1 10 310 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/294ab119a1b6c38ec8080a3be22a100e.pdf d61a52c560d42596917a96f50a1e2f99 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 Harrogate Founding Congress Subject The topic of the resource The Harrogate Congress was the founding of NAM. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Various Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 21-23 November 1975 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 A National Design Service Doc 1 Subject The topic of the resource Paper presented by John Murray to the first NAM Congress at Harrogate 21-23 November 1975 as requested by Brian Anson Description An account of the resource 1.0 Introduction A NATIONAL DESIGN SERVICE Paper No 2. May 1976 At the Harrogate Conference last November we called for a National Design Service which would meet the right of everyone to exercise control over the buildings which surround them and in which they live and work. This is a right denied in part or in total to most people in this country. We saw that the present system of patronage is such that 80% of the population have no real control over what is built, where it is built, and who uses it. They must adapt to an environment which is imposed upon them, at best through a system of spurious choices, and usually not even that. Architectsworking arrangements are similarly affected. Larger and thus fewer practices are required to handle the big jobs. At present 36% of medium and large private practices carry out 81% of the work. These same offices employ 82% of increasingly frustrated salaried architects. The bigger the jobs, the greater the profit, so it is not surprising that the principal dominated RIBA, while commisera- ting on the ‘crisis’ in architecture, looks everywhere for the answer except towards the real cause - a system of public and private patronage, inwhichinitial access and subsequent control is severely limited. The remedy for this will not be architectural. It will only be achieved when society's values change. Within the present economic system it appears to us that it is only through the state that the majority of people can gainetheir. right= ful access to the resources necessary to have control over their environment. In our opinion therefore, the existing service provided by local government offices, provides, albeit in a very limited and unsatis- factory manner, the basis of a national design service. We recog- nise that to achieve our aim, the present power structures must be radically changed. Nevertheless we shall press for a freely avail- able national design service in the form of decentralised local government offices, coupled to local accountability and control. The patrons, a minority of rich and powerful organisations and indi- viduals effectively control the direction of architecture. The design and type of buildings reflect their structure and values. The tendency for these organisations to grow larger by incorporating smaller and weaker ones, results in fewer and fewer patrons commi= ssioning bigger and bigger buildings. The purpose of this paper is to examine the present processes at work in each case of current architectural patronage and to try to draw out factors which will help to clarify both the kind of service which would be désirable and the means by which that might be achieved. 2.0 SYMPTOMS AND CAUSES 2.1 Curing symptoms From school of architecture onwards architects are conditioned to accept the context in which they work, and to look for the solu-. tions to the problems of architecture in the symptons of the malaise. After all, anything more searching would involve questioning the status quo. So the architectural establishment, the schools, the RIBA and the magazines have elevated physical form to the position where it is widely accepted that bad design is at the root of all architecture problems. The contention is, of course, that universal good design would solve everything. This preoccupation with form has led us to view in their time, structural expression, modular coordination, prefabrication, rationalised traditional and so on, as the panacea for all ills. Now energy conservation is being dressed up for this exacting role. To all of these we are.told, must be added the ingredient of creati- vity. Improving the ideas of others is not accepted as valid in this concept -— even though we know that the various elements jn the Parthenon had been around for centuries before the architect put them together ina particular way. He wasn't asked to invent them. Creation has come to mean innovation — and in a substantial way and from scratch. But to innovate is to experiment with the people who will use our buildings. As we do not know who these people are, there is a tendency for the large buildings created for their use to be anonymous also. This is where innovation comes in, where we use a variety of devices to add visual interest. The result is always false and frequently foolish as well. In this respect schemes like Park- hill in Sheffield are at least a more honourable expression of the brief than those produced by people like Darbourne and Darke who, to the delight of the magazines, attempt to conceal the monolithic -nature of the brief by the use of complicated and arbitary forms. The latest "answer" as per participation in Bykker, looks suspi- ciously like yet another attempt to fool the working class. Without the demand and feedback from the users, all designs are carried out in a vacuum, and it is naive to look for a new archi- 3.0 LAND tecture in the means of construction and form, while ignoring the basic issue of patronage. ‘The designs which we create reflect precisely the values and aspira- tions of the patron and John Berger has described how this has been true - with one or two exceptions —- of art throughout history. We believe that there will only be a new architecture when the patronage base is radically extended to enable the majority of people to control the design of their environment. 2.2 Examining the Causes Money and land are necessary prerequisites of architectural patron- age, but the ability to raise and control finance is the key aspect and the basis of all patronage, for it enables the patron to gain control over land. Clearly in our society, only the state and a minority of private organisations and individuals can hope to be in this position, and the distribution is 40% by value private and 60% by value public architectural patronage. We should have a clear understanding of the present system, if we are to discover where advances can be made towards‘a more equitable distribution of patronage in the short term, and a complete redis-— tribution in the long term. The next three sections discuss briefly the role of land ownership, the link between control of resources and control of architecture, and the resulting effect on design, architectural practice and the relationships between user and architect. The last official comprehensive register of all land holdings in this’country was produced in 1874. Today there is no official register of private land holdings and all attempts to create one have been systematically blocked in Parliament. From this we can perhaps deduce that the majority of land is in private ownership. While we do not know-the average division of land between private and public ownership, we do know that in working class communities the proportion of publicly owned land is very high; as high as 80% for example, in-parts of the East End of London. Although the ownership of land is a necessary prerequisite of archi- tectural patronage clearly the converse is not true, as most owner occupiers have no direct contact or control over architects services. Land takes its value not only from its present use but also from its potential use, and it is at its most expensive under the pressure of competing useS5 as in city centres. The use to which the land is put is dictated by the profitability of the use; hence prime sites are taken by those activities which yield the highest profits. Although the free market in land is tempered somewhat nowadays by the local planning authority, this intervention in itself results in changes in land values. Because private profit is the motive underlying the free market in land, working people cannot penetrate this market far less control it, except through the medium of the state. But the inadequacies of public finance quite often results in cheap and unsuitable sites being bought for public use, and the need to optimise even this, leads to gross over:use. High densities are therefore accepted as the norm for public housing, giving rise to balcony access and other manifestations virtually unknown in the private sector. Under the present system of land ownership this is unlikely.to change. 4.0 PRIVATE PATRONAGE The building sector financed by private patronage falls into three broad sectors — Industrial, Commercial and private housing. This work accounts for around 63% by value of all commissions undertaken by private practice. h.|) The Patrons The major patrons are those companies and individuals who control these sectors. Financial institutions now own controlling. share- holdings in British companies and through their executives and directors dictate the patterns of investment throughout the economy. These are the main private patrons of architecture, and although private individuals exercise patronage, the value is minute in comparison. 4.2 Reasons for Patronage 4.3 Affect on Architecture The architecture will reflect the directness of the relationship between profit and the building. So if the activity yields the profit, as in industry say, then the building is required merely to house the activity, and little in the way of cosmetics are applied beyond that which is necessary to satisfy the Health and Safety at Work Act and the Planning Officer. 4.4 User Control of Design? Capital in any company is accumulated by profit. On the basis of its profitability, shares in it are also bought through the money market, which together finance further development with a view to creating further profit. The money market determines into which sectors resources should flow to gain the greatest return. On the other hand, speculative housing and office development, are in themselves the means of achieving profit. Sufficient money wil] therefore be directed into the appearance, commensurate always with the market for which it is aimed. Where it is more profitable, the patrons will elect to build their own offices, which will fulfil the dual function of housing their activities and presenting the required public image. The Commer-— cial Union Building is therefore designed to create an aura of prestige, restrained good taste, wealth and stability, while con- cealing the rather squalid nature of its source of wealth. It ful- fils this function admirably. Real user control over the design is achieved when the architect is designing private villas for the directors. In other instances those same directors and executives wi 1] certainly control the design process of a new office or factory but they will almost invariably be absentee clients. Where they are not they will be well insulated from reality in the penthouse, surrounded by solar reflecting glass and Barcelona.chairs. Money will therefore only be put into buildings in the first place if that is, or will lead to, the most profitable way of using the money. The type of development, whether industrial, commercial or private housing will be chosen according to the same logic. The workers on the shop floor or in the offices, on the other hand, are still unable to control the design of their environment, (although it is in the interests of the more enlightened manage- ments to indulge in participation) even although that design, as in the case of open plan offices, is a direct function of decisions to change working methods to increase productivity. There is no element of user control in speculative housing either. 62% of this market is designed by private practice but architects and users never meet. Although people who are able to buy into this market gain a certain amount of control through choice, the choice is initially limited by income and location, and further limited in terms of accommodation and design. . These have more to do with the developer's profit margins than the buyer's real needs. But the relationship between house prices and earnings is so organ- ised as to exclude half the population and in some working class areas, over three quarters. Ina free market house prices wil] always be out of reach of the majority of the working class. Any- one who doubts this should consider what £60 per week buys in the London housing market and remember that many people earn a lot less than this. 4.5 Public Accountability? The executives who control the building design are responsible only to their shareholders. Their job is to ensure maximum return on investment. The public good does not feature in this equation - nor can it. The people affected by private buildings have no control over the developer's actions other than indirectly through Planning Control. Even where the Planning Officers. do profess to have some regard for the ethic of public service, they will be in conflict with, and wil] often be overridden by the local political requirement for rate income. The argument is that the interests of the public as a whole takes precedence over the interests of a few local people, no matter how disastrous the effect on their lives may be.. Planning Control has failed too often in these situations in the past for us to have any confidence in its ability to safeguard the public interest. Private practice in turn is not accountable to the community affected by its designs. Not only is the partners' liability to the client, but the practice is also dependent on the client finan- cially. Not surprisingly therefore, private practice rarely opposes the client's demands. 4.6 Conclusion. Control over design cannot be separated from control over resources. In the private sector these resources are controlled by a minority - formerly rich individuals, now the representatives of giant instit— utions. The Private patron of architecture adopts this role solely to create more wealth, and is not accountable in any meaningful way to the people affected by his buildings. -Simi larly, Private prac- tice is in business to service these interests. Under a system of private patronage the needs of working people will be in conflict with the dictates of the client. Profit sharing and cooperative working arrangements may increase the material well being of the salaried architect but they will not altar this basic fact. 5.0 PUBLIC PATRONAGE: Public patronage of architecture comes through the central state, the nationalised industries, but in the main through local authori- ties. Jt accounts for all the work produced by public sector architects, and 37% of work by value of private practice. In total the state is responsible for 60% of the Building industry's annual turnover. 5.1 Reasons for State Patronage. It has often been argued before that the state fulfils two basic functions. The first is to try to promote or maintain the condi- tions in which economic growth is both possible and profitable for ‘the private sector. Secondly the state trys to maintain and pro- mote the conditions for social harmony, and make the existing social order seem acceptable. Both factors are at work when the state finances building. On the one hand, the state must intervene in the arena previously described, to provide enough housing, hospitals and schools to prevent the population from becoming restless. On the other hand, a well housed, healthy and reasonably educated working class are necessary if economic growth is to be achieved and sustained. The main, organ of this system of control is the local Authority. 5.2 Local Authority Finance: The largest part of local Authority finance is in the form of central government grants. A much smaller proportion comes from rates. The services provided from these funds, constitutes the return we. get on taxes and rates paid by us the public. Pressure to hold down rates and taxes results in a short fall of finance, and local authorities are forced to resort to the private money market to make up the difference. This is a very lucrative business for the private money lenders, to the extent that 1/3 of the housing expenditures of an Inner London Borough goes into paying back interest to the finance companies. 5.3 Control over Resources The directness of the flow of resources to the state is in inverse proportion to the extent to which the public are able to control, or even understand the mechanism for producing what we have paid for, local authorities are the local arm of the central state, and are obliged by law to carry out central policies, whether or not local politicians believe that these are in the interests of their constituents. All public resources are therefore controlled from the centre through grants, approvals and regulating machinery such as cost allowances and Housing Yardsticks. 5.4 User Control of Design? Control of architectural patronage at local authority level is exercised by the relevant spending committee, a large part of that power being wielded by the committee Chairman. The committee Chairmen are serviced by their departmental chief officer whose advice is backed up by arguments prepared bya large team of specialists. In the face of this formidable array it is little wonder that the full council can do little more than rubber stamp committee decisions, and that even ward councillors are unable to play an active role in controlling services to the people they represent, let alone the users themselves. Except, for example, where a head teacher is involved in the design of a replacement school, there are few other opportunities for the user to gain control over the design. It is a system in which a certain product is demanded of individual architects in return for continued employ ment. The product is imposed or "sold" to local groups by a poli- tical leadership which has no doubt as to where "participation" begins and ends. Whatever the source, the public pays it eventually, either through increased taxes, rates and charges, or by the reduction in services for which we thought we had already paid — witness the present expenditure cuts. 5.5 Design We are only too familiar with the effect which scarce, minimum re- sources and the lack of user control has on the buildings. Whi le there is just not enough money, the design decisions which have to be made by the architect in the absence of user instructions, un=- doubtedly.mean that what money there is will often be allocated wrongly. 5.6 Public Accountability of the Architect? The local authority departments - education, housing, social services, architecture etc. are concerned with the provision of city wide services and by and large they treat the city as a whole. Sectional interests, whether of wards or of classes of people are generally subordinated to those of the. general population. 5.7 Conclusion. . Centralised offices follow naturally from this city wide view, the departmental chief officers are accountable to the Counci| via the Chairman of the relevant committee, and a hierarchal pyramidal structure must follow. The individual job architect who actually produces the work is responsible to the Chief Officer through a series of steps in the hierachy. The chain of accountability of job architect to user is through: group architect, principal architect, Chief architect, spending department chief officer, committee chairman, committee, ward councillor, User. Seven steps between architect and user. Those steps are so immovable and con= cerned with prestige,screening and face saving operations that in practice the local authority jobs architect is not accountable to the user at all. The changes which are necessary to convert this monolithic structure into a freely available and locally controlled National Design Service are substantial indeed. However, in setting out the ills and authoritarian practice of government structures it is important not to lose sight of the more fundamental fact that these structures directly or. through grants supply the resources, and buy the land necessary to meet basic — social requirements. It is not possible for people to demand control over the design of buildings if there are no resources to build them. The relevance of public resources to the question of control is seen most clearly in housing. In old working class communities up and down the country there are millions of people living in clearance areas in which badly built spec housing of the last century has rotted for decades. Housing which needs redeve=~ lopment not rehabilitation. The long-term cuts in public spending in order to make good the lack of private investment in the economy mean that people in these areas are faced with the fact that re= sources for new homes is not to be made available. These areas have become marginal, peripheral and in the end expendable. Patched up rehab. is what people will be offered alongside increasingly under maintained existing counci|] developments. 6.0 ALTERNATIVES The third area of patronage is interesting in terms of the poten- tial for raising expectations of what can be possible in the way of alternative practice. 6.1 Source of Finance: In the private sector it includes grants from developers like Wates to Assist or the Ealing project andtrust funds of one kind or another to enable the provision of special buildings and services. Such sources of finance usually ultimately rest upon less than respectable activities and hence the importance of philanthropic gestures to buy an honest and respectable image. This is not an argument against pursuing such funds; merely a reminder that such grants are only renewable insofar as they fulfil this hidden motive. They usually dry up when they fail to do so. 6.2 Control of Finance: The source of finance is provided throughadiverse range of public and private grants which to varying degrees cover land, design and development costs. Grants from public sources include H.A.A.'s, GIA's, Housing Associations via the Housing Corporation and possibly Urban Aid in resourcing community design services. But once secured they often create considerable discretionary power over handling such resources, within the overall terms of the grant. This power is expressed in the growth of resident=controleld housing associations which employ technical services on their own terms. This is by no means general. Local Authority controlled H.A.A.'s usually strictly limit the role of residents and on the other hand many Housing. Associations are merely private practices masquerading in disguise. Control of their activities by local residents. is not on their agenda either. Lfwebelievethatcompetenceandqualityareintegrallytied-up with who controls the process, then it should also give rise to designs which are welcomed and liked. 6.3 User Control and Local Accountability: But because of the facility for innovation there is scope for change in the traditional pattern of patronage. It is possible for the resident organisation which controls and manages the resources to be both client and user.. In employing the services of an architect there is no ambiguity about accountability. Where resources are controlled via the 'professionals' a serious attempt to place such structures in aposition of accountability to a locally controlled Management Committee can be innovatory. However a major drawback is the same as that which arises when work is done on a voluntary basis. Real power rests on being able to change your designer if you don't like them. Limited access to alternative source of such skills distorts the relationship on either side. 6.4 Practice Structures: The further by-product which ‘alternative projects' can create is in the office structure. Hierarchal power structures normal to private and public offices can be replaced by collective authority:| and cooperative working relationships. A further choice is to work for a reasonable salary turning the excess fees over to the public interest, rather than merely extending the sharing of excess profits. C ONC LUS |ONS This summary of the three ways in which architectural patronage is exercised provides the foundation for a more realistic discussion of what strategies can be employed to begin to lay the basis for a national design service within the real control of ordinary working people. — Local Authority Services Local] Authorities are clearly, centrally important as the main structure through which people can exert demands and gain the necessary access to land and resources created by taxation and rates, They are also equally important structures of authoritarian social control which cannot afford and have no intention of giving © away power to the grassroots. In principle, local authorities are structures which cannot be radically changed in our present society —- of that we should have no illusions. However, as the lowest tier of government they are not only necessary from above but are also susceptible to the threats of vigorous pressure from below. In our view we must campaign to support the demands of those local groups, who represent the interests of future users, and who cal] for a direct relationship of control over local authority architects delegated to design peoples future homes etc. - control which “extends to rejection of unsatisfactory proposals. Such a demand will inevitably be strongly opposed and in NAM we need a strategy which can help sympathetic architects to organise inside local authorities, to demand direct accountability to users and the creation of small locally based offices. To protect individuals, we need to secure the support of public service unions and UCCAT for the principle of this demand. Alternative Initiatives: No-one who has worked in a local authority can listen to talk of changing Local Authorities without asinking heart! This leads on to the second conclusion, which is that one of the best ways to raise expectations of what people's real rights over design are, is to increase the number and range of alternative short-term initia- tives. Where they are successful in winning public support they can be used as practical examples to pressurize local: councils into incorpora- -ting changes. More widely, we must never ignore the basic fact that small scale alternatives are based on the limited sponsorship of private or public sources of finance which can usually only meet the demands of a small number of specific groups of people. But they can offer the means to work and demonstrate how local groups and neighbourhoods can effectively extend control over decisions and resources effecting peoples lives. Local design centres which place themselves in a formal relationship of accountability to the community have a contribution to make in this process. We need a strategy for pursuing sponsorship of such initiatives. These two major conclusions and the way they should be carried forward are suggested as the basis of discussion. What does this imply in terms of a national design service? Local Authorities already control.a national structure of public sector architects. Do we wish to or change this existing structure or provide a parallel service? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource John Murray 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 Nov 1975 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/82fd65c8d2fee78d842e846159f74a85.pdf 1232cc26f4c9ae8fde884e72d5311b38 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 Harrogate Founding Congress Subject The topic of the resource The Harrogate Congress was the founding of NAM. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Various Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 21-23 November 1975 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 Individual stories from people who attended first NAM Congress Subject The topic of the resource Steering Group to do individual stories about joining NAM Description An account of the resource NEW ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT HOW IT ALL BEGAN - A PERSONAL DESCRIPTION User involvement in Design As the project architect of the new Edgewick Primary School in Coventry, I was briefed by the City Education Client Officer, a helpful, experienced and committed client. But when I asked him how I should accommodate useful suggestions from the new Head Teacher about the design of her new school he said, “Just ignore her”. I decided instead to ignore him and went on to work closely with the Head teacher, staff and pupils in developing the design of a successful and well-regarded Primary School adjacent to the existing Victorian Primary School, situated near a large Courtaulds factory and not far from the centre of Coventry. For me this was proof that the users of a building must be fully involved if the design is to be successful. It was a very important lesson and my respect for the committed Head has stayed with me ever since. Working for Tenants and Residents In the early 1970s many architects while working in offices were also providing free design advice and alternative schemes to tenants and residents groups faced with unacceptable redevelopment proposals. This work was in stark contrast to how they were earning their living during the day, but it taught both sides the benefits of having a design service available to and accountable to the people who used buildings. I was working for tenants in Newham while during the day I worked for BDP. BDP incidentally was a very good firm whose idealistic founding partner Grenfell-Baines stated it should be multi-disciplinary and fully involve and reward its staff. (3Rs, Responsibility, Recognition and Reward) (These ideas subsequently influenced the NAM Public Design Group’s proposals). At that time, my wife Ursula was working in a Community Development Project in Canning Town. Through her I became involved with West Ham tenants. Most private firms were not so good as BDP for salaried staff, hence salaried architects desire for change. The RIBA was seen to be a mouthpiece for private Architectural Practice. These ideas became more widespread throughout the profession both amongst salaried architects and teachers in schools of architecture. At the same time, new young Labour councillors, who had emerged from tenants’ struggles, were beginning to be elected and this encouraged the development of NAM ideas in councils, for example Haringey. Architects Revolutionary Council (ARC) While working in BDP, we used to occasionally visit the AA in nearby Bedford Square at lunchtimes. There was also an AA Studio in Percy Street near the BDP office. There I met the tutor, Brian Anson and his students. Brian had established with his students the Architects Revolutionary Council (ARC). They talked to us about ARC’s proposal for a New Architecture Movement to develop ARC’s ideas and especially to take on the RIBA, ARC’s bête noir. They were trying to encourage sympathetic architects, teachers and students to attend an inaugural conference to establish the New Architecture Movement. After I talked to Brian about my interest in public design he asked me to make a presentation about a national design service at the proposed conference. In November 1975 an advert appeared in the architectural press inviting participants to attend the inaugural congress of a hitherto unheard of New Architecture Movement in the unlikely setting of Harrogate. The congress, organised by ARC after discussion with sympathetic architects, brought together a considerable number of like-minded salaried architects and students. NAM was born The New Architecture Movement Harrogate is a very attractive and stylish former spa town in Yorkshire. No doubt ARC chose it for that reason. I presented a paper on a National Design Service to the Congress. Apart from meeting many like-minded architects, the main thing I remember about the congress is the debate about the proposed structure for the New Architecture Movement. NAM Structure ARC proposed that an elected Leader and committee should govern NAM. This resulted in an animated debate. The women at the meeting persuaded the men that the New Architecture Movement should be structured like the women’s movement; ie, groups of people interested in particular issues who would come together as necessary, not at the diktat of a higher body. In retrospect I think this was NAM’s great strength so we didn’t spend our time nit-picking as would inevitably have been the case if we had agreed to the centrally controlled body that ARC wanted. It was eventually agreed that NAM should be structured as local groups. There was also to be a liaison group, whose role was to coordinate the different campaign groups, deal with correspondence and arrange the next annual congress. Groups would report to each other through a magazine called SLATE. Liaison Group I was involved in the first London liaison group and in due course we got a grant from the Rowntree Foundation, which enabled us to set up an office in 9 Poland Street. During the first few months after Harrogate, we discussed how NAM should develop. We drafted NAM’s objectives (attached) and organised our first meeting in May 1977 in Covent Garden to encourage more salaried architects to join. Anne Karpf reported the event very favourably in Building Design. Groups The following campaign groups developed over time: • Alternative Practice • Education • Feminist Group • Professional Issues (A number of us were elected to ARCUK to represent ‘unattached’ architects) • Public Design Group • SLATE • Trade Unions and Architecture These groups, which were largely autonomous, worked across local groups to develop their ideas. They arranged their own conferences and reported through SLATE and annually to the NAM Congress. Although I was involved in the liaison group and other groups, my main interest was in developing the ideas for a National Design Service. This eventually became the Public Design Group. It included one of Brian Anson’s AA students and architects and students from Sheffield and Nottingham. So we did a lot of travelling, usually meeting in Sheffield. See separate report on how the Public Design Group evolved and how its ideas were eventually developed in Haringey. NAM’s ideas became more widespread throughout the profession both amongst salaried architects and teachers in schools of architecture. John Murray NAM Founder Member 31 August 2015 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource John Murray https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/aa27c8412b623081f5e24e41a6582277.pdf 2d69746a4aa3a16696ab51b6a267f436 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 Handbook https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/77550145802069726d9e309749d1036a.pdf 294253805cb3cd394df2cb1301e908d9 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 Website Index https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/6af3d039c3dd6415ff12b54f294ae72e.pdf 22a2896fb5d493fe4e9f1ea781c593bc 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 Trade Unions and Architecture Description An account of the resource Themes included action on asbestos and Health &amp; Safety, and involvement with Direct Labour Organisations and Building Unions. Following comparative research of possible options, NAM encouraged unionisation of building design staffs within the private sector, negotiating the establishment of a dedicated section within TASS. Though recruitment was modest the campaign identified many of the issues around terms of employment and industrial relations that underpin the processes of architectural production. 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 Highrise Industrialised Housing Subject The topic of the resource Critique - 7 x A4 typewritten pages Description An account of the resource ¥ - ST TIS Highrise Industrialised Housing. written by members of the yj Building Design Staff In Britain during the period 1964 - 1970 there was a remarkable boom in construction of high- rise industrialised housing. At the height of this boom over 40% of new local authority housing was being built using these methods. Although the period was very short, during it the skylines of most cities and towns in Britain were transformed, and a legacy was left which is now distinctive for another reason — massive repair bills. The scramble of the boom years with the attempt by the Labour government to achieve 500,000 new housing units per year was a gold mine to the building companies. Most of them developed or bought a system yntil there were more than 400 systems on the market; now there are only abot 70 in common use. HOW DID IT HAPPEN? The Tory government of the 1950s was concernetdo promote slum clearance, prevent urban Sprawl, retain agricultural land and to preserve the amenities of the countryside; these concerns were embodied in the 1953 jhite Paper which, whilst urging slum clearance and organising Green Belts around the Major cities, also encouraged Local Authorites to build at higher densities than before. After the war Local Authorities had concentrated on three-bed somes and flats, usually no higher than 3 - 4 storeys, but. with the creation of Green Belts expansion was restricted and housing land was limited. Central Government pressed Local Authorities in urban areas to build to higher densities, and produced 'Flats and Homes 1958' which they described as 'a study of design and economy in high density housing". Ministerial circulars, design manuals, bulletins, speeches and informal consultations with Local Authorities pressed the density policy home. The Government advised that above 90 persons per acre tall blocks would be better but were not completely necessary until a density of 140 persons per acre was reached. The policy was put into effect by a subsidy to Local Authorities for high-rise flats; each floor higher than six earned a subsidy. So, despite counter-objections, high-rise housing became a key component of Government housing policy, and the bandwagon began to roll Supported by technical advice which justified the idea. fhe NBA (National Building Agency) was set up in 1964 to examine the question and provide technical information and to Study industrialised building methods. Their backing of the highrise London branch of AUEW-TASS. industrialised solution and the support of the Government gave great weight to the idea, and there were very few Local Authorities that could resist the pressure. JUSTIFICATIONS FOR INDUSTRIALISED SYSTEMS. Many reasons were put forward as to why industrialised syatems should be used: 1. There was a large and urgent housing programme, and homes had to be provided quichly and cheaply. 2. Costs would decrease by standardising components and by mechanising the building process. The argument was that factories would be built with controlled conditions in which to make the components, which would then be taken by lorry to the sites and erected by skilled assemblers. This would mean that there would be less reliance on traditional labour crafts, less industrial conflict and therefore a smoother building operation. Cost would be further reduced by repeating standardised, units, and often an analogy with car assembly lines was used to illustrate this point. By ensuring a continuous demand for a particular system the high cost of capitalising such a project would be recouped; it was the possibility of high profits that induced building contractors was the main material used - about 95% in 1963 and 70% in 1970 for example. Many of the systems were imported from abroad. 3. Closer co-operation within the design team would result, and time would be saved by repeating types and the elimination of the one-off job. Had the high-riee experiment succeeded it might well have had major implications for the employment of designers. During the highrise boom attempts to introduce for instance, did not develop far enough to be a threat to design staff. One important inovation of the period was the ‘package deal’ whereby a building company undertakes to provide a certain number of dwellings, and both designs and constructs proposition for Local Authorities - particularly the smaller ones. After the highrise boom collapsed the package deal operation continued for lowrise housing, and recently there has been a noticable expansion of it. 4. NBA research was produced to show that above five floors to push their system. Concrete computer-aided design methods, them. This was an attractive construction costs did not increase markedly, even including the costs Industrial- the U.K. Use of room Hungary Large building elements in| nets W. Germany Industrial- Prefabric— ation in fo Ors|Oe3|0 24leoeS] Sell eeO|73 eee Ona QRS (rat. trad.) ~ of lifts. The supporters of high-rise industrialised building methods refered to building costs in Scandanavia and the Iron Curtain countries which appeared to show that highrise was cheaper. THE EXTENT OF THE HIGHRISE BOOM. The following statistics summarise the boom, and show comparable figures for some other European countries: eee? 1.3||12.4]16.7| 22.9]36.5]/49.7|17.9| 24.7| 27.7| 28.6| 31.3] 28.2 isedconst=|gaa logec29.6]33.9)36.8]37.8]34.0]23.4/19.8|21.7]20.2/18.8 ruction in : aged consta| 7(al s5ealo7_a)06%6 98.2/ 90.0] 88.1] 86.6] 84.3| 79.6] 80.1/82.6 ruction in E. Germany (n.b. figures include concrete blocks) esceia cece | cece) eee! eoee!| eeee/10.7/10.7/10.9/10.9/10.8/10.7| 9.4 Materials used in industrialised housing in the U.K. as Z% of total: Concrete 95.9 || -.+-|75.1] 68.8] 71.4/69.6|71.6|64.0]62.7|61.2|50.7 39.1 New houses and flats built using industrialised methods - as a Z age of all new dwellings (all figures are taken from the Annual Bulletin of Housing and Building Statistics for Europe published every year by the UN) Timber Steel 2-3 | eee-} 7-1/11.5] 9.2/12.0]/11.5/13.1]15.3|24.5|39.7155.0 Bricks 1.7 || ..--] 7.9} 7.0] 6.4] 5.4] 3.3] 6.1] 7.9] 7.8] 4.3] 4.6 coos ieeee! 9.8/12.7/12.9/13.0/13.6/16.7/14.1| 6.5| 4.3] 4.6 1963|| 1966} 1967} 1968} 1969] 1970) 1971] 1972] 1973] 1974| 1975| 1976 THE END OF THE ERA. By 1968 the boom was over, and the ending was dramatic - high-rise industrialised housing was discredited. The apparent reasons were: 1. Growing public disenchantment with high-rise housing in general. 2. Design faults and repair bills due to hastily conceived designs and lack of experience in industrialised housing. After the partial collapse of Ronan Point in 1968,300,000 examined for structural faults. : dwellings had to be 3. The Housing Subsidies Act 1967 reduced financial high-rise flats by abolishing the additional in exess of six. support for subsidy for each storey 4.The devaluation of the pound in 1967 and the cutting of £82 million from the nations expenditure on housing. 5. The Wilson government introduced a large subsidy for hotel construction which meant that many building quickly as pessible to this. REASONS FOR THE HIGH-RISE BOOM AND FOR ITS COLLAPSE. 1. Commercial. Whatever the elaborate theoretical justifications housing the real underlying motives were always commercial. Apart from the advantages already mentioned of cutting back the workforce, the building companies could share the same plant and equipment for tall offices, housing and hotels. By the early 1960s the largest companies were already tooled up for highrise operations - for office building. But in their scramble to make profits out of high-rise housing, the large building companies were 80 greedy that they failed even to produce a reasonable product. Thus the serious building recession of the early 1970s was to some extent their own fault. 2. Political. In the early 1960s the establishment took up the cause of high-rise housing with enthusiasm. There were some direct influences on governments from the building companies; for example director of Bovis, from 1964 to 1971 Geoffrey Rippon was Chairman of Cubitts, and advisors to the Minister 1965 to 1966 a director of Costains director of Concrete Ltd. (Mr K. Wood) of Quickbuild Ltd. (Mr D. Llewellyn). Also very important in influecing companies switched as in 1963 Keith Joseph was @ of Housing included from (Mr Lederer), from 1966 to 1967 a and from 1967 to 1968 a director used for high-rise the Government was the NBA, supposedly an objective scientific research body, but which acted in fact as one of the main channels through which commercial interests brought about the high-rise boom. Other sections of the establishment such as the media and University research departments also played a role in legitimising the process. Of course it was mainly through political pressures that the experiment was abandoned. In the late 1960s high-rise housing began to be a political scandal and embarragment and the establishment dropped it as quickly as it could. 3. Ideological and Theoretical. In the early 1960s all sorts of ideolgical and theoretical arguments were found to justify the construction of high-rise housing. One of the most potent was the mechanistic line of thinking which said that since it was now technologically possible to construct mlti- storey housing it was there fore inevitable scientific progrss to do so. A number of simplistic architectural theories were also trotted out. Also Britain was said to be lagging behind countries like the U.S.A. or even the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe. Incidentally, the latter remains the one part of the world where high-rise solutions have continued to supply a high proportion of new dwellings; an analysis of this is however outside the scope of this paper. 4. Operational. As mentioned above the building industry was to a certain extent already geared to multi-storey construction for its very profitable office building operations. Nevertheless serious operational problems continued throughout the high-rise boom. One basic problem was the lack of a steady and regular supply of land. Public ownership of land, such as it was, was unable to counteract the effects on land supply of the capitalist land market. Another basic problem was the way that both Government and businesses use the building industry as a 'regulator’. The cyclical booms and recessions of a capitalist economy are thus magnified in the construction sector, and one of the ways that Governments try to regulate the economy in general is through housing policy. The high-rise housing boom was also so shortlived that builders afterwards claimed that lack of time to achieve competence in this new field was the main problem. Although there was some truth in this, it assumes, wrongly, that builders were primapily interested in building good dwellings. They were not - their primary interest was and is in making profits. As it happens, this may sometimes involve good building practice. 5. Sociological. Although it is hard to believe it now, in the early 1960s sociological theories were dredged up which ‘showed" that high-rise flats were going to bring a better life, particularly for the poor. However, we can now see what the actual sociological effects have been. Whereas the idea was put forward that multi-storey estates would be wonderful new communities, we can now see that in general they are barren and unsatisfactory places to live, particularly in comparison with some of the traditional working-class neighbourhoods which they replaced. The disruption caused by this novel form of dwelling has proved to be enormous; they are particularly unsuitable for families with children. All this combined with the appalling technical faults of many estates has meant that the whole building type is now stigmatised.— for many people the very idea of living in a high flat is a fearful prospect, and many people who do live in them want nothing more than to get out. CONSEQUENCES OF THE HIGHRISE BOOM. 1. The Housing Stock. As a result of the 1960s high-rise boom there are now a large number of extremely poor and problematic dwellings. New problems with highrise flats are constantly coming to light; among these are structural problems which lead to cracks developing or even danger of collapse, condensation due to inadequate insulation, heating bills which may be as much as three times those of traditional dwellings, and cheap and badly-fitting windows or other compoments. Ratepayers are now having to pay for enormous repair bills on estates which are less than ten years old; in some cases high blocks of flats are even being demolished long before the loans with which they were built have been paid off. , 2. Employment. As observed above, one of the original ‘advantages" of highrise construction was claimed to be that more buildings could be built with less labour - both on the construction side and on the design side. Despite the meteoric and short-lived nature of the boom we can see that this did happen. Also both designers were considerably de-skilled - indeed this was one of the advantages for the employers. Despite the failure of the high-rise housing boom, both these and construction workers | changes in the quantity and in the nature of employment are still going on. This has been helped by the fact that the building unions have been comparatively fragmented and ineffectual, and building design staff have been, until recently, hardly unionised at all. INDUSTRIALISATION NOW AND IN THE FUTURE. About 20% of new housing is still being constructed using industrialised methods, but these days it is low-rise. The attractions to the building companies are the same as they were for high-rise. Most of the new low-rise industrialised systems use timber, and TRADA (Timber Research and Development Association) is performing a similar role in advocating these to that which the NBA performed in advocating high-rise industrialised methods in the 1960s, TRADA is partly funded by private construction companies. Another fact to note is that one low-rise syatem, Wimpey No-fines, has over the last few years accounted for over 20% of industrially built new public sector housing. Trade unionists in the building industry must keep a careful watch on these activities. Finally it must be pointed out that industrialisation in the construction industry is not necessarily a bad thing. But the criterion to decide whether the introduction of new technology is a good thing should be social need, and the pattern of employment should be taken into account as part of this. In the past this has not happened. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Building Design Staff, London Branch of AUEW-TASS Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Andrew Brown Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource post June 1977 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/692555f988890b49d602faeee4ba34f5.pdf 2c271f6c4b8cc514fa5790ce5451ee02 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 12 Subject The topic of the resource Contains: 'Women and Space Conference Application', Sat 10th and Sun 11th March 1979 'Speculation Over The City' Description An account of the resource [ aa . oe ecul: Bs ance a2 at Peed oA oé ao a Fence rs to, a Le Ee Se is REPRESENTATIVES ae orbluish-purpletockeasilysplit Anetworkof30representativeshasbeen housing bill trauma THE SHELTER CONFERENCE on the 1979 Housing Bill was held on the the 16th of February, its aims were to help tenants and housing activists to campaign for a more radical hous- ing Bill than that proposed by the Bte!, n.,a,&v.t. 1,Inds ofgrey, {nto flat smooth plates; plece of such fhe ~, rid oneself of or renounce oblign- tons) +~-black, -blue, -grcy, modifications of these tints such as occur in~; jl-~-cltb, smutual benefit society with small weekly contributions; ~-colour(ed), (of) dark bluish or greenish grey; hence slat’y? a, 2. adj. (Made) of~. 3, v.t. Cover with ~s esp. as roofing; hence slit’er' n, (ME -). Criticize severely te hor in reviews), scold, rate; *nominate, propose for office etc, Hence slit’1xc(1) n. (app. f, prec.} SLATE IS THE NEWSLETTER OF THE NEW ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT, published bi-monthly and edited by the Moyement’s Publications Group. News und 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 set up throughout schools and large prac- ticesuloverthecountry.Theonlycomm- itment of each representative will be to receive 5 copies of SLATE every two months and to try to sel 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 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 11th May 1979 and THE PLIGHT OF SUB— URBAN WOMEN Commercial development and women's employment ACOMMUNITY LAND ACT? Was itever effective? PLANNING SYSTEM ON TRIAL The implications of the forth- coming South Bank Enquiry BAKER STREET BLUES A complex inner city area under threat P20 ARCHITEKT P20 LETTERS P23 :[ + SUBSCRIBE! the recent election among thenearly 4400 architects considered by ARCUK as ‘unattached.’ Although the four incumbent NAM—affiliated | NAME |ADDRE If you would like to receive SLATE without SLATE 12 PAGE 2 Councils an incentive to produce a clear 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) ; Contents NEWS THE SLATER UNATTACHED NEWS EDITORIAL PENSION FUNDS: YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE Pensionfundsandproperty speculation P8 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 ; joining NAM fil in the form below and send ittogether 7 notincreasebecausewageshadincreased. bythecouncilofSTAMP, On improvements there were demands section of UCATT. the non-manual for fostering action by councils in com- attached councillorsThe newly-elected un- NEWS FROM NAM workshops as to the ways in which the Bil should be ammended. In the work- shop on Allocations of Council Houses the following ammendments ware demanded:thatthereshouldbenogrounds councillors(BobMaltz,JohnMurray, P10 P16 P18 government . While Labours Bil is nolonger nec- essarilyas immediate asit was in February, the Housing Bil that the Conservatives may may introduce iseven less likely to match the conferences aims than that of the Labour Bill. At the conference there were workshops on the Tenants Charter, the allocation of Council Housing, Housing Subsidies, Home improvements and empty Houses. Specific demands were produced by these Architects Registration Council in which preyented a person for a council house and ‘that eligiblity for Ian Tod and Tom Woolley) easily led the balloting and increased their percentage of the votes over last government to publish for the its secret figures showing how the new subsidising system will work and to give to invest in housing and national policy on rent levels which did pulsary improvement powers, essential repairs and the production of an action programme on vandalised council estates. It also called for an increase in the homes improvement grant and the scrapping of the proposed tenants grant. In the Empty Houses workshop a ban on the demolition of good houses before are three NAM members members; John Allan, Sue Jackson and being considered transfering area should not only be con- sidered when achangeofjob was involved. year, the number of NAM members The subsidies workshop called on ARCUK has declined by two. Four NAM members who represented “unattached” architects for the past two years (Anne Delaney, Alan Lipman, David Roebuck and KenThorpe) did not stand as candidates this year and NAM member Adam Purser did not seek renomination NAM MEMBERS have won seven of the nine seats up for grabs on the Marion Roberts, together with Péter Cut- more and David Robson, neither of whom isexpected to throw in his lot with the RIBA Council’s “Gang of Forty” which stil controls the 67-seat ARCUK. While the ‘unattached’ are obliged by the Architects Registration Act of 1931 SLATE 12 PAGE 3 VSWEWSNEY to nominate only ‘registered persons’ (e.g. ‘architects’), the RIBA Council is free to nominate anyone,lay or profession— al,RIBA mamber ornot. Onceagain, however, the RIBA Council has nominated exclusively RIBA menbers to its 40seats onARCUK. Itappears,indeedthatit is becoming so difficult for the small group of RIBA fanatics who mastermind the RIBA’s use of ARCUK as an RIBA puppet to find sufficient ‘sheep’willing to toe their party line on ARCUK that of their 8 new nominees, the RIBA Council has had to draft five members of the RIBA Council itself. a public enquiry was demanded as was aduty of Councils to consider the 1se of empty property anda right of couzicil tenants to object to the demolition plans At the end of the conference it was emphasised that massive publicity must be given to the shortcomings of the Bil but it was reiterated that the campaign for a more radical Housing Bill would only be effective if it was linked to a Wider cam- Paign to reversethe housing cuts and win political commitment to everyone's right to have decent housing. victory at the poles 3 [ityouwoui ikefboeamemberoftheNewArchitectureMoverientfillinthefecmbeloawndsend} it together with a cheque/postal order (payable to the New Architecture Movement) for £5.00 ( if | you're employed) or £8898 (ifyou're are student, claimant or OAP) to NAM at 9, Poland Street |London Wt. 3-00 withacheque/postalorder(payabletotheNew ArchitectureMovement )for£9988toNAM at9, |feesina steeteeatt 250 As ever, the RIBA Council has nominated to ARCUK primarily bosses. Although lessthan 30%ofthe RIBAmembership are in management positions, over 90% of their Council’s nominees to ARCUK are. Indeed, two out of every three of the RIBA Council nominees are owners of private firms. And although the RIBA draws nearlyhalfofits membership from the public sector, over 75% of RIBA Council nominees to ARCUK are from theprivate sector. Despite the widely—trumpeted gains made in last year’s RIBA Council elections by the RIBA’s self—styled ‘SalariedArchitects Group’ (which includes some employers), there is still only one ‘SAG’ person among the forty RIBA Council nominees. Perhaps the thought of SAG people voting together It was recently reported in Building that the RIBA Council refused to nominate even one member of the Society of Architectural and Associated Technicians, which was originally established under the RIBA’s wing to keep the ‘second tier’ of the profession in line (and out of thealternative a a bona fide trade union) because that body, floundering though it may be, quite understandably refused to be bound by the RIBA whip. with NAM members elected by ‘unattached’ architects was too daunting aProspect for the bosses on RIBA Council . or for SAG! The six ARCUK Councillors nominated by other professional and employers NIEWSNE JSNEWSNEWSNEWSIREWS ARCUK by the RIBA itself and isapparent ly no longer a member of STAMP. The hopes of the representatives of the ‘unattached’foranincreasedturnoutin the recent elections were unfulfilled. ARCUK sent out the ballot papers so late that many unattached hardly had a chance to vote Steps are underway now to get ARCUK’s regulations changed in order to oblige the Registrar to allow voters su‘licient time Nevertheless, the elected unattached councillors al received between 338 and $00 votes. While RIBA Council nominees to ARCUK are not subject to election at al, it may nevertheless be worth noting that ARCUK Councillor Nadine Bedding ton, private practice boss and a RIBA and ACA fanatic, gotre-elected to the RIBA Council last year with 146 votes. That's the same Nadine Beddington who is re ported to have sought to field a slate of RIBA sympathizers to contest the “un attached’ elections, claiming that the NAM members elected were ‘unrepresentative.” Resultsof the ‘unattached’ election: standers) was ejected from the building. There were no arrests however and the demonstrators had stayed long enough tomaketheirpointandhavesomecons- iderable fun in doing so. The immediate reason for occupying these particular houses was to protest against their erec- tion by the GLC (at a cost of £75,000) in order to publicise this council’s policy of halting its housing programme and selling off council houses regardless of the social consequences. The protestors also raised more important broader issues, pointing out the need to oppose the hous- ing cuts as well asthe attack on council housing that accompanies them. They challenged the very idea of an ‘Ideal Home’ exhibition while thousands are homeless and millions remain inadequ- ately housed, and they brought the anger of the homeless and badly housed into the heart of this funfair for the wealthy, well-heeled and well-housed. The people involved came from avariety of organisations and areas, some of them travelling from Cardiff, Portsmouth Plymouth and other parts of the country. The Ass- ociation of London Housing Estates, the Federation of Short-Life Housing Groups, London Squatters Union, Middlesex Poly Not all visitors reacted too warmly of course, there being the full quota of complacent owner occupiers that would Bob Dumbleton from South Wales Housing Action Group started the day with an introduction on the whole sub- jectofpensionfunds.Heemphasizedtheir outtheargumentsforthenecessityfora Elected Not elected unequal opportunities "THE NAM Feminist Group is to do battle with the legislative machinery of anti-sexismTh.e RIBA swung into action in November on the issue of sexism in the profession by sending out a survey to al women registered architects. The survey asked such highly relevant and un- biased questions as “What does your fath- er do ?” and “Is your husband an archit- Ck am The RIBA had been commissioned by the Policy Studies Institute which in turn had been requested by the Equal Oppor- tunities Commission to carry out this sur- vey on women in the profession. A similar study was done ten years ago and the conclusions which its distin- guished researchers came to were that “women architects did not succeed bec- ause they were not ambitious enough” and “the architectural profession was not inherently sexist”. size: for example ICI’s fund is£593M and the National Coal Board’s is£1037M. This concentration of capital should in theory give immense power to the workers who collectively own it. Bob elucidated the paradox of pension funds: that they are in effect workers deferred wages and must therefore guarantee a certain minimum return. As a consequence the investment of pension funds is left to “experts” : investment consultants, who pick up a fat fee for advising on safe returns for the money invested. The kind of investment that yields a consistently high return in the short term is in the areas like property speculation, and not in the manufacturing sector. Thus the contradictory situation arises where pension funds are investing in soc- ially destructive projects, to the detriment of other workers living conditions. A poignant example of this isthe develop- ment of Swansea City Centre, in which some money from the miners pension fund is invested through a development company. These funds together with the local authority funding are diverting investment away from the Welsh valleys and are thus contributing to their econ- omic decline. Bob emphasised the importance of campaigning for a good state-owned pen- sion fund scheme which would releive the necessity for this kind of investment in the private market. An interim step could be greater trade union representation and participationontheboardoftrustees of pension funds. planned programme of investment which would put capital in the prodiictive sect- ors of the economy. He reminded us of the subjectivity of the investment elite and it’s desire for short-term returns. The distinction between social ownership and social control was discussed and the imp- ortance of the latter, with special refer- ence to eastern europe. Holland drew the parallel between the health service before it was nationalised and pension funds now. He thought that the way forward lay eventually in state/social control over pension funds with a long-term strategy for investment. One step towards this could be the use of a key case, such as the ones spoken earlier in the day, where an exposure of the contradictions of the present mis-use of funds could be given full publicity. The discussion following each speaker's contribution was lively and the conference ended by breaking into groups and dis- cussing the way ahead. Thus the propo- sals which came out of the conference are in the long term: 1. The nationalisation of pension funds under social control with a system of “pay as you go” contribution. 