Construction Ltd Sir: Henry Herzberg’s article on World’s End (AJ 20.4.77) claims not to attempt to discuss the architectural, but to concentrate on other things. One would have thought that such a disclaimer would have prefaced at least some passing reference to the form of contract used to build the majority of the project. One would have thought that since that form of contract is a fee based one, and that the builder concerned is fee remunerated for all his work, that his name would be deemed worthy of a mention among the other professionals involved on p734. But no. Henry Herzberg, it seems, is so concerned with slanging what he regards as the evil main contractors of the "sixties (p743) that he doesn’t have Space to describe how the ultimate contractor on this job managed a disaster into a success story. While taking a side swipe at the client for accepting the higher of two so-called ‘tenders’ to complete the project, he fails to mention that the work was completed by the chosen contractor well within his estimate of prime cost. He also fails to mention that the management team involved achieved every phased handover by the original date promised. Finally, in his last sentence he to avoid even a grudging acknowledgment that the completion date also met the programme promised when Bovis took over in 1973. I would advise Henry Herzberg to wear a disguise before his Sir: I very much agree with Christian Hamp’s letter (AJ 13.4.77 p674) about the oriental or Japanese bath. I too enjoyed using it in Japan. It is not only very economical because the hot water is not drained away, but topped up and re-used, but itisakin to the sauna in that it is relaxing. Washing before entering the bath is, of course, essential. In the past, the Japanese used energy sparingly in their houses; there Was no attempt to warm the house, but only the person. Before getting into your padded bed, a hot bath was essential; once warm in bed, you could remain warm all night even when the room temperature might be just above freezing. G. Wigglesworth London SE1 Earning survey wrong? From M. 7. McCarthy RIBA Sir: The 1976 RIBA earnings survey (AJ 6.4.77 p635) shows that the increase in architects’ earnings between June 1975 and June 1976 was significantly greater in the public sector than in the pri- vate sector. The explanation for this disparity was attributed to ‘the existence of incremental scales for public employees which were allowed to operate during the Incomes Policy’. I believe this to be a fundamentally wrong interpretation. Local authority pay review periods run from July to July each year whereas the Incomes Policy runs from August to August. The effect of these periods is that local authority employees are one of the last groups to be affected by an Incomes Policy for any year. Between June 1975 and June Table IAverage annual income per Architectural Partner by size of Architectural Team Size of practice arch team 1-5 6-10 11-25 Average income per architectural partner 1966 1970 1974 £££ 2575 3811 6129 3778 5591 8 992 6108 9040 14537 26 or more 9381 13 884 22 327 Sources: National Board for Prices and Incomes report on architects’ 1968; Updating Factor—RICS building cost information March 1976. costsand fees Table Il Average salary of all 1966 £1993 I d archi 1970 £2950 in all private practices 1974 £4 743 _ Source: Ibid. Note: All technical salaries in 1967 formed 34-5 per cent of costs; RIBA handbook Suggests approx similar figures. Table IM Distribution of private practices by size 1958-1972 Size of practice arch staff 1-5 6-10 11-30 31-50 51 and over Source: RIBA Submission to Monopolies Commission May 1976. NAM?'s tables: see Bullen’s letter. 1958 1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 74:3 69°0 63:4 61:7 61-8 67:9 63-7 16-2 18-0 22-1 22°8 1972 22:6 18:5 20-1 13-0 2oh6:s jos 1370 14:5 15-5 123 15:6 i5}is6 0-8 1-3. The Architects’ Journal 4 May 1977 Dan Bullen London W1 Bathing for warmth 1OE fe 818 The Architects’ Journal 4 May 1977 1976 local authority employees were not ‘entitled to their annual increments on top of the £312 per annum which was the maximum increase allowed in the first year of the Social Contract’ because their pay award for that period was made in July 1975, before the Social Contract came into force. It follows that for the year in question normal negotiating procedures applied. The £312 per annum cost of living award under the first year of the Social Contract will be refiected in the next RIBA earnings survey, and itcan be expected that a closer correlation between the sectors will be shown. The 4 per cent or £4 a week second stage of the Social Contract will not be awarded to local authority employees until July of this year. When the results of the 1978 RIBA earn- ings survey are published the relative positions of the two sectors over the whole period should have balanced out. There is currently much discussion on a possible stage 3 of the Social Contract. Whatever happens, local authority employees will be forced to fund stage 3 inflation from a stage 2 increase in income. It is well known by tradeunionsthatpayawards are held down prior to the entering of a formal period of pay restraint, and that there is considerable advantage in having an annual pay review date at the beginning rather than the end of statutory periods. I believe that at the end of the period of Incomes Policy the public sector will be seen to have lost ground. Incremental scales of pay are inflexible and can be criticised on a number of grounds but they should not be blamed for discrepancies in earnings of architects in different sectors. M. J. McCarthy London WS5 Lakeside Drive designs From Michael Wilson RIBA Sir: I do not wish to deny credit to Royston Summers for his overall design scheme and commendable standard detailing system for Lakeside Drive (AJ 13.4.77 p691), but wish you to note that approximately one-third of the illustrating photographs related to ‘the only non-standard house’, and also accounted for half of the interior shots. These photographs demon- strated, in most cases, major design features which are not attributable to Royston Summers, set within an adaptation which paid respect to the overall design idiom and constraints imposed by his system. The only departure from this discipline is also the only feature that your article attributes to “different architects’, namely the placing of three windows in what would other- wise have been a blank wall (photo 22), due to a good, practical requirement for change by the client when the building was well under way. Unfortunately, the Royston Summers approach did not permit a less inharmonious solution at that juncture. Was not to ‘chop a road through Petworth’s incomparable park’ but to tunnel under the park— this following an evaluation of over 20 alternative schemes, public mectings and even a referendum of the locals, item in your issue of 13 April (p675) with a picture of the nearly completed first phase. The photograph, which I guess to be taken with a wide-angle lens, gave the effect of an isolated building surrounded by large areas of tarmac. Jeffrey Mansfield continued the work begun by Royston Summers for two years following his resignation from the commission, and handed it over to myself carly in 1972 in close liaison—particularly with reference to the above-mentioned housewhichhehadalready problemofPetworthisextremely clearwayfortheGLCandwith designed in outline. The design work to this house, and to others requiring variation, was continued by myself and my former partner, Gerald Harvey. Michael Wilson London SES Petworth county line From B. J. Seaman RIBA, West Sussex county architect Sir: Astragal’s Petworth reprieve (AJ 13.4.77 p672) must get my nomination of the year for the most inaccurate and sensational piece of journalism. Anyone who knows Petworth will certainly support a plan by West Sussex County Council to divert heavy traffic from the narrow streets of the town and anyone in the area will certainly know that the dialogue between the county council, the National Trust and the local people has been going on for many years. The council’s plan difficult. Not only is it a town of great architectural and ~ historical interest but it is also set in an outstanding landscape. I consider the council and its officers have acted and are acting in avery responsible manner. I would hope the Architectural Press would act in an equally responsible manner. B. J. Seaman Chichester, Sussex Sorry about the Hutchinson error. The council did propose to chop a road through the park—though a short tunnel was to run in front of the house. Astragal Credit for code” From Bob Giles RIBA, chairman SAG Sir: Your otherwise excellent report of the work of the RIBA Salaried Architects Group (AJ 30.3.77 p579) was marred by a misleading description of the group as ‘the leading force’ in the work of revising the Code of Professional Conduct. Although SAG was involved in the production of the final draft the present code is the culmination of nearly 10 years’ work by successive working groups under the direction of David Waterhouse, to whom just credit should be given. Bob Giles London W1 Vauxhall Bridge Road From H. A. P. Quince, architect Sir: Inoted with interest the news high buildings on its north side, and the rest of the building tapers down to match the domestic scale of the Victorian terraces to the south of Tachbrook Street. Similarly, the text could be misleading. As you know, many local authority architect’s departments have some kind of hierarchical structure and design teams containing several architects. In this context I feel it is difficult and possibly invidious to single out one individual to whom the design can be attributed. However, your news item contrasts with a similarly brief item on the next page of the same issue by not naming the job architect; instead it attributes the design to the person who was the group leader. As job architect, I designed the overall layout of the redevelopment for which planning permission was obtained, originated the design of the building illustrated and supervised its development up to tender stage. H. A. P. Quince London SW17 Tax alternatives for practices incurring losses From K.J. Slade ATII Sir: One reads ofa recession in the building and construction industry which indicates that some of your readers in private practice on their own account are suffering from adiminution of income which, in the more Serious cases, means that the practice isincurring aloss. The county surveyor, Mr Harrison (not Hutchinson), actually commented that the one virtue of the postponement was that it would enable the dialogue on Petworth’s traffic problem to continue. The This misses the whole concept of a building designed as a link between two differing urban scales. The high mass of the building fronts Vauxhall Bridge Road, safeguarded as an urban Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource NAM London Group Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Murray Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 04-May-77 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/5fcb220d438e26f101f86c9d924c54a0.pdf 8cdd2691bee0238b369c2d73118d7821 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/0c240674b46af701a79362460fa538be.pdf 345e5d38a9af15bba38961a43380fee2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Public Design Group Description An account of the resource <p><span style="font-weight:400;">Argued that it was only through the public sector that the majority of people could have access to the land and resources needed for housing, education and other essential services. The task was therefore to reform the practice of architecture in local councils to provide an accessible and accountable design service. The Public Design Group proposed reforms to the practice of architecture in local councils to provide a design service accessible and accountable to local people and service users. The following 6 Interim Proposals were developed which were later initiated and implemented in Haringey Council 1979-1985 by NAM members. </span></p> <ul><li style="font-weight:400;"><span style="font-weight:400;">Local area control over resources </span></li> <li style="font-weight:400;"><span style="font-weight:400;">Design teams to be area based </span></li> <li style="font-weight:400;"><span style="font-weight:400;">Area design teams to be multi-disciplinary </span></li> <li style="font-weight:400;"><span style="font-weight:400;">Project architects to report directly to committee</span></li> <li style="font-weight:400;"><span style="font-weight:400;">Abolish posts between Team Leader and Chief Architect </span></li> <li style="font-weight:400;"><span style="font-weight:400;">Joint working groups with Direct Labour Organisations</span></li> </ul> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Public Design Service Conference (Birmingham) Subject The topic of the resource Conference Programme Description An account of the resource CONTENTS s CONFERENCE PROGRAMME INTERIM PROPOSALS BACKGROUND TO CONFERENCE THE PARTY POLITICAL CONTEXT ORIGINS, EVOLUTION AND STRUCTURE OF L. A. DEPTS. OF ARCHITECTURE FUTURE PROGRAMME OF WORK PUBLIC DESIGN SERVICE CONFERENCE MAY 1978 A UNION BASED INITIATIVE IN HACKNEY HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES A NEW ROLE FOR PUBLIC DESIGN DEMOCRATIC DESIGN A PUBLIC DESIGN SERVICE CONFERENCE SATURDAY 6 MAY at UCATT House, Gough Street, Birmingham I. I0.00 I0.30 20.35 I0. 50 II.15 II.45 12.15 13.00 T3.00 T4.00 T4.00 T4 30 T4.30 15.00 15.00 15.5 15.45 16.00 16.90 16.30 16.30 LiwlD 17.15 T7230 17.90 RHGISTRATION AND COFFEE. CONFERENCE AIMS OF THE GONFER#NCE - Chairman's DISCUSSION. DISCUSSION« DISCUSSION. CONCLUDING CONFERENCE CLOSHS, OPENH#D BY K. BARLOW, REG. SEC. UCATT, opening comments. REMARKS = Chairman. Conference Programme THE PARTY POLITICAL CONTEXT ~ Howard Smith. Implications following the Local Elections. LUNCH = Food available at the Conference. CURRENT ROLE OF L.A. DEPTS. OF ARCHITHZCTURS - John Murray, Their origins, structure and their relationship to private practice and the profession, DISCUSSION, NaW APPROACHHES IN HACKNEY - Tom Bulley. Some first steps by L.A. Workers, THE D,L.O. #XPERIENCE - Peter Carter. A NEw ROLE FOR PUBLIC DESIGN - Adam Purser. Including Interim Proposals and future strategy. maintained buildings. PDS Group May, 1978. and which create the potential for further change : interim Proposals and while giving each team a varied work load. % + To achieve an effective Public Design Service the NAM Public Design Service Group proposes local authority design and build teams which are area based and which will be accountable to users and tenants. We suggest the following interim proposals which are feasible now * DESIGN TEAMS SHOULD BE AREA BASED INSTEAD OF FUNCTION BASED. To increase the potential accountability to local people, * JOB ARCHITECTS SHOULD REPORT DIRECTLY TO COMMITTEE. * TENANTS AND USERS SHOULD BE PART OF BRIEFING TEAM, AND SHOULD HAVE POWER OF APPROVAL OVER DESIGNS AND STANDARDS. * ESTABLISH JOINT WORKING GROUPS WITH DLOS. To consider how to achieve better designed, constructed and AREA DESIGN TEAMS SHOULD BE MULTIDISCIPLINARY AND SHOULD HAVE AROUND 12 MEMBERS AS A SUGGESTED OPTIMUM. ABOLISH POSTS BETWEEN GROUP LEADER AND CHIEF ARCHITECT. As a preliminary step towards group leaders having equivalent status to chief architect. i.e. towards a two-tier system. — Plartrn ds epburn _ Coup Ghim Aig ? Background through the public sector. this conference. PDS Group NAM 9 Poland Street LONDON. WI. At its Hull Congress in November 1977, the New Architecture Movement decided to develop further its policies relating to the public sector. NAM's interest in this field had already been established at our first Congress in Harrogate in 1975 when the idea of a National Design Service was put forward. The National Design Service (NDS) proposals, based on a critique of architectural patronage, argued for a locally based design service directly accountable to tenants and users. It was suggested that Local Authority departments of architecture could provide the basis for such a service. Discussions on the NDS were continued initially under the auspices of the former North London Group of NAM, and a small issue group evolved. Further NDS papers stressed the view that any long term advance in architectural service to the public could only come By late 1977, it was considered that a more concentrated programme of research and action was required and following the Hull Congress an enlarged N.D.S. Group were mandated to carry out the work and to arrange Since November, the NDS Group evolved into the Public Design Service (PDS) Group. The Group, in addition to refining its critique of patronage and Local Authority working arrangements, has been studying the origins| and present role of Local Authority departments of architecture and their relationship to the profession and private practice. Work has also been done on the party political context and on an analysis of Housing Associations. The results of this preliminary study are presented here as draft papers, interim proposals, and suggested areas of future work. For further information contact DRAFT MAY 1978 O-fl-G- Nes, ENS Ul ON AND Teer ee Cro LO EAL AT HOR PTY Pere eSO aeaa Re PREFACE: rity architectural practice. The purpose of this first study is to develop a theory which can: within the profession, alike, architecture. This paper is a draft of what is intended to become three separate papers dealing with (a) the origins and role of local authority departments of architecture (b) their relationship to private sract ite and the profession and (c) their internal structure. These issues are closely linked and a major part of this and future studies is to deve- lop a theoretical framework which can describe adequately local autho- show how public and private practice are different in their origins and social role and which can provide material to counter the persistent denigration of the public sector from describe adequately the failings of local authority departments of architecture as experienced by public architects and users indicate the way in which progress can be made in public |NTRODUCTOIN suggestions. and in the private sector because it does not reinforce but is in ceFee Bute .' Hupp The problem of explaining the persistent vilification of local autho- rity departments of architecture is not primarily a difficulty of pointing to possible causes. Anyone acquainted with either the archi- tectural profession or with tenants organisations could readily make others.Inasocietybasedonexchange,buildingsforusearenecessa-pen It will be argued here that criticisms of those departments are based on two major and separate arguments. C onsequently any attempt to under= stand public practice should take account of both. On the one hand it will be said that local authority departments are denigrated by society generally and by the architectural profession in particular for two main reasons. Firstly local authority practice is a public and non profit making institution. Relations within the departments are thus different from those which obtain in the private sector. Secondly local authorities themselves provide collective resources for the social requirements of the public. That is public architects design solely for public use. In each case they are in opposition to the prevailing and dominant ideas in society which support the belief in individual private enterprise. Comparisons between public practice and private practice which in its basis and function supports the prevailing ideology, are likely to by uglann”, esult in the former being regarded in an unfavourable light. It will a. ee be shown that for this reason, a widely held view in the profession of local authority practice appears to be generalised from examples of the worst rather than of the best public architecture. In the private sector the opposite is the case. The image is one which apparently is generalised from a few well designed buildings by a few well known firms. The rest are ignored. Furthermore, it will be seen that there exists within the profession an attitude which defines certain types of buildings as being more worthy of architectural attention than rily ranked low. x Quip lo ; vactil cnen il Nd, Pree Aockice tvs fr 4.Ap .— Thus it will be argued that public practice is denigrated in society opposition to the prevailing system and its associated ideology. contain two main paradoxes: as to alienate both worker and user. those social relations. place in a certain direction. lysed. =9= On the other hand there exists another type of concern over local authority departments of architecture. It is to be found amongst the consumers of the service and amongst local authority architets them- selves. (1) For them local authority departments are authoritarian and unresponsive to the requirements of both users and architects. Local authority provision and public architectural practice therefore Thirdly, the present structure of public design departments will be related to public access and the local authority architect. Firstly, while state welfare provision is for the benefit of the existing social arrangements the means of provision are in opposition to those ideas which stem from and sustain those arrangements. Secondly, although local authorities provide for social use and while their departments are not based on extracting a surplus from their architectural workers yet their arrangements and procedures are such The answer to these paradoxes is to be found in theories which relate to the role of the state in society. In particular it will be argued that it is the states' function to secure the reproduction of the labour force and of the existing social relations. It thus services the private basis of society by providing for the majority of people their education, health and housing requirements. But the states' role in securing the reproduction of the labour force and of the social relations of production can only be carried out at the expense of It is because of these contradictions that change will take place. The interim proposals suggested in another part of the conference papers may be regarded as creating the potential for change to take This paper will be in three main parts. Firstly in order to establish (a) the social role of the local authority and its departments of architecture and (b) the different basis of public and private archi- tectural practice the present position will be considered and the ori- gins of public practice will be traced. Secondly, professional criti- cisms of the local authority departments of architecture will be ana- PUBLIC PRACTICE: second world war. Local authority departments of architecture employ nearly one third of all registered architects. L.A. architects remain in a minority des- pite a steady increase in numbers and a substantial increase in the volume of public building works this century and especially since the In 1952 19.6% of registered architects worked in local government. This had increased to 28.6% in 1964 and to 31.3% in 1977. At the same time 41.6% of registered architects worked in private practice in 1962, 50.1% in 1964 and 45.2% in 1977. (2) In addition the propor- tion of employment in private practice is falling in favour of public practice as various studies have shown. (3) In 1966 nearly half of all public building was still being carried out by private practice. Vrvaccounted-for about one third then compared to 29% now of the total TOTS workload by value carried out by private practice. (4) The growth of local authority departments of architecture followed closely on government legislation which made housing and schools a statutory responsibility. While L.A. departments carry out a variety of work, it will be shown that their origins are almost wholly depen- dent on the provision of schools and housing by the state, and that their subsequent identity as separate departments depend on whether the local authority build mainly schools or mainly housing. (5) The provision of state housing and schools goes back 59 and 76 years respectively and it is the extension of this responsibility for the greater part of post war housing and schools under the 1944 Education Act that accounts for the vast expansion of architectural work and to a larger degree of the architectural staff in local authorities. °9/-9961| Pue 4/-17961 einzipusdxyz pue swodu; |eud! EN + SO!PIAOYINY |ed0| Aq Buip, ing ‘*uojAe7 *°Q) :S904N0g 981€ €8Z1 09 66€ Ort Het Heh 194 264 try ole oe £L—- | (e201 96 a) Gs) Gz Gz Lz 42 Zz iz| iz 0z (31) L-€[e101 681 ol 9H 6 |6 ol l 9 S S lL S 42410 81 6 9 t € € € € € € Z | BIIAASSS4!4 L9 Zz a b L 8 8 lL 8 lL S 4 9110q (€ € € € € Z € € € ( *oJ0 poby jo e4e9 z6 et 92 tc € € €°-€ c € € € ozgz6c.)Gz9) ELE Giy|Lon 00m|EH ily|€t|oS€ Z+JO[e104 96s| sez| ost z [ZI €ol zg tL. zl LZ zg 0s e4edpliyg 4 UuO!}eONpy ZZ2Z Hl S64 SZ 767 10 BLE G9 66€ ZSE 88Z 192 Buy snoy S61 oL61 7961 8561 LS61 9561 S561 4961 €S61 7561 iS61 0561 42]22H (UOLLLEW F) ‘win UL Bulp| ing uo sela}soyjny |e90| Aq einzipuedxg teqideg existence. notes, -3- in fact carried out by private architects". (9) Board began to function. A study of the history of the fluctuating fortunes of public spending on council housing and schools shows that these vary according to whether a Labour or Conservative Government is in office. (6) The growth of these services is dependent on Labour governments. L.A. departments which service these, consequently but indirectly have relied on labour for their continuing workload. L.A. departments of architecture depend on the maintenance of public services for their own The table shows the extent of the other work for which L.A. departments are responsible. Schools and housing however accounted for 15 times the value of all others in 1961 (7) and for 8 times the value in 1976. Since the National Health Service Act, 1946 responsibility for building hospitals was vested in the Regional Hospital Boards whose own architec= tural staff work mainly on research and administration. (8) Asa result of the Act as the 1950 Percy Thomas Report on Private Practice The question of separate departments of architecture is also related to schools and housing. Where the major part of an L.A. department is school work, there has almost invariably been a separate architect s department. Thus in the former counties, whose main work was education buildings (counties provided housing only for county staff, e.g. police) 61 out of the 62 counties had separate departments in 1968. (10) In-house architects have always been the rule rather than the exception as far as school building is concerned. Robson, the first London School Board architect was appointed almost directly after the School engineer and surveyors department, particularly in the smaller towns. Tete Architectural work has in fact ceased to be a responsi- bility of local authority official architects and much of it is In cities and towns, now the district authorities, where the main L.A. architectural work is housing, architects are very often part of the Counties County Boroughs Non County Boroughs (excluding London) Metropolitan Boroughs Urban Districts Rural Districts Total number of 1937 1957 authorities Ah 60 62 14 47 83 1 14 318 1 5 28 1 4 564 1 Z 474 61 132 1529 County Councils District Councils London Boroughs 49 53 123 369 31 32 Source: Metropolitan Year Book 1978 —h Source: E. Layton "Building by Local Authorities" p.136. Number of separate Architects Departments in England and Wales in 1978 Number of departments Number of Authorities 203 454 Number of separate Architects Departments in England and Wales before Reorganisation *. Furthermore as Elizabeth Layton has pointed out, -5- There may be several reasons for this, the most important apparently being that housing since the 19th century and until fairly recently was regarded as a public health and public order matter, not an architec- tural one. (Housing until the 1950s was under the control of the Ministry of Health). Because of these links it was, in the 19th century more closely associated with the domain of the engineer. lt may be noted that due to the anxiety over public health and order, and the resulting need for sewers and new roads, the surveyors’ was the first local authority technical department. Gibson et al (11) argue that since this department already existed, it was expedient for all addi- tional technical and related duties to be automatically passed to it. Any important work was given to private firms. "Many authorities considered the use of architects for dwellings for the working class a quite unnecessary expense and have and in 1953 the Institution for Municipal Engineers circulated a docu- ment arguing that the creation of separate architects departments would "Municipal engineering and architecture have no clear cut dividing line ....... the municipal engineer is trained and experienced to act as head of a comprehensive technical depart- ment. The best, the most logical and in the end the most econo mical practice is therefore to put all technical work under the continued to do so until very recently". (12) The municipal engineers argued strongly for the status quo. In his presidential address to the 1911 Housing and Town Planning Conference the president of the Institution for Municipal Engineers stated, "Expressions of opinion have been given to the idea that municipal engineers and surveyors are not the proper persons to be entrusted with the carrying out of this Act (1909 Housing and Town Planning Act) but that members of other professional bodies are more competent to undertake this work, who after all is better qualified than the local surveyor..... 2 (13) undoubtedly increase the staffing costs of local authorities. municipal surveyor...." (14) AJ 22.1.53 p.1I9. -~6§+ Thus although the social legislation of the 19th and 20th century gave rise to the need for an increasing public building programme, it did not automatically lead to L.A. departments of architecture. Separate departments emerged at different times in different authorities. The LCC architects department one of the first if not the first evolved from the old Metropolitan Board of Works in 1888. In Sheffield the department originated in 1908. Bristol had to wait until 1939 for the architect to be separated from the engineers department, while A.G. Shephard Fidler, Birmingham's first city architect was not appointed until 1952. The reasons for these differences are intriguing, and in the absence of any data at this stage it may be speculated that several factors influenced the decision, including increasing housing programmes, local political views regarding housing and possibly the ability of the architects department to convince the council that housing was indeed an appropriate concern of the architect. In order to consider the origins of these, it is important to take a broader view of the emergence of the two most important services from the L.A. building point of view, housing and schools. They in turn are closely related to the history of local government itself. eT LOCAL GOVERNMENT = BACKGROUND TO SERVICES: were associated concerns. wage worker". (17) Local authority departments of architecture and indeed local govern- ment itself are relatively modern innovations. Writers like Summerson (15) have described how L.A. architecture stemmed froma shift from private to public patronage in the late 18th and 19th centuries. But this hardly gives a full picture. Local authority patronage itself evolved from the needs of 19th century industrial and urbanised society. These needs were i]lustrated by the fears expressed by the Victorian middle class over what they felt to be the breakdown of family life, morality, law and order and health amongst the poor. They The history of the mid-19th century is a story of the unsuccessful attempts of philanthropy and organised religion to alleviate these. Central government was eventually, albeit reluctantly, obliged to intervene to provide these services necessary for the maintenance and perpetuation of the workforce and of the existing social order. It is at this period of transformation that evidence for Althusser's That is, any society must create the conditions for its own perpetua- tion, for the renewal of raw materials, tools and of labour itself. As far as labour is concerned, at one level the reproduction of labour power is ensured by giving labour the material means to reproduce itself outside the firm, namely wages. But this in itself is inade- quate to ensure that each new generation of labour is appropriate to the work which will be required of it. Therefore Althusser maintains that it is the role of the state both central and local to secure the provision of the necessary housing education and health care. Thus it is argued that the primary basis of the governments' involvement in housing is to secure the reproduction of the labour face. Secondly, the social relations of production must be reproduced if the society is to continue in its present form. theories on the role of the state can be most clearly seen. (16) "The capitalist mode of production regarded as a connected whole or as a process of reproduction therefore produces.... and reproduces the capitalist relation itself; produces and reproduces on one side the capitalist and on the other side the crisis of reproduction. governmental control. =6= Hence a mode of production must create the conditions for its own perpetuation, the reproduction of these conditions being as important as production itself. And Althusser has argued that the social rela- tions of production are secured "for the most partTM by the legal, political and ideological superstructure, which are controlled by the state, On the one hand there is the police, army and courts, the "repressive state apparatusses" and on the other, and of greater importance in our society, the “ideological state apparatuses", hous— ing,education,social services etc. These ensure the transmission by various means, including the fact of their existence, the knowledge of society which leads people to identify with the dominant culture. The state therefore attempts to secure the reproduction of the social relations and of the labour force through the same medium. The history of government legislation is clarified by this view. For example far reaching legislation usually followed closely after work- ing class protest and unrest, when society appeared to be in danger of breaking down. In addition and for that reason, legislation controlled more and more precisely activities at local level. The following brief description gives an indication of how housing and education services emerged and how they were dependent on a prior reform of While it is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss this theory in detail it may be noted that Althussers' argument does not fully account for the fact that in the U.K. at least the state achieves these ends by different methods depending on the nature of the government in office. Apparently opposite policies are proposed to achieve, in Althusser's terms, the same ends. Secondly, although the state through various agencies may seek to secure the social relations and although it may do this either by promulgating ideas or having embodied in these agencies ideas which have this effect, such an analysis cannot account for the pervasiveness of ideology. Other writers such as Mepham (18) have produced a much more convincing interpretation. For the purpose of this paper it is taken that the role of the State is to secure the reproduction of the labour force and of the social relations, on behalf of the prevailing economic mode in the society. it is in the 19th century that for the first time, capitalism faced a Local government and the Welfare State: Harris has pointed out, =~ 9 = The emergence of the present system of local government is related to the growth of the welfare state. Before then and up until the 18th century, the slow development of local government was mainly connected with poor relief. (19) It was only when a portion of the taxes collected were returned from the centre for local and social purposes that the first principles of modern local government were established. With the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832 the political predominance of the middle class was substituted for that of the aristocracy and the new rulers began to write their interests and ideas upon the statute book. Allthe middle class received the vote and industrial capital now secured a large share of political power. The legislation which followed was preceded by the last mass protest in English history against rural conditions - The Labourer's Revolt. The rioting, rick burning and machine smashing were confined to those southern counties in which the Speenhamland System of poor relief was best known. The threat to social order was perceived to be a result of the inadequacy of the poor law system in the face of continued economic stress and a commission was set up to inquire into its operation. (20) Two significant pieces of legislation followed. Firstly in 1834 the Poor Law Amendment Act abolished the system of outdoor relief. The last ties keeping the population in one place were thus severed in the interests of industrial capital. Administratively the Act sought to give uniform direction to poor law policy through the introduction of centralised executive control of local government administration. As “For the first time a central government department was authorised to exercise extensive control over the activities of local government and thereby was established an administrative system which continued for over 100 years" (21) Secondly, in 1835, The Municipal Corporations Act fixed the principles of a new system of municipal government, (extended to cover the counties four years later) the principal features of which are still in force; e.g. the country was divided into local government areas, - 10 = councils were elected by local ratepayers, magistrates were to be appointed by the Crown and the Town Clerk and Treasurer were to become obligatory appointments. Equally far reaching was the new doctrine of ultra vires. Central administrative control was introduced to limit the sphere of local. government operations. That is local government was and still is permitted to act only in areas specified by central government. Thus with the Poor Law Amendment Act, central administrative control was established, with the Municipal Corporations Act local democracy was extended while local powers were restricted. These two facts lead the way to a gradual development of a paid loca! government service. Numerous officers were appointed and by 1835 the principle of a paid police force in towns was established. (22) Local government was now in a position to administer these services required by the society as a whole and deemed necessary by central government. Local government departments, including architecture, gradually developed to fulfil the various requirements of providing those services which became known as welfare provision. The local Government Act 1889 which created the London County Council and set up a series of County and County Borough Councils throughout the land com- pleted 19th century local government reform. education of the poor. Housing: The provision of all local government services may be seen in terms of its role in defence of the existing social arrangements. However, only those major services which gave rise directly to L.A. departments of architecture will be considered here. The emergence of the paid local government architect is most closely related to the housing and The question of housing the poor in the 19th century as in the 20th is essentially an urban one. The appearance of epidemics, particularly of cholera in 1832, which spread rapidly amongst the population "without consideration of rank, class or locality" (although it was more viru= lent in the highly populated areas of towns) brought to the attention of the Victorian middle class the potential threat to the maintenance of their society in terms of the ill health of the poor. (24) by Octavia Hill. the physical benefits". impression on the problem". (27) = 11e% Even more pressing was a social problem. The middle class believed that the bringing together of the poor in large numbers in areas like London rookeries where there was little or no access by outsiders created a danger of insurrection as well as of immorality and il] health. (25) Housing, public health morality and the maintenance Stedman Jones (27) has described how attempts to improve working class housing and to abate the chances of social unrest took three other main forms - street clearance, model dwellings and the schemes initiated Street clearance was imbued with “almost magical efficacy" but the of the existing social order were inextricably bound together. The government acted albeit against strong public opinion by intro- ducing first the 1844 London Building Act which for the first time imposed restrictions on the way buildings related to each other (minimum street widths, ventilation of habitable rooms) and the Public Health Act, 1845 which laid the foundation for all subsequent housing legislation. (26) result was to exacerbate the overcrowding problem. Private philanthropists elected to build model dwellings for the working class, the aim being to show that good sanitationand adequate working class housing were compatible with a fair return on capital, plus the fact that they believed that “the moral were almost equal to Butas Tarn has pointed out, the combined efforts of commerce, phi lan- thropy and charity while producing a generic housing type still in existence, in terms of quantity "there was hardly enough to make any Local authorities had initiated slum clearance as a last resort since the mid century. The Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Act 1868 gave power to close or demolish insanitary houses, the cost falling to the slum owner. The Ciross Act of 1875 gave compulsory powers, compensation to owners and gave local authorities the power to rebuild and maintain property and to borrow or levy a rate to finance the work. But in first council estate in London. country's full scale council housing programme. quality houses promised to the returning soldiers. = |9 & government housing programme." (31) Education: The Elementary Education Act 1870 formed the basis of the later local 1878, Dr. G.N. Child was arguing that "the evil (of overcrowding) is increasing rather than diminishing, and that no remedy short of inter- Local authorities did intervene and the country's first council estate designed by the City Engineer, was built in Liverpool in 1875. Seven years later the new LCC obtained permission to build in Limehouse the Although the 1890 Housing of the Working Classes Act gave local Councils the power to acquire land and to build; housing did not become a statutory duty until 1919 when the Addison Act launched the By 1915 the lack of houses for rent had become acute. House rents rose steeply and the resulting demonstrations by aggrieved tenants in Glasgow “came near enough to the appearance of revolution at home while the country was at war in Europe to frighten the government into passing the Rent and Mortgage Restriction Act 1915". (30) Rents were now fixed at such a level that private speculators no longer found it economic to rent to the working class. The government concluded that it could no longer look to private enterprise to provide the good The Hunter Commission itself established following working class agita- tion in 1912 recommended in its Report of 1917 that municipal housing should be provided for the working class. The Salisbury Commission urged that housing for the working class must be a duty carried out by local authorities. Both Reports influenced the passing of the 1919 Act, aided according to Enid Gauldie, by Lloyd George "who used the dangers of Bolshevism as a stick to prod the Cabinet into accepting his vention by the state is at all likely to remove the evil” (29) authority system. It established the principle of attendance at ele- mentary schools, created school districts, provided for the election of -13- School Boards by ratepayers and for the maintenance of schools by a compulsory local rate. It was still however intended as a supplement to voluntary schools. (32) Ten years later the 1880 Education Act made elementary school attendance compulsory, and in 1891 fees were abolished and an exchequer grant. provided 10/- for each child in attendance. The ad hoc School Boards lasted for over 30 years until they were abolished by the 1902 Act which transferred their power to the local education authority. In 1918, one year before the Addison Act made it a duty for L.A.'s to provide housing, an Education Act established a system of national education under 330 local authorities as the primary provider of education. All previous Acts were consoli- dated in 1921, legislation made school attendance compulsory to 14, and provided for education up to 17-18 years. The changes in Victorian Society leading up to free education for all and the way people perceived these makes instructive reading. A picture emerges of on the one hand a rapidly industrialising society which required a disciplined and reasonably educated workforce, and on the other of a working population which had to be inculcated with the values and beliefs of a new form of society. And in the end local government were obliged to perform this function, instructed and Prior to the 1870 Act the church undertook the responsibility for edu- cation in the Sunday School Movement. Day schooling followed in 1808 when the British and Foreign School Society was established, and in 1811 by the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church. - controlled by the central state. For their first 20 years teaching centred around the scriptures but by the 1830's the system changed to take account of acute economic and social pressures. More emphasis was put on teaching children about the demarcation between rich and poor and the mutual dependence on each other in an harmonious society. “Contentment in the station of life to which God had assigned them was an important precept". (33) But no industrial nation could have gone forward without a workforce which was literate, disciplined and contented. To aid the voluntary schools in their venture the government provided from 1833 a £30,000 grant for school building. Pressure began to be put by the Radicals for example for state controlled secular education. (34) Schools Boards; their civilizing works". (35) order. (36) =14- tt is a measure of the failure of the voluntary system that in 1893 the Rev. T.W. Sharpe, senior Chief HMI could write of the London “The Education Act (of 1870) was not passed a year too soon; London would have been filled with a savage population in the year 1893 if the 480 schools built by the Board had not done But the 1870 and subsequent Acts were not without opposition. Conser- vatives feared that the opening of the horizons of the working class would lay then open to Radical influences and stimulate them to enter- tain ideas above their station and thus prove subversive to the social Liberals and progressives on the other hand echoing more precisely the needs of the age; believed that a well educated working class was not only an end in itself but also an important means of securing eco- nomic advance and stability. Children learned the habits of “tidiness, punctuality, order, truthfulness" in the Board Schools. Stanley who “We want our lower classes to be educated .... We want them to learn the self respect of citizens to feel their responsibility as voters, to have self restraint, the thoughtfulness, the power of judging and of weighing evidence which should discipline them in the exercise of the great power they now wield by their industrial combirations and through their political action", (37) Headlam of the socialist movement in his election address as a (successful) candidate for the London School Board, argued that it was a fundamental purpose of board school education to make children, “discontented with the evil circumstances which surround them. There are those who say that we are educating our children above their station; that is true; and if you return me | shall do my utmost to get them such knowledge and such discipline as will make them thoroughly discontented". (38) dominated the London School Board Progressives wrote; Departments of Architecture: ment. -15- The local authorities role in securing the reproduction of the labour force and of the social order and the resulting contradictions are aptly summed up in these quotations. It is because of the importance of the ideas expressed in the last quotation that the labour movement have traditionally supported the role of the state in controlling aspects of the economy. In the last resort those services are account able to the public through the democratic system. The pressing social need to build housing and schools on a large scale produced a corresponding need for local authority departments of archi- tecture. Depending on the authority, one or other of these services was the critical factor in their establishment. In the case of the LCC for. example housing provided. the. impetus, although its predecessor, the Metropolitan Board of Works appointed its first chief architect in 1855. The Board was abolished by the 1888 Local Government Act and was replaced by the London County Council, A programme of municipalisation followed supported by the Progressives who wished to municipalise public utilities to run services so that profits subsidised the rates. The Fabians on the other hand wanted to municipalise all trading services and abolish profits. (39) The LCC was instrumental in pressurising the government and pass the 1888 Housing of the Working Classes Act which gave it new powers. It decided to expand the old Metropolitan Board of Works‘ architects’ department to cope with the expansion of housing. According to Service, "They received applications for jobs from a stream of young architects attracted by the social idealism of the work. This was a generation born in the 1860's or later and strongly influenced by the political and social theories of William Morris and Phillip Webb". (40) Following the 1902 Education Act, the ad hoc School Boards were disbanded to come under the local authorities. School design and later Fire stations then came under the jurisdiction of the LCC architects depart- ginated in a number of authorities The Profession: profession. base of the profession. question of styles. (42) - 1622 As far as this and other authorities are concerned, further study is in progress and case studies will be included in the final version of this paper which will describe how and why departments of architechture ori- In the next part of this paper the evaluation of these departments will be related to the cormern with which they were greeted by the architec- tural profession. It appears from the evidence available at this stage that in-house architects in local authorities followed almost automati- cally from the growth in services. Their relatively peaceful beginnings is therefore in sharp contrast to the controversy with which they have been surrounded ever since, especially in the private sector dominated During the period of social turmoil in the second half of the 19th century the architectural profession was pre-occupied with its own concerns. Jenkins (41) has described how patrons of architecture changed from wealthy individuals to commercial and then public bodies following changes. in the economy as capitalism developed. The scope of architectural practice was extremely wide but architects were em- ployed on only some 10% of new building work, Contracting methods were transformed with the advent of the general contractor, with