2. Government direction over the invest- mentofpensionfunds. and in the short term: 3. More effective trade union represent- ation and participation on the boards The representatives on ARCUK of ‘unattached’architects are concerned thatmanyarchitectswhooughttobe areinterestedingettingarealistic |IDEACHOMES FOR AL. Wi individuals involved in housing. It exists to further the fight for decent housing _ forall. ideal homes for all THE IDEAL Home Exhibition found itself the scene of something alittle outside its usual artificial affluence on Friday March 9th when agroup of demonstrators occupied the two GLC show houses in the Exhibition ‘village’. A group of about 30 people entered the houses as ordinary visitors and then told the GLC officials inside “This is an occu- pation”, escorted them out of the build- ings, and secured the doors. Meanwhile another squad had climbed onto the roofs of the houses and unfurleda fifteen foot long banner saying “Ideal Homes for All”, and a hundred supporters gathered in the vicinity kept up a continuous barrage of chanting and singing, as well as saturat- ing the exhibition with leaflets. Stuart Holland followed with an anal- ysis of the crisis of productivity. He drew Text of this article by courtesy of the Housing Action Campaign HOUSING ACTION isadecentralised net campaigningnetworkofgroupsand Report of the conference held in Birming- ham on January 20th. The conference was reasonably well att- ended in spite of the snow: about 60 delegates came from places as far afield as Swansea and North Shields. There was a mixture of people involved in commun- ity action, trade union officials and active trade unionists which lent a wide resource of experience to the discussion. Police moved in rapidly, kicking their way through the locked doors and breaking a couple of windows, and everyone invol- ved in the occupation or who looked like asympathiser(includingahandfulofby- beexpectedatsuchanevent.“Whyaren't_ and the RIBA too many. They should also write to the Registrar of ARCUK stating that they are not membersofRIBA,AA,FAS,[AAS or STAMP and asking to have the The representatives of the unattached In response the NAM Feminist Group haswrittenalettertotheE.0.C.point- ing out the deficiencies in the RIBA questionnaire and the previous report, and explaining the difference between the RIBA and ARCUK. We have asked for funds with which to carry out our ownsurvey.Theanswerisstilyettobe rarytotheinterestsofworkerslivingin HousingResourceLibraryTM.LadbrokeHouse received....... these areas. Alan Spence from Covent Highbury Grove London N.5. view of how widespread the practice isand would like to hear directly from architects who think they are unattach— status as unattached. Any architect ed but did not receive papers in the resigning from any of the above recent election. Please write to mentioned associations is advised of pension funds. 4.Theuseofakeycommunitystruggle regarded by ARCUK as ‘unattached’ are considered by ARCUK to be ‘attached,’ particularly to the RIBA This means that they do not receive nomination and election papers and alsomeansthatthe‘unattached’may UnattachedRepresentatives,c/oSLATE,toinformARCUK’sRegistrarofthe be allowed too few seats on ARCUK 9 Poland Street, London W1. fact. SLATE 12 PAGE 4 to publisize the contradictions and anomolies inpension funds. Students Union and local building workers were among those who gave their support. Registrar confirm inwriting their Speakers from community action groups in North Sheilds, Cardiff, Birming- hain and Southwark related the ways in which pension funds had invested cont- you at work?” yelled one well-dressed gent gentleman, to the quick retort from a pro- control testor of “Why aren’t you at work?” The point was probably lost, but the action asawholeleftthoseofusinvolvedfeeling pensionfunds elated and just itching for the next time. | Garden pointed out how a trade union pension fund could play a constructive role, by buying up the development in Covent Garden for housing and social fac- ilities which had been won by the direct actionof the local community. This devel- opment isnow owned by the GLC and since it has turned Tory wishes to sel al cf the dwellings at £30,000 per flat. In the afternoona trade union official from the GMWU explained the philosophy behind his union’s investment of its pen- sion funds and the way in which worker representatives came on to the board of trustees. He emphasized how pensions had originally been a gain for the labour movement and their importance as a def- erred wage. A more detailed account of the conter- ence may be obtained from the “Self -Help SLATE 12PAGE 5 VSNEWSNEWS\S associations in the building industry are prevented by law from beingarchitects. Of the remaining 61, 51 are members of the RIBA. This is because the five minor ‘professional’ bodies with nomination rights under the 1931 Actall nominated exclusively RIBA members to their total of seven seats, as did the government, with the exception of one senior civil servant. In addition to nominating a RIBA member to ARCUK, STAMP has also nominated RIBA stalwart Kenneth Campbell to fil its places on ARCUK’s Board of Education and Admissions Committee. William Kretchmer, who lost his STAMP nomin Pwore |THY SEP ation last year after voting with the RIBA faction to keep ARCUK investing in apartheid, has now been given a seat on John Murray Bob Maltz Tom Woolley lan Tod 550 Eddie Walker 337 492 MJB Jackson 333 489 HP Massey 315 478 lan Cooper 299 433 John Allan David Robson Peter Cutmore Sue Jackson Marion Roberts 338 391 356 343 VSNEWSNIS SNEWS1Y associations in the building industry are prevented by law from being architects. Of the remaining 61, 51 are members of the RIBA. This is because the five minor ‘professional’ bodies with nomination rights under the 1931 Act al nominated exclusively RIBA members to their total of seven seats, as did the government, with the exception of one senior civil servant. In addition to nominating a RIBA member to ARCUK, STAMP has also nominated RIBA stalwart Kenneth Campbell to fil its places on ARCUK’s Board of Education and Admissions Committee. William Kretchmer, who lost his STAMP nomin ation last year after voting with the RIBA faction to keep ARCUK investing in apartheid, has now been given a seat on ARCUK by the RIBA itself and isapparent ly no longer a member of STAMP. The hopes of the representatives of the ‘unattached’ for an increased turnout in the recent elections were unfulfilled. ARCUK sent out the ballot papers so late that many unattached hardly had a chance to vote. Steps are underway now to get ARCUK’s regulations changed in order to oblige the Registrar to allow voters suclicient time. Nevertheless, the elected unattached councillors al received between 338 and 500 votes. While RIBA Council nominees to ARCUK are not subject to election at al, it may nevertheless be worth noting that ARCUK Councillor Nadine Bedding ton, private practice boss and a RIBA and ACA fanatic, got re-elected to the RIBA Council last year with 146 votes. That’s the same Nadine Beddington who is re ported to have sought to field a slate of RIBA sympathizers to contest the ‘un attached” elections, iming that the NAM members elected were ‘unrepresentative.” Results of the ‘unattached’ election: JQEAL- HOMES FOR ALL. ARRAS eS Elected John Murray Bob Maltz Tom Woolley lan Tod John Allan David Robson Peter Cutmore Sue Jackson Marion Roberts Not elected $50 Eddie Walker 337 492 MJB Jackson 333 489 HP Massey 315 of organisations and areas, some of them travelling from Cardiff, Portsmouth,Plymouth and other parts of the country. The Ass- ociation of London Housing Estates, the Federation of Short-Life Housing Groups, London Squatters Union, Middlesex Poly Students Union and local building workers were among those who gave their support. Not all visitors reacted too warmly of course, there being the full quota of complacent owner occupiers that would be expected at such an event. “Why aren’t _ They should also write to the Registrar of ARCUK stating that they are not members of RIBA, AA, FAS, IAAS orSTAMPandaskingtohavethe SLATE 12 PAGE 4 these areas. Alan Spence from Covent Highbury Grove London N.S. SLATE 12PAGE 5 478 lan Cooper 433 39] 356 343 338 299 The representatives on ARCUK of ‘unattached’architects are concerned that many architects who ought to be are interested in getting a realistic regarded by ARCUK as ‘unattached’ areconsideredbyARCUK tobe ‘attached,’ particularly to the RIBA This means that they do not receive nomination and election papers and also means that the ‘unattached’ may beallowedtoofewseatsonARCUK 9PolandStreet,LondonW1. 1. The nationalisation of pension funds under social control with a system of “pay as you go” contribution. 2. Government direction over the inves'- ment of pension funds. and in the short term: 3. More effective trade union represent- ation and participation on the boards of pension funds. THE IDEAL Home Exhibition found af S standers) was ejected from the building. There were no arrests however and the demonstrators had stayed long enough to make their point and have some cons- iderable fun in doing so. The immediate reason for occupying these particular houses was to protest against their erec- tion by the GLC (at a cost of £75,000) in order to publicise this council’s policy of halting its housing programme and selling off council houses regardless of the social consequences. The protestors also raised more important broader issues, pointing out the need to oppose the hous- ing cuts as well asthe attack on council housing that accompanies them. They challengedtheveryideaofan ‘Ideal Home’ exhibition while thousands are homeless and millions remain inadequ- ately housed, and they brought the anger of the homeless and badly housed into unequal opportunities itself the scene of something a little outside its usual artificial affluence on Friday March 9th when agroup of demonstrators occupied the two GLC show houses in the Exhibition ‘village’. A group of about 30 people entered the houses as ordinary visitors and then told the GLC officials inside “This is an occu- pation”, escorted them out of the build- ings, and secured the doors. Meanwhile another squad had climbed onto the roofs of the houses and unfurled a fifteen foot long banner saying “Ideal Homes for All’’, and a hundred supporters gathered in the vicinity kept up a continuous barrage of chanting and singing, as well as saturat- ing the exhibition with leaflets. Police moved in rapidly, kicking their way through the locked doors and breaking a couple of windows, and everyone invol- ved in the occupation or who looked like a sympathiser (including a handful of by- the heart of this funfair for the wealthy, well-heeled and well-housed. and the RIBA too many. The representatives of the unattached view of how widespread the practice isandwouldliketoheardirectlyfrom architects who think they are unattach— Registrar confirm in writing their 4.Theuseofakeycommunitystruggle to publisize the contradictions and anomolies in pension funds. ed but did not receive papers in the recent election. Please write to status as unattached. Any architect resigning from any of the aboye mentioned associations is advised iinformARCUK’sRegistrarofthe - act. A more detailed account of the conter- : The people involved came from avariety HOUSING ACTION isadecentralised campaigning network of groups and individuals involved in housing. It exists to further the fight for decent housing forall. Report of the conference held inBirming- ham on January 20th. The conference was reasonably well att- ended in spite of the snow: about 60 delegates came from places as far afield as Swansea and North Shields. There was a mixture of people involved in commun- ity action, trade union officials and active trade unionists which lent awide resource of experience to the discussion. Bob Dumbleton from South Wales Housing Action Group started the day with an introduction on the whole sub- ject of pension funds. He emphasized their size: for example ICI’s fund is £593M and the National Coal Board’s is £1037M. This concentration of capital should in theory give immense power to the workers who collectively own it. Bob elucidated the paradox of pension funds: that they are in effect workers deferred wages and must therefore guarantee a certain minimum return. As a consequence the investment of pension funds is left to “experts” : investment consultants, who pick upa fatfeeforadvisingonsafereturnsfor the money invested. The kind of investment that yields a consistently high return in the short term is in the areas like property speculation, and not in the manufacturing sector. Thus the contradictory situation arises where pension funds are investing in soc- ially destructive projects, to the detriment of other workers living conditions. A poignant example of this is the develop- ment of Swansea City Centre, in which some money from the miners pension fund isinvested through adevelopment company. These funds together with the local authority funding are diverting investment away from the Welsh valleys and are thus contributing to their econ- omic decline. Bob emphasised the importance of campaigning for agood state-owned pen- sion fund scheme which would releive the necessity for this kind of investment in the private market. An interim step could be greater trade union representation and participationontheboardoftrustees of pension funds. Speakers from community action groups in North Sheilds, Cardiff, Birming- hain and Southwark related the ways in whichpensionfundshadinvestedcont- encemaybeobtainedfromthe“Self-Help rary to the interests of workers living in Housing Resource Library. Ladbroke House you at work?” yelled one well-dressed gent gentleman, to the quick retort froma pro- testor of “Why aren’t you at work?” The point was probably lost, but the action as a whole left those of us involved feeling elated and just itching for the next time. Text of this article by courtesy of the Housing Action Campaign |IDEA-HOMES FO Hos, control pension funds Garden pointed out how a trade union | pension fund could play aconstructive role, by buying up the development in Covent Garden for housing and social fac- ilities which had been won by the direct actionof the local community. This devel- Opment isnow owned by the GLC and since it has turned Tory wishes to sel al cf the dwellings at £30,000 per flat. In the afternoona trade union official from the GMWU explained thephilosophy behind his union’s investment of itspen- sion funds and the way in which worker Tepresentatives came on to the board of trustees. He emphasized how pensions had originally been a gain for the labour movement and their importance as a def- erred wage. Stuart Holland followed with an anal- ysis of the crisis of productivity. He drew out the arguments for the necessity for a planned programme of investment which would put capital in the prodictive sect- ors of the economy. He reminded us of the subjectivity of the investment elite and it’s desire for short-term returns. The distinction between social ownership and social control was discussed and the imp- ortance of the latter, with special refer- ence to eastern europe. Holland drew the parallel between the health service before itwas nationalised and pension funds now. He thought that the way forward lay eventually in state/social control over Pension funds with a long-term strategy for investment. One step towards this could be the use ofa key case, such as the ones spoken earlier in the day, where an exposure of the contradictions of the present mis-use of funds could be given full publicity. The discussion following each speaker's contribution was lively and the conference ended by breaking into groups and dis- cussing the way ahead. Thus the propo- sals which came out of the conference are in the long term: Unattached Representatives, c/o SLATE, JSNEWSMEWONEWSNIE WS ~THE NAM Feminist Group istodo battle with the legislativemachinery of anti-sexismTh.e RIBA swung into action in November on the issue of sexism in the profession by sending out a survey to all women registered architects. The survey asked such highly relevant and un- biased questions as “What does your fath- er do ?” and “Is your husband an archit- ech 2m The RIBA had been commissioned by the Policy Studies Institute which in turn had been requested by the Equal Oppor- tunities Commission to carry out this sur- vey on women in the profession. A similar study was done tenyears ago and the conclusions which its distin- guished researchers came to were that “women architects did not succeed bec- ause they were not ambitious enough” and “the architectural profession was not inherently sexist”. In response the NAM Feminist Group has written a letter to the E.0.C. point- ing out the deficiencies in the RIBA questionnaire and the previous report, and explaining the difference between the RIBA and ARCUK. We have asked for funds with which to carry out our own survey. The answer isstil yet to be received....... a ss nt eli da cc a 7 &, TheSlater CAREER PROSPECTS Pe wAS Jot oPanh “CHese JERK OFfARASTS AND otHERAplPelagING ided against distributing local lists of arch- off for ‘conspiracy to corrupt’. He had been itects.: a measure long advocated by the architect to Kirkby and Knowsley councils andhadacceptedgiftsfromthemanaging unattached.Althoughtheunattachedcan, director of a local builder in return for the award of contracts. The star turn of the afternoon was (sadly) deferred until june: The discussion onconfidentialityhadpromisedtobe very contentious. It was decided to defer after a submission had been received from STAMP (one of ARCUK’s constituent bodies)which,accordingtotheregistrar epicprosewhichconstitutedtheannual and his retinue, hada significant bearing report. Virtually each paragraph was ques- on the issue. At the last meeting in Decem- tioned by your heroes and the vast maj- bertheregistrar’sproposalthatalthe orityoftheirpointsweresummarily Inspite of none-too-rosy career prospects foryoungarchitectsandthesighofrelief os ES4) Dont professionalclimbers(womenthistime) in the shapeof a group to look at “Feminist Architecture ’(FAWG for short) and so cloud the fact that the profession Themeetingwasroundedoffwitha dogged duel between the unattached and the rest of the council over the registrar's heaved by the architectural world when it heard that, at last, the number of REM PMiCR YcHee on CrogcRbt wikis DAUGHTER OF CAWG UNATTACHED WE Far be it from this column to put ideas into the architectural establishment’s (Leas?N]Ght$)FULoF head, ifithas one, but the recent success of NAM’s Feminist Design Cooperative WEnt 2 Tals parly SLATE aims to provide an effective means of communication for the “unattached ” members of ARCUK through these columns and letters page. So if you feel strongly about these issues, don’t hesitate to write to us. For the lay reader of SLATE “‘ARCUK ”is the Architects Registration Council of the U.K. It was set up by the Architects Registration Act of 1931 to control the entry of people into the profession and itor their conduct once regi d.Itis composed of 5mainconstit- uent bodies; The RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects), the IAAS (The Incorp- arated Association of Architects and Surveyors), the FAS (The Faculty of Architects and Surveyors )and the AA (Architectural Association ). has set in motion some speculation about PReindARH]tactoRth, theRIBA’spossibleresponsetotheidea ! 13 And “Comes|e of Feminist Architecture. The Feminists’ eke: LT LOOSE INGY Co-op has not onlya satisfied client and IT SARDEN Ov o SSPurdaY ajob on site, but has also earned itself a tidy sum in fees and the chance of NicHt.. ENoUgH AROUND Jn further work. Reflect on the RIBA’s response to the devotion and hard spare time work of the many architects who set out to help beleaguered tenants’ and residents’ groups in the early seventies: the establishment of the Community Architecture Working Group (CAWG for short) to co-opt the good name of Community Architecturteo polish up ARCUK Council ‘From our reporter on the spot It was the hallowed occasion of the 188th meeting of the Architects Registration CounciloftheUnitedKingdom-ARCUK. It was the last for the outgoing council and the first for the new and your SLATE rep- orter was there with sharply-pointed pencil and quivering ears. The meeting started in sombre fashion with disciplinary hearings againstfourARCUK-codebreakers.Fresh from the dramatic (by ARCUK standards) press coverage of Summerland’s architect Lomas’narrowescapefromexpulsion,the council focussed it’s gaze upon the new unfortunates. We the press were asked to leavefortheactualhearingsandwereush- ered in ceremoniously for the verdicts: The proceedings were rich indeed in lower court pomposities such as this. ARCUK is very aware that just one of these cases can profoundly affect the public’s already sceptical view of architects’ remaining scruples and verdicts seem to be affected more by the Public Relations angle than by any purist notion of professional integ- rity. Due to the fact that your reporter and the first defendant Arthur S. Cole were both excluded from the chamber at the same time the facts of the case were free- ly volunteered: Arthur was nervously chatty and was anxious to plead his case. Arthur had, amongst other things, run his wife’s car on the practice for over adecade: He had fended off numerous enquiries by the Inland Revenue but eventually found that there were too many holes in the dyke and was taken to court and given a two-year suspended sentence. Arthur avoided being struckoffbytheskinofhisteethpleading “well everybody does it, don’t they ?”. The council emphatically agreed with him and dealt out a severe reprimand. “Phew”, said Arthur. Mr Woodiwiss, case no.2, chose an even craftier defence -he didn’t turn up. His lawyer however did, but, in the time-honoured tradition of ‘let the man have his say ’they deferred the case.. Mr W had smuggled 1500 Kruger rands into the U.K. (presumably his own particular interpretation of the “International Style’.) Eric Stevenson, the third case, was struck ThE WE3k. As P58 UpsG0 iT VEn? por. you se WI.ACJFThey thetarnishedimageoftheleadersofthe “EReny?T |ALways OY The Bice hig =clLy- mich? LAV. Blew bAsPhs reluctant wotthies and ambitious in theory advertise as a bloc the council Sees fit to ignore the practical difficulties involved and its refusal to countenance area lists is but one aspect of its avoid- ance of this issue. studentsenteringtheprofession wasfalling, RED Dontrow stildescriminatesagainstwomen,both the Observer ran quite a bullish piece on cureersjin architecture in a recent issue. whAt HAP Penge To at work in architects’ offices and with GordonGraham,PresidentoftheRIBA, Alt PV)Renee THAR thebuildingsitdesigns? obliged -the paper and its enthusiastic young readers with some carefully chosen words of encouragement at the bottom of the article wider theheading, ‘Psst...a tip from the Top °.One tip was that “an eye for legalistic detail will stand an architect in good stead ”. Quite right too, and Graham should know. His firm, the Architects’ Design Group is currently being sued by Worthing Council over faulty design work on a swimming pool contract. Well, that’s enough to put off any enthusiastic young reader, unless, of course, s/he revells in legalistic detail. SKIN DEEP WIVES AND GIRL-FRIENDS Movey council members should sign a sort of ARCUK official secrets act declaration restricting publicity of issues defined by the the council was withdrawn at the eleventh hour and the honorary officers were asked to see whether the existing arrangements needed changing. These arrangements, dating from 1976, allows publicity of guilty cases only. The two documents tor discussion at this meeting essentially con- tained two proposals: -A press hearing would be called after the disciplinary committee’s hearing and the press would be told simply “guilty” or “not guilty”. -Apart from the above the press would remain in meetings but the council would resolveitselfinto acommittee and the press would be placed on trust not to report the proceedings. Comm- ittee hearings would remain wholly confidential since “a‘report of a committee’s recommendation would be misleading ifthecouncil subseque- ntly decided not to accept the recomm: endation”. The meeting trundled on labe:iously, thro- ats dried and your reporter whilst availing himself of the RIBA facilities mused upon the detailing of 66 ,Portland Place which any salaried architect could not fail to be impressed by -where else are the toilet mirrors rendered redundant by the shine on the brassware ! During the committee reports the un- attched again asked why it had been dec- flattened by either chairperson’s action or by the nudge-and-wink conspiratorial consent of the council, now impatient with tea-lust. After a rally on page 14 the chairperson grew thoroughly rattled and accused the unattached of “delaying tac- tics’. The unattached were, quite rightly. outraged and ina brilliantly direct but controlled response replied that they had been remarkably restrained before a dis- play of classic railroading. Metcalfe the chairperson climbed down and after an abortive attempt by one of the RIBA vouncillors to pass a motion approving the rest of the report ‘in toto” took issue once more with your fearless representa- tives. At last we broke for tea. After down- ing the nectar the first meeting of the new council was pretty small beer by comp- arison: The new council was ratified a:1. apart from the relatively colourful un- attached crew the changes were almost imperceptible -one less three piece suit here, one mofe collarful of dandruff there -that sort of thing. A single moment of humour illuminated the bland last laps: Su Jackson, an unattached rep had been nominated for the chair in competition to Metcalfe. Kenneth Forder, in a slip that was freudian in more senses than one, referred to the candidates as “Mr Jackson and.......”.The meeting guffawed over what had been yet another affirm- ation of the al pervading maleness of ARCUK: SLATE 12 PAGE 6 profession and to create a new source of clients for private practice. How long before the RIBA wheels out asimilar crew of ‘straight’ counterparts. ual for self build Housing ¢ d group is a subject upon groups will adopt totally different policies n of their visiting the site, to a very full SLATE 12PAGE7 (CIL: 3 Alternative ideologies are often as chauvinist, if not more so, than their Try this piece on self-build housing for instance from ‘Self Build -aman Associations’ put out by the National Building Agency. The part to be played by wives and girl-friends of members of a self buil which it is difficult to be specific. Experience shows that concerning the womenfolk ranging from a complete ba: involvement. Onethingishowevercertainandthatisthatforahappyandefficientselfbuildroup,neintriceaneial that the womenfolk fully understand and Support the commitment made by ie group. They should also be kept informed of Progress. Family ties and other.respo ibil te Hh naturallydictatetheamountoftimethatawifeorgirl-friendcanofferineerealoe valuableworkhasbeenprovidedinthepastinsecretarial,accountingand"If:Seee decorating, cleaning and landscaping etc, elfare duties as well as This article was written by members of the Green Ban Action Committee, an organisation set up to coordinate campaigns among trade unionists and others against envir- onmentally and socially harmfull development. MONEY AND YOUR LIFE Total net investment 1973-1977. 1973 11974|1975|1976|1977 1be 296 | 3347 434] 595 | 7221 590 ¥ SLATE 12 PAGE 8 SLATE 12 PAGE 9 We have chosen commercial development as the theme for this issue of Slate because there are many signs that the climate is right for a new drive to exploit the land in our cities for private profit: development companies haye recovered from the crash in the property market that followed the office boom of the early seventies; financial institutions and especially pension Tunds are seeking profitable investments for massive accumulations of capital , the government is faltering in it’s intentions to curb commercial development through the planning system and the Community Land Act. The way in which land in our cities is used is crucial to the well-being of the citizens and in part- icular working people. Commercial development ,the destruction of inner city communities ,the distancing and alienation of home and work for many people ,increases in the cost of providing roads, public transport, police and other services ,much of the burden of which falls on ordinary rate payers and the diversion of investment away from socially necessary We hope that this issue will go some way to explaining the process. and con- sequencies of the rule of profit in our cities and be of some help to those seeking a city designed for peoples need. PENSION FUNDS: YOUR But underpinning this improvement property companies’ sector lies what is in the known as ‘the weight of institutional funds’, The deferred wages of millions of workers and ‘small savers’ held in Pension Funds, Insurance Companies and Property Unit Trusts, which have increased rapidly in the 1970s. The funds invest a steady proportion of their investments each year in property. Immediately after the last boom these funds purchased al the surplus investments on the market from the property companies, Now we are at the stage where there is very little property left to purchase. Capital values are rising and development islooking attractive Once again. Many funds are setting up their own property operations. Others want to develop partnerships with existing property companies or are interested in taking them over The table shows the extent of Insurance Company and Pension Fund Investment in property since 1973, and the trend looks set to continue. In January the Henley Centre for Forecasting preducted institutional investment in commercial property would rise construction, very substantial deals have sparked off the present activity and it looks as though more will follow.’ The key question then is whether or not we shall be faced with another property boom in the early 80s, funded this time by the injection of pension and insurance company monies as opposed to easy bank money which triggeredoffthelastboom. Institutional investors are even better placed than property companies to overlook short-term market conditions in order to produce long term assets for their portfolios. The government, too, has no way of controlling institutional investment, unlike the controls it possesses over the banks. Faced with this background it is easy to see why the Planning Inquiry for Coin Street on the south bank isof great significance to many community groups throughout the country. A victory against the developers and financiers here could set the pace for the 1980s, but it is not going to be easy. Measures to nationalise land and control the property sector have been watered down because of the effect they have on the financial institutions who now control the market. The fight to get the kind of urban development we really need now has to tackle this financial sector too. The boom in property shares arises because after 1974 property companies cut their development programmes, sold off theirassetsandgraduallypaidofftheirdebts, Now the prospects for rental growth from their existing properties look good, and many companies are ripe for takeovers. According to the Investors Chronicle, property company Profits rose by 87.5% in 1978 and dividends ‘ sia paid out by the 32 property companies in the F.T. index showed an average rise of 34%, Not too bad. The public sector workers would willingly settle for a similar ‘average rise’, Year Insurance companies Total net investment each year % of total net investment each year in property * Jan -Sept 1978 only source: Business Monitor M5 +663 | 1902 | 2509 | 3029 3802 -—-- Visi a ae 18% | 21%] 17%]. 15% _ INSURANCE COMPANY AND PENSION FUND INVESTMENT IN PROPERTY development boom could take off, although it might not reach the same heights as in 1973. ' from £1.02 bn in 1978 to £3.54 bn by 1984. The funds are flush with cash and given the crisis in the industrial sector, after they haye financed the public sector borrowing requirement, there is little else left but property. Alternative invéstments to absorb their huge cash flows are just not available. The recent case of the British Rail Pension Fund illustrates the point. Itishaving to give up its investments in art treasures and stop investing incommodities. This ispartly due to political pressure, but also because these sectors » are just not big enough to absorb the huge sums the fund must invest. British Rail will now be forced to increase its property investments. ension Funds (land, property, ground rents, property unit trusts and overseas investment) Total net investment each year # of total net investment each year in property . 1217-| 1446 | 2208 | 2916 | 3118 2079 24% | 25%] 20%] 20% 23% | 22% 307 | 405] 406] 450] 410] 413 Of all the sources of development finance pension funds are accumulating capital fastest. Contracted contributions from millions of individ- uals to company and union pensions ensure a cont- rolled and steady income to the funds essentially Sree from the vagaries of the investmentmarket. _ By the middle of March 1979 the Financial Times Property Share Index stood at 332. The Estates Times’ Bruce Kinloch argued: Pension fund capital is likely to fuel anew develop- ment boom, but would large-scale investment in commercial property be to the advantage of either the social or economic interest of the millions of contributors to the funds ? et ‘not even during those heady days of 1973 was the sector rising so fast. If, as many brokers believe, we are only seeing the beginning of the next property share boom, the 1973 high of 357.40 points could be passed by the endofMarch. Idoubtifthemarket has got itwrong, although many The property market has not been in a healthierstatesince1974thanitisnow. 1978 sawasignificant Tevival ofactivity , especially in London, and all thesigns indicate that, givena little push, a brokers are stil] being very cautious towards the sector. In effect some peeeee Conurbation relatively very expensive, Indeed, those living in city centres today are either the very rich, or inhabitants of council dwellings, or people living in overcrowded conditions, or else the very old, whose housing choices do not reflect the current pattern of land values. As the cost per unit of housing has increased in central areas, the suburbs have become relatively More attractive to those who have the ability to mi- Table 2 Employment in suburban location (outside city ‘core’) as a percentage of all conurbation employment, 1971. Tables (Table 5) many different factors, not least the desire for in- creased space and the availability of transport lines, but increasing land values at the centre of the city, due at least partly to commercial development, is certainly one important factor encouraging people to move out to the suburbs, Having got there, many face a much longer, and more expensive, journey to work, since jobs have not moved to the suburbs at anything like the same rate as people have moved. In Particular, Table 1 shows that office employment, despite considerable suburbanisation in theperiod 1966 to 1971, remains more centralised in themajor THE PLIGHT OF SUBURBAN WOME Intensivecommercialdevelopmentisgenerallycone aiyen ae diistricts.Concentratioinofcapititalalincentralareasgiivvesrisetoto thetheciconcen ercial,industrialandresidentialuseoflandwithcorrespondingdistributionoFaad opportunitiesoftheclassiccitymodel.Insspiteofacontemporary ee pote oe commercial development into the suburbs, the arrangement of functions within ps capital- ist city is a major factor which militates against equal employment opportunities for women argues Jacqueline Tivers. The large capitalist city has aCentral BusinessDis- trict, an area more or less clearly defined according to the individual city’s importance and the strength of capitalist development in the country concerned. The C.B.D. is the heart of commercial development in the city, drawing in workers from surrounding suburbs and expelling them back to their homes at the end of each day. S Who are these workers? A lot of them are women, employed inofficejobs. Mostly theyareyoung and single, or newly-married -indeed, ‘glamour’ is an essential ingredient of the job in many cases. What happenstothesesamewomenwhentheybecome tactwithsuppliersandcustomers,andalsocompeti- mothers? How does the form of the capitalist city servetoreinforce‘traditional’familyroles? _ a Commercial development, land use zones, and employment The land use models of neoclassical economics structure the city in a series of zones. In the centre of the city commercial development takes pride of, place. Further out, industrial plants become the principal users of land, and even further out these give way to houses and zssociated community fac- ilities. This land use zonation implicitly assumes the existence of capitalism, but does not explicitly refer to it. If we are to understand the spatial structure of the city it is essential that we take full account of the economic and social structure within which cities grow and develop. Table 1. Employment in suburban locations (outside city core’) as a percentage of all conurbation employment, 1966 and 1971, Al1_in employment _(¢) tion between firms ensure that head offices will be locatedclosetoeachother.Thisproximityisfound in the centre of big cities and it is therefore heréthat C.B.D.’s develop. As individual firms become bigger and bigger, and the number of firms declines relatively, the tendency to centralisation increases. Office functions become increasingly detached from other production areas. Womenwiththroremeore dependent children 68.6 75.0 arises because of the need for specific head office functions. So long as individual firms are small ; (whether industrial firms or commercial institutions, like banks), officefunctions are not segregated from other aspects of production. Once a firm has a numb of branches, however, there is a need for a central- ised administrative function. This could, theoretical} be located anywhere, if one considers only the indiy- Table 3 1974 1976 Women with no dependent children 26.5 25.0 . Women with one dependent idual firm in isolation. However, the head office re- quiresawholerangeofexternally-providedprofess- ional services. In addition, many other firms are also enlarging and setting up administrative centres. Con- child 55.6 58.5 68.3 70.8 One result of this process of office centralisation is a sharp rise in central city land yalues. In turn, the mise in land values discourages other types of develop- ment, and these are forced outwards to less central cations. Here we can see the formation of the land use zones described by urban modellers. In particular, housing in central areas becomes Clerical workers (<) grate. Amongst these the largest proportion are nuclear families, both with and without children at the time of moving, The suburbanisation of housing has resulted from English conurbations than employment in general. This isespecially true in Greater London. Souree:: As Table 1 Women with two dependent children Total Source: 40.0 43.1 General Household Survey, 1976 Report (0.P.C.S., London) SLATE 12 PAGE'1] i The increase in part-time employment amongst women workers has been very significant in recent years. In 1961, one-quarter of al women in employ- ment were in part-time jobs. By 1976, the percent- age had risen to 43 per cent. Table 3 shows how im- portant children are in determining whether a woman will work part-time. Over the five year period 1971 to 1976, the percentage of part-time workers increased in al categories except that of women with no dep- endent children, and itisnotable that the highest in- crease occurred amongst women with large families. Women working part-time asapercentage of _alwomen inemployment, 1971 and 1976 (Great Britain). Labour power, reproduction, ideology, and women’s employment. Commercial development, as part of the structure of capitalism, depends directly upon wage labour. It isalso dependent on the reproduction of labourpower. Not only must new workers be produced and suitably Socialised, but adult workers must be cared forand Supported on a daily basis. This is the roleof married women in our society. But women are also needed as employees themselves -indeed, an army of women commute daily into central city offices. The contradiction is resolved by splitting the pot- ential work force. Young and mainly unmarried (or at least childless) women are encouraged by high salaries to work in the city centres, where their youth and attractiveness in any case serve as an added bonus to impression-conscious employers. (At a much later Stage in life, women with grown-up children may re- turn to similar, but less ‘glamourous’ jobs.) Once married with young children, existing ideology dic- tates that they should become the lynch-pin of the family, and closely circumscribes their outside em- ployment opportunities. Since they are to beprim- arily responsible for care of the children (in the abs- ence of both sex equality, and the provision of state child-care facilities) they are no longer able to work the long hours and commute the long distances which would enable them to keep their relatively high status, old jobs. They remain, however, anindispensible part of the wider labour force -a ‘marginal’ pool of labour, willing to accept any type of employment so long as it is both part-time and locally- or home- based. The need to work near (or at) home, in order to Save time-consuming, expensive journeys to work, and in order to be ‘on hand’ for the children, means that most women have to accept lower status jobs than those previously Occupied. A survey amongst women with young children, which Iundertook in a south London suburb in 1977, found that 70 per cent of those out at work travelled for no more than 10 minutes to get to their jobs (and only 8 per cent worked in central London, while 40 per cent of those who were employed before the birth of theirchildren travelled up to town each day, being mainly office workers). In addition, only 30 per cent of workers were in the same jobs as they occupied before they became mothers, while nearly half were doing work of a definitely inferior status. In general there had been a change from higher to lower grade work, or from clerical work as a whole into sales work, clean- ing or childminding. Tyncside S.E. lancashire Merseyside West Midlands Greater London 80.8 82.5 88.4 89.1 7 83.7 91.4 91.3 69.8 69.4 68.1 72.6 73.0 77-7 60.3 71.0 80.2 80.7 50.3 52.3, 1966 _ 1971 1966 1971 Source: Calculated from 1966 and 1971 Census - Workplace and Transport However, high land costs in the city centres also in turn have their influence on commercialdevelopment. It becomes increasingly difficult to justify the enorm- us expenditure devoted to head office functions, Rationalisation of such expenditure ensures that the truly managerial functions remain in centrallocations, but there is a tendency for lower-order, clerical func- tions to be decentralised to lower cost locations. 1971 Census figures indicate the higher degree of suburban- isation of lower grade clerical work, although the job categories are not very clear-cut in these official stat- istics (see Table 2). Conurkation Higher grade clerical employnent (junior administrative posts, senior secretaries, etc.) Lower grade clerica) employment ( e.g. tvpisis, clerks) Tyneside S.E. Iancashire Merscyside West Midlands Greater London 61.6 74.8 68.5 78.6 55.6 73.3 79.7 72.9 82.4 57-1 Commercial development in central locations SLATE 12PAGE 10 The jobs occupied reflected the local avail- ability of part-time employment, as well as the ideological constraint of limited career aspirations. Table 2 has already indicated the greater degree of suburbanisation of lower grade clerical work over higher grade employment, and Table4illustrates the easier availability of sales work in suburban areas compared to clerical work as a whole. This is especially true in Greater London, and could partly account for the switch in jobs from clerical to sales work experienced by my survey respondants. Employment opportunities for suburban mothers * The continued centralisation of admini- strative and and higher clerical functions in central city locations serves to diminish acutely the range of occupations open to suburban mothers, so long as existig ideology concerning family roles continues to dominate both individual and government atti- tudes to child care. But this ideology itself supports the whole capitalist system by ensuring the repro- duction of labour power, so it is unlikely that the relative distribution of job opportunities will change markedly, simply to reduce employment inequalities for women. Suburban mothers are a useful, “marginal labour force- relatively contented with low wages and poor quality work, so long as hours are flexible and the work is near home. This sort of employment is being increasingly decentralised from central city locations since it does not justify a high expenditure on land costs. a But the needs of capital are dynamic, not static. Over a century ago, most women worked very long hours -the need for an immediate labour force displacing the requirement of its reprodution from the position of greatast importance. After the last War, women were no longer required to keep the nation going and a new ideology, based on the generalised concept of ‘maternal deprivation’, emerged to keep them firmly in the home. At the present time, women with children provide an essential ‘peripheral’ labour force, both being actively in paid employment, and also taking the predominant role in domestic work and child care. It remains to be seen what direction the needs of capital, including those of commercial development. will tend in the future. All government attempts to intervene in, or control the activities of commercial developers of land have foundered and the most recent, the Community Land Act passed by the 1974 Labour government isno exception. The principle behind the Community Land Act was that the people should It is within the powers of the State to bring the land market under control and replace it with a tational system where land is allocated and devel- oped according to social need. Nationalisation of land out of the investment-speculation market. Over the past 60 years the Labour Party have re- 'peatedly expressed their intention to nationalise land. Land nationalisation is a vital necessity. 1918 Manifesto The Labour Party proposes to restore to the people their lost right in the land..... 1923 Appeal to the Nation The party will deal drastically with the scandal of appropriation of land values by private landowners, It will take steps to secure for the community the increased value of land which is created by industry Table 4 — employment, 1971. Clerical workers 72.6 77-7 71.0 80.7 52.3 Sales workers 73-7 85.7 81.0 86.3 72.4 and the expenditure of publicmoney, 1929 Manifesto. ~seturned to power in 1974, itwas under great pressure to come up with some solutions to the problems created by financial ownership. _Firstly, the negative effects of the ‘Land and Property boom’ were manifested most acutely on the spatial structuring of urban areas. Inner city housing was particularlybadly effected by commercial devel- opment. Tenants and community action groups sprung up everywhere and, together with Trades Councils and Trade Unions, Demanded land nation- alisation. Secondly the effects of the boom were also felt by the owner-occupied housing sector. This, inturn, effected the cost of living and, thus, the necessary wage. It also made entry into the owner-occupied housing sector extremely difficult and this created problems for the Labour Government as it was trying to encourage owner-occupation through mortgage sub- sidies. Thirdly, the social responsibility of financial instit- utions was called into question. An investigation into their investment policies by Counter Infomation Servicesconcludedthatenormous amounts)of production capital were being diverted into the hands of property owners, many of whom were already incredibly rich. Finally, British industry was undergoing asevere profitability crisis whilst, at the same time, financial landowners were muking enormous profits. The labour Governement would have to deal with this anomoly if long term wage restraints were to be negotiated with the the trade unions. : When in 1974, the Labour Gevernment published its White paper on land it seemed that the long- awaited first step towards a rational Land System had at last arrived. Their initial concerns and objectives were: SLATE 12PAGE 13 benifit, at least financially, from commercial devel- opment through the Act's mechanism for transférr- ingfinancial gains in land values due todevelop- ment from private to local authority hands. Andy Brown recounts how the act has never beenfully implemented and has failed to fulfill it’s promise. Employment in suburban locations (outside city ‘core’) as a percentage of all conurbation ened to tax not only realised but also unrealised Andy Brown is a mem- developmentgains,therewasconsiderabledoubtabout beroftheSlateEdit- the future profitabilityof I;nd and property. Asset orial committee. A COMMUNUNITY LAND ACT ? values began to drop. Concurrantly, interest rates rose dramatically, from 7 to 13% between July and Nov. 1973. In addition, the Government imposed Testrictions onlending to the private sector, The combination of a rents freeze and increasing interest charges proved catastrophic. Rental incomes and borrowing ability were no longer able to meet loan payments andmany small companies went out of business. A, complete collapse of the property sector was only averted through the intervention and support of the Bank of England. It was widely held in the early 1970’s that the activitiesof the financial landowners were damaging to the national economy. When a Labour Government was towards it..... we will provide for a revenue of public funds for ‘betterment’. 