con- sequent effects on the role of the architect. The changing economy not only affected the practice of architecture but also the knowledge The concern of the architect was thus almost wholly directed towards two questions; firstly architects were anxious to establish and main- tain the profession's reputation in the public eye by attempting to guarantee integrity and competence through professional association, formal education and statutory registration. Secondly there was the While it is outside the scope of the present paper to consider this in detail, these two aSpects were closely linked to the development of capitalism. This is not only in relation to competition from builders Benjamin, too, argued that in the 19th century, forced to make novelty its highest value", (44) depended on service not individualised styles. in the profession as a whole. lasyrt rat = yy = ae and surveyors and the need to establish professional status, but is con- cerned with the position of the professional as a mediator of knowledge in capitalism. Secondly as Joanna Clelland question of styles was linked to the development of knowledge as another commodity. She argues that in the Renaissance, knowledge produced by the scientist or artist was believed to be part of the growth in universal knowledge, that is, it was collective. By the 19th century knowledge had become individualised. Individual knowledge differentiated one architect from another and was sold: as.a personal style - as a commodity to the client in competition with the personal styles of other architects. Thus the individualism engendered by capitalism was of particular importance to the private architect. It became his or her source.of livelihood. Public architects however were in a different position. Thier livelihood vidualism is one part of the reason why public practice is designated ° (43) has pointed out the "Art which begins to have doubts about its function is It will be suggested in the following section that this question of indi- PUBLIC V. PRIVATE PRACTICE: The 1950 RIBA Committee on the Future of 81% of students answering their questionnaire declared a preference for private practice. The question as to why the schools of architecture one. It might be expected for example conscious profession would support and and the profession submits to a private practice for the poor and the local authority Local authority departments of architecture distinct from exchange. That is to say they do not design buildings which become commodities or sources of profit. Dele Gevle fe public « While there are many inadequate (and some of the reasons for this will be considered briefly in the next section), the same is also practice in lalio 9 s Private Practice, found that ideology is an intriguing that a liberal and socially- foster the idea of welfare provision departments which serviced that. design buildings for use as buildings designed by publie true of private practice. Yet Derk mye privy 18. contrast to prevailing ideas about private practice, there is a tendency to generalise and to arrive at a position where it is imagined that local authority work is inherently bad. But many examples of local | authority architecture praised by the public and the profession alike exist. They range from early L.C.C. housing estates to post war work in the L.C.C., Coventry, Herts County and many others. Why then are the progressive authorities ignored when the image of local authorities is being assembled? ' /OVINS . To some extent this phenomenon may be explained by the potential economic threat which the public sector poses to the private. More importantly = it is ‘Suggested that it is precisely because L.A. architects Jo design Burylobs for use that they are denigrated, and why certain buildings are thought to be a suitable medium for personal architectual expression and others are not. Moreover, public practice itself is similarly for use and not for profit. ‘It thus exists as an alternative and opposing method of practising architecture. That is to say, public service and public practice create an ideological problem. Commentaries on 20th Century architecture are replete with evidence of the view that public architecture at best is a matter of inspecting and cheking the work of others. (45) Private araerice was presented as a much more attractive proposition although at least in the eyes of Lethaby in the 19th Century the method of securing commissions was less than satisfactory. "At present individual architects are at the mercy of vulgar incidents, such as having a flow of dinner talk or being in with a business syndicate or knowing a Lord.'' (46) Even though the public architect did not have to face these indignities, as Summerson has pointed out, in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, "All the glory and much of the profit is associated with the private practitioners."' (47) Neither thirty years of well designed buildings by the School Boards, ten years of new schools by the local authorities, nor the passing of the 1919 Housing Act as a far reaching piece of social legislation, altered the L.A. image. In the 1920's as Summerson again notes,- "Salaried employment -. except as a mere transition to independence was in 1925 a proposition that attracted few and was entertained by the unambitious and the not very talented. Employment in the staff of a local authority .... was sought only by those to whom the pay envelope was a very much more urgent consideration than opportunities for the creation of architecture.'' (48) Thus by the early 1920's ideas which have continued to this day were firmly established. In some quarters however, during the mid 1930's public architecture had begun to stand for the progressive movement. Amongst politically conscious students it was regarded as the architecture of the future. This point of view was championed by the Association of Architects, Surveyors and Technical Assistants (later to become the Association of Building Technicians). The reputation of the L.C.C. and other ‘progressive authorities after the war was due in large measure to the influence of these architects. The reason why this situation has not continued will be examined briefly in the next section. The RIBA still regarded public architecture as disreputable. In 1935 they appointed a special committee on official Architecture. It should be noted that 19. by this time some 20% of registered architects worked in the public sector, but more important, it was becoming Among the committee's recommendations buildings should be given to private practice. ' than one who is cumbered about with much serving.'' (49) 17.4% of architectural posts were unfilled. of the expansion of the public sector. circumstances. (51) a major patron of architecture. was the suggestion that important 20. "dn important municipal buildings, the design should be entrusted to a practising architect in preference to the official man, because where a new building of civic importance is required or where there is scope for fresh ideas of design leading to an advance in architectural planning the outside architect is more likely to be successful and to contribute to such an advance Bowen (50) in his survey of the architectural profession in 1953, found that there was only a small minority of architects who actively supported the advantage of public employment. In support of this the Mallaby Committee on local government staffing reported that in 1966 Ideas and views denigrating the public architect can be traced through to late 1977,even although the RIBA in 1976 pronounced an embargo on public bickering between the public and private sectors, which they said contravened the Code of Conduct. Equally however, public patronage was becoming more and more significant. Following the labour government's expansion of Council house building and schools after the second world war and their severe curtailment of all private building by means of licensing the RIBA setup a committee .... "to consider the Present-.and Future of Private Architectural Practice'' which reported in 1950. Their report, while stressing that it did not regard private and public practice as being mutually antagonistic, significantly in view of its title, presented in fact a detailed analysis They found that although there had been a decrease in private practice employment of around 16% between 1938 and 1949 and a corresponding increase of 20% in Central Government and 18% in Local Governments staffing, that 57% of practices were expanding and a further third reported no change in exchange versus usefulness. in 1952 argued ; main objective."' (52) 21. Furthermore, nearly 20 years later in 1967 the National Board for Prices and Incomes, reported that only 22% of new work was done by the public sector, compared to 54% by private practice. In addition 45% of all public sector work was carried out by private practice. By 1974 however, the Monopolies Commission Report indicated that private practice's share of all building work had fallen to 29%. The public sector undoubtedly does present a potential economic threat to private practice and is perceived to do so, in that studies into the state of private practice and the profession have always taken place in times of curtailment. Nevertheless this does not fully explain the persistence of their concerns, particularly in the first half of the century. What it does suggest is that the major threat posed by public practice and indeed by the local authority services themselves, stem from its opposition to the dominant image which society has of itself as a private and individualistic social arrangement. Eventual ly it will be said these ideas become incorporated in the concept of Gibson et al in their Guest Editor series in the Architects Journal ' Because the public office grew up during a period when private enterprise was the dominant motive in society, it came to be regarded as the haven for the lame duck, the quiet back water where risk and adventure were at a discount and security the Private enterprise is still the dominant motive in society although other conditions have changed so that their supporting ideas have altered as necessary to fit new situations. The relationship between public and private offices however, may be regarded not merely as a result of economic forces but as part of an overall pattern of how cultural relation- ships are established and reproduced. These relationships that is, which are necessary for the perpetuation of the existing social arrangements, must be reproduced if a dominant class is to be reproduced. In order to do this, the society produces ideas which further the interests of the dominant class and which are represented as the only rational and universally valid ones. Furthermore, these ideas, or ideology must have a sufficient degree of effectiveness in rendering social reality intelligible if they are to gain widespread support. Mephan (53) has maintained that idealogy arises from the opacity of reality and that the appearances of things conceal those real relations which themselves produce the appearances. In addition, ideological categories must be inter-dependent and mutually support. They must form a homogeneous matrix which supports the existing social relations. Any departure from these by new.forms of organisation based on different principles for example, will disrupt the homogeniety of the matrix and will be perceived as a threat to its continuing existence. This it will be said is the case with public practice. — Cf. Gen . at Dateae wieetin These ideas, attitudes and intentions form a dominant culture. The - most important of these ideas, according to Raymond Williams (54) is a belief in individualism. It stems from the concept of private ownership. It is suggested the potential opposition between the rights of the individual stemming from individualism and the limiting of private ownership, is resolved by the introduction of a further concept - that of the idea of permanent scarcity, associated with success through individual merit achieved in competition with other individuals. It may be noted that private practice itself is based on these principles and this supports the ideas of the dominant culture. In addition, if the status and livlihood of the private practitioner is dependent on individualised knowledge sold as a commodity, then it is especially likely that individualism will be strongly supported in the architectural profession. For that reason any alternative and oppositional forms which are not based on private practice will appear as a threat, not only to the dominant culture but to the basis of private practice and the profession. While the dominant culture may be 'natural' in our society,in order to perpetuate itself, society also requires that the working class, with its own and potentially oppositional culture, is also reproduced. This culture will include ideas generated by the social conditions of the class and which further a more beneficial arrangement for that class. 22. The different basis of the two cultures is described by Raymond Williams, "Bourgeois culture - is the basic individualist idea and the institutions, manners and habits of thought and intentions which proceed from that. .... Working class culture is not proletarian art ... or a particular use of language, it is rather the basic collective idea, and the institutions manners and habits of thought and intentions which proceed from it. ' (55) It is therefore argued that it is the idea-of collectivity which is the major threat to the dominant culture. Thus, while it is not suggested that the state in any way stems from working class culture, local government is collective in the sense that decisions are made collectively by committees answerable to the public. Public Architects service elected representatives and not individual or corporate private organisations. A further difficulty for local government relates to the English concept of democracy. As Raymond Williams has pointed out, just because democracy in England grew slowly by gradual constitutional amendment the perception of equal rights embodied in democracy is effectively neutralised. He suggests that the idea of economic individual ism creates a more“decisive social image than democratic equality. Active —_— en processes of popular decision ‘such as committees or juries are not recognised as symbols of equality and are more likely to be regarded as inferior to decision making by individuals. Furthermore, the activities of production and trading are increasingly seen as the essential purposes of society in terms of which all other activities must be judged. Instead of society being regarded as a social order, it is more readily thought of as a market. Eventually, Williams suggests, this gave way to an image whereby the organisation of society itself was thought of as a market organisation. Such ideas are continually nourished by the forms of everyday life, where for example, the exchange between capital and labour presents itself to the observer as being of exactly the same kind as the buying and selling of other commodities. 23. The: purchaser gives a certain sum of money and the seller supplies an article which is of a different kind from money. Debord (56) has argued that as the economy developed, the exchange value of a commodity which originally was a function of use value (or degree of usefulness) came to dominate use value so that use value was dictated by exchange. The use value of an object becomes less and less important compared to the exchange value so that eventually a use value must be invented as a justification for exchange value. Adam Smith also made this point; "The things which have the greates value in use have frequently little or no value in exchange; and on the contrary, those which have the greatest value in exchange have little or no value in use.'' (57) If the ideas in society are to sustain this arrangement the evaluation lee of an article or service must be in inverse proportion to its use value. shuyle Thus council services and buildings which are based on use, the use being reproduction, are not only likely to be ranked low, but also to be denigrated because they are in opposition to the dominant ideas of exchange. Private practice is based on the principles of exchange, public practice is based on use, both in the form of tts service, in the nature of the buildings it designs, and in its internal office arrangements. The internal arrangements are also based on different principles to those which obtain in the private sector. In the latter there is an owner, the principal, whose own income, plus the income to service the office, is generated by the surplus produced by the staff. Definite social relations exist between principal and staff resulting from their connections within the process of production. These social relations mustcontinue if private practice is to continue as it is - on the one hand the owner on the other hand the architectural staff who sell their skills as their source of livlihood. These social relations are concealed or blurred in various ways in order thattheymaybeperpetuated.Thisilsikelytobeespeciallythecase where owners and workers share the same skills and the same professional ideology. 24. In the case of the local authority office the situation is different and more complex. The owner to whom the architectural workers sell their skills is the local authority which is a collective owner. The local authofity does not buy these skills to extract a direct surplus, but to achieve a use. The use is the design of buildings which are themselves for social use. Within the office there is no owner. The chief architect does not extract a surplus so that the social relations existing between him and his staff are different to the equivalent private sector situations. It may be speculated that because of this the public office principal will adopt different forms of social control out of necessity. The occasional authoritarian and arbitary nature of this control may be thought of as a result of this. That is to say in the private sector it is in the principal's interest to appear as similar as possible to his or her staff in terms of status, because the issue of control is established. In the public sector on the other hand, it will be necessary for the chief architect to differentiate his status from that of the rest of the staff in order to achieve control. Finally, the nature of public accountability is different in public and private offices. In the latter, accountability to and control by society is achieved through the market and by means of the ARCUK Code of Conduct. The public architect on the other hand, while also being controlled by ARCUK, is accountable to the public via the local government democratic system. In summary it may be said that public practice exists as an oppositional form to the dominant culture,to private practice and to the professional ideology. It is for this reason that public practice has been so consistently vilified. In terms of office structuring, changes in the forms of control are possible in the public sector because the arrangement does not depend on it. This is not the case in private practice where any change to the social relations between principal and staff would mean the abolition of private practice as it exists. — \ Ww 25. ado \. yw PUBLIC PRACTICE - NOTES ON STRUCTURE: A detailed analysis of the structure of public practice in relation to local government as a whole remains to be completed as part of a further study. Central government, fjnance and control over resources will also au_ t form part of a later paper. At this stage it may be noted that all of these have been covered in some depth by others, particularly by the The following brief review has been confined to two aspects of the structure. Firstly the issue of function based design teams and secondly the question of the internal hierarchy. It will be suggested that these two as they exist are major factors in preventing contact between architect and user. Furthermore they may readily be changed to the advantage of both. It was argued earlier that the role of local government is to ensure the maintenance and reproduction of the labour force by providing schools, housing and other services. Local government also attempts to secure the reproduction of the existing social relations, the most important being that labour stays in the same relationship to capital, i.e. the reproduction of the classes. Although these two aspects of the local government role are indivisible, if they are regarded separately it will be seen that the barriers described by Malpass (58), which exist between architect and user,do not result from the first - the provision of services. The barriers are rather the result of the need for local government to ensure that all-.aspects of the social relations are maintained intact. Thus, if in our society which is based on individual achievement through competition with other individuals,.housing came to be regarded as the public's right, this would conflict with the basis of the society. One or another must be eroded, But both the provision and society's image of itself are necessary if the social order is to be maintained. It is suggested therefore that to overcome this problem conditions have arisen which effectively place 'boundaries'' around the provision so that they fail to appear as a right, nor are they easily accessible. Furthermore although local government is a collective institution local government provision is allocated individually. The collective becomes individualised at the point of 26. CommunityDevelopmentProjects. A IbrooCode oy -frov~ Cnseli reproduction, thereby neutralising the collective content of the service. - "Thus the Welfare State is not just a set of services, it is also a set of ideas about society, about the family and - not least important about Women.'' (59). Two of the boundaries which insulate producer from consumer in the architects departments are function based teams and office hierarchies. Central government dictates which services the local authorities should administer and provides grants of various kinds for this purpose. The local authority council delegates the running of these services to various committees - housing,education etc. That is, committees which are function based. These committees of elected members are serviced by technical departments staffed by full time officers. In the case of a 'spending' committee these departments will-act as client to the architects department. Architects departments thus service various committees via the relevant technical department and are responsible to that committee for the service which they provide. They are also responsible to a ''parent'' committee for staffing, etc. This is often the Planning and Development Committee. (Planning engineering and valuation also often came under this committee). This division by function is generally followed in the architects departments where there are separate sections or groups dealing with housing or schools, etc. The job architect consequently will be responsible for projects in different parts of the local authority area rather in the way that a private consulting architect is. In this way the professional ideology of individual architects expressing themselves in their own job is sustained. In addition, architects deal with and become expert in functional issues, i.|e.g. housing or schools. Their experience will therefore be limited, and they must either transfer or leave to extend it. Furthermore as Bennington (60)has pointed out, there are contradictions in the function based committee structure. The councillor is elected to serve the interests of a small geographical area. But once elected the councillor oD vay pater MO" . 27. is appointed to serve on a series of committees which are organised not around any of these interests but around service committees. These committees are concerned with the provision of city wide services. So that the city is treated as a uniform whole. Sectional interests whether of wards or of classes of people are subordinated to those of the general population. Thus, because the service does not relate to a political area, it does not relate to 'people' but to an abstract idea. This is equally the case as far as officers are concerned. The concept | of the a-political officer paid to solve technical problems is thus reinforced, In addition the arrangement of function based client departments and committees creates a 'logical' method of liaison - architect - client officer - client committee. It is 'illogical' to break this circle to relate-to either area councillors or local residents. Job architects already face a wide variety of constraints as Malpass has shown and they may feel reluctant to add to their difficulties by adding yet another hurdle in the path of their project. I The public also have difficulty in crossing this organisational boundary which tends to make them vulnerable to official action while making officers immune to the consequence of that action (61). It is suggested that an architectural team, based on political areas will create the potential for those organisational boundaries to be broken. (This is to be argued in detail in another paper prepared for this conference). Briefly however, the team based on areas will give the team members the opportunity of working in different types of projects. The architect will therefore deal with as many function based committees as require work in a particular area. The architect will relate not to an abstract function, but to an area, to ward councillors and to local residents and users. 28. HEERARCHY: According to Gibson et al (62), the present vertical structuring of local authority departments of architecture in the late 19th century. That is, were comprised of one principal and a small number of apprentices. Giles Gilbert Scott for example who had one 25 apprentices. of the largest practices, had status depends on design indeterminacy, not numbers of staff. stemmed from private practice from a time when private practices 29. The concept of one individual architect also relates back to architectural knowledge as a commodity and to owner and workers, both of which are in accordance with the dominant ideology. As private practices grew so did the number of partners, each being equally responsible in law. (A common ratio in large private practices is one partner to seventeen staff). In public practice however the concept of one chief wholly responsible to the client remained. Webb (63) has shown how various intermediary grades were introduced and while his argument leaves room for doubt, he has graphically illustrated the position. As the ratio of chief architect to architectural workers rise to 1:100 and over, problems of control must necessarily arise. The obvious solution and the one adopted throughout public practise is to create intermediate levels whose function is to control. Following Jamous and Pelloile's argument therefore, it may be said that the job architect's status and position depends on his or her indeterminacy, that is to say, on that indeterminate architectural knowledge which cannot be codified. The intermediate functionary however, as Webb and others have shown, do no design work. Their status depends on another form of indeterminacy based on procedural and managerial matters. If they are to succeed in this role they must necessarily increase the ratio of procedural over design indeterminacy. It is suggested that this is achieved by increasing the number of workers to whom they relate. They thus depart from the professional model where The job architect relates upwards to these levels, who while blocking access to the chief architect and to the committees, control not only discipline but also design work in the department. They form a further 'boundary' between job architect and committee in an administrative arrangement which has already been described as circular. those and architectural staff. for further boundary reduction becomes feasible. Lsula Ax warpil, 30. In private practice the situation is different. Only one level and sometimes not that separates job architect also drew attention to this. -They suggested that there should be only one level between architectural worker that level should have 'partner' status with the chief. (64) In effect they were arguing for several chief architects, each directly responsible to the client for work suggested that a ratio of 1:10 should While this suggestion also will be discussed in more detail in another paper at the conference, it can be pointed out that the effect of these proposals would be to reduce boundaries between architectural worker and user. Seen in conjunction with area based teams the possibility and partner. Gibson et al and chief architect and that carried out. Further more they be the maximum between each of REFERENCES: (1) (S$. Webb "Architecture Alienation and the Omnipotent Adminman'' AJ 19.10.77 p.751 "The Local State"! Estimated Employment Distribution of Architects 1964 - 1977 Survey of the Architectural Profession AJ 15.10.53 "Report of the Committee to Consider the Present and Future of Private Architectural Practice!’ 1950 "Architects Services - A Report on the Supply of Architects Services with Reference to Scale Fees'' p.12 "Building by Local Authorities'' "Whatever Happened to Council Housing'' op cit op cit ibid "Architects Costs and Fees'! National Board for Prices and Incomes 1968 Guest Editor Series AJ 14.2.52 p.207 opcit p.137 (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) also ( C. Cockburn ( RIBA also ( ( 1. Bowen RIBA The Monopolies and Mergers Commission E. Layton C.D.P. E. Layton RIBA RIBA HMSO ( (11) (12). Layton (13) Institution for Gibson et al Proceedings of Housing and Town Planning Municipal Engineers Conference West Bromwich 191] p.3 (14) Institution for Municipal Engineers (15) J. Summerson (16) L. Althusser (17) Marx (18) J. Mepham (19) J. Clarke AJ Editorial 22.1.53 p.119 "Georgian London" "Lenin and Philosophy and other Essays’! "Capital Vol. 1' p.635 "Theory of Ideology in Capital''in Radical Philosophy I] "History of Local Government in the United Kingdont' REFERENCES: (Cont'd) (20) M. Bruce and E. Hobsbawm (21) J. Harris (22) L. Hill (23) J. Clarke (24) J. Tarn (25) G. Stedman Jones (26) J. Tarn (27) G. Stedman Jones (28) J. Tarn (29) D. Rubenstein (30) E. Gauldie (31) E. Gauldie (32) J.Clarke (33) P. McCann (Ed) - (34) =P. McCann (35) P. McCann (36) P. McCann (37) P. McCann (38) P. McCann (39) Gibbon & Bel] (40) A Servi ce (41) F. Jenkins (42) Barrington Kaye (43) J. Clelland (44) W. Benjamin "The Coming of the Welfare State" "Labouring Men"! "British Government Inspection'' p.12 "The Local Government Officer’ pp.13-15 op cit "Working Class Housing in the 19th Century' p.51 "Outcast London"! p.52 op cit p.4 op cit p. 179 op cit p. 16 "Victorian Homes'' p.188 "Cruel Habitations' p.308 ibid p.307 op cit p.37 "Popular Education and Socialisation in the 19th Century" p.93 ‘ibid p.101 ibid - cited by Rubinstein p.255 ibid p.240 ibid p.242 ibid p.243 "History of the LCC, 1889-1939"! "Edwardian Architecture and its Origins'' p.407 "Architect and Patron!! "The Development of the Architectural Profession in Britain" In conversation May 1978 "Paris - Capital of the 19th Century" From Charles Baudelaire - A lyric poet in the Era of High Capitalism p.172 REFERENCES: (Cont'd) (45) (46) (47) (48) (49) (50) (51) (52) (53) (54) (55) (56) (57) (58) e.g. Barrington Kaye op cit F. Jenkins is Summerson Barrington Kaye Barrington Kaye Bowen RIBA Gibson etal J. Mepham - Williams . Williams - Debord - Smith . Malpass op cit - citing Lethaby "The London Building World of the 1860's p.21 op cit - p.234 - citing Summerson ibid p.166 AJ 10.12.53 p.714 "Report of the Committee to Consider the Present and Future of Private Architectural Practice" AJ Guest Editor Series 13.3.52 p.327 "The Theory of Ideology in Capital" from Radical Philosophy 2 "Culture and Society'' also "The Long Revolution'! ibid "Society of the Spectacle'! "Wealth of Nations! "Architects Professionalism and Local Authority Housing" p.75 "Women and the Welfare State!’ p.9 "Local Government becomes Big Business'' p.13 (CDP) (59) (60) (61) (62) (63) (64) Gibson et al - Wilson J. Bennington a Malpass Gibson et al S. Webb ibid op cit op cit op cit ) oh, * low pou pS 1 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource NAM PDS Group (John Murray) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Allan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 06 May 1978 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/6bfc6a8461a3b9172cdd119aab4ad6ab.pdf 3297e5f13076d1f9600ec4cd77bd21a0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource SLATE Description An account of the resource To help promote its work and reduce dependence on the established professional press, NAM created its own newspaper SLATE. The editorial group met bi-monthly to gather together latest events, activities and ideas emerging from radical critiques and challenges to the established order of architectural practice and education. The content of each edition was collated, and cut-and-pasted into layouts of the magazine which typically ran from 16 to 28 pages. Each edition included a brilliant cartoon by Andrew Brown who emerged as a clever graphic artist synthesising NAM's radical ethics. SLATE's production ran to 17 issues in total. The SLATE Group also produced occasional annual calendars, of which three survive Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource SLATE 1 Description An account of the resource The (Unionisation) Organising Committee of the New Architecture Movement calls a Special, One-Day Is there an answer to... ..redundancies? ..-declining standard of living? ...shoddy design and cutting of corners? ++-secretive and arbitrary management? YES! cS \ People in architecture and the ‘_... es EAPCHHUSE Bue nr \ ee| AONION FOR ?!! related building professions are becoming aware that their EMPLOYMENT SECURITY, their STANDARD OF LIVING, and the WHAT, HOW, and WHY of the work they do, not to mention the quality of the environment they share as members of the commu- nity, are as much at the mercy of the market as those of any other working people. IF you work in architecture, surveying, structural or building services engineering, quantity surveying, town planning, etc., AND you want to begin to gain control over your working life by helping to build a strong, active, democratic and unified trade union organisation among your 50,000 colleagues in "private sector" firms and departments, THEN join us to collectively decide on ONE UNION for architectural and allied workers in the private sector, to consider priorities for union action and to initiate a serious organising campaign. ONE-DAY SPECIAL CONFERENCE ON TRADE UNION ORGANISATION IN ARCHITECTURE AND THE ALLIED BUILDING PROFESSIONS Closing date for receipt of application forms for conference credentials is Wednesday, 4th May. (Unionisation) Organising Committee, The New Architecture Movement, 9 Poland St., London Wl. P.T.0. Conference on Trade Union Organisation in Architecture & the Allied Bldg. Professions LONDON Saturday, 14 MAY 1977 10am to 6pm Why a Special Conference? The Organising Committee calls this Special Conference to answer the crucial question, "WHICH UNION?" with a collective, democratic decision, as broadly-based as possible. Those who participate in the decision at the Conference will be expected to support it and join the union. The conference will also discuss priorities and policies for union organising and action as well as means for co-ordinating and strengthening trade unionism among architectural workers in both private and public sectors. Why now? In response to growing concern that the present employment crisis in architecture as well as the more profound crisis of confidence and identity in the profession requires some form of bona-fide trade union organisation, the Unionisation Working Group of Central London NAM produced its Draft Report, "Architectural Workers and Trade Unionism" after six months of research and discussion. The Draft Report was presented to NAM's 2nd National Congress in Blackpool, November 26-28, 1976, where it was enthusiastically received. The Congress set up an enlarged, national Organising Committee to (a) develop a campaign for the organisation of the nearly 50,000 people working in the almost totally unorganised private sector of the building profes- sions, and (b) co-ordinate trade union activities among architectural workers in all sectors. Since the Congress, the Organising Committee has been busy investigating all reasonable alter— natives for dealing with the difficult task of or- ganising in the private sector. These include orga- nising within ONE of the unions considered most relevant (with whose officials we have had further, more detailed exploratory talks) or starting from scratch and building a new union especially for workers in the building professions. The Draft Report emphasized that unless archi- tectural and allied workers in the private sector are organised into ONE, and only one, union, "The result will be that the inevitable organisation will proceed slowly, sporadically and hesitantly, will be unnecessarily protracted; will remain in- complete; and will never be able to contribute to the workers, professions, industry and community what an effective, coherent union could.” Costs The Revised Report The completely revised, enlarged and up-dated "second edition" of the report on trade union organ- isation, essential background for the Conference, will be available by the end of March from the Or—- ganising Committee and... ..-discusses the reasons for organising, ...-critically examines the history and current state of organisation in architecture, in both public and private sectors, ..-evaluates the feasibility of an organising drive now, ...surveys the various types of trade unionism Full Conference fee including Briefing and Revised Report is £3.50 for employed people and £2.50 for claimants, accompanied by completed appli- cation form for conference credentials. (Cost of Conference includes buffet lunch.) Revised Report only is £0.65, postpaid. (N.B.: The Organising Committee may be able to arrange limited overnight accommodation where necessary. Please enquire.) All orders, requests for further copies of prospectus or for credentials application forms, enquiries, and completed application forms (before May 4 )to (Unionisation) Organising Committee, The New Archi- tecture Movement, 9 Poland Street, London Wl, enclos-— ing check or postal order payable to The New Archi- tecture Movement. possible, and +..cOnsiders how The Report ment of a "grass-roots" alliance of trade union- ists in architecture, regardless of sector or union (of which there are at least eight which have achieved recognition in ‘the public sector) to aid organisation, encourage active trade unionism, and co-ordinate and strengthen trade union activities and policies among architectural workers. It is expected that this will also be discussed at the Conference. Conference Briefing A full Briefing package for the Conference, including results of the research into the unions considered relevant and detailed Conference par- ticulars and procedures will be available from the Organising Committee by mid-April. organisation could proceed. also proposes the establish- (3/77) Is there an answer to... ...redundancies? ...declining standard of living? ...Shoddy design and cutting of corners? ...secretive and arbitrary management? YES! quantity surveying, town planning, etc., AND you want to begin to gain control over your working life by helping to build 50,000 colleagues in "private sector” firms and departments, to initiate a serious organising campaign. LONDON Saturday, 14 MAY 1977 10am to 6pm Wednesday, 4th May. People in architecture and the related building professions are becoming aware that their EMPLOYMENT SECURITY, their STANDARD OF LIVING, and the WHAT, HOW, and WHY of the work they do, not to mention the quality of the environment they share as members of the commu- nity, are as much at the mercy of the market as those of any other working people. P.T.0. The (Unionisation) Organising Committee of the New Architecture Movement calls a Special, One-Day Conference on Trade Union Organisation in Architecture & the Allied Bldg. Professions IF you work in architecture, surveying, structural or building services engineering, a strong, active, democratic and unified trade union organisation among your THEN join us to collectively decide on ONE UNION for architectural and allied workers in the private sector, to consider priorities for union action and ONE-DAY SPECIAL CONFERENCE ON TRADE UNION ORGANISATION IN ARCHITECTURE AND THE ALLIED BUILDING PROFESSIONS Closing date for receipt of application forms for conference credentials is (Unionisation) Organising Committee, The New Architecture Movement, 9 Poland St., London Wl. Why a Special Conference? The Revised Report The conference will also discuss priorities and policies for union organising and action as well &s means for co-ordinating and strengthening trade unionism among architectural workers in both private And public sectors. Why now? In response to growing concern that the present employment crisis in architecture as well as the more profound crisis of confidence and identity in the profession requires some form of bona-fide trade union organisation, the Unionisation Working Group of Central London NAM produced its Draft Report, "Architectural Workers and Trade Unionism" after six months of research and discussion. Costs Full Conference fee tecture Movement. Conference Briefing A full Briefing package for the Conference, including results of the research into the unions considered relevant and detailed Conference par- ticulars and procedures will be available from the Organising Committee by mid-April. (3/77) The completely revised, enlarged and up-dated "second edition" of the report on trade union organ- isation, essential background for the Conference, will be available by the end of March from the Or- ganising Committee and... -.-discusses the reasons for organising, +--critically examines the history and current state of organisation in architecture, in both public and private sectors, --.€valuates the feasibility of an organising drive now, ++-Surveys the various types of trade unionism possible, and ++.considers how organisation could proceed. The Report also proposes the establish- ment of a "grass-roots" alliance of trade union- ists in architecture, regardless of sector or union (of which there are at least eight which have achieved recognition in ‘the public sector) to aid organisation, encourage active trade unionism, and co-ordinate and strengthen trade union activities and policies among’ architectural workers. It is expected that this will also be discussed at the Conference. The Organising Committee calls this Special Conference to answer the crucial question, "WHICH UNION?" with a collective, democratic decision, as broadly-based as possible. Those who participate in the decision at the Conference will be expected to Support it and join the union. The Draft Report was presented to NAM's 2nd National Congress in Blackpool, November 26-28, 1976, where it was enthusiastically received. The Congress Set up an enlarged, national Organising Committee to (a) develop a campaign for the organisation of the nearly 50,000 people working in the almost totally unorganised private sector of the building profes- sions, and (b) co-ordinate trade union activities among architectural workers in all sectors. Since the Congress, the Organising Committee has been busy investigating all reasonable alter— natives for dealing with the difficult task of or- ganising in the private sector. These include orga- nising within ONE of the unions considered most relevant (with whose officials we have had further, more detailed exploratory talks) or starting from scratch and building a new union especially for workers in the building professions. The Draft Report emphasized that unless archi- tectural and allied workers in the private sector are organised into ONE, and only one, union, "The result will be that the inevitable organisation will proceed slowly, sporadically and hesitantly; will be unnecessarily protracted; will remain in- complete; and will never be able to contribute to the workers, professions, industry and community what an effective, coherent union could." Revised Report is £3.50 for employed people and £2.50 for claimants, accompanied by completed appli- cation form for conference credentials. (Cost of Conference includes buffet lunch.) Revised Report only is £0.65, postpaid. necessary. Please enquire.) (N.B.: The Organising Committee may be able to arrange limited Overnight accommodation where including Briefing and All orders, requests for further copies of prospectus or for credentials application forms, enquiries, and completed application forms (before May 4. )to (Unionisation) Organising Committee, The New Archi- tecture Movement, 9 Poland Street, London Wi, enclos- ing check or postal order payable to The New Archi- While architectural management ner- youlsy awaits the increasinly inevitable NAM AFFILIATED ARCHITECTS effort to reduce running costs at Portland Place HAVE BEEN ELECTED to six of NEWSLETTER OF THE NEW ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT MARCH 1977 EXCLUSIVE NAM ALMOST RULE O.K! ARCUK after 40 years in the wilderness trade union organisation among architec- tural workers, more and more staff at the tions among the army of foot soldiers so meces- London headquarters of their own Royal Institute of British Architects have been joining a union to begin collective negoti- ations with the RIBA over pay and condi- tation and no assurance was given that further tions and to prevent further redundancies redundancies would not follow. without consultation. At that point, a nucleus ofstaff joined the Organisation has been accelerated by the un- Association of Scientific, Technical and Mana- stripping’ reductions in some RIBA services in an tion and negoiating rights. (e.g. AA, IAAS, FAS, ABT). ARCUK is the body set up by WOULD YOU PUT IN AN ENTRY TO AN ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITION IN CHILE OR SOUTH AFRICA? Where DO you draw the line between career and conscience? The Iranian Government, described by Amnesty International as having the worst human rights record in the world, have recently announced a competition for the design of a 100,000M2 ‘Pahlavi National Library’ to be sited in Tehran. If realised, this will be another concrete symbol of the dictatorial power of the Pahlavi dynasty that has ruled Iran since 1925: it will be a formalist gesture in the same vein as ‘Brasilia’. ‘The Iranian dictatorship is among the most repressive and reactionary regimes in the world. The most blatant and outrageous violations of basic human right are becoming the daily practices of thisbarbanc regime. Having no popubr support in the country the Shah's dictatorship can only maintain its reactionary rule by terror and repression. There are now more than 40,000 political prisoners in the regime’s jails, the vast majority of whom have never been tried publicly, or secretly, nor even charged with any offences. These prisoners are members of political organisations opposed to the dictatorship, workers who have fought for the interests of the working class, militant stodents and artists, intellectuals and moslem clergymen who have refused to put themselves at the disposal of the regime’ . from a leaflet published by CARI (Committee against repression in Iran). Since the C.I.A. organised coup in 53 the government have tried, through a massive public relations exercise, to cover up the truth about the gross denial of human rights and the polarisation of wealth in Iran. Participation in this competition by professionals outside Iran is as much a reinforcement of the Shah’s regime as the supply of armaments and information technology by the western countries. So where do you draw the line? Parliament under the Architects Registration Acts of 1931 and 1938 to ‘regulate’ the profession, presumably in the public interest, by restricting use of the title ‘architect’ and controlling the standard of architectural education. It has since inception been totally dominated by the architectural This year will be the first time since 1941 that there will be no RIBA member representing unattached architects. Until 1941, the unattached architects representation was dominated by members of the Institute of Registered Architects, a body which avowedly represented the interests of principals in private practice and which later merged with the Faculty of Architects and Surveyors (FAS). [see col3 P.2 and thus keep the RIBA’s subscription level be- low that which might spark off full-scale deser- the seven seats on the Architects Registration Council (ARCUK) which have been allocated to ‘unattached architects’ for 1977-78. Balloting took place in sary to the archi-Generals’ public credibility. In August 1976, three members of HQ staff were made redundant. There was no prior consul- January and February among the gerial Staffs (ASTMS) and by now recruitment more than 3,000 registered architects in the U.K. who are not members of the Royal Institute of British Arhcitects rest at the Prtland Place HQ setoff by the appointment last yearof a ‘chief executive’ for the RIBA. It was feared that cuts would be made ten to wait until a majority of HQ workers are ‘constituent bodies’ of ARCUK in some departments and there would be ‘asset- union members before seeking union recogni- has reached about 30%. The organised staff in - (RIBA) or of the other, smaller employers’ association (RIBA). ° unattached architects This year, for the first time in ARCUK’s history, only truly unattached architects will be representing the unattached architects. Despite their being incumbents, the two RIBA members who were running for election by unattached architects finished last in the balloting among the eleven candidates. ORGANISING PORTLAND PLACE WHERE DO YOU DRAW THE LINE? slate’, n., n., & y.t. 1, Kinds of grey, green, or blulsh-purple rock casily eplit Jato flat smooth plates; pleco of such ‘¢used ns roofing-material; pleco of It t Ifoforrenounco oblign- ~dlue, -grey, modifications ssuch ns occur in~; l-~-clud, al benefit soclety with small weekly contributions; ~-colour(ed), (of) dark Dluish or greenish groy; hence slat’x? a, 2. adj. (Made) . 3.¥.t. Cover with~3 roofing; henco slit‘eR‘ n, (ME .OF esclate, fem. of esclat stat*) v.t. (collog.). Criticize severely or in reviews), scold, rate; Propose for office etc, Henco n.(app.ft,prec.] SLATE IS THE NEWSLETTER OF THE NEW ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT, published bi-monthly by the Movement’s Liaison Group and edited on its behalf by an adhoc committee set up in January 1977.. News and features of broad interest to workers in the profession, and the building industry and to the wider public are included to stimulate debate on a wide range of issues and to bring the Movement’s views and activities to the attention of the widest readership. -. help build SLATE’s readership . help to build NAM . subscribe to SLATE . show it to your friends . become a local rep to distribute SLATE in your office, school or town . ask for SLATE in your local bookshop .getyourschooloroffice to subscribe. .AND THE FUTURE For SLATE to grow asalively reflection of the views of radical Architectural Workersandothersconcernedwiththe Processes which shape our environment, accountability of editorial decisions to the members of the Movement is essential. This year four further issues are planned. Each one will be proceeded by an open meeting with the Editorial Committee. Come and express your views and criticisms at these meetings or through the letters column of SLATE. Next year it is suggested that the adhoc committee should be disbanded to be replaced by an editorial committee elected by and directly responsible to the annual congress of the Movement. The first SLATE open meeting is in London on 4th April 1977. WORK ON SLATE SLATEneedsmoreworkers,more writers and more ideas. This issue was put together by a committee of seven. A largercommitteewouldmeanabetter newsletter; so would more writers, illustrators, cartoonists and photographers, and simply more Suggestions for stories and features. If you would like to work for SLATE, join the committee or suggest topics it should cover, then please write in soon. The copy deadline for the next issue is Friday 22nd April. OUR HIGH COVER PRICE 40p is a lot to pay for a newsletter this from page | The unattached architects, who make upagrowingproportion(nowaneighth) of all ‘architects’ in the U.K., are the only ones allowed to elect their own representativestoARCUK. Allthe others are appointed by the Councils of their respective ‘constituent bodies.’ While the unattached architects are required by the Architects Registration Acts to elect registered architects as their representatives, the ‘constituent bodies’ are free to appoint whomever they please. While they could, therefore nominate members of the lay public or un-registered members of the profession, they al nevertheless consistently appoint only RIBA members. Even the Architectural Association’s Council, now dominated by a ‘reform slate’ of A.A. students, has again appointed RIBA members to al four of its seats on ARCUK. All four are members to al four of its seats on seatsonARCUK. Actually,from1942 to 1949, one of its seats was occupied by Emo Goldfinger, DPLG (the French equivalent),whodidn’tjointheRIBA until 1948 and has become a well-known principal inprivate practice. salaried voice louder While the election of six NAM nominees to ARCUK may give a greater voice to grossly under-represented salaried architects, the RIBA main- tains its overall control of ARCUK Of the sixty architect members of ARCUK last year, 56 were RIBA members, The six non-architect members of ARCUK were al appoin- -ted by other ‘professional’ or em- ployees’ bodies in the construction industry. None were laymen, let alone ‘workers*. Whatisevenmorenoteworthyis that while salaried architectural workers make up at least 76% Of registered architects, they had only about 15% of the architects’ representation on ARCUK, Architectural management, hardly aquater of registered architects, had over %4’s of the representation on ARCUK, Nearly 60% of the architects on the Council were in fact bosses in private practice. A report presented to NAM’s second Congress last November called for the reform of the Architects regis- -tration Acts to make ARCUK more accountable to both those who use the SOCIALISM environmentaswellasthosewhowork in architecture. It proposed a reconsti- tuted Council with a truly ‘lay’ majority andan‘architectual’minoritydirectly from within each of the major interest groups among registered architects (workers, employers,self-employed, and salaried management ), with representation of each group to be based on its numerical strength in the profession. The report isnow available from NAM ( 30p, postpaid ). carriesonmostofits business through committees. The Board of Education’s task is to recognise architecture schools whose “examination ought to qualify persons for registration’. The admissions Committee considers the applications for registration, while the Discipli Committee considers any allegations against an architect of ‘conduct disgracefultohiminhiscapacityasan architect,” grounds for removing his name from the Register. The Professional Purposes Committee also involved in ‘discipline’, deals with the ‘Code of Professional Conduct’, now identical to that of the RIBA which in effect defines what the Council considers disgraceful. The Code establishes the principle of control ‘in the public interest’ by ARCUK over what forms of practice are permitted among architects; how architects may get work; how architects may relate to one another and totheiremployees,inbusinessand professional terms; and the architect’s responsibility to ‘those who may be expectedtouseorenjoytheproductof his work’. The ARCUK Code of Professional Conduct includes mandatory adherence to the RIBA Conditions of Engagement and Scale of Fees, now under study by the Monopolies Commission, to which NAM last year submitted evidence. The Finance and General Purposes committee ofARCUK dealswith, among other things, the amount of the ‘retention fee’ (currently £5) which architects must pay to stay on the Register. The first act of the new Council will be to elect members to al these various i for the coming year. Already RIBA and AA members have collaboratedtoputforwardjointslates consisting exclusively of RIBA members, for each committee. Only the NAM - affiliated unattached architects are offering any opposition to it. The first meeting of the 1977-78 Council, which meets quarterly, will take place on March 16. Venue: 66 Portland Place, London W1, by coincidence, HQ of the RIBA. After the meeting, the members have been invited to ‘take wine’ at ARCUK’s office around the comer in Hallam Street, in celebration of the Queen’s Jubilee. big. The funding of SLATE is connected to the funding of NAM as awhole, and last year the Movement ran up substantial debts.Thisyear’sliaisongroupdetermined ARCUK, Allfourareownersof that that situation should not arise again and fixed the subscription rate accordingly, both to the Movement and the newsletter, in the knowledge that insolvency would never help the Movement to grow, and in the conviction that NAM’s Strength will lie among people who are prepared to support its activities to the ful. The annual subscription to SLATE, for five issues, is £2 00. If circulation rises then the choice is open for SLATE to become larger or for the subscription to fal, but for the moment it must not get into debt. ADVERTISING At an carly meeting the committee decide not to take commercial adver-- tisements in SLATE. Advertisements from alternative groups and personal small ads are, however, welcome. A small charge wouldbemadebutthecommittee reserves the right to turn down any advertisement COPYRIGHT Any article or part of an article or part of an article in SLATE may be freely but accurately reproduced, providing that SLATE is credited as the origin of any material used. LASTLY... AsubscriptionformforSLATE anda membership form for NAM are included on the last page. Please indicate also if you would like to distribute SLATE in your office, school or town. SLATE is free to all members of NAM SLATE is published by the LIAISON GROUP of the NEW ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT, 9, Poland St., London. W1. Typesetting by Julia Wilson-Jones Printed by WOMEN IN PRINT, 16a, Iliffe Yard, London, SE17. private practices. The Association of Building Technicians, recently absorbed into STAMP, the non-manual section of UCATT, is the only trade union directly represented on ARCUK, haying collaborated with the RIBA in the passage of the Architects Registration Acts. The ABT Council has also appointed RIBA members for the last 35 years. While the ABT now represents hardly 200 architects, form 1942 to 1954 it represented over 500 and thus had two PLANNERS FOR i SOME 250 PLANNERS GATHERED recently in London to set up an organisationtospreadsocialistideals Discussionsonastructureforthe committees in the planning field. This first meeting of the Conference of Socialist Planners bore out the view thatthereis,inplanning,‘avacuum which hopefully can be filled by a socialist analysis of the problems which beset our society’. Participants came from Local Government, the academic world and priyate practice. Urged on by the morning’s speakers, inclydingPeterAmbrose(co-authorof “The Property Machine”) and economist Stuart Holland who stressed the political nature of planning decisions and the need for a politicisation of the planning process the meeting settled down to the difficult task of swallowing sectarian differences and constituting an organisation which would enadle ‘a hundred flowers to bloom’. i Emphasis was laid on the need for a | broad-based organisation to combat the divisive effect on those concerned with | planning of a social and economic system in which the “totality of social relationships are truncated and depoliticised’, The Conference would Conference lead to a view of the Conference itself as an ‘umbrella’ group embracing groups working on national issuesaswellasgeographically-based regional workshops, aconcept that gave the meeting an opportunity to carve up the country with an almost unhealthy planner’s zeal. Relations would be established with fraternal groups but the idea of formal affiliation to particular political parties was rejected. Participants who waited patiently throughthemeetingforadiscussionof just the issues that the Conference was set up to treat were frustrated by the overbearing need to consolidate the vehicle through which ideas would be disseminated and campaigns mounted. Hopefully their patience will soon be rewarded as the CSP at national and regional level builds its strength and tums its attention towards the politisation politisation of the planning process. Not easy, but their first meeting was a good start. Further information about the Conference of Socialist Planners and regional workshops from + CSP, 54, Addison Gardens, London WiI4. address itself to lay people and politicians as well as planning professionals. STOP PRESS!...STOP PRESS!...STOP PRESS...STOP PRESS Souvenir from NAM's first ARCUK meeting: The letter was sent to all RIBA members on ARCUK in a blatant attempt to prevent NAM members from getting on*- page 2 € eZed =“TRESPASSER—S adopting law and order for their main the Law Commission returned to the 4. ‘trespass on embassies’ of the work they do and increasingly as I RENT, YOU BUY, WE LOSE, THEY PROFIT! A review of ‘Profits Against Houses’ If you have ever wondered why an anvanced industrial country such as Britain remains incap- able of providing adequate housing for a large pro- portionofitspopulationthislitlebookwillsup- plyatleastsomeoftheanswersasitguidesyou through the forest of myth and mystificstio that is the world of housing finance. Through the mist of estate agents’ sales talk and govern- ment propaganda the real forces that shape the housing we buy /rent or wait for are scarcely visible. Inspite of the highly political nature of the ‘housing question’ and the struggles of workers and tenants for better conditions, housing in the mixed economy is still dominated, in the public as well as in the private sector, by the search for profit and the forces of the market. Coalitions of interest between property deve- lopers house builders, solicitors, surveyors, estate agents and housing architects form a powerful lobby to resist change. Research for the book was done by workers in several of the Community Development Pro- jects set up by the Government in deprived areas throughout the country. The Home Office, the department in charge of the pro- jects, decided to close them down in mid 1976. Profit Against House. CDP Information and Intel- ligence Unit, S6pp, Sept.1976. (SOp from CDP, Mary Ward House, 5, Tavistock Place, London WCI H 955) institute. Such rules obviously limit the role that staff associations could play in the reform of the professions and an architect interested in broadening the class base of his profession would not want to be compromised in this way. Half aloaf isbetter than no worker organisation at al but the question remains as to whether staff associations will hasten or delay the emergence of real organisation among professional workers and the integration of these workers with the labour movement asawhole. theme in 1970, the Tories were - WILL BE influenced by Nixon’s successful Lord Chancellor (who was at that time guess who? -yes, Lord Hailsham again) for a rebriefing to “consider in what circumstances entering and Temaining on property (ie trespass) should constitute a criminal offence. This then is the background of the billgoingthroughparliamentatthe moment. Thefiveelementsofpart11 of the bill (the section dealing with criminal trespass) are : 1. the ‘forcible entry’ law would be repealed and anew offence - trespass on already occupied premises- would replace it. This element has been proposed as a direct response to the tiny and grossly exaggerated proportion of th recent squatting cases over the last couple of years -largely contrived by the newspapers and local authorities as a softening up campaign to artificially create a need for C.T.L. The practical import of this offence revolves around the wide open interpretation of “occupied eg. ‘occupied’ (e.g. a landlords bed could be claimed to constitute ‘occupation’. 2. it would be an offence to committ ‘violent entry’ with the exception of the displaced residential occupier. 3. to trespass with an offensive weapon “the precise nature of an offensive weapon is left sufficiently open as to provide a carte blance for the swelling fraternity of overzealous policemen. 5. it would be an ‘offence to resist a county court bailiff and bailiffs vested with the power of arrest. CA.CT.L. An attempt has been made to use the recession and the cracks in the fabric of Britainssocialdemocracy thateconomic members of the labour movement, should act jointly with fellow trade unionists students and squatters in opposing this legislation. C.A.C.T.L. has been supported by 30 trades councils, by trade union branches, 21 constituency labour parties and many community groupsandatnationallevel,byNUPE ACTS,NUS,LPYSandtheannual Trades Councils Conference of 1976 have opposed the C.T.L. campaign in 1969 and student militancy —— CRIMINALS _ in the late 60’s. In the face of PAUSEFORAMOMENT AND REFLECT upontheamountof time you spend on someone elses property -a very large proportion you'll find, even ifyou are a home owner. For the first time for 900 years there is now a bill before parliament which will advance the principle that certain acts of tresspass are criminal offences. This bill, the ‘Conspiracy and Law Reform Bill’ was given its second reading in the House of Lords on December 14 last year. Should the bill become an Act of Parliament it will affect squatting and the occupations of factories, colleges and hospitals alike. It will greatly extend the power of the police and bailiffs to carry out evictions and enable them to prosecute people who resist them. law and order Criminal Trespass Legislation started life as a twinkle in the (right) eye of the Tory Party as it put together its platform for the 1970 elections. In and top party officials decided to adopt therecommendationofQuintinHogg andmakecriminaltrespasslegislation one of the main planks in their election platform. But they baulked at a ful frontal attact and decided in the end to ask the Law Commission to ‘update’ the the statute of forcible entry. Meanwhile a group of Sierra Leone students, who had occupied their country’s embassy in protest at their government’s treatment of dissidents, had been charged by Sir Peter Rawlinson the Attorney General, with the new crime of ‘conspiracy to tresspass’ -a crime which even the legal establishment could not find on the statute books at the time lords appeal Their case was taken to appeal in the House of Lords where the conviction was upheld, principally through the judgement of Lord Hailsham (formerly . Quintin Hogg.) This put the Law Commission in a quandary :their recommendations were to have been made on the assumption that tresspass neither was, nor should be, a crime - a fatuous task once Lord Hailsham had conjured a criminal tresspass offence out of the common law of conspiracy. So stringencyhashighlighted,todivert peoples attention from the course of the bil through parliament. The attempt has not succeeded; a campaign has been set up to oppose the CONTACT ADDRESSES FOR LOCAL GROUPS proposed legislation, the Campaign |opposition from the mainstream of |} Tory legal opinion the shadow cabinet Against the Criminal Trespass Legislation (CACTL), which has found support in many areas of society. Trade unions: the T.U.C. general council yoted on 26 January to oppose the introduction of al of the offences except that of threspassing on embassy properties. Students: 30 student unions and the NUS are opposing the legislation and the National Executive of the Labour Party is likely to oppose part I of the bil. legal punch Architects must see that the individuals and groups within society who often act as their clients want greater legal punch for their claim to the exclusive right of determining the way in which their buildings will be used. Architects, as individuals, by virtue JOIN THE PROFESSIONALS TIMES ARE SLOWLY CHANGING FOR ARCHITECTS, who have traditionally remained on the fringe of the labour moyement. Architects at Sir William Halcrow and Partners, a large international engineering consultancy, are setting up a branch of the newly formed staff association for workers in their department. A similar staff association has recently been set up in the office of the Edinburgh practive of Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall and Partners. Staff Associations recruit members only from among the employees of the firm to which they are attached. The Halcrow’s Association’s constitution lays down its aims as the ‘enhancement’ of its members’ position in respect of salaries and conditions and provides a procedure for the resolution of grievances. So far the association has recruited 600 out of a total of 1800 workers throughout Halcrows. collective choice For architectural workers in the private sector who want to go beyond a staff association, the choice is between the white collar trades unions (ASTMS, TASS etc.) and industrial unions (UCATT T&GWU etc.)althoughitmay ultimately be more effective to collectively decide upon one union. The prospect of nationally organised unions becoming involved with their practice will not be welcomed by many of the employers in the profession: it is likely that the partners at Halcrows are relieved that ‘workers organisation” has come in such a palatable and ‘familiar’ form. code takes precedence Further, the staff association’s rules are written in such a way that a member may decline to take industrial action if he feels that he would, by doing so, contraven the code of his professional |USEFUL WORK versus USELESS TOIL | ;by William Morris Fascimile edition of a Hammersmith Socialist Society pamphlet originally printed by William Morris in 1893. William Morris was born on 24th March 1832, Take the day off work and celebrate William Morris Day by purchasing a copy of this limited reprint. Fill in the form below and send it together with a cheque/PO (payable to the New Architecture Movement) for 60p to NAM 9, Poland St., London, W1. NAME, ADDRESS. ,c/o 108 Bookshop, 108 Salisbury Road. LIVERPOOL: c/o 39/41 Manesty’s Lane, Liverpool 1. N.LONDON: 161 Hornsey Rd., N7. For details of contacts in other areas contact London CACTL at BRIGHTON: c/o Open Cafe, 7 Victoria Road, Brighton Sussex. Cavendish Street, Manchester 15. NOTTINGHAM: c/o 15 Scotholme Avenue, Nottingham. CANTERBURY: c/o 7 York Road, Canterbury, Kent LONDON: c/o 1 Elgin Ave., W9. MANCHESTER: c/o SCA, Students Union, Manchester Poly, OXFORD: c/o 38 Hurst Street, Oxford. c/o 6 Bowden Street, SE11 or phone (01) 289 3877. BRISTOL: c/o 6 Westfield Park, Bristol 6. S. LONDON: Union Place, 122—4 Vassall Rd., SW9. E. LONDON: Dame Colet Hse., Ben Jonson Rd., E14. SE LONDON: Deptford HAC, 171 Deptford High St., SES, SHEFFIELD: c/o 1 Portsea Road, Sheffield 6. SWANSEA: c/o 79 Brokesby Road, Bon-y-maen, Swansea. W. LONDON: | | | | Je ASPECIAL CONFERENCE to initiate a trade union organising drive among the nearly 50,000 people working in the as yet unorganised private sector of architectureandthenee building professions will be held in London on Saturday !4 May. The Conference has been called by the (Unionisation) Organisin nowastrong,militant,democratic y 8 Committee of the New Architecture Movement to make acollective EOe those workers in the building 8 NAM’s 2nd Congress late last November, emphasized that unless architectural and allied workers in the private sector are organised into one, and only one, union, Sha verultenill bethatiheinewtahle organisation will proceed slowly, sporadically and hesitantly; will be industry and community what an 1 Since Blackpool The Organising Committee pas seUne by the Congress, which declared trade union organisation a major priority of NAM, to develop an organising campaign. Since then most relevant. Opinion at the Congress was divided between those who thought that organisation in the private sector could best be achieved within one of the existing unions and those who thought architectural and allied workers should start from scratch and build their own union. It has been questioned however. es [ir youwouldliketobeamemberoftthheNew/‘ArchitectureMovement|fillin|theffoormbelow:andsend ittogetherwithacheque/postalorder(payabletotheNewArchitectureMovement)for£5.00(if you're employed) or £2.00 ( if you're are student, claimant or OAP) to NAM at 9, Poland Street | whether thelatterisarealisticalternative | given the acknowledged difficulties of ‘ >, Leese" H‘ATRHE2ARAYPERO'UBLRSESMIN HE ora | Look,man,eo u lorg enough ferlousy ARCHIE — foes est HAS ABIG Laver that management's strategy in trying to prevent effective organisation in architecture will be to encourage a proliferation of unions in the field in order to delay the emergence ofa unified organisation among al workers in architecture and the allied building professions (quantity surveying, structural andbaltalrgerateesengineering,landscape and unified trade union organisation, _ architecture, surveying, town planning, etc.). DO sentnnge (WD} “oe, (Oven |Wanted \...\Now Ive professions qo want to help build various types of trade unionism possible (opting for what might be termed a ‘workers’ control’ model), and considers how organisation could proceed. next step Also available from the Organising Committee are the prospectus for the forthcoming Special Conference and application forms for it. ( stamped, self- -addressed envelopes appreciated ). The Committeewouldliketohearfromal who are interested in unionisation with ideas, experiences, situations, comments or criticisms of its Draft Report, etc. TheSpecialC isalso exp d to discuss the problem of co-ordinating trade union activity among architectural workers in both sectors, regardless of union affiliation. Because of the split of the profession into public and private sectors (as well as the presence ofa sizable number of architectural workers in industry, commerce, education, and the ‘voluntary sector’), combined with the pattern of trade union development in Britain, there are now at least eight TUC affiliated unions with an architectural membership which have achieved recognition in the public sector. In order to aid organisation, encourage active trade unionism, and co-ordinate and strengthen trade union activities and policies among architectural workers,the Organising Committee’s Report proposesthe theestablishmentofa‘grassroots’alliance of trade unionists in architecture, regardless of sector or union. This is of asbestos received encouragement earlier this year when the most populous of the United States, California, banned the use of asbestos in construction, following mul- timilliondollarlawsuitsagainstthe giant Johns-Manville asbestos firm. Mean- while, the management of Britian’s major scompanies hayesteppedup their massive, slick and deceptive adver- tising campaign in both the trade and nat- ional presses. In its recent submission of evidence to the Government’s Advisory Committee on Asbestos, the TUC emphasized that ‘a number of large trade unions and trades councils have expressed serious concern over the inaccu- racies, misrepresentations and misleading advice concerning asbestos hazards contained in a re- cent series of full page advertisements in the national press. These have already attracted a great deal of outside criticism, including that of the Advertising Standards Authority’. In its evidence, described as ‘excellent’ by Nancy Tait, author of* Asbestos Kills’ (25p from Exchange Publications, 9 Poland Street London W1), the TUC called for a‘planned programme for the progressive compulsory sub- stitution ofalasbestos applicationsinthe UK.’ Eventheslightexposuretoasbestosdustcan cause slow and painful death not only from as- bestosis (an untreatable form of pneumocon- iosis), but also from lung cancer, mesothelioma Up against many of the same problems which face architectural workers (even if not threatened with redundancies on such a massive scale), legal workers in London have quietly begun organising a trade union. Last Novemeber they established abranchoftheTransportandGeneral The TUC also emphasized that ‘it and its affiliated unions are highly dissatisfied with the exceedingly low levels of fines imposed by magi- strates for breaches of the existing Asbestos Regu- lationsandtheFactoriesActanditsotherregu- lations. In some cases, employers have been fined £5 and less for breaches of safety laws which have endangered the lives and health of workers.’ Not quite the picture that the propaganda of the as- bestos companies’ “Asbestos Information Commit- tee’ and “Asbestosis Research Council’ would have the public believe. The TUC pointed out, further- more, that the present Asbestos Regulations are "totally inadequate to provide protection against cancer risks’ and do not even provide effective protection against the risk of development of asbestosis. Nearly 80% of the asbestos used in the UK is used in the construction industry, where ‘pra- ticable and safe’ alternatives are already available. More substitutes, such as various ceramic fibres products, are well along in the r—and—d pipe-line. Meanwhile, the Green Ban Action Committee in Birmingham is arranging a seminar in conjunc- tion with the local UCATT office on the subject of asbestos. The meeting, Saturday, Apnl16, will involve workers from the construction, heating and ventilating, and car industries; medical wor- kers; environmentalists and people from the con- sumer movement. Further details from GBAC, 77School ’ Road, Hall Green, Birmingham B28 8JQ. (tel: 021-777-5726). tor and for an increased voice for legal workers in the decisions which affect their working lives. Like architecture, the law is characterised by a needlessly hierarchical structure and agreat dis- parity between the earnings and work pace of the bosses and the workers. The ultimate goal is to break down the divisions between ‘professional’ and‘non-professional’work. strongly based on the ‘shop floor’ (ie. the office). Hence the need for solidarity from the start, beginning with a collective, rather than individual, decision as to ‘Which ‘Architectural Workers and Trade Unionism’,aDraftReportpresentedto union?’ | withacheque/postalorder(payabletotheNewArchitectureMovement)for£2.00toNAMat9, |WorkersandTradeUnionism’.The organisationwillcontinuetoclaimto ‘speakfortheprofession’,tothe detriment of architectural workers, the labour movement, and the community. The question of trade union organisation in architecture and the allied building professions will also be one of the main topics of discussion at a NAM seminar being held at the Polytechnic to Central London on Saturday 23 April, beginning at 10.00 am. In the meantime, the union will also be seek- WorkersACTS(‘white-collar’)sectionfor ingamongotherdemands,anendtounderstaf- Poland Street, London W.1. NAME ADDRESS. completely revised and expanded ‘Second |Edition’willbeavailablebytheendof | March from the (Unionisation) | Organising Committee, N.A.M. 9 Poland Street, London W1. (65p post- | paid). The Report discusses the reasons for organisation, looks into the history | and current state of organisation in I the feasibility of anorganising drive now, discusses the ‘all workers in solicitors’ firms’ (eg. ‘sec- retaries, receptionists, telephonists, gene- ral dogsbodies, articled clerks and assis- tant solicitors’) and arealready close to achieving union recognition in at least one firm. fing (and until then overtime pay for overtime worked), the right to strike without Law Society ‘professional’ reprisals, adequate work space and equipment, and ‘open books’ concerning the 0 firm’s finances and management. = al The TGWU was chosen on the experience of The union will be pressing for adoption of its ‘524 Branch’, which has grown rapidly among 2% | | I | | | autonomy and identity within one of the the same as you YSZ ou whenTasyou"AEG cee) KILLER MATERIAL BAN SPREADS Slowly but surely gathering momentum, (‘a painful, untreatable cancer of the membrane the international campaign to end the use lining of the chest or abdomen’) and other of al building materials containing any type cancers. local government salary levels in the private sec- workers in the ‘voluntary sector’, | activists. Furthermore, itmay well prove possible to achieve a sufficient degree of institute’ istotally dominated bythe London W.1 el. a veer organising among people working in the building professions and hee G meeditare Ro tannch ; considered particularly necessary in | | NAME :5 | | ADDRESS. anorganisingdriveaswelastofalback upon incaseofdisputeorofthe inevitable victimisations ofunion prcnate ey oe apaththrougha teritory’ofahalf-dozenunionsand ARCHITECTURAL WORKERS — “‘wceiinscomitsexecs | TELEPHONE (HOME )”. (WORK ). existing unions. small minority of the profession who are employers. Until the 90% of the people |IfyouwouldliketoreceiveSLATEwithoutjoiningNAM filintheformbelowand send ittogether The Organisng Committee has also een updating itsDraftReport, cite : speak clearly, and forcefully | on professional, industrial, environmental and Iissues, the empl architecture, where the typical career where the existing so-called ‘professional ingrchitectute who are workers an AS. c the Committee has been investigating al Gecisionion neprones NEniCS for organisation. The Committee unnecessarily protacted; will remain incomplete; and will never be able to reasonable alternatives. It has held a series of fruitful exploratory discussions hopes for the participation of all contribute to the workers, profession with officials of the unions considered Clericals and Clerks eeeeee CHANGING HORSES AT THE S.E.S. set of skills, they should specialise also in build- ing climatology, building practice, cost-benefit analysis, landscape design and so on. Others would develop managerial skills and learn to act as co-ordinators. The intention was that the meaning of ‘architect’ would come as broad as the common understanding of the title ‘engineer’. In short, architects would not al be trained to do the same kind of things in the future, though they would al hold a common interest in the building as the product. “The School’s answer to these aims was to establish specialists in different disciplines, and so environmental engineers, a structural engineer, building economists, a psychologist, a historian and a landscape architect were brought into the School. (Previously these subjects, iftaught at al had been taught by architects). The curriculum was changed so that more time was spent by stu- dents on these subjects, and less time on tradi- tional drawing board design work, in the recogni- tion that this would form only one among many architectural specialisms in the future. The RIBA accepted these changes, though the inia- tive for them had lain very much with the School. For students at the School, the significant dif- ference was that it was now possible to qualify for exemption from RIBA Part! by taking any, or almost any, of the courses within the School, with only a minimum amount of design work: it was accepted that a high level of competence at architectural design need not be the only possible criterion for qualification. Bringing back Architecture Astragal’s recent comments suggested that the School is moving away from this pattern. To some extent Astragal seems to be right: the amount of architectural design work expected of students has increased over the last few years, and the opportunity for students to pursue other specia- lists subjects has inevitably been reduced as a result. The School is returning closer to the con- cept of the architect as a person with a unitary set of skills in architectural design. The Profes- sor of Architecture has been heard to say that he is ‘bringing back Architecture’—but clearly he isbringing back only onekind, and isdiscard- ing the notion that there might be several sorts of architect, It is well known that the RIBA (or rather certain parts of it which have become powerful lately) favour this return to a single role for archi- tects. Eric Lyons in his President’s address in 1976 expressed this view strongly. But, is it really necessary for the schools to change be- cause of what certain parts of the RIBA think, particularly since their statements seem to re- present more of a gut reaction than any reasoned or logical view. No good evidence has been given that a multi-specialist profession has or islikely to fail, and the reaction to the educational trend of the 60s seems to be just one manifestation of the general panic response of the profession to the heavy public censure it has received. We have no proof that going back to the old days is going to help architects wriggle outof a tight corner. While itistrue that the conditions of theearly 1960s, when the image of a multi-skilled prof- €ssion was projected, are no longer the same, have things changed so much as to make the conceptinvalid? Itisstilthecasethatdemands on the architect are changing, and they are likely to go on changing in the future, and it would seem valid therefore to increase the diyersifi- cation within the profession, which the SES in common with other schools has been work- ing towards. Why isthe SES tending away froma diversi- fied, multi-disciplinary pattern of education. This is not an easy question to answer, particu- larly as the recent changes in the School have been the result of executive decisions taken without open debate, unlike the original reforms which took place after wide-ranging debate, involving al staff and often students as well. However, itisclear that the causes liewithin and outside the School. The tendency towards 4 unitary notion of the architect is not unique to the SES, but is to be found in many other schools, which are also bumping up the quantity of architectural design work they expect from theit students. That this is happening in so many different schools must be the result of at least indirect pressure from the RIBA, particularly after its threat two years ago to withdraw recog- nition from several schools. But why then should the RIBA be calling the tune? In the 1960s, as we saw, the Bartlett initiated and the RIBA followed—and presumably this could happen again if the schools chose to take an innovatory linc. In the SES’s case, that this is not happening must be due to some change of heart ‘vithin the School itself. The Safety-Net The SES has been through a number of changes in the last few years, some of which have had im- portant effects on the School’s style of education. Firstly, two years ago the School moved into Wates House (‘the last new university building’), which physically united the previously separate planning department with the rest of the School. Secondly, over the last two years the School has lost by retirement, death and emigration, six of its senior staff, al of whom had been involved in the innovatory experiments at the School. Coinci- dentally, al of those staff, with the exception of Professor LLewelyn Davies (the School’s founder andfather-figure) were non-architectural specia lists. Thirdly, the School has been hit by the cuts in university expenditure, which have meant that only one of those losses has been replaced. (Pro- fessor Smart has succeeded to the Chair of Urban Planning and Headship of the School). The loss of these professors clearly weakened the position of the specialists subjects within the department, and made it that much easier for the architectural staff to strengthen their control over the curriculum, and restore the unitary model of the architect. But why should they have wanted to do this? In fact, there had been open disagree- ment about the precise functions of the specia- list subjects within the department from long before the loss of the senior staff. Many of the architectural design teachers, themselves trained in the traditional architectural pattern, have never accepted fully that somebody could be an architect without haying a high level of compe- tence at architectural design; while the specia- lists have been reluctant to get interested in the sort of design problems relating to architecture, and have stuck to a rather traditional approach to their own subjects, which was hardly approp- riate in the context ofa school concerned with developing the role of technical specialisms as a part of the design process. Why the partner- shipfailedtoworkispartlybecauseLLewelyn Davies chose the wrong people, people who were ultimatley more interested in training special- ists of their own mould than in developing new species of architect. The result within the depart- ment was that the specialists dug into entrenched positions, and co-operation between different specialists and architectural design failed to occur beyonda certain point in the undergradu- ate course. The specialists subjects have more and more been treated as ‘service teaching’ an atti- tude for which the specialists themselves are partly responsible through their reluctance to become involved in and initiate the teaching of design from a technological, sociological or psychological point of view. Many of these sub- jects are not regarded by architectural teachers as a valid part of architectural education, but merely a ‘safety-net’ for students who find they do not want to conform to the unitary architec- tural design pattern of architecture. Dissension within the School over the propo- sal to change the name suggessthat the limited unitary view of architecture is far from unanim- ously accepted by the staff. In particular, there are many younger staff who joined the School more recently, and joined it precisely because of its multi-disciplinary potential. On the whole they are either committed to the original polciy of admitting non-archtitectural design special- isms as a legitimate part of architectural educa- tion within the terms of RIBA Partl, or they would like to see the undergraduate course ex- panded into ageneral environmental degree. In practice, the cuts on university expansion haye made the original aimof a diversity of disciplines impossible:two or three specialist lecturers in a subject like landscape design are not enough to mount a full-blown specialist course on its own, and can only act by provid- ing some specialist teaching within another disci- pline. The limitations on university expansion have prevented the appointment of more staff to overcome this problem. The second alternative of general undergrad- uate degree makes better sense given.the econo- mic constraints: itisalso an alternative which Teceived asubstantial boost when the former Bartlett School and the University College Town Planning Department merged in 1970 to form the SES. Although the planning staff did not want to teach a ful undergraduate course in planning (the M.Phil. is the only course in the SES leading to a degree in planning), some of them wanted to teach planning and related subjects within the undergraduate course, with the effect that the scope of the course was widened consider- ably. This has been a continuing trend, with more undergraduate options taught by planning staff. Unfortunately senior architecture staff have refused to accept these courses as a valid part of architectural education. The insularity of the architectural position within the School, which will be further polarised by the proposed change of name to ‘Bartlett School of Architec- ture and Planning’, seems particularly mistaken in view of the fact that planning as a discipline isbecoming increasingly inyolved with plan eva- luation and impact analysis; techniques which applied on a small scale would be of great bene- fit to architectural design. Hope yet Whatever happens, it is time to end the ‘safety- net’ approach to non-architectural specialisms. Multi-Disciplinarianism rears its head Whatever it means, the multi-disciplinary approach at the SES has been a major source of the School’s reputation, and has exercised a strong attraction on many applicants to the school. Multi-disciplinarism at the SES has been understood by many people in many different ways, and indeed part of the School’s internal difficulties must be put down to the ambiguties and contradictions contained in the idea. How- ever, out of the confusion one meaning—the one that guided the school in the early 1960s—stands out. The Bartlett School (as it then was), started to change after the appointment of Richard LLewelyn Davies as Professor of Architecture in 1960. The central idea that was developed in the School—following the line of thought of the Oxford Conference —was that the role of the architect in society was changing, It was thought that the traditional working-drawings- type skills would no longer be a necessity for alarchitects (though clearly they would con- tinue to be so for some). It was argued that in- stead of al architects needing to have the same ‘Travelling Backwards’ was how Astragal : in the AJ recently described the changes in training at the School of Environmental Studies (SES) at University College Lon- don. (UCL). Astragal was commenting on the proposal to change the School’s name to the ‘Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning’, and on the effect that the loss in rapid succession of three professors and one senior lecturer, all from non-architectural special subjects, might haye on the School. Is it true, as Astragal suggested, that these changes mark the end of the multi-disci- plinaryapproach? Ifso,doesthatalso mean that the School’s experiments in ar- chitectural education are at an end? These are interesting questions, and they are of more than parochial significance as they raise issues about the state of architectural education in the rest of the country. Are the RIBA and the architectural profession dissatisfied with the results of the RIBA Education Conference at Oxford in 1958? The conference proposals, which were for a less narrowly vocational approach to architectural education, with more sociology and technology content to courses, received their first and most com- plete testing at UCL. It may be that the profession’s apparent disillusionment with the way that architectural education has gone will be reflected in the changes at the School of Environmental Studies. If this is so, and if it is true that the profes- sor of Architecture, Professor Watson, is aiming to establish a form of education closer to the RIBA’s present views, it may be that the SES will once again find itself in the van of architectural education, though this time travelling backwards. page 8 6 eded It is an attitude which is humilating to students who have decided not to concentrate on archi- tectural design, as it implies they are failures, or have ‘fallen-off’; and itisinsulting to the staff who teach the courses, because it gives them only a second class status within the School. Besides, it seems a bad use of the School's re- sources for its specialist staff to be teaching so- called ‘drop-outs’, particularly at a time when there are many students who are interested in awide range of subjects, and who do not take the narrow view of architectural design at pre- sent being advanced in the School. Ultimately, it is an attitude which will be damaging to the architectural profession, as itwill prevent the profession from developing competence in al aspects of the building task. The profession’s panic reaction to unemployment among archi- tects has been to want to cut down entry into the profession, but a more realistic reaction would be to look for ways of making architects more employable. One reason why unemploy- ment isso high isthat the present range of skills within the profession would mean that more architects would be able to do useful work in society, and it would actually be possible for MORE peopletobecomearchitectswithout over loading the profession. The opportunity exists for the SES to deve- lop an integrated curriculum, of which architec- tural design would be an important part, but which would also concede equal importance to technology, the social sciences and economics as part of an architectural education. The RIBA Visiting Board inspected the School recently and it will be interesting to hear their comments; but let us hope that the School will not give way to demands for purely more architectural design and will square its shoulders to the RIBA, and persist with the innovatory line it took in the 1960s when it set out to broaden architectural education. NEWS FROM CRISPIN AUBREY, A JOURNALIST WITH LONDON’S ‘TIME OUT WEEKLY who has written widely and sympathetically on squatting, property speculation, planning and redevelopment, is one oftwojournalistsrecently arrested under the long-discredited Official Secrets Act. Any architectural worker involved with a Government project is doubtless familiar with this Act. The move has been widely interpreted as part of the Government’s campaign to deport without trial, under the equally discredited Immigration Act, the two American writers, CIA critic Philip Agee and ex-‘Time Out’ reporter Mark Hosenball, with whose defense Aubrey and his co-defendant, ‘Time Out’ and ‘Undercurrents’ writer Duncan Campbell, have been associated. spec connection This is perhaps not a very auspicious timetolaunchaprogressive,‘alternative’ architectural newsletter — not only in view of the attack on “Time Out’ but also Jimmy Goldsmith’s attempt to smash “Private Eye’ and Clive Jenkins’ recent ‘success’ in suing ‘The Socialist Worker’ forasum,includingcosts,ofupto £10,000. Thesuitwasforlibelfollowing satirical article and cartoon of ASTMS costa del clive cheap Spanish holidays offer made back in February 1975 while Franco was stil alive and in power. In the latter case, according to the Guardian, Mr Jenkins’ Lawyer explained that “The Socialist Worker was primarily read by shopfloor workers, men and women of variable intelligence, some of whom might not find iteasy to decide the meaning of workds’. After the trial, defendant and ex-editor of the Socialist Worker Paul Foot said, “We don’t have any money. We are asmall socialist paper selling among working people. Satirists NAM _GROUP CONTACTS : ARCUK Group, NAM, 9, Poland St., London W1. Liason Group: The Secretary, NAM, 9) Poland St., London,W1 National Design Service: NDS,NAM,9,PolandSt., London, W1. Projects Group: Daviv Roebuck, 25, St. George’s Ave,, London, WI Unionisation Organising Committee, NAM, 9, Poland St, London, WI Publications Group: Editorial Committee, NAM, 9, Poland St., London, W1 Cardiff Group: Anne Delaney, 196, Albany Rd., Roath, Cardiff Edinburgh: David Somervall, 22, Penmuir Place, Edinburgh 3 Hull: Tan Tod, Hull School of Architecture, be agood idea for members of the NAM EDUCATION GROUP to liase with one another, and contacts for each of these places are listed below. Although Membership and Newsletter SUBSCRIPTIONS are coming in steadily, itwould be greatly appreciatedif those who have not returned their forms would do so as soon as possible. Forms are available from The Secretary, NAM, 9, Poland Street, London W.1. ED AND THE PROF *.ifwewishoureducation tobemore closely related to the need of students and individual people for whom they intend to design, any changes must take into consideration the influence of the educational and professional institutions. They must losentheholdofthetraditionalteaching establishments, so that skills amy be learntfromanyoneandevryonewhohas the ability to teach and demonstrate them, and they must loosen the power of the the profession so that the relationship between users and designers is nolonger clouded in the myth of professional expertise and competence.” ( education Group, November 1976 ) The Education Group has been meeting regularly since last Autumn. At the Blackpool National Congress we presented a short paper on the situation in architectural education which ended witha serues of propo- sals for action. The proposals were necessarily in an imperfect form — some were dubious, some impractical and some downright scurillous. We want to clarify our direction and strategy and for that reason we shall PUTTING THE NAMIN NOTTINGHAM A new NAM group isnow meeting regularly in the University of Nottingham. In opposition to the policies of the establishment within the school of architecture there, the NAM Group want to break free from from the narrow, sheltered confines of campus life. A public meeting is tobeorganised off-campus inthe city to mobilise a nucleus of interested people in Nottingham and to raise pertinent issues. In cooperation with Shelter, the Group is carrying out measuring work foraNottinghamtenants’cooperative. Therearealsoplansforthesettingupof an advice, design and building team attached to a community group. A small group of Year-out students, and two or three unemployed building workers or school leavers and, possibly aqualified architect to provide continuity, would cooperate in the project which could be extended to include rehabilitation schems schemes for student housing and the provision of workshop space in the Old Lace Market. Funding would come from the Job Creation Programme. The Group is also planning a ‘counter course’, aimed at their fellow students and placing architecture in a wider social and political contaxt than the official University lectures. Kingston-u-Hull Regional College environmentalissuesforthelastfive andcartoonistseverywherewill ofArt,BrunswickAve.,Hull Aubrey has been covering anopenmectingorganisedbythenewly bejoiningintheNAMOPENSEMINAR NAMgroupswantingtocontzibuteinformationon years and has written features on Tolmers Square, Docklands, and the Hyams/Seifert property speculation/ architecture connection. He has also written a couple of stories for the old “RIBA Journal’ (tenant control of housing). defence committee A committee has been set up, to defendAubrey,Campbellandco- defendant John Berry, an ex-serviceman who has been refused bail. Contributions should be sent to ABC Defence Ctte., c/o Time Out, 374 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1. Itisnot known whether the RIBA Journal will be supporting the Defence Committee. satirists beware ! have to draw in their horns as a result of this case.’ Good luck, Hellman. No doubt architectural workers considering whether ASTMS might be the best vehicle for an organising drive in the private sector will be impressed by the union‘s legal back-up. Some, however, may be hoping that afterwarmingupontheleftpress, ASTMS may turn now to some of the right-wing giants of Fleet Street, perhaps a better match and more fitting target ofr the 380,000 strong white-collar union. Leeds: Pete Forbes, Parkview, Weeton Lane, Hoby, Leeds 17 London Group: Douglas Smith, 17, Delancey St., London, NW1 Nottingham Group: Dave Green, 44a, Bramcote Rd., Beeston, Nottingham EducationGroup: Edinburgh: David Somervell Hull: Jane Bryant, Hull School of Architecture. Leeds: Pete Forbes Nottingham: Dave Gree London: Andrew Fekete, Flat 5, Bentley Court, 72/74, Kensington Gardens Square, London, W2 formed NOTTINGHAM NAM GROUP on 2nd March. Over 30 people were present and afterwards an introductory talk outlining the work of NAM present and after an introductory talk outlining the work of NAM, a general discussion was held and a further meeting arranged at which specific working groups are 10 be set up. Other new NAM groups are hopefully emerging in Manchester, Hull,LeedsandEdinburgh. The Green Ban Action Group is spreading its wings by taking on new live projects and as a result now callsitself the PROJECTS GROUP. Since there are NAM members in education in Nottingham, Leeds and Hull as well as London and Edinburgh it may to be held in London soon. Ther are heavy goins-on in architectural education and we must arm ourselves appropriately before we do battle with the major institutions. Will you bring your ideas and experience to the London Seminar? Until April 23rd free copies of the paper *Education and the Profession *are avialable by sending astamped addressed envelopeto:NAMEduactionGroup, 9, Poland St., London, WI CHANGE OF ADDRESS theiractivitiesshould fettheircopy toSLATE by 22nd April 1977 for inclusion in the next issuc. NAM's 2ND LONDON SEMINAR is being held on Saturday April 23rd between 10am and 6pm at the Polytechnic of Central London, Marylebone Road, Wl. (Baker St. tube) Topics to be discussed: Unionisation, ARCUK and Education. There will be buffet lunch and a party 3 with bar afterwards at a NAM Jonata dnuerabicanchtecdoe~ LIAISON The present NAM LIAISON GROUP was elected at the second congress held in Blackpool last November. In addition to the normal liaison duties of coordinating activities and answering correspondence, its six members were asked by congress to collect subscriptions, establish a newsletter, stimulate local seminars and organise a 3rd annual congress. So far Newsletter and membership subscriptions have been fixed, a separate PUBLICATIONS GROUP hasbeen co-opted to produce SLATE and alocal seminar to be held by the London Group is provisionally set for Saturday 23rd April at the Polytechnic of Central London. constitutionforNAM? Earlydiscussionsonthe3rdANNUAL CONGRESS have already taken place and any suggestions for a venue, date and agenda are welcome. One item already Suggested is the presentation and sanc- tioning of a NAM constitution. A new group is urgently needed to study the issue of whether or not it is practicable or desirable to continue as a movement without a constitution, in preparation for the next congress. Another new group is needed to produce next year’s CALENDER, and it would be a great advantage financially if at least one of its members had-free access to printing facilities. Last year’s calender cost £150 to produce 350 copies and priced at 50p/copy it has made aloss! Two Liaison Group members attended NAM's Second National Conference, Blackpool, November, 1976. NAM's new postal address is 9 POLAND ST. LONDON W1 around 8.30pm. ENVIRONMENT JOURNALIST HELD page 10 LAMBETH STOWIPS ON! social workers, and numerous front page articles in the press and finally a High Court injunction halting the demo- lition, havr forced the Council into a serious evaluation of their options. singularly homeless For London’s single homeless policy has certainly been limping behind: hardly any provision has been made by the Borough for this expanding group in society. The Housing Committee was forced by the Finance Committee in May 1976 to transform the ‘cuts * into a repressive policy towards the homeless in general, and a blanket rejection to the single homeless in particular. The latest claim by the Housing Committee to have reduced the the homeless problem isentirely er- roneous: having redefined ‘homelessness’ and turning away agreater proportion of persons from the Homeless Families Unit than before, the Committe is claiming that the problem isreceding, whereas what isreally happening isthat a larger proportion of the problem has been shelved. In the background the professionals -architects and planners -have kept a low profile, with a few exceptions: Colin Taylor and Tom Wooley of ‘Earth Resources Research Limited’ - an arm of ‘Friends of the Earth’ have produced a comprehensive report © evaluating the rehabilitation option from a resource debit/credit angle. The Council do not have a democratic consensus to their decision-making at this time: the split among the ruling labour group is a sympton of this absence. Architects and Planners have ademocratic base only in as far as their Local Authority employees secure assent from the constituency. The council isalienated from itsborough; professionals share this alienation and the rumbles of the ‘inner city’ are further muffled by the hegemony of the professionals and the language they use. House of Hollamby Edward Hollamby, head of Development Services, isapowerful individual on council committees. Although Architecture and Planning have their respective heads he has cultivated atrancendant influence over the presentation of projects to the council. He hasa large budget and even larger ideas; he has been actively in favour of the policy of deliberately letting areas of council housing decay in order to support arguments for comprehensive redevelopment. This is a typical example of the power that technocrats hold over lay decision makers. Negotiations with the Villa Road squatters over rehousing have broken down and the council is hoping that, by evicting, they will be able to offload the problem onto other London boroughs. By supporting the Criminal Tresspass Legislation, currently in the Lords, they hope to provide a bite to match the barks that are ringing out over Lambeth these days. Wwe THOUGHT LAaBOURS TO: . ‘WAS SMASHING rather than adhering to development plans, particuarly whether the councils in urban areas like Lambeth should make more use of their empty houses as short life rehabilitation projects? Secondly, do local authorities answer the housing need for thessingle homeless -a group that, in the private sector, has been victim to inflated property values and the perverse legacyofthe rent act. waiting listcon-trick More than 17,600 people are on the council’s waiting list 6 3 new tenancies are created each year. At this rate some people will be on the list for years. There have been cuts in the budget of every department and these have been accepted totally passively. There will be a small increase in central government subsidies this year but it will inno way cope with the magnitude of the local housing crisis. In St Agnes Place a scheme has been presented to the council by Lambeth Self-Help Building Cooperative for the rehabilitation, on a 5-year life basis, of 22 of the houses using money from the central government funded Housing Corporation and Manpower Services Commission’s Job Creation Scheme. It was turned down on the last occasion largely because a reversal of policy was seen as a loss of face. There has not, until recently, been a serious enquiry into the options open to the Council at St. Agnes. The arguments have been raging during planning and housing committee meetings, quite often in an unin- formed and emotive atmosphere. Now petitions from many local groups in- cluding one signed by a 100 of Lambeth’s Dave McKay THE BARRICADES ARE GOING UP ONCE AGAIN IN VILLA ROAD ROAD-timber posts and corrugated iron -a familiar scene in Lambeth and many other parts of London these days with so much land in limbo. But this time they are being erected by squatters in anticipation of an eviction attempt by bailiffs and the police. Meanwhile, a half a mile away in St Agnes Place, this Georgian terraced street displays the battle scars of the recent partial demolition by the council of ten roofs on one side of the street. As social conditions change in London planning schemes and housing policy seems to limp behind averting their gaze from the real problems; in Villa Road the land isrequired for badly-needed open space: a ‘green finger’ in the planners’ jargon, to run alongside the A23 insulating the new council housing development from the arterial road joining the commuter suburbs of Streatham, Norwood and Croydon to thecentreofLondon. InStAgnes Place the land is required to join two small parks into one large space, when the G.L.C. has declared itself in favour of small evenly dispersed open spaces. But although the planning issues are there to be questioned and evaluated, especially in the bizarre case of St Agnes, mw they are dwarfed by larger considerations TM Firstly, should the choice of planning © strategies and priorities in an economic, a recession be flexible enough to cope with . the practical problems ‘on the ground’ ONE UNION conference organisers :Unionisation Organising Committee of the New Architecture Movement,9, Poland St., London, Wi. further information and application forms ( to be returmed by lth May 1977 ) from the Committee PLEASE DISPLAY THIS HANDBILL ERY KEPog i ; SoS - RO = ae: IDOCH) |== fs GIN Doby WANT A ONION FOR ?! =N=| sol Ri A 7.é— }N- \YN x ye: Creag : ; a \ <= () Vv $ Ces t ‘ = ———__ } ; i pron Ritts LE | —, AFOO= he.byioe A SPECIAL ONE DAY CONFERENCE ON TRADE UNION ORGANISATION FOR EMPLOYEES IN ARCHI TECTURE AND ALLIED BUILDING PROFESSIONS WHO WANT TO SE EFFECTIVE UNIONISM LONDON 14th MAY 1977 10tod Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource NAM SLATE Group Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Murray & John Allan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1977 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/6471f7bb98c441629a3341eb13fa2923.pdf 205c204fe1ab443f15a3e703a0389549 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource SLATE Description An account of the resource To help promote its work and reduce dependence on the established professional press, NAM created its own newspaper SLATE. The editorial group met bi-monthly to gather together latest events, activities and ideas emerging from radical critiques and challenges to the established order of architectural practice and education. The content of each edition was collated, and cut-and-pasted into layouts of the magazine which typically ran from 16 to 28 pages. Each edition included a brilliant cartoon by Andrew Brown who emerged as a clever graphic artist synthesising NAM's radical ethics. SLATE's production ran to 17 issues in total. The SLATE Group also produced occasional annual calendars, of which three survive Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource SLATE 2 Description An account of the resource ISSUE NO2 NEWSLETTER OF THE NEW ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT UNIONISE THE DRIVE ISON NOW NEW JOBS JOIN TASS! That was the message which emerged from behind closed doors in London on May 14th when a New Architecture Moyement- sponsored conference of building design employmees decided to launch a long-awaited Trade Union Organising drive in the unorganised private sector. TASS, the 160,000 member, autonomous Technical Administrative and Supervisory Section of the AUEW, Britain’s second largest union, was selected in a secret ballot, clearly ahead of ASTMS. STAMP and TGWU. Launching the Branch Rapidly following up a resolution ‘urging al people employed in private sector offices where no union is recognised to organise within TASS? a ten person committee set up by the Conference met on Monday evening, May 16th with Harry Smith, TASS National Organiser, to begin planning the campaign. On Thursday, May 19th, the TASS | Executive Council approved the establishment of a new Building Design Staffs branch in London for employees special branche jiimilar to.the London one will be set up. M ile, aNational Advisory Committee ank-and-f TASS members employed in the CONTRACTS of employment for architectural workers are being re-written unilaterally by principles in several private practices. New contracts, tantamount, in many cases, to a “new jub’, invariably mean worse conditions for employees. One large London firm has abolished paid overtime and now insists that its mployees seek permission before aking On “private job itside the office enter architectural competitions Another practice, with three offices nationally, has halved the rate of pay for overtime work, cancelled the workers’ entitlement to private health insurance, and reducec ithe period of full pay during sickness to thirteen weeks Similar events are reported from the RIBA itself where Portland Place staff are faced with a wide ranging and secret management ‘review’ of staff responsib- -ilities and salaries, aptly named “GRASP” What can be done? According to one trades union official such unils ral ammendements ofcontractsofemploy- -ment are illegal under the Contracts of Employment Act of 1972 and more recent legislation. Correct procedure, he maintained, in cases like these, is for employees to be laid of, with full redundancy pay, and then offered re- employment on a new contract and at a new salary negotiated accordingly. At the RIBA, members of staff who are ASTMS imembers (see SLATE no. 1)are opposed to regrading under GRASP plan and accuse the RIBA management of ‘minimal formal consultation’ with the staff. The well organised ASTMS group hope for success in their recruitment campaign so that union recognition can continued on page 3 in architecture, quantity surveying, structural and building services engineering, town planning, etc. An open meeting to launch the branch will be held on Tuesday evening, May 31st at 6.30 p.m. at the New Ambassadors Hotel, Upper Woburn Place, Euston, WCl. Employees outside London can join the general TASS branch in their locality and as TASS strength in the building professions grows in other urban centres, THE COMMUNITY CLIENT -4 revolutionary professicnalism or just more work for private architects BUILDING COOPS- taking control | “RADICAL ARCHITECTS’ - at work in the Colne Valley We ‘professions will co-ordinate the drive nationally and articulate the particular concerns of their ‘constituency continued on page 3 LW ARCHI E\(TURE of the building process A ‘COMMUNITY DESIGN SERVICE’ - its rise and fall in Cardiff. 6 7 ganising FOR OLD &., & vit, 1, Kinds of grey, © bluish: purple rock easily eplit smooth plates; plece of such plate used as roofing-material; piece of It ‘usu. framed {n wood used for writing on with ~-pencil or small rod of soft ~ (clean rid oneself of or renounce oblign= tions);~-black, -blue, -grey, modifications ofthes©tints:such‘asoccurin~; |l~-cltb, snutualbenefitsocietywithsmallweekly contributions; i RECOGNITION for their Union has has recently been gained by workers in an international civil and environmental engineering consultancy. It came after they had achieved 90% membership of the Technical, Admini- -strativeandSupervisory(TASS)section of the AUEW in their department of W S Atkins and Partners’ Middlesborough office. They are now in the process of negotiating aprocedural agreement with the management. into ! to, propose for office etc. Henco NGI) n. {app f. pree.] idc7e Se “oeEthe SLATER Surveys, surveys... first the RIBA earnings survey, coming soon their ‘Structure of the Profession Survey’, and, just launched our own AJ’s survey There’s a crisis on, we’re told, so something must be done about it. Itmustbesurveyedjustlikeasite. After alwe must know the ground More open ended discussion in the afternoon session centred around priorities for union action. While the increasing threat of redundancies was clearly the primary concern of many present, the continuing decline of real income among architectural employees and the increasingly unfavourable relation of private sector salaries and conditions to those in the public sector were also singled out. SLATE IS THE NEWSLETTER OFTHENEW ARCHITECTURE Success came in the sixth month fight for recognition after the Union had invoked section 1 of the recent Employment Protection Act under which theUnionmayapplytotheAdvisory Conciliation and ArbitrationService fora dation that er prepared for Conf partici by of understaffing, excessive overtime (often should be granted. A spokesman at TASS head office said that he regretted that the Union had to resort to ACAS p d ‘We would rather use the more traditional industrial muscle to force recognition’, he said. rises then the choice is open for SLATE awiderangeofissuesandtobringthe tobecomelargerorforthesubscription This second agreement reached by TASS in aprivate engineering practice While so far the NAM initiative for a unionisation drive has come mainly from salaried architects, TASS, with its strong Moyement’s views and activities to the attention of the widest readership. .help build SLATE’s readership .helptobuildNAM .subscribeto SLATE . show it to your friends . become a local rep to distribute SLATE in your office, school or town . ask for SLATE in your local bookshop .get your school or office to subscribe. to fall, but for the moment it must not get into debt. ADVERTISING At an early meeting the committee decide not to take commercial adver-- tisements in SLATE. Advertisements from alternative groups and personal small ads are, however, welcome. A small charge would be made but the committee reserves the right to turn down any advertisement closer. While TASS only claim less than 10% membership throughout W S Atkins 6 U.K. branches employing about 2,000 staff, the achievements of workers in one small department will hopefully demonstrate the potential and benefits of organisation to their colleagues inside, and and outside buat. se TASS. amongst clerical as well asprofessional workers, is in an ideal position to help achieve the kind of multi-<disciplinary, ‘vertical unionisation’ which the (Unionisation) Organising Committee's report, ‘Working For What?’ (65p post paid from NAM, 9 Poland St., London W1) considered essential to successful organising in the building professions, which are characterised by small offices, often arbitrary status divisions, and overlapping occupational boundaries. Choosing TASS ThoughtheMay14thConference participants were overwealmingly ‘professionals’, several technicians and secretariesalsoparticipated.Architectural employees were in a clear majority, but quantity surveyors, engineers, and town- i were also present. InchoosingTASS,theConference rejected the Organising Committee's recommendation in favour of the TGWU, a minority report for ASTMS, and vociferous support for the STAMP section ofUCATT, which theCommittee had consideredunfeasiblealongwiththe EPEA (EngineersandManagers Association, formerly the EPEA, Electrical Electrical Power Engineers) and the formation of an entirely new union. But there was little opposition to the Committee's view that organising should includewithinoneunionalbuildi design staffs: professional, technical and clerical workers from al the disciplines. of agency staff and the ‘architectural lump’ on both salaries and quality of work was also stronly criticised. Discussion of organising strategy stressed stressed the need to achieve union recognition in particular firms and institute collective bargaining to demonstrate what organisation can achieve. It was felt that concentrating on recruiting only scattered individual members, without recognition in offices, could soon result in the same decline which doomed ‘craft union’ attempts like the ABT and the AOA. Beyond bread and butter There can be litle doubt about TASS's abilitytoprovideeffectivesupportto architectural and allied workers trying to organise. But in looking beyond the immediate ‘bread-and-butter issues to broaderquestionsofworkers’control, community accountability, job satisfaction, and conversion to socially useful production, building design staffs settingupa‘unionwithintheunion’ shouldmakesuretodevelopastrong ‘shop-floor’organisationabletoholdits own against the well-oiled TASS machine for which they have quite understandably opted. Itisthrough rank-and-file organisation, oftne against opposition from highly-centralised union ies,thatsuchpi ingtrade union initiatives as the Lucas Aerospace Shop Stewards proposals for fighting WORK ON SLATE SLATE needs more workers, more writers and more ideas. This issue was put together by acommittee of seven. A larger committee would meana better newsletter; so would more writers, illustrators, cartoonists and photographers, and simply more suggestions for stories and features. Ifyou would like to work for SLATE, join the committee or suggest topics it should cover, then please write in soon. Thecopydeadlineforthenextissueis Friday 24th June 1977 OUR HIGH COVER PRICE 40p is a lot to pay for a newsletter this big. The funding of SLATE is connected to the funding of NAM as awhole, and last year the Movement ran up substantial debts.Thisyear’sliaisongroupdetermined that that situation should not arise © ORGANISATION continued from page J The Long Hard Haul Over sixty people attended the May 14th Conference, called by NAM’s (Unionisation) Organising Committee. The Conference organisers considered the turn-out to be ‘the tip of the iceberg’, but have few illusions about the long, hard task of organising which has hardly begun. In a turbulent morning session, the Conference heard arguments in favour of joining unions representing building workers but opted for TASS on the strength of its record of successful organising amongst engineering design staffs, its steady progress in the difficult field of organising in professional engineering consultancies, and the excellent back-up provided by its officials and its widely-respected research, publications and legal departments. TASS wasoneofsixoptionsoutlinedina comprehensive, confidential Briefing individual capacities, the 145 member Staff Association of Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall and Partners Edinburgh office, Scotland's largest firm, sent a deligate who reported that since its inception a year ago to fight redundancies, the RMJMSA has been increasingly interested in unionisation. TASS already represents several technicians in the office. eens Priorities MOVEMENT, published bi-monthly again and fixed the subscription rate on which we stand just aswell as Despitetheprofession'sdeclining work load, several architects complained by the Movement’s Liaison Group and edited on its behalf by an adhoc committee set up in January 1Otiee News and features of broad interest to workers in the profession, and the building industry and to the wider public are included to stimulate debate on accordingly, both to the Movement and the newsletter, in the knowledge that insolvency would never help the Movement to grow, and in the conviction that NAM’s strength will lie among people who are prepared to support its activities to the full. The annual subscription to SLATE, for five issues, is £2 00.If circulation the ground on which we build. But ifthe RIBA and the AJ don’t know quite how shakey the ground is, redundant building workers and underpaid architectural workers do. They want action not surveys. Surveys are a ready substitute for DOING, and they do have the potential to show the lie of the land alittledifferentlyfromreality. Could it be that the RIBA and the AJ don’t really want to DO anything anything about the crisis at all? scrap From the world of architecture as fine art, news that the struggle continues. International projects require international Architecture so the United Nations commissioned Giancarlo de Carlo and Jim St rling to cooperate in the design of their new UNESCO headquarters in Nigeria. Afficiandos of the two Masters will realise that their styles the (Unionisation) Organising Committee, without pay), and resultant decline in the quality of service provided for clients and users. A number of speakers suggested suggested the importance of pressing demands for ‘open books’, as it was felt that in many firms, despite the partners ‘crocodile tears’, the financial resources were there to support adequate staffing levels and that productivity was rising COPYRIGHT ...ANDTHEFUTURE Anyarticleorpartofanarticleorpart areasincompatible,wehear,as For SLATE to grow asalively reflection oftheviewsofradicalArchitectural Workers and others concerned with the processes which shape our environment, accountability of editorial decisions to themembers oftheMovement isessential. This year four further issues are planned. Each one will be proceeded by an open meeting with the Editorial Committee. Come and express your views and criticismsatthesemeetingsorthrough theletterscolumnofSLATE. Next yearitissuggestedthattheadhoc committee should be disbanded to be replaced by an editorial committee elected by and directly responsible to the annual congress of the Movement. ThenextSLATEopenmeetingisin London on 13th June 1977 at the *Roebuck’ -108A Tottenham Court Road London W1 SLATE2 nave2 of an article in SLATE may be freely but accurately reproduced, providing thatSLATEiscreditedastheorigin of any material used. LASTLY... A subscription form for SLATE and a membership form for NAM are included on the last page. Please indicate also if you would like to distribute SLATE in youroffice,schoolortown.SLATE is freetoalmembersofNAM their personalities. So the project was split into two parts, the mojor andtheminor.Nowtheyare scrapping over who should design which part, each supported by his small army of trusty retainers. Itsalpolitics,butwhowasitwho said that the conditions in Architecture Architecture are feudal? salvage Yes, we're jumping on the bandwagon. Salvagecanbe progress.Hereareafewitems whichweconsiderworth adding to the AJ’s list: the jobs of tens of th ds of design and construction workers throughout a ition on SLATEispublishedbytheLIAISONGROUP theindustry;thestandardsof oftheNEWARCHITECTUREMOVEMENT, provision,constructionand continued from page J be achieved before GRASP is implemented unilaterally. They will then be able to resist the unacceptable aspects of GRASP froma position of strength. Questionedonthegeneralissueofthe re-writingofcontractsinprivateoffices amemberofthe14thMayUnionisation Committee (formerly NAM’s Unionisation Organising Committee) said, ‘legislation like the Contract of Employment Act is al very well, bu tthe individual is in a badpositiontoopposetheemployer whenredundancyisjustaroundthe corner, even when the law seems to be on his side. To police any Acts like these you need to be organised with your fellow workers.Thisistherolethattrades unions can play- they have both the expertiseandthemuscle.” 9, Poland St., London. W1. Typesetting by Julia Wilson-Jones Printed by WOMEN IN PRINT, 16a, Iliffe Yard,London,SE17. design of houses and facilities for working people. The right of icommunities to retain their integrity [rs inthefaceofdevelopment private and public, and, oh yes, a few ices andfinnialstoo. redundancies by converting to socially participantscamefromoutsidetheLondon usefulproductionhavebeenmade. SPREADS which based itsfindings on nine ears of sh, which included expl talks with a half dozen TUC affiliated — unions. base among drawing office staffsin inthe BuildingP: i g ing andits growing h fasterthansalaries.Thedepressingeffect brings the reality of Trades Union Over a quarter of the Conference London area. While nearly al came in SLATE2page3 Feature in Slate : Todaythereisextensiveliteratureonthe word community, much of itwarning of the dangers of careless use of the word. Having ignored 99% of this careful thought and experience, architects are now bandying about the word community through the notion of ‘community architecture’. This new term needs to be critically examined before we too slide into its use, adding to the confusion. Tom Woolley examines different community architecture phenomena, developing an analysis which warns that merely adding the word community to existing forms of practice should not be enough to ensure our support. ° . community action Community action was recognised during the 60s as a largely localist moyement involving working class people with support from many intellectuals who were disillusioned with the institutional left. There had, of course, been much significant social protest throughout the 20th century, outside the sphere of production (the 1915 Glasgow rent strike, squatting after the war and the St. Pancras rent strike in 1960 being famous examples). But in the "60s we can see the growth of organisations concerned with awider range of issues in the sphere of reproduction . from playgroups to food co-ops, motorway resistance, the women’s movement and countless Many groups were concerned with architectural and buildi BP blems but the invol of architects was marginal. Notable except- -ions included the work of architecture students inMASHA (Manchester and Sal ford Housing Action) and in Covent Garden. Itis important to note, however that while some lawyers, public health inspectors and other professionals established counter organisations to support this movement, architects did nothing and as a result have very little credibility among working class groups. Equally important during this period was the rapid extension of complex state measures to cope with social discontent and other social problems. Many government agencies were set up or extended to deal with race relations, housing advice and community work. The so called voluntary movement in housing was tightened up through the Housing Corporation and now retains merely a veneer of voluntary independence. Investment by the state in this network is a feature of its role in maintaining capitalism through the reproduction of a healthy labour force force and its careful regulation and control. The recent CDP pamphlet ‘Community Work or Class Politics’ is one of many documents which explains how the role of community work isone of social control . ‘the integration of the poor and discontented into existing patternsofsociety.’Thisanalysisofthe state needs greater elaboration than is possible here but is amplified by John Be ington .....‘the economic crisis which now confronts al advanced capitalist economies and the U.K. in particular has resulted in a major shift in the state’s role in the pattern of public expenditure. As multi national capital withdraws from British manufacturing industry in search of more profitable areas of investment, the state is increasinly moving in to cushion and mask the most blatent consequencies (mass redundancies, soaring unemployment, sudden decline of whole communities’)etc. Community action has developed either in protest at the nature of the State’s measures or in attempts to win resources for a particular locational or interest group. That such action often fails to politicise those involved is evidence evidence of the success of the aptly named named ‘soft cops’, community workers and the like,who act as intermediaries in the process. civil servants of the streets It is in this role that we find the first ‘community architects’. Urban problem solvers who become more sensitive to the needsofordinarypeople,abletopresent a more acceptable face at public meetings and able to abandon the old bulldozer/ high flat mentality of most public architects of the time. One of the earliest examples of architect involvement in a social control experiment is the Shelter Neighbourhood Action Project in 1970 mirrored in a less heavy handed way by the ASSIST project in Glasgow. Both set up neighbourhood offices advocating rehabilitation to hostile local authorities and suspicious local people bu twith encouragement from central government. An analysis or SNAP is particularly useful as its literature presented a classic pluralist anlysis of inner city problems including the revealing notion of professionals as ‘civil servants of the streets’ that led to Hilary Rose’s description of the SNAP report as a ‘Blueprint for bureaucrats’. Other limited experiments were to follow with much talk of ‘participation’ such as Byker and Swinbrook but were largely concemed with more effective manage- -ment of problems like rehousing. They were progressive in that they brought architects into contact with ordinary people for the first time, but with the aim ofimplementing mare smoothly, schemes which had been determined and were controlled by the authorities, not the people affected. Itwould be possible to trace the development of ‘community architecture’ in the early’70s, but it is in 1977 that the termhasachievedcommon usage particularly with the RIBA which has jumped on the community architecture bandwaggon by setting up aworking party to gather information on what is going on. To this end it called ameeting in Birmingham on February 17th attended attended by about 30 architects and academics, to discuss the subject. The main pre-occupation seemed to be with rehabilitating the public image of the architect through the increased involve- -ment of private practices in community (i.e. public sector) work. At one level, thereforetheprivatepracticionersatthe meeting were concemed with ways of winning more work from the public Sector, perhaps through supporting community action groups in struggles with councils and,if successful,picking up the commission as a result. A number of ar-hitects there claimed that they were subsidiring their community work, such as fighting a public enquiry over clearance for a residents group, from other more profitable work. They only collect fees if the residents win and the State pays Black road to Hackney Changesinthecodeofprofessional conduct are critical issues for private architects attempting to find more work. No-one knows this better than Rod Hackney, Britain’s best known ‘commun- -ity architect’, who from being reported by his local RIBA chapter has risen to become a leading light in the RIBA, chairing its Birmingham meeting, a candidate for the RIBA council and winner of a gold medal, proudly mounted on his office wall. He gives hope to aspiring young architects, who stil think they can make their fortune through private practive. From nothing, Hackney has built up a successful practive in 4 years years with 5 offices largely on the reputation of the famous Black Road THECOMMUNITY housingactiongroups. their costs. Despite suchphilanthropic motives their main concern is with getting the architects’ code of conduct relaxed so that touting for work and speculative work (i.e. not charging in the hope of gettingfeeslater)willbegiventheofficial scheme inMacclesfieldCheshire.The stamp of approval. The problem for the CLIENT Rls. is how to make contact with more cliznts of this kind. One answer has been to establish schemes with Citizen’s advice bureaux. corner shop RIBA In small towns and rural areas the C.A.B. is usually the only place to go to for help with a wide variety of problems and they normally maintain lists of professional people prepared to give (very) limited advice free of charge. Local chapters of the RIBA are now Organising rotas of architects to be available to C.A.B.s to give advice, Not only will they pick up work from people normally intimidated from approaching architects, but the RIBA will have points of contact with the extensive world of social services and voluntary organisatiosn. Organisations. RIBA spokesmen deny so frequently that this isajob getting exercise that their motives become fairly obyious. By and large the C.A.B.s are concerned with individual case work and do not make any efforts to encourage community case work or political work to tackle the causes of the problems which they are trying to solve. . one skillpool goes fishing As work is harder to find, many architects are establishing similar schemes to make contact with new clients or share work around. One such group calling itself Skillpool has been formed by architects, many of them women in London. Despite their talkof ‘serving the community’, they are primarily concerned concerned with finding work for their members and establishing aconstitutuion approved of by the professional establish- -ment, yet allowing them to advertise for work. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with trying to find useful employment, but the occasional use of the word ‘community’ is not enough evidence ofa commitment to benefit the mass of the people. myths surrounding Black Road need more thorough treatment than is possible here, but Hackney took advantage of a backward Tory Council to implement a General Improvement Area in away that isundoubtedly impressive. Costs were low, old age pensioner tenants became owner occupiers, self help techniques were used, standards relaxed and Hackney the architect worked on a day to day basis with the local residents association. It isn’t surprising that the scheme has attracted massive interest from both self help pundits and local authority officials and brought Hackney speaking ivitations by the dozen. His ability to beat the council and manipulate the complications ofimprovement grants and other finance won him further housing work in Birmingham (Saltley) and in Cumbria as well as other non housing work. But it is important to remember that however competent Hackney is,he isdoing little more than implement existing housing provisions, stimulating a few procedural changes perhaps. The successful community architect of this type makes others dependent on his control of the information and is not accountable to local residents. Hackney’s employees in his offices up and down the country are answerable to him, not the local community where they are working. They may be more acceptable to the local people but in Hackney’s second major scheme, in Saltley, his main client isalarge housing association, COPEC which which is not controlled by the residents. The radicals in the local residents group were isolated and the people split into factional interests. A promising building co-op scheme failed, but Hackney isstil there. Hackney dominated the RIBA Birmingham meeting using it as a platform for his views that the RIBA conditions of engagement are ‘not relevant to Community Service’ and that architects should have more freedom in interpret- -ing the building regulations. This paper argues that “ architecture’ is a catch-all title applied a wide range of activities many of which weshouldatleastcriticiseifnotrejectin our search for socially responsible architectural practice. These activities are largely in the public sector and fal into three main categories. 1. An attempt by more progressive sections of private practive to win work from the public sector. The growth of new kinds of technical experts who work at the interface between public authorities, housing associations etc, and the public. Both of these have led to the encouragement of non-political involve- -ment of architects and architecture students in so-called community action in the search for work or experience. 3. The activities of misguided radicals who enjoy the bright lights and publicity of ‘community’ struggles against bureaucracy but who fail to locate their work in a broader strategy for political change subscribing, instead toa pluralist analysis of society. All three forms of activity can be caracterised as reformist and are motivated motivated bya liberal social concern and the architects desire to do something practical disregarding theory or analysis. They become part ofa process which channels protest and discontent into activitieswhichmaybenefitafewinthe short term but do not contribute to longer term structural changes which benefit the many. There are alternatives to this. Iam not arguing that we should confine ourselves to purely theoretical or analytical work or reject the role of the architect. Instead we should endevour to establish new ways of working that become part of a political movement. Members of ‘Support’ which is briefly referred to below, are attempt- -ing to do this. to forced to manipulate Caught between the pressure of residents on the one hand and ahierarchy of decision making on the other, the local authority community architect will be forced to manipulate people into accepting what has already been decided by those higher up, distributing limited resources. The system will exploit the social conscience of the young radical professional letting him win the confidence of local people. While the exponents of community architecture scramble for the limited rehabilitation jobs that are available there are innumberable struggles through- out the country about housing and building where groups cannot find an architect or ot her technical experts to help them. Whilst Iwas typing this article I had two phone calls, one from a tenants association in Manchester wanting to get in touch with anyone with information on a dreaaful concrete system that creates dampness and appall- -ing living conditions. Another from a group in South East London asking for advice where the GLC wants to dump responsibility for managing their estate, on the tenants. There is litle likelihood of getting fees for such work nor is there much likelihood of the glamour of television and media coverage. To help such groups needsa political commitment which is not shared by those people hitching themselves to the community action bandwagon. Indeed the people in the best position to help such groups are architects and others within local govern- -ment departments. They know about the corruption and sloppy building that goes into public housing, they have access to documents and drawings which are kept secret from people who have to live in these disasters. SLATE2 page5 COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE Several members of the ASSIST staff also attended the Birmingham meeting. Much of their work issimilar toHackney but they have avoided becoming aprivate Practice in the conventional sense. Their members are much more self critical and awareofthe dilemma oftheirsituation. They too are working in an area where a backward local authority was, and stil is, unable to implement rehabilitation effectively. ASSIST isdoing thejob for them and inevitably taking pressure of the local authority. There seems little doubt that many more enlightened local authorities would like to adopt their shop front office style ifthey could persuade their staff to work in them, but in ASSIST the staff can at leastclaimtobeindependentofthe local authority. The front line official cannot and can easily find himself in an imposs- -ible situation N Whether through leaks ororganisedsolidaritywiththetenants’ movement, local authority employees have a moral duty to help people they see having a rough deal. There may be risks involved but many may be made redundant tomorrow anyway. A further vital job for architects is to build up research and information about ion about respective roles whether members are being paid or not. Thirdly, to develope straightforward practical competence that is of use to others combined with agitation for political change, one cannot be an excuse for the absence of the other. There is much that needs to be done involving practical intervention in community action and NAM should be offset by the labour subsidy from the ‘Job Creation Programme’ but there remains the tensionofconstantlyworkingontheedgeof economic insolvency. The Coop’s overheads are low by the Building Industry's standards but stil account for a fifth of the grant. a conditional existence The Coop is also aware that their existence is conditional upon good relations with COMMUNITY DESIGN SERVICE IN CARDIFF In December last year the Cardiff NAM group’s application for a grant under the Job Creation Programme to set up a Community Design Service was rejected bu the Manp Services Commission. Here we publish the first part of the Group’s account of the evolution of their proposal, its development and eventual failure. Part two, in the next SLATE, deals with the problemsencounteredbytheGroupoverthe question of professional indemnity and with the vacilating response of the Commission’s officers. It also speculates on the reasons able to offer, and since we were hoping to use any responses we might get to back up our application, we asked respondents to say IF they would use such a service if it existed, and also HOW they would use it. The letter was circulated to residents’ associations, community groups, and voluntary organisations in South East Wales. Through the West Glamorgan County Council’s Community Resources Centre, and South Glamorgan Council’s Ci R Centre, and South Glamorgan Council's Community Liaison Section, we made contact with groups not known to us personally. Response was extensive and positive, from abstract encouragement to concrete requests forhelp,someofthemurgent. Itcamemainly from the run down older residential areas of Cardiff, and from the mining valleys to the north and west, through organisations like the South Wales Anti-Poverty Action Group based in Merthyr Tydfil; Ty Toronto of Aberfan, a community work and resource organisation for the valleys; the Prince of Wales Committee, aims: ‘to encourage, help, and advise The Prince of Wales Committee concluded their letter: ‘Manyof these groups would appreciate the kindof esristance which you are offering. Some needskilledhelptoimaginethepotentialforimprove -ment in their neighbourhood, Others need advice with plans for specific schemes, Almost all could nor afford to pay professional fees for specialist advice of this sort because of their own limited resources. Your scheme could be the means of providinga valuable impetus and greatly needed additional service to thore interested in improving thetr environment.’ These responses raised questions about the categories of work which should be undertaken by a design service such as the one we had proposed. Should we be helping residents’ groups to ‘provide voluntarily’ and out of their own pockets, what government resources shouldbepayingfor,ordesigning“kitchen/ toilet facilities’ for the Church in Wales? These are questions we had not even begun to discuss. Neither had we considered in any detail the ways in which the nature of the design service we would be offering would differ in essence from the sort of design service the RIBA might envisage. For example, if we were to provide encouragement to groups who need “faith in their ability’ to undertake work which would not probably be undertaken without active encouragement, would this be touting for work? And what kind of work which we might under- take for those groups who ‘could not afford to pay professional fees’ -JCP money would enable us to providea free design service (for a year) but how would they, and the RIBA, fel aboutusgettinginvolvedineffortstoraise money for carrying out projects, especially when that may mean advising residents groups building design, systems and failures that canbemade availabletoc ity involvedin gingthiWesm.ust ManpowerServicesCommission groups The study of Clorius heat meters whichledtoanationalcampaignby tenants groups disatisfied with district heating schemes is a good example ofthis. Campaigns should be organised with tenants for building regulations to be tightened up so that standards and safety are improved, particularly in public housing. We should oppose giving more freedom to people like Road Hackney to find ways around the regulations. radical rhetoric This is going to involve consistent be careful, however, to discriminate between our pursuit of socially responsible action and the bandwagon of‘community architecture.’ Tom Woolley has been involved in housing and ‘community’ action with tenants and residents groups in Scotland and London since 1968. While qualified as an architect he has worked for a period asa community worker. He currently taches part time at the AA, isa member of the executive of the Brent Federation of Tenants and Residents and isa member of the Support group. LAMBETH COOPERATIVE and the Association itself Lambeth Council have taken a ‘tolerant’ line withtheCoopsofaralthoughalnegotiations have been characterised by prolonged yet strangely superficial ‘consideration’ of the Coop's needs. The Council gets a good deal from the Coop. Each house completed costs them nothing, increases rates revenue and means a potential shortening of the housing list, Nevertheless the Council have so far only allowed two years life on any house handed over thus restricting the Coop to the minimum *MiniHAG’ grant of £800. The money isnot paid directly to the Association but to Solon who qualify for the grant because they are a registered housing association. Solon receives a management fee of about £115 for handling the grant and checking the standard of rehabilitation. Solon have experienced ‘bridging fi ance’ prob sincetheHousingCorporationhave not kept to their quarterly payment arrangement. It is unlikely that the Coop could survive for very long on the present subsidised basis and moves have bezn made towards tendering for outsidework.Solonhaveagreedinprinciple for the project’s failure, showing how, to gain acceptance, it would have been necessary to set up the project within the established structure of the RIBA and the Local Authorities. individuals and groups of people living in politicalorganisingwhich fewarchitects haye shown interest in. The radical thetoric and occasional confrontation with local authorities of groups such as ARCmayseemconvincingtooutsiders makeendsmeetasitdoesupshortlife butcanbeanembarassmenttolocal propertyinLambeth.Inadequatehousing toincludetheCooponitstenderlists. the various parts of the article were prepared by individual members of the Group and do not necessarily represent a collective view. While the Cardiff NAM group was stil in the throes ofdiscovering just what it was supposed to be about and where itwas supposed to be going, other things happened which led to the idea of a community design service. As the word spread that agroup of radical architectural workers had come together, communitygroupswerecontactingusandit quicklybecameevidentthattheywere primarily interested in us as a source of acvice andexpertise,interestedinusinour professional capacity, that is. NAM nationally had already initiated discussions about what a national design service might be, and it seemed that, at that time, we in Cardiff were in a position to initiate some such scheme. In view of the potential clientele, there developed the idea thattheprojectcouldberuninacompletely different way to traditional practices. The only thing in the way of setting it up was the small matter of money. An apparently readily available source of finance at the time was the Manpower Services Commission (MSC) who were financing certain projects under their Job Creation Programme (JCP). What we hoped to set up was a prototype community based design service which would begin to look at what terms like ‘accountability’ and a’more democratic architecture’ were really about. Theformingofsuchaservicewas,asfaras Iwas concemed, an extension of the work I had done in my final year at college, the emphasis being on ‘demystifying’ the profession, andhowthiscouldbetackled.TheJCPmight provide the money to start us up, buthopefully although we had no idea how at this stage, we would come up with some method of self financing to enable the project to continue. I also assumed, somewhat naively perhaps, that the people eventually employed by the service would share my initial concept of the project. To me, the important aspect of the scheme was that itwould be ameans of teaching US to teach others to help themselves with regard to the built environment. I feel there was a danger of the project being viewed as a cheap professional service, tiding over out of work architectural workers until something else tumed up. Community Design Service Needed In order to approach the MSC we needed todemonstratethatapotentialdemand existed for the sort of design service we were proposing. We prepared a letter outlining the range and broad type of service we would be Wales, wishing to carry out projects to improve their surroundings on avoluntary basis’; and various other community associations and resource centres. The range of work we were being asked to deal with is best illustrated by quoting from some of the responses we received. “We are trying to improve the vilage. We want someone togiveusfaithinourabilitytodothixWecould wait until the JCP gets off the ground bus the inirial enthusiasm might have disappeared by then. people. It certainly doesn’t provide a consistent approach which is going to involve more radical professionals. Brian Anson and George Mills cling to the notion of communities when they themselves admit that ity feeling has been destroyed by the plan- ners at Ealing or in the Colne Valley. Handouts from the Rowntree Trust may give them employment, but to claim that this will lead to the residents of the Colne Valley being able to dictate their own future is at best niave. a class analysis itisnecessary to reject ARC's pluralist approach and replace it with class analysis. We must understand the wayinwhichcapitalistsocietyorganises the production of buildings and how this can be changed by the working class.Indefiningourroleasprofessionals within this struggle we must work to break down the false status of professionals and replace it with mutual trust among all people with REAL skills and expertise. Support This is the basis of the work of Support which is a small group of architects and builders with a wide network of contacts which tries to find sympathetic and responsible experts to respond to the endless demands from local groups, but also tries to develope principles which will have political results. These principles include firstly working together as an identifiable group that will share experiences and publish these for the benefits of others. Secondly, it aims to establish clear agreements with client groups that are based on careful discuss- SLATE 2 page 6 grants and sparse cooperation from the Council contradict:the fact that the Coop provides useful houses and also illustrates the way that local initiative is both coopted and forced to work ‘on the cheap’. The future offers family squatting associations dealingwith‘shortlifes’twooptions:gounderfrom the stress of direct immersion in the housing crisis at street level OR to extend their control of their own housing situation. Seven months ago Lambeth Self Help Housing Association took up the second option. ‘MiniHAG’ grants were arranged through the Housing Corporation, wages for half the members came from the Manpowers Services Commission’s Job Creation Scheme’ and a building cooperative was formed. directaccess This has provided the Association with a direct access to the building process, a luxury reserved only for a tiny proportion of today’s tenants,publicorprivate.Eachunitis completed for under £800: this buys basic service installation and anything else required other than decorations. By comparison the council reckons on spending £100 per room per year of life. A seven-roomed house would qualify for £1,400, £630 more than the Coop spends. incentives The wages are low for the eight members of the Coop - U.C.A.T.T. minimum -about fifty pounds a week gross. Hence the economic motive is clearly not the prime incentive for the members as corresponding wages in the private sector would certainly be higher. But as compensation the Coop offers the freedoms and responsibilities that go with employment outside of a dominant management structure. With 17 units completed, the Coop is stil sortingoutmany problems: the‘MiniHAG’ (mini, meaning short-life, Housing Association Grant) is too small: £800 per unit was dubious in 1975 but in 1977 it is grossly inadequate. Part of the loss through inflation has been self perpetuating housing needs The Association itself started out 5 years ago by getting houses from the council and upgrading them through self-help and contributions paid by members. It currently has over 300 members al over Lambeth. In order to break out of the self-perpetuating housing need that the short-life field entails, theAssociationhasdecidedtoapplytothe Housing Corporation for ‘Housing Cooperative’ Status. This will enable them to buy houses on the open market and to rehabilitate them with a 90% grant. Two other squatting groups have done this: Lewisham Family Squatters and Islington Community Housing. urban stress Lambeth has recently been designated in a government report as an urban stress area and therefore worthy of a financial shot in the arm, althoughnoconcretestrategieshavesofar emerged. Strangely in contradiction to this honourable intention, central government subsidies for local authority rehabilitation workthroughsection105ofthe1974 * Housing Act have been cut by £3m in Lambeth. In apportioning these cuts the Housing Dept have reasoned that since housing association grants are trickling into its short life finance that it will cut council spending on short-lifes from £235,000 to £80,000 this year: H.A.G. finance in no way makes up for this cut and it has clearly been seized upon by the council as a way of avoiding its responsibilities in this area. So while the financial responsibility for Lambeth’s housing problem ricochets between local and central government the Building Coop are quietly putting on average one house a week against Lambeth’s aiting homeless figures. The breakdown of the extra cash to finance inner city building work was announced at the end of April. £5 million will go to Lambeth who will be asked to submit lists of the most desirable projects. DISCEPTION PY CHOOSING SurTAsiB JOBS. cA Y THOSE MySLIMS Realy GoToo Lambeth Self Help Housing Association member, Tony Brohn, describes how a local building cooperative struggles to Hesekearets,19me AGAIN! You mow, NOW Tast QUITE FRANKLY, Lambeth Council Housing Dept Housing Corporation TAM A MAN OF (orton) PRINCIPLES |Wie NOT BE A PARTY To BLocpsHiD— To THE BviL AMBITIONS OF PMAOCGRAISNHISM Shemees peamers Anse! TEV ree o> !-.-No!AenrEcrvRas4 CONTAMETS OF A PEACEFUL Nani, designing an extension (kitchen/totlets) (0 an church hal” are ier 7\|1WoutNever ineDUTYTeUteMoeat ON DESIGNAPRISON! (om \ J FAR WITH THER PUNISHMENTS. SLATE2 page7 ‘on the most effective way of getting local and central government resources allocated (or reallocated) to the project. The difficulties and shortcomings of the sort of service we proposed would be enormous, but Ithink itcould be said that the demand forit had been firmly established. Corridors ofPower —MSC We agreed that in order to !2am more about the mechanics of subinitting a JCP application we would need an early informal meeting with someone from MSC. Two of us made an initial approach along the corridors of power. Our first meeting was with the assistant to the MSC Cardiff area assessor. After outlining who we were and who we representedwe, tried to put across what our embryo design service was al about. We identified the need for a design input by the community groups we had contacted, and the linked need for employment in South Walesfor architectural workers. To our surpnise, response was enthusiastic. He thought the idea ofa L... possibly the design of an existing church building to be converted intoa residential youth centre for holiday use (though the building as such is srill being sought) * +... planning a housing community scheme in thit grea to show to the local authorities shar it is viable.’ “There are many Welfare Halls in che valleys that are not being fully utilised, these could be made into useful centres if the opportunity arose 10 aquire them. The possibility ofgetting such places for community use depends a great deal on the ability of people to improve the property. The kind of service you offer ‘could prove an incentive 10 this end, there are many empty buildings in the valleys that could be made use of provided they were brought up to the required standard.” *_. school groups interested in landscaping creat Seeee ncconumaaTionfortheelderlyuu.and keen to create murals on exterior walls ofvarious public buildings, including their own schools, *scone residents on large housing estateseho ae prepared to do something themselves fo relieve monotonous eppesrance..... the advice of a landscape architect or an architect would be invaluable." “Residents in the valleys often wish to tackle the problems of unnightly back lanes ‘and eyesores created by gaps in rows of houses or ends of terraces where buildings have been demolished.” COLNE VALLEY the answer? SowhatIsleft?Anageing population, no jobs for the young, dilapidated transport and communications systems, dereliction and polution on an unprecedendted scale. And the Local Authorities’ answer? Tourism, conservation and museums of industrial archeology and other cheap but negative solutions. For the people of the Valley, who are conscientious, warm hearted and proud, these ‘solutions’ are a blatant insult. Kirkleen Metropolitan Council, who are charged with responsibility for the wellbeingofthearea,ignorethe fate of local people and hope that enough commutors from Leeds, Bradford and Manchester will settleintheValley,dotherehab andspendthemoney. The Community Architecture Team Team sees the local people as the area's major res ource, along with any redundant buildings and derelict sites, empty through the neglecti,n acapitalist economy, of areaswhichlosttheirabilityto compete in world markets. In terms of its people the Valley stil has great potential, but a potential which must first be exposed and the then worked on, not with a view to profit,butwithaviewtopeople changing their own lives. autonomy Eachoftheiveprinciple vilages which make up Colne Valley retains some degree of social and cultural autonomy, something which socicties striving for a facade of ‘equalisteeya’s quaint but primitive and backward, We work on the premise that such autonomy is the basis for the future of places such as Slaithwaite and Marsden, for it is in this locality that British working men and women first organised themselvesinpursuitofabetter life. Our work attempts to weld autonomy, people, buildings and ideals into a potent social force, unbending to the perogative of management, unions or Government People may see al this as utopian. In places like the Colne Vallcy utopias have been visualised and aimed at for centuries. It is in the nature of people like those in the Valley to have their dreams and occasionally, on aparticularly strong impulse, to embark on them as if they were a clear cut reality merelyastepaway, local newspaper As part of a process of rebuilding the strength and impetus 0Sacommunity wesetupasmall localnewspaper. Itissteadily growing in circulation and with each issue moreof it iswritten by the people up and down the Valley, not by people in our office. We stil use the paper as vehicle for ideas about what to do with redundant buildings, disused sites andoutmoded planningstructures. We have no tangible proof that our work is having any effect, but we have constant hints and expressions of faith that we are being positive inthefaceofapredominantly negative society. We are stil gaining the trust of the people locally, but small groups -f activistsareformingwith theintent of rebuilding their area along THEIR lines, not those set down by Local Authorities, Capital or anyone elsc. Hopefully, once the Newspaper is established it will finance our continuing work, which must remain in its infancy until it is fertilised and fired by the imagination and desires of the people of the Valley. continued from page 7 design service for community groups was very worthwhileandanapplicationalongourlines was well worth attempting. He was ful of” ideas of how the project could be set up and along what lines it could progress, he even supplied us with the names and addresses of people and groups we should contact for letters of support. After the outline discussion we got down to talking about more detail, specifically: . Could we employ an administrator/ coordinator in advance of 5 technical staff in order to tie up al the loose ends? This was acceptable. Would the application be approved if premises were not finalised? Yes. Wouldithelpifwelinkedtheprofessional training requirements of architecture, planning etc. into the training emphasis of the JCP? Yes, this would be excellent, especiallyifyoucouldusetheRIBA trainingguidelinestostructurethetraining element in the service. The approval of the Welsh School of Architecture Practical Training Officer would be a big help in any application. ._ How flexible could our expenditure estimates be, did we have to itemise every piece of of equipment or could we put ina lumpsumtocoveralmaterials?Thereisa degree of flexibility in the scheme; money underspent in one area could be transfered to other categones. . Do we have to detail the jobs applied for or will an overall job description suffice? A generalsubscriptionwoulddo. Would asingle scale of salary for al employees be acceptable? MSC would prefer a differential between the architect andcoordinatorandthetrainees. If revenue was generated by the scheme how should it be used and what effect would it have on any MSC money? Revenue generation if acceptable as long as profits are not made and the money is used for purposes other than those financed by MSC but stil within the context of the scheme. With the answers to these questions and the attitude of this member of the staff, it appeared that our application had a very good chance indeed of being accepted by the committee (comprised of local notaries, councillors, professionals) to whom the MSC staff made their recommendations, and our design service idea seemed to take a great stride forward. The Application It was only in attempting to fulfill certain conditions which we thought, correctly or incorrectly, were required by the MSC, that some of us feel our original intentions were compromised. Although it was probably necessary to play down the possible political implications of such a project, we made the mistake of not confronting and fully discussing these implications amongst ourselves. MSC required that al JCP projects submitted to them should be sup b i Our apeteatan to JCP was for money to employ 6 workers, a total (labour costs plus 10%) of almost £15,000. For two reasons we specified that one of these workers should be a qualified architect. Firstly, it had been implied that out application would be looked at more favourably if we offered some sort of training opportunities. We approached the Practical Training Officer at the Welsh School who thought it would be possible to consider work with the scheme suitable experience for 4th year students. This required a qualified rvising architect. In retrospect, some of felt that this made us even more dependent than we needea to have been on the goodwill of the professional establishment. Secondly, we had understood that the employment ofa qualified architect would be necessary to enable us to obtain the appropriate insurances. Subsequently, we found that this is not the case. REVIEV REVIEW OF ‘TAMING THE CONCRETE JUNGLE’ Green Bans, the widely feted culmination of the actions of Australian Building Workers, are only part of the story told in this book.. Journalist Pete Thomas, writingonbehalfoftheBuilders’ Labourers Federation of Australia, tells how the union has also seized many opportunities to take imaginativedirectactiontoerode theauthorityofbuildingmanagement management over questions of site safety, scheduling of work, redundancies and working conditions conditions. A rank and file lead takeover of the union leadership by progressives in the early 60’s signalled an onrush ofNewUnionismwhichtookasits sphere of concern and action the whole state of the Australian Construction industry. Automation and industrialisation had brought about collosal increases inproductivitywhileby1972the practice of sub-contracting had reached such proportions that the ratio of wage eamers to sub- contractorswasonlythreetoone. These developments added new safety and health risks and further job instability to the building workers more traditional problems, hostile working conditions and casual hourly employment. The response of the building workers ranged from the scurillous: taking a shower on the steps of Newcastle's city hall to draw attention to inadequate sanitary facilities on site - to the revolutionary revolutionary -one site electing their own foreman, in response to police harassment, and continuing work under self-management for the remaining months of the contract. Many individual manifestations like these spread a consciousness of the workers’ own collective authority throughout the union. Approached by local residents for assistance in their attempts to save from development Kelly’s Bush, an area of open land near Sydney’s city centre, the Builders’ Labourers readily dedtheideaofworkers’ control beyond the immediate concems of the pay packet and the site. No further construction would take place on any of the developer's other sites, decreed the Builder’s Labourers, ifhe persisted in his plans for Kelly’s Bush. The Green ban was successful as were many subsequent bans in New South Wales and other states. British readers may feel remote from this swashbuckling tale of workers’ struggles in the Antipodes. Our building industry, in many ways as primitive and harsh as its Australian counterpart, is generally stil bedevilled by the remnants of continued on page 10 WORKING FORWHAT? PROJECT George Mills describes the work of the Community Architecture Team in the Colne Valley against the background of the aspirations of an isolated working community. CA was set up by the Architects Revoi iticnary Council in 1976 The Community Architecture team’s work in the Colne Valley, near Huddersfield, is still in its infancy. Setupbymembersof the Architects’ Revolutionary Council (ARC) in 1976, the project is a response to a problem whichthemajorityofplanners electtoignore,theyfecl industrial districts made so economically weak by the erosion of their markets that they can no longer support themselves in any tangible way Textile manufacture was the Colne Vall industry. At the heyday ofthe ourandahalf mile long valey’s productivity something like 50 mils flourished, each employing between 100 and 2000 workers. When an erea this size is devoted tooneindustryno aroefalife isunaffected byits industrial decline. Textile manufacture still has astrong presence in the Valey,but themilsthemselves ti sons for a.chaic achinery and production methods parts of the world THECASEFORTRADEUNIONORGANISATIONINARCHITECTURE AND THE ALLIED BUILDING PROFESSIONS REVIEW OF ‘WORKING FOR WHAT?’ Sunund Prasad, Edward Cullinan Architects, writes, Few people who wish to see a radical (democratising) change in the existing process of making and providing buildings will doubt thatifArchitecturalWorkerscombinewitheach other to further their interests and ideals, potentially a huge and necessary step would have been taken in the right direction. The thoughtful, well argued and deeply feltNAM report‘WorkingforWhat’should dispel doubts, where they do exist, about the desirability or possibility of this The challenge is where do we go from there; firstlywhetherwecanlearnfrom200yearsof often cautionary union history (builders, incidentally, were amongst the first workers to organise) and secondly whether we can persue political effectiveness while not, for one moment, losing a passion for the quality of what we build and a desire to build it. The report, though necessarily not very analytical about the history of Trade Unionism, meets well the first challenge especially in the series of questions headed ‘which union’ at the end, and in being enthusiastic about the examples set by Australian building labourers and Lucas Aerospace workers in breaking out of the ‘Sheer Economism’ of modern Trade Unionism. Iwish though that even in a report such as this the second challenge were somehow acknowledged. At one point itis stated ‘there are very few problems facing Architecture today that trade union organisation and action could not come to grips with and make a real contribution towards resolving’. Clearly this will need a radically new unionism not shy of addressing architectural issues and willing to develope critiques of recent movements and trends which are far less crude and ill-informed than the report’s brief forays into this terntory. Only recently has it become possible for reactiontomakestickachargeofphilistinism on the ‘left’. This tragic reversal must not be allowed to stand by default. One of the crucial tasks in this connection is to show that “democratic alternatives to the market system’ are as capable and more of generating quality. invention and style. Finally, as a member ofa practice of the kind referred to in the Appendix “Alternatives to Unionisation?’ Iendorse the reservations about ‘one-off progress but would like to express our conviction that itisimportant to have a dream about where you are going and not merely wait for your arrival there New Architecture Movement, (unionisation) Organising Committpe: ‘Working For Whet?- The case for Trades Union orgenisation in Architecture and the altied building profersions: ANAM report: 1977:6Sp post paid. SLATE 2 page 9 bear witr theindustry” condit incapeable dem in other eos =s w» nen ee continued from page 9 old fashioned craft unionism and dominated by old fashioned union leadership. Extending the concept of Trades Unionism beyond the confines of wage negotiation to assert the workers’ authority over the whole production process and the product itselifs an idea which isslowly gaining credence here, amongst scientific workers at Lucas Aerospace and construction workers in Birmingham in particular. Pete Thomas’ book, for al its unquestioning enthusiasm for the Builders’ Labourers cause and actions, is as good an explanation ofwhat workers’ control means as any theoretical treatment of the topic, and is exciting with it. COMPETITION CORNER Pete Thomas: ‘Taming the Concrete CENTRAL SQUARE BLOCKS1&2 &0.17 OPPOSITION «mong architectural workers is one aspect of the much publicised recent GLC ‘in-house’ competition that the Council’s public relations machine chose to ignore when it leafletted the press with pretty drawings like the one above. In a resolution proposed by the Architect’s Department Committee, NALGO’s GLC Executive Council called A CALL for clearer political perspectives was the recurrent conclusion of the New Architecture Movement’s Second London Seminar. The open seminar, held at the Polytechnic of Central London on Apmil 23rd focused on the issues of ARCUK, unionisation and education. Tom Woolley, speaking first,outlined the rise of NAM against the background of the spreading acceptance of the idea that architectural ideas and attitudes were strongly influenced by economic forces. Even the RIBA was shedding its liberalism and could no longer tolerate radical critiscism. InconclusionTomWooleysaidthat structural chance in society could only be the result of political action, and it was within this tramework that NAM should see it’s role. Rodney Mace added that NAM was the only group correctly placed to provide acoherent analysis and political directions forarchitectural professional organisation, ARCUK isapublic institution, and NAM should work to increase ARCUK’s public accountability. Questioned on their accountability to the Movement, NAM’s representatives on ARCUK agreed to meet to discuss policy through consultation with members and are considering holding a conference for al unattached architects. Unionisation The next discussion was opened by a member who described the enormous resistance of employerstotheideaofunionisation. The threat of being sacked was strong enough to prevent radical architects broaching the subject openly or putting their names to published statements. Organising architectural workers was a fundamental point in NAM’s programme, and thatTradesUnionactionbeextended beyond pay and conditions at the workplace into environmental and social issues. Itwas here that i would have to offer the Trades Union movement. This ‘New Unionism’ wasillustratedbyreferencetoLucasAerospace, where shop stewards, in the face of threatened redundancies,haddrawnupaplanfor maintaining employment by producing ‘socially useful’ goods instead of military hardwear, within the existing capabilities of the plant. Unionisation should not be seen as an easy insurance against increasing unemployment, low wages or unsatisfying work, but as part of a general political struggle. We should aim to achieve a single union for al workers, including technical, administrative and managerial staff in al offices. The meeting was wamed against RIBA or employers organising tame para-unions to defuse the issue. Against the proposition of shop-floor organisation put forward by the principal speakers, certain factions held that architectural work can only be seen in the context of the construction industry, and that the correct continued on page 12 Jungle’:New South Wales branch of the Australizn Building Construction Employees and Bulders' Labourers Federation: Sydrey :1973: £1.00 NAM _GROUP SPIANTCHEEHOME 261 Hangng Space ARCUK Group, NAM, 9, Poland St., London WI. Liaison Group The Secretary, NAM, 9, Poland St., London, W1 National Design Service: NDS, NAM, 9, Poland St., Students and tutors at Nottingham School of Architecture, who have already established an active NAM group both on and off the campus, are toholda‘counter-courseevent’over workers. the weekend of June 25-26th. All those 7a wa onitsarchitecturalmemberstoblackthe London,W1. y \ | Archi 7 4 i [acre eal (ie wane) Kingston-u-Hull Regional College of Art, Brunswick Ave., Hull Leeds: Pete Forbes, Parkview, Weeton Lane, Hoby, Leeds 17 London Group: Douglas Smith, 17, Delancey St., London, NW1 Nottingham Group: Dave Green, 44a, Bramcote Rd., Beeston, Nottingham Education Group: Edinburgh: David Somervell Hull: Jane Bryant, Hull School of Architecture. Leeds: Pete Forbes Nottingham: Dave Green NAM groups wanting to contribute information on their activities should get their copy to SLATE by 24thJune1977forinclusioninthe next issue. NEXT WEEK: 26.2Spacein‘hegaschamber REHABILITATION NEWS . Architectural workers at Richard Sheppard Robson & Partners refused to work on drawings of amultiple execution chamber for a so called rehabilitation centre in North Africa, reported London lettertotheGUARDIAN recently. SLATE 2 page 10 Fill in the form below and send it with a cheque/PO (payable to the New Architecture Movement) for £2.95 plus 10p post and packing to NAM, 9 Poland St., London WI. NAME. 2000 | Hulul: Ian Tod, Hull School of Architecture, competiton shortly after its announcement. Support was not forth- -coming however, from the parallel branch of the GLC Staff Association, when NALGO wrote suggesting joint actionovertheblacking,vitalforsuccess in the capaign. Reasons for blacking the competition were given as: - It is using work normally carried out by the Architect's Department, which could be better utilised by giving employment to one of the many architects at present on the dole, - It aims to induce our members to carry out duties outside working hours without pay. - In the present climate of cutbacks in GLC expenditure, staffing levels, livingstandards and promotion prospects, it can only be seen at best asa spoonfuolf sugar. - Staff are being encouraged to carry out this exercise even though there isa complete lack of consultation with the staff on their future and particularly on the issue of viable housing briefs, future level of housing production and staffing levels, support witheld Staff Association support was with- held on the grounds that some of its members may wish to enter the competition. Only 5 entrants put in schemes in the end -how many of these were GLCSA members is not known. Even with only 5 entrants, the competition, with prize money of £250.00 was cheap exploitation. The passive stance of the TUC affiliated Staff Association in not supporting its sister union, NALGO, comes as less of a Surprise in view of the compromised positionofstaffassociationsgenerally. (See SLATE no 1). Projects Group: David Roebuck, 25, St. George’s Ave., London, W1 Unionisation Organising Committee, NAM,9 PolandSt,London,W1 PublicationsGroup: Editorial Committee, NAM, 9, Poland St., London, W1 Cardiff Group: Anne Delaney, 196, Albany Rd., Roath, Cardiff Edinburgh: interested in obtaining further details should write to NAM Nottingham Group, 14DerbyGrove,Nottingham. SLATE isnowcontributingto invisible exports after receiving a subscription from Iceland. The Publications Group will be monitoring its performance under sub-zero temperatures in the hope of a warm response! Contrary to previous reports the New Architecture Calendar for 1977 has showna profit. The final account reveals an overall surplus of £2.06. As this seems to be a potential money spinner (in NAM’s terms anyway) would anyone willing to produce a sequel for 1978 please write to The Secretary, 9 Poland Street, London W1 Only one suggestion for a 3rd Congress venue has been received so far and others must be sent, also to the Secretary, before the summer so that the Liason Group can get on with the long task of organising the event. The Liason Group backs the decisions passed at the NAM Sponsored Unionisation Unionisation Conference held on May 14th May 14th and urges al readers working in the private sector to organise within the chosen union TASS. Finally, our condolencies to founder member Morris Williams on his recent redundancy -we urge him to join TASS withoutfurtherdelay. ARCUK CONTACTS : David Somervell, 22, Penmuir Place, Edinburgh 3 NEWS FROM NAM LIAISON Recognition of NAM's contribution to important issues concerning the building industry and related professions is steadily growing in the Schools of Architecture. Most recently three NAM members. attended a symposium held for day release d at London's Polytechnic of the South Bank where they led alively discussion on Unionisation, ARCUK and the role of professional institutes and the concept of a National Design Service. Should these and other issues currently being developed by NAM be of interest to other schools, requests for visiting speakers are welcomed. ~Jonadremndcrsaticarctalectiore- NAM’s Second National Conference, Blackpool, November, 1976. NAM SECOND LONDON SEMINAR ARCUK and the Acts were the first topics of the day's debate. HistoryshowedthatwhiletheActsclaimedto protect the public from impostors by registrationandexamination,itwasobviousto many, even at the time, that the legislation served only to maintain the power and prestige of the profession. As the statutory link between the profession and society, ARCUK is the controlling body for al architectural practice, but its statutory independence, under the Acts, was soon lost and its claimed intentions sabotaged, by the RIBA, its main protagonist, who compromised with the ‘public interest” as they argued and lobbied the acts through Parliament. The Institute remains in control of ARCUK. ‘The question was raised whether NAM, which is fundamentally opposed to the RIBA and its legitimising agent and partner ARCUK, should consider the reform of an employers’ organisation. One answer put forward was that while the RIBA isexclusively a aeAer a.PAHVFfamWAMT| A collection of cartoons by Louis Hellman | | Hellman takes a stab from the inside at the seemicr side of the buildingprofession. | |‘Feloffmy bike with laughter’... Prof. Reyner Banham | | | | | nit SQUATTERS ORGANISE continued from page 11 political perspective for unionisation and al our campaigns was solely in alliance with organised building workers. Rodney Mace spoke against patronising the unions by running to them for help in times of crisis. Unionisation would be a long hard struggle during which architectural workers would have to develop discipline and respect. Education On the subject of education it was stressed that education played a central role in the inculcation of professional myths and attitudes. The courses were competitive, nonanylitical and anti-political. Rodney Mace suggested that there had been little progress in the demands made by students in the last twenty years. Architectural education is of little effect in developing political consziousness, which was more likely to come from students’ activities outside school. Educational hegemony would only be challenged by forces outside schools, in alliance with students within. He concluded by pointing out that there was still a bias towards accepting students from public schools and against women for first year entry. Constitution for NAM? In the final session general proposals were made for an Asbestos Working Group to seek ways of advising architectural workers on how to avoid the use of asbestos in buildings. The mecting also called for consideration ofa constitution for the Movement in order to reinforce internal democracy, coherent organisation and a credible public face. Objections from the floor that this was a betrayal of NAM’s loose-knit federal structure were countered by the view that organisational clarity would benefit al NAM groups Guest speakers at the London Group's open seminar were Tom Wooley, member of the Support Group, and lecturer at the Architectural Association who has been involved in radical movements in erchitecrure since the mid 1960: and Rodney Mace, historian. lecturer at Kingston Polytechnic and member of the Communist Porty’s Built Environment Group. Report by Douglas Smith Y: fit. Sa Oe JACKSONS LANE COMMUNITY CENTRE, ARCHWAY RD.N.6. |centralised ‘Squatters’ Union’. Much of the conflict arises from past hostility between the libertarian cooperative Advisory Service for Squatters (ASS) which attempts to respond to requests from individual squatters and local groups, and the more militant Squatters’ Action Counail (SAC) which produces a weekly newsheet and believes in taking initiatives to expand squatting and expose the chronic housing crisis While the debate continues, however the passing of the Criminal Tresspass Legislation gets nearer, and the need for squatters to organise themselves against becoming homeless and/or criminals becomes more urgent Ifyyoou would like to be a member of the New Architecture Movementnt fililn the form below and send || it together with a cheque/postal order (payable to the New Architecture Movement) for £5.00( if IN THE FACE of the impending Criminal Tres pass Legislation, which will make certain types of squatting a criminal offence, attempts are being made to forma national squatters’ organisation to defend the rights of squatters and the homeless. Two open conferences have already been held in London, but so far no agreement has been reached on the type of organisation which should be formed. A third conference is planned shortly. The main debate is between those who would like to see a ‘Squatters Federation’ which would have little centralised power, but which would coordinate and assist autonomous local groups, and those who want to form a more powerful and For further information and advice contact ASS 359 8814 SAC: 701 7644 SUBSCRIBE! £ fitz £. £eeet |you're employed) or£2.00 (ifyou're arestudent, claimant orOAP) toNAM at9,Poland Street feee tay Efe SY SLATE’s next issue will feature a major article on the changes at Architectural Design, what they mean for Architec- tural journalism and how they reflect a change in spirit running night through | biggest crisis since the War. Among the pioneers of progressive Poland Street, London W.1. NAME ADDRESS architectural journalism, AD featured radigal technology, community action, |squatting and sociological and political | analysis alongside Conceptual Architecture, shining new factories and | Archigram in a mixture which raised the consciousness as well as, sometimes, the | confusion, of its readers. No more. | Professionalism :the myth and the idevlogy. eh SseRa ag268 Roaee VU ooh bEeeee £efe LELELE | | the profession as society faces its ARCUK :whorunsitandhow. J SLATE THREE | ¥ ft. |LondonW.1. ane 4\4O ca fo a ph | NAME s0cucenseosoccsccconnascosopeeepescoso04eee5e |ADDRESS. | | | TELEPHONE (‘HOME)) rccecccsccscscsaserscsettereene (WORK ). oe eeeeewnceesucess | If you would like to receive SLATE without joining NAM fil in the form below and send it together withacheque/postalorder(payabletotheNew ArchitectureMovement)for£2.00toNAM at9, The politics of registration :the background to the Acts. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource NAM SLATE Group Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Allan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource May/ June 1977 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/589798156f4f0c19ff244db33dd23b42.pdf d7780dcdebd717c5538e20d97fa34d0f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource SLATE Description An account of the resource To help promote its work and reduce dependence on the established professional press, NAM created its own newspaper SLATE. The editorial group met bi-monthly to gather together latest events, activities and ideas emerging from radical critiques and challenges to the established order of architectural practice and education. The content of each edition was collated, and cut-and-pasted into layouts of the magazine which typically ran from 16 to 28 pages. Each edition included a brilliant cartoon by Andrew Brown who emerged as a clever graphic artist synthesising NAM's radical ethics. SLATE's production ran to 17 issues in total. The SLATE Group also produced occasional annual calendars, of which three survive Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource SLATE 6 Subject The topic of the resource Education Special Description An account of the resource fk 31a A’S os ALE "62" THERADICALPAPERONARCHITECTUREANDTHEBUILDINGINDUSTRYD5 '78) theadventuresof 3yNeioa iss DOUGLAS ¢thetwofresherseosceeccee DOUGLAS WILL CATCH IT 1B PROF, MARKUS SEES NIM READING THAT SLATE, W. C. . BUYOnE le,V STILL|WISHIHAD ENOVEN CASH TO —~{ =_v= UsHALL! spe rh ae AND LOTS MORE WHoops'twe }cROmas! my WIND HAS SLATE'S FLOWN, WAFTEO ITMY TRUTN FULLY SAY { MAVEN'T GOT OHO!WHATSALLTINTS WAYBLESSMySouk/THISAO A FORBIODEN RADICAL RAG ABO? 11k CONFISCATE IT. ARCHITECTURE MMOEMENT MAS SOME VEAY @00O /OFAS AFTER ALL! { MWST SET A SUBSCAIPTION FOR [THE L/GRARY AND MYSELF I! al i for writing on dofsoft~(clean henco S fe, fern. of (1) n. {anp. ft, pree.} SLATE ISTHE NEWSLETTER OF THE NEW ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT, published bi-monthly and edited by the Movement’s Publications Group. News and features of broad interest to workers in the profession, the building industryandtothegeneralpublicareinc- luded to stimulate general debate on a wide rar e of issues and to bring the Movement’s views and activities to the attention of the largest possible readership REPRESENTATIVES A network of 30 representatives has been tup throughout schools and large prac- al over the country. The only comm- itment of each representative will be to receive 5 copiesof SLATE every two months and to try to sell 4 of them, return- ing £1.00 to SLATE Al this should help SLATE acheive a far wider circulation and become more truly representative of the views of rad- icals concerned with the industry and the environment WORK ON SLATE SLATE needs more workers, more 57 members of the staff have already confirmed their interest in voluntary redundancy, and there has been “natural wastage”. But another 40 architects, 37 QSs and some engineers are expected to be out ofa job by the summer. Atthesame timetheToriesaretrying to reduce the GLC’s housebuilding pro- gramme by about half, to 2000a year. And all of these will be in inner London areas of existing stress, especially in housing. Gone isthe policy of trying to spread the housing problem between the deprived inner areas and the prosperous outer London suburbs. But according to architects within the department it seems unlikely that theTorieswillachievethescaleofrun- down at the rate they want. For the depleted workforce isalready having problems in meeting existing commitments. Working Party secretary Charles McKean to theArchitectsJournalinwhichheaccused 1200thisyear.Evenschemesatthetender NAM SWEEPS BOARD IN ARCUK POLL Those who fear that the NAM members writers , more ideas and more reps in order toproduceabetter,largerandcheaper ==————S=S==S=a_=_=_=_=== newsletter. If you would like to work for SLATE; become a rep., join the group, send in articles or suggest topics it should cbver then contact us soon Signed by the Society’s Honorary concernwillincludevirtuallyno ofanaggressivelycompetitivefirm = SecretaryHughKrallithasbeensentto The copy deadline for the next issue is Friday 24th March 1978 SLATE ispublished by the Publications Group of the NEW ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT, 9 Poland St., London W.1. (Letters should be addressed to the Publications Group) Printed by Islington Community Press, 2a St Pauls Rd., London, N1. Trade Distribution by Publications Distribution Cooperative, 27, Clerken- well Court, London, E.C.2 Tories’ knife poised over GLC architects speakers who are personally and actually involved in the inner city crisis and will be punctuated by slide shows glorifying recent formalist architectural triumphs. SLATE has acquired the early committee papers, which show that once again the conference isbeing planned virtually exclusively by architects for architects- the blind leading the blind. And far from being about the inner cities it will end up being about architects, too. The conference isplanned for agood image-building grass-roots venue, Liverpool. But the only local speaker yet proposed is the city’s bishop - no sign of even a trades-unionist, social worker or local industrialist, let alone a local resident. And between sanctimonious breast- beating sessions planned on such subjects marketing unnecessarily decorative furniture. Onasecond day devoted to housing the light relief- or reminder of what the organiser’s( and probably the delegates) persist in believing is the real business of architecture -isprovided by snaps of World’s End and Marquis Road, Self-help or co-operative housing, although on the agenda and rather more relevant to the conference’s nominal subject matter - tend not to be as pleasing to the eye. Editors of twoarchitectural journals, Monica Pidgeon and Peter Murray, have been involved withthe conference plans, presumably to ensure that even ifthe conference doesn’t convince the outside world of the architect’s social conscience it will at least sel the RIBA’s to the profession, But there’s another journal that won't be taken in -this one- al RIBA Council members. It represents, says Mr Krall, the conclusions of the Society’s Executive Committee on “the relative roles of the RIBA and ARCUK”. Other conclusions of this surprisingly radical paper are: “that responsibility for conduct, edu- cation, conditions of engagement, building contracts and scales of fees should be transferred to ARCUK; “that the RIBA should revert to its proper function asa learned society; “that the subscription rate should be altered accordingly, say £100 pa for ARCUK and £3 pa for the RIBA; “that any necessary legislation should be sought to this end.” In effect, the Society is agreeing with the first stage of reforms suggested by NAM for reconstituting the structure of the SLATE 6PAGE 2 SLATE 6PAGE 3 NEWSNEWSNIEW THE RIBA is ina state of confusion about how it should deal with the proposal thatlistsoflocalarchitects should be made ayailable at Citizens’ Advice Bureaux. This confusion came to light in a statement from RIBA Community Architecture Alan Lipman John Mu, Tore sep) 498 NAM of delaying the resolution of whether such a list would contravene the architects’ Code of Conduct. As members of the Architects Registration CounciloftheK (ARCUK ),someNAM members would have a say in the debate, but can hardly be accused of delaying tactics. when the ARCUK sub committee due to discuss the implications of the ‘lists’ was postponed by its chairman, himself an RIBA member. The meeting, due to be held on March 2nd, was postponed, according to the committee’s chairman, because “there was not enough business on the agenda”. The Slater writes: Either the RIBA’s lefthand,ifithasone,doesn’tknow what its right hand is doing or Mr McKean isbeing plain mischeyious. Which isthe more likely Iwould hestitate to guess, Stage are having to be suspended, due to a combination of changes in policy and problems with staffing. And things could get worse. Briefs are currentlyavailableforonly400houses for 1981, which should by now be at the drawing board if they are to stand a chance ofbeingcompletedontime. Staff at the department are very worried about their future and thatofthe department. But militant action has been more prominent among the housing managers who are also affected -by the Tories’ new policy of transferring management responsibility to the London Boroughs. They are operating an overtime ban and refusing to cover for unfilledvacanciesinprotest. But staff action is having little effect. The Tories have refused or ignored representations with the staff. They have, however,justacceptedthatthe fundamental four-division structure of the department must remain if confusion isnot to deteriorate into chaos. The irony of the whole situation is that the Tories have recently appointed Sir Frank Marshall to prepare a review of what the proper functions of the GLC should be. But they seem to have decided for him what sortof housing responsibil- 402 397 371 areanxioustoensurethatnewNAMrep- resentatives are returned at the next election and that the Movement as a whole should have a greater say in the selection procedure. W London RIBA slams RIBA! “ARCUK, not the RIBA, should be the mouthpiece of the architectural profession.” This view comes. astonishingly, in a paper not from NAM but from the West London Architectural Society, itselfa branch of the London Region of the RIBA. And because of al the disruptions, the Bop ,, lley Robi, Mipy 490 464 V4 level of housing starts could plummet to Not elected JohnAllen Mike Purdy David Robson ities itshould have. ° Typesetting by the Publications Group and Maggie Stack. Opinions expressed in SLATE are not ; necessarily the policy of the New Archi- tecture Movement unless stated to be so. NAM CANDIDATES haveswept the poll in the elections for the unattached seats on the ARCUK Council. Out of the nine available seats, eight were taken by NAM-affiliated candidates. Only one NAM candidate failed to be elected and, significantly, only he omitted to de- clare his involvement in NAM on the polling sheet. With votes cast up by 35%, this is a mass- iveaffirmationofsupportbyunattached architects in NAM policies. NAM can truly claim to represent the views of unattached architects on ARCUK. The only non-NAM candidate to be elected, Robin Phillips, has seven years standingontheARCUKcommittee,andis therefore thought to have been able to count on considerable personal support. Votescastwereasfollows: Elected areformingacartelonARCUK similarto that of the existing bodies may be pleased to learh that many of the NAM members RIBA innercity as-accordingtothecommitteepapers- the ‘Imageofthe City’ and ‘Working conference sop planned THE RIBA isplanningitsannual conference for 1978 on the theme of regenerating the inner cities, but this conspicuous display of public Communities’, there will be slide shows of buildings famed for their contribution to the inner city crisis as Foster’s Willis Faber, Piano and Rogers’ Centre Pompidou, and Farrell and Grimshaw’s Hermann Miller Factory, The only contribution these buildings have made to the inner city crisis is to helpperpetuateby,respectively,glorifying the imageof a firm of insurance brokers, by mystifying and formalising ‘Parisian’ culture, and by prettying up a factory 568 eran y 524 ne :aid RoebTM tanTod Ken Thorpe ck 522% 507 518 |scoop! NEYSNEWSNEWSNEWS) 2) NAM notguilty on RIBA-CABx charge (CIL: THE NEW TORY administration | in the Greater London Council isproceeding apace with itsplans to dismember the GLC Architects Department, and with it the GLC house-building programme. This time last year the Department employedastaff of 2855. But the Tories want to see this reduced to 2507 by this March. profession. Itundoubtedly accepts one tenet of NAM policy; that the RIBA remains, quite without justification, the power behind the ARCUK throne. NAM should beware, however, of deriving too much comfort from this apparent-if unlikely -source of support. For the motives of the West London Architectural Society do not appear entirely altruistic. “We see this as the only solution to the present anomaly as a result of which the profession isdefecting from member- ship of the RIBA while retaining membership of ARCUK and by so doing obtaining the benefits of the Architects’ Registration Act without paying the true cost,”’ they say of their proposals. In other words, members of the Society resent their hefty RIBA subscriptions being used to pay for services from which unattached members are deriving the benefit without payment. Looks like a touch of the old enlightened self- interest from our friends in the RIBA. RIBA insecond SAC conference volte-face The January Council meeting of the RIBA reversed its earlier decision and voted to send an official RIBA delegation to the Schools of Architecture Conference after al, inthelatestinstallmentofthiswillthey/ won't they cliffhanger. By the time Slate 5S had gone to press the rapidly changing situation concerning the RIBA/SAC Conference on education had altered in that the RIBA withdrew its off- icial report, but yet again the RIBA’s pen- dulum swung the other way. The background to this turn-around was that SAC(or at least its chairman Tom Markus) expressed the view that the RIBA had lost faith in SAC and was cold should- ering the Conference, because of its with- drawal. Inasurprisingly liberally-toned statement to Council, Gordon Graham explained that the RIBA had withdrawn because of misgivings about the organisa- tion of the conference, and that he would like to have seen a wider representation of views, even to the extreme of inviting NAM(shock, horror), adding that their withdrawal from the conference was in no way a condemnation of it. One would SLATE 6PAGE 4 ARCUK’s callousness aroused shock reactions among architects, who wrote in their scores registering their disapp roval. Eventually ARCUK Registrar Kenneth Forder said that the offending shares had been sold because they showed a good quick profit on the Stock Exchange. Yet the surrounding events make such a cosy account of the reasons for sale somewhat improbable. For just before Forder’s announcement the RIBA President Gordon Graham revealed that the Institute had sold its shares in South Africa. The RIBA does not appear to have evenattemptedtocoveritsactions with a smokescreen of philanthropy - and even if it had done no-one would } have believed it. For on what seems ! to have been the same day as the i Institute said it would sel its South African shares and examine its invest- ment portfolio, the Nigerian Gove ment announced that it would take a dim view of construction interests with political involvements with which it does not approve. Nigeria is of course to be the location of the next Arab-type construction boom, and al self-respecting speculating interests -including, itwould appear, the RIBA -got the message long ago that it was likely to generate more construction royalties than South Africa in the foreseeable future. Henceforth, the Nigerian Government has made it plain, it is calling the tunes for European construction interests to dance to. It does not appear unlikely that ARCUK as well as the RIBA (and thanks, maybe, to a tip-off?) got the message that, far from investments in South Africa being goodfinancialsense,theycouldturn out to be just the opposite. But where as the decision to buy shares appears to need ARCUK Council approval, the decision to sel can, apparently, be made by the Registrar. Constitutional? There is no doubt that a large number of architects were surprised to find ARCUK buying shares at al, let alone in South Africa. Why, they asked them selves, should a registration body specu late on the Stock Exchange with their money? And a large question mark looms over the involvement of the new Registrar Kenneth Forder in the whole affair. As if having been a magistrate in Rhodesia does not sufficiently discredit his credentials for the ARCUK job in the first place -not to mention suggest a personal disposition towards the South Africa affair - he seems to have been caught with his trousers down in the political climate in Southern Africa and Vorster’s continuing relentless handling of internal political dissent. Indeed, so well are South African shares doing that it is said that, rather than selling, stockbrokers Hill Samuel actually advised the RIBA to invest more in South Africa only a matter of a week before the Nigerian Government put paid to al that. The Financial Times Wee JUSTRIALS—Continued It fed Dt! eres “| Xe ARCUK and s. Africa the unanswered questions Whilst it appears that Mr Forder has attempted to gloss over this remark in private, he does not appear to have attempted to redress it in public. Which rather implies that he stil agrees with it. One savage irony of the affair is that, by and large, South African investments are indeed showing well on the Stock Exchange, due to the improvement 140 17,0] 29] 69 | 37 460 2 42/77 |% 6 3.8)13.7] 19] 43 | 30 3 3,614.0] 20] 36 | 2% a3 O.8)1 85/144 | 68 220 35{18) 24] S72] 33 Oe Va DEMOCRATIC DESIGN A New Role for the Local Authority Architect? CONFERENCE Birmingham May 6th 1978 ane ARCUK may havesolditscon- troversial shares in South Africa, but several consequential issues remain unresolved. The story so far: at the last meeting of ARCUK the unattached representa- tives were horrified to find, in the financial small print, the proposal that the Council should buy £158.10p worth of shares in Consolidated Gold Fields, a firm celebrated for bringing the prac- tice of ‘separate development’ to unfor- seen depths. The unattached group sought to Oppose the proposal on moral grounds, but were astonished to find their motion defeated by 26 to 7, with 13 abstentions. ARCUK Council members made it plain in debate that they con- sidered sound business sense beyond moral considerations.