1945 Let Us Face The Future. The first requirement isto end the scrabblefor building land. Labour will, therefore, setup a Land Commission to buy ,for the Community, land upon which building or rebuilding is to take Place. Instead of paying the inflated market rates that have now reached exorbitant levels, the Crown Land Commission e buythelandatapricebaseduponitsexistinguse value, 1964 Manifesto. Labour believes in land natiozalisation and will work ~ (The land Commission never became Operative asitwas abolished by the incoming Tory Government in 1970.) Despite their stated intentions successive Labour Goy- ernments have consistantly failed in their efforts to intervene in the private system of land ownership. During the 1971-73 period, the country witnessed a major ‘land and property’ boom’. The credit relax- ation and expansionist monetary policy initiated by the new Tory Party made it easier for the land and Property marketeers to borrow money from banks and enabled the land investment-speculation market to take off. Large ammouts of money capital were invested in land ownership by insurancecompanies pension funds and property companies. An unprece dented concentration ofcommercialdevelopment (particularly Offices, but also hotels, conference centres, etc.) mainly within the major metropolitan areas took Place during this period. But the activities of these financial landowners could onlybe sustained as long as rents and asset values of land and property continued to rise. When in 1972 the Government froze business rents and, in 1973, threat- 12 PAGE 14 The first objective was to be achieved by bringing © development land into public ownership through a Community Land Act. Local Authorities would be given first the power, then the duty, to compulsorily purchase land for development. The second objective was to be achieved by means ofaDevelop- -ment Land Tax. Increases in land values brought about by the granting of planning permissions for development would be taxed at a rate of 80%. Even more damaging to the original proposals was the Government’s concession to the property lobby, that the Community Land Act is to be introduced in slow motion. For astart, from the ‘First Appointed Day’ in April 1976, local authorities need only buy relevant development land if they feel like it. They are under no compulsion. Only when the ‘Second Appointed Day arrives will local Authorities be obliged to acquire al relevant development land. John Silkin, the Minister responsible for theAct said that a period of at least 10 years is likely to elapse before the ‘Second Appointed Day’ will be fixed. In reality, the ‘second Appointed DAy’ will probably never arrive. While we are waiting for the ‘Second Appointed Day’ to arrive, modifications made to the levels and tates of Development Land Tax are assisting land owners to maintain their profitability. The original rate of 80% only applies to development gains in excess of £160,000. The first £10,000 of gain in each year is tax free; while the next £150,000 of gain is taxed at the lower rate of 66.67%. In addition, allowances to cover interest charges and other qualified allowances should provide opport- -unities for financial landowners with a number of ways to cook their books. The Community Land Act became lew in 1975 and the Development Land Tax Act, in 1976. From the outset the developers and financiers, who were the the primary targets of the Acts, exerted massive pressure on the Government, principally through the British Property Federation and the Institute of Chartered Surveyors, to make the legislation work in their own interest. Originally violently opposed to the proposed legislation, they eventually agreed to in making the new ‘modified’ legislation work; but on their terms. The principal concern of the financial landowners and their backers was that the level of profit they require should not be threatened. The number of English Local Authorities who have implemented the Community Land Act is small enough to have been almost outnumbered by the number of documents issued by the DOE explaining its use. Only 1'50 out of 411 Local Authorities have purchased land under the Act during 1976-78. At the same time there are signs that the land and property market is beginning to pick up. Both the value of land and the demand for office office space have increased. Property companies have used the recovery period after the ‘boom’ to regularise their finances and consolidate their assets. The financial institutuions are bursting with funds and looking for profitable markets in which to allocate them. Large building contractors are intensifying their interests in land and property and already derive a substantial income from rents (mostly from offices and shopping centres.) A Tory victory in the forthcoming General Election will be a death knell for the Community Land Act and a sounding horn for a new round of ‘land and property” speculation. In the workds of Hugh Rossi, Tory spokesperson on Housing; “We have a very firm, absolute commitment to repeal (the Community Land Act) at the first evailable opportunity.” He goes on to say that a Tory Government would also introduce a reduced level of Development Land Tax payable on realised (but not unrealised) development gains. Without a return to Goyernment by the Labour Party and an immediate announcement of the ‘Second Appointed Day’ there will be little chance ofstarting off a renewed round of commercial develop- ‘ment. The urban and wider social economic problems posed by financial landownership will remain unresolved. The Community Land Act and Develop- -ment Larid Tax Act will join the scrap heap of brave words already spoken on land nationalisation over the past 60 years. However the Government's original proposals were considerably modified both during the formulation of the Bills and during their passage through Parliament. The definition of development land came under attack. The Government had originally proposed two categories; “relevant” and “non- televant”’ development land. But under pressure from the property lobby, these were expanded to three, “relevant”, “exempt” and “excepted”. Relevant development israther obscurely defined by what is not, that is, all development except 1. excempt development 2. excepted development 3. building of a single dwelling house After prolonged wraxgles in Parliament the Land to be included in each category was agreed. Exempt development comprises, firstly, categories of development which do not require planning permission and, secondly, agriculture, forestry and mining developments. Land in this exempted category is legally outside the new compulsory aquisition powers of L8cal Authorities. Excepted development covers, firstly, ‘minor’ developments including industrial premises up to 1500 sq.m, other developments under 1000 sq.m, adding less than 10% to existing buildings, etc. Secondly, it covers any development on land which, on 12 September 1974 1. had planning permission 2. was owned by an industrial undertaker 3. was owned bya builder or residential or industrial developer. Local Authorities are legally entitled, but not bound to aquire ‘excepted’ development land. By inference ‘relevant’ appears to consist of mainly urban land which did not have planning permission on the prescribed date and, on that same date, was not owned by an industrial undertaker, a builder or a residentail or industrial developer. Most land owned by financial institutions and property companies fall into the “excepted” develop- “ment category. Itisalready developed (mostly as ‘prime’ office space) and will not be obsolescent for some time. It is unlikely that Local Authorities will choose to purchase this highly expensive land for ‘relevant development’. This leaves land held by financial institutions and property companies which is Suitable for development and does not have planning permission. In practice, this does not amount to very very much. land. e SLATE 12PAGE 15 1. to ensure the community to control the develop ment of land in accordance with its needs and priorities and 2. to restore to the community the increase in value of of land arising from its efforts. co-operate with the Government and Local Authorities - SLATE 12 PAGE 16 PLANNING SYSTEM ON TRIAL attention to this fact for a number of years, and the rate of local shop and school closures recently has proved their point. (towards the end of last year the ILEA moved closure notices on two out of the remaining three Waterloo schools because of falling ‘pupil rolls’). The London-based Campaign for Family Housing, recently formed by community groups from North Southwark, Covent Garden,Fitzrovia, Battersea and Waterloo has emphasised that this loss in family accomo- dation throughout Central London is the most immediate threat to community life in the capital. Campaign for Family *‘ousing led to the formation of theeInner City Alliance with community groups from other English Cities and at their conferences it has become clear that the Government's understanding of inner city problems and needs is radically different from the understanding of those actually living in these areas. The South Bank Inquiry should be a major opportunity to publically debate these differences. Community setf-help on trial There is little doubt that the treatment of the Waterloo District Plan at the South Bank Inquiry will have a substantial impact on the willingness of individualsand community organisations to invest the considerable time needed to make public participation in planning a reality. At a time when Authorities throughout the Country are moving towards the consultative stages of the Local Plan process, it would be disatrous forthe first major test of the efficacy of District’Plans to show that the DoE and private devlopers are prepared to tide rough-shod over the results of five years of public participation. Further the efficacy of positive intervention in the planning process will be judged by the success or failure of the Association of Waterloo Groups’ initiative in submitting its own planning application for the South Bank sites. NATIONAL THEATRE The Association’s action puts to the test the Government’s verbal commitments to encourage self-help. Public Inquiry system on trial Commercial Properties Ltd., the Heron Corporation and Lambeth Council have each appointed QCs and supporting teams to prepare and present their cases at the Public Inquiry. The GLC have put their In the late seventies it is easy to assume that set - piéce struggles between local communities and comm: ercial developers are a thing of the past now that the emphasis in town planning is on conservation and gradual renewal rather tha: comprehensive redevelopment. Developers and indeed some local councils, may not see eye to eye with new trends in town planning. However, two large-scale develop- ments proposed in Baker St. and behind the Nation- The Secretary of State for the Environment has announced a major public enquiry to be held this summer into the future of 16 acres of Loddon’s South Bank. The inquiry has implications far beyond the manifest dispute, over, whether this part of Central London should be used for a hotel and over 14million square feet of offices or for low rise homes andariverside park. On trial at the inquiry will be: The new planning system (introduced in 1971) with its commitment to public participation. The Government’s Inner City Policy. The efficacy of community self-help activity The equity of the Public Inquiry system, and The future of residential communities through- out Central London The land under dispute lies between the National Theatre (by Waterloo Bridge in North Lambeth) and the Kings Reach Development ( by Blackfriars Bridge in North Southwark). The main parties to the dispute are: The local community represented by the Association of Waterloo Groups ( the local Neighbourhood Council) and the North Southwark Community DevelopmentGroup. The Association has applied for planning permission to develope seven sites for housing and ariverside walk and park. Lambeth Council which has applied for planning permission to develope four sites for housing, and The Heron Corporation and Commercial Properties Ltd, (back by the Greater London al Theatre in London fly in the face of the more sensitive planning policies that evolved out of many years of community struggles and threaten to rey- erse many of the gains made. Ian Tuckett examines the particular significance of the forthcoming Pub- lic Inquiry over the proposals for the South Bank site while Sarah Gillam visits Baker Street to find out about the possible consequences of redevelop- ment there. tequires relevant Authorities to draw up Structure Plans (e.g., the Greater London Development Plan, finally approved by the Secretary of State in July 1976) and then to produce more detailed plans (e.g., the District Plans now being drawn up by ~ Authorities throughout the Country). It is at this Local Plan stage that the 1971 Act intends grass- roots participation to take place. _ The Waterloo District Plan was adopted in September 1977 after five years of public’ consultation-and participationJt was confirmed by the Secretary of State in Afigust 1978 and is London’s first District Plan, ft is one of the few District Plans in the Country to have passed through al the stages required by the 1971 Act. The essential features of the Plan are “a substantial emphasis en housing and a severe restzaint on further office development ” in the Waterloo area. The South Bank sites are shown as the only substantial ones available for new housing. Any office development of these sites would therefore effectively undermine the whole Plan. The South Bank Inquiry is therefore a test case for the new planning system and for publicparticipation. Inner City Policoyn trial : : lanning, valuation and legal staff at the disposal of e private developers” teams. In contrast, the local In June 1977 the Government issued a white - permissiontodeveopeninesitesforwhatwould papercommitingitselftotheregenerationofInner Council) who have applied for planning be Europe's talles. skyscraper hotel ,over 144 million square feet of offices — equivalent to nine Centrepoint size blocks -flats and a riverside walk. City araas. A number of particularly deprived areas were chosen for ‘Partnership’ arrangements whereby the Government would cooperate with local and other public authorities in an attempt to break the cycle of deprivation afflicting these areas. Waterloo The sites are mainly owned by the GLC and designatedforhousingandopenspaceintheWaterloo isintheLambethPartnershiparea:Boththe, ~~ =e ei District Plan. Lambeth Council have asked the Government to approve a Compulsory Purchase Order, allowing it to purchase the land from the GLC#What the DOE has called a ‘vastInquiry’ into the planning applications and the CPO, will start in May 1979. The Government expect the Inquiry to last at least eight weeks. Following the growth in power of the consumer movement in the 1960s, a new system ofplanning, incorporating statutory duties to consult thepublic in drawing up plans, was introduced by the 1971 Town and Country Planning Act. The new system Partnership Committee (in its submission to the Secretary of State) and Lambeth Council have be ‘economically’ maintained: e2 S ae)Fs i SLATE 12PAGE 17 2s= 6 community groups rely solely on volunteers, The DoE have said that, despite regular requests, the Government have not'seen fit to extend thelegal aid scheme to community groups, and that the Association of Waterloo Groups will not receive any Central Government grant to meet the costs of @Particjpating-in the Public In quiry. Hiring Counsel on a similar basis f the other three planning applicants would cost in the region of £25,000 becatise of the expected duration of the enquiry. Itseems clear that this ‘Public Inquiry’ system is weighted very heavily in favour of commercial developers and aginst the general public A vital decision for Waterloo and for London The Waterloo community has suffered much from post-war developments but it has maintained a strong sense of identity and has united to fight off the threat to its future posed by the office developers. However, the South Bank Inquiry is also important because it raises the general question as to whether the Central London area is to retain any of its stable residential communities. Stable communities need a permanent base of families with some commitment to their area. Families need decent homes and, according to recent changes in Govern- ment policies, these must be low-rise homes. There is not sufficient of this sort of accommodation in Central London at present and, if stable commun- Planning magazine recently commented that “ Waterloo is not just a battle between specicific Office developers and the local community. It is Not too melodramatic to claim that the new- look development planning system ison trial”. Stated that if new houses are not builitn Watérlog”— and iffurther office development isnot restrict then the local community wil be destroyed. is because the loss af. family accomédatfonin the area (caused by redevelopment) has.lead to’a drop in the residential population below the level'at which local shops, schools and ther amenities can 1 eWaterloo, et CommunityDevelopmentGro(aucopmmunity pibeetl ganisation formediduring the distr lanconsultation petiéd) has ben drav sp PRES)HASPepiat we # I a > Yet another office block going up, you may say sadly to yourself. Why is this always happening? Even more important how does ithappen? To try and find out Icycled off to Baker Street, scene of the latest redevelopment project in London to talk to some people involved in dispute with their landlord. Flairlifie Properties own the island block bounded by Baker Street, George Street, Blandford Street and Manchester Street W1. Most of the buildings on the site were constructed in the late i8th century but iave been neglected over the years so that some sort of repair work is needed if they are to be restored to their previous elegance. The buildings house workshops, residential accomm- odation, offices and shops which are juxtaposed haphazardly around the block. The rents are low for the area but have obviously been so for some time since the site houses many small businesses and workshops, some of which have been there for over 20 or 30 years. It would seem reasonable to assume that Flairline Properties do not reap large financial benefits from the site in its existing form. Flairline Properties must have been mulling over the future of their site for some time and came up with a solution in July last year. They hired the services of a group of architects, Fitzroy Robinson and Partners to redesign the block with accommodation for alarge international corporation in mind — Davy Power Gas Ltd is the prospective client. The scheme involves the demolition of the 18th century buildings on Baker Street to be replaced bya five storey modern block accommodating shops offices and arestaurant. The Georgian facades of the remaining perimeter of the square are to be refurbished while the interians are to be rebuilt to create SS SS VA. th = larger flats and some shops. The ‘central core’ is to be redeveloped to accomm— odate an underground car park, light industrial space at ground floor level and roof garden at first floor level. The developers — Flairline Properties notified the tenants of the proposed re— development scheme in July 1978 and Westminster City Planning department posted notices around the blockalittle later. At first the tenants were rather startled by this ambitious plan, they began to understand why requests for repairs had been ignored; why they had received letters from estate agents acting on behalf of FP offering to purchase the end of leases, flats had been made uninhabitable when tenants moved out and rent fefused from some tenants, implying that they were there illegally. After the initial confusion someone called a meeting and they decided to form themselves into the George Baker Blandford Society named after the streets proposed for redevelopment. The aim of the society was to fight the implementation of the proposals, arouse public interest in their plight through meetings and organize a petition in opposition to the scheme to which over 4000 people have put their signatures. They have also produced a booklet outlining their objections to the proposals. The tenants haye been in touch with various groups who have an interest in preserving the site in its present archit— ectural form such as the St Marylebone Society, the Committee of the Georgian Group, London Walks and the Sherlock Holmes Society. These groups and many other people have written letters ex— pressing their opposition to the scheme. The scheme is attacked from many angles, the preservationists argue that the proposal to concentrate the scattered shops and offices into one modern block SLATE 12 PAGE 1g SLATE 12PAGE 19 BAKER STREET BLUES driven out. Others said that by con— centratingall the office and shop space in one block, the charm and character of the area was lost and it made personal service that much more difficult. They felt that the destruction of al these features could not be justified by the office requirements, 67% increase in office floor space, of one large, international corporation whose needs could surely be met else— where, where no harm was done. The residents said that while the proposals show an increase in residential floorspace, the units will be larger and thus result in an overall reduction of accommodation. Rents will also be increased, again drawing in a wealthier class of tenant. The development’s car park will also attract many more vehicles causing safety hazards and further congestion in the area. After notification from Westminster City Council in October of the plann— ing application, planning officers con— tacted the interested groups to sound out their views on redevelopment. This is usual practice in any planning applic— ation. Officers then decide whether or not a project is viable in principle. They take into account any listed buildings and the use proposed, as well as the way the project fits into the City Plan (this is a policy statement on the borough’s town planning eg some areas may be more appropriate for offices and others for residential accommodation). Officers compile their information and recommendations for the scheme and give this to the Town Planning Committee who decide the scheme’s fate. The Westminster Town Planning Committee is made up of 15 councillors who are voluntary and voted in by the public. In this particular case it seems that the proposal was rejected by the Planning Committee in December due to the architectural and historic interest of the proposed scheme was put on display for a day in one of the hotels in the Baker Street area accompanied by a representative from Fitzroy Robinson on hand to supply any additional information. This was felt to be inadequate since it did not give individuals the opportunity to comprehend and analyse the proposals in detail. - Councillor Mordue kept in touch with the GBB Society but was hesitant in his opinion about the future of the site. Five of the councillors on the Planning Comm— ittee, however were adamant about the scheme and gave much support to the objectors. Councillor Mordue explained that he was concerned no’ only with the past and present con¢ition of the area, but also of the future. He felt that some sort of rehabilitation scheme was necessary if the houses were not to deteriorate com— pletely. This would involve the owners having to inject capital into the site and they would expect a return on their investment. Although opposed to the present plans he believed that somesort of commercial venture was needed. The developers have lodged an appeal for reconsideration of the scheme to the Minister of Housing who must now decide whether to reject the appeal and thus confirm the councillor’s decision or to go ahead with it and hold a public inquiry. This would involve the appointment of an inspector to consult planning officers, the developers, architects and interested groups involved in the case. The procedure usually takes about a year. In the meantime the George Baker Blandford Society are preparing for more meetings to keep public interest alive and have outlined an alternative scheme for the site. This would involve retaining existing frontages, re— furbishing the buildings while maintaining the existing craft and commercial activities albeit at increased rents. wioeof onBakerStreetcompletelyupsetsthe architectural style and concept of the siteie.apreservationistargumentwhich Soreturnoncapitalinvestmentseemstobe the crux of redevelopment. Need this be the case? An alternative proposal might be the Heritage Aid Bil currently passing through Parliament. This intends to strengthen the powers of local authorities to enforce repairs on deteriorating listed buildings and allow grants ie public money for the cost of professional advice and services. Certainly something of this nature seems necessary ifexisting buildings are not to be exploited further by property developers for private gain. For more information please contact the George Baker Blandford Society, 39 Blandford Street, London W1. site. They point out that the existing terraces and that part of traditional Baker Street which stil remains; and that the proposed materials to be used (large expanses of probably tinted and mirrored plate When the tenants first heardof the proposed scheme they also contacted their local Tory councillor Mr Mordue who advised them on possible action. As a result, representations were made to City Hall on a formal basis, members of the Planning Committee were invited to meet the objectors and they organized apetition. Councillor Mordue also chaired meetings - between the developers and those interested in the scheme. Those who were involved criticised the way separate meetings were arranged for the business and residential tenants with the developers. They felt this ~to be adivisive tactic. A model of the glass curtain walling) are inappropriate and have no relationship to the existing . fabric of Georgian London. Those who are concerned for theirlive— lihood explain that while the proposed was accepted in toto. Pp may be more modern, it is likely that the rents will increase by 30-40%. It should also be noted that the proposals show a reduction of 50% of floor area devoted to light industrial Space making it almost inevitable for existing businesses to be NAM introduction . NewArchitecturemovement, 9, Poland Street, London, W1 .to return control over their environment to ordinary people ,and social responsibility and accountability to the worl: of architects....... to fund- -amentallychangetheexistingsystemofpatronage toreturnavoiceboth to those who provide the labour for architecture and those who use its products. ‘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 must sustain these arrangements.Secondly,althoughlocal fundamentalcontradiction,andmore itisnecessarytomakeafewgeneralpoints authorities provide for social use and particularly to the ‘boundaries’ which seek to because the ideas contained in this book although their departments are not based sustain it ,which in effect seek to insulate nurture among certain sectorsof the left an on the extraction of a surplus from their architectural workers, yet their arrangements and proceedures are such as to alienate both worker and user.’ PDS. reply to criticism democratisation and deprofessionalisation of architecture. It is misleading to believe that this is more likely to be achieved in community architecture initiatives. It is obviously important to relate Government funding of any enterprise to the role of the state as described in the May 1978 Public Design Group’s paper which is briefly summarised in this article. If the state is funding the voluntary sector it can only be in an attempt to conceal contradictions which are being exposed in the public sector. And according consumer from producer. There are many boundaries .Two existing distaste for the public sector. Cynthia Cockbum sets out to prove and is able to amass considerable evidence that Distaste for the public sector with its elected members, committees and standing orders runs deep in the souls of architects. It has done so for over a hundred years Only the arguments change to suit current fashions. Even the Jesuits must env: system of education, which in five y is able to reinforce the general ideology with its own particular variant to the extent that the heathen as well as the faithful are imbued with an unshakable belief in the virtue and necessity of the independent priesthood. But the local authorities and their departments of architecture exist for spec- ific historical reasons.* For equally spec- ific reasons the continuous antagonism from the right rises to a peak during times of economic crisis (eg. in the thirties, the immediate post-war years and the present time) would be better and cheaper if undertaken by several small private contractors. While these ideas ignore the historical forces which made the services public in the first place, they underline the mounting pressure to take over certain public services by an increasingly desparate private sector. In addition there have been fairly explicit references to the other advantages con— ferred by small scale operations. Namely they would either not be unionised at al, to our theory at least, such small scale We argued that the answer to these para- doxes is to be found in theories which explain the state’s role in society. It is the state’s function to secure the repro- duction of the labour force (by providing various welfare services) and also the reproduction of existing social relations, the most important of these that labour stays in the same relation to capital, ie. the reproduction of the classes. It was further argued that the state can only carry out either or both of these functions at the expense of the social relations of production, the users. They will reduce boundaries. or they would be so fragmented that coll- ective industrial action would be difficult. As far as public architecture is concern- ed we can anticipate a more sustained attack from the RIBA in their forthcoming report on the state of council architecture, than they were able to mount in the CAWG teport on community architecture. When the CAWG people were formulating their arguments to Freeson they were obviously initiatives are more likely to maintain the existing social relations since they are quasi-private and conform to that model. That is not to say that they also do not contain their own contradictions which may be exploited. But professionals who act in this sector in preference to the public sector would be well advised to consider their preference in relation to the role of the state and to their own professional ideology. As the radical . Interim proposals were put forward as firat but necessary steps which would at the same time extend democracy within the office and pave the way for full worker control, and alsa create the potential for a closer relationship with These crises give rise to suggestions that local authority departments of arch- unable and probably unwilling to identify momentum of law centres is diluted they Separately for a moment it will be seen that the barriers described by Malpass which Equally, only an organised department can —and ithas been—a totally false picture itecture should be dismantled, the work parcelled out to consultants with a few public architects remaining to act as expert clients. These periodic attempts to achieve a lasting solution are not confined to departments of architecture. During the vulgar commercialism as more important than service to the community. Others who are less liberal and who have more to lose will no doubt be less inhibited in their prescriptions. Both however represent different approaches to the same economic problem, that is, how to get work away from the public sector. are beginning to to look increasingly like the launching pad for the legal establishment of the 1990's. The theories of the state and of public architecture on which the report ‘Comm- unity Architecture: A Public Design Service’” was based were published in the May 1978 Conference papers already referred to. These theories drew mainly on the work of Althusser (‘Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays’) and were CLIENTS BECOME IMPATIENT exist between architects and users, do not result from the first (the provision of services to secure the reproduction of the labour force). The barriers are rather the result of of the need for local government to ensure that all aspects of the social telations are maintained intact. Thus, in Our society which is based on individual achievement through competition with other individuals, housing came to be regarded as a right, this would conflict with offer anything to tenants’ groups or other council workers. will emerge. That is not to say that Cynthia Cockburn says too much about the State. The problem is that she does not say enough. The analysis is not wide ranging enough either recent public sector manual workers strike there have been arguments, including an article in the London Evening Standard. advocating that education, some aspects of envisaged by the Public Design Group health care and of course garbage disposal bitter complaint in anoffice that is what you organise around. Similarly, if, in the public offices ,the proposals were to have any meaning they had to provide solutions to the most commonly voiced frustrations Ly is DoorEAE "nate TERT COMMUNITY ARCHIE TEKT Lag aef tenislo o SLATE 12 PAGE 20 SLATE 12PAGE 21 anid BRENTERT| WHY DONT You BE LIKE ME? The longer term potential for change calls for fundamental steps towards developed to describe the realities of local authority practice. They were illu- strated bya historical study and contemp- orary examples. We argued that local authority provision and public architect- | ural practice contained two main para- doxes; the basis of the society. One or other must be eroded, but both are necessary if the social order is to be maintained.” (May 1978 PDSGrouppaperP26) It was suggested that in an attempt to _ overcome this contradiction, conditions have arisen which effectively place ‘boundaries’ around State provision in order to secure the reproduction of social telations. And, since the resolution of contradictions is the mechanism whereby historical progress ismade, it was necessary for us to address ourselves to this while being within the grasp of an organised workforce. (The history of how this has been fought for in Haringey will hopefully bedescribedinalaterSLATE) and that this is the profound contradiction faced by the state. It can only carry out its’ function in society by putting the social order at risk. The functions of the state thus distort the pure form of capitalist ideology. Although these two aspects of the State’s function are indivisible, if they are regarded New boundazies will undoubtedly appear but that is progress. Reforms do not have to stay within the logic of the system and the proposals which we are pursuing break the logic of capitalist production and ideology. There was a second aspect to this. The interim proposals can only be achieved through the collective action of the staff. only were identified ,but they were important since they divide arcaitect and architect as well as architect and building user. They were office hierarchies and function based teams. The boundaries between architect and building worker will form the subject of a later Public Design Group paper. local authorities in general and liberal/left Labour councils in particular are bad news. It is unfortunate and possibly significant that over three quaters of a book is given over to a closely documented demolition job. The case studies do not illustrate the dialectical nature of the State’s role and, however correct they are, they tel only one side of the story .Positive, although very generalised comments come on all too few pages at the end. E.g., “The contradictions are not so immobilising as they seem, because, in their particular shape and form they are always changing and so opening up new possibilities for action.” The SLATE reviewers could be forgiven for not catching on to this remark as it does not occur until the last page. The overall meaning conveyed by the Local State is thus controlled by the ratio of hopelessness to hope. The evidence is all one way. And if this limited evidence is generalised from Trade unionists attempting to unionise the private sector will know that organisation starts in the world as it is. If unpaid overtime for example is the most historically or geographically to be taken In commenting on the three SLATE reviews of the Public Design Group’s report it is useful to draw out one or two points for further discussion. It appears at the outset that both Marion Roberts and Mark Gimson share a misplaced dependence on the theories of Cynthia Cockburn. While it is outside the scope of this article to carry out a detailed critique of ‘The Local State’, as sufficient proof of a theory, in this case Althusser’s. Losses are described in detail but not gains. Itappears that what an analysis limited in time and space cannot do is to describe victories, or more acurately 2090) partil victories, like council housing, GMWU, large sections of UCATT and the education and so on, which are classic TGWU, not to mention NALGO’s ‘two-edgedswords’asfarasthesocialorder 730000members.Itsoundsratherlikethe isconcerned. Further more they (and the setting up of Local Governmentitself for thatmatter)weretheresultofstruggle. COOPERATIVE ? UNLIMITEDCOMPANY? REGISTERED CHARITY? PARTNERSHIP? DHSS User Participation From CNickerson: DearEditors, assumptions of the magazine. Is SLATE’s main role to be that of a oor e of capitalist ideology and the social order is put at risk another way. , Tony Brohn: OI-240-2430 ext.185 Mary Rogers: 01-251-0274 Some SLATE readers may be ina position to use the system and encourage itsdevelop Anyuser ‘employed’who,asindividuals,wil effectivewayofdemonstratingthistype In many, if not al cases, national issues appear just as local pressures, and it seeme clearthatonlyatthelocallevelcancontrolPublicDesignServiceGroup over State provision be extended. Many people, including the Public Design Group believe that there is a better chance for pushing for this from inside rather that outside local government. -information and local support, but would a local wall poster campaign be a more In the ‘Local State’ the local struggles are Copies are still available from NAM, 9, isolatedoutofthiswidercontext.The analysis is static. Future changes in practice and perception which result from defeats aswellasvictoriesarenotconsidered. In addition, and possibly overriding these difficulties is a major theoretical gap in the basic analysis. Although Cynthia Cockburn talksratherlooselyabout contradictions she seems to be unable to pinpointtheoreticallywhatthecontradictior actually is — that the State can only secure the reproduction of the labour force and of the social relations at the expense of social relations. That is, it cannot actually achieve what it sets out to do. By not extending her analysis to this point Cynthia Cockburn is prevented from describing either the contradictions or their expressions alternative future for their company in detail and is consequently prevented from just as viable and certainly more taking apositive approach. C, Nickerson, Unattached Architect, 15, Durand Way, London, NW10. PS.Thesystemiscalled‘TheA&B Sheet Bank ’. needs must be met on monday. SLATE could be a useful tool rather than a NAM chat sheet. You delude yourselves in supposing that peoplewishtobeinvolvedinsomebroad debate on the built environment: rather, they are concerned with their own local By not relying on the ‘Local State’ for its analysis and by recognising ‘Community Architecture — a Public Design Service?’ as a political statement, the first reviews critiscisms of the report were helpful and to the point. Unfortunately the other two reviews did not seem to grasp either the purpose of the report or the thecries on which it was based. Leaving aside thesurprising inaccuraciesinthethirdreviewits Prescription for state funding for tenants’ groups so that they can have access “‘...to expert advice as a right ...” appeared to be advocating yet another extension of professionalism in the poverty industry. industry. In our society when housing standards space and scope, is a tremendous opportunity for London. The shape it takes will be with us a very long time. Although itnow houses sonie of the nation’s most important and distinguished cultural and theatrical centres, it also features some perfectly : perfectly hideous office blocks and some networks of of dingy and alienated underpasses and walkways. To concrete the South Bank over and make itempty afterdarkandatweekendswould leatragedy.It would mean missing the best chancz to civilise London since the Great Fire. And ifthat happened it might turn out that many of the office blocks and hotels were empty anyway — which would be bad for rateable value too. “It would be both feasible and desirable if there could be a living mixture of working and housing space, with:-gardens and vegetation in between. Not ony would this have obvious advantages for the residents and the employees of the area, itwould also makea fairer setting for the National theatre and the various galleries and concert halls The second reviewer pointed out that he did not wish to attack the local are falling, an energy crisis threatens and unemployment in the building industry is at disastrous proportions, who can doubt the need for a new and radical future for the industry? authorities. Having affirmed his belief in the public sector he then went on to vote against it, as it were, by Suggesting that, *...the potentials for making alliances with Progressive sectors of society seem to be greateroutsidethahinsidelocalgovernment” This appears to write off NUPE, NUT, SLATE 12PAGE 2 officedevelopersisadequatelypreparedandpresent- oftheriversidestretch.Inthelongruneverybody sort of unfortunate judgment which might emanate from (that elitist architectural establishmentinBedfordSquare.Hisanswer AConferencewillbeheldon15th newsletterwithintheNewArchitecture Movement? Most NAM members are able to follow the Movement’s affairsthrough theirinvolvementwithNAMissueand MajorStateprovisionlikehousingfollowed isthatrealprogressinpublicarchitecture June1979todiscussalternative TheDHSShastriedtoimprove localgroups.Despiteyourexertionsin iease!! z communicationbetweenhealthbuilding attemptingtoreachnon-architects,NAM longperiodsofworkingclassdemandsand willcomefromloneortwoexperiments.The forms of practice open to architects and other professionals. users and designers by issuing, in June 1976, a data bank for producing a detailed design brief. Although difficult to cost, it involves public investment of £mplus. Unfortunately the NHS, notably the Regional Health Authorities, seem to be sitting on the system and not using it. and architectural radicals of al kinds temain introspective and narcisistic. To be «effective SLATE must challenge architecture from a noh-architectural standpoint. Aim notattheinformedprofessionalclass but at the great mass of individuals whose actions are restricted by the meaningless broad groupings into which they are shepherded. It is the ‘housed’, the ‘homeless’, the ‘unemployed’, the demonstrations. The State intervened eventually to secure the social order. So Capital may have benfitted but so did the working class and, as we have argued, the securingofthesocialorderbytheState Despiteourmisgivingsaboutsomeof 2itherofthefollowingtwopeople immediatley conflicts with the pure form collective action of local Authority architectural and other workers does not appear to be a candidate in the progress stakes. The venue and other details have vet to be finalised but you can phone 2 ; the ideas expressed in the reviews, the space given to this subject in SLATE is most encouraging and we hope that the discussion will continue. f you’re interested in coming. demonstrated by full examination of particular cases. Their are plenty of local action groups in need of particular SaaSaneaee For a detailed analysis of the State see: ‘The Hisory Evolution and Structure of LA Departmentsof architecture’ which was published as a draft paper at the May 1978 Democratic Design Conference. would be welcome by the DHSS architects. . develope the tools of a libertarian ssciety. The millenium will come but mon:.ay’s of support? Is their any reason why SLATE should not become involved in the street level approach, perhaps in cooperation with local architectural support groups? SLATE asamagazine, could provide a link between local campaigns by including alistofcontactsandcurrentactivities, thus promoting wider support. However, if SLATE is to achieve anydegreeofcredibilityyouwillhaveto shake of its frivolous, rag mag tendencies and take on the mantle of maturity. PolandSt.,London, W1. Workers’ user control: why not zoom in on the problems and actions of a particular group insteadofpanningacrossavastfieldof view without pinpointing anything of 13, Severus Rd., directrelevancetoanyone?Yourproposals Fenham, for humane than the company manage— ment’s ideas. Their proposals for transforming Lucas’ production from armaments to equipment for which real need exists are now renowned NAM has been invited to take part in discussions with construction workers, economists and others leading to such an alternative plan for the whole construction A.J.Earl, Newcastle-Upon—Tyne. plan for societal changes would be more forcibly construction Workers at Lucas Aerospace have proved that they can plot out an Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning A RATIONALE FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT Changing relationships between land capital and construction in Cities details from: BARTLETT SUMMER SCHOOL, University College London, 22 Gordon St. London W.C.1. If you would like to take part in the development of a worker’s plan for construction, please write to the Secretary, NAM, 9 Poland Street London W1. who will forward details of the first meeting about the project. Summer School September 2nd to 15th i aay mt Slate’ narcissistic!problems.Yourcoveragehasbeendevoted to general issues, eg., Feminism, CABIN, From A. J. Earl: Dear Editorial Committee, Afterreadingthecommentsofsome of your NAM members in the last issue ofSLATE(number10/11),Iam prompted to question some of the basic Planning system on trial cont. ities are to be retained, new family homes must be built. But, as the Campaign for Family Housing has pointed out, the Government has not yet come to terms with the difficulties faced by Councils and other developers wishing to provide such new accommodation. In particular there is the problem of availability of land for residential dvelopment and the extremely high cost of this land, as deter- minedbycurrentvaluationpractices.TheSouth Bank sites are vacant or derelict and are largely publicly-owned (bought by the LCC in1953) and zoned for housing: they should therefore be cheap. However, the GLC and the private developers claim that even these sites are ‘far too expensive’ for homes. This assertion must be challenged at the Public Inquiry so that the Government is forced to come to terms with the reality of inner city needs and the effects of current land valuation practices. The size and ‘visibility’ of the South Bank sites also make it essential that the case against the ed at the Inquiry. The Evening Standard has |isthe loser ifthe South Bank becomesa soul-less commented: ‘The South Bank, with itsconsiderable commercial and parking precinct.” : SLATE 12PAGE P23 The Women And Space’ Conference took place on the weekend of March 10 and 1, attended by 150 women and men. Ina weekend of talks and workshops there was an attempt to define and discuss the ways in which architect- -ure has acted as an oppressive force on women in both anthropological and architectural terms, within a time span ranging from the Ancient Greeks to women shut up in modern tower blocks. It was shown that in most societies women’s lives were far more orientated around the home than the lives of men and therefore the degree to which the home encourages or discourages contact with others has had a far more significant effect on women Housing was shown to beeither a factor restricting women’s lives eg. women leading solitary existances in isolated flats or in isolated huts within an African compound as Julienne Hanson of the Bartlet School discussed,orelseasafactorencouragingcommunality withthepossibilityofhousingco-operativessuch as that described by Claire Cooper in San Francisco at St. Francis Square. It was always a moot point as to whether the housing had caused the oppression or if the oppression within the society was simply reflected in the buildings which it produced. An almost alegorical tale was told by Kate Young, a social anthropologist on the effect on the advance of technology in a Mexican viiiage, riddled with a superstitious belief in witchcraft which prevented women from visiting each other's homes. The one chance for women to meet each other was when| fetching water from the wells, an exhausting and arduous task. Yet when (on Kate Young’s interference) piped water was installed a far more deleterious breakdown occurred in the amount of opportunity for women to meet each other and thus to to lessen the hold of witchcraft on them. While the talks largely catalogued and discussed the effects of architecture on women in different societies, with the exception of Peggy Eagle’s vigorous encouragement of political actions they were very academic unlike unlike many of the workshops which seemed to point the way forward in discussion by women builders and women inyolved in housing co-operatives. There was however some:feeling of frustration among many of the women attending the conference about the presence of men and because of the academic nature of many of the issues; those women fromed a woman’s workshop to continue a discussion on the more immediate issues confronting us in relationship to building and design. Despite some fundamental differences in the ideas of those attending the conferenceand their reasons for being there, it was an event which gave a feeling of encouragement and solidarity to those attending it. because ;we were occupied with similar problems and fighting for a common solution. v Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Various Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Andrew Brown/FLeP Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Undated https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/268c3ca1c8813cbda2c3144758380b71.pdf 8d4e3e24015950166aadd3025f73b362 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 5 Subject The topic of the resource Contains: 'SLATE Interbuild Special' 'Monopolies Commission Report on Architects' Services: A Straightforward Guide' Description An account of the resource nod december january St ---NAM seeks a& archité€ctural practice accountabl to all those wh& use igs products and democratical controlled by ee workers within it... —eeebrepts to slate’, n., a., & v.t. 1, Iinds ofgrey, green, or bluish-purple rock easily split into flat smooth plates; plece of such plate used as roofing-material; piece of it ‘usu. framed In wood used for writing on '|LYONS’ SHARES Congratulations to the ASTMS group at 66, Portland Place, RIBA headquarters. They have won negotiating rights from their employer, the RIBA Council, without even so much as a picket line, a strike or a Trotskyist on the horizon. But only just, it would seem, as not all RIBA Council members are entirely convinced that Trades Unionism really is the best thing since the VilleRadieuse. Amongthosewith reservations is, Past President, Eric Lyons, whoappearstohavebeenlearninghisind- ustrialrelationstacticsfromGrunwickboss, George Ward. Hewas heard to suggest, at arecentCouncilmeeting,thatthoseempl- oyeeswhohadnotjoinedASTMSshould be rewarded for their “loyalty” with a RIBA trieson ARCUK coup AN UNASHAMED attempt to interfere with the democratic process by which ‘unattatched tio;~nsdla)ck,-blue,-grey,modifications SaneraltDenes Sea ee Tahoegee ee pee 2. nal Gta) ots: ¥.t cards thas e(olate£.OFesclate,fem,ofesclatsxactt sitedBecee cubaizesare *nominate, propose for office eto, Hones slit’iso%(l)n.[ap.f,preo.} specialpayrise. His,lastditchattempt supported, Architect-style, in acharmingly muddled,goodhumouredmanner, He plainly delighted the smattering of partnerarchitectsinhisaudianceashe plied them with ideas on what tosay SLATE ISTHE NEWSLETTER OF THE N onitwilbetheASTMSgroupwhoare handing out pay rises. SLATE 5 page 2 colleagues. They are John Allan, Anne Delaney, Alan Lipman, Bob Maltz, David Roebuck, Ken Thorpe, Ian Tod, and Tom Woolley ARCUK ELECTIONS SLATE S page 3 o NAA U-~Se~=”-“= to retain his patronage failed. From now ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT,published bimonthlybytheMovement’sLiaisonGrougTASSGIRL whenfacedwithadrawingoficefulof and edited on its behalf by an adhoc comm- rebellious staff. He’s just what the Apparently getting publicity by paying for __ Institute needs at a time when its MONOPOLIES BOMBSHELL So Gordon Graham, the RIBA’s new TheUK‘profession’asawholeancreased ARCUK majority by 2 percent to 24, 874. The gain by the : anata wasattheexpenseoftheRIBA, wants SAfrican shares and sympathisers should beware of letting the RIBA gain control of unattatched seats on Council, he said. Were that to happen their councillors would become little more than henchmen of the RIBA — muchas the Trade Union representatives on Council have. FOR A HANDFULL OF SILVER... For my part I can’t now remember whether shame or anger was the more powerful reaction, |do remember feeling as though Iand my fellow NAM members had each been kicked in the belly 26 times, while 13 colleagues, fellow architects, stood by watching. The number of unattatched architects 3 2 should be little doubt in SLATE those who are not members of the RIBA or 7Here —"€4ders’ minds over how essential it What price one must ask, architects’ clairrs one of the other, minor, bodies recognised by 4 that NAM members continue to represent that, as members of a liberal profession, they the 1931 Architects Registration Act — increas tHe unattatched architects on ARCUK'’s provide dissintrested service to society as Ib dented32 percentduring”Council,HereAlanLipman,ARCUK whole?WhatpriceARCUKandRIBA a ~sed|by an unprecedeni Pe 8 Councillor and NAM member, describes how thetoric about the the past year. The unattatched numbered i pzofession’s social pase) es esirac aese Sasa) ~ 4120asof31stOctober1977andnow pay Council wilTesponsibility?Whatprice...?Council comprise17percentoftheUKprofession. thesaeTuasorely,eoSire_ hasanswered:themiserableinterest Twoyearsago,beforeNAMmadeitscall OUETAUL arEptPeden&‘i f andtheshamefulprofitonalousy interestof profit, and alludes to the forareformedARCUK,andbeforeNAM- embarassment’thattheee investment of £158 -10 —less surely thanthirtypiecesofsilver. -affiliatedarchitectswereelectedtorepresent Councillorshavecausedtoestablishec the unattatched on the Architects Registration ”#¢rests on Council during the lastyear. Council, this figure was only 1 percent. : : whichideclmedsbyjamiunprecedented 3 of the minor ‘constituent bodies’ who are not, at the same time, RIBA members. The NAM member representatives of the majority of their fellow Council members. Since our election some nine months ago we've repeatedly asker awkward avenions, Because of the increase in the number of unattatched architects, their representation touched on sensitive issues and braeche: ali on ARCUK will increase to 9, from 7 last year. There isone representative per 500 architects,orpartthereof.TheRIBA Council can appoint 40 representatives to ARCUK this year. unspokeai understandings, And we’ve not wee Tach HneseaWere notites Ikvat ease inthe genteel, the sub-public school atmosphereofCouncil.Norhavewebeen familiar with the manicured protocol in which ARCUK’s procedures are embalmed. JOHN ALLAN ANNE DELANEY ALAN LIPMAN BOB LTZ / MA JOHN MURRA Yad DAVID ROEBUCK KEN THORPE IAN TOD aedSELattatne iscapable—itscrassrejectionofhumane TOMWOOLLEY for the electi The unattatched are the only people \ontheRegisterofArchitectswhoare "entitled to directly elect their representatives, sometimes hilarious encounter. On this Ballotpaperswillbesenttoalunattatched 9¢casion,however,eventdsiclosedamore A 1facet of the behaiviour of architects during January. Nine NAM 4 hich tide RIBA-dominated gathering At its most recent meeting Council revealedanotherdimensionofthisbizarre, their 4120 constitu>ents what tihfey hav.e 5 of MOD eharersesi:in Consolidated Goldfields at 155p each, a cost of £158 - 10” Amazed been trying to do in the Council during the past year and asked for their comments carneSETcaeee piedwatersofseamen South ani le public. In the let > 1 Tican mining combine, | tabled a motion, onlychancetheunattatchedrepresentatives ThiscalledontheMeetingtoinstruct principle in favour of financial gain. A harsh evaluation? Judge for yourself: Ina letter sent out with the Notice of purity the meeting Council was requested Election, the representatives explained to CbyommitsittFieneanctioalenadnodrsGeene“rtahel taPkuirnpgoseups... 75 f: have to communicate with their ‘constituents’ ARCUK’s officers urgently to withdraw the the unattatched were also asked to make investment and to report on other investments, that ARCUK should be paddling in the architects’ select their own councillor-representativesfor ARCUK has been launched by the RIBA. known their work situation to give the tang in companies operating in South Africa representativesabetterideawhoarethe atl eae eeeDante council unattatched. Not so. Apart from one supporting voice, al who spoke to the motion dissented: |had itesetupinJanuary 197. itismore dificultthangetingitfre, monopoly ofthepublicearasthe News and features of broad interest to . pete a itali fesion’ hpiece is bei workersintheprofession,thebuilding Thisstartling CAUCE 5 area chall ab NAM. date industryandtothegeneralpublicareincl- ethicwasbroughthometoTASS2Building g1eae a a See a ,Who form the vast of issues and to bring the Movement’s views } when they tried to pay Morgan Grampian __ majority of the RIBA’s membership, wil uded to stimulate debate on a wide range Design Staff national and activities to the attention of the largest fa tidy sum for distributing their recruitment be more wary of Mr Moxley’s ideas, possible readership. leaflet tucked between the pages of Building OURNEWCOVERPRICE Design.TheideaizetogettheleafletontoWAFFLE We have been able to reduce the cover Jatchitectural workers drawing boards in time price of SLATE from 40p to 25p as a res- for the Interbuild exibition and so drum up Two NAM members who were invited to LATES!