(See Slate 5 for a fuller report. - How can the local authority architectural worker influence office policy? -Is the present pervasive sense of remote- ness and powerlessness inevitable? -Are local authority architects’ departments second-rate versions of private practice? -Are building work departments similarly pale counterparts of the private sector? -Where do these ideas come from and why do they presist? What is the evidence? -Are local authorities apotentially radical structure through which architects can work for the public interest? - What personal experience of directly working to briefs prepared by local organisations can public architects share? -What new structures and methods of work should be considered? These are some of the questions which we will be consideringat the first NAM Public Design Service conference in Vay. For further information and application forms write to: s. | 53 - il SOUTHAFRICANS Ba 105 = | 47} 30, 370 1.3) 46] s9%| se? 107 t162.805|64 203 10. S| 47 |2 50 22/140) 3.2145 [iC “a 3.4) 67] 44] 62 SD I. 14145] 49/171 109 72 187 TEXTILES [12 1st Scene of SLATE'S first experience of censorship — NAM'’s stand at last November's Interbuild exhibition picture, John Allan \AlliedTextile| 67 28|2341201 © *rhine Per 7 VSNIEWS The Secretary PDS Group NAM 9 Poland St London W1 SLATE 6PAGE 5 NEWSNEWSNEWSNEWS] SNEWS ONE have thought that any Schools of Archi- tecture Council that valued independence would have jumped at this chance todis- cuss education freely, but the SAC-primed council members and RIBA education hardliners moved that the RIBA send an official delegation and only the two student members voted against. So the slim chance of a wide-ranging and uninhibited discussion at this important conference disappeared. In fact, judging by by SAC’s attitude to the issue from the outset, it was never there at al. Over remarks in a trade press interview before he even took office. Mr Forder said he thought the un- attached architects ‘misguided’ in their attempt to attack the decision to buy. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of his comment (on which further comment isunnecessary) and his credentials at the time to judge the issue at al, the question was quickly picked up as to precisely what right he had to pass opinion on the matter in his profess— ional capacity whatever, After al Mr Forder is paid to serve the wishes of the Council. His job will prove rather difficult - or he will find it rather difficult to do his job - if he intends to enter into controversies within the profession. Sez The RIBA The RIBA’s education policy is formulated by its Education and Practice Committee (EPEC). This committee of seventeen people, which includes five heads of schools and two students, receives reports, papers and representations from individuals, special conferences (such as Oxford in 1958) and from theteneducationalcommittees responsible to EPEC. These committees cover the Visiting Board, the pattern of courses, practical training and Part 3, European Affairs and Research Steering. There is also an EPEC Steering Committee which (presumably) decides thegeneraldirectionof EPEC’s policy. This is made up of six people; Wells-Thorpe (Chairman of EPEC), Kenneth Campbell, Andrew Derbyshire (of advertising and monopolies fame), Bob Maguire (well-known architect and headofOxford Polyschool),Tom Markus (Chairman of SAC and head of Strathclyde school), Ken Martin (head of Liverpool Poly school). Recommendations from EPEC go to Council where, if agreed, become policy, and are put into effect by EPEC and its committees. The visiting board and the pattern of courses are the most important of the EPEC committees. The latter advises on the changes and addition to existing courses or totally new courses and decides if the RIBA is to recognise these. It is made up of the EPEC steering committee plus two members of ARCUK’s Board of Education (also RIBA members). The visiting board is a pool of twenty or so RIBA members, six of whom visiteachschooleveryfive years (and, increasingly, every two years after for a ‘checkup’). One of the six is from the region in which SLATE 6PAGE 6 the school issituated, one represents ARCUK and a school can request a student member too. At the school theyinspectwork,talktothehead, staff and students and snoop around generally. The end result is a corporate view of the board in the form of aconfidential report to the head of school, which makes recommendations on standards and conditions, and a recommendation to theRIBAonwhetherrecognition should be continued or not. The visiting board holds the same power over existing courses as the pattern of courses holds over new. or altered ones. Apart from recommendations, their weapon is the refusal to recognise a course. RIBA recognitionmeansthatacoursegives exemption from the RiBA’s Part I and Part Il examinations which have to be passed in order to take Part Il and become an ARCUK-registered architect. As an unrecognised course isprettyuselessintermsof‘entry into the profession’, by withdrawing recognition from a school or threatening to do this the RIBA can force the school to alter its course or face closure, although some schools (Hull, for instance) have resisted this pressure and survived to be returned to the f6ld. Limits to control The RIBA’s control is, however, strictly limited to some extent by the strength of the educational institutions. For instance, if the RIBA were to withdraw recognition from, or recommend a reduction of intake to, a university course it would be jumped on by the University Grants Council and university authorities, as any reduction innumberswouldreducethemoney going into the university and cause redundancies among the staff. The RIBA has been known to capitulate under such circumstances. But outside these restrictions by large institutions, the RIBA thas fairly comprehensive control. It argues thatinfactitsstandardsareeasily reached by the schools, and that outside the standards issue the school has a free hand. The point is, however, that the RIBA’s standards, due to its restricted view of the architects’ profession, are not necessarily those which are to the good of the profession orthecommunity asawhole. Further, upholding the RIBA’s standards can infer changes of anything from intake policy, to course content, to final examinations. It is, however, worth noting that because theRIBA’sreportisconfidentialitis easy for a school to blame the RIBA for restricting courses when it is in fact due to the school’s (or its head’s) lack of commitment. The RIBA policy Among present RIBA concerns the ‘size of the profession’ study is probably of most import and concern to radicals and educators. This study was written by Kenneth Campbell and Suggests various ways of reducing the size of the profession by reducing the numbers in education. These include ‘culling’ (ie booting out) after Part Iby imposing stricter standards for entry to Part I. This would leave students with a useless first degree, but was supported by RIBA regions and, although initially rejected by the RIBA, is rumoured soon to be put into effect by some schools. Tougher standards to be introduced by visiting boards and closer control of education by the RIBA were also proposed and supported by the Regions. The effect ofthisoneducationinprogressive courses in particluar is obvious, and althoughtheRIBAhasnotactedonthis as yet, stil stands as a proposal. The one proposal suggested by the RIBA and already put into effect by the Strathclyde school (Tom Markus) is to reduce the numbers entering schools from the sixth form. Without going into any detail, any reduction in numbers has seriousimplicationsforeducation.Itwill mean the sacking of staff and reduction of resources available to schools, probably the withdrawal of recognition from and closure of the more radical and interesting schools, and give the RIBA greater control over the content of courses. The overall effect will be to limit the rangeandchoiceof educati ilabl to students, and an even more select elite actually becoming architects. This demonstrates the RIBA’s blinkered approach to education, in that rather than attempt to expand the roleofthearchitectintomoresocially us¢ful areas, it merely seeks to reduce numbers, ostensibly to protect the salaried architect, but in tact to preserve the status and position of the principal. ARCUK and SAC The Architects’ Registration Council of the UK and the Schoolosf Architecture Conference are the other two bodies concerned with architectural education. SAC isabody set up seven years ago to offer a corporate view of the schools of architecture regarding educational policy. Itismade upofone representative of the students, one of the staff and the head of each of the thirty-eight schools, with an executive of seven members of each group (staff, students, heads). Itholdsannualconferencesand regional meetings. SACpridesitselfonitsdemocratic nature, theoretically representing staff, students and heads equally. In practice it does not quite work out like that, as there isatendency for staff to vote with their head of school (job security before principles!), for students to be disorganised and somewhat inarticulate, andfortheheadsofschooltohave somewhat greater influence within the RIBA due to their presence on EPEC and council. SAC has had a stormy relationship with the RIBA despite the heads’ influence. At the 1976 conference the students proposed that SAC should b a i ber ofARCUK and commit itself to returning control of education to that body. This was narrowly defeated, but it was agreed to set up a working party to investigate the education implications of the RIBA/ ARCUK setup. Unfortunately, the students have become noticeably less radical since then and the issue has dribbled away. A severe dent to the SAC’s credibilty came when despite the student body’s rejectionof the RIBA’s offer of representation on the visiting board, none of the SAC members said a word when the RIBA decided to find its own students by Screening and interviews. ARCUK, in the form of its Board of Education, ismerely arubber stamp for _the RIBA’s education policy. The situation is so farcical that the visiting board's pool of RIBA members “also includes members of ARCUK”(quote from EPEC document). So members who represented the RIBA on one visiting board can, as necessary, represent ARCUK on the next. To quote fror’ the SAC working party report previously mentioned (by John Frazer) “it isclear that the delegation of responsibility for architectural education from ARCUK to the RIBA was in defiance of the Architects’ Registration Acts. Itiscertainly oh andpossiblyinbreachofthelaw. jaw”. Action forNAM and individuals Ona political level, NAM’s strategy of seeking to achieve control of the profession by a democratic ARCUK obviously encompasses education. But asyetNAM hasnoalternativeeducation policy to offer as a co-ordinator of opposition to existing forms of education. This has been exposed by frantic efforts to organise some response to the forthcoming SAC conference, which has shown thata rational policy can only be achicved by research into the motivesandreasonsbehindourpresent system, resulting in a coherent programme and plan of action. This must be considered the first priority of the education group. For individuals, it is worth rememberingthatyoucanfindout your SAC reps are and let them know your opinions, If there is no SAC rep, and no established from of electing one. organise representation through any school society that exists or, at worst, call yourself the SAC rep and let the EDUCATING ARCHIE CONTACTS NAM Education Group: Hugo Hinsley 01 251 0274 RIBA Student reps: Judi Loach, 25A Bolton Gdns, London SWS 01 373 2763 Dave Breakell, c/o 173 Lozells Rd, B'ham B19 1HS SAC (general): c/o Dept Architecture & Bldg Science, Strathclyde Univ, 131 Rottenrow, Glasgow G4 ONE 041 552 4400 x3001 SAC (students): Alastair Metcalfe, c/o Scholl of Environmental Studies, University College, London WC1 SLATE 6PAGE 7 EDUCATION SPECIAL The RIBA’s control over architectural education has become increasingly important since the late fifties because entry to the profession is almost exclusively through schools of architecture, enabling the RIBA to monitor intake, standards and the content of courses. At the Hull Congress the NAM education workshop expressed concern that there is ignorance amongst students and some staff as to the means by which the RIBA controls education, how itarrives at educational policy, other bodies involved in architectural education and how grass roots opinion can be voiced. This brief guide isby DAVE BREAKELL, student representative on the RIBA Council. (HOW THE RIBACONTROLS EDUCATION The RIBA has no explicit education policy as such. Its policy is made upof al the papers, etc, that have been set over the years, plus educational aspects of the RIBA’s general position, such as maintenance of the traditional concept of professionalism, of the hierarchical profession and continuing thepolicyof high academic qualifications for entry. Elizabeth Layton, head of the RIBA’s Education Department and advisor to EPEC, has the most comprehensive knowledge of RIBA education policy. This fact, allied to her intelligence and articulate debating ability, explains her considerable influence over EPEC in this area. The problems ofarchitectural education are often seen as either of ‘controlo’r ‘content’, an approach which results in attempts to reform one or other aspect The current squabble between the Schools of Architecture Council and the RIBA over the ‘Making of an Architect’ conference, which was outlined by Dave Breakell in Slate 5 (p.10), is important in that it serves to raise yet again the ‘education debate’ which is given a periodic airing at times of crisis or re- direction but is otherwise left to the internal ministrations of the RIBA, operation or boycott ifthere is support, or of asking the right questions and raising issues. The result of not organising is usually dead silence or the board delivering acomplete corporate lecture. It might be advisable to contact NAM or the RIBA student reps (who are sympathetic to NAM) to discuss issues. of the system. Here Hugo Hinsley, AA lecturer and member of Support argues that an analysis of every aspect of education is an essential starting point for any progress. of the present machinery of educational conditioning, It is the machinery we should examine, not the bickering. Structure The issue of education is inextricably linked with the beginnings and growth of the profession. It is vital to anew profession, in establishing credibility in society, and thus a privileged position for its members, to control entry into the profession and to set up an academic respectability for its field of activity. holding examinations (if it so chooses) or of recognising other examinations it thinks fit. In spite of a long struggle before the 1931 Registration Act, the RIBA did not succeed in persuading parliament that it should be the regist- ration body or that the practice of arch- itecture should be protected - the Act only protected the title ‘registered arch- itect’, later broadened to ‘architect’. However, the RIBA successfully circum— vented this failing by dominating the structure of ARCUK, to the extent that ‘unattached’ representatives on ARCUK, is the balance being redressed. It is interesting that there is now a ‘trong lobby in the RIBA for handing back the administration of education to ARCUK, as it costs around £40,000 a year. This shows partly how confident some in the RIBA are of being able to manipulate ARCUK, and partly how vulnerable RIBA feels to complaints from the mem— bership about ‘exemption fees’. These are paid by those joining RIBA and go towards its education budget. Those who register with ARCUK but ignore RIBA, as many younger architects are doing, pay only the registration fee One of ARCUK’s great weaknesses has always been that, though it is the stat— utory body, it has generated no finance to fulfill its obligations, preferring to leave them to RIBA. If ARCUK is to take on its responsibilities it will have to change, and NAM must keep up the pressure to make it an accountable and representative body. It is perhaps too cynical to say that ‘the RIBA is not interested in education and its activities in the field of education are a quest for status, both economic and academic status’ — but it is clear that the RIBA’s interest has not been impartial and has had a stultifying effect. The proposed York Conference into an elitist profession and to build up its model of a standardised, techno— cratic and stratified training process. By the time of the Cambridge Con- ference in 1970 the RIBA was confident enough to demand a ‘concentration of courses’ and the rationalisation of teaching into a few ‘large multi-discip- linary centres’ — and to flex its muscles over the ‘recognition’ of schools. Though having no statutory powers, the RIBA could effectively close a school by withdrawing ‘recognition’ of its exam- inations and so remove its sources of financial support. Between 1962 and 1970 the number of schools offering courses in architecture fel from 64 to 44, and most of the part-time courses were crushed. In the summer of 1971 the RIBA attempted, not entirely successfully, to close 5 more ‘unrecog— nised’ schools. York conference The ideas being floated for the York Conference this year, the 20th anniver- sary of Oxford, may continue the erosion of diversity, freedom and relevance to architectural education. There will be strong emphasis on the need for technology and scientific method, and a powerful lobby to remove the vocational first-degree course in preference for a general academic course, ollowed by a post-graduate course with a ocational and professional bias. “This rrangement would suit both major parties. twould give the schools the academic free- BCIAL kers even further and to continue the de- skilling of architectural production. Oxford established the sub-species of technicians or assistants -those who did not clear the hurdle of A level entry -and set up the architect as ‘team leader’ figure, though without consulting the other skills in the team. Now there are those who would like to see a master race of PhD architects se- lected (one wonders by whom) after Part 1, leaving a middle area of generalised “Bach- elors of the Environment’ who will, no doubt, make ideal bureaucracy fodder. This is a grotesquely limiting view of ed- ucation and of the role of those with archi- tectural skills in our society, but it is a natural step in the entrenchment of the profession. Even this brief synopsis of the ‘education debate’ shows that education isnot aperipheral issue but has avery central position. It is of fundamental con- cern to NAM, being the starting point of the present system for the production of architectural workers and for the definition of their status. We need to question not just the furm, content and administration of education, but also the assumed role of the profession. Neither education nor the structure of the profession nor the design and product- ion of buildings can be seen in abstract; they are al effected by the social, political and economic framework of our society, and a part of education is to consider and question this framework. Education is not just the imparting of skills and techniques in a supposedly neu- tral form. Whether or not there is a con- scious intention, education is also about Although the preconceptions exposed by this squabble should be looked at in detail and challenged by al people con— cerned about the production of architects The young RIBA first introduced an exam- many architects, let alone thegeneral dom and status they seek and provide the RIBA with a way of limiting entry to the _ forming and testing values and ideas. This in our society, this must not be allowed ination in 1882%‘ according to a standard to divert our attention and energies from to be fixed from time to time by the a more fundamental debate. The bickering Council” It is ARCUK, established in we are seeing is between administrators 1931, that has the statutory duty of public, have assumed that RIBA is a professional qualification rather than a gentleman's club. Only recently, through the efforts of NAM members as NEXT DAY AT THE RIBA srofession by restricting entry to the post- yraduate courses.’ The effect of such pro- yosals will be to stratify architectural wor- can be an attempt at social conditioning or it can aim to develop the tools for quest- ioning and change that are relevant to a ARCHIE TEKT|\ Everything okniger| LATER... so uniting EADLC ; How To PINKO (DGALIST RuppisH. (Give FLEECE BY a.TeKT): can be seen as the next step in controlling the education machine and thus the profession. A major break- through for RIBA was the Oxford Conference of 1958 which established the two A-level minimum standard for students, the dominance of full-time university courses and the run-down of part-time vocational courses. The RIBA sought to use education as a hurdle for 1978 EDUCATION school know (and therefore raise objections). SAC exists to represent grass roots opinion. If a visiting board is visiting your school, it will hold a meeting between itself and students alone. It is essential for students to prepare a strategy in advance, either one of non co- WHAT THE EDUCATION DEBATE’S ABOUT .togetherness... close commercial built with domestic social Gor iT T .\ LECTURE created a homes romaine TODAY SLATE 6PAGES SLATE 6PAGE 9 , ee wider analysis of the society we live and work in. It is not surprising that a profess- ional institution which has managed to attain effective control over education will have a strong bias towards the former of these two approaches. However, there are examples of schools, or parts of schools, which see their respon- sibilities as not just training for profession- al status but as providing education in its broadest sense. They have developed con- tacts with the world outside their doors and attempted to locate their work and their learning in a real-life context, and some have achieved alevel of socially responsible and accountable work. In Hurley and Metcalfe’s article “Appropriate social architecture as a radical alternative to normal professional practice are concern- ed at the RIBA’s swift move to en capsul- ate the field, anda critical analysis of the ‘community architecture’ bandwagon by Tom Woolley was featured in SLATE 2. A meeting of teachers and students at Glouc- ester to share experiences of new ways of working (reported in SLATE 5 page 5) has sent astatement to the RIBA Community Architecture Working Group resisting any attempt to ‘impose or even suggest a uni- tary approach to this, or any other, aspect of architectural education.........so called Community Architecture should not just become another subject in the curriculum. This would be to misunderstand the nature of the radical commitment required’. WHY ALTERNATIVES CAN'T COME FROM THE SCHOOLS Slater now worse than Scorpio! Dear Sir, Since inaccuracy, or at least blind bias, isthestuffofpolemics,Idonotexpect stories in The Slater to be correct, neither I suspect, do your readers. However, for the record, Iwould be glad ifyou would allow me to comment on your story “Tassgirl”’ (Slate 5) concern- ing Building Design’s refusal to carry an advertising brochure from BDS TASS. The BD advertising manager did not “String” BDS TASS along, nor did he say “no”, Thetruestory isasfollows: Itisa rigidly held po icy of mine that no advert- 6th March PUBLIC SECTOR ARCHITECTS FACE REDUNDANCIES -Members of the GLC Architects Department talk about the attempts by the new Tory Administration to devolve their responsibilities to the p private sector and to other local authorities in the GLC area. The demantling of the housing, architects and direct labour departments of the GLC may be the pattern other Tory authorities will follow after the May elections. 6.30 at 36, Bedford Square, London W1 One way for ‘progressi’n Architectural education which has been widely mooted is the inclusion of ‘community architectureo’n the curriculum. In this article Jim Lowe, who has experience of community projects in schools, outlines the problems of such departures from a political and an organisational point of view. | have without defining the term munity Architecture” attempted to look at the problems involved in engaging in any form of radical alternative within architecturaleducation. Thereisageneral confusion as to what is implied by Community Architecture’? — everyone has their own definition. I am certainly confusedastoexactlywhatismeantby the term, as this article may reflect. The article by Metcalf and Hurley(1) gives the only review of the current situation within architectural education. Certainly it illuminates the scale and diversity of involvement It is generally assumed that in any discussion centred around radical alternatives that the schools of architecture are actually suited to attempt this. But, Isuggest, it is important that we start by first questioning this basic assumption. Most documented projects appear to be concerned with helping the working class — the inhabitants of threatened inner urban areas, the housing poor, those denied help through lack of finance. Macdonald (2) Ifeel rightly questions whether the schools of architecture wich are middle-class SLATE 6PAGE 10 participate in the past may question why bother doing itnow. This general dissat- isfaction with modern architecture and participatory exercises is never going to be expressed in a call for changes in our institutions — changes come from within. Istipulated that if the offending leaflet was overprinted with an explanation we would send itout. However, TASS were All day, Birmingham. Detail from the Secretary, PDS Group, NAM, 9 Poland Street, London WI 8th May NAM London Group Meeting: THE ARCHITECTURAL PRESS 6.30 at 36, Bedford Square, London WI All events open to anyone to attend, unless otherwise indicated. UNPUBLISHED ARTICLES The following articles have been received by the editors but have not been included for lack of space. The editors appologise to the authors of the various pieces: ARTICLE ON THE ARCHITECTURAL PROFESSION AND EDUCATION IN HOLLAND ARCTICLE ON NAM HULL GROUP FIRST ARTICLE IN THE SERIES ON URBAN HISTORY ‘SLATE 6 PAGE 11 institutions, certainly in terms of intake and will continue to be so, are at at all able or equipped to form any lasting relationship with the working-class. He continuesbyadvocatingthatcoursesin timeandnothavingbeenexpectedto 6th May NAM PUBLIC DESIGN SERVICE CONFERENCE: A MAJOR CONFERENCE TOWARDS A NEW ROLE FOR LOCAL AUTHORITY craft subjects and environmental education based in the inner city schools may perhaps be more likely to produce radical alternatives. I would also suggest the Workers Educational Association, which is sadly neglected, as another organisation that could provide the basis for community work. This would bye-pass the middle-class institutions. Therefore, for most students who do wish to involve themselves in radical alternatives Isee no reason why they must be carried out ina School of Architecture. The act of committment to the client is the proof offaithinaradicalalternative-not looking to see how it can be manipulated into is the educational value, in every way the you are dealing with. They won't be sympathetic and won't be prepared to read anything, they want to glance at drawings. It is not good getting angry about this. The system is there and you have to present work to it.” (3) Students who seek radical alternatives will have to draw up their own guidelines and establish the level of their i and commitment to their ‘clients’. Visit other groups involved in attempting radical alternatives in architecture — changes are possible, The following points were agreed bythe“Community Architecture”in Sthools of Architecture meeting held in Gloucester December 1977. 1.Community Architectureisaterm which increasingly signifies for many the institutionalisation of radical activity in architectural practice. . The RIBA should not impose or even suggest a unitary approach to this, or any other, aspect of architectural education. Diversity and flexibility for each school to respond in its won own situation is imperative. So oalled community architecture should not just become another subject in the curriculum. This would be to misunderstand the nature of the radical commitment required. continued on p15 unable to comply in the time So there!. Peter Murray. ditor. : Building Design. READING URBAN HISTORY availabl into the architectural course programme. Even though the academic institutions seemideallyplacedtoofferaserviceto community groups their timescale does not respect the needs of those groups — residents meetings, planning meetings still have to be attended despite long academic vacations. Involvement cannot end with the arrival of the end of the academic year. When the students move off, the ‘clients’ are always left to carry on. This continuity is perhaps the major difficulty facing the schools providing such a service to community groups. ‘live situation’ is a more valid and rewarding way of learning. If then, schools are to provideaservice,andIamstilluncertain in my own mind whether or not they should, let us look at the schools. The greatest obstacle to students wishing to carry out community projects are the schools of architecture themselves and the attitudes taken by a majority of the staff towards any form of radical alternative Most schools are so bureaucratic and courses so tightly structured as to make it impossible for students to engage in any community project work. Students generally have little SLATE 7 sees the start of an important new series of articles by John Murray on Urban History, which traces the evolution of theories of urban development since the early nineteenth century. This essentially teoretical series, which takes the form of a comentary on the work of various authors, will be accompanied by a book list, so that readers can follow the development of the ideas and arguments in the original texts. Architects along with the planners, public OF no say in their education. They have no health officers and engineers have been knocked off their pedestal, they have failed to provide the City beautiful and good. The dissatisfaction with modern architecture has led to the call for greater participation. Yet it should be remembered that people do not expect to be consulted and feel choice in selecting projects — when they undertake certain types of projects, the nature of those projects and their duration. Therefore, the structure and programming of courses within schools must be questioned. Flexibility and diversity is important in order that the educational programme can respond to the needs of the inadequate when faced with professionalism. Most people are unfamiliar with the idea of questioning planning decisions. They, like studentsar,e participating for the first there are problems. This is reflected in Tom Wooley’s advice to his student present- -ing his work for assessment within the relative freedom of the AA’s ‘units’ system. “..... in addition the work you do will often have to be re-presented for your AA portfolio. Other people who assess it will oftenbemoreignorantthanthelaypeople ratherthanaE DesignStaff. ARCHITECTS’ So far Ihave questioned the role of the institution and it may appear that I do not favour the involvement of the schools. If some schools are to encourage students to provide a service to community groups and there is a genuine involvement in radical alternatives then those schools will have to changetoallowthis.WhatIdonotquestion student at any time. Students must have a greater freedom in directing their own education. It is too casy to lay the blame on CNAA or university regulations for not allowing change. Itherefore would argue that for those students, and it is usually only a few, who wish to become involved in radical alternatives, then it is the schools that must allow them the opportunity to do so. This work must be seen and treated as a legitimate part of an architectural course. Further pressure is put on, particularly final year students, by the staff to undertake the ‘traditional’ complex design project asking where is the ‘architectural’ or ‘design content’ in community projects. The entrepencurial nature of architecture is rejected by many students who seek radical alternatives, and yet this right is denied them by the staff. There is too oftenafailuretostafftounderstandthe aspirations of students and to motivate them. Those who seek radical alternatives are too often penalised. This work must first be encouraged by the staff and schools and treated by RIBA visiting boards and external examiners as a legitimate basis for individual projects. If we consider that 80% of the built environment isresidential how many courses in architecture respond to the needs of that statistic or to the needs ofthecommunities? NAM London Group Meeting: Even where the school is structured to allow involvement in community projects} ising matter should appear in the paper MONTHLY MEETING 6.30 at 9 Poland Street, London WI 14th March AUEW/TASS London Building Design Staff Branch Meeting. PROFESSIONALISM? - A talk by guest speaker Anne Delaney 6.30 at PCLSU, 108 Bolsover Street, London WI 10th April NAM London Group Meeting: THE MONOPOLIES COMMISSION REPORT - AN END TO ARCHITECTURE AS WE NOW KNOW IT? 6.30 at 36, Bedford Square, London WI which the reader might confuse as editor- ial, and it was Iwho insisted that we should not mail the particular leaflet that BDS TASS had produced because of the way itwas designed. Since our names are similar, the circular looked as though it came from Building Design newspaper 7th March ~==NAM Feminist and Architecture Group. EDUCATION SPECIAL Education’ they quote their survey which revealed that 5 of the 38 schools operated some form of ‘community design’ live pro- ject work. One of their conclusions is that ‘to sustain the practice of social architect- ure and achieve appropriate confidence, education must include projects which are real, live and socially committed’. The RIBA has picked up some sense of these develop- ments and has adopted the term *commun- ity architecture’ to cover such activities in schools and in practice. Recognising a growth area, the RIBA has been eager to explore and define ‘communityarchitect- ure’ and to see it as an option among any architect’s polychrome skills. Those in the schools and in practice who are developing Organisers wishing to advertise their events in SLATE please note that due to printing and distribution schedule, events should be notified to the editorial committee three months inadvance ifpossible. \ WRITE TO SLATE‘, 9,POLAND ST, LONDON, W1. a Ss) 1 Councd regret that, ow: a areadanag Cockburn, published by Pluto Press paperback£2.95 royed’ bureacracy and the community, it is employedbytheStatetoreinforcethe particular social fabric that underpins moderncapitalism.Sheshowsinthefollow- ing extract how the widespread notion that ‘small isgood’ weakens the potential of community action for structural change: vate “There isin the idea of Community Action the idea of smallness up against big- ness. We are asked to think of the David of the small council estate taking on the Goliath of the town hall. ‘Small is beaut- iful’.Itisanimage which totallyrulesout the reality of class struggle in which huge and powerful forces are ranged against each other, not momentarily, but over centuries"” This book has arrived at a timely moment: We see a resurgence of interest in local democracy. Perhaps this has been precip- itated by an awareness that the local state has, in urban areas, failed in it’s allotted task of providing the essential facilities of housing, health, child-care etc. and how this failure has been compounded by a silent acceptance of cuts in government spending. Ifever you saw your local auth- ority as a model for the decentralised soc- ialist state that we're al working for then ‘The Local State’ is an eye-opener. It poses 2 questions that SLATE readers will need to confront: 1. Is the local authority Architects Department theembryo ofanation- alised or socialised design industry oris it the unwitting servant of the State ? eS ‘THELOCALSTATE’byCynthiafrombridgingthegulfbetweenthe‘newimp- London BDS branch of TASS got to hear about the project and their immediate reaction to the proposition was to ask whether the workers in the design con- sultancies concerned are unionised. No replies yet, but suspicions are that they are not. Will the Labour movement set aside its traditions of solidarity and dip its hand in its pocket to buy bricks, and pay the fees associated with them to non- unionised firms? The London BDS branch of TASS hopes not and would like to hear from any other trade unionists who feel as they do. WEALTHY Ifeel sorry for RIBA president Gordon Graham -he doesn’t get paid for his four-days-a-week stint at Portland Place. But Isuppose there issome consolation for him in that he can stil afford a chauffeur-driven Mercedes for that tedious drive back to his Leicestershire- based practice. Judging by the amounts of gin and tonic he gets through, he needs it. PRICEY Andreas Papadakis, entrepreneur-peddlar of architectural gobbledigook, has just launched the architectural glossy to end all glossies. Architectural Monographs, it’s called. Readers who are about to reach for their cheque books to sign away twenty- four pounds to Mr Papadakis for a four- issues subscription, might spare a thought for the fact that that little fortune would get them copies of SLATE delivered to -heir breakfast tables for the next TWELVE YEARS! Cheques payable to ‘SLATE’ please. | SS eaetie re a Rupertissingle,black,38yearsold.Hehas Hl 4 just successfully concluded aone-man picket outside Lambeth’s Rates Office. The Borough had refused to recognise Rupert’s living situation -ahouse shared with other single people, and had continually sent the rates demands for the whole house in his name. Holding aplacard saying““THE COUNCIL ISRUN BY FASCISTS’ and after 6 cold days of being gazed at by bemused passers-by and various officials they agreed to his demands (though not to his analysis of the political leanings of council officials), and sent separate rates bills. Rupert had realised that after letters and representations through very friendly councillors, that direct action was the only language that was understood. He had ques- tioned the inaccessibility of the modern local authority. Cynthia Cockburn’s ‘THE LOCAL STATE?’ looks past the baroque portals of Lambeth Town Hall and precisely enquires as to the nature and origin of that inaccess’- ibility. She concentrates on two movements that have transformed local authorities since the late sixties; Corporate Management and Community Development. Lambeth adopted new management techniques dur- in a spell under the tories and began to streamline it’s hitherto fragmented organ- isation. It started to measure its ‘effective- ness’by the the same means as would a large corporate business. The number of committees was reduced from 17 to 11 and they were interwoven into a tight unitary form that would be capable of integrated ‘intelligent’ behaviour. The author con- tends that these changes were promoted by central government committees ex- pressly in order to bind local authorities to the implementation of centralised policy. She then turns her attention to Commun- ity Development’ and describes how, far the offices of power: local or central ? Building design professionals in the public sector have emerged from the same educa- tional and class background as have the planning officials, corporate managers and public clients they deal with in their pro- London’s sunny Walworth Road- see the equally tasteful architect’s perspective above. Apart from the architectural merit of the project, on which this column would not presume ajudgement, one or two other questions spring to mind, the first of which is the siting of this monu- . By initiating or participating in community-based projects on the lines descibed in SLATE 2 are we merely helping to mould society into a form that is easily controlled and manipulated by central govern- ment; Do we thereby make the impl- ementation of state policy smoother by employing our professional status to‘legitimise’thesepolicies? OFFICIALDOM SACRILEGE | fessional life. Although they may squabble over planning apllications, regulations etc. Readers of the Association of Official Architects’ newsletter ‘Public Eye’ were treated to no-holds-barred attack on journalist Anne Karpf as they flicked through the pages of the paper’s December issue. Ms Karpf’s offence? She had the THE INCORRUPTIBLE— The RIBA bookshop seems to have a closed door to certain publications. Asked recently if the New Architecture Calendar was for sale, bookshop supremo Ron McKie said ‘no, but I’ve got a copy that Hellman sent me personally, it’s very funny.’ When pressed that as it was funny shouldn’t the bookshop stock it, he replied with ‘why should the RIBA support a subversive organisation that seeks to overthrow it?’ Obviously the calendar didn’t subvert him. On another occasion one of the suave assistants, standing near the ‘radical’ section, was asked for a copy of Nick Wates’ The Battle for Tolmers Square, ‘I don’t think we've got it’, Well, were they going to get it? ‘No’ said the ass- istant, looking through shelves stacked with Charles(RIBA) McKean’s Fight Blight and the odd copy of Colin Ward’s Tenants Take Over, ‘there’s not much demand for that sort of thing.’ “Any practitioner interested in | there is little doubt that they share the temerity to write an article for the AJ on ment to the power of labour. Why is it to receiving an invitation, and anyone |NAME, |ADDRESS. theiralignmentintheprivatesector. Steel,SecretarySAC...” | If you would like to receive SLATE without joining NAM fil in the form below and send it together | Unfortunately, perhaps, for the SAC some NAM members took this at face value and wrote away. The result? - nothing. Absolute silence. Whilst the Slater appreciates that thiscoynesscouldhavebeencausedby the chaos into which the organisation oftheconferenceappearstohavedis- i d I :your please. SLATE 6PAGE 13 | NAME. |ADDRE SLATE 6PAGE 12 a | | predominant interests of this social democ- racyofours.This‘oneness’isparalleledby Pressure groups in Architecture in which shedevoted1100wordstoNAM and only 250 words to the poor old, unpro- nouncable AOA. Gross injustice, screams Public Eye, we have 700 members where- as that bunch of upstarts only number 100. For those who, in spite of Ms Karpf’s Stirling efforts on its behalf, have never heardoftheAOA,itisa(very)small trade union for a small number of local authorityarchitectswho considerthat NALGOistooleftwingforthem,and which lodges at the RIBA headquarters be in Walworth, easily two miles from the motherofparliaments?Doesthismean,as many people already suspect, that the Party is quite happy to let Westminster and Whitehall get on with the job of governing without any democratic inter- ference? Well, at least land down there is cheap, which isas well because part of the fundsfortheParty’schangeofstatusfrom lodger at Transport House to owner-occu- pierinWalworthisbeingraisedby appealingtolocallabour isationsto buy bricks. It was in this way that the wanting more information about the conferencepleasecontactGordon in Portland Place. And why was it so un- fairly neglected in the offending article? Probably because it is a particularly un- original and reactionary body, feeding on individualistic architects’ unthinking fear of trade unionism and looking suspiciously like a branch of the RIBA set up to counter the growth of any idea or action which might prove embarassing to the Institute’s establishment. In fact the only positive thing that the AOA appears to stand for ithas borrowed from the Salaried Architects’ Group in the RIBA (see elsewhere in Ms Karpf’s article), the idea that the employed architects should enjoy ful professional status. No doubt the little bit of NAM-bashing in Public Eye was inspired from elsewhere too. Full marks then to the AOA for boredom and to Anne Karpf and her editors for recognising it. OWNER OCCUPATION AL AP AY lla Architects Russell Diplock Associates Local Labour Party and Trade Union branches have recently been circulated with a brochure about the proposed new Party Headquarters to be tastefully carved fromadecayingRegencyTerraceon FootnotetotheSACaffair:whilethewill we/won’t we RIBA/SAC tie-up cliffhanger for the York conference is well detailed in this and the preceding isuue of SLATE, one interesting addendum follows from the press release announcing the conference which carried this footnote: REVIEW tocat autHority? nN mans with acheque/postal order (payable to the New Architecture Movement )for £2.00 to NAM at9, Poland Street, London W.1. We must ask ourselves whether it is necess- ary tostep down from our traditional bourgeois Stratum and identify more closely with the struggles that this stratum has, up to now, ignored. [it you would Tikefobe amember oftheNew Architecture Movement filintheTormbelowandsend? | it together with a cheque/postal order (payable to the New Architecture Movement) for £5.00( if | you're employed) or £2.00( if you're are student, claimant or OAP) to NAM at 9, Poland Street | London W.1. —-| SUBSCRIBE __NEWS FROM might be. As far as the review body w: concerned it was regarded as essential that it should represent consumer- as well as producer-interest. The draft proposals for the new fee arrange- ments centred on the principle that archit- ects should be remunerated on the basis of the amount of work they did ona project, rather than on the contract sum. Some members felt that the overall applic- action oftime-based charges to architects work implied that creativity is quantifiable, whereas, in fact, itisnot. The majority at Cardiff, however, agreed that a system that enabled the consumer to evaluate the amount of time spent on a job would be instrumental in dispelling some of the myths that clouded the production of designs and would improve the bargaining position of staff. An analogy was drawn between the proposed system and tendering procudures for building contracts: firms would quote for work on alabour, or democracy would not be enough. The The forum showed itself to be a very FIRST NAM QUARTERLY FORUM MEETS IN CARDIFF The highlights of the day were certainly the discussions on education and NAM’s eps in its involvement with the ies Commission The unattached architect-councillors on the Architects Registration Council of the UK (ARCUK) the great majority of whom are NAM mem- a response merely in terms of its legitimacy A stimulating debate on a mixed bag of topics resulted when NAM members met together in the Movement’s first quarterly overheads and profit basis. The ratios of forum at the end of last month. Held in Cardiff, the meeting attracted about thirty Tnembers from al over the country bers, had been successful in gaining an in- dependent voice in the forthcoming hear- ings with the Commission and had been called on to submit their suggestions for the body to be set up to review the pro- fessions fee arrangements and their pro- posals for what such new arrangements PDS GROUP DEFENDS LOCAL AUTHORITIES As the Hull Congress noted, Local Authority architecture departments and direct labour organisations (DLOs) have come under attack from the National Federation of Building Trades Employers (NFBTE) and the Tory Party. This may ave been the least popular resol- 1atHullasLocalAuthoritieshave been severely critiscised by NAM members las Tory Party members, albeit with itriol (notably Douglas Smith’s article in SLATE4) The Public Design Service group of tee that Local Authorities are idea that NAM’s best tactic at the present is to boycott the Conference met with general assent but some regrets, but the spectre of both the Conference and the RIBA’s persistent dabbling in “Community Architecture” had catalised the formation of a loose group of radicals in architectural therefore be not whether Local Authorities are desirable or not. but, what their potential is for change, and exactly how we would like them to be changed. The anti-Local Authority reaction is well known: Local Authorities are large bureaucratic institutions, interwoven with many similar institutions that abound in this country. However, history has shown that, as the lowest tier of government Local Authorities are susceptible to vigorous pressure from below, and are, indeed, more easily influenced than private industry and private professional practice (except by trade unionism). However much NAM members may at present differ on that point hopefully the form that an altered Local Authority system useful memium for the interchange of ideas, but most of al as an opportunity for members to come together on a Nation- al basis and reinforce the essential idea of the Movement as a whole. Attendance at the next Forum is stronly recommended to all, and is not restricted to members. and architects, the disbanding of architecture departments and DLO’s makes the objectives of accountability and control even further away. The fight for the architecture departments and DLO’s isabove alademocratic fight. It is a fight that is far from dormant, and it will certainly intensify at the time of the Local Authority elections in May. The PDS group therefore believes that NAM cannot sit back and just note the attacks,itmusttrytocounterthem. It Cannot just express support for the demo- cratic fight for the DLO’s. It’s support must be an active one. The first major step the NDS group is taking is the organisation of a conference (as mandated by Congress) in Birmingham on May 6th, to try and develop at least the potential for a joint action counter attack nature to become identified in Leeds with us. Four people in the group had initially met through their involyement in the renovation of the head quarters for the Red Ladder Theatre Company based in Leeds. (To be screened on BBC t.v.’s ‘Arena Theatre’ on 29th. March) , A third group has now formed as the LeedsbranchofTASS-BDS. After considerable effort in publicising the initial meeting, which included pushing leaflets around many private practices and even having leaflets inserted in the RIBA Yorkshire region monthly, there was a disappointing turnout which we feel was the result of only one of us actually working as an employee in a private practice (and that isin Hudders- field). Nevertheless Leeds now knows of BDS-TASS and our efforts may bear fruit in the future. * like *no politics here’ and *couldn’t you find something useful to do’. In most cases it was impossible to get to the staff without going through a principal or receptionist. these elements in the charge would indicate where good value lied. The sexism in architecture group has broadened considerably in interest and membershipsinceitsinitialmeeting. There TimeOutandAJ. isacollective feeling that the problems we should be looking at are more fundamental In debating education the meeting was clearly overshadowed by the forthcoming Schools of Architecture Conference (see elsewhere in this issue). Doubts were expressed over NAM’s capability to respond attempts are underway to reorganise. The tothiseventconstructively. TheConfer- Nottinghamgroupispresentlyveryactive encewastobeabouteducationpolicyand inarrangingtheforthcomingPublicDesign Future meetings will be advertised in ‘ ts of social control. But the grouphasalwaysheldthatLocalAuthorities shouldtakeislesscontentious. MostNAM amonglocalauthorityarchitecturalworkers, Now that we have two groups dealing with specific issues within the scope of NAM, the question arises, what is the role of the NAM local group? Do we publiciseNAMnationissues?Dowe create aforum fordebate on local issues or do we just continue in those with whichwearecurrentlypre-occupied? articlesonNAMactivities,bothnational intheArchitectsJournal19thOctober1977 are the main ,and often the only.structure through which the majority of people can exert demands and gain access to land financeandotherrescourcesnecessary Thedetailsofwhathasbeentermedthe totryandgiveformtotheconference, for their housing, health and education requirements. Indeed Douglas Smith pointed out that owner-occupation can only be made available to 50% of the population. The important thing to remember is that Local Authorities are not an arguable alternative in architecture but a necessity. The poini of contention must SLATE 6PAGE 14 National Design Service need a lot of working out of course, but it’s essential held-amongst NAM members. whilst in no way imposing a final outcome onit. At the same time it is hoped that sufficient numbers of local authority architectural workers will attend, to enable several more PDS groups to work jointly One initiative taken by the group to try and spread awareness of NAM’s existance was for each member to pur- chase and distribute two copies of SLATE. A further task undertaken was to visit many architectural offices in Leeds to try and obtain signatures for the petition against ARCUK investment in South Africa. This turned out to be arather fruitless task (apart from the and local. The problem stil remains, how- ever, of our lack of communication with the average conventional private practice. Further information for people in Leeds or anywhere in the North East can be ob- tained from: Norman Arnold 9 Midland Road Leeds 6 West Yorkshire p. 761-767 (2) R. MacDonald “Meaningful relationships with the Working Class” paper presented at ‘Community Architecturei”n Schools of Architecture Meeting Gloucester 10th December 1977 (3) T.Wooley “'Live Project Guidance Notes for Students” in paper presented at “Community : Architecture”inSchoolsofArchitectureMeeting Gloucester 10th December 1977 SLATE 6PAGE 15 members would think of, concepts such as accountability and user control, of ideas such as neighbourhood based design offices. tenants federations, appropriate trade unions and DLO’s. The group is discussing and investigating the issues as deeply as possible (1) G. Metcalf and Hurley “Appropriate Education” The reason that the PDS onded to the attacks on Local Authority architecture departments and DLO!s is that these attacks are in direct opposition totheseessentialprinciples. Thehiring education who are now meeting on a regular basis. The Meetingwelcomed the formation of this group, many of whose members are also in NAM and felt that NAM policy on‘education should be based on a thorough critiscism of the role of education in both the material and ideological aspects of the profession and should be worked out in cooperation with this new group. Oneof the other debates during the afternoon centred on the topic of union- The Leeds NAM group has been loosely in existance for about a year. It consists at present of seven members, although there are no formal membership requirements. Attendance at meetings tends to fluctuate and meeting dates have been erratic but we now try to get together on the first Tuesday of every month. Members of the group have avaried back- ground in private practice, employment on construction sites, involvement in ‘Women in Manual Trades’ ( formally ‘Women in Construction’), ARCUK Council, NAM Liason Group, design and construction work for theatre ity centres and ahousing co-op, landscape work and schools of architecture. * Some of these activities come under the umbrella of another informal organisation glibly labelled ARCAID. This group was reallythefore-runnertotheLeedsNAM group and consists mainly of NAM people. ARCAID helps grant aided organisations to finance, design and construct or refurbish accommodation for their use. Many of the projects evolved before ARCAID formed but subsequent adopt- being shown the door with comments ion of the name enables work of a similar than merely overt sexual descrimination in the profession, Rather they involve cruc-_ ially the relationship between architecture/ design and feminisma;n awareness that is not for women simply to slot into a male established profession, but rather to play their part critically, and with an under standing of themselves. Our first aim is to gather articles for a Slate 8 issue concentrating on Feminism and Architecture. So far, we have been considering the following aspects:- 1) women in education, conditioning and discrimination from school to college. 