\)SLATEN WSL -affiliated Councillors said that the RIBA was apparently not satisfied with controlling 85 percent of council seats and now 5 73, Hallam St., London, WI, to.correct the mistake and ensure that they recieve ballot the speakers dwelt on the promised profit, the anticipated pickings from the investment wishes to assert its power in al the groups. All unattatched architects, NAM b papers, —a sum of £158 -10! And how sensibly the guaged the mood of Council. The voting count was7 in favour, 26 against and 13 abstentions, Clearlyworriedaboutthenewfound De UNeCMeDEE“broughtpoliticsintoCouncilaffairs”, percent to 19,618 (79 percent of UK ‘unattatched architects’ on the Architects 7 architects,agianst85percenttwoyearsago).RegistrationCounciloftheUnitedKingdom FOR DEMOCRACY energy of the unattatched, the RIBA is look at SLATE 3,which containedseveral feature sponsoring its own slate of candidates in articles devoted to the topic. theforthcomingARCUKelections.A Anyunattatchedarchitectswhohavenotyet Withdrawing investments “won't help the blacks” and... Above al, however, and ironically,thediscussionbetrayedafarfrom subtlyexpressedpreoccupation withthe familiar“businessisbusiness”arguments,All fe, h tNAM. spokesperson forthepresen recievedanoticefromARCUKoftheforthcoming < electionshouldwriteimmediatelytotheRegistrar Theremaining1136architectsaremembers (ARCUK)havenotendearedthemselvesto ON ARCUK SLATEispublishedbytheLIAISONGROUP oeformerchairmanoftheACA,Raymond oftheNEW ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT, | Moxley.Ray’smeteoricrisetothetopof disheveledprivatePracticepartners 9,PolandSt.,London.W1. : Waitingfortheircopies oftheevil "|thearchitecturalpilesufferedanundignified ‘eportonpublicationday.Hearrived Printed by E undignifiedsetbackearlierthisyearwhen onlytohearthattheStationeryOffice the Institute’s unenlightened membership _had shut up shop on account of a bomb failed toelect him toCouncil. IsRay Scare. Was the culprit Mr Graham ina suitable’ forhighoffice?Caughtinaction lastditchattempttoblockpublication? at the Junior Liaison Organisation's recent We can only speculate. Those who believe seminar on Trades Unionism in the Build. __ that the profession's monopoly is a good ~ing professions (reported elsewhere in thing can at least take consolation from Islington Community Pres, 2a)StPat;Rd. a Typesetting by the publicationsgroup enquirersforTASS’’sstandthere. The wiley advertising managers at BD strung {the Committee along right up to the last minute, then said no, by which time, of jcourse, it was too late for TASS to turn theCambridgeSchoolofArchitectureto spread the word about the Movement were amused to learn that the students there hab- itually take their guest speakers to a rest- aurant called “Waffles” fora meal, before ultofthesettingupofanetworkof30 representatives throughout schools and large practices al over the country. The only committment of each representative will be to receive 5 copies of SLATE every zacuarefepoet4ofthem,re- toBD’sarch-rivalsattheArchitectsJournal,themeeting.Previousspeakersinthe urnin; . oO i il i ies i RIBA president Gordon Te system /stouldlsonA SGrATE Ironically BD continues to give TASS a series included 4 4 * y reasonable press in its editorial pages. Graham and Brian Anson of ARC. We intelayrepesnotheamisonreot”[Stlkaowgthevayhataveang aunhieSec radicals concerned with the industry and the environment, managers; mindswork, none of this should meals. come as such a surprise, as after all, TASS’s WORK ON SLATE SLATE needs more workers, more sober leaflet could hardly be expected to match the sex-appeal of CatGirl, writers, more ideas and more Teps in order to produce a better, larger and chea ernewsletter. If you etd like to % work for SLATE; becomea rep., join the committee, send in articles or suggest topics | The Slater’s hot tip for the next president it should cover then contact us soon, The copy deadline for the next issue is Friday 27th January 1978 5 president has pleged the Institute todo all itcan to fight the Monopdlies Commission's Proposals to take the profession apart, but will he stop at nothing? Apparantly, not, according to one of the Slater’s colleagues who raced off to her Majesty’s Jubilee Stationary Office to join the queue of RAY’S RISE of the RIBA is none other than that Scourge of collectivism, bureaucracy and al that’s rotten in Britain today, |architecture’s answer to Maggie Thatcher, with ~-pencil orsmall rodof soft~ (clean the ~, rid oneself of or renounce oblign+ Bra IMaeTn See this isue) he showed himselafn able debater as he delivered a subtle yet the fact that the Minister was sympathetic enough to delay publication until after the RIBA’s Annual Conference. pernicious smear on Trades Unionism, government review ignores housing need extent to which unions and their activitites are maligned and mis- -tepresented by the mass media. comes to negotiating, it is far more desirable later date, but, in the words of CRITICISM of the Government’s Green Paper on housing, issued in June this year, is marshalling. The Green Paper, a voluminous document supported by no less than three supplementary technical documents of comparable magnitude, was intended to form the basis of a housing consensus by which housing could effectively be removed from the political arena. When launching what was originally a review of housing finance — subsequently extended when it was decided this could not be con- -sidered in isolation — Anthony Crossland spoke of ‘getting rid of this desperate social problem once and for al’. Ifthere isone thing itincreasingly appears certain that the housing policy review has not done, it is to get on top of the social problems of housing. The report has little direct relevance to architecture, although what is regarded as one of its main omissions — any detailed outline of a future housing building programme in line with an estimation of housing needs — shows how vacuous Government promises of a stabilised, planned construction workload prove to be when given a prime opportunity of being put into effect. The Review is about money — the allocation of public support by means of subsidies. For despite the existence now of a crude numerical surplus of SLATE 5 page 4 Jreet, houses over households, the problems of homelessness have not disappeared. One of the intentions of the Review was to find out how and why this persists despite the infusion of massive sums of publisc money to try to remove housing need, Not unsurprisingly the Review has come to no hard and fast conclusions on solving homelessness — there is, after all no simple panacea which would be acceptable to public opinion, But what is Jess acceptable is that it has virtually nothing to contribute specifically to solving the problem. And worse: the measures the Green Paper suggest seem, in many respects, certain to make matters worse for those in housing need. For the Green Paper is good news to the owner-oc- -cupation lobby, aecepting as its premise (a point beloved of the Tory Party!) that a majority of tenants prefer to own. The question as SHAC — the London Housing Aid Centre — points out in its response to the Green Paper, of ‘Why’ 1snot analysed. Itcould be that tenants dislike the bad management of many publie:schemes, the impersonality which pervades even housing assoc- -iation estates. Or perhaps it is the fact that renting suggests a degree of economic impotence, of ‘falling back on the rates’, which is plainly socially stigmatised in the UK. There is no reason why this should be the case, points out SHAC. On the continent renting is perfectly ac- -ceptable and not at al frowned upon: and in any case the DoE’s own figures show that the average amount of subsidy enjoyed by public sector tenants — £160 pa —is not vastly in excess of that fed back to the average tax-payjng owner occupier in the form of mortgage-related income tax relief — £140. SHAC make the point, further- -more, that not only isthe owner* occupier gaining his personal property tights whilst subsidised by public funds, but that for very large mortgages subsidies can be very large indeed. Thus the largest consumers of housing.are actually enjoying the largest amount of subsidies — plainly asituation calling for attention As property values continue to rise, so too will the amount of subsidy being diverted away from those in need towards the better off. The debate will go on, and indeed has only just started in earnest due to the weight and complexity of the evidence assembled (not to mention ignored) in the Green Paper, which has taken six months for even the most abled housing commentators to digest. At present the Government’s thinking pays insufficient attention to the fringe areas of housing — the homeless, squatters, housing co- ~operatives. If the housing problem really is to be tackledjthis defficiency must be rectified before legislation. professions debate unionisation ‘MAN is born free; everywhere he is in chains’. Rousseau’s words added an appropriately philosophical touchtothesumming-up of AUEW/TASS National Organiser Harry Smith at the end of the Junior Liaison Organisation’s seminar — ‘Do Building Professionals need a Trades Union?’, held in London in early November. The Junior Liaison Organisation (JLO), which is working to promote closer liaison and understanding among members of the building team, chose a seminar title seemingly bound to provoke acerbic discussion and to highlight areas of conflict in a profession particularly badly hit by the current economic recession. Posing such a question in 1977, long after many other professions have organised, is indicative of the resistance within the building professions to the idea of unionisation, The afternoon promised to be interesting. Harry Smith also began the afternoon, addressing an audience of about 40, less than half of whom, incidentally fel into the category of ‘junior’. His 45-minute talk scanned the history of trades unionism from its blue-collar roots to the impressive growth of white collar unionism recently — due to the changing times and the growing need for professionals to organise against redundancies and unemployment. Harry Smith’s talk; notable for its lack of militancy, dwelt on the potential beneifts of a trades union to building professionals. He was at pains to stress the civilised natire of wage bargaining and reminded. those opposed to trade unionism of the Barbara Gunnell, journalist with the New Civil Engineer, stated that she was a member of the NUJ, which operates a post-entry closed shop and that she supported the concept of trade unions. Her down my neck”. Harry Smith, in his talk was a reasoned and calm examination of the need fro a trade union for building professionals, based on her personal experience, (USNEWS SNEWSNIEWS The genial Raymond Moxley, of the Association pf Consultant Architects, laid on a picture show to accompany his talk. Some of the illustrations werealittl e superficial — perhaps deliberately? Those who expected an anti-union diatribe, however, were disappointed. Mr Moxley waspolitenessitself,concedingthatunions chairing-andprovidedausefulforum were one way of responding to today’s of ideas. It is perhaps sad to reflect that, Gloucester on December 10th, attended by over 30 lecturers, students and others. Discussion included presentations and papers on work people were doing with local groups often involving students in design and sometimes building. Few had any illusions about the practical difficulty of such work but reported the added hand- -icap of unsympathetic heads of schools. Subsequent discussion on politics and eduwation led to a debate between pluralist and class analyses of community action. All agreed, however, that such work was political and threatened to undermine the academic conditioning of schools, leading to students questioning professional roles and discovering how ilequipped they are to cope with architectural practice in the community. Most were suspicious of the RIBA involvement. ‘Official recognition of ‘community architecture’ might involve it being tidied up and neatly pigeon holed alongside other minority interests. The York Conference was discussed at some length with fears being expressed that it will lead to greater academic sterility. The meeting closed by agreeing the following statements: ] The RIBA should not impart or even suggest aunitary approach to this and any other subject. Diversity and flexibility for each school so as to respond to its own situation is 2 So called ‘community architecture’ is aterm which increasingly signifies for many, the institutionalisation of radical activities in architectural practice. It must not just become another subject in the curriculum. This would be to misunderstand the nature of the commit- -ment required. Those people who want toengageinthisactivityshouldhavethe opportunity to do so within schools of architecture. The development of this work can be encouraged ifvisiting boards and external examiners treat it both as a legitimate part of an architecture course and asalegitimate basis for individual projects. Local branches of the RIBA can support the work of schools, or at least not raise continued on pl9 SLATE 5page5 pressures (while showinga picture of a wavering pendulum deaoting the current swing from collectivism to indi- -vidualism!). Empirical evidence for this was lacking. Could ithave been wishful thinking? Perhaps the most potentially annoying of Mr Moxleys statemen ts was that the publix, ie., clients who could afford architects, operating its free choice of architect, would chose non-unionised rather than the ‘less professional’ unionised practices, and that unionised practices would founder asa result. His implication that professionalism and unionisation are mutually exclusive verged on the offensive, This genteel but firm polarisation of views boded well for the discussion period, which, however, turned out to be more an orderly succession of views from the floor. The audiance heard ebour about non-affiliated staff associations claiming to represent a compromise between professionalism and unionisation, and heard claims that the sole functi of strikes is to attract publicity. Giles Pebody, founder member of the New Architecture Movement and amember of TASS, spoke about the concept of public responsibility underlying NAM. Dave Burn, Islington Council architect and NALGO shop steward, spoke on unionisation in the public sector, and Dave Burney, Chairman of the London Branch of BDS-TASS, talked about TASS’s tole and aims. The only touch of acrimony came whena (middle aged) architect intervened angrily to claim that no one had put the case against aunion, this gentleman clung to his concept of himself as a professional, and justified his position by saying that he had been prepared to accept exploitation as a younger architect knowing that later he would reap the rewards! In her summing up, Barbara Gunneli mentioned the useful point that, when it by its nature, it attracted activists of both sides, while the apathetic, those most in need of convincing, stayed away. to have aunion delegate to do this. Raymond Moxley claimed that the ‘them and us’ situation could be solved by the ‘partnership ethic’. Perhaps his most memorable quote, however, was “I don’t like the thought of a big union breathing CAWG’s own minutes “the meeting was disasterous and those who attended rejected any involvement with the RIBA. Those who did attend, Tepresenting a tiny and isolated progressive movement in schools were embarassed at being brought together by the RIBA and resolved to organise a further meeting summing up, dismissed the non-affiliated, ‘individual rights’ position of staff associ- -ations as unrealistic, and the claim that strikesarepublicity-seekingasonthewhole workmoreopenly.Thistookplacein untrue. He again stressed the civilised nature of bargaining, and of TASS’s role - that of ‘striving to the future’. Given the controversial nature of the topic under discussion, the seminar was most civilised -this no doubt, helped by John Allan’s expert and unobtrusive community architects snub RIBA LAST October the RIBA Community Architecture Working Group (CAWG) invited teachers from architecture schools in Britain to a meeting at Portland Place. Their objective, it seems, was for the participants to describe their activities so that all could be noted down by CAWG supremo, Charles McKean, and used in evidence at a away from the RIBA to talk about their NEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSINE nan w “Very good in parts” was the consensus verdict of people who came to this year’s NAM Congress. Held over a weekend in the appropriate and sympathetic environment of the Hull school of architecturei,t attracted partic- ipants from every part of the country, including teachers, practioners, students and a smattering of building workers. NAM emerged from the congress with aclearer definition ofitsprincipal policies relating to the Institutions of the Profession, the extension of local popular control of building design and construction, and its role in relation to the Trade Unions. It also spawned two new issue-groups, one to campaign against sexism in the pro- fession and the industry and‘snother to examine the structural problems of arch- itectural education. Less successful, however were the debates relating to the organisation of NAM itself, which gave rise to some painfully prolonged and, at times vitriolic, discussion, both on Friday evening and at the AGM on Sunday. Participants responded with unmitigated discussions to such a degree that small caucus meetings continued right through the time labelled“social”onthatevening’sprogramme. (Full workshop reports are included below) The workshops made considerable progress in clarifying the various aspects of NAM’s policy, and enabled contacts to be made and views exchanged. Friday evening’s plenary session was reserved for discussion of the progress of the Movement, but the problems that NAM as a whole faces were in evidence very early on when aparticipant called for the Sunday’s AGM to be open for al to attend. This essentially constitutional issue was resolved by avote of NAM members the following morning, with the result that admission and participatfon in the AGM was open to al, with voting rights reserved for members. Whether non-members regretted this decis- ion is;open}to speculation, but the exhaus- ting session which they witnessed demon- strated howinadequate|are the constitut ional arrangements within NAM and what the problems are that ithas to resolve ifit is to be effective at organising local groups enthusiasm, however, to Saturday’s workshop p@longside national campaigns. The debate workshop reports: that there should be a single union for all architectural workers in private practice, and the committee sponsored an open conference in London to decide which union would be most suitable. the engineering union was chosen over- whelmingly for its good record, wide membership and its enthusiasm for the project. Soon after this the Building Design Staffs (BDS) branch was estab- lished in London and a national recruiting campaign was mounted. - Reactivating interest and participation in union affairs, introducing community issues, and restructuring to allow more competent involvement by architectural workers. Analysing and challenging the hierarchy and bureaucratic controls which defend the user from the design process. -Extending existing union initiatives against the cuts and redundancies, against the ‘lump’ and promoting the use of unionised outside consultants and building firms, as opposed to un- unionised ones. * UNIONISATION Attended by about fifteen architectural workers in several unions, openedwithabriefresumeofNAM’s interest and activities in the Trades Union Movement. The NAM (Unionisation) Organising Committee was set up after the NAM 2nd Congress in Blackpool Iast year and published aunionising call, ‘WorkingforWhat’,toarchitectural workers in private practice. This outlined many of the problems, especially con- cerning pay and conditions faced by this unorganised section which had already been settled by unionised colleagues elsewhere. The document proposed Since responsibility for extending unionisation in private practice has been assumed by BDS-TASS, theworkshop proposed that NAM turn its attention to the public sector unions. Because * membership, recognition andnegotiating machinery were well established in these unions (though stil largely consuming the efforts of BDS/TASS), it was thought that workers in the public sectors are well! placedtopromotethemore‘advanced’ part of NAM’s aims, i,e,, social respons- ibility and public accountability. However, itwas recognised while potentially interested and powerful had not been activated on anything at hired from medelling agencies for the duration of ell you SLATE Sigiage6 theworkshop thatmostof theseunions, that the speci ' t and environmental architectural issues and most of the © whilst it says what a Product unlikely to say what it can do, it is Products on the membership was dissatisfied and etic. BDS-TASS apath- being aseparate had the advantage of o it won't compare it can't; union,andit branchwithinalarge was thought that archi- tectural workers in the public sector would benefit from an equivalent struc- ture, all. Most of them will have been from heneeds. Butmost socmeneetce whether it'swhat failings: market, to allow to other the Specifier informed choice - NAM'S 3RD CO advertisers use are of course the first stage, and i product Butthe fact remains that interest in the he must do that himself; © most technical literature will try and show Product is expected to be generated not through advertising the qualities of the product, but through sex. the product in the best possible light, & an attractive brochure orby drap mee see ladies all over it, so that theSpSpeecifieris impressed by the packaging regardless of the product's qualities. Manufacturers only use because they have been shown for them - otherwise they wou These workers and their unions should be developing in several particular areas: these uarketing techniques <~0 work, Specifiers fall ld be unneccesary. It became circular, in effect, in trying to res. olve the conundrum of how to take constit. utional decisions when there is no Constit- ' ution describing the procedures fordoing it. In the end a much ammended Tesolution was passed setting up a liaison group for 1978 and members were elected toit,a motion setting up a code of conduct for SLATE was rejected as a “bid for indep- endence” and a group was set up to propose a constitution for NAM. Al this left far too little time for the debate of the policy motions before the AGM, but, fortunately, there was little dissent from the proposals that had found their way from NAM groups, congressworkshops and individual members anyway. As the participants left Hull the feeling wasthatNAM wassetforafurtheryear of consolidation and clarification of its policies and of increasing influence within and beyond the profession and theindustry, Its failing over the past year has been to neglect the business of activating its supporters, particularly in the provinces, and the remedy to that must lie in direct- ing more energy to the founding and fost- ering of local groups. r theexhibition,orgivenaweek'ssecondmentfrom the drudgery of the typing pool, in order to dec- orate the firm's stand. The women that the t most i etn ae eae Not only does this say rather a lot about attitudes towards women in Now, as we've said, the advertisement is only the first part of the process of selling the product. Its technical documentation comes next , and perhaps i external, irrelevant sales te: s “Very good in parts” was the consensus verdict of people who came to this year’s NAM Congress. Held over a weekend in the appropriate and sympathetic environment of the Hull school of architecture, it attracted partic- ipants from every part of the country, including teachers, practioners, students and a smattering of building workers. NAM emerged from the congress with a clearer definition of its principal policies relating to the Institutions of the Profession, the extension of local popular control of building design and construction, and its role in relation to the Trade Unions. It also spawned two new issue-groups, one to campaign against sexism in the pro- fession and the industryand ‘nother to examine the structural problems of arch- 5 ledneation ess ful, h were the debates relating to the organisation of NAM itself, which gave rise to some painfully prolonged and, at times Vitriolic, discussion, both on Friday evening and at the AGM on Sunday. discussions to such a degree that small caucus meetings continued right through the time labelled “social” on that evening’s programme. (Full workshop reports are included below) The workshops made considerable progress in clarifying the various aspects of NAM’s policy, and enabled contacts to be made and views exchanged. Friday evening’s plenary session was reserved for discussion of the progress of the Movement, but the problems that NAM as a whole faces were in evidence very early on whena participant called for the Sunday’s AGM to be open for al to attend. This essentially constitutional issue was resolved by avote of NAM members the following morning, with the result that admission and participatfon in the AGM was open to al, with voting rights reserved for members. Whether bers regrettedthisdecis- ion is;openjto speculation, but the exhaus- ting session which they witnessed demon- strated howinadequate|are the constitut ional arrangements within NAM and what the problems are that it has to resolve if it The debate al architectural workers in private practice, and the committee sponsored an open conference in London to decide which union would be most suitable. the engineering union was chosen over- whelmingly for its good record, wide membership and its enthusiasm for the project. Soon after this the Building DesignStaffs(BDS)branchwasestab- lished in London and a national recruiting campaign was mounted. PROFESSIONALISM UNIONISATION Attended by about fifteen architectural workers in several unions, theworkshop opened with a brief resume of NAM’s interest and activities in Movement. The NAM (Unionisation) Organising Committee was set up after the NAM 2nd Congress in Blackpool Iast year and published a unionising call, ‘Working for What’, to architectural ~ workers in private practice, This outlined manyoftheproblems,especiallycon- cerning pay and conditions faced by this unorganised section which had already been settled by unionised colleagues elsewhere. The document proposed SLATE Sipage6 Since responsibility for extending unionisation in private practice has been assumed by BDS-TASS, theworkshop proposed that NAM turn its attention to the public sector unions. Because membership, recognition andnegotiating machinery were well established in these unions (though stil largely consuming the effortsofBDS/TASS),itwasthoughtthat workers in the public sectors arewell) placed to promote the more ‘advanced’ i) The mandatory minimum fee scale should be abandonded in the public interest and a new system devised, Hi) The*Monopolies Commission ’ definition of the public interest isunacceptabletoNAM asit equates this with the free market and restricts the public to mean only clients not users, ili) The establishment of any new fee system must take place within areconstituted ARCUK with at least 50% lay represer along the lines proposed in the NAM report. Congress considers the Trades Union while potentially interested and powerful, had not been activated on and environmental architectural " part of NAM’s aims, ie., socialrespons- ibility and public accountability. However, it Was recognised that most of these unions, issues and most of the was dissatisfied and apath- etic, BDS-TASS had the advantage of membership t being aseparate branch within union, and itwas thought alarge tectural workers that archi- wouldbenefit inthepublicsector| ture. of salaried architects the position will continue to be from an equivalent struc- weak or without a mandatory minimum fee scale until they exert their industrialstrength withinthetradeunionmovement. Its failing over the past year has been to neglect the business of activating its ” supporters, particularly in the provinces, and the remedy to that must lie in direct- ing more energy to the founding and fost- ering of local groups. ~ Reactivating interest and participation in union affairs, introducing community issues, and restructuring to allow more competent involvement by architectural workers. - Analysing and challenging the hierarchy and bureaucratic controls which defend the user from the design process. - Extending existing union initiatives againstthecutsandredundancies, public sector, especially those involved with construction, maintenance and associated fields. Activation of public sector workers could then lead to the formation of an embryonic ‘Architectural Workers’ Alliance’, organisation encompassing all unionised architectural workers and ,~ attempting to tackle larger environmental issueswithfullunionsupport. ‘ A motion to set up a Public Sector Working Group to start tackling these problems and to advance NAM’s aims in the public sector was unanimously accepted by the AGM. ° 1 This Congress considers that it is now necessary to develop policies to further NAM’s aims in the public sector, To this end it mandates an extended National Design Service Group to under- take the necessary research and publicity and to organise a conference to establish the potential for joint action among local authority architectural workers, tenants federations,appropriatetradeunionsand Direct Labour Organisations by May 1978. report of the NAM Central London Group ‘and endorses its main proposals as follows: against the ‘lump’ and use of unionised outside consultants and building firms, as opposed to un- unionised ones. * promoting the 4. This Congress deplores the use of . The Congress mandate the Group to co-opt help as needed, ard to pursue the monopolies issue and any related matter, taking necessary action in furtherance of NAM’s stated aims, SLATE Spage 7 invariably “The Cosmos” - though the ensuing discussion was less impressive. The Hull workshop on TheProfession found itself in the exact Opposite position. Having undertaken two hard years research and action on some Primary issues:- The Unattached at ARCUK, TASS/BDS, The Monopolies Commission Inquiry and its implications, etc., we now seem to find that al these issues link together, and that actions in one sphere imply orrequire actions in the others. But how much more Positive and fruitful this Stage is, than those early affairs in Whitfield Street~ In reporting back from ARCUK, the Unattached Representatives indicated the problems of learning “the ropes” of Councilmeetings. Itwasfeltthatitwas valid to continue action in this contextfor two reasons, firstly that it had taken until now to become familiar enough with becamecircular,ineffect,in tryito olvetheconundrumofhoweaecone utional decisions when there isnoconstit- ution describing the procedures fordoing it. In the end a much ammended resolution was passed setting upaliaison Sroup for 1978 and members were elected to it,a motion setting up a code of conduct for SLATE was rejected as a “bid forindep- endence” and a group was set up to propose a constitution for NAM. All this left far too little time for the debate of the policy motions before the AGM, but, fortunately, there was littledissent from the proposals that had found their way from NAM groups, congress workshops and individual members anyway. As the participants left Hull thefeeling wasthatNAM wassetforafurtheryear of consolidation and clarification of its policies and of increasing influence within and beyond the profession and theindustry, procedures to be able to intervene effectively of consensus was later endorsed by Congres in Council affairs. Secondly, it was consider Those of us who started NAM at Harrogate two years ago may recall the difficulty we experienced in giving our communal misgivings about the condition and direction of the profession a clear and valid structure from which could be developed aprogramme ofaction. Item 1 on the agenda of al meetings was - Our reason for involvement in ARCUK isthe desire totransform itinto areal agency of public accountability - led directly to consideration of the Monopolie Commission Report. There was general agreement that the Commission’s definitio of “public interest” was unacceptable, but that ARCUK was the proper context for the ensuing debate. The prima facie argument that dropping the mandatory fee would prejudice the living standards of salaried architects, was shown both in workshop and in plenary session to be false - anda motion covering al these area its reps out or alternatively of demonstrat- -ing support for the work already done. Nonetheless, there was a fear that our presence in ARCUK might in due course become aform oftoken resistancewhich could be used by the RIBA Majority to legitimise its actions in the name of democ- stacy. Then would be the time to leave. The group mandated to continue thiswork isexpected to begin meeting after unattached electorate the option of throwing Christmas. ee eee OnOe2 - Seeking links with other unions in the CONGRESS RESOLUTIONS Participantsresponded withunmitigated istobeeffectiveatorganisinglocalgroups 5 however,to Saturday's workshop yalongsid ional campai workshop reports: thatthereshouldbeasingleunionfor NAM‘S 3RD CONGRES Bo This Congress commends the com- pleted work of the Unionisation (Organisin; Committee and recommends and urges all workers in the private sector building design professions to join TASS—BDS, This Congress mandates aworking party to explore the potentail for an alliance between members of TASS—BDS and building design workers in thepublic sector trade unions, 2. This Congress accepts the monopolies sexism in advertising and the character- These workers and their unionsshould be developing in several particular areas; considered reasonable to at least give the isation of women and men in degrading stereotyped roles in the architectural trade press, | We therefore call upon NAM members to refuse to specify any products promoted through sexist adver- tising, and to encourage fellow architect- ural workers to follow suit. is Congress deplores sexism in all aspects of the building industry and approves the setting up of NAM camp- aigning groups to investigate and take action on the position of women in the industry and education, 5. This Congress supports the efforts of NAM members Tepresenting unattached hit on the Archi Regi ion Council of the UnitedKingdom. 6. ° i) This Congress notes thesavage attacks orchestrated by the National Federation ofBuilding Trade Employers and theTory Party against Direct Labour Organisations and Local Auth- ority architects’ departments, i)This Congress expresses its support for the democratic fight of the Direct Labour Organisations, ~ The sexist workshop was set up in Tesponse to a strongly felt need by NAM members for a group to look into the problems facing women both as students and working in offices. The workshop set itself up as a regular meeting for support and to be an active campainging issue group to look into sexist advertising anddiscriminationincollegesandin practice. It also intends to analyse and explain the reasons why there is such a discrepancy between the number of women who apply for and start degree courses and those who complete them and manage to find work in architects offices. There has already been one successfulmeetingonDecember12th and the next will be held in one month, on 12th January at 14, Duncan Terrace, London, N.1. _278 5215 for details. EDUCATION }SLATE 5page 8 The New Architecural Movement’s proposals for a National Design Service are based ona critique * of architectural patronage and its effects on architectural service to the public, architects working ar and the type and form of buildings which result fromit. We argued/for a design service which would be directly accountable to and controlled by the people in its locality. We suggested that neighbourhood based local authority offices should form the foundation of sucha service. While local government may be regarded asaninstrumentofsocialcontrolitisat the same time the main and often the only structure through which the majority of people can exert demands and gain access to land, finance and other resources neces- sary for their housing, health and education requirements. That is, local government provides these socially necessary services whichtheprivatesectorhasfoundtobe unprofitable. In many cases these services have been the realisation of policies of minimal prov- The powers that control the é¢ducation of architects formed the central theme to discussion in the workshop. Authority to control the content of courses and the standards of examinations seems to rest effectively with the RIBA, inspite of the large degree of autonomy theoretically enjoyed by institutions of education. The system of “exemptions” which validates academic qualifications, independentlygrantedbytheCouncil for National Academic Awards, the Universities and one or two diploma- awardingcolleges,asanindicationof a students’s “fitness for the profession”. ere by an RIBA-dominated ARCUK, through the visiting boards” and with the ultimate sanction of the withdrawal of recognition from schools whose standards are not acceptable. Qualifications from schools in this situation would no longer entitle their holders to qualify as architects. of conduct In-answer to some of the criticism made of SLATE at the recent NAM Congress, and subsequently in the trade press, we would like to affirm that SLATE has no intention of ‘going independent’. rather the Publication Group hopes to do more to further the specific campaigns to whichNAM hasputitsname,inlinewith suggestions made at the Congress, and also to faster communication within the Move- ment, To that end the group has adopted thefollowing code ofconduct toensure the proper carrying out o,of its business and to enhance its accountability: MEMBERS 1. Congress is to elect a minimum of six members to the NAM publications group, a further 50% of the number of elected members may beco-opted at any one time directly by the grou 2, Néw members elected to the publications ‘group are to comprisea minimum of 50% of old members remaining in the group. MEETINGS 3. Editorial meetings are to be held at\ least monthly 4, All editorial meetings will be open to any interested NAM members or SLATE readers, but voting rights will be reserved for group members. 5. At least two members of the publications group will attend each Quaterly Forum, one of whom will be an elected member, FINANCE 6, All £1-50 SLATE subscriptions will be handed over, on reciept, in.total to théSLATE }account, 7, For each issue of SLATE at least 25p from each NAM membership subscriptionrecievedwillbe paid to the SLATE account, 8. The SLATE fund amy be appealed to by any cause in order to float, in.the short term, events which cannot be funded by the NAM liaison group, providing funds are available, EDITORIAL 9, Members of the publications grou considerable inadequacies. the publication of pamphlets by NAM groups edit all material recieved, ‘sion remote from the desires of the people and also from the beliefs of the local author- ity workers who implement them. Against this background community architecture evolved as an alternative means by which people could express and sometimes achieve their requirements. More recently however, following cuts in public expenditure and a shift of resources away from the public sector into the private, particularily in housing, and housing rehabilitation, a new form of community architecture has appeared whichismerelyanextensionofprivate practice in a more socially acceptable guise - the basic structure of control of resources remains unchanged. Control over these resources isthe critical factor to which control over design is related. Whatever their social function and their corresponding faults, local authorities are public bodies accountable to the people. Accountability and control isthrough the democratic process and not through the workings of the free market. It is for this reason that local governemnt is considered to be the only appropriate veh- icle for a national design service. A prerequisite of a national design service would be the extension of the present dem- ocratic structures to include more fully people at local level. Although it may be argued that local government cannot be changed radically, history has shown that as the lowest tier of government it is suscept- ible to vigorous pressure from below. Local authorities can and have changed direction as a result of the collective demands of tenants organisations, local political parties andtradeunions. _ It is in these areas that NAM must organ- ise to promulgate its ideas for a design service with control over resources and design and construction teams by local residents. In the first instance however attention should be focussed on the existing design offices to establish the possibilities for radical change amongst local authority architectural workers. * “A National Design Service” 50p available tro’ ARCHIE TEKT Paper 2 May 1976 Paper 3 November 1976 NAM, 9 Poland Se London, W.1. Critisism came principally from two of the Dutch participants in the Congress, borh of issues of relevance to the Movement. whom had experience oc publishing in Holland. NAM, they said, appeared to Critiscism was alsovoiced. principally to clarify what the Movement stood for, or how itwas relevant to those whom itset out to inform and organise. This was not to say that they considered NAM to be on the wrong track, but they thought that Slate could go much further in both extr- acting and campaigning on the main points 11, All contributors have a right to see, on request, The difficulties of arraging programmes for students who wanted to develop skills needed to work for alternative “community” clients were also discussed. Experience at the Hull school show that a “liberal” unit system at least makes way for this interest to be catered for, but that the continuity and commitment needed for “‘live” projects is difficult to establish in relation to the school’s academic year and academic req uirements.Alsothedemandforahigh level of technical course content was at odds with the unit system, especially as establishedinterestswithintheschool itself were in some cases opposed to it. What isneeded isthedevelopment of a coherent critique of the goals and methods of current architectural education and the coordination of the efforts of all those who are attempting to practice alternative forms of education within the existing system. lack coherent policies, and SLATE did little by members of the publications group 12, All contributors have the right to withdraw their contribution, A feeling that “all’s well with Slate” may have accounted for the poor attendance at the SLATE workshop. A closer examination design as a cultural process, and may, of NAM’s programme and in helping it to developamorecoherenttheoryoftherole thepossibilityof‘interference’fromand, of the profession and the buildingindustry in society. Some part of this critiscism wouldbeanswered,theyfelt,ifSLATE made a point of concentrating on news relevanttoeachofthecompaigns being fought by the various NAM groups, with features to foster theoretical debate. Special issues to respond to specific events in the field would also help to disseminate thereby, the accumulation of a large degree of central power by, the Liaison Group wouldbeeliminated. This‘interference’ did not happen during 1977. The sucess ofSLATE restsonitsabilitytoattract readers outside the bership of NAM and its pricing and editorial policy must be determined in relation to this need. NAM’s views in the heat of the debate. Future areas of activity for the publ- icationsgroup,andforSLATE were discussed. The inclusion of reviews of buildings would be instrumental in break- ing the hegemony of the established architectural press, stimulating the devel- opment of a radical critique of building will take it in turn to co-ordinate each issue, ofthepaper’sfirstyeardid,however,reveal groupshouldalsodowhatitcantopromote 10,Thepublicationsgroupreservestherightto incidentally, attract more readers. The or members which take a closer look at the final draft of their contribution prior to piblication, = last year, of the constitutional relations of SLATE to the rest of the Movement. The group should be directly responsible to the AGM of the Movement for both the editorial content of SLATE and the financial arrangements for its production. In this way, those who p the paper would become directly accountable, and 13, Titles of any unpublished material and books recieved will be given in each issue, and this material will be available for examination, 14, The onus is0 the various NAM groups ,local and isshe, to. provide information for SLATE, for which it is bound to reserve space, . 15, The editorial policy of the publications group will be determined solely by them, as.delegates of NAM, continued from p 5 -SLATE’S code objections to schoolsofferingarchitect- -ural services to the community. A further meeting isplanned inFebruary which will discuss the papers being distributed for the York RIBA/SAC fe Further i ion and some of the papers are available from John Hurley and Gerry Metcalf at the Cheltenham School of Architecture. SLATE 5page9 The sexist workshop was set up in TesponsetoastronglyfeltneedbyNAM argued/foradesignservicewhichwould members for a group to look into the problems facing women both as students and working in offices. The workshop set itself up as a regular meeting for support and to be an active campainging issue group to look into sexist advertising anddiscriminationincollegesandin practice. It also intends to analyse and explain the reasons why there issuch a discrepancybetweenthenumberof women who apply for and start degree courses and those who complete them and manage to find work in architects offices. | There has already been one successfulmeetingonDecember12th and the next will be held in one month, on12thJanuaryat14,DuncanTerrace, London, N.1. 278 5215 for details. EDUCATION ESLATE 5 page 8 be directly accountable to and controlled by the people in its locality. We suggested that neighbourhood based local authority offices should form the foundation of sucha service. AN] Afeeling that “all’s well with Slate” may have accounted for the poor attendance at design as a cultural process, and may, The New Architecural Movement’s proposals for a National Design Service are based ona critique * of architectural patronage and its effects on architectural service to the public, architects working ar and the type and form of buildings which result from it. We MEMBERS 1. Congress is to elect a minimum of six members to the NAM publications group, afurther 50% of the number of elected members may be co-opted at any one time directly by the grou 2, Néw members elected to the siblcations ‘group are to comprisea minimum of 50% of old members remaining in the group. MEETINGS 3, Editorial meetings are to be held at\ least monthly 4, Alll editorial meetings will be open to any interested NAM members or SLATE readers, but voting rights will be reserved ioe group members, 5.Atleasttwomembersofthepublications group will attend each Quaterly Forum, one of whom will be an elected member, FINANCE 6. All £1-50 SLATE subscriptions will be 4 handed over, on reciept, in.total to thdSLATE |account, 7, For each issue of SLATE at least 25p from each NAMmembershipsubscriptionrecievedwillbe paid to the SLATE account. 8, The SLATE fund amy be appealed to by any While local government may be regarded asaninstrumentofsocialcontrolitisat the same time the main and often the only structure through which the majority of peoplecanexertdemandsandgainaccess withcontroloverresourcesanddesignand NAM’s views in the heat of the debate. Future areas of activity for the publ- icationsgroup,andforSLATE were discussed. The inclusion of reviews of to land, finance and other resources neces- sary for their housing, health and education requirements. That is, local government provides these socially necessary services whichtheprivatesectorhasfoundtobe unprofitable. In many cases these services have been the realisation of policies of minimal prov- Paper 3 November 1976 architectural press, stimulating the devel- The powers that control the éducation of architects formed the central theme to discussion in the workshop. Authority to control the content of courses and the standards of examinations seems to rest effectively with the RIBA, inspite of the large degree of autonomy theoretically enjoyed by institutions of education. The system of “exemptions” which validates academic qualifications, independentlygrantedbytheCouncil for National Academic Awards, the Universities and one or two diploma- awarding colleges, as an indication of a students’s “fitness for the profession”. ispericed by an RIBA-dominated ARCUK, through the visiting boards” and with the ultimate sanction of the withdrawal of recognition from schools whose standards are not acceptable. Qualifications from schools in this situation would no longer entitle their holders to qualify as architects. The difficulties of arraging programmes for students who wanted to develop skills needed to work for alternative “community” clients were also discussed. Experience attheHullschoolshowthata“liberal”unit system at least makes way for this interest to be catered for, but that the continuity and commitment needed for “‘live” projects is difficult to establish in relation to the school’s academic year and academic req uirements.Alsothedemandforahigh level of technical course content was at odds with the unit system, especially as established interests within the school itself were in some cases opposed to it. What isneeded isthe development of a coherent critique of the goals and methods of current architectural education and the coordination of the efforts of al those who are attempting to practice alternative forms of education within the existing system. whom had experience oc publishing in Holland. NAM, they said, appeared to lack coherent policies, and SLATE did little to clarify what the Movement stood for, or how it was relevant to those whom it set outtoinformandorganise. Thiswasnot totheAGMoftheMovementforboth whichitisboundtoreservespace, ision remote from the desires of the people and also from the beliefs of the local author- ityworkerswhoimplementthem. Against this background community architecture evolved as an alternative means by which people could express and sometimes achieve their requirements. More recently however, following cuts in public expenditure and a shift of resources away from the public sector into the private, particularily in housing, and housing rehabilitation, anew form of community architecture has appeared whichismerelyanextensionofprivate practice in a more socially acceptable guise - the basic structure of control of resources remains unchanged. Control over these resources isthe critical factor to which control over design is related. Whatever their social function and their corresponding faults, local authorities are public bodies accountable to the people. Accountability and control isthrough the democratic process and not through the workings of the free market. It is for this reason that local governemnt is considered to be the only appropriate veh- icle for a national design service. A prerequisite of a national design service would be the extension of the present dem- ocratic structures to include more fully people at local level. Although it may be arguedthatlocalgovernmentcannotbe changed radically, history has shown that as the lowest tier of government it is suscept- ible to vigorous pressure from below. Local authorities can and have changed direction as a result of the collective demands of tenants organisations, local political parties andtradeunions. ARCHIE TEKT It is in these areas that NAM must organ- ise to promulgate its ideas for a design service NAM cause inorder tofloat, in.the short term, group, providing funds are available, EDITORIAL 9. Members of the. publications grou will take it in turn to co-ordinate each issue, construction teams by local residents. In the first instance however attention should be focussed on the existing design offices to establish the possibilities for radical change amongst local authority architectural workers. * “A National Design Service” 50p available tro’ NAM, 9 Poland St)_ London, W.1. buildings would be instrumental in break- ingthehegemonyoftheestablished eventswhichcannotbefundedbytheNAMliaison Paper 2 May 1976 the publication of pamphlets by NAM groups edit all material recieved. 11, All contributors have a right to see, on request, 6 whichNAM hasputitsname,inlinewith Ws fae UA Se suggestions made at to faster communication within the Move- A ce hoe AT MY FROPESION considerable inadequacies. Critisism came principally from two of the Dutch participants in the Congress, borh of issues of relevance to the Movement. to say that they considered NAM to be on the editorial content of SLATE and the financial arrangements for its production. In this way, those who p’ the paper would become directly accountable, and 15, The editorial policy of the publications group will be determined solely by them, as.delegates of NAM. continued from p 5 the wrong track, but they thought that Slate could go much further in both extr- acting and campaigning on the main points SH Your mourn! 1VE Boe) BY ANASP /OF BING AN AMORA RESPONSES AND COLON 1588 OF | a In-answer to some of the criticism made ofSLATE attherecentNAM Congress, and subsequently in the trade press, we would like to affirm that SLATE has no intention of ‘going independent Si rather the Publication Group hopes to do more to further the specific campaigns to (OF RIDING THE of NAM’s programme and in helping it to developamorecoherenttheoryoftherole thepossibilityof‘interference’fromand, of the profession and the buildingindustry in society. Some part of this critiscism would be answered, they felt, if SLATE made a point of concentrating on news relevant to each of the compaigns being fought by the various NAM groups, with features to foster theoretical debate. Special issues to respond to specific events in the field would also help to disseminate thereby, the accumulation of a large degree of central power by, the Liaison Group would be eliminated. This ‘interference’ did not happen during 1977. The sucess of SLATE rests on its ability to attract readers outside the bership of NAM and its pricing and editorial policy must be determined in relation to this need. AND MaDe lt! opment of a radical critique of building the SLATE workshop. A closer examination ofthepaper’sfirstyeardid,however,reveal groupshouldalsodowhatitcantopromote 10,Thepublicationsgroupreservestherightto incidentally, attract more readers. The ormemberswhichtakeacloserlookat thefinaldraftoftheircontributionpriorto Ghacimifamalovcice da nrincia piblication, ¥ 12, All contributors have the right to withdraw their ibutic 13, Titles of any unpublished material and books recieved will be given in each issue, and this material will be available for examination, 14, The onus iso the various NAM groups ,local and isshe, to. provide information for SLATE, for by members of the publications group last year, of the constitutional relations of SLATE to the rest of the Movement. The group should be directly responsible ment, To that end the 8roup has the following code of conduct toensure the proper carrying to enhance its accountability: the Congress, and also out of its business and adopted SLATE’S code of conduct ——j objections to schoolsofferingarchitect- -ural services to the community. A further meeting isplanned inFebruary which will discuss the papers being distributed for the York RIBA/SAC fe Furtherinformation andsome of the papers are available from John Hurley and Gerry Metcalf atthe Cheltenham School of Architecture. SLATE 5page 9 education The education of architects must be more ranged about with myths and mystification, not to say ignorance, than any other issue in the profession. Just as well, it.would appear, for the RIBA, which iscurrently plotting another unilateral determination of education policy. Dave Breakwell, student mem- ber of the RIBA Council, sets the scene fortheforthcomingRIBA/SAC York Conference, in the first of a series of SLATE articles aimed to draw out the need for organised opposition to establishment education policies, DUG ANON THE NEW SYLLABUS NEWS FROM ae » Os 2 e It was announced at the RIBA Council meeting on 24th November that there is to be ajoint RIBA/SAC (Schools of Architecture Council) conference at York in March 1978 entitled ‘The Making of an Architect’, to review education twenty/ years on from the Oxford Conference. Despite RIBA claims that this conference is merely to discuss the situatian in education, it is almost certain that it will dictate the future course of educational policy for the next twently years. The same claims of ‘discussion only’ were made for the Oxford Conference’in 1958, yet educational changes since have come What has caused great concern amongst NAM, academics, students and even the RIBA council isthat this conference has been set up almost entirely behind closed doors by five people from the RIBA and’SAC, and before any discussion on the form of the conference has taken place all the conference arrange- -ments have been made and contributions invited. The only people entitled to go to the conference are the 15 contributors, about 25 practising architects (nominated by whom?) and the head, one student and one staff member from each of the look into the future direction of education. There were protests about the represent- -ation on the group (eg. no students) and it was later announced that the whole thing was to be dropped due to lack of funds(!) This was the last heard of it, even for members of EPEC, until it re-emergedas‘TheMakingofan Architect’. It would appear that the whole thing was constructed by Elizabeth Layton, an (unelected) RIBA staff member and Tom Markus, head of Strathclyde school and chairman of SAC with John Wells-Thorpe RIBA’s chairman of EPEC, G. Steele, also of Strathclyde and G. Aylward. It seems odd that there are two people from Strathclyde in this group, as the school has a definite educational direction that has been questioned by- some academics and students. Also both Marcus and Ms Layton could be described as having ,uncompromising’ views on education, and the latter, although in theory an administrator, seems to have considerable influence over education generally within the RIBA, although how and how much, no one seems able to find out. Of the 15 contributors, Iunderstand there are some interesting people, notably Jim Johnson of ASSIST, Colin Ward, long time anarchist and Judi Loach, a student. But each contributor has been instructed as to the area of his/her contribution, and any contribution ‘at odds with the spirit and intention of the Conference may be a> y TYPICAL! ONCE THEYVE Got THEIR FEES 39 schools. No provision has been made for the opinions of lay people, the construction industry, NAM or other interested parties. The latest development are that the RIBA council has referred the issue back to its Education and Practice Executive Committee (the body that ultimately controls education and who edited, [ Bannister Fletcher, that other architectural historian, turns in his grave as l cartoonist Lou Hellman traces the history of the Mother of the Arts im 1978. “Fell of my bike with laughter .........again” ...........Prof. Reyner Banham Post the coupon below or write to NAM 9, Poland Street, London, W.1. Iwant to be the first person on my block to get re-educated. Please rush me the 1978 New Architecture Calendar. _ Reluctantly, Ienclose £1.00, which includes postage and packing. should have known about it all along), and directly from decisions made there. that a recent SAC meeting at Liverpool asked for more student representation, But it would seem that the conference is already rolling and it would be extremely difficult to alter it now. As far as it is possible to discover, it seems that the conference has come about by somewhat devious means, At the beginning of 1977 it wa’ proposed to the RIBA’s EPEC that there should be a ‘Formation of the Architect’ group to SLATE 5page 10 All this raises again the question of the tole of the RIBA in controlling education, and it is hoped that the next issue of ‘SLATE’ will explain just how the RIBA controls education and the doubtful legal position of the RIBA in doing this. Meanwhile NAM is setting up an education group to decide policy on the conference and education in general. Contact person isHugo Hinsley 01-251 0274, Herewith subscription. LIAISON GROUP STARTS QUATERLY FORUMS Meeting for the first time recently, the new NAM Liaison Group set out its pro- gramme for 1978. Quarterly forums, called for by Congress, are to be held in Cardiff, London, Birmingham and Leeds. They are intended to form a milieu for the interchange of experiences and discussion between members and as a chance for interested people to get to know NAM. Social events linked to the forums are planned to raise funds for the Movement. Another new departure for 1978 is the allocationofthejobof‘lookingafter’ each of the various areas of NAM’s con- cerns to one of the Liaison Group members, The intention here is to oil the wheels of communication in the Movement and to ‘aid in the carrying out’ of Congress resolutions, ——$—$—$—$_$_< With an eye to the future, the Liaison Group has called for a NAM local group to host the 1978 Congress, scheduled for the 25th-26th November. The feeling is that the Midlands or the South West would do well as a venue, but other suggestions are welcome and the Liaison Group urges any group that wants to do as good, or better, a job as the Hull group in 1977, to get in touch as soon as possible. BIRMINGHAM GROUP FORMS A Birmingham group is under formation at the moment, and the first meeting will be held early in January, It is hoped to involve socialist planners, members of building co-ops, building workers and community groups as well as architect- ural workers and students, Possible issues for action will be proposals for the Inner-City Partnership committee, support for UCATT/Green Ban post office campaign and Alternative Strat- egy for Birmingham, advice and design work for community groups and co-ops, and a unionisation drive. It’s an ambitious programme and we need support. Ifyou are interested, contact Dave Breakell: C/O BUDA 173 Lozells Road Handsworth Birmingham 19 021 554 3278 (working hours) <ec2isSh22215 Z<=2 88 8 ai: iz Bat3 bogs O i,t. i$8 ve raves ae 58 O $2865 Case S c2nisebses Slater “worse than Astragal” WRITE TO SLATE‘, 9, POLAND ST, Name Address LONDON, W1. —_— $$ a] SLATE5page 11 Once upon a time there were no architects, planning officers or council estates. People were forced to live in unplanned caves, sub-standard tents or non- conforming huts, There were one or two monuments, like Stonehenge, but they were probably put there by visiting Martians .........+0.