2) A feminist approach to design, an exploration of potential with reference to other and differently structured societies. 3) A historic understanding of the relationship between sex roles and building, in particular housing. 4) Women at work, discrimination in practice and the pressures of working in a male-dominated situation. Of the local groups, representatives came from Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham, Cardiff and from London, where strictly speaking,a local group scarcely exists but group has resp- after the conference. The support of and imput from other NAM members as usual will be essential. Dave Green, PDSGroup. February 1978. local authority offices), several of us Contact: Frances Bradshaw, 14 Duncan Terrace, London, N.1. Tel no. 278 5215. continued from| p11 On the subject of local issues, we feel that manyof us are already very active by actually working with grant-aided groups. Areas in which we will possibly become involvedcoversuchissuesaslocalhousing policies, local planning policies, the finance and organisation of building co- operatives, community facilities and tenants groups. Some work in the latter has already been done and we are in the process of drawing upa contact list of people on the remainder. Atpresentthegrouphasnoformal structure and no set policies. We appear to be of the collective opinion that import- ant issues will make themselves apparent given time and that we should not chase around ferreting out more than we could handle at this stage. We are at the same time systematically publicising NAM’s existence and policies on national issues. Leedsisfortunateinhavinganalternative fortnightly newspaper with awide circu- lation and it is intended to submit some 4. Those people who wish to engage in such activity must have the opport- -unity to do so. The development ofthisworkcanbeencouragedif Visiting Boards and External Examiners Examiners treat it both as a legitimate part of an architecture course and as REFERENCES a legitimate basis for individual projects. Local brances of the RIBA can support the work of schools, or at least not raise objections to schools offering servicestothecommunity. isation when some members critiscised NAM’s apparent policy to encourage the setting up ofspecialist Building DesignStaff(BDS) branchesinTASS. Theyregardedthis method as only a half-way-house to trade unionism, which they saw as an alliance of al workers, epitomised by the general branch. Other members, from the BDS branch in London, argued that themajor point of action for trades unionists was at the workplace and that this form of action was best sponsored by specialist branches. In the morning the Forum heard reports from various issue-based and local groups. a principles are clear and virtually unanimously out of local authority work to private builders THERE IS A SOOTHING POULTICE spreading over the south London squatting hot-spots of Villa Road (Brixton) and St Agnes Place (Kenn- ington). With the approach of local council elections Lambeth Council have decided to steer a safe course, avoiding adirect conflict with these vociferous groups, and are arrang- ing short-life license agreements. question of Local Authorities and their role in the provision of building and architectural services. Should Local Authority Architects’ and Building Departments be expanded? What services should they provide, and how? What is the scope for ensuring real user control over building design and development through Local Authority departments? Also in SLATE7, the first article ina major new series on Urban History. SLATE 6PAGE 16 NEXT ISSUE SLATE7 takesasitsthemethe LAMBETH BUYS OFF ACTIVISTS publicity. They have hitherto refused to accept any responsibility for the rehousing of single squatters: Their current offer is seen as a major victory although it is clear that the principle motive behind the appa- rent concession is the decanting of the south side in preparation for demolition License agreements are a less immed- iate prospect for St Agnes Place. After an attempt last year by council workmen to demolish these houses, halted by an injunc- Over 30 people are to be rehoused in other parts of the borough, from the south side of Villa Road with management hana- led by Lambeth Self-Help Housing Assoc- In the long term Lambeth are suggest- ing that these two squatting groups amal- gamate with Lambeth Self-Help and form a housing cooperative: head-aches over these activists would finally end and Lambeth’s squatting groups will take their first steps on the rocky road to the self- SLATE may bea very slick looking paper but we need money fast! Please send us your donations now! Cheques made payable to SLATE to lation. This offer came after 4 years of negociation, attempted evictions and wide management of permanent properties 9 Poland Street, W1. tion, the Housing Department are insisting that Lambeth Self-Help are registered as a conventional housing association before being allowed to carry out rehabilitation work Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource NAM SLATE Group Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Allan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March/April 1978 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/f5ec814d03a6b2a0a972d668f6f20e96.pdf 59eafb57d83a5958c1510366392fcd28 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource SLATE Description An account of the resource To help promote its work and reduce dependence on the established professional press, NAM created its own newspaper SLATE. The editorial group met bi-monthly to gather together latest events, activities and ideas emerging from radical critiques and challenges to the established order of architectural practice and education. The content of each edition was collated, and cut-and-pasted into layouts of the magazine which typically ran from 16 to 28 pages. Each edition included a brilliant cartoon by Andrew Brown who emerged as a clever graphic artist synthesising NAM's radical ethics. SLATE's production ran to 17 issues in total. The SLATE Group also produced occasional annual calendars, of which three survive Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource SLATE 7 Subject The topic of the resource Building for Whom ? Includes John Murray article ( first of 5) on Reading Urban History Description An account of the resource INAPROPRIATE POLICIES Local Govt. Officer: Here is the arm I have been asked to give you Working Man: But, Jneed aleg Local Govt. Officer: Yes, but it is more than my job’s worth to give you one of them, JIDNYOo 249 1AFO green, foto fat plate used ns roofing-material; plece of It usu. framed In wood used for writing on SAC conference fails to convince THE ‘MAKING of the Architect’ Conference at York in March, given the build-up of the biggest_ happening in architectural educa- tion since Oxford, fizzled out almost entirely, overburdened by the vastness of the task and the weight of paper that went with it. There were, however, one or two high points amongst the plethora of academic outpourings, apart from ARC’s interven- tion (see elsewhere in SLATE). The first pf these was a report by the Schools of Architecture Council working group on RIBA/ARCUK relations that came before the S.A.C. AGM preceding the conference proper. This proposed that the Visiting Board’s role should be advisory rather than dictatorial, applied only to Part I and Part III of the course, and that the validating body should be ARCUK and not the RIBA. The report went on to stress the need for a democratic reconsti- tution of ARCUK along the lines proposed by NAM. This brought howls of outrage from the RIBA ‘observers’ and even members of ARCUK council! However,amotionofnoconfidencein Professor Gosling, the leader of the working party, received no support. Gosling’s paper was unfortunately not discussed fully at the seminars, perhaps because it was reported that the RIBA had asked for it not to be brought up in the discussion groups. Other worthwhile papers were those by Jim Johnson and Colin Ward. Johnson proposed that schools should be involved in, and accountable to, the local commu- nity, with shorter but less rigid courses, a wider intake, and final examinations jointly by teachers and community representatives. Colin Ward discussed environmental education insecondary schools and questioned the need for Typesetting by the Publications Group and Maggie Stack. Opinions expressed in SLATE are not necessarily the policy of the New Archi- tecture Movement unless stated to be so. architects at al. Yet discussion around these papers achieved little. Dominated by academics and principals from prac- tice, the subjects were discussed in an abstract fasion divorced from the wider contexts of the social, political and economic frameworkof society and a radical role for architects within it, and thus became meaningless. The lack of any conclusive outcome from the conference or of any worth- while discussion within it, justifies NAM’s position of silence on the issue. But it was made clear that recommendations will be made after the next six months of ‘wide-ranging debate’, and already the S.A.C. regions have announced that they intend to hold more discussions soon that will make recommendations. The failure of York has made the educators and the RIBA even more determined to ‘get results’. NALGO blacks GLC housing transfers NALGO BRANCHES arehitting back at the plans of the Tory- controlled GLC to disperse housing functions -including design -to the London Boroughs. A recent circular to al NALGO branches from the Secretary of the GLC NALGO branch advised branch secretaries to tel their members “not to deal with work arising from housing estates transferred to your authority from the GLC until absolute guaranteesof job security and job salary protection are given to GLC employees affected”. As detailed in SLATE 6the Tories want a rapid rundown of the GLC housing departments. The circular advises that with over 200,000 properties affected *the process of the transfer of estates is likely to be a gradual one and branches will have to remain vigilant for a number of years”. GLC estates are found throughout the country, not just in London -for example its seaside retirement homes. BUILDING FOR WHOM? RESPOND TO PEOPLE’S NEEDS Estranged from the ublic and cradled by the ‘local state’, architects in the publilic sector face massive cuts in public spending. As a primer to the NAM PDS Grou s conference - ‘Democrati: Design’ -SLATE has brought togeth er five articles. Each examines a key aspect of the debate around the role played by the ‘other’ direct labour department -local authority architects. A PHOENIX FROM THE COUNCIL ASHES? -purple tock casily split oth plates; pleco of such mall rod of soft~ (clean or renounce oblign= ifcations hor greealsh grey; hence (Made) of~. 3. y.t. Cover with~s - .eS roofing; hence slat’en' n. (MB SLATE IS THE NEWSLETTER OF THE NEW ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT, published bi-monthly and edited by the Moyement’s Publications Group. News and features of broad interest to workers in the profession, the building industry and to the general public are inc- luded to stimulate general debate on a wide range of issues and to bring the Movement’s views and activities to the attention of the largest possible readership. REPRESENTATIVES A network of 30 representatives has been set up throughout schools and large prac- tices al over the country. The only comm- itment of each representative will be to receive S copies of SLATE every two months and to try to sell 4 of them, return- ing £1.00 to SLATE All this should help SLATE acheive a far wider circulation and become more truly representative of the views of rad- icals concerned with the industry and the environment WORK ON SLATE SLATE needs more workers, more writers ,more ideas and more reps in order to produce a better, larger and cheaper newsletter. If you would like to work for SLATE; become a rep., join the group, send in articles or suggest topics it should cover then contact us soon. The copy deadline for the next issue is Friday 26th May. 1978 SLATE ispublished by the Publications Group of the NEW ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT, 9 Poland St., London W.1. (Letters should be addressed to the Publications Group) Printed by Islington Community Press, 2a St Pauls Rd., London, N1. Trade Distribution by Publications Distribution Cooperative, 27, Clerken- well Court, London, E.C.2 SLATE 7PAGE 2 A GLC architect describes how the decline of the GLC’s once-mighty department ischanging thinking among those affected about local governmentstructure. Tory crusade The architects department of the Greater London Council (GLC), once not only the largest but the most prestigeous local authority office in the country, is reaching apoint where itscontinued existence is in doubt. Two years of continued public controversy have so depleted resources and morale that, with the recent resignation of departmental chief Sir Roger Walters, there is inevitably speculation that it may go the way of Hillingdon, York and Oxford. The immediate cause of this crisis stems from the May 1977 elections which gave control of the GLC to anew Conservative administration. The GLC’s housing programme, which provided the largest part of the architects’ workload, was drastically revised in accordance with the new inistration’si P ation of its electoral mandate: “We regard it as a primary objective for the Council to direct resources into the inner areas where housing stress and dereliction are largely concentrated. To this end it is necessary for the Council to divest itself of committees at variance with its strategic role and which dissipate its resources in areas where other agencies are available to meet housing requirements.” In spite of the reference to currently fashionable ‘inner city’ theme theheartofthisnewpolicy quickly provedtobeelsewhere.Staffunions saw it above al reflecting the new Tory ideological crusade for owner- occupation, self help and private enterprise, as well as the traditional entrenched resistance of the outer London boroughs to the building of public housing for those migrating from the inner areas. Severe cuts The effect on GLC architects was severe. Firstly, an enormous cut in the quantity of work: from an annual programme approaching 6000 homes to one of 2000. Secondly there was a major shift in the type of work with an immediate stop on al work in the outer London boroughs (approximately 50% of the old workload). 500 of the remaining progr were al d to the Thamesmead development leaving a target of 1500 inthe inner city itself, which represents a cut of 50% even here. The balance in this reduced work- load has shifted heavily towards more small, more difficult and often polluted sites, and this has coincided with renewed accusations about the department’s productivity. It is an awkward,ifso farunacknowledged contradiction, however, for Consery- ative ideology that the Department has been able to demonstrate conyin- cingly an enormous fee saving over consultants for the past 15 years. The staffing cuts that have come with this cut in workload represent 15% ofthe total establishment. That figure however conceals the large effect on architects posts as a large number of the department's posts consist of building control and district surveyors’ staffs. The reduction in professional and technical staff in the new housing divisionsisinfact73%.Oneparticularly damaging effect of the new administration’s approach to staffing has been the imposition of traditional across-the-board cuts in al departments quite unrelated to workload and justified only by a conviction that any teduction is beneficial. For a department with both statutory (building control) and contractual duties like the Architects this seems utterly unacceptable. That it has been allowed to happen is seen bystaff as an indictment not just of the council, but also of chief officers. Similar feelings are prompted by the use of the voluntary redundancy provisions of the Employment Protection Act to shed ‘surplus’ staff faster than falloff in existing workload. The pessimism about the Department’s continuing viability isbased on the SLATE 7PAGE 5 NEWSNEWSNIEWS ATE SLATESLATESLATESLATE MAKING PUBLIC BUILDING Tom Bulley of Hackney Council Workers’JointTrade UnionCuts Committeedescribesactiontaken by NALGO and the building unions to protect and expand the work taken on by Hackney’s direct labour organisation. SLATE 7 PAGE 6 Union action Theunions’initiativesinresponseto potential reductions in the council’s operated with the building workers’ unions to prepare joint representatives to put to the council. On hearing of this initiative the Officers’ Management Team(iechiefexecutiveanddirectors) Tequestedameetingwiththeunions prior to the unions meeting with the council. The unions agreed, and it became clear to management that unions were aware of real problems and were putting forward constructive prop- osals. The joint union representations were put to the council unaltered on 31 May. Council members expressed their whole- stems from the May 1977 elections which gave control of the GLC to a new Conservative administration. The GLC’s housing programme, which provided the largest part of the architects’ workload, wasdrasticallyrevisedinaccordance withthenew administration’sinterpret- ation of its electoral mandate: “We regard it as a primary objective for the Council to direct resources into the inner areas where housing stress and dereliction are largely concentrated. To this end it is necessary for the Council to divest itself of committees at variance with its strategic role and which dissipate its resources in areas where other homes to one of 2000. Secondly there was a major shift in the type of work with an immediate stop on al work in the outer London boroughs (approximately 50% of the old workload).500oftheremaining only by a conviction that any reduction is beneficial. For a department with both statutory (building control) and contractual duties like the Architects thisseemsutterlyunacceptable.That ithasbeenallowedtohappenis seen by staff as an indictment not just of the council, but also of chief Officers. Similar feelings are prompted by the use of the voluntary redundancy provisions of the Employment Protection Act to shed ‘surplus’ staff faster than falloff in existing workload. The pessimism about the Department's continuing viability is based on the SLATE 7 PAGE 5 exercised by architects. It was the period when the criticism of some forms of public housing had reached levels that made councillors and housing managers into much less benevolent clients and serious critics of housing design. More fundamantally there was a perceptible move in housing policy away from the purely physical solutions to the housing programme that characterised the post-war era of slum clearance and reconstruction. Full analysis of the reasons for all these changes isbeyond the scope of this article. But it can be sensed that there were many complex political, ideological and economic trends being felt -some genuinely progressive, but others rooted in the developing economic crisis, particularly as it manifested itself in the crisis of public expenditure, in the land market, and in the building industry. New roles What is of immediate relevance is to analyse the responses of architects to these developments and to articulate new roles and new alignments. In the profession generally there is a pronounced and unattractive tendency to self-pity, to blame externals.. LOBBYING COUNCILS FROM THE INSIDE It seems necessary that while local ~ authority architects must be far more realistic about the limitations imposed by the context in which they find themselves, they must also realise the potential for development even now within the local authority structure. At the technical level there exist largely unrealised possibilities for exploring design and build, and inter-disciplinary integration with direct labour organisations and other consultants. The scope-for reforming the organisational structures isalso great. The existing hierarchical and narrowly specialist framework seems to be increasingly unsuitable, generating apathy and frustration. More open and democratic models are required which would increase contact between officers and councillors; and between officers and a wider range of popular representation. Local authority architects must take amuch more consistent interest in policy questions and particularly take up the defence of space and con- struction standards currently under attack, and above all the underuse of resources in the building industry. All these changes will have to be fought for: through unions, professional bodies, political parties, and within the structure of local government itself. SINE sure that the council is aware of the potential effects that changes in the building programme may have on the employment of building workers and staff in the Building and Architecture and Planning Divisions. This joint activity has helped to avert the immediate possibility of a major rundown of the building work, but there is stil much to be done to make sure that Hackney has a properly organised overall building programme in the years to come. SLATE SLATE SLATE SLATE SLATE level of building are beginning results. to achieve progr were al dtothe Thamesmead development leaving a target of 1500 in the inner city itself, which represents a cut of 50% even here. For the past year the building workers’ unions (UCATT, TGWU, EEPTU) and NALGO have worked together to exchange information about the building programme and to make The balance in this reduced work- load has shifted heavily towards more small, more difficult and often polluted sites, and this has coincided with renewed accusations about the BUILDING FOR WHOM? RESPOND TO PEOPLE’S NEEDS Estranged from the ublic and cradled by the ‘local state’, architectcs in thepubli lic sector face massive cuts in public spending. As a primer to the NAM PDS Group’s conference -‘Democratic Design’ - SLATE has brought together five articles. Each examines akey aspect of the debate around the role played by the ‘other’ direct labour department -local authority architects. A PHOENIX FROM THE COUNCIL ASHES? A GLC architect describes how the decline of the GLC’s once-mi department is changing thinking among those affected about local government structure. Tory crusade The architects department of the Greater London Council (GLC), once not only the largest but the most prestigeous local authority office in the country, is reaching a point where its continued existence is in doubt. Two years of continued public controversy have so depleted resources and morale that, with the recent resignation of departmental chief Sir Roger Walters, there is inevitably speculation that it may go the way of Hillingdon, York and Oxford. agencices are available to meet housing requirements.” In spite of the reference to currently fashionable ‘inner city’ theme the heartofthis new policy quickly provedtobeelsewhere.Staffunions. saw it above al reflecting the new Tory ideological crusade for owner- occupation, self help and private enterprise, as well as the traditional entrenched resistance of the outer London boroughs to the building of public housing for those migrating from the inner areas. Severe cuts The effect on GLC architects was severe. Firstly, an enormous cut in the quantity of work: from an department’s productivity. It is an awkward, if so far unacknowledged contradiction, however, for Consery- ative ideology that the Department has been able to demonstrate conyin- cinglyanenormous feesavingover consultants for the past 15 years. The staffing cuts that have come with this cut in workload represent 15% ofthe total establishment. That figure however conceals the large effect on architects posts as a large number of the department's posts consist of building control and district surveyors’ staffs. The reduction in professional and technical staff in the new housing divisionsisinfact73%.Oneparticularly damaging effect of the new administration’s approach to staffing has been the imposition of traditional across-the-board cuts in al departments In view of the serious threat that existedinMarch1977,NALGOco- Theimmediatecauseofthiscrisis annualprogrammeapproaching6000 quiteunrelatedtoworkloadandjustified growing realisation that theCouncil's commitment toretainaconstructional role, whether newbuild or rehab, through its own architects is at best lukewarm. Already amajor shortage of new briefs has developed. Having stopped al the outer London schemes | regardless of abortive cost, the Council has also stopped many inner schemes as well. So the fate of the GLC Architects Department isclearly linked in a special way to local political factors, including the role of the Council itself. Neither is it the only department affected or even the most severely so, assuming that the intended transfer of housing management goes through. Yet the relative ease with which this only recently respected department has been carved up, together with the pattern being established in other authorities already referred to, Suggests other les parochial factors at work. Even under the previous Labour administration, which was committed to an expanded housing programme, the Department became involved in bitter disputes of which the most important was responsibility for building defects. During this period, too, a major shift in inter-departmental influence began with the Housing Department taking on more and more of the programming and project management roles formerly MAKING PUBLIC BUILDING Tom Bulley of Hackney Council Workers’JointTrade UnionCuts Committee describes action taken by NALGO and the building unions to protect and expand the work taken on by Hackney’s direct labour organisation. SLATE 7PAGE 6 Union action The unions’ initiatives in response to potential reductions in the council’s level of building are beginning to achieve results. For the past year the building workers’ unions (UCATT, TGWU, EEPTU) and NALGO have worked together to exchange information about the building programme and to make a Se ee exercised by architects. Itwas the period when the criticism of some forms of public housing had reached levels that made councillors and housing managers into much less benevolent clients and serious critics of housing design. More fundamantally there was a perceptible move in housing policy away from the purely physical solutions to the housing programme that characterised the post-war era of slum clearance and reconstruction. Full analysis of the reasons for al these changes is beyond the scope of this article. But it can be sensed that there were many complex political, ideological and economic trends being felt -some genuinely progressive, but others rooted in the developing economic crisis, particularly as it manifested itself in the crisis of public expenditure, in the land market, and in the building industry. New roles What is of immediate relevance is to analyse the responses of architects to these developments and to articulate new roles and new alignments. In the profession generally there is a pronounced and unattractive tendency to self-pity, to blame externals.. LOBBYING COUNCILS FROM THE INSIDE ca = Itseems necessary that while local ~ authority architects must be far more realistic about the limitations imposed by the context in which they find themselves, they must also realise the potential for development even now within the local authority structure. At the technical level there exist largely unrealised possibilities for exploring design and build, and inter-disciplinary integration with direct labour organisations and other consultants. The scope-for reforming the organisational structures is also great. The existing hierarchical and narrowly specialist framework seems to be increasingly unsuitable, generating apathy and frustration. More open and democratic models are required which would increase contact between officers and councillors; and between officers and a wider range of popular representation. Local authority architects must take a much more consistent interest in policy questions and particularly take up the defence of space and con- struction standards currently under attack, and above all the underuse of resources in the building industry. All these changes will have to be fought for: through unions, professional bodies, political parties, and within the structure of local government itself. SANE sure that the council is aware of the potential effects that changes in the building programme may have on the employment of building workers and staff in the Building and Architecture and Planning Divisions. This joint activity has helped to avert the immediate possibility ofa major rundown of the building work, but thereisstilmuchtobedonetomake sure that Hackney has a properly organised overall building programme in the years to come. In view of the serious threat that existed in March 1977, NALGO co- operated with the building workers’ unions to prepare joint representatives to put to the council. On hearing of this initiative the Officers’ Management Team(iechiefexecutiveanddirectors) requested a meeting with the unions prior to the unions meeting with the council. The unions agreed, and it became clear to management that unions were aware of real problems and were putting forward constructive prop- osals. The joint union representations were put to the council unaltered on 31 May- Council members expressed their whole- hearted commitment to direct labour and the DLO, but saw that there were difficulties and agreed to follow through the unions’ suggestions for remedies to overcome the decline of the housing redevelopment programme (with the exception of one proposal which would involve the political difficulties with sregard to Hackney’s opposition to the Conservative Greater London Council), Work flow The building trades’ operatives’ main point was that the work of the architects’ department should be planned so that it could make available to the direct labour organisation a planned flow of work, taking into consideration the need to provide continuity of employment for the labour force. The unions agreed that there were difficulties and suggested that there might be a need for additonal staff. The point was made that advance design work on potential building projects could help overcome unavoidable fluc- tuations of input to the committed building programme. questions to answer, particularly with regard to the overall building management. At this meeting with council management referred to the Housing Investment Programme, which central government had introduced to allow greater central control over local authorities’ overall capital spending, whilst at the same time allowing local councils greater flexibility within the overall limit. Inasmuch as they were asking for the council to prepare a programme, the government were making the same demand centrally as the unions were locally. As they had responded to the authority of management Hackney’s management were thus able to assure the council that a programme was in pre- paration, but were not able to give details at that meeting. Now that the Housing Investment Programme bid has been submitted to central government, it is clear that the unions were right to be concerned about council building and the related employment. During the current year and over the next few years the HIP shows a massive shift of emphasis away from new building towards rehabilitation. It also shows a drop of about £4million in overall building work between 1977-78 and 1978-79. The inter-war estate rehabilitation programme will not nearly compensate for the rundown of development, and the council will need to step up its property acquisition policy very rapidly. The unions do not wish to spread wild rumours, but are aware that the effects of the newly-proposed HIP need to be worked out without delay. Working party The building workers at their joint works meeting with the council therefore suggested that a Joint Working Party ofcouncillors and trade union delegates (with Staff Side NALGO members from Building and Architecture & Planning invited) should be formed to investigate the building programme and to report its. implications to council ,particularly on employment. The first joint Working Party meeting was held in December 1977. It was seen that the council's political commit- ment to the DLO needs to be supported by an accurate knowledge of what is programmed and of what is actually happening, and of the implications for its workers (and all residents of the borough) of changes in its building programme. The Joint Working Party has a big job te do. The building workers’ unions initiative -the Joint Working Party -is a means of co-operating with the council to ensure the continuation of a building programme that will benefit Hackney with its products and services and will allow continuity of employment to its workers. The unions are pooling their knowledge through the Joint Unions Cuts Committee, which has set up a Building Sub-Committee to meet regularly and to exchange detailed knowledge of problems. These resources are being brought to Joint Working Party discussions from the union side. Councillors have shown committment to the DLO by setting up the Joint Working Party and working on it. “ ‘Fhe unions also put forward specific Suggestions of possible ways of bringing in work to compensate for the severe drop in the newbuild housing programme. These included ways that the council might be able to build advance factory units for leasing to small industrial firms, and suggestions that the council should draw up an adequate programme of property acquisition for rehabilitation and conversion in preference to encouraging large-scale housing association activity. At the joint building works meeting with the council on 13 September it became clear that although action had been taken on some of the specific requests, management stil had many LOBBYING COUNCILS FROMTHEOUTSIDE Extracts from an interview with Irene Brennan of Brent Federation ofTenantsAssociationsinwhich she describes the attempts made to involve the clients in the design of sdhemes produced by the London Borough of Brent. SLATE: How did you first approach the local authority ? “* We wanted to have an opportunity to seetheplansandmakecomments.Now, we have a negotiating procedure with the council which is a sub-committee of the housing committee which is called the Tenants Consultative Committee and so we raised it with them. The councillors themselves were fairly unsympathetic saying “you wouldn’t understand -there’s so many things to be taken into account” and they're al experts you know....but we pressed away. SLATE 7 PAGE 7 growing realisation that theCouncil’s commitment to retain aconstructional role, whether newbuild or rehab, through itsown architects isatbest lukewarm. Already amajor shortage of new briefs has developed. Having stopped al the outer London schemes regardless of abortive cost, the Council has also stopped many inner schemes as well. So the fate of the GLC Architects Department isclearly linked in a special way to localpolitical ; factors, including the role of the Council itself. Neither is it the only department affected or even the most severely so, assuming that the intended transfer of housing management goes through. Yet the relative ease with which this only recently respected department has been carved up, together with the pattern being established in other authorities already referred to, suggests other less parochial factors at work. Even under the previous Labour administration, which was committed to an expanded housing programme, the Department became involved in bitter disputes of which the most important was responsibility for building defects. During this period, too, a major shift in inter-departmental influence began with the Housing Department taking on more and more of the programming and project management roles formerly And then they said “OK we'll give you a training session and then we'll take it from there”..,.. eventually we al trudged up there and there were these matchstick models of al the developments that they weredoingintheborough.....whatitworked TheFederationgottheplansofFryant outaswasmoreofapublicrelationsexercise Wayandafterbeingsuperficiallyimpressed ment we wanted to see and then we wanted to see the plans before they went to housing committee so that we could comment and get our comments incorporated before it went to housing.And the officers were bas- ically saying “Well our staff won't stand for from the architects -it was ridiculous, six it and they'd leave -all this interference - sets of plans and 24 hours to comment on they won't tolerate it’. We thought we were them. Lucky for us we knew, between us, going to get nowhere! but then... every one of the developments and so we accumulation, In recent years it has stimulated At that point the Director of Housing inter- could comment. vened and because of some personal friction between Director of Development and him- self, decided to support the Federation in their claim to ‘say’ at these two stages. The plans come to housing committee for approval as, sort of, the client and they get seen about 10°30 at night after along meet- ingandthey’reuponthewall-itsopento the public but the public rarely go and any- way its on the floor of the council chamber and the public gallery is so far away. You couldn’t really get a good look at it..... the councillors would just walk up and have a participation, democratisation in some activities and financed community work and’ ‘radical’ professional agencies such as law centres. It is not inconceivable that changes in the provision of arch- itectural services will take place because own independent ‘expert? advice. of the widespread disatisfaction with the Many end up going to a liberal existing local authority and governmental socially conscious, or just straight architecture. forward commercial * community SLATE 7PAGE 8 SLATE 7PAGE 9 SLATE: Did you find different resp. onses at a lower level in the Architects Department? When we were talking to the people that were actually doing the designs we found that they were really nice people...,.the people on the drawing-board so to speak were really trying to help us......but it’s al the ‘dead wood’ above them that needs to be cleared away ! We had an architect in the federation and that was really valuable, if we didn’t have him they would just have said “for tech- nical reasons” or what have you..... having somebody who was aprofessional helping us to do what we wanted to do..... we were then able to draw up our alternatives which we A number of things need to happen if ord- were basically a street layout with improved look and that’s it, they had to decide from just a look whether they think its good or bad, and invariably they say yes -it looks very pleasant lots of trees, gardens -yes we'll have that! al of these very nice models and grand plans that were stuck up on the wall. Any- way after that whole exercise it got left and we were pushing and pushing and meeting the officers ourselves. Then what happened is, we have a law centre in Brent and so we asked the law centre to actually find out what were the planning procedures that were followed in the borough so that we could intervene and find out what would be the best time to put in our and so they worked on that and then something else happened which helped in the whole process of setting things up..... She then described how, by supporting the council in a contentious local open-space issue that eventually culminated in a pub- lic enquiry the federation were able to com- promise the council into putting forward Fryant Way, a small mixed development, as a first trial for the new consultative pro- cedure. “When we got the stuff from the law centre “we were in quite a good position to go back to them and we started then seeing the Director of Development and Chief Arch- itects and they were absolutely!.....you wouldn’t believe the comments they were making -“We have enough trouble with the councillors -they interfere quite enough”, “the timing of al this, we can’t afford any delays”, that was their main thing, delays - interference, they were the professionals we couldn’t possibly offer anything that the professionals didn’t know already... we explained what we wanted was to be able to come in at two stages: one was when the brief came out of housing and we want- ed to be able to say what kind of develop: and comment on it. Then the architects subcontractors and the quality of work is reproducing the conditions of capitalist of the architect’s department causes them with the carefully drawn plans they looked more closely and found major orientation and sunlight mistakes, ‘hankerchief’ sized gardens, no enclosed play areas, no shops with group car parking in front of the old peoples flats Based on his experience at Support, Tom Woolley ies the case for setting up alternative agencies runningin parallel with the radicalisation of the public sector. Alternative services orientation and enclosed play areas, a shop and a community centre. We felt that the community centre would draw people together. We then confronted the counc- illors with our suggestions..... but their whole motivation, because they’re from a different class perhaps -they just don’t think or feel the same way as people they’re designing for.....‘people must adjust”’..... well Ithought design was al about making something fit for the purpose your going to use it for.,....and what they were saying was everybody’s got to fit into our design. which isjust bad design to me ! After a minor concession of one shop the federation began to lose hope and they decide to approach the councillors directly in order to ‘equip’ them with their sugges- tions inary people are going to have a say in the environment. Fora start the officers have to show willing, willingness to listen, we should be able to sit round a table and talk about it. It would be much better to have street meetings and bring along the alter- natives -that’s another thing !people don’t know the alternatives, they ask for public fully this would also provide a precedent politicisation, changing the actual nature be followed by a more formal So what we've got now is a new procedure whereby Director of housing aquires some land and says “yes, we'll have that” and then draws up hisbrief and we see the brief council generally employ ? debatable !, we want a much larger direct works department SLATE: Why do you think that the Direct Works dept. would give you a better deal ? More control, Subcontractors often use lump labour and we're opposed to lump labour for a start, At least when you have the unions in you have a decent standard of work, doing agood job not just rushing in and out again, We haven't got that much muscle as tenan' but we have got avast of experi and a lot of ‘people-power' and we ought togettogetherwiththetradeunionists, like Isay we're trade unionists when we go to work but we're tenants when we come home. We ought to be concerned with one another because our inter- ests are really the same. Local State changes “with grants, self-help labour job creation or their own limited funds, the list is endless. do a set of plans that they wouldn’t norm- ally draw, and these would come to the federation and we'd send them back with our comments to the housing comm- ittee. When we eventually got the plans back’ to look for independent advice. Such organisations would no doubt support demands for changes in the provision of local authority architectural services but they cannot afford to wait. They can have more immediate success in finding resources to pay for their SLATE: How do you think thesystem of involvement could be imp- royed ? The system as its set up isn't working. The officers themselves don’t want it to work, ‘While I would support a long term campaign for the democratisation of ‘public’ architectural services I feel that it is important that we should realise that alternative architectural agencies can be set up right away. Such agencies opinion but people don’t know the altern- atives, They should bring along alittle diagram and little models (laughter) and get people to feed in ideas and say well “what do you like about this street ?””