+ YOvNEVERSEETHEM AGAIN / —— London,W1. =i S| PROJECTS London. W1 NDS London, 3, HULL Roath, Cardiff ,NAM, 9,Poland St., ,Albany Rd., ,Weeton Lane, EDINBURGH Edinburgh, Pp: contact John Mitchell CARDIFF Kingston-u-Hull Regional College Hoby, Leeds 17 PUBLICATIONS LEEDS Ave., London, W1 LONDON London, NW1 ,25, St. George’s els Nottingham Grou; 14, Derby Grove, Lurton, Nottingham, LIAISON The Secretary, NAM, 9 Poland St., NDS, NAM, 9, Poland St., David Roebuck Editorial Committee. Anne Delaney, 196. David Somervell, 22 Panmure Place, Tan Tod, Hull School of Architecture, Pete Forbes, Parkview Douglas Smith, 17, Delancey St., From Charles McKean, Secretary of the ESSS NOTTINGHAM e—| of Art Brunswick Ave., Hull AVAILABLENIQW/ FromNAM RIBA Community ArchitectureWorking Group. In response to Slater’s pre-judgment (O not again!) of my book ‘Fight Blight’ herewith one of my own copies for teview (publisher considered the article implied an objective view or review a total impossibility), As for RIBA’s involvement, herewith latest paper from Community Architecture Working Group on the subject whichisby no means at odds with, say, report from the Cardiff Group. We would be interested in your comments (or the comments of the Cardiff Group). As for ‘back seat’ etc, do you really want turgid history of involvement in battles, co operatives etc in London and Glasgow? Did none of you ever read London Architect? As for ‘poverty programmes’ read Fight Blight, where identical point is made. Fight Blight written independently of RIBA, and had nothing to do with it. Slater’s almost worse than Astragal incommenting without information and in criticising from the sidelines. onsequently SLATE has to bear the financial loss of an unsold issue suppressed for no better reason than that it offended avested interest. The financial aspects of the affair repay further scrutiny: the NAM stand was provided at a very modest rate, while Turnham and Newall had ahuge -and expensive stand spearheading their marketing assault to try and brainwash specifiers to continue to use asbestos when al the facts point to its dangers. He who pays the piper... THEISSUEofSLATEspecially | Ironically,theSLATESpecialalso women’s action group grows A MEETING was held in Leeds on 22nd/23rd October of ‘Women in Manual Trades’, asupport and information group of and for women who work in traditionally male manual trades. Thirtywomenfromaloverthe country attended, representing car- penters, plumbers, mechanics, electricians, fitters, bricklayers, plasterers and gardeners. As women at the meeting, we found we shared many experiences at work and when applying for jobs or training. We encounter ridicule, abuse and victimisation, despite the factthatagrowingnumberofwomen are entering and excelling in these trades. The meeting concluded that there is an urgent need to fight for the right of women and girls to learna skilled trade. Careers Offices, Industrial Training Boards, employersandTradeUnionsmusttake Frade steps to combat discrimination including the provision of child-care facilities), otherwise the Sex Discrimination Act is meaningless. R Regional Groups for Women in Manual Trades are being set up. Interested women cancontactusat: 21 Bouverie Road London N16 SLATE 4 announced that thisissue would iliscuss the profession abroad, however due to the unexpected amount of material from the recent NAM Congress in Hull and the findings ofthe Monopolies Commission have decided:to deferittoalaterissue. NEXT | | contains a critique of the marketing of building materials, particularly the _financial clout of the status quo. SLATE IS UNDAUNTED! We bring you the suppressed i issue as a FREE INSERT to thisissue of Slate, and we ask you: i) to read the article ‘Asbestos kills’; i) to think very carefully about specifying asbsetos in the light of the horrifying facts contained therein; i) if you are forced to specify asbestos SLATE representatives on the NAM stand felt honour bound to the organisers of Interbuild to comply with their dem- ands; but although the SLATE Special prepared for the NAM stand at the International Building Exhibition in November was suppressed by the Organisers after unsubstantiated complaints from asbestos manu- facturers about its critique of the safety hazards ofasbestos. This unilateral censorship followed a visit to the NAM stand, on the first day, of arep from TBA, a subsidiary of the asbestos giant Turnham and Newall. After buying a copy of the SLATE Special he conducted along but friendly and intelligent discussion of the pro’s and con’s of asbestos. Ten minutes after his departure the Interbuild organisers arrived at the stand and demanded that the SLATE Special be removed from the stand for the re- mainder of the exhibition. They pro- duced no criticisms of the accuracy of the SLATE article, nor did they offer - asisacustomarycourtesywith offend. ing but not actionable material - to buy up the whole print. [ifyouwouldliliketboe amemberoftheNJewArchitectureMovement fillintheformbelowandsend ittogether with acheque/postal order (payable to the New Architecture Movement) for £5.00 (if you're employed) or£2.00 (ifyou’re arestudent, claimant orQAP) toNAM at9,Poland Street SUBS IBE! saa | London W.1. |name | ADDRESS | |TELEPHONE (HOME)’ I | : | withacheque/postalorder(payabletotheNew ArchitectureMovement )for£2.00toNAM at9, to think very carefully about which organisation you are prepared to = ; out tewhitoaneee one about the products it markets. ; was withdrawn they continued to dis- cussthefactsofasbestoshazardswith visitors to the stand. Remember - asbestos kills; and censors. (WORK) SLATE continues its examination of the | pofand Stret,London W.1. | prchitects. | NAME : | j_| |ADDRESS A a 1yy@- A SLATE 5page 12 4 |1wahessSLATEvogM Nemcii | its cu policies that determine the education o anything at all. Most of them will have been ‘om modelling agencies for the duration of on, or given a week's secondment from of the typing pool, in order to dec- rm's stand. fhe women that the e are of course the first stage, and rm in question would produce fairly cal documentation in support of their Butthe fact remains tl terest in the is expected to be generated not through the qualities of the product, but through y does this say rather a lot about e process of selling the product. ocumentation comes next , and perhaps products on the ba external, irrelevant sal specifying decisions. SERIOUS This is a very serious state of affairs for the building industry. It is achieving at least a proportion of its sales as a result of factors which have no relevance to the function which the product is Supposed to fulfil. This turns it into more than a serious problem for the tuilding industry alone. Over the last decade the industry's technical record has been calamitous. Cement additives, asbestos, (see NAM report - Asbestos Kills) plastics which proved lethal in fire - these are just some of the dozens of examples of products which have been specified - with disastrous economic and social fonsequences. None of them should have been marketed without a mich fuller understanding of their performances. Specifiers failed to ask - or get the answers to - the right question about these products until it was too late. Specifiers are almost certainly still failing to o they leave the onus.on the specifier to Rest’ digest, understand and apply all relevant standards and certificates, a DON'T specify ANY building material containing ANY kind of ASBESTO More and more architects are refusing to specify building materials con- taining any type of asbestos, despite a massive, slick and deceptive pub- lic relations campaign being waged by the asbestos companies and their propaganda arms, the "Asbestos Information Committee" and the "Asbestosis Research Council." after all, not in business to provide a social service to sell the best possible products: they are in bus- iness to make money. MANUFACTURERS The role and motives of the manufacturer are very imporzent. His first loyalty is to his financial backers - he must make a profit or they will take their money elswhere and ruin his business. So the pursuit of excellence in the products he markets is unlikely to be one of the manufacturer's major priorities. He is committed to sales and growth, end any technique, such as marketing, which i] help that goal. Persuading the purchaser is, in €as in other industries, the major priority, lity of goods is useful only insofar as they hieve that goal. If it can be achieved by mcens, such as marketing techniques, the manu- turer's needs are satisfied nevertheless. _ What the example of building materials shows us is the faidure of an economicsystem to produce the products appropriate to Society's needs. Society requires the right product in the right place © profit motive reduces the likelihood of this ; for manufacturers are busy trying to in- specifiers so that regardless of what is the roduct, theirs is the one waich clinches the whe cost of their doing so is passed on to the mer for reasons quite outside the intrinsic of materials or manufacture. Nobody stands to ‘cept the backer who stands to benefit from ._ acturer's increased profits, and the market ing industry which would otherwise cease to exist. What is necessary, obviously is a different system - a system whereby nobody stands to gain by one product being sold in preference to another, so that the specifiers choice is based on a rational comparison of the performance of different products unciouded by irrelevant considerations. There are already moves in this direction which show us the way forward, but there is still a long way The next stage, therefore, in reaching a technically edequate specification system One of these moves is to go. standards such as British in the use of defined Standards and Agreement iz to be eble to introduce a means reducts which are necessary - as opposed of course, do not cover the wor- and demolition sites but al renrasenn acniheorines several reasons they whereby peepeesent any niyz ike tl col do not he complete answer to the 2y to products which are merely profitable made available to specifiers. Again there © BSs and, particularly, Agrement are both "opting in" schemes which leave the onus on the manufacturer to co-operate: nly one agency which can afford expediency above quick profit - the © specifiers are not obliged to use only products covered by the quality assurance of a BS or Agrement certificate; state. The state, therefore, should be empowered to have at least a sizeable stake in the industry to be able to introduce building products which are necessary above being profitable. It seems equelly likely that a state sector would be unwilling to do so without also being able to 5. Asbestos is a hazard not o andfactoriesandonconstruction © BSs and Agrement certificates criteria within which products define s Satisfactorily,butthey shouldPeers makegooditsprobablelossesonthoseproducts do not define others which it may be subjected to; which private manufacturers avoid introducing currently by also controlling those lines the aah ae industry currently sells at a profit. NEW ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT ri we are looking for a building materials daunting task; o BSs are defined largeley by the industries themselves, and only marginally by outside experts or specifiers. So current standards are something of a red herring — a very mild and inadequate form of quality control where other peoples' money - and lives — are at stake. Obviously much tighter quality control is needed. No product should be allowed on the market until all its performance parameters have been tested and documented by an impartial agency and the results are available to help inform specifiers. : A system such as this could have been evolved voluntarily by materials producers such that they agreed to introduce only tested do so; theirs is already a hard enough job, and firms' tarketing ploys are not encouraging a totally open technicalappraisaloftheirproducts.Firmsare, See products. t manufacturers have had this opportunity and have rarely taken it — they appear to need some prompting. The alternative, if they won't do it them selves, is statutory obligation. Building materials and methods are sufficiently vital to life and resources to make compulsory test— ing before marketing essential. But on its own this wonld rot be sufficient Under such a system the marketing of products, the irrelevent assertion of the super— dority of one product to another without comp- eriscn of their technical data, could still continue. Plainly specifiers must not continue to be misled in this way into making potentially disastrous decisions. What we need is a full and neutral product information system - a sort of superior Barbour index - which would make available all the performance details made available by the comp— ulsory testing system just suggested. This would allow specifiers to make a quite unbiased choice on the basis of the producttand its perf ormance alsone. Yet even assuming that products had to be fully tested before being allowed onto the market, and that specifiers were then able to choose between them solely on the basis of an impartial comparison of test results, the for specifying building materials still not be perfect. For manufacturers still, obviously, produce only those lines which made them money. There is no Guarentee that they would produce produce In other words » 43 now, the specifier would cften neve o0s€ between products which fitted his ents only imperfectly - not because chnically difficult to produce a more appropriate product, but simply because the prcefit margins involved discourage their developrent and marketing. Remember these FIVE POINTS: aus ey, which is more coon pace than the present profit-motivated responsive to society's , len each of the three requirements disc— + and the state empowered at the least, certain lines shunned flooring tiles, MESo6050666o0s00b0058 et.al.Forallasbestosproductsusedinconstructio NAMIE eierelewsisinte eee asbestos kills! 4. Even slight exposure to asbestos dust can cause slow and painful death not only from asbestosis (an untreatable form of pneumoconiosis), but of which asbestos is the only established cause, is "a painful, untreat- able cancer (of the membrane lining of the chest or abdomen) which kills by slow suffocation." It can be produced even by the slight exposures to which members of the general public are subject and usually does not also from lung cancer, mesothelioma and other cancers. Mesothelioma, develop until at least fifteen yeers after such exposure. 2. All forms of asbestos, including chrysotile (mined principally in Can- ada, Rhodesia, South Africa and the U.S.S.R.) and amosite (imported from South Africa and used for most thermal and acoustic insulation products containing asbestos), are highly dangerous and can be lethal, not merely the "blue asbestos" (crocidolite) which is no lonaer widely used in Britain in new construction. 3. The only safe level of exposure to asbestos dust is zero. 4. Current safety standards in British industry, even were they enforced, do not make the hazards negligible and, kers in the largely British-owned mines and processing plants in the nly to the people who work with it in mines so to the live and work. Due to weathering, abresion, maintenance, repairs and alterations, the people using buildings containing asbestos are also subject to the danger. countries from which asbestos is imported. people they come incontact with and to the communities in which they Asbestos cement flat and profiled sheets, tubes and pipes account for most of the asbestos used in the construction industry, but it is also used in a wide range of insulation and fire-resistant products, vinyl asbestos asbestos-asphalt roofing compounds, many sarking felts, n there are safe elter- ———— — — — — — _4¢ present by the industry. If you would like to become a member of NAM Payable to the New Architecture Move- £2 (if you! together with a cheque/postal order ment) for £5 (if you're employed) or Te a student, claimant, or OAP) to NAM, 9 Poland Street, London WIV 3DG. » fill in this form and send it Cece er ccwcccccccccccccs See eeeeeeeeTeEeL? CCCUPATLONG cteeaeeeeerie Paul Brodeur, Expendable Americans, The Viking Press, 1974. Pat Kinnersly's The Hazards of Work (Pluto Press, 1973) covers asbestos among many other hazards of work. On the British asbestos industry, refer to The Monopolies Commission report, "Asbestos and certain Asbestos Products," HMSO, 1973. Note also: 4. Cape Industries continues to mine "blue asbestos" (crocidolite) in South Africa and has, indeed, been increasing production. More and more of this deadly production is apparently exported to Third World countries where the trade union movement has not the power to get it banned. For additional: copies of this leaflet, ’ send a stamped addressed the New Architecture Movement, 9 Poland Street, London wi1V3D0G mer natives-(though glass or mineral fibres are probably not among them). Many cost no more. For others, the difference is insignificant compared to the medical and human costs involved in the continued use of asbestos. Don't put your faith in inadequate "standards" dependent upon unfeasible measuring techniques and understaffed and ambivalent énforcement agencies. Don't wait for your firm or department (or your client) to ban the use of all materials containing any kind of asbestos, or for the workers on site to refuse to handle them. Take the initiative! Don't specify any product containing asbestos and don't allow any on site. Get your colleagues, quantity surveyor and engineering consultants to do likewise. Strong pressure now from architects and other specifiers, along with the pressure already being exerted by organised workers in factories and on building and demolition sites, can help force the merchants of death out of the asbestos business. And don't worry about their "crocidolite" tears... ..ethe big asbestos companies are already diversifying into other products and may well want to "cut their losses" before a boycott obliged to spread to their other lines. To prevent of asbestos is potential unemployment in the asbestos industry, the companies vide alternative, safe employment rather than continue to subject their involved must be forced to pro- workers and the community at large to a lethal hazard. Don't depend on the asbestos companies and their propaganda fronts for in- formation. Refer instead to: Nancy Tait, Asbestos Kills: New Facts, 1977. (Available for 25p from Nancy Tait, 38 Drapers Road, Enfield, Middx EN2 BLU.) British Society for Social Responsibility in Science, Killer Dust: Asbestos and Its Substitutes, available early 1978. London W1V 3DG) (BSSRS, 9 Poland Street, The main sources of chrysotile asbestos, which accounts for 95% of world asbestos fibre production, are Canada, South Sfrica, Rhodesia and the USSR. Britain imports it from Canada and Soth Africa. It must be remem- bered, though, that Rhodesian exports, despite sanctions, have been known to reach Western markets under the guise of South African exports. MONOPOLIES COMMISSION REPORT What was the Commission’s brief ? UNDE To criticise the Commission for its brief is like criticising a giraffe for having a long neck. The brief is only as good as the enabling legislation, which derives from the What does NAM say? The Monopolies Commission isas aware as anyone that it is not an exhaustive consumer protection agency and that there exist many other institutions, both statutory and voluntary, whose aims are differently or more broadly defined in the attempt tc cover this vast territory. To investigate by means of the National Consumer Council or the Consumers’ Association whether architects services operated in the public interest with or without a mandatory fee scale would be a very different and daunting task - though none the less worth under- -taking for that. This however was not the job in hand. The other aspect of the Department's original reference worth noting is the way in which by using the title “architects’ services”, as opposed to, say, “architectural services”, the condition of amonopoly existing (i.e. 33.3% of the given market) isreally automatically fulfilled -and thus also the Commission’s mandate to invest- -igate. Compliance with the RIBA Condit- -ions of engagement, in which the Fee Scale lis laid down, is required by Rules 1.1 A cynical explanation for this tautology might be that after the inconclusive NBPI investigation of the mid-'60s (under the Wilson Labour Government!) theDepart- -ment were quite determined to make no mistake the second time. Cynical or other- -wise, this makes all the more stupifying the RIBA’s desparate gamble in February 1975 (viz. para. 14) of hiringa lawyer doubtless at considerable expense, to proclaim that since over two thirds of the profession were salaried and therefore not fee-earning monopoly conditions did not prevail. Like an experienced angler watching the futile wriggling of some wretched fish he enquiry. Slate readers may be aware that the Monopolies Commission’s nine proposals on “Architects’ Services” reflect to a remarkable degree the recommendations the-New Architecture Movement made totheCommissioninitsevidence. “‘The Case Against Mandato ry Minimum Fees”’. As we now enter the vital period of discussion and negotiation for a new fee system, we have prepared the following “Plain Man's Guide”’ to the Monopolies issue, which we hope will clarify some of the primary questions and raise the general level of constructive debate. pad 3.2, which all registered persons are enjoined to observe. ON ARCHITECTS’ SERVICES ASHRAELI FORWARD by no means indisputable maxim that in any The Monopolies Commission’s brief was brief indeed. It consisted of three sentences, prefaced by a reference to the enabling legislation*, and was sent to the Commission by the Department of Trade and Industry on 19th September 1973. The Commission was asked to investigate and report on whether a monopoly existed a' defined by the Act, how it operated, and whether it did so against the public interest. It was asked to limit its consideration to cover ‘conditions which prevail...... by virtue of arrangements.....whereby two or more persons supplying the relevant service charge fees calculated by reference to an agreed scale.” This simply meant that the Commission was not expected to under- -take a wide ranging review of the architect- -ural profession in all its aspects. Although naturally other aspects of practice were perforce examined in understanding how given market other things being equal, price competiton is good and its reduction or elimination is bad. No doubt, the concepts -lap but they are not synonymous, and ,if the Commission entered the debate by sthe former route, NAM may be said to enter by the latter. That the paths do not necessarily converge was, we hope, made clear in our Hull press statement. 1. The Mandatory Minimum Fee Scale should be abandoned in the public interest, and a new system devised. 3. The establishment of any new fee system must take place’ within a reconstituted ARCUK with at least 50% lay represent- -ation along the lines proposed in the NAM report. ** of “competition” and “public interest” over- 2. The Monopolies Commission\definition of the public interest is unacceptable to NAM asitequatesthiswiththefree market, and restricts the public to mean clients, not users. .NAM considersthepositionofsalaried architects will continue to be weak with or without a mandatory fee scale until they exert their industrial strength within the trade union movement. the fee system worked, it was the mandatory fee scale which the Minister wanted invest- gated. Lastly, the Commission was advised that it was only the services of persons registered under the Architects Registration Acts, 1931-1938, that were releyant to the *Sections 2(1) & 6, Monopolies and Restrictive Practices (Inquiry and Control) Act 1948, as ammended and extended by Sections 1(3) & 2 of the Monopolies and Mergers Act 1965, **The Minister was then Peter Walker of the Heath Tory Government, the Undersecretary whose signature appeared on the reference rejoicing in the name of Mr. Coffin. rep eis has securely hooked - the Monopolies Report, para. 1.14) Cc ision was not i d. It pleted ving established, by October 1975, its brief and reported on 9th November, 1977 that over 90% of the suppliers of architects’ like the summary in NAM’s Report, though in notably inferior style. which were juxtaposed in fhe 2nd chapter of our Report (“The Fallacies and theFacts”) but al of which expose the difficulty of trying to link the obvious benefits to architects of fixed fee income with either the clients’ or the public’s interest. It is also notable how rapidly the solemn assur- -ances vanish when the RIBA postulates a market model without mandatory fees, All the so deeply ingrained qualities which a few pages earlier are deemed to create the very demand for architects’ services - THEMONOROLIESANDMENaERScoMnsioN and yet where printers and typesetters get good rewards because of their bargaining strength. 1977. services used the fixed fee scale and that there was therefore a case to answer, the Commission notified the monopolists of the issues they wished to consider in decid- -ing whether the monopoly operated against public interest. The response of the monopolists, that is to say the RIBA, FAS, IAAS, RIAS, RSUA and ina limited sense ARCUK, was coordinated by the RIBA, headedbythehaplessMr.AndrewDerbyshire-ingtotheircomplexity.Apartfromscale integrity,wisdom,altruism,etc.etc.,- ‘etn1ofheFT9 consequentlythenegotiationpositionof How did the e Architects’ Services Prin Patmos poms of Commission ° AReportontheSupplyof Architects’ServiceswithReference toScaleFes go about. it? As we noted in our Report, “‘Do not type - of other witnesses consulted. These in the main consist of clients rather than users, and it is-fairly clear that in many cases the ta’k of responding to the | Commission’s request for information was given to a professional rather than lay official.Inotherwords,itseemsJikely that the person answering for the corporate clients was often an architect himself. (See also below under “‘What did the users say?” Perhaps of more interest than this aspect is the argument that the very absence of user response reflects a real difficulty in linking these wider social interests with the mandatory fee scale in the manner proposed in the RIBA’s fifth assurance. (This assurance - which the client accepts in return for losing the right to negotiate the fee - states that “architects will work with a particular view it tends simply to state its disagreement without very full supportive reasoning. Those of us who prepared the NAM Report and who braved the perilous seas of a priori argument were frankly sorry to find no such rigour in the Commission’sstyle. Anyway, the Report consists of 8 chapters and 9 appendices, the latter being half as long again as the main text. The chapters cover 1. The Conduct of the {nquiry - a note on how information was gathered; 2. The Profession of Architect- -ure in the U.K. - which contains some interesting, if rather otd, figures on the growth in number of architects, their various types of employment, and the value of work certifiéd, (approx. £2,000 million in 1974); 3. The Scale Fee System - including a fascinating account of Govern- The importance of this allegation and its prominence in the RIBA report provoked our detailed critical examination (which is best followed by refering to our original text), but its overall thrust was essentially thatarchitectsarespecial,theirrelationship CommissionGoAboutIt?) . For the large or middle sized practice it would mean that in good times profits be minimal. The cost of the services will increase in good times because their will be more demand, and stabalise inarece The level of salaries then under the new system will be proportionally greater to the level of fees than under the old, and pass go.....Do not collect 6%”, whilst the Commissionisheadedby24appointed members, the main burden of investigative work isdischarged by the permanent civil servant officers. The group directing the enquiry into Architects’ Services consisted of eight members over the full period, and was chaired consecutively by Sir Ashton Roskill and Mr. J. G. Le Quesne, both Q.C.’s. Case Against Mandatory Minimum Fees” the employed to the employer would be similarly enhanced, Furthermore as industrial strength rather than the mand- -atory status of fees is the prime factor in salaried architects’ renumerations, there will be a commensurate safeguard against any decline in professional standards. Trade Unionism both in industry and within the professions - despite all media distortion - plays a major and decisive part in maintaining and improving the quality of the product. The small practice is likely to benefit under a new system, and it is hardly surprising that pressure is coming from the bulk of the practices in the regions for a more flexible system of fee scale. It will Despite the inevitable result the was also produced. Commission very properly began by After receiving and studying all the establishing the existence of the ‘monopoly’ written evidence the Commission conducted What did the In the aftermath of the Commission’s Report and in the present depression it is ‘demand elasticity’ not the assurances which is now the RIBA’s primary argument - though contrarily there is no mention of the service cutting that currently prevails by means of design speed ups, undermanning, 17guments. temp labour, etc., nor of the substantial and unsavoury “redundancies” that have occurred in the private sector despite the much vaunted balancing effect of fixed fees, by conducting a postal survey of one in seven of private practices in the U.K. 878 questionaires were despatched, of which 588 were returned, together With 729 letters Then followed the long period of gestation giving related evidence. Although this gave before the present report ‘Architects’ general information on revenue, the Services” was published on 9th November Commission also rightly considered it within 1977. RIBA say? their brief to examine the profitability of architects’ practices. But having commenced an investigation into the relationship| between individual project costs and profits in ten selected practices, it was persuaded by the RIBA to abandon the exercise as the results “would be unrepresentative”’. However, when challenged to produce its own survey, the RIBA failed to satisfy the Commission’s requirements, and so in the event no such survey was undertaken - a notable shortcoming of the final report. A more serious defect in our opinion, What does the Commission’s Report consist of? The Report is in some ways disappoint- -ing. Although the chapter structure is convincing and the presentation of witnesses’ cases exemplary, there is a clear disinclin- -ation to enter the dangerous arena of the The reasons given by witnesses in opposit make the small practice more competitive -ion to the RIBA position (which included with other suppliers of architectural services, the Consumers Association) almost all touch the market will increase and therefore the however. is the limited number -or rather ~argument. Where the Commission disagrees users say? We have already noted the semantic who had scarcely finished cleaning the egg of the advertising debacle off the back of his neck, before receiving the Commission’s custard pie full in the face. Their report was presented in the Spring of 1976 at the same time as the original NAM Report, “The reduction for repetitive house plans, our U.K. system is virtually alone in ignoring this sophisticated approach. In total therefore, the Monopolies Commission Report isa215 page document, and costs £2.85 from H.M.S.0, are apparantly to be abandoned directly the architect has the option of reducing his fees. This provoked our as yet unanswered question - are architects likely to cut their fees at the expence of their throats? (NAM Report, para 2.5). Alternatively, the only other explanation is that these assurances are not worth the paper they are not even written on. Cent TeRomeofComes Fd ‘eRe P7 Lownon MER MASESTY'S STATIONERY OFICE 5 wt 2. Many of the reasons given in favour of the existing scale fee system do not depehd on its mandatory status. 3. Most of the reasons given in favour have nothing whatever to do with the “‘five assurances’, or indeed any other RIBA a series of “public interest hearings” in which the monopolist is, in effect, cross- ined by sof the C isi The prot chinks is:that there is no way of knowing if anyone real is inside. The RIBA’s lengthy written document, which contained much repetition but no intentional jokes, leaves one uneasily pondering how the picture of perfection presented to the Monopolies Commission marries up with the palpable disillusionment and low morale throughout the profession. The keystone of their argument was what we in the NAM Report christened “The Hollow Bargain”. The RIBA alleged that it is reasonable for the client to forego the normal right to search the market for an acceptable fee because in return his architect offered him a series of assurances of integrity, unlimited liability, competence, loyalty and altruism. The second strand of the RIBA case was within the framework of a set of social and -ment involvement in the profession with the ‘demand elasticity’ argument. This -eration of the profession as a whole, and do believe in “professionalism” then now 80% of the profession are salaried compares is their opportunity for their practice to aesthetic values which ensure that the tegard to the fee system; 4. The Observance alleges that it is in the pfblic interest to insulate architects by means of fee control Commission attributes this to the poor David Waterhouse claimed at the recent industrial strength of architectural workers. interests of society, as well as those of clients are served by the best architecture that they of Scale Fees - the proaf that a monopoly are able to create.”) In examining the exists; 5. Architects’ Profits - only 24 Salaries paid to employed architects ARCUK meeting on December 14th that form, in the main, the costs of architectural the basis of the mandatory fee was not from the vaguaries of a market characterised dubious linkage between the assurances and pages!; 6. Evidence from Users of Services by sharp fluctuations in demand, but not by The Commission’s conclusion was that nearly “half the witnesses gave a view which services, the market for architectural “an architect should agree and charge the fixed fee scale - “The Hollow Bargain” and Others - gained from about {120 of the by an equal ability to modify supply. could be interpreted as definitely favour- -ing retention of the scales, dwith only about one-tenth against”, (Para. 98) However, this is less reassuring to the RIBA than it sounds, for at least three reasons: 1. Many of the witnesses seem to have been architects or advised by architects, and there therefore were judge of their own cause. services being determined by general level an adequate fee”, but is intellegent enough - our original Report expressed misgivings on precisely this point: “The final assurance raises questions relating to the 170 witnesses approached by the Commission Where elasticity of supply - for reasons of of ic activity of go it spend- -ing. Costs will be determined by the supply of and the demand for architects, the level of competitive salaries paid in the public sector, and whether architects are able to organise collectively. If you doubt this reasoning then look at the newspaper industry, dl idaly weak to know quite well that the present arrangement is not the only means by which this principle will operate. To “agree and charge an adequate fee” is a conventional 7. The Views of Bodies Representing Architects — comprising firstly the RIBA lengthy training, staffing methods etc., - cannot closely reflect that of demand, the measure of fee fixing maintains, we are told, case made on behalf of all the above listed public interest at large involving supra- -client matters beyond the terms of contract bodies, and secondly the case made by NAM, the profession’s capacity to survive a depress- to which themandatory element of the present arrangements is that are unenforceable on the basis of the the only objector in this category; and -ion in readiness for the ensuing boom. This leads the RIBA headlong commercial practice i ly, one can argue that fee scale and perhaps even at all.” NAM lastly 8. - Conclusi and R d -ations - the latter reading remarkably into a morass of contradictions, some of The appendices generally contain further details of subjects covered in the main text, together with the bulk of statistical inform- -ation. Of particular interest is Appendix 6 covering methods of charging for architects’ services in other countries. These show remarkable consistency throughout Western Europe and America in modifying the crude ‘x% of construction costs’ system by the classification of building types accord- of a suit of armour with no with their client is special, their market is special and that therefore their mode of payment should be special. Again, the interesting conundrum which emerges is how such a unique species could succeed in re-entering our rather untidy society in the style not proposed by the current RIBA Community Architecture working party which recommends not a re-orientation of: * architects but/re-education of the public. (See “Educate Public Says RIBA Group”, Building Design, September 30th 1977). The various categories of “users” who gave evidence may be summarized thus: Government Departments - DOE/PSA, DES, DHSS, UGC, the Home Office and the Scottish Office etc., Local Authorities, the New Towns Association, Associations of Metropolitan Authorities, County Councils Councils and UDC’s, Public Corporations - such as British Gas, the NCB and CEGB, the UK Atomic Energy Authority, British Railways, London Transport, British Airports Authority, GPO, BBC etc., the Housing Corporation and Housing Associations, Industrial and C ial i various manufacturing and retailing groups, and at very long last (listed under “other evidence”) The Consumers Association! consortia as being symptomatic. affect salaried The second alternative is less palatable The recurring metaphor is that of the Folies Bergere fan dancer who must dance with increasingly frantic ingenuity as one by one her fans are discarded. The final spectacle of the RIBA with no fans at all is however, less pleasing. on - one way or another - the main defect economic position of the employee will ° What did the Conundrum Partners are confronted with an unenviable dilemma between either going commercial or accepting, if there is one, a new concept of professionalism. The first alternative has long since been the choice of some practices and we can cite the advertising debate, the relaxation of the Code on fee tendering for swerve whereby the “public interest” is virtually confined to mean the users of services, at the expense of the users of buildings. (See under ““How Did the How will the newfeesystemoverseascontracts,andtheformationof of any fee scale, mandatory or otherwise, which bases fees on a percentage of constr- suction costs. As noted above, the UK is virtually alone in ignoring the amount and complexity of the architects’ work in determining his fee. The nub of the matter is that architects’ revenue must be based on fheir costs rather than on the capital cost of the building. Only then will the anomalies either of reaping vast additional fees on fluctuations for no additional service, or of making a pitiful living out of small but highly work- intensive commissions be ironed out. improve. architects? for the more staid and uninformed elements of the profession who apparantly consider NAM asa bunch of long-haired wierdos carrying guitars and wearing sandals. Salaried architects will rightly view the arguments that have been put forward by the RIBA with suspicion, since the:statistics Acceptance of the simple virtues of real published by the MMC show that under the service, accountability to the public and a present arrangements large profits have been social ethic seem beyond their imagination. earned and yet the average level of renum- If the principlals of private practice really bly with other p i The coincide with their principles. The partner’s under the present mandatory ad valorem scale the client has no more certainty of the fee than he has of the cost of his project. This hardly squares with the surety of an “agreed fee” that propogandists claim for under the present arrangement. Undera new system it is in fact more likely that a client will know in advance what fee will be charged, since the dramatic late additions for “fluctuations” will not be admissable. Similarly, the present “conditions” are so confused in attempting to make the scale of charges more appropriate to the nature of the project that interpretation has been as varied as chalk and cheese. A negotiated fee derived from the complexity of a project will enable the client to determine the fee that he will be required to pay and the confidence that it is an accurate reflection of the cost of services provided. Within the formal terms of reference of the Inquiry the user of architects’ products (as opposed to the users of architects services) has been virtually excluded. It is to the user of the product that we wish the profession to be accountable and it is society at large, the users of buildings, that we define the public interest and not only those clients who supposedly act on their behalf. Architects are ultimately accountable to their client because the client has the power to withold payment and in some case certainly does so. Clearly in the fear that his client has hasthe power to withold the fee an architect is less likely to give an inferior service to the client who has deliberately chosen to hire an architect rather than “‘an architectural designer”. If we argue on analgous principles but substitute the user of the product for the user of the service, then public account- -ability of the profession will become a reality rather than a dream. Whether it be the government’s proposed independent committee in the short term or a reformed ARCUK as proposed by NAM in the long term, is the agency that determines the level of the profession’s livelyhood and the method by which must be under the control porate ET se 2|| {9pity 2 93 square, London, WC1X 8EZ. Tel PAVLUITOPULMOS From Mr John Burkett Sir, The problem with lengthy ‘sorernmer -o7 of lay people. If there was widespread dissatisfaction with R]BA appointees little time to adjust their architects, then doubtless there would be Portland Place and Hallam Street gives ARCUK hats before entering the Council puppet status of ARCUK to be exposed - the the Council confined its evidence toa description of ARCUK’s statutory roles and the way in which its Code merely requires compliance with a recognised fee scale issued and fixed by others. Although ARCUK thus clearly supports mandatory minimun fees it argued, correctly in our opinion, that the onus, of proving them to be in the public bodies where the scales orginate. Hence it took a very minor part in the Inquriy. filled with life and breath. AN END TO ARCHITECTS' MONOPOLY It were abolished as 1972 there is a current ret... towards selection by merit rather than by fee competition. _To reach any other conclu- sion than that the current system of charging is by and Jarge in the public interest one would need to place very hea reliance on the contrary evi- dence from the smal] minority of private users and in parti- cular on the evidence of the New Architecture Movement whose “contact list” in June 1976 numbered just over 200 Persons drawn from al] areas of architectural] activity includ- ing the lay public, But this is precisely. what the Monopolies Commission has done and the conclusions that the: have reached are that th- ory -uli> . es <n it- neat report was presented to i. . ment and I trust that Parlia- ment will read it and ask the appropriate questions. Yours faithfully, JOHN BURKETT, 10-14 Macklin Street, London WC2B 5NF November 23. _ What was ARCUK’s position? is well known that the proximity of "There has not been any compulsory scale of fees fixed by the Institute and there never will be'' RIBA 1926 ee Its behaviour since the Commission’s Report was published has, however, been less consistent. The RIBA appear to have decided that ARCUK must now be used as another weapon in the undignified struggle to retain the fee scales at all costs. The previous rather disinterested tone has there- -fore been replaced by strident pronounce- -ments both in Council and to the press that ARCUK firmly believes the fee scales to be in the public interest, to uphold the quality of architecture etc. and that any registered person found ‘jumping the gun’ and reducing his fees will be in serious trouble. Fortunately the officials with whom we have been in contact at the Office for Fair Trading, have made it clear that they know what is ‘‘going on’’ as regards ARCUK and the RIBA. Nonetheless, it would be adyiseable in the remainder of the six month period of current negotiation to keep ARCUK under the most viligant observation, since the RIBA leadership is bound to try to to present the picture of an homogenous profession united in its opposition to the :Commission’s findings. To maintain avigilant and constructive posture in this regard is still more vital since for the reasons already given in our Report IT IS IN ARCUK THAT WE SEE THE WAY FORWARD. THE YTIMES pressure on the committee to apply economic (4, mber. However, surprisingly - or possibly sanctions and reduce the profession‘s income to suit the ‘quality’ of its products. Conversely, architects would be less inclined to provide poor service, if, to maintain revenue, they were forced to convince’ pecayse it was felt impolitic to allow the their consumers that it was worth paying for what only architects could offer. Only in this way does the Monopolies issue become relevant to the ‘user’, as against the mandatory fee geared to the ‘public interest’. The empty shard of that Sth assurance of altruistic interest mustibe| borne by the/constituent service to the community might then be ’ Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Various Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Andrew Brown/FLeP Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource December 1977/January 1978 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/986275af90b3238657146af8b3061cd4.pdf acfb9c314eaa00d9750767f5c42a05d7 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 4 Subject The topic of the resource Contains: 'NAM 1977 Congress Application' 'NAM 3rd Congress, Hull 25th, 26th and 27th November 1977' 'NAM Has A Stand At Interbuild!' Description An account of the resource CF purple rock easily split plates; piece of such {ed), (of) hence slat’ Criticize severely views), scold, rate; for office etc. Henco J} SLATE ISTHE NEWSLETTER OF THE ARCHITECTURAL MOVEMENT, published bi-monthly by the Movement’s Liaison Group and edited on its behalf by an adhoc comm- ittee set up in January 1977. News and features of broad interest to workers in the profession, the building industry and to the general public are incl- uded to stimulate debate on a wide range of issues and to bring the Movement’s views and activities to the attention of the largest possible readership. OUR NEW COVER PRICE We have been able to reduce the cover price of SLATE from 40p to 25p as a res- ult of the setting up of a network of 30 representatives throughout schools and large practices al over the country, The only committment of each representative willbetoreceive5copiesofSLATE every 2 months and to try to sell 4 of them, re- turning £1.00 to SLATE This system should also help SLATE achieve a far wider circulation and become more truly representative of the views of radicals 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 cheap- er newsletter, _If you would like to work for SLATE; become a rep., join the committee, send in articles or suggest topics it should cover then contact us soon, The copy deadline for the next issue is Friday 28th October 1977, NAM groups wanting to contribute information on their activities should get their copy to SLATE by the 28th October 1977 for inclusion in the next issue. SLATE is published by the LIAISON GROUP of the NEW ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT, 9, Poland St., London. W1. Typesetting by Maggie Stack and ,Julia W:lson-Jones Printed by 2 Tslington Community Press 2a St Panls Road @ London NI Originally named Wyke, Hull was founded by the Abbey of Meaux at the junction of the rivers Hull and Humber. The name changed to Kingston-upon-Hull when in 1293 Edward Ibought the town from the Abbey as astrategic military site. It became a Borough and a Port for Northern Europe. From the 14th Centuary as a Port, Hull prospered. Remnants of the buildings of prestige of those early days of growth can be seen in Trinity Church and Trinity House; the latter became important as a centre for the control of shipping. The 18th centuary brick terraces lining paved streets were evidence of continued prosperity of the Port. The War left Hull devestated. Many of the warehouses were destroyed and only 5,700 of the City’s 90.000 houses were undamaged. It was therefore necessary to re-plan the city. In 1943 Abercrombie and Lutyens produced a much praised plan for re-construction - broad roads and round- -abouts to erase much of the old town, with vast areas of slum clearance in the housing sector. Luckily, financial problems, and_ pressure from the large store owners, meant most of the plan had to be shelved with the exception of some aspects of road develop- -ment used in the 1954 plan and the South Orbital Road still to be completed. The housing clearance programme continues. Cc Hull is to be the site for NAM’s 3rd Annual Congress, the climax of 2 years in which the movement will determine its constitution haying grown toa position of some international impact Last year, Blackpool provided for those involved or interested in NAM an opportun- ity to meet to discuss the papers drawn up during NAM’s first year of existence and to formulate directions and proposals for action in the ensuing r, As a result of this many advances have been made including the Unionisation Conference of May 14th and the subsequent setting up of the Building Design Staffs, Branch of TASS as well as NAM’s involve- ment on ARCUK and the production of “SLATE’, NAM’s newsletter, Thus this congress will be able to take stock of NAM’s position in relation to the advances that have been made and discuss the future directions of the movement in this light. The congress will be held on the week- end November 25th -27th and the accom- odation is being provided by the Hull School of Architecture Association, Special care able from: The Secretary, NAM Liaison has been taken to keep expenses down and the congress fee will be only £5.00 which will include all meals. Overnight expenses will also be low with B +B available at £2.50 in the colleges residential accom odation, The Hull NAM group will also be able to put people up in students flats for a nominal charge of SOp. The congress opens onFriday evening (25th) with registration and buffet, giving people an opportunity to introduce them- selves, A short introductory session will follow, the discussions being continued we hope, in the bar afterwards, The main congress session starts on Saturday morning with reports from the various NAM groups to be followed by workshop sessions The workshop topics so far suggested include community architecture, our role in the unions, direct labour, NAM’s structure, plus Slate. After these there will be more plenary sessions. Later in the afternoon there will be apublicseminar-thisisaninnovationas far as NAM congresses are concerned. The topic for the seminar has not yet been decided but the idea is to invite local groups to talk about their concerns and problems in Hull. Saturday will draw to a close with supper and asocial event Sunday will include a meeting for NAM members to discuss and develop a constit- ution. A paper is being prepared on this subject. As membership has now been established it is felt that there should be an opportunity for NAM members to meet and define a structure for the movement Any person who joins NAM at the confer ence will also be welcomed, For those not involved in this meeting a tour of Hull is being organised by the NAM Hull group. Sunday will also be a day for making cont- acts, organising new groups, either issue OT geographicaly based. into two sections without satisfactory Nort, of eee Sdock pedestrian links. The old town i Local Authority Administration, Professional and Banking services and the The congress will therefore be of crit- ical importance to all those interested in helping determine NAM’s future direct- ion, members or otherwise. Itisimportant tobook early-applic- ation forms are enclosed and more avail- Group, 9’ Poland St., London, W.1. Ail workshop topics and written doc- uments that anyone may wish to submit must be sent to the Secretary by October 31st, for inclusion in the detailed prog- Tamme, CITY OF HULL In writing of Hull, the history of the Docks makes a history of the City: the life and livelihood of the City comes from the Port industries. A grid of new streets with associated Georgian development came withtheopeningofthefirstDockin1799. originalestimationwas£9million)with |eabaeseneen New Dock was finished in 1809 and in no road links south, will only be of regional By 1930 this economic growth came to a standstill. The Corporation bought Queen’s Dock and filled it in, Other docks now obsolete occupy a large area of the City’s heart ,so new uses must be foundforthem, of styles, giving little guidance for modern infill. There are many different types of city housing, as mentioned above in the Avenues, and the 1860 -1914 workers’ housing. Also there are model dwellings for the working class and Reckitts built Garden Village in East Hull. Most recently, the satellite town of Bransholme which is expected to expand to a population of 45,000, with wide roads, roundabouts, Hull, through its isolation and economic depression has missed much of the trend of the road and high-rise developments of the sixties and has had time to learn from others’ mistakes. The existing housing stock, together with the city-centre vacant land and the Dock land should be seen as resources for the possibility of re-vitalising the city. More recently the ideas of the Humber Bridge and the motorway to Manchester are seen as possibilities for the revitalisation of Hull’s economy, The Bridge, due for completion at a cost of £59 million (the (STREC (c% Malin eae!) 1826 Junction Dock linked the first two. significance. The motorway to the indust- In 1844 Railway Dock made the terminus stial cities should boost Hull’s importance totheRailway.OftheremainingWarehousesasthePorttoNorthEurope. LayoutSof1%b0-[GIE thePeaseWarehousesontheriverHull Thecityinplansuffersfrombeingsplit Wovkers Nousi (1745 and 1760) are among the earliest surviving in Britain. By 1840 fishing, Whaling, ship-building and ironworks became important new industries promot- -ing a second generation of Docks. The Albert Dock became the fishing fleet Dock, north of which workers’ houses were built in a layout unique to Hull (see sketch) allowme’a density of 49 houses per acre (200 -300 people per acre). Further north in 1870 superior residential suburbs of tie Avenues resulted from the new industrial expansion. historic heart of the city. The new town lacking facilities for entertainment, shopping provides mainly shopping and entertainment and transport Bransholme replaces the facilities, Architecturally, the city is an amalgam corner shops, small industries and commun- -ity spirit of the old city terraces, huge open unused space;desperately JudyAppleby age 2 TE4 SLATE 4 page 3 SLA EWSINEWS1! NEWS nationalise industry NOWsays n.e.c. SOME LARGE CONSTRUCTION companies should be nationalised to provideaneffectivepublicstakeinthe construction industry, argues a strongly worded new paper by the Labour Party’s policy forging National Executive Committee. Local authority direct labour organisations should also be extended to run as ‘municipal enterprises’ able to compete with private contractors for al jobs in their area contin- uesthepaper,draftedbyagroupchaired by left wing MP Eric Heffer. But ‘the most appropriate way to extend social ownership among the thousands of small firms in the industry’ would, says the paper, be by establishing workers’ cooperatives. These proposals, some of many in the paper’s encouragingly radical re-thinking of the construction industry, will be debated at the Labour Party’s annual conference in Brighton at the start of October. Ifaccepted,asNEC proposals usually are, they will become part of official Labour Party policy, although with the current state of the governments’ parliamentary majority, legislation is likely to be delayed for years. Nor are the construction professions excluded from the NEC’s broad canvas, “The professional contribution largely determined the opportunity for contractor efficiency and the client’s value for money} they argue, suggesting a four-point prog- tamme of reforms crucial to improving the professional input: * education of al in the construction industry should be controlled by one central organisation, such as the CITB, and not fragmented in the hands of the professional institutes; * there should be a statutory body to improve matters relating to contracts and disputes; * there should be greater incentives for technical competence related to graded indemnity insurance premia; *aesthetic quality should be improved by holding more design competitions. “QS s must develop more sophististicated methods of cost tontrol, Surprisingly, although the paper blames the!industry’s comparative under - unionisation for many of its ils -such as poorconditionsofemploymentandits appalling safety record -it offers no thoughts on the unionisation of the professions. Its central tenet is to offer to stabilise public spending on construction, thus helping to level out the recent erratic peaks and troughs in the industry's workload, in return for improvements in the industry’s efficiency and social acoun- tability. The best way to achieve this, say the NEC, is by increasing direct govern- mental involvement in the industry. legal assistants to tenants faced with bad housing conditions, by compiling a register of Public Health Inspectors who were prepared to argue the tenants case with private landlords and local councils and by sponsoring test cases in the courts. Most notorious amongst these cases was the one fought with Salford Council which firmly established the responsibility of local authorities to provide decent housing in- -spite, in this instance, of intentions by the council to redevelop the area. Action was brought under Section 99 of the 1939 Public Health Act. PHASalsopublishedafortnightly bulle tin on public health issues called Emphasis and rei nforced its technical services with occa sional Practice Notes on particular problems. PHAS was closely linked with Shelter, the National Campaign for the Homeless, from its inception. It was set up by a Shelter worker in conjunction wi th PHILAG, the public health inspectors’ action group, and Shelter provided the Service with an annual grant. It hopes to be able to carry on at least some of PHAS’ work in providing technical rescources on environmental issues. The practice notes published by PHAS are stil available through the Publications Distributions Cooperative PHAS' library has been moved to the London Council for Social Services, VSNIEWS ship would inevitably be lost if there was one, The issue now became -was the union a risk worth taking, perhaps at the expense remain friends with your boss? This iswhat of the existing easy-going relationshiTph?e Opposition to the proposals will befierce from most lobbies within the construction industry, particularly those on its right wing, such as the Association of Consultant Architects and the well organised National Federation of Build- ing Trades Employers, who will see their healthyprofitsthreatened. Criticismwill more equivocating come from the professional institutes, who will rightly see their own power threatened but will be loth to risk shooting their bolts with the government in power. Those who, like NAM, will find the NEC’s proposals refreshing, should stand up and be counted and try and make good itsomissionsandoversightsso that the benefits of socialisation can be enjoyed by al the industry. Direct labour organisations are fighting back in response to the hostility of the newly-elected Tory local councils and the savage public relations assault being mounted by, among others, the NFBTE and Aims for Freedom and Enterprise. A national campaign to defend DLO’s was launched in Manchester on 20 August. The conference was attended by 300 delegates from across the country, in- cluding representatives of the unions most closely involved -UCATT, TGWU, EPTU, NALGO, etc.. Conference speakers stressed the advan- tages of DLO’s - the best working and training conditions for construction workers, and greater social account- ability in techniques and projects. These were being overlooked, said speakers, in the the smear campaign which emphasised DLO’s admitted management problems, most of which could be overcome given more sympathetic administrators, The conference established a National Local Authorities’ construction Workers’ Shop Stewards’ Committee to fight back on behalf of DLOS. and agreed to press for Wages parity with private sector workers, Building Britain’s future: Labour'spolicy for Construction, Labour Party, Trans- port House, London SW1. PHASed out union blues model work DonatotTheiOtohernCisnema25Tc WI Tet637-0308 London may soon lose its only cinema showing, as a principal, Socialist films. The Other Cinema opened just about a year ago, At that time it was under cap- italised and is now ina serious financial crisis, It needs to raise £25,000 to con- tinue operating. Donations andapplications for “founding membership” should be sent to :The Other Cinema, 25, Tottenham St., London, W.1. office.) ; Coverage of the dispute in the trade press partners called an office meeting. Salary ‘and partly because there was went little further than the limited frontiers HOW TO START A UNION AND STILL TASS’ LONDON BUILDING DESIGN Staff branch has set up a working party to draft model conditions of emplyment forarchitecturalworkersintheprivate sector. the 20 strong staff at Pascall + Watson tried to find out last month. -The staff debates showed that their intent- ions were good and no malice was meant, butnowtheyhadtodecidewhetherto call the partnership’s bluff. “The majority still agreed with the issues behind union- ization, but the whole decision was effect- ively controlled by the partners’ attitudes and prejudices towards unions, In addi- tion to this was the fact that the burning issues had now been removed. ThingswerenotbadatP+W:thebosses weren't stupid like at William Nicholls Associctes, the working conditions were good and personal relations between part- ners and staff were friendly. One of the partners might be seen playing in the 5-a- side team against Seiferts or round at the pub on Friday lunchtimes, Nevertheless it was going to beapity that the unpleasant ritualofredundancieswouldsoonsplit’up association. Twostaffassociationvotes moregratefulifsomepeoplewouldbe a happy team that enjoyed its work and enjoyed each other’s company. No-one had ever been overpaid at P + W, and salaries generally lay respectably in the zone of the RIBA salary survey (low enough to grumble about), The problem had always been there: how do you broach the topic of salaries and redundancies without the individual being labelled as a troublemaker and up- setting the contented day to day existence? The staff felt that these important topics should not be dropped merely because of embarrassment, and they deserved more businesslike treatment. Under these issues it seemed there was room fora coll- ective voice for experience had shown that the individual was powerless against the strength of the partnership. The attempt at forming a staff body was carried out with the full knowledge of the partnership, and two main alterat- ives were explored: 1) the union (AUEW TASS), and 2) a staff association, ‘Inthe absence of information about the union, a small group of staff went to a branch meeting to see for themselves what was on offer. Despite the branch’s newness and small size it was felt that the arguments were ’ strong enough to take the matter a stage further, The staff were most impressed by other firms’ interpretations of unions in architecture, and it was decided to ask a staff member of one of these firms as wellasaTASSofficialtoattendastaff meeting. The debate covered every issue. The case was impressively put, guaranteeing independence to each office cell and allowing staff the traditional flexibility they had been used to. . The verdict after the meeting was strongly in favour of the union, on these terms which was relayed to the partners, A further meeting was set up a week later to make a decision, later confessed that they would probably join the union eventually, though they saw the staff association as the best first collective step. One month later, the staff are now finding that the staff association is hard work, and wh fund 1issues are raised negotiations with the p threaten impasse, notably on the position of the associates, Up to now associates have been involved in the staff association but their split loyalties put them ina diff- icult position. Most of the staff feel that the debate was worthwhile, and that something has been achieved; ifonly opening everyone’s eyes to a whole new set of issues that effect their work, The staff’s decision could perhaps be summarised that when things are not that bad, then in the short term there is more to lose than gain with aunion “coup”, As with other firms, the union isnow building up onacore of committed members, and if nothing else the exercise has at least opened up the debate. prepared to send the group copies of whatever they have by way of written conditions of employment or contracts. Please write ro him at 48 Neale Close, London N2, in confidence,. The timing was coincidence, it was said. The morning before the staff meeting the ‘on the effect advertising would have on the profession reviews were brought forward from Novem- ber to August and extensive reassurances were given about the workload and redund- ancies. The partnership’s view was not stated explicitly, but the message was quite clear. They would be very upset by the union, and they wanted to show how the status quo could work in the staff’s interests, profession. They were there- ‘They would not accept a union easily and fore neither for nor agrinst it was made clear that the existing relation- the RIBA proposals. By now, the result was never really in doubt: 3 for the union and 13 for the staff Part of this work entails a comparative study of employment contracts already in use. Mike Mitchell, a member of the study group, would like to hear from anyone ina private architects’ office who actually has a proper written con- tract of employment and would be even unattachedviews officeatYarmduringAugust.gaveafirst opportunity to hear from the strikers them- The Unattached architects on ARCUK have stated that the advertising issue in itself does not concern them, partly because the debxte on the subject was not based on knowledge but on speculation selves.. (Audiences at meetings in Cardiff, London and Edinburgh, arranged in conjunction with the TASS National Advisory Committ- ittee for Building Design Staff, heard a detailed account of the events leading up to and surrounding the strike, and heard the views of the strikers on the problems and tactics for militant action in an architect’s of the strike reporting style practiced by no reference to the main the national dailies, and gave little insight concern which was the interest into either the.tactics employed by the of the public and not whether or not advertising would increase the work of the Union nor the most significant events leading to the settlement. Talk of a union at Nichols started over a year ago when one of the workers sugg- ested collective action over wages and was it appears, preemptorarily “laid off” ,under < circumstances that were sufficient to ensure 7 inside Yarm afull report ona tour ~ of the strikersat William Nicholls office atYarm A speaking tour undertaken by some of the workers who had been on strike during much reported dispute at W Nichols’ JSNEWSNEWSNE SLATE 4 page 4 LATE 4page 5 TENANTS AND COMMUNITY groups have lost a powerful ally in their struggle for better housing. PHAS, the Public Health Advisory Service opted to close down on June 30th, unable to raise adequate funds to carry on its expanding work. In its four years of operation PHAS set out to provide technical expertise and that any further attempt at organisation would have to take into account the partners’ total and unshakeable opposition to trades unionism in their office. Against this background discussions which led to the eventual decision by the majority of the staff to join TASS were more serious and concerted and strictly confined to a nearby pub, Yet the union was acknowledged as the only way out where redundancies are used as a tactic to keep wages down and add weight to the employer’s excessive and arbitary flounting of authority. One architectural technician, aged 32, was earning less than £1900. During the four months that elapsed between the nine out of the thirteen employees of the firm joining TASS and the decision to strike, taken in the last days of July, the nine met twice weekly at lunchtime to discuss their grievances and decide how best to tackle Nichols. Votes were taken on all important issues and del- egates chosen to represent the union were sent to meet Nichols orhis junior partner. This democracy and solidarity did little to impress Nichols, however, who put forward a derisory salary offer, based on a compli- cated formula involving twelfths of ten percents, amounting to rises ranging from 8.3% to 1.3%. With one eye over their shoulders on the salaries of technicians at the Department of Health and Social Secur- ity (DHSS) who earn twice as much as some of the Nichols’ workers for doing identical hospital work the TASS members rejected the offer and pressed for rises of between £800and£1000,forlongerholidaysand improved conditions, These initiatives were met with stonewall rejection from Nichols, As well as the union claims, increased harassment, signing in and out was introduced and time keeping enforced by the threat of the sack for two days late- coming. Tho telephones were removed from the drawing office and all calls had to be made from a partner’s office. The inevitable decision to strike was taken unanimously by the TASS members who by that time, comprised seven archi- tectural technicians, a tracer and the only worker in the firms print shop. Remaining at work were the two partners and, of the employees, an associated architect, a cont- ract (self-employed) architect, a tracer and one of the technicians, also self-employed, whom had been instrumental in forming the union, but who subsequently resigned after being offereda salaried position by Nichols along with a hefty tax bill in cons- equence! Although confident that Nichols would find it difficult to replace their special skills in the Cleveland area, the strikers did what they could, within the law to ensure that it would be difficult for work to continue during the strike anyway. As they left the office on the Friday evening before the strike plan chests were locked, drawing equipment was locked away and the keys and parts of the print machine were hidden, Once outside, a continuous picket was mounted during working hours, complete with banners exp- laining the strike to passers by and to del- ivery drivers bringing supplies to the office, .o Almost ull deliveries were stopped and & drivers who were union members themsel- &, Ves asked to report the strike to their own < branches and press for the blacking of all ty deliveries to Nichols, Messages of support & helped to bolster the confidence of the strikers . ~” continued on p 13 women who are builders Of all the cliched impressions of the building industry one of the longest stand- ing must be the wolf-whistling response of building workers to women who venture pasta site, A group of feminists called Women in Construction have discovered, through actually working on site, that prejudice against women in the industry runs a lot deeper than chauvinist manif- estations from the other side of the site hoarding. Julia Wilson-Jones meets members of the group and discovers just how much ofa “man’s world” the industry is,and how difficult itisfor women to acquire building skills, espec- ally at a time of cut backs on Government training programmes. who would be active in what ever field they decided to work . One woman found that as an architect she was far removed from the actual practice of building. She felt much more sympathy with those building the buildings than those designing them, At Architectural School, the only time she thought she had learned anything was whn the students designed and buil-t asmall school extension themselves, Subsequently she has worked in a building co-op and has done labouring jobs for three months, After an eighteen month spell back on the ‘other side of the fence’ as an architect in an office specialising in rehabilitation, she has now decided to go back into construction and has been accepted for government funded Training Opportunities Scheme (TOPS) course to do carpentry, Another woman became involved through squatting and feelings of inadequacy and frustration at not being able to change a plug, let alone to the simple building tasks needed to make houses habitable. She was amazed at the hostility and objections she ran up against at the suggestion and at the obstacles put in the way of becoming trained and,once trained from the men on site as well as from the bosses, Realising that she has more chance of getting jobs ifshe isskilled she is now going on a TOPS course to do bricklaying. Another woman was an American Studies graduate and became interested in building through helping friends convert a house, She then did a TOPS course in carpentry and is now working for aDirect Labour Organisation. She has had alot of trouble persuading her boss to allow her to do a City and Guilds joinery course, It is virtually impossible for women to train as apprentices when they leave school, as no large firms are prepared to sponsor a woman, except possibly painting and decorating, many of which are family businesses, The most likely way a woman can train is through the TOPS course government retraining schemes, They offer a wide choice of courses, all available to womc.1, Lo qualify for a TOPS course you must be at least three years out of full time education, They are also designed to help ex prisoners or disabled people. A TOPS trainee must do six months at a special skills centre then an improvership of eighteen months, earning 85% to 90% of the basic wage, which increases every six months. Inevitably, when applying for a course women have been met with suspicion andagreat deal of incredulity - why didn’t they want to work as a secretary or hairdresser? Didn’t they realise that they were taking mens’ jobs in a time of recession? There is now a two year waiting list for TOPS courses and selection is based on whether of not candidates are likely to get a job at the end of their courses. Due to prejudice women will obviously have more difficulty than men in finding jobs, Government spending cuts have also affected the courses and have reduced theirnumbers. WIC know ten women who have done TOPS courses, and have heard of a further ten, None of the unions with members in the construction industry were able to give any statistics of how many women members they had. There are 96,800 women employed in the building industry as a whole but this includes clerks, secretaries, architects and canteen workers, To give some indication of the differences in numbers of men and women working on site the Construction Industry Training Board said that last year the applicants for their School Leavers New Entrants Training Scheme included 16 girls out of 700 boys, and only three» were finally accepted. The various schemes to help unemployment or redundancies such as Adopt a Boy!!! where grants are available for firms to take on apprentices no girls are included at all. Of the Unions UCATT was particularly condemned by its own woman research officer as being extremely chauvinistic and hostile to the idea of women working with them in construction, Their overtly sexist attitude is well illustrated in a film that was made on safety called ‘Heads You Loose’. When dealing with accidents involving heads and hands it showed a man’s head as being needed for “drinking and chatting up the birds” and his hands for caressing a woman’s legs. No wonder women find it difficult to be taken seriously. . barriers Not only do men believe that women cannot do certain jobs, but women them- selves are conditioned into accepting this view. Therefore, the majority of w~ assume that some types of work are ta unsuitable, and most school leavers would not dream of discussing the possibilities of construction with their careers officers or parents (and vice versa). However WIC know that once the barr- iers are broken down many women would enjoy a job where they can work outside and would find it far more rewarding to construct something and see the gradual completion of a project rather than to work asa telephonist or in a factory doing extremely dull and repetitive work. They have therefore had talks with school leavers to point out the advantages and encourage them to do the necessary train- ing. They are also making a video tape which will reach a wider audience, as it is being sold to the ILEA and various educ- ational authorities. However, they feel very frustrated at the small amount which can be achieved from one talk in the face of all the social pressures that will be exert- ed by parents, friends and school on any girl who likes the idea of doing construct- ion work. Many reasons are put forward as to why women are unsuitable; they are not strong or big enough, the wrong build, do not have enough stamina and won't be able to stand the scaffolding heights, WIC believe that rather than being a question of brute strength the problem of carrying bags of cement or large planks of wood is bettersolvedbyadoptingtherightapproach, and by using the right muscles. Due to conditioning, few girls are ever given the chance to find out how strong they really are, heavy tasks are always left for men to do; Once they had got used to the work involved, (or maybe fitter) women working in the construction industry in the Soviet Union have often proved themselves to be tougher, with more stamina, than their male counterparts, In fact one of the WIC members found herself being told to slow down, she was doing the job too fast and thus interfering with the men’s bonus sch schemes. Once trained the problems of actually getting a job are enormous, especially in an industry which already has a lot of unem- ployment. They were constantly finding that they were being refused jobs onasite where they knew work was available and then hearing that a man had been hired for the same job an hour later. Confidence was severely undermined by snide remarks about being a “lez” or “having some hor- mone problem”. When they eventually find a job they have to continually prove that they are as tough and as strong as the men, and not scared on the scaffolding. In fact each of them finds being up on the scaffolding with a bag of cement on their shouldersa terrifying ordeal especially when minimum safety measures are obs- erved. Ifanyone complains about safety they are considered a sissy, and immed- iately sacked if they refuse to work on the scaffolding. The other men on site are often extremely hostile, particularly the younger ones, They connot imagine their own mothers, sisters or girlfriends labouring so there must be something per- verse or peculiar about any woman who does, The other reaction is heavy patronising; most men feel threatened by the very idea of woman doing their work. Individually the men can be sym- pathetic after talking to the women about how they feel and why they are doing it but once back in the male pack are just as biggoted as before. Apprentice trained workers are generally hostile to TOP’s trained people as they have had a much shorter training (apprentiships used to be for 7 years, and are now for 3 to S years), and see them asa threat to their jobs. Hence they are even more antagonistic to women. Several men have demanded to know how a woman could accept this type of work knowing she was taking a job away from a man with wife and child- rento support. One of the women was actually sacked for swearing and lost her case when she challenged it through an Industrial Tribunal. Her boss agreed that she was a good worker but did not like being sworn at! cuts Women’s chances of employment are being further threatened by the cuts to direct labour, The Direct Labour Organisations are more likely to employ women, as they are more socially conciolis than are private contractors, and offer work to Improvers, Most of the TOP’s trained womenwereabletogetjobswiththeDLO’s but in view of the cuts this situation may well change. In fact, some DLO’s have said they are not going to take on any more Improvers, which will affect everyone, but especially women as they have virtually no other entry into the industry. Apprenticeships are also being drastically reduced, with the result that when the building industry picks up there will be very little skilled labour about, mainly a bunch of cowboys, doing very low standard work, support WIC think it is important to be incontact with other women inasimilar position and hold weekly meetings to discuss problems and and to give each other support. They had had a national conference which was surp- risingly well attended, and were able to set ip a register of women in traditionally male dominated trades in order to reach others in, or about to join, the industry, The register will be circulated to all women’s groups ard centres, Although they are in a sense doing pioneer work they dislike the sensational press treatment which has labelled them as heroic individuals struggling against such difficult odds that they must have great strength of mind and purpose. They know this does nothing to encourage other women if they feel they need to be exceptional characters, They rightly maintain that any woman who wants to isperfectly able to work in building and should not have to : uphill battle againstso many difficulties, LI A z —E DUN It is an uphill struggle and One in which they receive little encourage- -ment, They have, however, chosen to . WIC can be contacted at ;c/o 21 Bouverie Road, London, N.16. They are holding another conference in Leeds on the 22/23rd October and will be glad to hear from anyone who is interested in going. work in building because they enjoy practical work which is demanding and Tewarding. The women in WIC are all feminists Women in Construction (WIC) are a small group of women who are working in the construction industry as skilled workers and labourers, despite encountering obstacles and opposition from almost every side, They believe that women have the right to work in whatever field they choose and want to dispel the myth that the building industry in naturally an exclusively man’s world, and that women are mentally and physically incap able of working in it, SLATE4 page7 Steve Drewer argues that the crisis facing architectural workers is not a crisis of quantity but of structure. Ata time when there are ten times as many building labourers out of work than the total num- ber registered architects, architectural workers might do better by considering how better their skills can be deployed in society and in the industry than by attem- pting to defend their jobs within the exist- ing professional structure. What price architectural employment? During the last seven years the construction sector in the United Kingdom has suffered from an exagerated boom and the most severe and prolonged depression since the 1930s, This experience is not unique for other western European Countries have had similar experiences. What is probably uniqueisthemasochistic(orsadistic) satisfaction taken by the government in its refusal to stimulate any significant increase in construction output. The need for an increase in the public sector building programme isself-evident. What is of more importance is that in such a programme new work would have a disproportionate effect on the work available for architects. A private sector building boom does not generate many architectural vacancies, It is not the general level of demand which influences architect- -ural employment but its structure in terms of types of work and the clients feeding the demand to the sector. One of the main problems to be considered isthe confusion which exists as to what the functions of an architect are, or should be. France, witha signifi- -cantly larger building programme than this country makes do with approximately a quarter of the number of architects, The functions being currently performed by the majority of British architects would not be considered to be those of the architect in France and many other western countries, This is clearly a matter for the individual architect and the profession in general to deal with. But for the rest of us it would help if we knew more clearly the shape and inclinations of the animal with which we are dealing. Is it any more a matter to be deplored that the unemployed person is a graduate of the Architectural Association than a steelfixer? Perhaps the only justification for such an opinion is that steelfixers are more used to the vagaries of the construct- -ion sector than most architects. More significantly it should be remembered that the estimated number of manual construction workers presently unemployed is ten times the total number of registered architects in this country. construction activity was historically high, This was to some extent due to the damage to buildings during the war, post war reconstruction, and the enhanced social expectation with respect to housing schools,hospitalsetc. Atpeaklevels private speculative demand for offices, houses, shops etc, caused severe strain on the available construction resources, It is a consequence of this sustained high level of demand and the response of al the participants in the building process to this demand, the construction sector entered the depression in a manner analogous to the drunk who just “blew” the housekeeping. The low level of . apprentice training, the decline of crafts- men caused by over specialisation and the extensive use of lump labour were all symptoms of the state of the sector, During the depression there has been little stimulation to correct the situation and it seems unlikely that any significant increase in demand can be satisfied without major pressures on the supply of manage- -ment and labour. This isreinforced ifthe changing pattern of public sector housing demand isconsidered. The move from high-rise to low-rise and rehabilitation may well be socially and aesthetically desirable, but it is going to make demands for manual skills which are already severely limited. Even during this depression 0RYOU MRS. SNOBSON ANYTHING| I'LL HAVE YouR SAUNA PLANS READY FIRST THING IN nee MORNING! DON’T. FAIL ME J! contractors are finding it increasingly difficult to find carpenters, bricklayers, plasterers, etc, The joint effect of both the cautious attitude of the government to stimulate increased construction demand and the serious capacity constraints in many of the industries grouped together as construction, suggests that the future level of demand will not return to that of the 1960s, and most certainly not to that of the early 1970s, It could be that the architects of the 1970s are in a similar position to the social scientists of the late 1960s, That is there are just too many of them. Equally, of course, while not underestimating the problem of unemploy- -ment among architects, it seems that the time has come for architects to question the role of their profession with respect to social needs, and whether their skills may not be equally well employed outside those functions traditionally (and legally) considered as those of the architect. reassessment andintegration For many years “learned” people have been researching and discussing the need for greater inteyration of the construction process, and moves to facilitate communicat- -ion between members of the “building team’’. Professionalisation, as distinct from professionalism, is a device for controlling a set of work functions and those who execute them. Many of the barriers erected around certain functions due to professionalisation could be considered as anti-social, The price of architectural employment is likely to bea reassessment of the role of architect, the functions performed and the side of the construction equation in which they are involved, If Iwas an employed carpenter Imight not shed too many tears for the unemployed architect, but Ithink Iwould look forward to a future where the ‘architect’ was not just the person who turned up looking trendy for site meetings. and asked bloody foolishquestionsof the craftsmen, but was equally likely to be the site foreman or union I NAM peaks and troughs Between 1945 and 1972 the level of } | | | tear off and return to 9,Poland st,London,W1 NAM 1977 CONGRESS APPLICATION WIND, S500Q00S0000G0000"707 NAMI sioinisioieieisioieicleieisielsielaicinicicveieio! DDRESBastajalellerlereieieiolsielsisiere eieieios eoreoeseseceeesereressecresecesaces I enclose £5.00 congress fee and require accomodation donot : : I require bed and breakfast accomodation @ £2.50. per night per persoi 1/2 nights single/double PTOLAT icicle ccccie 50p per night I enclose a cheque payable to the New Architecture Movement forthefollowingamount crieeRe construction in crisis: wh 1977CONGRESS APPLICATION organiser, SEA lite SLATE 4 page 8 ARCHIE TEKT' The 3rd annual congress of the New Architecture Movement will be taking place on the weekend of the 25th,26th and 27th november 1977.This years event will be the 3rd NAM congress following the inaugural congress at Harrogater in 1975,and Blacikpd61 in 1976.The hosts for this year are the Hull group of NAM in conjunction with the Hull School of Architecture. : ; The congress of '77 concludes a year of'action'dur which NAM has emerged as a force within the architectural world.Much of.this'action'has stemed from the researches and and discussions carried out by NAM groups during 1976 which were aired and refined at the Blackpool congress. These'actions'include the following, NAM's May Unionisation Conference which chose T.A.8.S. within which to organise architectural workers. NAM's Unionisation groups report'Working for What'. NAM's presence in ARCUK representing the unattached Salaried architect. NAM's newspaper 'Blate' the only radical paper for architectural workers. These public expressions of NAM as well as the less publicised ones are the issues around which NAM groups” form to work on.The groups which have issues clarified enough to present a working paper use the congress workshops to enlarge the discussion and to put forward motions for the congress to adopt. Workshops so far proposed for this years congress cover; EDUCATION ,NATTONAL DESIGN SERVICE ,UNIONISATION, ARCUK, WOMEN IN ARCHITECTURES SLATE!CONSTITUTION, A fuller list of workshop options will be included in the final briefing package. I require the alternative accomodation @ \ 1/2 nights DOTA cieielecleieiste Steve Drewer argues that the crisis facing architectural workers is not a crisis of quantity but of structure. Ata time when there are ten times as many building labourers out of work than the total num- ber registered architects, architectural workers might do better by considering how better their skills can be deployed in Society and in the industry than by attem- pting to defend their jobs within the exist- ing professional structure. What price architectural employment? During the last seven years the construction sector in the United Kingdom has suffered from an exagerated boom and the most severe and prolonged depression since the 1930s. This experience is not unique for other western European Countries have had similar experiences, What is probably unique is the masochistic (or sadistic) satisfaction taken by the government in its refusal to stimulate any significant increase in construction output. The need for an increase in the public sector building programme is self-evident. What is of more importance is that in such a programme new work would have a disproportionate effect on the work available for architects. A private sector building boom does not generate many architectural vacancies, It is not the general level of demand which influences architect- -ural employment but its structure in terms of types of work and the clients feeding the demand to the sector. One of the main problems to be considered is the confusion which exists as to what the functions of an architect are, or should be. France, witha signifi- -cantly larger building programme than this country makes do with approximately a quarter of the number of architects, The functions being currently performed by the majority of British architects would not be considered to be those of the architect in France and many other western countries. This is clearly a matter for the individual architect and the profession in general to deal with. But for the rest of us it would help if we knew more clearly the shape and inclinations of the animal with which we are dealing. Is it any more a matter to be deplored that the unemployed person is a graduate of the Architectural Association than a steelfixer? Perhaps the only justification for such an opinion is that steelfixers are more used to the vagaries of the construct- -ion sector than most architects. More significantly it should be remembered that the estimated number of manual construction workers presently unemployed is ten times the total number of registered architects in this country. peaks and troughs Between 1945 and 1972 the level of construction activity was historically high, This was to some extent due to the damage to buildings during the war, post war reconstruction, and the enhanced social expectation with respect to housing schools,hospitalsetc. Atpeaklevels private speculative demand for offices, houses, shops etc, caused severe strain on the available construction resources, It is a consequence of this sustained high level of demand and the response of all the participants in the building process to this demand, the construction sector entered the depression ina manner analogous to the drunk who just “blew” the housekeeping. The low level of apprentice training, the decline of crafts- men caused by over specialisation and the extensive use of lump labour were all symptoms of the state of the sector, During the depression there has been little stimulation to correct the situation and it seems unlikely that any significant increase in demand can be satisfied without major pressures on the supply ofmanage- -ment and labour. This is reinforced if the changing pattern of public sector housing demand is considered. The move from high-rise to low-rise and rehabilitation may well be socially and aesthetically desirable, but it is going to make demands for manual skills which are already severely limited. Even during this depression PLANS READY FIRST THING IN re MORNING! DON’T FAIL ME J! contractors are finding it increasingly difficult to find carpenters, bricklayers, plasterers, etc. The joint effect of both the cautious attitude of the government to stimulate increased construction demand and the serious capacity constraints in many of the industries grouped together as construction, suggests that the future level of demand will not return to that of the 1960s, and most certainly not to that of the early 1970s, It could be that the architects of the 1970s are in a similar position to the social scientists of the late 1960s, That is there are just too many of them, Equally, of course, while not underestimating the problem of unemploy- -ment among architects, it seems that the time has come for architects to question the role of their profession with respect to social needs, and whether their skills may not be equally well employed outside those functions traditionally (and legally) considered as those of the architect. Local Authority design departments have often enjoyed the reputation of being in the vanguard of Architectural culture. Douglas Smith isless easily convinced of this than some of us, Here he describes how Council Architect’s departments have become executors of Central Government policy and how often these policies have been tailored to prop up private sector interests in development and construction, Local Authority housing -the politics of form Local Authorities, and the buildings they produce are not determined by the political wishes of councillors, or by the local people they represent. Council housing isnationally coordinated by Central Government in order toserveandmaintain theinterestsof property investors and the building industry. The following article attempts to demonstrate this and how the system intimately affects working architects, ignores the wishes of the consumer and how policy at high level is translated into bricks and mottar. The building industry, because it requires heavy investment which cannot realise profits for several years, is very sensitive to market conditions and confidence. It therefore responds quickly. and very extremely, to the boom/slump cycles of the Stock Market, more so than most other industries. These extremes of activity are not only generally unaceptable to workers and tenants, who tend to suffer at ‘both ends’, but are also dsruptive to the needs of finance capital in general. It is here that the State intervenes in order to try to smooth out the cycles, create a more balanced and predictable market to maintain investment and activity and to reinforce its own political position by averting revolt. ‘The State in general, and the Local Authorities in particular, have an enormous stake in the building industry. Local Authorities alone spent over £2 000m in 1974 on capital expenditure. This represents about 60% of the total output of the industry. Their money is t: used, not only to maintain activiti of slump, but also to maintain profitability and investment in the property market. It also responds to the housing demands of workers, recognising the need fora healthy workforce. Left to itself the land market would force workers to live in dangerous, unhealthy slums, would encourage wild speculation and give rise to spectacular bankruptcies with all the attendant financial problems. State spending not only encourages private accumulation of wealth, and there- -fore indirectly contributes to production, but also helps to maintain social harmony. This latter, unproductive ‘ideological’ spending helps the State maintain its role of supporting the social order. Both these elements are clearly expressed in Local Authority building projects. local government Local Authorities have developed inthe last 100 years, and especially since recent reorganisation and the introduction of corporate management ,more and more as local agents for Central Government. As they have become integrated into the State aparatus, taking on more work, Local Authorities have lost their individual character, become more technocratic,and have ‘castrated’ their councillors. The two main devices used by Central Government to control Local Authority housing are the Department of the Ehviron- -men t’s Housing Cost Yardstick and the same Department’s standards (including Parker Morris standards, etc.,). These are basically budget and form, or economic and ideological, controlling systems. The require- -ment of the other housing consultative departments, Housing Management and Planning, are made subservient to the DoE’s tules; not unnaturally, since the DoE sanctions the spending. State policy in housing is continually changing and for a variety of reasons. Its main response is to the prevailing economic winds; in order to maintain profits for private capital, its intervention in the industry reflects current market forces. YES 1 KNOW, On the other hand, in the face of worsening housing conditions and increased tenants’ activity, it must try to reduce the cost and be seen to be providing adequate housing in increasing volume. Following on from this. it can also disguise the faults of the system and appeal to progress by introducing new, ‘progressive policies’, promising to solve the problems arising from previous policies. In an overall way, the DoE appeals to those believing that a good solution to the ‘environment’ would eradicate most social problems, and when these problems recur it offers new solutions, and hence detracts from the real, fundamental causes of social di t, ment, i education and medical care, the nuclear family and so on. The history of Local Authority housing in the last twenty years illustrates the centrally controlled nature of housing economics and ideology, and how this has adapted to market forces and how the public has beeen conned into believing in its benefits. historical perspective Following the economic and material destruction of the Second World War, the then Labour Government put responsibility for housing on the shoulders of the Local Authorities. Its intention was to try to eradicate the previous social divide between public and private housing (during this period it limited severely all private building operations) as part of the foundation of the new new Welfare State. Local Authorities were obliged, through the system of subsidies. to fol low the Housing Manuals (published by the Ministry of Health!), and, without any \pretension, simply attempted to build as many houses as cheaply as possible, usually under the direction of the Borough Engineer or Surveyor. Bold experiments were mad in using obsolete wartime industrial processes, but since the building industry was more interested in conventional, marketable housing they failed. As the economy recovered in the early sixties and profits were being squeezed, the bulding industry was still disjointed and unable to invest, without State help, in new ;plant and personnel to undertake modern reassessment °° andintegration For many years “learned” people have been researching and discussing the need for greater inteyration of the construction process, and moves to facilitate communicat- -ion between members of the “‘building team”. Professionalisation, as distinct from professionalism, is a device for controlling a set of work functions and those who execute them. Many of the barriers erected around certain functions due to professionalisation could be considered as anti-social. The price of architectural employment is likely to be a reassessment of the role of architect, the functions performed and the side of the construction equation in which they are involved, If Iwas an employed carpenter Imight not shed too many tears for the unemployed architect, but I think I would look forward to a future where the ‘architect’ was not just the person who turned up looking trendy for site meetings. and asked bloody foolishquestionsof the craftsmen, but was equally likely to be the site foreman or union Lf alam organiser. SIAl —E i' AND /'Lt BE LATE FOR THE RIBA CON- construction in crisis: what itmeans to architecture ARCHIE TEKT| SLATE 4 page 8 SLATE 4 page 9 \ Angus building techniques. On the other hand the Government, w ithout wishing to raise the cost of building, wished, under popular pressure, to improve standards. Following the success of the Hertfordshire and CLASP schools, the government neatly combined these two needs by encouraging Local Authorities to build tower blocks for housing. This would help the industry industrialise, rationalise and eventually reduce costs, while still ensuring its short term profitability. Parker Morris & high rise It was also at this time that the limit), reinforcing the market trends to push families Out of cities to the suburbs, stimulating demand in exactly the right ‘place for spec. builders to make a good profit. Parker Morris report was published. Without challenging any of the existing attitudes to lifestyle, family or community relationships it Subsidies. The wiley old DoE anticipated this proposed housing reforms and rules still in existence today, 16 years later. The report heralded +the ‘consumer age’, explicitly defining the house as a wharehouse for durables for each family. Who would buy need nearly two years ago, when it changed parts of the subsidy an d altered its standards to prepare for backdoor cuts. It is quite interesting to note in detail how small alterations in the Yardstick and standards have a fundamental effect on form and a car or a dishwasher if there was nowhere to put it. It proposed effectively isolating family implement cuts, again all under the cover of units at the expense of communal facilities where they might be shared. The State emphatically demanded the family, and its home as the basic and social economic unit. With this now ell defined, the way was cpen to stack up the units in any method suited to the building industry or government Subsidie's for housing were changed, allowing extra money for every storey height, with the result that local authorities al over the country, regardless of particular needs or desires, with no research or experie5nce and with no perception of the consequences, switched from traditional models to building time. A simpler demonstration of the effect of the universal effect of centralised policy in housing would be hard to find. Not surprisingly the benefits never appeared. Having tooled up the industry and stimulated the market builders were now well prepared to enter the more profitable commercial sctors of building. The step from As a result the cost of this type of housing ‘improving’ housing. Thses revisions were firstly, the imposition of a maximum density limit (75ppa for families, 100ppa for non- -family housing), and secondly that all family units should be on the ground, The Yardstick, while not being uplifted (!) badly housed. -duced in 1968, removed the aditional disaster at Ronan Point, and subsequent towards a new from. Incidentally, it has been argued that tower blocks are emminently suitable for some types of tenant, if not for families, yet so total has the Government's volte face been that it is now impossible to build them high density low rise By the early seventies it was realised that demanded by the DOE is almost the same in the suburbs, hit hard by the recession transfer to and survive in the public sector, The recently appointed head of DOE policy group, came directly from Laing Homes, The prevailing excuses are not only that people are happy in their suburban houses but that they are also cheap to build. The reduction in permissable density not only reduces the total volume of housing, but also increases the proportion of site costs attributable to each unit, now subject to strict scrutiny. In urban areas, persuades them to accept the standard Tunning and maintenance problems, highlyindustrialbuildingtechniqueswereno wherelandhasbeenboughtathighprices, longer applicable to housing. But the industry, or on small sites which cost a lot to develop Ban” idea experience for other architectural workers andforNAM © the industries profits would survive. The new <t of siutably cheap sites. Though much more A flexible than before, the predominant form encouraged by the subsidies came out as high density/low rise. Schemes were built on quite a modest scale, and many are highly acclaimed. The Parker Morris standards were still adopted, but the DoE made aditional requirements, especiallt over car parking. At first it insisted on 100% undercover car parking incongruous in urban areas as were tower and paid for it, but later this was dropped. blocks in rural areas, and the persistent More recently, the last economic recession has requirement for large scale development, development, the supportforthe campaign anda brief explanation of the Green Ban idea. The broadsheet was distributed through all the local TV branches, schools as well as the people of the city. The campaign was featured in the local and national press, many magazines and journals and on Radio Birmingham. The 24 hour occupation of a giant crane on an adjoining site in support of the campaign was featured on television. During the summer of last year alter- native proposals were formulated by the committee for the use of the building. NAM gained access to survey the building. During October afeasability study was prepared by NAM, using the results of the survey, to study the re-use and conversion of the post office as a city centre recreation and leisure centre. In November a delegation representing GBAC, the West Midlands TUC, and the Victorian Society met with the City Council and the Post Office Board -a meeting resulting from pressure mounted by GBAC. The aim was to discuss objec- tions of the proposed redevelopment of the GPO site. The Leader of the City Council (now Tory) refused to consider re-voting planning consent, and left it to the postal board to make any concessions. But in spite of detailed arguments about Birming- ham’s heritage, about planning for people instead of profits, and about the huge over provision of office space, the Postal Board remained totally fixed in its determination to demolish the GPO and build offices. GBAC has been able to facilitate links between trade unions and environmentalists on wider issues. For example between Friends of the Earth and the Edinburgh and Scottish National Union of Miners over opposition to the proposed Lothian nuclearpowerstation.InJanuary,aone day conference was held at the AUEW Hall in Birmingham when workshops were held onthebuiltenvironment(inwhichNAM took part), transport and the car industry, water pollution and strategies for change. GBAC has links with FOE, SERA, Science for People group at Aston University, Lucas Aerospace Shop Stewards Committee. During the winter NAM prepared out- line proposals for the use of the post office building as a leisure centre and these were presented in the form of drawings and diagrams at the first AGM of the GBAC on March 16 where they received unanimous approval. Following on from the meeting the alternative plan was brought before the UCATT regional committeeiand a resolution of support was passed.TheproposalswereBroughtupat the next Birmingham Trades Council meeting, received considerable support from the delegates anda resoltion of support. At the AGM of the West Midlands TUC the proposals received the unanimous approval from officials of just about all the unions in the West Midlands. why NAM is involved GBAC seek from NAM technical advice, in return NAM istaking part in a revolution- ary and historic departure in the develop- ment of the British trade union movement. been cushioned for the building industry by the continuation of Local Authority housing programmes, most of which have only recently been cut back. At the moment the Government is cutting back on Stae expenditure in order to return the money to private hands. As well as limiting actual wages it is reducing that part of the social wage represented by the housing will ensure that the new estates stand apart from the existing urban fabric. A survey in Camden showed that the main complaint of tenants was that they dislike living in well defined estates, separate from local streets, Perhaps it is too early to evaluate the social effects of suburban housing in cities, but one can be confident that the form will not be satisfactory for long. As the market is stimulated, prices and cost will rise, and the industry kept ticking over by LA work, builders will head for the better profits in the suburbs, the DOE will declare new policy for dealing with the problems of public housing to suit new emerging problems in the industry, and the tenants will still be . future pointers As we head towards another phase of policy it is worth noting that there are several emerging factors which may effect housing in the future. Firstly the introduction of block grants, a limit up to which each LA can sye~ i, This would not only transfer admim~ stion and respons- -ibility to,the love sufficiently to cover inflation, also imposed maximum limits on site development costs. A third type of change was made in that new procedures and approval request stages were introduced, which slowed down the 4¢eVv¢lopmen.t procecess while inflati asTac’ while inflation was racing ahead. These three components radically y to,the locale 21,but may also be affect not only the form of new Local Viable sites for building, but also reduce the volume of and unit cost, and, in al effect cuts by technical, rather than political means. back to spec housing While these cuts are dressed in the thetoric of improving standards; and who families, and lower buildings are bad, in seen as freeing councils from sume VOE control, and its attendant bureaucracy, This scheme was delayed, the DOE wanted to shed some of its workload, but could not allow policy implementation to be threatened. The latest suggestion is that the DOE actually retains all its procedures and controlling devices, lumbering the councils with even more administrative tasks, The second idea is one of tenants self management (Haringey experiment), and their involvement in the design stage. The‘softcop’architectconvincestenants of the need and logic of DOE housing, hereareotherunderlyingeffectswhich are perhaps potentially unsatisfactory, especially when the formulae are applied GLC wasstillconductingsurveystoshowthat tenants actually liked tower blocks, Central Government had recognised their financial failure.TheHousingCostYardstick,intro- tourbanareas,Theformofhousingnow forms,andleavesthetenantswithallthe NewPostOFrice FrontEtevation—— This new form of housing isoften as Cooperation between professional and site workers has not hitherto character- ised the building industry, _ Two NAM members who have worked closely with Birmingham based Green Ban Action Committee describe the development of the campaign to save Victoria Square Post Office mounted by local building union shop stewards, Friends of the Earth and the Victorian Society. They show the of the splendid Victorian post office in the city centre, a Liberal councillor presented a detailed history of the planning consent for the demolition of the post office and the proposed redevelopment. Amid the subsequent enthusiasm of the various trades unionists, environment- alists and preservationists present, the suggestion was taken up to formajoint committee to launch a Green Ban Move- _ ment in this country, thestoryso far The first actions of the committee were tostartapetition(whichcollected 20,000 signatures), hold a public rally, and to seek resolutions of support from the trade unions, such as EEPTU, AUEW- TASS, ASTMS, NUPE, NALGO, UCATT, TGWU. Support was forthcoming from local MPs, and County and City councillors. Following the rally in March 1976, NAM was asked to prepare a planning report on the implications of the redevel- opment with respect to the city and the financial return that was to be expected. Part of the report reappeared in the first Green Ban Action Committee's broadsheet which listed the arguments against the potential for the expansion of the “Green and draw lessons from their tower block housing all at more or less the same Authority housing and limit the mumber of tower block housing to offices was an easy one, Could argue lower densities, gardens for actually rose, rather than fel. In 1968, while the ‘Me face of criticism of previous forms? subsidies for tal housing blocks, well before the #5 that being built by private developers complaints about endemic social problems, Thes@"4 poor market, and now able to its tower block policy and its financial failure oYardst icksubsidies simply gave more money for those sites back to private developers, & high densities and expensive sites; building land working against the proclaimed ©. was becoming expensive to develop ,and the ~ Government did not want Local Authority a building programmes to be held up for the lack result that less family houses (lower factors helped the Government retreat from The third factor is the relaxation of Parker Morris standards (already allowed to a limited extent to encourage modular dimensioning), to reduce space standards, already pretty low. This would then now stagnation after the last boom, needed the housing in this form, and there is no other State to maintain high building activity, so that choice, is quite unviable. Local allow councils more option of using package deals from private developers using their Own standard models, and to further buy unsold housing from the privatemarket, neither of which usually conform to the Parker Morris standards, Behind all this there is still the continuing ideological investment in owner occupation as the normal mode of housing. Many studies have shown that not only is this unavail- -able to 50% of the population, but the market cannot allow it to be otherwise. Briefly, as wages go up, and mortgages become more accessible, so house prices tise to above the level that 50% can afford. Or alternatively, as more houses are built, Prices and profits threaten to drop and activity ischannelled elsewhere. Besides this, the type of housing most urgently required can never be built profitably, and continued on p. 15 AND ETHERGREENEEAN intentions of the Community Land Act. The variable density limitations have the density limit) are being built inpreference of non family housing (higherdensity Authorities must now consider selling Federation has been closely identified with the Green Bans in Australia in which building workers were able to take indus- The New South Wales Building Labourers trial‘action for environmental Purposes. Jack Munday, their former General Secretary, who was in Britain in January 1976 at the invitation of the Centre for Environmental Studies, was asked to speak on the Australian experience at a public meeting in Birmingham. At the meeting, organised by people SLATE 4page 11 The necessity for links between NAM and the trade unions cannot be overstressed NAM’s campaign to unionise architectural workers was established as a major priority of NAM’s second Congress at Blackpool. These. wider links not only strengthen NAM’s hand in its negotiations but add credibility in its forthcoming cam- paign. But in addition, in NAM’s future campaigns, for example for the reform of ARCUK, it may well need to mobilise trade union support to give it political muscle. It should be understood that the work for the campaign has been undertaken by only four people and has assumed a secon- dary role in our primary involvement with NAM's issue groups, but it is the beginning of a test-bed for some of NAM’s ideas and possible future policies. Through the work we have begun to establish links with other groups such as SERA and FOE and we have become involved in and contributed to other campaigns and issues, for example asbestos, safety on building sites, the role and structure of the building industry. It is also a first step in building the new clientele, that is an alternative system of patronage. develop in them some political conscious- ness. the role of NAM Our role is fourfold: 1) To make a technical study of the GPO building, report on its structure and fabric and assess its possibilities for re-use and conversion, and to assess the proposals of the GBAC. 2) To organise in physical and theoretical terms a strategy that would reconcile many disparate functions together with several sponsoring organisations, variable forms of financing and phasing of the conversion. 