.... sit round the table and shove the models around and I'm sure that they’d come up with some- thing ‘architecturally feasible’, SLATE: What sort of builders do the for those calling for reform in local government. The two things should go in parallel, but both have obvious pit falls. Operating inevitably in the ‘private sector, the new architectural ‘agency could easily become a ‘com _ munity architecture’ practice in the ‘RIBA style, whilst those working for change in the public sector, involved in defence action against the cuts may see limited reforms as progress. of the professional role and winning changes in the role of the local state AS A RESULT OF PRESSURE FROM ORDINARY PEOPLE The demand for a new kind of architectural service already exists. Tenants struggling against defective council housing, other tenants criti- cising or campaigning for involvement in design, user organisations wanting to participate in or control the production or rehabilitation of facilities, orgavisations We have been trying for some time now to get the direct works department brought up to scratch, its understaffed. They do use Nearly al have some degree of can provide a model for the way the ideas of a ‘public design service’ might work in practice. By functioning success holds much greater potential for of practice as a loose association to organisation, that can be controlled by the organisations which use its services The services are charged for on the basis of time, how much it costs to run the agency and the incomes of its members. With the removal of the fee scale there will be no barrier to this. The only problem remains the appropriate legal alternative to partnership so that the client/user organisations can own and control the agency. Precedents for this in the Law Centre field do exist. As the agency developes it can publish its experiences and describe its techniques as they differ from the conventional professional approach, work that will help other groups. Demands made on local authorities by community organisations to pay the agency's fees will not always be successful but will lead to a questioning of the adequacy of the local state’s own provisions. Trade unions will also have to justify using non-unionised firms of consultants. Setting up such an agency would be hard work, ofcourse, with little job security or certain income and attract the dislike of professional colleagues. It is easy to see why many prefer the tedium and frustration of working through local government and trade union channels, passing resolutions land so on. But even here there are possibilities for more direct action. A small group of 5 or 6 local authority architects, if they stuck together when say, faced with redundancies, could start offering a service directly to the public from their office, If they won support from local working class organisations then their position would be a strong one. In fact the local state is continually changing and developing appropriate forms involvement with the local state and in ‘of institution to carry out its role of most cases their experience or opinion Such reforms imposed from above are architect’. As yet there is a complete unlikely to result in any shift of control lack of agencies which provide a of the process of the production of buildings to working class people or a ‘Greater understanding of the oppressive ideologies of profe i They will make the local state more effective however.Inmyview,(havingworkedfor Settingupagencies four years in local authorities and been an active NALGO member) this is the likely Qutcome of attempts to change local authorities. Setting up independent agencies right now on the other hand The experience of the members of Support is that it is possible to set up such an agency. A year of preparatory discussions, a further year continuing service backed by political committment to social cliange and are openly critical of the professional establishment. NEW CHANNELS FORUSER CONTROL SLATE: How sympathetic were the Councillors ? Well we were arguing that they didn.t have enough opportunity to study the plans and we'd be able to help them: They took this as an insult.....we weren't saying that they weren't looking at them carefiully we were saying that the whole system isn’t set up to allow them to do a proper job. And then they said “OK we'll give youa training session and then we'll take it from there”’,.... eventually we al trudged up there and there were these matchstick models of al the developments that they were doing in the borough.....what it worked out as was more ofa public relations exercise al of these very nice models and grand plans that were stuck up on the wall. Any- way after that whole exercise it got left and we were pushing and pushing and meeting the officers ourselves. Then what happened is, we have a law centre in Brent and so we asked the law centre to actually find out what were the planning procedures that were followed in the borough so that we could intervene and find out what would be the best time to put in our and so they worked on that and then something else happened which helped in the whole process of setting things up..... She then described how, by supporting the council in a contentious local open-space issue that eventually culminated inapub- lic enquiry the federation were able to com- promise the council into putting forward Fryant Way, a small mixed development, as a first trial for the new consultative pro- cedure “When we got the stuff from the law centre “we were in quite a good position to go back to them and we started then seeing the Director of Development and Chief Arch- itects and they were absolutely!.....you wouldn’t believe the comments they were making - “We have enough trouble with the councillors -they interfere quite enough”, “the timing of all this, we can’t afford any delays”, that was their main thing, delays - interference, they were the professionals we couldn’t possibly offer anything that the professionals didn’t know already..... we explained what we wanted was to be able to come in at two stages: one was when the brief came out of housing and we want- ed to be able to say what kind of develop- ment we wanted to see and then we wanted to see the plans before they went to housing committee so that we could comment and get our comments incorporated before it with our comments to the housing comm- ittee. When we eventually got the plans back” from the architects -it was ridiculous, six sets of plans and 24 hours to comment on SLATE: Did you find different resp. onses at a lower level in the Architects Department ? When we were talking to the people that were actually doing the designs we found that they were really nice people.....the people on the drawing-board so to speak were really trying to help us......but it’s al the ‘dead wood’ above them that needs to be cleared away ! SLATE: How do you think the system of involvement could be imp- roved ? The system as its set up isn’t working. The officers themselves don’t want it to work. A number of things need to happen if ord- inary people are going to havea say in the environment. Fora start the officers have to show willing, willingness to listen, we should be able to sit round a table and talk about it. It would be much better to have street meetings and bring along the alter- natives -that’s another thing !people don’t know the alternatives, they ask for public opinion but people don’t know the altern- atives. They should bring alongalittle diagram and little models (laughter) and get people to feed in ideas and say well “what do you like about this street ?”.....sit round the table and shove the models around and I’m sure that they’d come up with some- thing ‘architecturally feasible’. SLATE: What sort of builders do the council generally employ ? We have been trying for some time now to get the direct works department brought up to scratch, its understaffed. They do use subcontractors and the quality of work is debatable !,.we want a much larger direct works department SLATE: Why do you think that the Direct Works dept. would give you a better deal ? More control, Subcontractors often use lump labour and we're opposed to lump labour for a start, At least when you have the unions in you have a decent standard of work, doing a’good job not just rushing in and out again. We haven't got that much muscle as tenants but we have got a vast amount of experience and a lot of ‘people-power’ and we ought to get together with the trade unionists, like Isay we're trade unionists when we go to work but we're tenants when we come home. We ought to be concerned with one another because our inter- ests are really the same. NEW CHANNELS FORUSER CONTROL went to housing.And the officers were bas- ically saying “Well our staff won't stand for it and they'd leave -al this interference - they won't tolerate it”. We thought we were them. Lucky for us we knew, between us, Such organisations would no doubt support demands for changes in the provision of local authority architectural unions will also have to justify using services but they cannot afford to wait. They can have more immediate success in finding resources to pay for their own independent ‘expert? advice. going to get nowhere! but then..... At that point the Director of Housing inter- vened and because of somepersonal friction between Director of Development and him- self, decided to support the Federation in their claim to ‘say’ at these two stages, The plans come to housing committee for approval as, sort of, the client and they get seen about 10:30 at night after along meet- ing and they’re up on the wall -its open to the public but the public rarely go and any- way its on the floor of the council chamber and the public gallery isso far away. You couldn’t really get agood look atit..... the councillors would just walk up and have a every one of the developments and so we could comment. Many end up going to a liberal socially conscious, or just straight job security or certain income and attract the dislike of professional colleagues, It is easy to see why many prefer the tedium and frustration of working through local government and trade union channels, passing resolutions land so on. But even here there are possibilities for more direct action. A small group of 5 or 6 local authority architects, if they stuck together when_ say, faced with redundancies, could start offering a service directly to the public from their office. If they won support from local working class organisations then their position would be a strong one. SLATE 7PAGE 8 SLATE 7PAGE 9 After a minor concession of one shop the federation began to lose hope and they decide to approach the councillors directly in order to ‘equip’ them with their sugges- tions The demand for a new kind of architectural service already exists. Tenants struggling against defective council housing, other tenants criti- cising or campaigning for involvement in design, user organisations wanting to participate in or control the production or rehabilitation of facilities, organisations in the Law Centre field do exist. So what we've got now is a new procedure whereby Director of housing aquires some land and says “yes, we'll have that” and then draws up his brief and we see the brief and comment on it. Then the architects “with grants, self-help labour job ~creation or their own limited funds, the list is endless. As the agency developes it can publish its experiences and describe its techniques as they differ from the conventional professional approach, work that will help other groups. Demands made on local authorities by community do a set of plans that they wouldn’t norm- ally draw, and these would come to the federation and we'd send them back Nearly al have some degree of involvement with the local state and in most cases their experience or opinion of the architect’s department causes them organisations to pay the agency's fees to look for independent advice. Based on his experience at Support, Tom Woolley argues the case for setting up alternative agencies running in parallel with the radicalbsatt> n of the public sector. Alternative services ‘While I would support a long term campaign for the democratisation of ‘public’ architectural services I feel that it is important that we should realise that alternative architectural agencies can be set up right away. Such agencies can provide a model for the way the ideas of a ‘public design service’ might work in practice. By functioning success fully this would also provide a precedent for those calling for reform in local government. The two things should go in parallel, but both have obvious pit falls. Operating inevitably in the private sector, the new architectural agency could easily become a ‘com _ ‘Mmunity architecture’ practice in the RIBA style, whilst those working for change in the public sector, involved in defence action against the cuts may see limited reforms as progress. Local State changes In fact the local state is continually changing and developing appropriate forms ‘of institution to carry out its role of reproducing the conditions of capitalist accumulation. In recent years it has stimulated participation, democratisation in some activities and financed community work and’ ‘radical’ professional agencies such as law centres. It is not inconceivable that changes in the provision of arch- itectural services will take place because of the widespread disatisfaction with the existing local authority and governmental forward commercial * community architecture. architect’. As yet there is a complete Such reforms imposed from above are lack of agencies which provide a unlikely to result in any shift of control of the process of the production of buildings to working class people or a ‘greater understanding of the oppressive ideologies of professionalism. They will make the local state more effective however. In my view,(having worked for four years in local authorities and been an active NALGO member) this is the likely Qutcome of attempts to change local authorities. Setting up independent agencies right now on the other hand continuing service backed by political committment to social cliange and are openly critical of the professional establishment. Setting up agencies The experience of the members of Support is that it is possible to set up such an agency. A year of preparatory discussions, a further year holds much greater potential for politicisation, changing the actual nature of the professional role and winning changes in the role of the local state AS A RESULT OF PRESSURE FROM ORDINARY PEOPLE of practice as a loose association to be followed by a more formal organisation, that can be controlled by the organisations which use its services The services are charged for on the basis of time, how much it costs to run the agency and the incomes of its members. With the removal of the fee scale there will be no barrier to this. The only problem remains the appropriate legal alternative to partnership so that the client/user organisations can own and control the agency. Precedents for this will not always be successful but will lead to a questioning of the adequacy of the local state’s own provisions. Trade non-unionised firms of consultants. Setting up such an agency would be hard work, ofcourse, with little look and that’s it, they had to decide from just a look whether they think its good or bad, and invariably they say yes- itlooks very pleasant lots of trees, gardens -yes we'll have that! The Federation got the plans of Fryant Way and after being superficially impressed with the carefully drawn plans they looked more closely and found major orientation and sunlight mistakes, ‘hankerchief’ sized gardens, no enclosed play areas, no shops with group car parking in front of the old peoples flats We had an architect in the federation and that was really valuable, if we didn’t have him they would just have said “for tech- nical reasons” or what have you..... having body who was aprofessional helping us to do what we wanted to do..... we were then able to draw up our alternatives which we were basically astreet layout with improved orientation and enclosed play areas, a shop and a community centre. We felt that the community centre would draw people together. We then confronted the counc- illors with our suggestions..... but their whole motivation, because they're from a different class perhaps -they just don’t think or feel the same way as people they’re designing for.....‘people must adjust”’..... well Ithought design was al about making something fit for the purpose your going to use it for.....and what they were saying was everybody’s got to fit into our design. whichis just bad design to me ! SLATE: How sympathetic were the Councillors ? Well we were arguing that they didn.t have enough opportunity to study the plans and we'd be able to help them: They took this as an insult.....we weren't saying that they weren't looking at them carefully we were saying that the whole system isn’t set up to allow them to do a proper job. oeae ==) ee fh The effective splitting of the public sec- tor housing effort has also had the effect of diffusingpopularcriticismofhousingpolicy. illustratedbytheinstanceof Workers in private sector building design and construction engaged in producing Government financed housing are finding that an increasing amount of their work is for housing associations. Giles Pebody charts the rise of the so-called voluntary sector in Honea and examines the motives of the makers of housing policy in encouraging this trend. Policies of consecutive governments, both Labour and Conservative, have now ensured the housing associations a promin- ent position among the housing providers in the 1970's. The contemporary signifi- cance of their activities may be illustrated by some simple statistics: in 1975-76 app- rovals for housing association developments were for a total of 45,000 new dwellings, representing over 30% of the national Local yened to encourage their undertaking work that local authorities were reluctant or un- able to do at the time. Intervention came in the form of special subsidies for ‘repair and conversion’ projects, at more fayour- able rates than the ‘discretionary grant’ then available to private householders and landlords for house improvement work. It was on the strength of this arrangement that many of the major urban housing ass- ociations were floated and began to grow. As the provision of low cost rented housing isunprofitable only old-established and well-endowed housing associations could undertake limited unsubsidised deve- lopment funded by capital accumulated from rents from old estates and from char- itable sources. For growth in the sector to occur on any scale, direct government sub- sidies were a necessity. Up til the 1972 Housing Finance Act the only way that housing associations, other than a small num- ber of ‘cost-rent’ and ‘co-ownership’ socie- by their intrinsically better landlords than local authorities, which have far more active tenants’ groups. The policy of the removal of housing ass- ociation activity from the sphere of political control was specifically furthered by the 1974 Housing Act which concluded an era during which formal relationships between housing associations and the local authori- ties in whose areas they work were progre- ssively severed by subsequent Acts. Local authority nomination rights, mandatory for association projects funded by them under previous legislation, are now determined in- formally for Housing Corporation schemes funded under the 1974 Act. The Corporation does, in practice, ensure that association h pond with local housing pol- icies, but again, only on an informal basis under its discretionary powers. essentially inadequate to satisfy tenant needs in terms of accommodation, finishes and imaintainance standards. a Authority programme of 155,000 new dwellings .This comparison, however, does not describe the rapid growth of housing ties, could receive development capital from to create a subsidy system tailored more The distancing of one whole sector of state-financed housing activity association housing stocks, which far out- strips that of local authority stocks. The latter increased by one new dwelling for every forty of the existing stocks during 1976 while, in the same period, the rate for housing associations was, on average, one per eight . Third Force grows The rapid growth in both the number and size of housing associations may be the government was through Local Author- ities, who were empowered to make 100% loans, passing on any subsidies they them- selves were entitled to. This chain of fund- ing clearly hampered the development of housing associations as a ‘third force’ in housing independent of local authorities. The 1972 Act extended the powers of the Housing Corporation to enable it to make loans to al classes of housing associations and provisions were made for the payment of subsidies directly by the Department of the Environment(DOE). The Housing Cor- directly to its needs. These proposals were incorporated al but wholesale into the Labour 1974 Housing Act, which is stil in force. The generous provisions of this act ensured the subsequent rapid growth of housing associations by embodying the principle that a once and for al grant would be paid by the government to make up the difference between a loan which could be raised on and payed off from rental income, minus expenses, and total capital cost on a project by project basis. This subsidy, known as the Housing Association Grant (HAG) was to be supplemented by a Reve- — mediate position between private develop- ment on the one hand and Local Authority public sector housing on the other. In one sense this description iscorrect and that is in the sense that housing associations com- bine public sector finance with private sec- tor management methods. It has clearly been in the interests of consecutive govern- ments to foster the private sector ideology and practices of the associations, as a way of depoliticising the question of housing provision. Although they use public funds, the popular image of housing associations intervention at the national, and especially the local, level isone of the principal characteristics of the housing association movement. The Housing Corporation isan executive arm of the Department of the Environment, and the management committees of housing associations rarely have tenant members and even more rarely are tenant representatives elected to them. The implication of this extended bureaucracy isthat itserves prefer- entially the interests of the providers of housing to those of its users or consumers, as it offers no means in fact, to meet the state’s housing needs as well as those of their tenants. These two will not always be in harmony. HOUSING PANACEA — poration in an executive capacity .The Cor- poration also controls applications for HAG for individual projects financed from its fundsandinterpretsbothcostlimitsfor HAGslaiddownbythegovernmentand -TheStatehasslowedthegrowthofgrass- standardsinhousingassociation design and improvement standards for new ciations were concerned, however, was the subsidy system which it set up. This treated housing association and local authority housing alike, and incorporated the ‘free- market’ assumption that low-cost housing could be provided by the market without the need for subsidy. It was held that rents for government-financed housing would rise sufficiently to cover costs after ten years and so the annual subsidy set up by the Act would be progressively phased out over that period. Few housing associations were prepared to undertake large scale dev- elopment against such an insecure back- ground. Subsidies By late 1973 the Conservative Govern- ment had been made aware of the damage that the 1972 Act had done to the ‘third force’ and had drafted proposed legislation stil increasing costs has been to traced directly to government endeavours toestablishandendowa ‘thirdforce’in poration,acentralgovernmentagency,had nueDeficitGrant(RDG)toprotecthousing isasprivatecharitiesorjustbenignprivate throughwhichusersneedscanbe housing which would represent a coalition of public and private sector interests. The mid-60'ssawtheassociationssingledout for special treatment for the first time. The early work of housing associations concen- trating in run down urban areas had shown them to be amenable to then progressive ideas in housing and the government inter- SLATE 7PAGE 10 been set up in 1964 specifically to foster the growth of cost-rent and co-ownership societies.Thechoiceofagovernmentage- ncy to fund housing associations ensured direct government control of their activi- ties. The almost disastrous shortcoming of the Tory 1972 Act, as far as housing asso- association accounts from the fact that both their income and their expenditure are largelydeterminedbyfactorsoutsidetheir control. Housing Corporation Parallel with the development of the landlords, and their direct relationship with the State through the Housing Corporation permits and them to develop corporatemanagement structuressimilarto those in private enterprise with no demo- cratic interference. As long as the associations continue to deliver the goods, and they re- ceive disproportionate assistance in this task, defenders of capital can point them articulated and accomodated This, coupled with the almost total depend of housing iati onstatefinance,haspushedtheminto the position of executors of government housing policy above al. Deliberately or not, and pure considerations of the accountability of public expenditure apart, the state has acquired the means of SATE SLATE SLATE 7PAGE 1 housing jations has been a expansion and growth in authority of the out as that the private sector has a major role to play in the provision of hous- ing. Such an assertion is, of course, contra- dictory but it does serve to obscure the ac- tual crisis of the adequacy of the State’s housing policies, and of the accountability of its makers. Criticism regulating a growing sector of public financed housing with litle or no democratic interference at any intermediate level, and hence the potential of managing it directly in the interests of capital. The mounting criticisms of housing associations in terms of the housing they provide, the tenant groups that their work favours and their management practices may be analysed in terms of their role in the state’s housing policy. This argument iswell Housing Corporation. The Corporation, whose powers had been increased in 1972 , was further strengthened in 1974 and char- ged with registering housing associations. Only registered associations are eligible for HAG and are required to satisfy certain re- quirements laid down by the Housing Cor- and rehabilitation projects. The Housing Corporation itself has grown into a substan- tial bureaucracy with a network of regional offices. It is accountable directly to central government by way of the DOE and enjoys extensive discretion in the way it orders its affairs and carries out its work. From its origins in nineteenth century philanthropy, the Voluntary Housing Move- ment has developed into amajor agency for the provision of housing financed by gover- nment funds to the extent that the descri- ption ‘voluntary” has al but lost its meaning The generous and specific provisions of the 1974 Housing Act have had the effect of making housing associations almost totally dependent on government funds and have created a new way for the direction of State subsidies and investment into housing, par- allel to and substantially independent of the local authorities. Since the 1974 Act there is evidence of some transfer of funds from local authority housing into housing association work, witness the fact that in 1970 of a total government capital invest- ment in housing of £2025m, £74m went to housing associations whereas it is pred- icted that in 1977 they will take up £484m of the £1925m available for i (constant prices) . rehabilitation work. The HAG limits for rehab projects were first established in connection with a technical brief from the Corporation, but have now remained constant in the face Governments have claimed that housing associations offer the best of both worlds, public and private, coining the phrase ‘third arm’ to describe what is seen as their inter- from democratic contro] or political The 1974 Housing Act was hailed (by the DoE itself) as a ‘new charter’ for housing associations, who would then be able to play ‘an extremely useful partin meeting housin, needs’ (9). A more searching analysis of the ‘part’ now played by housing associations must ask whose housing _ needs are being met, Part of their job is roots tenants’ action among highly organised local authority tenants’ groups by ‘hiving off quite a high proportion of its new ten- ants into the new form of tenanthood. Organisation among housing association ten- ants is notoriously weak, witness the fact that of the associations active in London only one tenth have any form of tenants’ association. This weakness has been explained revised technical brief incorporating by the geographical dispersal of housing ass- lower standards in mid-1977. The ociation properties and the newness of the majority of their developments ,rather than produce, in many cases, housing of at least two years’of rapid building cost inflation. Rather than raise the HAG limits the Corporation issued a effect of lowering the standards and erence ee ASSOCIATIONS- THE HOLLOW (as i neeTYPSNM Notes 2 1,2: derived from figures in Mary Smith’s ‘Guide to housing’, Housing Centre Trust, 1977. 3: Housing Subsidies Act 1967 s12. 4!Housing Finance Act 1972. 5: Housing Act 1974 s13. Critena issued by Housing Corp, Jan 75. 6: ‘Guide to housing’, p214. 7:Derived from figures in ‘Guide to housing’. 8: Dudley Savill, National Tenants Organisation, atarecent National Federation of Housing Associations conference. 9: DoE circular 170/74. —eee RED CITY Review of Red Bologna So little new building interrupts the lines of the arcaded streets that form the historic centre of Bologna that visitors might imagine themselves to be in a charmed city, somehow spared the attentions of the profit-hungry developer. Yet Bologna is the capital of one of Italy’s most presperous regions but also it is a city which for more than thirty consecutive years has had a communist majority The renowned success of policies towards the city’s historic centre is only one aspect of the the story told by the authors of “Red Bologna”, which catalogues the achievements of Bologna’s left-wing administrators. The book enthusiastically (perhaps excessively so) tells how each of the problems identified in the city is analysed in terms of the “class struggle” through an intricate procedure of research and neighbourhood debate, expert advice and consultation. The policies which result are typically simple to understand but difficult to implement as they are often in uncompromising conflict with big business interests and the central government in Rome, which has been dominated by the right since the fall of Mussolini. Bologna’s town planning policy is based on the principle of equal access for al of the city’s population to its facilities. The council sets out to encourage uniform development throughout the city in opposition to the centralising effect of the land market and profit-onientated development. This process of decentralisation is enforced by the adoption of low planning densities in the city centre and a “positive system” for listing building. Only listed buildings may be demolished -all of which, unsurprisingly, are modern ones. Even if it is dealt with first in this book, the building fabric of a city isonly one part of the factors that condition its social life. Equally -radical initiatives have been taken in health care, education, traffic planning and welfare of al kinds. The Bolognese communists come out of the book’s analysis well, due in some part to the sympathies of its authors, but also to the humanity and sound social reasoning that forms the basis of their attempts to redress the excesses of Italian capitalism. Italy is not a developed welfare state in the sense that we understand it in this country. Most of the business of securing a healthy and well-educated population is in the hands of the church, private charities and insurance schemes. On the one hand this means that the Bolognese receive little encouragement from the central government, but on the other it leaves them free to determine their own local approach to policy and the control of services in a way which acentralised welfare state rarely tolerates. Yet, although Bologna’s situation is contradictory and unique, the attempts and successes of its council to apply progressive ideas in a practical context are refreshing and a potent example. Max Jaggi, Roger Muller and Sil Schmid: Red Bologna: Readers and writers Publishing Cooperative: 207pp, illustrates: £1 95 NEW ‘PROFESSION’ Review of Urban Design Forum This year’s new paper on the left specialising in architecture and town planning is a potential heavyweight called Urban Design Forum which sets out in the words of its editors, to “create links between the scattered Organisations and individuals active in this undefinable arena of interests”. The arena is Urban Design, a term conjured by academics to describe the post graduate courses they are running for architects and the like. Besides an inevitable bevy of articles setting out to define that undefinable arena of interests the journal also features more valuable pieces on the interpretation of the urban environment and on the contemporary fragmented approach to the analysis of the city and an article by Bologna’s city architect (yes—they stil have onel ) Urban Design Forum is published by a bunch of students and lecturers at the joint centre for Urban Design at Oxford Polytechnic. It is worth a read. Beware those attempts to define the undefinable and note how most of the authors describe themselves as ‘urban designers’ and one throwaway line in the editorial reads “ As yet there is no urban design profession and there are few positions for urban designers” It al adds up to make this journal look like an attempt to establish the bona fides of yet another ‘profession’ complete with al the paraphenalia of the ‘undefinable’ in train to enhance the mystique essential to any professional group. Urban Design Forum: published occasionally from the Joint Centre for Urban Design Oxford Polytechnic Nol February 1978 64pp. £2 .00 + 20p postage poration in an executive capacity .The Cor- poration also controls applications for HAG for individual projects financed from its funds and interprets both cost limits for HAGs laid down by the government and design and improvement standards for new and rehabilitation projects. The Housing Corporation itself has grown into a substan- tial bureaucracy with a network of regional offices. It is accountable directly to central government by way of the DOE and enjoys extensive discretion in the way it orders its affairs and carries out its work. major role to play in the provision of hous- ing. Such an assertion is, of course, contra- dictory but it does serve to obscure the ac- tual crisis of the adequacy of the State’s housing policies, and of the accountability of its makers. Criticism The effective splitting of the public sec- tor housing effort has also had the effect of diffusing popular criticism of housing policy. The State has slowed the growth of grass- roots tenants’ action among highly organised local authority tenants’ groups by ‘hiving off quite a high proportion of its new ten- ants into the new form of tenanthood. Organisation among housing association ten- ants is notoriously weak, witness the fact that of the associations active in London only one tenth have any form of tenants’ association. This weakness has been explaine by the geographical dispersal of housing ass- financed housing with little or no democratic interference at any intermediate level, and hence the potential of managing it directly in the interests of capital. The mounting criticisms of housing associations in terms of the housing they provide, the tenant groups that their work favours and their management practices may be analysed in terms of their role in the state’s housing policy. This argument is well illustrated by the instance of standards in housing association rehabilitation work. The HAG limits for rehab projects were first established in connection with a technical brief from the Corporation, but have now remained constant in the face of at least two years’ of rapid building cost inflation. Rather than raise the HAG limits the Corporation issued a [ivtouwouldTikefboeamemberoftheNewArchitectureMovementfilintheformbeloawndsend} Notes 1,2:derived from figuresinMary to housing’. 8:Dudley Savill, National Tenants ofHousingAssociations’ it together with a cheque/postal order (payable to the New Architecture Movement) for £5.00( if you'reemployed)or£2.00(ifyou'rearestudent,claimantorOAP)toNAMat9,PolandStreet | London W.1. | NAME. | ADDRE | {| 1 representatives elected to them. ‘The implication of this extended bureaucracy isthat itserves prefer- entially the interests of the providers of housing to those of its users or consumers, as it offers no means through which users needs can be articulated and accomodated This,coupledwiththealmosttotal s If you would like to receive SLATE without joining NAM fil in the form below and send it together | withacheque/postalorder(payabletotheNew ArchitectureMovement )for£2.00toNAM at9, Poland Street, London W.1. | NAME |ADDRESS. ments to foster the private sector ideology and practices of the associations, as a way of depoliticising the question of housing provision. Although they use public funds, the popular image of housing associations isas private charities or just benign private landlords, and their direct relationship with theStatethroughtheHousingCorporation permits and them to develop those in private enterprise with no demo- cratic interference. As long as the associations all. Deliberately or not, and pure The generous and specific provisions of the 1974 Housing Act have had the effect of making housing associations almost totally dependent on government funds and have control was specifically furthered by the created a new way for the direction of State subsidies and investment into housing, par- allel to and substantially independent of the local authorities. Since the 1974 Act there is evidence of some transfer of funds from local authority housing into housing association work, witness the fact that in 1970 of a total government capital invest- ment in housing of £2025m, £74m went to housing associations whereas it is pred- icted that in 1977 they will take up £484m of the £1925m available for investment (constant prices) . 1974 Housing Act which concluded an era during which formal relationships between housing associations and the local authori- ties in whose areas they work were progre- ssively severed by subsequent Acts. Local authority nomination rights, mandatory for association projects funded by them under previous legislation, are now determined in- formally for Housing Corporation schemes funded under the 1974 Act. The Corporation does, in practice, ensure that association schemes correspond with local housing pol- icies, but again, only on an informal basis under its discretionary powers. The distancing of one whole sector of state-financed housing activity from democratic control or political intervention at the national, and especially the local, level isone of the principal characteristics of the housing association movement. The Housing Corporation isan executive arm of the Department of the Environment, and themanagement committeesofhousing The 1974 Housing Act was hailed (by the DoE itself) as a ‘new charter’ for housing associations, who would thenbe able to play ‘an extremely useful partin Governments have claimed that housing associations offer the best of both worlds, public and private, coining the phrase ‘third arm’ to describe what is seen as their inter- mediate position between private develop- ment on the one hand and Local Authority public sector housing on the other. In one sense this description iscorrect and that is in the sense that housing associations com- binepublicsectorfinancewithprivatesec- tor management methods. It has clearly associations rarely have tenant members beenintheinterestsofconsecutivegovern- andevenmorerarelyaretenant meeting housing needs’ (9). A more searching analysis of the “part” now played by housing associations must ask whose housing _ needs are being met. Part of their jo! is, depend of housing iati | corporate management structures similar to ‘on state finance, has pushed them into conference. 9: DoE circular continue to deliver the goods, and they re- ceive disproportionate assistance in this task, defenders of capital can point them considerations of the accountability of public expenditure apart, the state has acquired the means of outasevidencethattheprivatesectorhasa regulatingagrowingsectorofpublic From its origins in nineteenth century philanthropy, the Voluntary Housing Move- ment has developed into a major agency for ociation properties and the newness of the effect of lowering the standards and stil increasing costs has been to majority of their developments , rather than produce, in many cases, housing the provision of housing financed by gover- nment funds to the extent that the descri- ption ‘voluntary’ has al but lost its meaning local authorities, which have far more active tenant needs in terms of accommodation. by their intrinsically better landlords than essentially inadequate to satisfy tenants’ groups. The policy of the removal of housing ass- finishes and imaintainance standards. ociation activity from the sphere of political the position of executors of 170/74. SLATE SLATE SLATE 7PAGE 1 government housing policy above q. revised technical brief incorporating lower standards in mid-1977. The in fact, to meet the state’s housingneeds as well as those of their tenants. These two will not always be in harmony. REVIEWS housing associations has been aconsiderable expansion and growth in authority of the Housing Corporation. The Corporation, whose powers had been increased in 1972, was further strengthened in 1974 and char- ged with registering housing associations. Only registered associations are eligible for HAG and are required to satisfy certain re- quirements laid down by the Housing Cor- Smith’s ‘Guide to housing’, Housing tre Trust, 1977. SHae Subsidies Act 1967 s12. 4 Housing Finance Act 1972. _ 5! Housing Act 1974 s13. Criteria issued by Housing Corp, Jan Tas 6: ‘Guide to housing’, p214. _ 7Derived from figures in ‘Guide Organisation, atarecentNational Federati REVIEW This process of decentralisation is NEW ‘PROFESSION’ Review of Urban Design Forum This years new paper on the left specialising in architecture and town planning is a potential heavyweight called Urban Design Forum which sets out in the words of its editors, to “create links between the scattered organisations and individuals active in this undefinable arena of interests”. The arenaisUrbanDesign,atermconjuredby academics to describe the post grad courses they are running for architects and the like. Besides an inevitable bevy of articles setting out to define that undefinable arena of interests the journal also features more valuable pieces on the interpretation of the urban environment and on the contemporary fragmented approach to the analysis of the city and an article by Bologna’s city architect (yes—they stil have onel ) Urban Design Forum is published by a bunch of students and lecturers at the joint centre for Urban Design at Oxford the meeting as a whole seemed to agree that DLO’s are a y pl to local authority architecture depart ments and are therefore an essential part of the PDS argument. On the running of the conference, the view was expressed by one wit that you can eat halfa packet of biscuits but you can’t eat a whole wheatfield! The conference will need to be very crisp as theareacoveredissolarge.Itishoped that the conference will spawn many different groups to work on the different aspects of the argument to develop the whole idea much further. With that aim in mind, we hope to see many of you at the conference -May 6th 10.30a.m.attheUCATT hall,GoughSt., Birmingh The agenda includ John Murray on the role of architects’ departments, Tom Bulley on his experience in Hackney, Pete Carter on DLO’s and Howard Smith on the views of the main political parties. PDS Group April 1978 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS COF THE WORST KIND) ‘tH RED CITY enforced by the adoption of low planning densities in the city centre and a “positive system’ for listing building. Only listed buildings may be demolished -all of which, unsurprisingly, are modern ones. Even if it is dealt with first in this book, the building fabricofa city is only one part of the factors that condition its social life. Equally -radical initiatives have been taken in health care, education, traffic planning andwelfareofalkinds.TheBolognese communists come out of the book’s analysis well, due in some part to the sympathies of its authors, but also to the humanity and sound social reasoning that forms the basisof their attempts to redress the excesses of Italian capitalism. Italy is not a developed welfare state in the sense that we understand it in this country. Most of the business of securing a healthy and well-educated population is in the hands of the church, private charities and insurance schemes. Review of Red Bologna So little new building interrupts the lines of the arcaded streets that form the historic centre of Bologna that visitors might imagine themselves to be ina charmed city, somehow spared the attentions of the profit-hungry developer Yet Bologna is the capital of one of Italy’s most presperous regions but also it is a city which for more than thirty consecutiveyearshashadacommunist majority The renowned success of policies towards the city’s historic centre is only one aspect of the the story told by the authors of “Red Bologna’, which catalogues the achievements of Bologna’s left-wing administrators. The book enthusiastically (perhaps excessively so) tells how each of the problems identified in the city is analysed in terms of the “class struggle” through an intricate procedure of research and neighbourhood debate, expert THIS LOOKS LIKE A GooD health and education requirements”, adviceandconsultation.Thepolicies Ontheonehandthismeansthatthe Polytechnic.Itiswortharead.Beware andalsothat“thefightfor(local Your Orne.seesAND whichresultaretypicallysimpleto Bolognesereceivelittleencouragement thoseattemptstodefinetheundefinable understandbutdifficulttoimplement fromthecentralgovernment,buton andnotehowmostoftheauthors abovealademocraticfight”. Reg) 7?ve sa, By i as they are often in uncompromising conflict with big business interests and the central government in Rome, which has been dominated by the right since the fall of Mussolini. Bologna’s town planning policy is based on the principle of equal ac SS for al of the city’s population to its facilities. The council sets out to encourage uniform development throughout the city in opposition to the centralising effect of the land market and profit-orientated development. the other it leaves them free to determine their own local approach to policy and the control of services in a way which acentralised welfare state rarely tolerates. Yet, although Bologna’s situation is contradictory and unique, theattemptsandsuccessesofits council to apply progressive ideas in a practical context are refreshing and a potent example. MaxJaggi,RogerMullerandSilSchmid: Red Bologna: Readers and writers Publishing Cooperative: 207pp, illustrates: £1 95 describe themselves as ‘urban designers’ and one throwaway line in the editorial reads “ As yet there is no urban design profession and there are few positions for urban designers” It all adds up to make this journal look like an attempt to establish the bona fides of yet another‘profession’ completewithal the paraphenalia of the ‘undefinable’ in train to enhance the mystique essential to any professional group. Urban Design Forum: published occasionally from the Joint Centre for Urban Design Oxford Polytechnic Nol February 1978 64pp. £2 .00 + 20p postage If Cynthia Coburn’s conclusions come dangerously close to “the rev- olution isthe only answer”, then Dave Green’s account of the PDS’s work smacks of an unthinking adoption of a ready-made ideology. The danger is thatunlessthePDSConferencecan convince the many who have experienced the unquestionable ineptitude and occasional brutality of local authority management that they are, in fact, a valid and potentially fruitful subject for discrete action by NAM, then it will fail and do much damage to NAM in the process. The danger isperhaps best avoided by promoting an understanding of the localauthority’sroleinastatewhich promotes the interests of Capital ahead of those of the majority of the population (as Douglas Smith attempted to show in SLATE 4) and then collectively deter- mining which of its functions are worth preserving and which need to be eliminated or drastically changed. In short, more thought, and less politicking about words like “democratic” until we know what they mean. Giles Pebody c/o Levitt Bernstein Associates 30 Oval Rd London NWI T SLATE 7PAGE 12 SLATE 7PAGE 15 SS [itu would Tikefboe amemberof theNew Architecture Movement filintheformbelow andsend | AT LEAST it together with a cheque/postal order (payable to the New Architecture Movement) for £5.00 ( if | you'reemployed)or£2.00(ifyou'rearestudent,claimantorOAP)toNAM at9,PolandStreet | London W.1. | | NAME | \A | |IfyouwouldliketoreceiveSLATEwithoutjoiningNAM filintheformbelowandsendittogether| with a cheque/postal onder (payable to the New Architecture Movement )for £2.00 to NAM at 9, Poland Street, London W.1. | NAME. le through which the majority of people can exert demands and gain access to. resourcesnecessaryfortheirhousing, PLANTOEBUTILD Zs) authority) architecture departments is 17 PLACE, SiR! | <)} MEANWHILE NAM H.@. HAS PICKEDUPTHEDANGERSIGNALS.|gy70)YouR TI|1| Houses every- |Ne=THE | \ |RIBATS HAVE|_$E-0 Arrived! > eile \oorOFYOuR | HANDS — IWE HAVE | [GREAT | IKNONLEDAE.) 5 oS TYRANNY D | EVIL I) attEE | | | | | | L | | | | te ¥, : THE GREEN Ban Action Committee has made a full planning application to Birmingham City Council for the conversion of the Victoria Square Post Office to a sports and leisure centre (see also SLATE 4). Birmingham's Victoria Square Post Office has been under the threat of demolition, although listed by the DoE as a building »farchitectural and historic merit. Yet a plan has been approved by the Council which would allow developers to knock it down and build in its place a massive ymplexofhigh-riseofficeblockswhen 2millionsquarefeetofofficespaceare already unlet in the City Centre G.B.A.C.’s proposals to convert the Post Office complex to a leisure centre would do much more than simply meet eisure needs (where Birmingham fails surprisingly badly). It would bring life the heart of the city in the evenings indatweekends. Buildingworkershave been forced onto the dole by cuts in public spending that have brough the construction industry almost to a stand- stil. The Post Office scheme would pro- vide some of them with labour-intensive work, requiring far more skill than work Work on the conversion could involve young people leaving school and unable to find jobs. Funded by the Manpower Services Commission, they could be given training in many building crafts and in addition would be creating something of direct benefit to themselves as future users. The organisers of the campaign are not simply another conservation group, but aim to encourage working people to have a say in the kind of jobs they do, because these have a direct effect on the commu- nity and the environment. A Green Ban AT n most new building SLATE 7PAGE 16 is the action taken by groups of workers who refuse to work on socially or environ- mentallyharmfulprojects.TheCommittee massivepee suppOrEand believesthatonlybycreatingabroad alliance involving ordinary working people as well as dedicated conservationists, can effective action be taken to protect and improve the environment. The Committee’s proposals (with tech- interest SLATE8willbedevotedto the subject of women and architecture. The issue will discuss how the male stranglehold over architecture can be broken, with a resulting architecture which ismore responsive and responsible. DON’T DELAY — ORDER YOUR COPY NOW. 25p only! Letters, articles, ideas and helpers for the issye will also be welcome: contact SLATE at 9 Poland St, London W1. In the next SLATE -SLATE 8 WOMEN AND ARCHITECTURE The NAM women’s group organised a meeting in London in April. Thirty- five women, mostly previously unknown to the Movement, attended. As a result of this evidence of SLATE may bea very slick looking paper but we need money fast! Please send us your donations now! Cheques made payable to SLATE to 9 Poland Street, W1. 5 GBAC sends PO plans to Council Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource NAM SLATE Group Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Murray Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource May/June 1978