3) To identify areas of study to be undertaken by others; for example we have proposed that a financial feasibility of the alternative plan be carried out. 4) Propaganda: by using drawings, diagrams and other means to demonstrate to working people the possibilities of re-using the building, and to strengthen the support already given to the campaign by the trade unions by canvassing viable alternatives. future perfect In conclusion it must be clearly stated communist party rally at Alexandra Palace, are perhaps untypical. In other words it would be not so much immodest, as inaccurate to describe our association with GBAC as ‘community architecture’. It is precisely such inhibitions which provide the challenge. There are sound theoretical reasons why NAM has not dissipated its energy in umpteen local projects, but concentrated on broader analysis and structural change. In the meantime, however, many of NAM’s most active members continue in regular jobs becoming increasingly aware ofa widening gap between their practise and their beliefs. The process of reconciling the former to the latter is a personal jour- ney that each architectural worker must make for themselves. The professional habits formed in ten years of practise -or even the professional expectations formed in seven years of training -will not change over night. They will be eroded, modified, transformed over long years of self-questioning and reeduca- tion. The work with GBAC has proved as good a point of departure as any, It may be already too late to save the victorian post office in Birmingham. This would be sad, but it would not be the end of the story -rather the beginning. For it will mark the first step in the difficult but inside Yarm continued from p. 6 This display of industrial strength was enough to get Nichols to call in the local branch of the Government's strike solving arm, the Advisory and Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), but ittook the intervention of the firm’s principal client, the DHSS, before a settlement was reached, TASS’ local officials had taken the early initiative of writing to David Ennals, Minister of Health, pointing out that wage levels at Nichols were about half those in departments doing similar work inside the DHSS. __ Either one of two conclusions could be drawn; Nichols was making inordinate profits out of govern- ment contracts, or the DHSS was getting cut price work done at the expense of low paid architectural workers, ‘These sugg; estions appear to have caused Ennals considerable embarrassment sufficient to lead him to write, within the week, to Nichols telling him to “get those people of the streets”, referring to the pickets, Three meetings were held with ACAS during the strike, At the first Ron Long- worth pursuaded ACAS to accept TASS’s proposals in principal as their return to work formula, © Nichols held out however and came to the second meeting with his own proposals, ‘Longworth found Nichols so obstructive at this second meeting that he walked out after less than five minutes anditwasnotuntilaweeklater,onthe “neutral ground” of the local labour ex- change, that agreement was reached ona somewhat diluted parcel of good intentions, But not least of al it contributes to a broader image of NAM. NAM is primarily that in substance, if not in spirit, REVIEW OF THE LEVELLER AND WEDGE Thislastyearhasseentheemergenceoftwo Italianfreeradioandamongothers,the political but our involvement does help to belie the accusation that we do not actually get our hands dirtyand begin to practise what we preach, It may even attract architectural workers who are more receptivetodrawingsandtechniqueand photo: roles do not yet differ radicatly from con- ventional architectural services. Neither is the relationship with the ‘client’ espec- ially innovative, although such activities as designing and building (and manning) theGBAC’s propagandastandattherecent exciting process of .tadicalising ourselves a andeachother. cAt = two new independent socialist publications which are unlike anything that has been seenaroundforalongtime.Justovera year ago now the ‘Leveller Cooperative’ produced its first, ‘pilot issue’, featuring a report by Mark Hosenball and Philip Agee on British Intelligence involvement in Angola, which went on in the Levellers’ words to ‘catch the eye of Merlyn Rees’ and lead, in turn, to the campaign for imigrants’ rights based around the deportation orders on the two journalists, in which the Leveller itself played a leading role. Besides equally trenchant pieces of investigation, in the “radical journalist’s style”, into political chicanery and military brutality in Northern Ireland, among others, it has carried more analytic articles on the contradictions in Tony Benn’s worker cooperative policies, exploitation in the fashion trade, the politics of the baking industry and the wages for house work campaign. Of direct interest to architectural workers was an investigation of polution problems in the neighbourhood of the London Brick Company’s plant in Bedfordshire. Less easily accused of dealing in radical hell-raising for its own sake is the first issue ofa new quarterly called ‘Wedge’ - a “magasine of cultural practice and theory” Wedge’s genesis as the coming together of two groups, students from Kent University who had in minda theoretical journal dealing with Marxist cultural analysis, and people who work in “cultural production” (the cinema, journalism, advertising and so on) who wanted apublication around first part of an article by Jennifer Jones, an architect and founder member of Skillpool, whichdemonstrateshowthedevelopment of domestic architecture has paralleled. if not been determined by, the evolution of the family structure from an egaliterian integrated unit of production in Medieval times, to the present day, when production is entirely outside the home and the house is seen as a male-dominated centre of re-production. Jennifer Jones argues that the very design of houses has come to encapsulate and reinforce the secondary role into which contermporary society forces the majority of women. Both the Leveller and Wedge are collectively edited and produced by committees working almost entirely in their spare time and are non-sectarian in their editorial policies. The Leveller has also developed a degree of readership control through its constitution as a registered Cooperative Friendly Society, of which al subscribers are members and entitiled to vote at annual general meetings on al aspects of the journal’s policy. At its recent second AGM the Leveller decided to publish monthly from September and has launched an appeal for further “founding subscribers” to capitalise its expansion. THE LEVELLER :Published monthly by the Leveller Magasine Ltd., 155a Drummond Street, London NW1; single copies 35p; annual subscription £5.00 post paid. WEDGE: Published quarterly from 30, Hornsey Park Road, London N7; 56pp; single copies 75p; subscription rate not yet announced; distribution from 56a Shirland Road, London W9. Both magasines are also distributed by the ications Distribution Coop; 27 Cl Close, London ECI. London NW1; 36pp; single copies 35p; annual subscription £5.00 post paid. BriamMoauthéus-CnaunmonofWestNvidhandsTU.C-mntowerofGreenBamBannateFurblicry Concretegainsforthestrikersarerest- ticted to an across the board pay rise of 10%, better at least than Nichols earlier \ ] and offers, and promises of consultations over staff grading, overtime pay and holidays, and ,most important, union recognition, While TASS claims that there is de facto recognition anyway, Nichols intends to give his “answer” in four months’ time. Hopefully all the TASS members will be able to maintain their determination that long in the face of continuing pressure from Nichols, On the positive side relations in the office are friendlier than they were before the strike, work is less pressured and the union members have gained a great deal of confidence, They have realised their collective strength and will certainly feel less timid and circumspect the next time there is an issue to raise with their employer. Although it has been moderately succ- essful for the workers at Nichols, the story of the Yarm strike holds cautionary lessons for other architectural workers. The strike was not won, in the end, by industrial strength but by touching the nerve ends of a leading politician, This was possible as much because the strikers, with TASS’s advice, were able to win the sympathy of the local press, as it was due to the accept- ance of the “justice” of their cause by Ennals Ennals, Faced with an employer with better public relations skills and political contacts, industrial strength may prove to be of greater importance in future union negotiations in architects offices and when that time comes it will have to be sought from other groups of workers who will Want to know how architectural workers see their work developing to Al i which to base the organisation of workers in their field, gave rise to a two part magasine in which the central section “Art Attacks”, carries news from paigi like Music for Socialism and against cuts in the theatre. The more theoretical remainder of Wedge features the Press, SLATE 4 page 12 SLATE 4 page 13 be of more social use. JZ! A ijE DROPOUT Hot on the heels of the recent clésure of Art Net, home of Peter Cook’s wine and architecture parties, news that the Architects Revolutionary Council is to of cards that isarchitectural professionalism would collapse, social benefits and al, if the fixed fee scale went. His bluff is about to be called. NAM’s London Group sent a report to the Monopolies Commiss- National Meeting of the Women in Construction and Manual Trades Group Contact: WIC, c/o, 21, Bouverie Rd., London, N.16. <x COAZeseeEes2 255 gas Seez2i eee BSG negs Gee Zea E28 222 08 & Se 2z && 28 of MO ES Spyee(2). pa! rethink its policies too. A gold watch for -ion * pointing out that the RIBA offered architectural thought and action must go to Brian Anson of ARC, whose sometime confusions are generously offset by his determination. ARC’s stentorian attacks on the RIBA will be no more, which is a pity because they opened a few eyes and gave voice to the feelings of many architectural workers. ARC got together intheheydayofdeveloperboominthe early seventies when the RIBA was clearly identified with the rape of the city centres and the destruction of working class neighbourhoods. Things are different now that the RIBA is dabbling in so-called ‘community architecture’ and the developers are slumbering, for a little while longer at least, as Capital organises the conditions for anew boom. Anson’s reported as believing that “the RIBA recognises the importance of community work”, Quite how that can be when its now more worthy leaders are aquiescing to massive cuts in the amount and standards of public housing and social building, especially in their much-beloved rehabilitation work, he doesn’t make clear. ARC, where are you now that the issues are not quite so black-and-white? RED RAG Slate has recently benefitted from constructive criticism of the Red Scare variety from a London Region trade union official who said that he hoped that the LondonBuildingDesignStaffbranchof TASS wasn’t about to get up to any of that “extreme leftism” promulgated through thatNAM newsletter. Those who seered when reading our pages should take off their rose-coloured spectacles. CIRCLES There's arumour going around that the long awaited Monopolies Commission report on Architects Fees has already been sent to the RIBA, and it looks as none too favourable to them. The mandatory minimum fee scale has been detlared monopolistic, we hear from a friendofa friendofaninfluentialRIBA Council member. We’re lucky, some of the Slater’s friends who work on the more takes more than an icing of Rod Hackney style “community architecture” to convince the Commission otherwise. But, who knows, the RIBA Council may be breathing asigh of relief, after al, they can now say to their membership, how can you have competition in fees without Councillors ,also at -Leeds -ithNovember, Birmingham - 15th November, Hull - 24th November, Contact; Unattatched Architect Councillors, c/o 73, Hallam St., London, W.1. 2nd November - London Junior Liaison Organisation Seminar “Trades Unionism for the Building Professions” possibly to sold off are the ‘profitable’ ones, leaving most estates to continue as rump housing. Much of the work of LA architects is involved in the translation of DOE policy into built form, interpreting new require- -ments and making cuts to fit the budget, It is necessary first to establish the ground rules, and expert DOE liaison officers, usuallyQSs,adviseonbasicformalrequire- <> -ments, juggle with densities, site areas, cautious trade journals have been ringing everyone they can think of to get an official indication of what’s going on, and have got nowhere. This isn’t surprising. The Institute’s Council must be running around in circles trying to work out what todo next and isn’tabout toletanyone stealamarch overthem. RIBA members have just let the Council know, quite clearly DIARY llth October - London TASS London Building Design Staff Branch Branch Meeting, PCL Students Union, 104-108, Bolsover St., London,W.1. 6.30pm -also on 8th November n aJ3s aoge a ; i atBeye a8 just what they think of the advertising idea. What will they say when they find thattheotherbastionofprofessionalism, thefixedfeescale,isbreached? Youcan ConferenceofSocialistPlanners Ohig3armascuesRene.aneOS a:8 332 Gee z a eae Sst z a ae mea oF: B Be be sure of some fast talking from Andrew Contact: CSP, 54, Addison Gardens, London, Derbishireatthisyear’sRIBAconference. W.14, He was the one who told the Monopolies Commission,amongothers,thatthehouse 22nd-23rdOctober-Leeds Ss SEPStesss ees Fe LSSESE nee ee ese g1 62582 =3aBe5 <—KBs advertising to advise the consumer about whoisundercuttingwho?Answerson PicadillyHotel,2.00pm,fee:£2.00 ; ed TYPICAL! O} the backof a glossy brochure, with price list to the Slater. * NAM Report to the £1.00 post paid from NAM, 9 Poland Street, London W1 Contact: The Secretary, The Institute of Structural Engineers, l,Upper Belgrave St., London, S.W.1. 25th -27th November - Hull New Archi M -Third National Congress, Hull School of Architecture, fee £5.00 Contact: NAM; 9 Poland St., London, W.1. housing mix, ancillary uses, open space, roads, access and other factors to extract maximum benefit from the Yardstick calculation, This is then negotiated with planners and Housing departments and feasability is ascertained, There is much cliff hanging suspense as the DOE officers study, evaluate and approve the feasibilty within the interpretations of latest policy, and then approve the budget, Already well outlined ,the scheme is then presented to council for approval, in terms so technical and bureaucratic, no criticism can be mounted or sustained. Chief architects are very sensitive to the DOE, any contradictions, misunderstand- -ings or wilful interpretations can invalidate a design, abort the scheme and threaten the housing programme. Councillors also appreciate the need to go along with accurately, quickly and uncomplainingly. rt jPortanyPuc THEYVE GOT THEIR FEES YOv NEVER SEE THEM AGAIN / ies Ce si NAM Publ Gp -lendera He nye 2dthin and wowld be very grolefd ( yon world There were one or two monuments, like Stonehenge, but they were probably put there by visiting Martians \............ [ BannisterFletcher, “Fell avaitasteNEW! FromNAM Stud me 5Seapts of cachof Ha Pow thee issues. ‘SuiLDINGS ics iL Ropeeventual botalkerOnor SawlvCeem | Kop y e fow Edinburg Booty Crladwe when hos Gear cece o LehPockrop|nreermg Mae:'Frstatthay 2S NQWeas St, efi T_ (31-557-1248) In amaced ak how Twan Architecture Calendar. Name Address Please rush me the 1978 New = 22nd October -Leeds cee Seoc sae Safer s 31st October -London longservicetothecauseofleftwing thepublicahollowbargain......itapparantlySurgeryforUnattatchedArchitectswithARCUK thegap.Theonlycouncilhousesthatcould Edinsven 3 26 Ialy ae a }, Ms 62s borwads VAM FEEP-} OA T2a aie a 2 e e ta tae z eae ues bso ss qf Pe ara Ge 4 ro 23 ota po o a 5 5 aoe s 2. ce = > z hat oe 3 eZ ae AS eS sg € Bs Bits s 5 Guna cua 39 ye i ei 5a rer O (8 peeeeeoes: Gen a EOeeu euteomc2Ainge eae elENCenaie Se See Leonie oie Oo s2Séeeeamgee = aes bene=: SB GES £3 ae és DayConference-“TheInnerCity” a>SomeeeamieoeSICEeBEGiSa22GE2sc8 MMUMEBHBESEUSSE 23YeGaz aSDp an3-OH 5=2SasZo2252 SSERSESSSSRE 2B _ aeeaie Bas 2a aze Zee eat continued from p. 10 the state isthe only agent capable of filling |x LCAN =e Allo, ‘allo, ‘allo - it isn’t legal yet. be Once upon a time there were no architects, planning officers or council estates, People were forced to live in unplanned caves, sub-standard tents or non- conforming huts, : ‘ government policy, e 4 A T = that other architectural historian, turns in his grave as l fthe Mother of the Arts in the 1978 of my bike with laughter .again” ...........Prof. Reyner Banham cartoonist Lou Hellman traces the history o! tto be the first person on my block to get re-educated. Gaudi and turn over twelve new leaves with our monthly history course in 1978. Reluctantly, Ienclose £1.00, which includes postage and packing. Post the coupon below or write to NAM 9, Poland Street, London, W.1. 4 page 14 SLATE SLATE 4 page 15 | London W.1. |NAME |ADDRESS | | | CAMDEN COUNCIL’S INTEN— tion to build 3000,000sq. ft. of offices on the contraversial Tolmers Square site represents a breach of faith with the people of Camden, claim the Tolmers Village Action Group in a comprehensive document of objections presented recently to Camden Council, The Greater London facilities such as restaurants, pubs, shops, launderettes, some public open space, a health clinic and a cinema to replace the exceedingly popular one which was destroyed in 1973. They also propose a minimum of 100,000 sq. ft. of housing equivalent to that currently in existance plus craft workshops, studios, light industry and small scale offices, If in Spite of more than 500,000 sq ft. Council and the Dept. of Environment. of office space in the immediate vicinity The six acre site, notorious for more than 20 years as a battleground for local people and property devel- opers, was won by the Council from property company, Stock Conversion and Investment Trust in the summer of 1975 after a prolonged campaign launched and supported by local people. Now just 2 years later, the Council propose to build more offices and less housing than the developers ever intend- ed. The Action Group have accused the Council of “behaving precisely like a spec- ulative developer’ -‘the Council is simply tryingtobuildasmuchasitcanofthe most profitable form of development’. The Action Group feels that, “It is precisely this narrow-minded attitude towards development in the past which has led to the social and environmental problems of our cities today”. They propose instead that the development be based on “‘a set of criteria founded on social need”; the area badly needs NENT ISSUE | | If you would like to receive SLATE without joining NAM fil in the form below and send it together | architectural education. ! | Poland Street, London W.1. I | | a| which remains empty, the council still feels it has to add its further quota, then it should do so by building over the adjacent Euston Road underpass, an eye- sore of approximately 80,000 sq. ft. ona road which is fast becoming a monument to some of the most sterile and anonymous office development ever produced. -anyone wishing to prepare a SyrGainete Cecorinent scheme for the area or offering letters ofsupport should contact: TolmersVileoeAon Group 12Tolmers Square London NW1 photoawapns Mow Tomes Aonunated by the Euusteu Tours (Above) ond Coumden COME'S IAest: 1 foWe Evstou Road (below). HES PRUGGEEICONGINUES SUBSCRIBE! ANTE ® TELEPHONE (HOME )’.. [ie you would like to be a member of the New Architecture Movement fil in the form below and send 1 | 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 We will also be taking another look at SLATE 4 page 16 with acheque/postal order (Payable to the New Architecture Movement )for £2.00 to NAM at Ch Slate 5 will investigate the practice of Architecture in other countries, Particular attention will be paid to the effects of diff- erent economic and political systems on forms of professionalism. SLATE 5 will appear after NAM’s third Annual Congress in Hull and will carry full reports of the proceddings. NAM 4977CONGRESS APPLICATION The 3rd annual congress of the New Architecture Movement will be taking place on the weekend. of the 25th,26th and 27th november 1977.This years event will be the 3rd NAM congress following the inaugural congress at HarrogateTM in 1975,and Blackpool in 1976.-The hosts for this year are the Hull group of NAM in conjunction with the Hull School of Architecture. The congress of '77 concludes a year of'action'during which NAM has emerged as a force within the architectural world.Much of:this'action'has stemed from the researches and and discussions carried out by NAM groups during 1976 which were aired and refined at the Blackpool congress. These'actions'include the following, NAM's May Unionisation Conference which chose T.A.8.S. within which to organise architectural workers. NAM's Unionisation groups report'Working for What'. NAM's presence in ARCUK representing the unattached Salaried architect. NAM's newspaper ‘Slate' the only radical paper for architectural workers. These public expressions of NAM as well as the less publicised ones are the issues around which NAM groups” form to work on.The groups which have issues clarified| enough to present a working paper use the congress workshops to enlarge the discussion and to put forward ~ motions for the congress to adopt. Workshops so far proposed for this years congress cover; EDUCATION, NATTONAL DESIGN SERVICE ,UNIONISATION, ARCUK, WOMEN IN ARCHITECTURE! SLATE !CONSTITUTION, A fuller list of workshop options will be included in the final briefing package. tear off and return to 9,Poland st,London,W1 NAM 1977 CONGRESS APPLICATION DATE einlaleloiniolelelareleicietatelonn/a/i NAMEciccis.00.00ececaiaieieonicrcleosloDDREGSseicvercterntoreleloialerolevereiereialetericie @eeoeoeeeoeoeveeoeooeeeoeesee2e2eGe2ad I enclose £5.00 COneT ess fee _and require accomodation do not I require bed and breakfast accomodation @ £2620. Bee Beane perso} :1/2 nights : sSingle/double “TOPAT. eecvecvece I require the alternative accomodation @ 50p per night 1/2 nights TOTAL slelcleleielaele I enclose a cheque payable to the New Architecture Movement for the following amount Dicioteleletaleleleletatele What is NAM,? | | | t ! The programme for the congress begins with registration at 7.30pm on friday 25th november followed by an introduction and discussion.A buffet will be provided. Saturday is bound up with congress workshops/general sessions and public forum/discussion in the late afternoo followed by a social eva ng, food,drink and chat, -he NAM agm takes place on sunday morning with an alternative event which is a tour de Hull.for those not directly involved in NAM. 4ue congress ends after lunch on Sunday afternoon, The cost of the congress includes meals for the 3-days. A more detailet brogramme will be included in the final briefing, ; The New Architecture Movement ("NAM") aims, through the col- lective action of architectural workers and other concerned people, to play an active role in radically altering the sys- tem of patronage and power in architecture. It seeks an archi- -‘tectural practice directly accountable to all who use its pro- ducts and democratically controlled by the workers within it. NAM aims thereby to promote effective contol by ordinary people over their environment and by architectural workers over their working lives. NAM: challenge to professi Fram Moris Williams RIBA TASS chosen as architects’ =)” . Unionisationofworkersinarchitects’offices,theea gists:NewunionbyNAMconference mentofaNationalDesignService,anddemocrSir: ‘NEW the Architects’ Registration Acts are three major We were interésted, a couple of All people employed in private sector offices in the building to be launched by the New Architecture Mov prcck Sapo, (osce pha the Y no union is already recognised are urged to followingtheirsecondannualcongressheldjRCHITEC Technical,AdministrativeandSuperv'sory Rr RNS Gs sciraes ; women at the local authorit principle of lay control over the entire profes Heatrinetncardatenetthere a report prepared by NAM’s Private Practice Grou} jaye the feudalism: the serfs ARCUKis,infact,largelydominatedbytheRIETheNewArchitectureMove- stamped, self-addressed envelope) ERINeA citeens Movement, thecloak, of a registered trades malgamated Union of Engineering Workers i e fMoice ni- 5It the second largest white collar union in the private sector. Although part of the 1400 000 strong AUEW, TASS remains ctural workers will be able to have NAM on ARCUK intheunionwhichwilallowthema ray tered institutions in related building professions. %c¢e¢°mmodation for two nights, cians Association), has over 140 000 members which made up of empreyers in th Sing ifeeery : The congress resolved to prepare for a campaign ; proper public accountability into architectural 26, 27 and 28 November radical revision of the Architects’ Registr ie layrepresentationexceedsprofessionalreRIBAthreelinewhipstalls utonomyoveritsownindustrialand the latter reflects accurately the proport workersandimanagement? 3 £8. Further details: NAM xe , ; ANational Design Service The establishment of a National Design Moyement (NAM) gaining places on committees in the free ‘Nich will be capable of providing major priority for the movement, in or elections. (These are for posts not filled automatically under f industrial disputes. the ultimate goal of direct control over resources by local people so that architect: to those who are really affected by their « nises that major changes in this area are changes in the wider political system bu Asbestos reconsidered -< things now fr the ‘sentlemen’s agreement’ between ARCUK’s constituent Vly on the part of women who com- ie membership. hitects, in last eady connected with the building in- leNew Archi- ‘th the AUEW’s Construction Engin- ;_ use of the several hundreds of em- sssions who are already TASS mem- FromMorrisWillianadmMasrkobjectives<profession’.Theirmayorcriticismof} isWhatitis|andengineeringstaffinindustry. Glesen for Central London i i i Group, the New Architecture 07 t0 M@Ke a largely dominated by the RIBA, with salaried architects, tech- STENCE tO select TASS will come as a ee: users,and,stniciageape)layeoeonleey-wepreg(AZ8.12.76p1065).vhowouldhaveexpectedtheSTAMP Sir: oneddesignjinQSth26th‘O79tfNAMmem-=theobviouschoice;beingtheunion Your article, ‘Asbestos alternative materials’ (4 p1041),whilelongov ignores certain imports and is misleading on ot and more architects ar to specify building mat containing amy type of eahreibelicvenhatece will do so after reading a : TERE “ l to Council as a serious threat. Before the annual meeting ith the building industry. But speakers “h : "has extremely poor back-up facilities VEMBE Kcommittees, :ef ige, uel wks the RIBA, cir- wide much support for recruitment, os 1 its own finances, staff, headquarters RIBA representatives on ARCUK closed ranks at last week’s MY © develop in their own way. At annual meeting to prevent members of the New Architecture Tétain the advantages of being in a ed a leter to al bers on Is the New Architecture Movement (NAM) rew attention to Bl Begtnigelections f sys : : . ‘tects’placeswhttond li‘havWeith itsaim ofa‘democratic architecture’ sa :Sd : : eople who are committed to changing tPOSINE a threat to the establishment? by-passing the institute. It is import’ There must be some worries that its e ac T . . . precautions you recom‘ little light reading PiefenreflectingusonFromaidisgustedarchitec: meSaabs coConon flences bemg feltwheniseveral tof the RIBA representatives.’ likelihodoftthheeiractuST!Tealitleshockedtose©ci.rculatedali'stofRIBAvenomir:membershaveadmititedthattheyare nature of the sources tcthe perspective, in your issue of ies for the various committees, whi afraid to reveal their identity for fear of youhaverefered.FORUINFORMATIONSANDDETWHAEEITONLASI!oo BoLotDiseH eNAMhas We suggest that archi hich Hellman works. How in-~ 57 al] the seats otherspecifiersshoulddulgenthisemployermustbe— Aneice caCORna Tee Come 2long way inayear (p1065) anandhas heir faith in inadequat{uorescent lights amd individual “ 7 ae saeiards dependent ulighting! Ihave found one ur merely strengthened his view put forward a number of proposals worthy infeasiblemeasuring140Wattbulbbetweenapairof tionofARCUK neededtobechallerOfdebate, backed up by useful research. erism d T! 7? Unionisation i iam 0) y c This is the recommendation of a special one-day TradeunionorganisationofarchitecturalandalMOVEMENT ontradeunionisminarchitectureandtheallied isnowamajorpriorityofNAM.Whileunionis;')*/2TMs° ene inDulildingprofessions,sponsoredbytheNewArchitecture seen as a panacea for the ills of the profession, it is the NALGO closed shop. These Movement in London last Saturday. An organising CO Ce an essential step towards the democratisation of 4 shops, we are told, are currently has been instructed by the conference to make a recruiting practice. What has not yet been determined is wh under construction in the very drive. tectural workers should form a new union, or w Precincts of nota few local The decision comes after six months of debate and research shouldallywithexistingunionssuchasUCATISeesesateecratine?intowhichunionwouldbemostsuitableforarchitectsand or the TGWU. But the congress was clear that in they will be too, we are told, to Other allied workers. A committee set up by the New Archi- effective, all employees in private practice should the free enterprise spiritofthe tecture Movement’s Congress in Blackpool last November has of the same union rather than dividing their for Profession. had negotiations with officials from ASTMS (Association of differentunions.ThecongresshassetupanorgaSIRE Scientific,TechnicalandManagerialStaffs),STAMP(Sup- mittee which will make detailed recommendations 2-chitectural meachiceniee d ervisory, Technical, Administrative, Managerial and Profes- conference in 1977 to launch the unionisation cam guaintly feuda, 4of sional section of UCATT), TGWU (Transport and General association wy everal Workers Union) and TASS. Detailed briefings were prepared DemocratisationofARCUK YEATES!EEO)there, gnamal-bythecommitteeontheadvantagesofeach,andlastSatur- TheArchitects’RegistrationActsarealso¢py a immediate NAM action. The current public disi the RIBA. V the profession shows that there would be consideré one of its objectWemras for such action. The Acts establish, however ineff: fter the interests of the men and UPon request (accompanied’by a the committee in favour of tectural mz Of , pf om con th an gt The New Architecture Movement ‘cally to decide on one union. d that has prepareda concise, two-page 10m 25 were NAM members. tolook leafletonasbestosavailable,free,nitectsinprivatepractice. D Feb E Greenies ecte qu wii ta gt le Ha Htiin ra N.A.M. HAS A Sane AT INTERBUILD : WE NEED HELP IN PREPARATION, MOUNTING AND MANNING THE STAND PLEASE CONTACT LIASON GROUP, NAM. 9 POLAND ST. LONDON W1. > ~e ~” 2 a g Oo g a + 2 = —_ =& a z < os =x - is ~ _ = = oO -4 < Zz © ~ = 5) < On — < 2 a < [~ = = - Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Various Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Andrew Brown/FLeP Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September/October 1977 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/65e0c1a88a49b06a90212303287a154a.pdf 82f5b0a93f021644c81fc9ee1fbf6d71 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 3 Description An account of the resource ISSUE No 3 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE NEW ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT BDS:TASS MUSTERS TS FORCES JULY/AUGUST 1977 \ sp ial recruiting leaflet aimed at workers in architecture, surveying engineering and planning has just been published by the TASS Building Design Staff (BDS) ‘national advisory committee, which iscoordinating the organising drive nationally and which consists, at present, of ten architectural workers chosen by the May 14 conference. The new London ‘BDS’ branch of TASS has now had three meetings. Understand- ably, the main topic of discussion has been organising continued on page 3 INDUSTRY STILL BREATHING! FOLLOWING THE NEW ARCH ITECTURE MOVEMENT SPONSORED CONFERENCE ON MAY 14 which choose TASS’ the Technical, Administrative and Super- visory Section of the AUEW* as the vehicle for a long-awaited trade union organisation drive among private sector building design stat, a steadily- growing core of active union members have begun quietly laying the found- ations for a major organising effort in the autumn. Wek EEF Le Slate‘s exclusive inside story of the takeover of Architectural Design magazine over the last year...... 1. ARCUK: THE SHEEP {N WOLF’S CLOTHING the parliamentary debate around the registration acts. 2.PROFESSIONALISM: THE MYTH and the IDEOLOGY the dubious rationale behind the professional associations. 3. ARCUK: INSIGNIFICANT OR Does ARCUK need a broader set of objectives? PART IL OF “ A COMMUNITY DESIGN SERVICE” - Cardiff NAM group’s attempt to set up a local ASBESTOS RECENT ‘PUBLIC HEARINGS’ of the Government’s Advisory Comm- ittee on Asbestos, held in London from June 27 to 29, may have done little more than give anti-asbestos campaigners their ‘day in court’ and give an increasingly concerned pub- lic the impression that something is being done about the health haz- ards of asbestos. Asbestos ind- ustry management will now be breathing a sigh of relief and getting on with ‘business as usual’ least for the moment. Twelve groups and individuals were allowed to give evidence at the hearings and be questioned by Committee members Questions from the public were not allowed Earlier, the Health and Safety Executive had published the writ.1 evidence submitted design service continued on page 3 a ie slite!, n., a., & v.t. 1, Icinds of gres, gren, or bluish-purple rock easily split {nto flat smooth plates; pleco of cuch plate used ns roofing-material; piece of It usu. framed in wood used for writing on with~-penTorsmallrodofso~f(ctlean th of 0 WORK ON SLATE SLATEneedsmoreworkers,more writers and more ideas. This issue was put together by a committee of seven. A larger committee would mean a 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. The copy deadline for the next issue is Friduy 26th August 1977 OUR HIGH PRICE 40p is a lot to pay for a newsletter this big.ThefundingofSLATE isconnected to the funding of NAM as awhole, and last year the Movement ran up substantial debts, This year’s liaison group determined 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 strengthwilllieamongpeoplewhoare prepared to support its activities to the full. 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 fall, but for the moment it must not get into debt. ADVERTISING Atanearlymeetingthecommittee 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 advert 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. awards Slater's award for self-publicity this yea goes to Charlie Jencks for his out- standing review of his own bestseller *Post ModernisnyY’ in the Sunday Times Colour Section Charlie’s two page spread folded discreetly between ads for the Ford Fiesta und Harvey’s Bristol Cream explained with wonderful clarity and the advent of a new bourgeois confection, Post Modern Architecture and convince the newspaper's five figure readership how PM was now the topic of heated debate in architects offices throughout the land. It obviously took over from redundancies and how to pay for your season ticket without us noticing. TASS Continued from page 1 Reportsfrommorethanahalfdozen offices where organisation is making real progress suggest that the first employer recognition of BDS-TASS may occur later this year. Recognition would provide the Opportunity to begin to demonstrate what unionisation in architecture can achieve and is expected to give a big boost to nationwide organising. anemployertodenyrecognition. Organisation is also progressing in several other towns, including Cardiff and Edinburgh, where architectural staff are joining ‘general’ TASS branches, many of which already have building design staff members. As membership grows, it is expected that special BDS branches will be set up wherever justified by eachoffice. Itisthis‘shopfloor’ organisation which must do the vital, “grass roots’, person-to-person organising and in which members can ‘together decide the policy they wich to pursue and the means they wish to use to achieve it.’ Each group of TASS members in an office can choose a ‘corresponding member’ (to liase with the broader union structure) andan‘officecommittee’torepresent them, when necessary, in dealings with the management. _—_‘Full-timeunionofficials can be called in for advice or aid in neg- otiations, or when seeking recognition, at the request of the members in the office. On the other hand, the companies will be putting a major effort into salvaging the huge asbestos-cement products market for a much longer period. They will try to draw 1 dubious distinction between these products containing containing roughly 12% per cent asbestos and ‘soft’ products )like insulation board) containing 30 per cent. They are already getting support from the leadership of some trade unions involved in the manufacture of asbestos cement products who may find this more convenient than fighting for alternative, safe employment. The Green Ban Action Committee in conjunction with the Birmingham Hazards Group of BSSRS, has recently produced a four-page leaflet, ‘The Asbestos Hazard’, available from GBAC, 77 School Road, Hall Green, Birmingham 28, for 10p, postpaid (£3.00 per 100). NAM’s contributions; ~-colour(ed), (of) dark Dluish or gree grey; hence slat’y? a, 2. adj. (Made) of ~. 3. y.t. Cover with ~s esp, 03 rofing; hence slat/en' n, (ME before achieved recognition in a private architecturalpractice. Thereisnorule as to when to seek recognition, but it is usually done when a majority of staff have joined the union Under present legislation, it is difficult in that case for As the new leaflet points out, however, ‘thekeyunitintheunion’sstructureand the means whereby staff can democratically and collectively have a real voice in all the decisions which affect their work ‘is the organisation of unionised employees in fc, fern.of esclat SLAT*) Qs). Cr severely 2reviews),scold,rate; nominate, propose for oifice etc. Henco slat’ssX1) n, fapp. f.pree.} 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 buildiag 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 ittoyour 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. .AND THE FUTURE For SLATE to grow asalively reflection of the views of radical Architectural Workers and others concerned with the processes which shape our environment, accountability of editorial decisions to the members of the Movement is essential. This year two further issues areplanned. 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 itissuggested 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. SLATE 3PAGE 2 by 24 groups and individuals. from asbestos industry management, their front groups like the Asbestos Research Council and their allies like the National Federation of Building Trades Employers, to anti-asbestos campaigners like Nancy Tait, the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science (BSSRS), and Socialist Worker. In the middle were groups like the Comsumers’ Association and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, who presented a breakdown of the uses of asbestos products in construction and the current cost implications of alternatives. The RICS did recommend that ‘savings in medical and other costs should be taken into account wheb considering additional construction costs, even though they arise in different sectors of the national economy.” In its written evidence, the TUC noted that ‘the present Asbestos Regulations and Hygiene Standards are totally inadequate to provide protection against cancer risks,” called for the progressive banning of al use of asbestos within the next ten years und recommended an immediate lowering of the maximum allowable concentration of asbestos dust to 0.2 fibres per cc from Occupational Safety and Health has already called for a level of 0.1, the least detectable. Management spokesmen from the asbestos industry claimed they would close down their UK operations (Turner and Newall employs some 10,000 asbestos workers) if the 0.2 level were enforced. The TUC apparently backed down at the hearings from the surprisingly strong stand it had taken in its written evidence. in on the act Now the dust has settled after the NAM sponsored trade unionism conference architectural workers busy getting on with organising their colleagues into TASS may be surprised to hear that UCATT’s STAMP section is setting up its very own National Advisory committee for architectural workers. An astonishing turn about for that union who, as late as the beginning of this year, expressed, quite candidly, that to the trade journals promoting the cause workers in private sector offices were and incidently, his new book, ‘Fight Blight unorganisable. We can only take it NAM wins a mention in this worthy tome, then that UCATT/STAMP’s new committee Mr McKean assures us. Readers of asuitable is being set up to serve the interests of the disposition should turn to his page 166. the present level of 2 In the United few building design staff they already have in membership in the public sector. We haven't received our review copy of ‘Fight Blight’ yet, which is a pity, because without it we can only surmise on its ARCUK Registrar isbeing selected by a committee composed entirely of RIBA ‘heavies’ and drew attention to ARCUK’s chauvinists — eee ee TheSlaterhears attitudestothosepoorworkingclass that Rod Hackney - communities beset by office development the RIBA’s front runner in the Community grim council flats, derelict land and so on. Architecturecooptionstakesisreluctant YoubetitsagoodPRjobforthe‘New to employ women in his o} Profession” of sensitive caring architects out Second prize to the book’s publisher, Andreas Papadukis for similar efforts in his other publishing venture this month Architectural Design, which this month carries SsOn new style. You called, you guessed it, Post Modernism. be fighting a rear-guard action to keep their highly profitable asbestos ones on the UK market longer than would otherwise be possible. They will also be stepping up sales to ‘third world’ countries. is more readable and updated version of her earleir pamphlet and is available from Exchange Publications, 9 Poland Street, London, W.1. back seat driver? The community architects bandwagon ARCUK VOTES FIASCO rolls on, Charles McKean the RIBA. Community architect supremo, is hoping to climb into his driving seat , it would seem, from the recent letters each. Following the Council’s decision to maintain secrecy, vote totals are being revealed only to the individual candidate. SLATE is published by the LIAISON GROUP’ oftheNEWARCHITECTUREMOVEMENT, 9, Poland St., London. W1. Typesetting by Debbie Coates, Maggie Stack PrintedbyWOMENINPRINT,16a,Illiffe hisviewsaresharedbytheunlikely sponsoredpovertyprogrammes,__Itsfine TheCouncilputitselfintheabsurd Asitturnedout,theUnattached RIBAmembers.Itisprobablethata Yard, London, SE17. company of Colonel Siefert to fight blight so long as you stand no. position of refusing to reveal, in the standing for election to the committee few RIBA nominees disobeyed the ‘whip’ ‘Itisbelievedthatnounionhasever potentialmembership. These ranged States, the National Institute for Asbestos industry management now appears to be pursuing a two-fold strategy. On the one hand, they realise that despite their massive, slick and deceptive advertising campaigns, more and more people now know that al forms of asbestos can cause asbostosis, lung cancer or mesothelioma, even from the slight exposure to which members of the public are subjected, and that so-called ‘precautiors’ free two page leaflet is still available are ineffective, impractical, unenforced or unenforceable. The major companies have begun producing asbestos-free insulating insulation boards and will, at the same time, Nancy Tait’s ‘Asbestos Kills: New Facts’ The six NAM-affiliated architects elected to the Architects Registration Council (ARCUK) in a postal ballot of the more than 3,100 ‘unattached’ architects earlier this year have already begun to make the RIBAplaced a ‘three-line whip’ on its questioned the procedure whereby a new their presence felt, injecting into the nominees, who dominate the Council, to Council’s June 22 quarterly meeting a prevent the election of unattached ‘NAM’ strong note of dissent against the customary members. RIBA steamroller. Even before the elections, RIBA members ‘double standard’ under which, for example, Faced with increasing economic had been assured, for example, of filling RIBA branches are allowed to advertise pressuresontheprofession,theRIBA twelveoffifteenplacesonboththe whilegroupsofUnattachedarchitects machine appears to be running about Purposes and Finance and General Purposes are not. The next Council meeting is on in a gradually increasing panic trying to Committees. On the Board of Education, October 12. jamitswell-fedlitlefingersintoanever RIBAmemberswereassuredofholding48 TheMarchmeeting,atwhichthe growing number of holes in its erstwhile seats, while the Unattached, who held two, voting took place, had been attended by tidy system of ‘professional’ dikes. were contesting two more. S7 Council members, of whom 45 were Rod may be interested to know that to make their fortunes out of government chance of besting it. accepted democratic manner, the votes vacancies got, on the average, twelve votes on the secret ballot. in the previous meeting’s elections for vacancies on ARCUK committees. A NAM motion to do so was defeated by 28 votes tol2. ‘It was before those elections that Representatives of the Unattached also (send stamped SAE, please), and BSSRS will soon be publishing a pamphlet aimed particularly at shop stewards. SLA3TPAEGE3 ASBESTOS Continued from page 1 FaneS+ rt SLATE 3PAGE4 SUBVERSION OF A.D. In April 1976, the editors of Architec- tural Design Magazine, Martin Spring and Haig Beck, proclaimed jubilantly that they were taking over the equity of the magazine. Butnow,lessthanayearandahalfhence, the tables have turned and the magazine’s new publisher, Andreas Papadakis, has wrested absolute control of the magazine, both in terms of financial and editorial interests. AD’s world-wide reputation as a tearaway avant-garde architectural magazine is well established. This profile, however, com- prises two components: the one is a eulog- istic showcase for whatever glistening gadgetry, style or conceptual ‘ism’ has been newly purloined from neighbouring discip- lines by breathless architectural young turks; the other is a radical and independent stance that takes an iconoclastic view of the exces- ses of building development and architect- ural conceits in their social and political contexts. The intention of the editors in taking over the equity of the magazine was to promote the latter approach: the magazine’s natural tendency towards edit- orial independence could be secured by its egalitarianism would match the editorial message of the magazine, Spring proferred Beck an ident- ical shareholding of the company as himself work of the five editorial staff. Further- (for no capital investment on his part) and more he closed down the editorial office —— es riding the magazine on the crest of the present wave of formalism. The poingnancy of the overthrow of AD’s independence has been accentuated by the strategy of which was employed. If Papadakis had bought out the magazine outright and simultaneously announced plans for revamping its image, the people involved would have known where they stood, and could have lumped it or left it. However, the campaign of behind-the-scenes manipulation that was conducted over the last year had a most unnerving effect on nearly al editorial staff and consultants. nightmare For the editorial staff, it was literally a nightmarish situation in which to work. The previous owners of AD, Standard Catalogue Ltd_, decided to hive off the magazine as they were moving out of London. They offered the magazine to the incumbent editors under a convient arrangement whereby the purchasers would financially guarantee the vendors for the publication of the 12 months’ issues of the magazine which had already been sold to subscribers by the vendors. Spring and Beck quickly decided that this proposition seemed an attractive one, but that they didn’t want to directly take on the responsibility for the magazine’s subscriptions and accounts. They there- fore joined forces with the only person they knew who had experience of running subscriptions for international architecture Papadakis enters magazines, Andreas Papadakis, who owned and controlled a burgeoning art book emp- ire in Kensington and was a publisher to boot. Papadakis was interested in AD and showed a sympathy for the editors’ principles of editorial independence. Although he professed to have no ready capital to invest in it, he demanded the controlling interest in the new company. SpringandBeckbelievedthatiftheedit- orial department was agreed about the editorial policy of the magazine, the pub- lisher could be kept at bay, as he could not sack both editors without bankrupting the company. A sum of £16,000 was agreed between purchasers and vendors as financial guaran- tee to cover the publication of the magazine for 12 months. This sum would be lodged in a special bank account and released incrementally as each of the 12 months’ issues was published. The £16,000 was gathered from Spring and his sister (£8,400, courtesy of a recent inheritance), a total of 26 ad hoc patrons of the maga- zine (£6,100), and Papadakis, (who topped up the final £2,500 with a short-term loan). In the idealistic spirit of egalitarianism that publisher in any dispute, thereby blowing any possibility of editorial independence. In the event this is exactly what happened and with terrifying precipitousness. Beck found it more to his liking to confer with Papadakis rather than with the other editor, the editorial staff or consultants, Papadakis demanded a tight ship, and with Beck eagerly assuming the role of henchman, his plans for revamping the magazine revealed themselves in a variety of indirect ways that rapidly succeeded in inducing a high state of paranoia in the staff. Payment for overtime work, always an integral part of AD’s staff’s skimpy earnings was banned; the Editorial Assistant was barred from writing for the magazine; the Editorial Secretary’s workload increased dramatically as she was expected to go through a myriad of checking and counter- checking procedures of expenses; the Prod- uction Editor found that the whole creative component of her work, designing page layouts, was taken out of her hands and commissioned to a freelance graphic desig- ner (at considerable expense). _In general, al editorial decisions regarding the running of the editorial department and the content and style of the magazine were made out- side the office (it was quite clear by whom) and issued to the staff with contemptuous brusqueness by Beck. Papadakis claimed that the magazine into the red Was running into the red and drastic re- arrangements were called for. Since he controlled the accounts, there was little scope for disputing his diagnosis. How- ever, his strategy for improving the financ- es of the magazine were entirely at the expense of its employees, as he favoured farming out the work to freelance journal- ists and designers. Naturally the staff sought aid from their respective unions (the National Graphic Association and the National Union of Journalists). The situation was brought to a head last Febr- uarywhen Papadakisannounced thatthe laying off of the Production Editor ,and that the other staff would have to take on promotion work and even volunteer to work work part-time. The staff responded by demanding the reinstatement of the Prod- uction Editor, threatening industrial action with union backing. The situation was complicated by the fact that the financial guarantee on the magazine still had another three months to run, and this money would be forfeited in the event of any failure to publish the magazine during that peroid. Half of the guarantee money was Spring’s, which very effectively held him hostage to Papadakis’ plans. The situation was resol- yed in a meeting between Papadakis and union officials: the three members of staff were laid off with three months’ compen- ices. After a few more months of stag- nation, Spring was bought out ofhis job and his equity of the magazine for 14 months’ compensation. (He had a two- year contract of employment). Papadakis’ game is obviously to strangle AD as it has been, claiming that it is finan- cially unviable, so that he can then build it up in the image he has planned for it. He would then have in his possession a magazine title of world-wide repute,a list of subscribers and a magazine that conforms to the image he wants- all for next-to-no capital outlay. impressario Papadakis isapublishing impressario: he revels in the reflected glory of the cult art books he publishes. His instincts are absolutely capitalistic, and he has a shrewd ability to latch on to the latest cult figures - his paperbacks of prints by Mucha and Beardsley, for instance, have been superb money-spinners. He sesa similar potential in architectural publishing -monographs on cult architects consisting mainly of photos and plans with accompanying texts that are bland and eulogistic. AD’s prime interest to Papadakis lies in its service as an international network of contacts from which he can draw off suit- ably fashionable architects to publish mono- graphs on. At the same time the magazine provides readers with tasters for these forth- coming books. Since he has become interested in architectural publishing, Papadakis has been developing another periodical alongside AD under the editor- ship of David Dunster, provisionally entit- led Architectural Monographs. Framed as a quarterly periodical, each issue is devoted to a famous architect from the present or recent past and is aimed at students who a are looking for a cheap and simple run-down down of architectural heroes. Issues have been drawn up on Robert Venturi (inevitably) (inevitably), Mies van der Rohe and Victor Horta. Thismagazinewasduetobelaun- ched at the beginning of the next college session in September, but he has been keep- ing open his options of merging this new periodical with AD. Papadakis is eager to steer AD back into the mainstream of international architect- ural magazines, emulating the hecticly competitive Japanese and Italian glossies such as A+U, which are feverishly leap- frogging each others’ attempts to glorify the latest architectural prima-donnas. prima-donna The current movement in architecture is, of course, a return to formalism. It is an understandable -and to a large extent welcome -reaction to the anaemic function- alism and the mindless technological build- ing ‘solutions’ of the 60’s, but it is also a swing away from the slow dawning of political consciousness among architects. In the way-out architectural cliques in Japan or London’s Art Net, this formalism is pushed with gay abandon to a mannerism that can be outright neo-fascist in effect. To the architect, the spectator is all-import- ant, while the basic human and social needs of the users are negligible. But the new formalism is not left at that it must be packaged and presented in the most esoteric of philosophic rationalisations, continued on page 13 ihMANNERISM. financial independence as an autonomous sation each. Papadakis then expected the two editors, Spring and Beck, to carry on doing the wor company of limited liability. Now, as one Mn simultaneously appointed himas joint leaving them to muddle along from home. strand of Papadakis’ glossy art-book empire, the policy of the magazine has lurched towardstheotherextreme. Amanwitha shrewd eye for cults Papadakis is now editor. A meeting of the magazine’s eight editor- The flaws in the arrangement are quite jal consultants was called, to which Papad- obvious in hindsight: the purse-strings of akis announced with crocodile tears that the company were held by Papadakis, who the magazine would have to go through also had the controlling shareholding, and an ‘austerity’ phase for a few months. there was no safeguard against one of the When the consultants responded with editors crossing over to the side of the scepticism, he dispensed with their serv- SLATE 3PAGE 5 aleh ARCUK: The | since this body at best occupies the dustiest corner of the practising architect’s conciousness, and forms the most tenuous link between society and the profession including its trainees. included the dubious boast that voluntary registration of architects was mooted as far back as 1791, and that even between 1888 and 1913 thirteen Bills had been put forward without sucess, The arguments against were more argument that the assumption that the numerous and more diverse in origin. The public interest would be safeguarded was any existing lawful means of livelihood. More than this, however, from reading the pages of Hansard one sees the debates becoming more repetitive and irritable. And one senses a strong undercurrent of suspicion that beneath the sponsors’ ‘altruistic’ intentions lay the self-interested attempt by one section of the community to align itself with the powerful forces of industrial and landed capital. The opposition showed surprisisng foresight in questioning the equity of mandatory fee scales - a development which which was clearly expected to follow hard on hardontheestablishmentofthenewCouncil: Still more surprising was the sponsor’s bald reply: ‘I can assure the Rt. Hon. Gentlemen that there has not be = any compulsory scale of fees fixed by the Institute and there never will be.” sheep in wolf’ vain when one could see with ones own eyes that RIBA members were already responsible for some of the least disting- clothing The answer is that this currently supine body does indeed amount to the only statutory agency regulating the profession, The RIBA success in occupying the professional limelight is an historical anomolyanditisARCUK alonewhich constitutes the official link between architects and the parliament of the land to summarize the principal arguements familiar Arts and Crafts Movement’s objection to legislating in matters of ‘art and creativity’ was dusted down after its last period of prominence during the exams uished buildings in the country. Conversely The reasons why NAM has interested itself in the Architects Registration Council, were spelt out in the Private Practice Group’s Progress Report to the 2ndNationalCongressinBlackpool, November 1976. Nonetheless they deserve to be summarised here before embarking on this more general SLATE feature, for the benefit of those readers who have become interested in NAM since Blackpool - if for no other reason. Whilst it would doubtless take many hours of argu ment to agree the form of words -the concensus must surely accept that there are two broad fundamental ideas at the centre of NAM’s work. The first -the need to achieve ameasure ofself-determination by Architectural workers -the body of the profession: the second the urgent need to introduce real accountability and social responsibility on the part of Architects towards building users and the public at large. The duality of these preoccupations is essential if NAM is to avoid swerving into mere ‘fringe benefit’ type self-interest on the one hand, or vague populist do- gooderyontheother. Amajorstepin pursuit of the first idea has, of course, been NAM’s work on unionisation culminating in the free choice of TASS as a potent vehicle of organisation. debateattheturnofthecentury. To those who believed in the artistic and emotional primacy of the design process any system of registration on ‘objective’ standards was both arbitary and repugnant. However, the content of this argument is probably less significant than the likelihood ative of the profession as a whole. Nothing that its proponents, several from the AA and short of a referendum was felt adequate to andtheFacultyofArchitectsandSurveyors justifysuchasignificantclaim,andthe The second aim ismore exclusive, moving from passive understanding, through all of which contribute to our feelings of the critique of patronage, to the formulation of immediate courses of action. While the outlines of the belief remain blurred, we must continue to approach the target from several different avenues - of which the National Design Service, the analysis of architectural education, and live projects such as the Cardiff JCP Programme or Birmingham Green Ban Action Association are but three currently in train. disorientation and irresponsibility. Meanwhile the process of change would help to scramble the heirarchical structure of the profession reinforced by RIBA domination. Before diving into history let itagain be saidthat ARCUK represents just one appropriate instrument for attacking the Status quo and that the many other and deeper problemsof accountability -going back to source, so to say, from the specifics of contractual obligation, through public control of resources, consumerism, local and national government procedures, to the broadest notions of social justice, equity and freedom- that these problems [ADMISSIONS] advisory panel DISCIPLINE A fourth is NAM’s involvement with ARCUK which developed directly from the discussions of the North London/ Private Practice Group/between Harrogate 1975 and Blackpool 1976. With NAM’s instinctforthedangersoftokenismitsoon remaininneedoffurtheranalysisand PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES reg. 14) Euntaroecesepeatestasensanacode ofconduct title (1938 act) Educ. Fund (1969 act) Educ. grants |Projects & awards FINANCE & GENERAL PURPOSES reg 10) houskeeping fee became clear that blueprints for a model practice were little more than idle spec- ulation if the wider professional and social context of architectural practice remained unchallenged. _Itmight well be asked what relevance ARCUK could bear to a radical democratization of architecture SLATE 3PAGE 6 debate. BIRTH PANGS: the fifty year filibuster Part of ARCUK’s recent submission to the Monopolies Commission's ..No statutory basis established b act of panliaryent —~— @iablished by regulation ~ (Privy Council) SLATE 3PAGE 7 If a major aspect of NAM’s aim is the forging of new and revitalized links between the profession and the lay public a primary role must be restored to the only agency relating the two. The RIBA, as an internal professional society is technically gratuitous to this relationship -ARCUK as the registry of professional legitimacy is indispensable. At the same time it would be naive to concentrate solely on our draft proposals forareconstitutedARCUK asasemi-lay institution excercising the professional control which by default or stealth has passed to the RIBA, ignoring the dynamic political spin-off derived from the very process of mounting the challenge in the meantime. _ Nonetheless the reformed ARCUK postulated elsewhere in this feature would confer two-way benefits: for the public an opportunity to penetrate and hence dispel the exclusive ‘mysticism’ of the profession currently the source of much suspicion and resentment; for the practising architect a rescue from the limbo of non-accountability, currently glossed over by bogus social science, a toothless code or mere wishful thinking: for and against, that were raised in the extraordinarily controversial passage of this legislation. The ‘first’ Architects Registration Bill (ARB) was presented for Ist Reading in the Commons on llth February, 1927 after the RIBA had recovered from a position of disarray the previous year when draft proposals for making the employment of architects mandatory on al building projects over a certain value were abandoned as unattainable, The Ist Reading accomplished, the sponsors, a group of Conservative MP’s friendly with and advised by the RIBA - of course the prime mover - presented this private members bill for 2nd Reading on 8th April, 1927. The ensuing debate stretching through 80 columns of Hansard raised almost al the arguements for and against which were to reappear again and again up to Royal Assent on the 3lst July, 1931, and, indeed thereafter, when the second principal Act of 1938 was introduced. The double premise on which the proposal was based consisted firstly of the aim to protect the public from imposters- i.e, men claiming architectural skills who were in fact inadequately trained -and secondly of the desire to distinguish and thus protect properly qualified architects from others, The legal mechanism adopted to exercise this control was the protection of the title ‘Registered Architect’ denoting one whose name was set forth on a public register to be administered by a new Council, who would also supervise entry standards, As ARCUK’s literature boasts, ‘Thus, any member of the public commissioning an architect will be dealing with a person who has at least met a required standard of professional training, experience and behaviour, ARCUK can in this way claimtobeoneofthefirstconsumer protection organisation’, (ARCUK Booklet, p.3, March 1976) The need for such a measure at all Was attributed to the increasing volume of the construction industry, the complex- ity of modern building practice and the new scale of responsibility falling on those involved in their design, (FAS), were already suspicious of future RIBA dominance should al constituent bodies be absorbed into a statutory council. A similar motive may be detected in the objections of those representing the Incor- porated Association of Architects and Surveyors (IAAS) foremost among whom was the MP Robert Tasker who argued from the outset that Registration was simply a protectionist measure for the RIBA’ Meanwhile lay sceptics in the House, most of whom started uncommited, became preoccupied with the dual RIBA leadership’ action in forestalling one was construed unfavourably. investigation of the mandatory fee scale We take up the story around 1926 when a new phase of activity began which eventually culminated in the passing of the Architects Registration Act in 1931. The functions of this and the subsequent Actsaredetailedelsewhereandthis historical note chronicles and attempts iftheRIBAaffixwasasolidguaranteeof fitness any additional registration was surely superfluous, There was further lay objection to the credibility of the sponsors’ claims that their desire for Registration was represent- Likewise there were serious misgivings as to the composition and confidentiality of the Discipline Committee (Section 7, 193] Act) virtually a kangaroo court capable of depriving a man of his livelihood with few of the normal standards of accountability 2 March, 1926, Col. 777 or appeal expected of a court of law. This last objection may be taken as a specific example of the more general principle that only with great reluctance will the British Parliament introduce legislation likely to remove or endanger This astounding quotation faded into history when after reaching no conclusion the Bill passed from 2nd Reading to Select Committee -there to die on the 26th continued on page & DIAGRAM SHOWING THE STATUTORY BASIS OF ARCUK riba code PARLIAMENT 1931 Reg. act. Sir C. Kinlock-Cooke (Con.) Hansard, FeaturePROFESSI NAL | GOVERNMENT continued from page 7 July 1927 when a vote of 5 to 4 decided against its recommendation back to the House, Little over 6 months later a new Bill (ARB2) was introduced to the House of Commons - this time with even less sucess, ds the Bill was ‘counted out’ at 2nd Reading on 2nd March 1928, By now the lay tobjectors to the ‘closed shop’ aspect of the measure had become more vociferous and ensured that by 11.00 pm no conclusion of debate would be achieved. Disappointed at their fortune in the Commons, the RIBA next sought to introduce the Bill into the House of Lords and there achieved a measure of sucess to Passing to Commons on 23rd December, 1928. ‘Thence back to the Commons where on 30th January, 1929 the Ist Reading of the 3rd ARB took place. Again a motion by Robert Tasker to ‘adjourn debate for 6 months’ -and again on 2nd Reading, Sth March 1929, an adjournmen‘tat 11pm, thus killing the Bill for the third time. The tracks of ARB4 peter out, and Uansard’s next entry is for the introduction of ARBS First Reading on 3lst October 1930. By now irritated and impatient Parliament apparently felt disinclined to jabour the matter much further and after a 25 column debate on 2nd Reading (2nd November, 1930) and a swift passage throughtheLords(passed16thJuly1931) the Architects Registration Bill as we now know it received the Royal Assent on Bist July, 1931. PROFESSION; unattached architect does: hang a myth & the large notice from your drawing board try to ignore those feelings of ALISM: The deprivation and do what one local ideology The RIBA would have us unattached architects believe we are at a dis- advantage in not having the backing of their club. If your RIBA colleagues at work are prominently displaying their RIBA certificates of membership, reading ‘ALTRUISM FOR SALE’. Now this may provoke from your professional colleagues attempts at justification of the £38 p.a. these certificates cost them. Point out to them that £38 is in fact a reduced tate for architects. It is a small price compared to the price that members of the public are forced to pay for the function the,RIBA purports toperform. This article attempts to show that professions put a price tag on their THE GRAMOPHONE: AO years in the groove The 1934 Architects Registration Act concerned a merely technical amendment a and was passed in a matter of weeks (19/6/34 -25/7/34), and it was not until early in 1937 that the RIBA, now under the guise of ARCUK, tooka second bite at the cherry. Now the aim was to complete the unfinished business of 1931 and restrict the protected title still further to that of ‘Architect’ alone, the argument in favour being that an element of confus- ion remained in the public mind. In the 2nd Reading debate 17th December, 1937, al the old wounds -and some new ones - were reopened, and in a particularly incisive speech Robert Tasker referred to ARCUK, after some 7 years of existence, as having deteriorated into amere h When the 193] Act came into force, he correctly stated, the first thing the RIBA did was to seize control of the Council, They next seized control of the Board of Architectural Education, such that these became known as the ‘gramophone’, as whenever a member of that ‘honourable institute’ made a proposal there was a chorus of ‘Agreed, agreed, agreed!, just like a gramophone, On the 29th July, 1938 the measure to further restrict the title received the Royal Assent, but 40 years later the metaphor of Robert Tasker seems, if anything, even moreapttothoseNAM memberswho currently occupy the unattached Architects’ seats, Whilst the RIBA may have suffered a ‘technical knockout’ in being prevented from itself becoming a monopolistic statutory body, the substance (if not the spirit) of the Acts has enabled it to exercise most of the control over the profession with little of the reciprocal public responsibility and accountability. With somewhat misplaced candour, ARCUK declares, ‘All the bodies repres- ented on the Council can influence decisions, but in practice, in matters relating to the profession of architecture as distinct from those concerned with the protection of the public -the RIBA has the greatest influence because of its large membership on Council, on the Board of Architectural Education and Committees of Council.’ (ARCUK Booklet, March 1976, pp 3 -4.) Forty years in the groove has led ARCUK to i ini ities of p dure in almost every department -as the unattached Architects have already found to their detriment, The question remains: Can or should ARCUK’s primary role a protector of the public interest be salvaged, or might it as well remain an RIBA sheep in statutory-wolf’s clothing, leaving this urgent business to the Department of Fair Trading, the Consumer Association or similar agencies? The question requires an answer -and soon, The ARCUK electoral session lasts but one year and before long the NAM representatives will be forced to evaluate theircontribution,notintermsofplans- but in terms of action, HAWSER TRUNNION ‘altruism’, and takesa critical look at just what this ‘altruism’ means. The technological developments of the industrial revolution accelerated the growth of industry. Development of elements of the capitalist mode of production - competition between capitalists, exploitation of workers, division of labour - accelerated correspondingly, (1). Competition between capitalists hotted up in early 19th century Britain in an age of laissez-faire and individualism, and the need to compete in order to stay in the market led the capitalist to more intense exploitation of workers, increasing division of labour, and hence the removal of labourers even further from the end result of their labours One consequence of this was the recognition by workers that the one thing they possessed, their labour power, was a commodity like any other and subject to the same market forces, They began to recognise that their interests could best be protected by grouping together. Grouping gave them afirmer basis from which to attempt an improvement in wages and conditions, and offered the possibility of preventing any further dilution of their skills and the consequent threat to their livelihoods. The early 19th century was also the period in which members of ‘professional’ occupations began to group together.(2). For what reasons did ‘p 8 They were not subject to quite the same threat to wages and conditions, since ‘professionals’ were in a better position foom which to negotiate their own terms, largely due to their class position (professions were considered suitable occupations for the second sons of the upper classes), but their dependence on industrial owners as employers was becoming more and more more akin to the dependence of labourer on factory owner. With the decline in noble patronage and the growth of industrial wealth, ‘professionals’ were increasingly employedbythenewindustrial new industrial bourgeoisie bourgeoisie as opposed to the aristocratic patron. As new skills and areas of knowledge arose in response to the needs of industry, the traditional fields of expertise of the ‘professional’ occupations were increasingly invaded by those possessing these new essential skills. In the architectural field, the main threat came from the engineers, whose tapidly expanding knowledge of the nuts and bolts of construction was much much more relevent to the industrial bourgeoisie than the architects preoccupation with style. Architects, seeing their territory being eroded by other skills, and fearing a consequent threat to their livelihoods, responded similarly to other ‘professional’ occupations in this period. They defined the area which they considered to be their concern, and attempted to control the practice of skills which operated within that area. As Tawney says, ‘It is significant that at the time when the professional classes had deified free competition as the arbiter of commerce and industry, they did not dream of applying itto the occupations in which they them- selves were primarily interested’. (3). In an age where free competition was ‘deified’, how did ‘professionals’ so successfully manage to organise to protect their own interests? In the same period, similarly motivated attempts at organisation by industrial labourers met with powerful and sus- tained opposition. Organisation by ‘professionals’ also met with some hostility (based ,Barrington-Kaye believes, on the experience of physicians and i ,and the ‘exclusiveness, selfishness, and sloth- fulness of their fossilised corporations” (4).) but this hostility was certainly not of the same extent as that met by the growing trades unions. How did ‘professionals’ get away with it? This has something to do with their class position and (as a consequence of that) a lot to do with the way they went about organising. Largely asa result of their class position and their previous mode of employment by artistic patrons, ‘professionals’ did not identify themselves as a group whose interestswereinoppositiontothose of theiremployers (as did industrial labourers). Rather, they identified their interests WITH those of their employers, and used this ‘common interest’ as the basis for their organisation. They held that, by organising, they would be able to offer employers a ‘guarantee’ of competence and integrity. They could guarantee competence, they argued, by setting down certain minimum qualifications, without which practitioners would not gain entry to the organisation. They could guarantee integrity, they claimed, by setting down a code of conduct, which those gaining entry to the organisation must undertake to comply with. In Barrington-Kaye’s words, ‘...professional association thus represents an attempt by persons Ifyourefuse to negot- iate withus then our | union TASS will negotiate for us--- considering themselves qualified in their vocation, to ensure that their services shall be rewarded adequately, by excluding the unscrupulous and the unfit.’ In other words, they recognised that the market for their services, already threatened by the inability of the old-style ‘professions’ to meet the new demands of industry, would be further threatened if the ‘unscrupulous and the unfit’ were unscrupulous and the unfit to be seen to erode the credibility of the‘profession’ still further by bringing it into disrepute. So, although the methods of organisation of industrial labourers and ‘professionals’ differed greatly, their MOTIVATION in organising was identical -both were attempting to counter the threat to their own livelihoods. Let us look more closely at these ‘guarantees’ offered by the professions. Professions are not the only occupational types to attempt to limit entry to those holding certain minimum qualifications, nor was this anew innovation. Guilds and apprentice- ships had existed long before the industrial revolution. It is the ‘guarantee of integrity’ which is the main distinguishing feature of the professions. Barrington-Kaye: ‘Non- professional occupations may have associations, training schemes, and tests of competence; they do not have, for they do not need to have, codes _ ofconduct.Itwouldbeamistaketo attribute Zincreasingly altruistic motivation’ to the professions on this score, however; the adoption of a code of conduct was a necessary condition of their existence in the 19th century. ‘Laissez-faire’ and ‘caveat emptor’ were acceptable as principles of commercial activity because it could be assumed that the customer both knew what he wanted, and was able to recognise it when he saw it. In the case of professional services, neither of these assumptions could be made.”. ‘Caveat emptor’ (let the buyer beware) is inapplicable in a in a professional context, argues Barrington-Kaye, since *..in a professional/client relationship, since the client does not know exactly what he wants, he cannot be sure of getting it. The professional is not only the bs e Ca Sree FAN-tass.TIC aEa SLA3TPEAGE 8 Clea Ee cz ah i =of 2 Angus| SLATE 3PAGE 9 | SLATE 3PAGE 10 SLATE 3PAGE 11 The rationale behind the ‘professional guarantee’ was well formulated in the terms of those it needed to convince, and the process of professional organisation was able to proceed. At first organisation was through ‘voluntary association’ in professional instiutions. Membership was not compulsory and very many of those practising in a particular ‘profession’ did so outside the relevant institution, but the very existence of such institutions enabled their members to operate as the ‘elite corps’ of their profession. For this reason, the aqquisition of a Royal Charter of Incorporation was, during the 19th Century, much sought after. But although membership of a professional institution could be held up to clients as a ‘guarantee’ that their interests would be served competently and trustworthily, thus protecting the market for a particular service from erosion through the incompetence and lack of integrity of its members those outside such institutions were still able to compete with members for work. The tendency ot the ‘voluntary association’ was towards monopoly of that profession, through compulsory registration. Now, in the 19th century atmosphereof * laissez- faire’ and the ‘deification’ of free competition, voluntary association had been the only feasible method of organisation. By the beginning of the 20th century, says Barrington-Kaye, involuntary altruism ‘the involuntary altruism of mankind had been disproved, (and) rules for the control of his egoism could be openly discussed...Th.e trend towards monopoly, welcomed in 1851 as enlightened self-interest, had, by 1901, to be presented as an act of self-denial, designed to protect the public from the fraud of competitors. But in professionalism, as in many other institutions, it is noticeable that onlytherationalizationschange;the trends remain the same. The trend in professionalassociationfromthefirst has been towards closure. That statutory registration could be an openly avowed aim in the new professions by 1901 was due, not to any change in motivation, but to a new social philosophy’. Compulsary registration was achieved in the architectural profession by 1938. Well, you might say, what does it 1 matter whether the motive for professionalisingisoneofselfinterest, ifthe ‘guarantees’ offered by professions stem from what is, arguably, a need for ifasked would probably say that itfunc- insignificant process, But this is not the only omission, and indeed,itisimpossibletovisualise a professional code of conduct which could be more than an outline in general terms of the sort of behaviour the profession expects from its members. The effectiveness ‘figleaves’ covering the profession’s less of the code can be judged by the profession’s palatable effects, and offer smokescreen record of prosecutions, almost all for trivial cover to professionals while they go about tious. What is the Council’s common purposeandisitreleventtoday? To answer these questions we must look into how ARCUK is constituted and carries on its business, Present constitution ARCUK’s common purpose could come from one of several sources: one, from a higher authority, which would then impose it on the Council; two, from some mirac- ulous common instinct of its members (note that in both these cases there isan absence of conflict, the common purpose being either imposed or recognised by all Without dispute); or it could come from a third source, from the divergent private because the skill and experience of RIBA members willbeessentailtoanyrecons- tituted Council. reconstitute Why bother to reconstitute ARCUK? First; it is the only body which contains representatives from outside the confines of the profession, Second, the powers delegated to it by the Registration Acts are no longer adequate; And, third, in all aspects of its work its response is distorted by the preponderance of RIBA members, It is for the first reason, i.e. the presence of lay people on the Council, that I feel ARCUK may be worthwhile. a Council for the Review of Architecture) andgivenabroadersetofobjectives. It is obvious that in order to achieve this rejuvenation ARCUK must first ‘un- scramble’ itself from 40 years of collusion with the Royal Institute of British Arch- itects, Perhaps then it really will be significant. A pamphlet is published by ARCUK, “Architects Registration Council of the United Kingdom’ (March 1976), and is available from the RIBA Bookshop, price 50p, It is recommended by the RIBA to all practices and schools of architecture.), offences, while the large scale flaunting of the code by Poulson et al goes unnoticed (or unchallenged) until criminal prosecutions are brought; The professions attempt to control competition between members by the setting up of mandatory minimum fee scales and by prohibiting, or controlling the explanations in shortening them, and I extent and form of, advertising. The Monopolies Commission is currently investigating these practices, and the report presented to them by the New Architecture Movement (7) shows up as fallacy the rationale used by the profession, i.e. that the setting up of a minimum fee scale protects the quality of service, in that professionals will not then be tempted to shoddy service offer a shoddy service in order to under- cut their competitors. Setting a minimum fee scale in no way ensures quality of service. Professions claim that by offering ‘guarantees’ of competence, integrity, and non-competitiveness, they can offer protection to those seeking theirservices. But I would argue that professions are in no position to offer such guarantees, and that in any case they are offering no more protection to their clients than is now available in law. The NAM report to the Monopolies Commission spells this out, and points to the legislation which exists to protect the consumer of any sort of service, legislation from which those offering professional services are certainly not exempt. So professions are not only offering worthless guarantees, they are offering guarantees which, even were they effective, afford their clients no more protection than is already available to them in law. But more than this, by claiming to be able to offer such ‘guarantees’ in the ‘interests of the client” (and, it is increas- ingly argued by the professions, in the ‘interests of the public at large’) the professions are provided with the legitimation for practices which they claim are necessary to enable them to provide such ‘guarantees’. don’t think I’ve made any assertionsI wouldn’t be prepared to back up with more detailed arguements. 2. ‘Professional’ is used here as short hand to denote those occupations which later became professions. At this stage (with the exception of medicine and law) professional institutions had not been formed. 3. R.H. Tawney, The Acquisitive Society, (1945). Why is ARCUK so very insignificant to the profession, the industry, and the nation, and yet too significant to continue to be dominated by the RIBA? To answer this question we must look at the nature and and scope of ARCUK’ 4, i Kaye, The Di of the Architectural Profession in Britian, (1960). 5, Here Barrington-Kaye makes two assumptions I would challenge: 1, that the clients do not know what they want (I would dispute this at the present time especially where ,for example, anaarchitect is engaged to design a speculative office interests of the members througha political where the clients most certainly know exactly what they want and the most sucessful architects are those who know best how to provide it) and 2. that ‘technical solutions’ are value free (Idoubt that this has ever been the case.) 6. NAM Monopolies Commission Report (available for £1.00 from NAM) It needs, however, to be reconstituted upon an even broader base if its state- ments are to be received as fair and authositative by the general public, ARCUK’s basic concern with registr- ation is still relevant but no longer adequate. TheActsdonotenableitto take account of changes in the structure of the profession, in patronage, and in the social climate. It should be able to concern itself with broader social and political basis. It could be renamed say, the ‘Council for the Review of Arch- itecture’, which would report periodically on the state of the art and the profession, We need a new social organisation toTep- resent the profession to government, industry, and the general public. We need a new ARCUK’ In October 1975, when the Council were considering the draft of the new Code of Professional Conduct (the purpose of which was to bring it into line with the recently redrafted RIBA Code!), a representative of the ‘unattached’ architects proposed the following two principles be incorporated in the new Code: one, that the public interest, expressed particularly in terms of work for the underprivileged members of society, should take precedence ensuring competence and integrity with- in the profession, and for limiting the effects on clients of the professionals. This depends not only on whether you feelitisDESIRABLEto ensure competence, integrity, and non competitiveness, but also on whether you consider itisPOSSIBLE to ‘guarantee’ these through a professional mode of organization. Let us examine this possibility on the grounds mest favourable to the ‘professional’ standpoint, and assume for the purposes of this article that it is desirable to attempt to foster these three elements. Is it possible to do so through professional organization? Professions attempt to control by limiting entry to those who satisfy their minimum entrance requirements and by instituting, or giving their approval to, courses of education and training culminating in qualifying examinations set by or approved by the professional institution. While this system could be said to guarantee that every member of a profession has been through and satisfied the require- ments of a course of study approved by the profession, it does not guarantee the subsequent competence of that member. Competence arises through a combination of education, which should aim to equip the practioner with the range of knowledge from which to make theoretical choices, and experience, which should make the practioner better able to chose between the range of choices available in a given non-theoretical situation. So setting ever higher minimum entrance requirements will have no effect other than that of barring entry to the profession to a large section of those already working in related fields. Technicians, building workers, and other occupations integral to architecture, have a large and relevant experience which the architectural profession is only too happy to rely on but is unwilling to admit to its ranks. Professions attempt to control the integrity of their members by requiring them to conduct themselves in accordance with a code of conduct. Since the original purpose of such a code was to enable the professions to be seen to be protecting the interests of their clients in order to maintain a market for professional services, In a society which exalts ‘professional’ it is not surprising that, for instance, the code of conduct of the architectural profession has only recently incorporated anyreferencetotheUSERSofbuildings.continuestoholdthattherestrictionsit Theconceptofcommonpurposeisconten-employedmerelyforRIBA-bashing,simplythenationifitwerereconstituted(as Restricting entry to the profession perpetuates the ‘elitism’ of architects by reinforcing the division of labour in the building industry and ensuring the continued stratification between builders, technicians and ‘qualified’ staff. Enforcement of a minimum fee scale minimum fee scale perpetuates the situation where those with good financial resources will always be able to retain professional help, while those with no resources will have to rely on the help of those few professionals prepared to offer their services voluntarily or do without professional help altogether. ethic, The corolary being that without it (and without the mandatory minimum fee scale) both the architect and the public interest would be adversely affected. Architects would suffer through the development of ‘cut-throat’competition, fee cutting, supplanting, soliciting, with clients playing off one architect against another and large diversified offices Squeezing out small specialised offices by price-cutting and advertising. Also the public interest would suffer through reduced professional services and the dey- elopment of an ethical environment detri- mental to the high ideal of social service to which the profession is said to hold, An analysis of the Council reveals the following: group A -40 members (RIBA), group B - 7 members (‘unattached’ architects), group C - 4 members (Arch- itectural Association), group D -2 members (Department of Environment), and 13 individuals, and, two, that no architect should employ another architect, ie. every registered architect in private practice should be entitled to be a partner in that practice. rejection opinion ,this ensures the reproduction of the disadvantages experiencedby the ‘disadvantaged’. Yet the profession enforce has relevance only ifthe nature in pressure and propaganda brought to future? and scope of the Council are generally bear from outside the Council; The ARCUK could be significant to the agreed; But generally agreed by whom? mechanisms exist, but they should not be profession, the industry, and, therefore, imposes of its members are necessary inenablingittoofferitsworthless ‘guarantees’. And these ‘guarantees’ not only act as legitimising factors, they also act as protecting their own status and the market for their particular products. 1 Apologies for the brevity of my : explanations and the baldness of my assertions,butinashortarticlethisis inevitable. I’ve tried not to distort the ARCUK: The Architects Registration Council of the viable the constitution must be accepted the United Kingdom was established to protect the general public and architects alike from the unscrupulous, the criminal, and the incompetent, It has six principle functions, One, to control admission totheregisterofarchitects, Two,to prevent unregistered persons from pract- ising as architects, Three, to judge and review the standards of education in arch- itecture schools, Four, to support research since 1969, Five, to provide maintenance grants for architectural students. And, six, to impose discipline upon architects according to a code of professional conduct. by all members as afair set of rules for thegame, Butistheconstitutionof ARCUKa fairone? _—‘Theimpossibility of a ‘perfect’ constitution is self-evident Simple majority rule has theoretical as well as practical limitations, particularly According to these descriptions ARCUK tions ‘from a higher authority’ under the provisions of the Registration Acts, It is my view that it should function more dem- ocratically, reflecting the struggle for a more truly democratic society in which concensus somehow emerges froia conflict. The mechanism by which this conflict is resolved is a constitution. To be in the case of ARCUK: strate, stranglehold RIBA members constitute the most powerful group on the Council. And they operate as a ‘group’. Evidence of this can be found in the recent architectural press. A letter addressed to each RIBA member of ARCUK by the RIBA Council informs them of how they are expected ARCUK relies heavily on the Code of Professional Conduct, the purpose of whichisthemaintenanceotaprofessional tobehaveatanARCUK Councilmeeting. overtheinterestoftheindividual client The essence of the problem is distri- bution of seats, There is no practical possibility of vote-trading, even if an issue existed (say, one of ‘conscience’) on which RIBA members could be released from their whip; Apparently this problem cannot be resolved by normal political process within the Council, since one thing the Council cannot be used for is to decide what its own future constitut- Those proposals were rejected without discussion by the RIBA group present, one of whom remarked that that would mean ‘unscrambling the profession of the last 40 years,’ Consider our sadprofession: under scrutiny by the Monopolies Comm- ission; divided on fundamental social and technical issues; viewed with suspicion by fell fellow professional and public alike; con- demned to low pay and high unemployment and suffering a monumental crisis of spirit, of the Council and the Code it seeks to ion should be, The solution must lie purpose and organisation, The entire edifice of the constitution Ishall demon- judge of what technical solutionbest fits the client’s requirements, he is also the the technician who supplies that solution. The temptation to supply an unnecessarily expensive one, or to overcharge, iscorrespondinglyraised, and it is therefore necessary for the client to have some guarantee of integrity before he can safely venture to purchase the professional’s services’. (5). ARDIFF PART 2 us? It was probably in this area that our collective lack of experience weighed under the JCP should be paid less than the negotiated market rate for the job. However, some kind of agreement was reached on the content of the form, with particular attention to the comments of the assessor, who it seemed would ‘judge’ the credibility of our application. The meeting ended, as did the first one, with the assistant giving us help and encouragement, telling us to get the application in quickly as the money was starting to dry up. He left us with the impression that because of our thorough- ness, and the gap which our service would fil, the application stood an excellent chance of being considered favourably. A couple of weeks after this final meeting the application, in its amended form, went in with all the accompanying backup material. It didn’t seem to reflect the hard work of the Cardiff group during the previous six months, or the changes and compromises made in its composition. But it seemed to make good sense and looked very thorough. though in the light of our initial idea it could only be accepted as the basis for something better in the future. At the beginning of December we received a letter from the MSC informing us that our application had been turned down, No reasons were given, although the letter stated that should we have any queries they would be pleased to help us. It seemed the only thing to be salvaged was the reason for the refusal, but even this proved to be impossible. We tried to arrange meetings but no one would see us. The Area Organizer for Wales was sympathetic, but he passed us on to his subordinates who didn’t think it was a good idea, Then we tried to speak to the enthusiastic assistant, but each time we phoned he was either absent or busy and so eventually Italked to the Cardiff areaassessor. Inameandering conversation where he wouldn't be pinned down the key word was once again credibility. He also mentioned the lukewarm response of the RIBA locally (we didn’t seek their approval, although we did inform them of what we were doing), and the capability, or lack of it, of the group to oversee the project. So we were left with not even a coherent reason for the rejection, From a third party we heard that the assistant was very surprised and saddened to learn that the scheme did not go through. He had worked hard on it during the assessment. As a last attempt to salvage something from the project, we approached the MSCtoaskwhatitwouldbenecessary for us to do to make our application acceptable to them; their reply was to the effect that we would have to work in conjunction with local RIBA groups and within the local authority structure with the approval of the relevent planning departments. Following on from our JCP application, the enquiries we made established the feasibility ofa design service anda real need for work to be done on a number of projects. The rejection of our application has meant that any work will, however, have to fund itself. Initially a community group contacted us to do some design work in connection with their own JCP application to provide labour to build a number of buildings in an area of Cardiff where resource allocation has been very low. This project did not materialise but has now split into two distinct projects, The first of these is for a workshop and mini bus garage for ajunior school, y to be done ona self build basis using volunteer labour and second hand materials where possiile. The second of these is for an extension to a community centre to be built, hopefully, using JCP funded labour. We are doing improvement grant work to terraced houses, in a previously blighted area of Cardiff, for low income owner occupiers, This isbeing dome through and with the encouragement ofa local community and advice centre, The nature of these jobs and more importantly, the “financial status” of our clients excludes a full service - percentage fee scale being applied in the accepted sense of what a full service entails, while a partial service is not itself adequate. Work is therefore being undertaken on a time charge basis. After an initial meeting with a householder a projected cost can be given for design work and supervision based on an average for this type of work. This isnot too difficult an exercise where a degree of repetition is involved. Problems, when they arise, concern not so much fee costs but more usually the ability of a householder to meet their share of the building costs where there are restrictions on where they can borrow money when a bank holds deeds to the house as security on a previous loan to buy the house, While hardship grants may apply to some casts this will not usually be the case and this problem has yet to be tackled. Continued from page 5 which form an essential part of the formalist movement. This rationalisation can afford to be intellectually risque and to flirt with the jargon of semiotics (in AD Jan 77 and Apr 77) the abstract structuralist Marxism of the Althusserian School (in AD Mar 77): the terminology is so esoteric as to be unintelligible even to architects; the conc- lusions of scholarship so abstract as to be in effect tautological, and the focus of their philosophisings so introspective as to render the participant oblivious of the real and urgent problem of the present - universal recession and the baleful effect this has on building development. Such rationalisations then, are blatant mystifi- cation, designed to maintain the unassail- able elitist position of the priesthood of architects and their apologists in architect- ural magazines such as the revamped AD. This is part two of the Cardiff NAM group’s account of their attempt to set-up a community design service. The first part was published in SLATE 2 and dealt with the group’s initial proposal to the Man Power Services Commission, leading up to their rejection of the group’s prop- osals. Part 2 below deals with the prob- lems encountered by the Group over the question of professional indemnity and shows 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. The various parts of the article were prepared by individual members of the group and do not neccessarily represent a collective view. The experience of our attempt to establish a free environmental design service for community groups high- lighted two problems which may affect others with similar aspir- ations. The first difficuly we encountered was inherent in our objective. It arose from wanting to provide a FREE service; how then could we provide the salaries of those actually doing the design work if no fees were to be charged? This led us to apply to the MSC, as described previously. But the second difficulty would apply to anyone who wished to offer architectural services. It revoives around the need for insurance to cover any liabilities incurred. Asa group, we had very limited experience in this area. Having taken both professional and legal advice, it became clear that the proposed design service would require at least two kinds of insurance cover, Employers’ Liability Insurance and Professional Indemnity Insurance. We feel that the need to have this latter cover would be likely to defeat any attempt to establish a design service for those unable to afford the RIBA fee scale, and accordingly itisabout professional indemnity insurance that we seek advice from anyone more experienced in this field. most heavily against us. After long negotiations with a large and competitive firm of insurance brokers, and after seeking advice from the Architects’ Benevolent Society, it appeared that limited insurance cover of, say, £100,000 would be available but only for the high annual premium of £1,000. Cover would be required not only while the service was being provided but also during the statutory period of limitations. This _ would have involved us in having to raise a a sum in the order of £6,000 just to provide professional indemnity insurance. This proved to be an insurmountable financial hurdle, Even if our applicatioh to MSC was accepted, this would have defeated our attempt to provide a free design service, We would have been unable to take out insurance to safeguard the interests of our community group clients and ourselves. But the experience we gained from investigating the field of insurance has proved invaluable for the insight it provided about the constraints operating against the practice of architectural design skills in Britain, and this could be of the utmost importance to anyone else aspiring to provide a design service for people who cannot afford the RIBA fee scale. The premiums demanded by this kind of insurance cover pose a serious obstacle to anyone hoping to provide a free service with a responsible attitude to the interests of non fee paying clients. It may be that the size of such premiums may lead some community design groups to ignore ora avoid taking out professional indemnity insurance, Indeed, our own canvassing of other such groups indicates that this may be the case. But this omission renders both designers and their clients vulnerable. We started to take steps backwards when we began to examine in detail the areas of insurance, a constitution, management committee, property, and so on. In my view al we succeeded in doing over the next few months was to compromise our original ‘go it alone’ attitude. Consult- ative pressure became very strong; the more we tried to move outside the system the more we were forced, by the law and practicability, back along the conventional line, For me the only thing that held the scheme together during this period was the thought that if we could only get it financed, albeit with compromises, it would be a start, it could be used to explore this virgin territory for architectural workers, SPOT THE SEXPLOITATIVE ADVERT! In our case, the purpose of this kind of insurance cover would have been to insure the management comminttee against any liability arising from either its own negligent actions or any vicarious liability arising out of the negligent actions of its employees. Now, this is not just an academic issue, but one that could become all too real and pressing inpractice.If,forexample,amember futureworkcouldbebuiltonthe of the proposed management committee, or someone working for the design service, gave advice or made a design decision which proved to be negligent and resulted /ts necessary #opoint ot sexploitation in advertismg, but if can be done rn non-aexist ways, He thiak 11s covnkirproduchve fo Wemente Bat Ghehve YFRONTS, FELLER, oat r in the injury of a client, insurance cover would have been essential to meet any damages arising, to protect the mange- -ment committee, and also, equally important, to protect the client’s interests, Obtaining this kind of insurance posed problems for us. How could we pay the premium required? How much cover would we need for the service we proposed to offer? Would we find an insurance company prepared to insure SLATE 3PAGE 12 we had a second meeting with the same assistant at the MSC, and this time the Cardiff area assessor was present for part of the discussion, For this meeting the group had drafted out aJCP application Once again the assessor was very enthusiastic and helpful but the assessor was much more reserved about every aspect of the scheme. The emphasis and wording of the answers to some questions was altered to suit the assessor. Words such as credibility cropped up, and he suggested that the workers employed experience gained, Towards the end of October 1976 -+-Marilyn, this months centre-point likes super-smooth shower fittings elegant light- weight cladding and especially on dull weekends, intumescent paint. Her plush led modular greenhouse. And if that apartment is bush-hammerd and has an agreement certificate, and boys, her favour- ite colour is munsell 032-57. She is taking a holiday this year at an industrial estate near Bletchley in a quickly assemb- 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. _ ABK Holdings Ltd HUME ATKINS Ltd RAINWATER TRADING CO. LTD DAMIXA N.S.E. GROUP HILLS DOORS CATNIC LINTOLS doesn’t absolutely shot-fice you we can tell you that she has a large grey poodle called neoprene gasket III........ees0. SLATE 3 PAGE 13 REVIEW REVIEW OF ‘THE RIGHT TO A DECENT HOUSE’ BY SIDNEY JACOBS ‘The Right to a Decent House’ is a case study of the struggles of a working class community in Gairbraid, Glasgow which was part of a clearance area, The book is a blow by blow account of how the community organised itself in order to protect its interests and its varied record of success in acheiving it’s longterm aims. And yet it is much more because through- out Sidney Jacobs analysis of housing policies of Glasgow which he relates to a socialist analysis of housing and community action, ‘By understanding the rationale behind rehousing, local communities may protect their own interests’ says Jacobs, Implicit in the book is the assumption that socialism offers the only possible way out of the present mess, and while no attempt is made to describe precisely how this might work, by demonstrating the solidarity, ability, committment and potential that exists in working class communities Jacobs gives us glimpses of a future where such communities would have the power to control their own destinies, It is sad that there are no illustrations in the book and also that it is so expensive, But for anyone looking for socialist altern- atives to the present paternalistic attitudes that characterise the state’s housing policy it is extremely valuable, “The right to a decent house’ 1976 by Sidney Jacobs is in paperback ,published by Routledge Kegan & Paul priced £3.50 160pp. WORKING FOR WHAT? ARCUK ARCUK Group, NAM, 9, Poland St., London W1. LIAISON The Secretary, NAM, 9, Poland St., London, W1 NDS NDS, NAM, 9, Poland St., London, W1. PROJECTS David Roebuck, 25, St. George’s Aye., London, W1 CONSTITUTION Constitution Group: 9 Poland St., London, W1 PUBLICATIONS Editorial Committee, NAM, 9, Poland St.,London,W1 CARDIFF Anne Delaney, 196, Albany Rd., Roath, Cardiff EDINBURGH David Somervell, 22, Penmuir Place, Edinburgh 3 HULL Ian Tod, Hull School of Architecture, Kingston-u-Hull Regional College of Art. Brunswick Ave., Hull DIARY AUGUST tuesday 9th; NAM CONTACTS LEEDS Pete Forbes, Parkview, Weeton Lane, Hoby, Leeds 17 LONDON Douglas Smith, 17, Delancey St., London, NW1 NOTTINGHAM Nottingham Group: contact John Mitchell at 14, Derby Grove, Lurton, Nottingham, EDUCATION Edinburgh: David Somervell Hull: Jane Bryant, Hull School of Architecture. Leeds: Pete Forbes Nottingham: John Mitchell NAM groups wanting to contribute information on their activities should get their copy to SLATE by 26th August 1977 for inclusion in the next issue. home- 735 4629) NEWS FROM CONSTITUTION Following requests in SLATE and discussion at the recent London Seminar the Constitution Group has now met on two occasions in London. Despite poor attendance discussion has identified four key areas that require detailed study, mem- bership, the role of the Liaison Group, the role of the Congress, and the Newsletter. A first draft is to be produced by the middle of August followed by meetings in Cardiff, Nottingham (possibly Leeds) and London. All NAM members are urged to send their views in writing to Poland St., as sonn as possible so that they may influence the of the first draft. NOTTINGHAM The counter course organised by the Nottingham group and held at the Univer- sity on the 25th of June wasalively and well attended event. The participants, who included local architects, students and suprisingly (or not) only one member of staff, engaged in a vigorous discussion on each of the three topics. The first speaker from the NAM alternatives to asbestos group outlined the known health hazards from asbestos and the fact that up to 20 years may elapse from exposure to contracting cancer. The safe limits are difficult to monitor particularly on building sites. Possible alternatives reinforcing fibres for both sheet and structural materials are being investigated by the industry. The closest practical and economic rival to asbestos appears at present to be steel fibre re- inforcement from scrap metal but there are production and rusting problems to beovercome. Itthereforeseemslikely that asbestos will hold its ground in the forseeable future unless other pressures are brought to bear on manufacturers. The NDS group speaker argued that the basis of a publicly accountable National Design Service already exists in the form of Local Authority Architects departments. Their function being to design buildings for public need not for private profit. The far reaching deficiences of many departments does not change that fact that it is through the state that a majority of people gain access to essential resources. The critical problem is how to extend local control over these services and design dec- isions and how to make the Local Authority architects directly accountable to the people who will live in or use the buildings, Divorced from such contact most architects work in a vacuum filled by beauracratic norms and standards. A long discussion ensued over these ideas and their applica- tion in practice. After lunch Peter Carter of UCATT described how the Green Ban Action in Birmingham had united different interests and classes in the city -from the Victorian Society and Friends of the Earth to building workers - in an attempt to prevent the demolition of the Post Office. The action has now expanded to include the formu- lation of constructive and creative policies forthisandotherissues. PeterCarter’s main theme however was the current threat to direct labour departments. He argued that local authority building workers used their labour in a socially useful way, supp- lying a service to the community to which they are democratically accountable. As their sole aim is not profit, direct labour departments are consistantly 5 - 10% cheaper than private builders. They train over 80% of apprentices in the building industry, they have an excellent safety record and give job security in an industry notorious for casual labour. In times of economic strin- gency private builders need council work but their profits will be severely reduced if they are to tender successfully against direct labour departments. It is therefore the policy of the conservative party and the recently elected Tory councils to disband direct labour departments in favour of private enterprise and UCATT ismounting a campaign to defend direct labour, The attack on direct labour departments was seen to be similar to the denigration of local authority architect’s departments and for similar reasons. The meeting looked forward to links being forged between building workers, local authority architects and tenants. The final discussion led by Peter Carter tanged over common problems and finished with a general discussion of NAM activities. =ein THE CASE FOR_TRADE AMO THE AivtD BUNDING PROFESSIONS monday 29th; SEPTEMBER monday 19th; Members of the Liaison Group wish to thank the London Group for organising and running a NAM information stand at the People’s Jubliee held at Alexandra Palace on Sunday 19th June (see diagram ofstandabove).NAMliteratureand AcollectionofcartoonsbyLouisHellman | subscription forms were made available to the several thousand people attending the event with modest but very worthwhile results. UNION ORGANISATION INARCHITECTURE Working for What?, a report by NAM’s (Unionisation) Organising Committee, with original cartoons by Louis Hellman, isamore comprehensive look at‘the case for trade union organisation in architecture and the allied building professions’. Arevisededition, which includes coverage of the May 14 conference which choose TASS, isnow available for only 40p, postpaid, from NAM, 9 Poland Street, London, W.l. SLA3TPEAGE 14 Hellmantakesastabfromtheinsideattheseemiersideofthebuildingprofession. | saturday 20th; Surgery for unattached architects monday 8th; LIAISON NAM’s 3rd Annual Congress 1977 is to be held over the weekend 2Sth -27th November at Hull where it will be hosted by the local NAM group, A meeting between the liaison group and a Hull representative is planned for July to divide responsibilities and agree principles for organising the event. The organisers will be approaching al local and issue based NAM groups in order to discuss their agenda requirements and co-ordinate what promises to be alively, tightly scheduled weekend. A timely opportunity for publicising the Congress is provided by this year’s Building Exhibition to be held in Birming- ham on 16th -25th November, Provided finance and staffing are available, it is hoped that NAM will be able to arrange some sort of presence at the event throughout it’s duration. Would all those able to help in any way please come forward. SLATE’s international appeal broadens Witheachissue. Hotontheheelsofa subscription from Iceland comes another, this time from Malaysia! Where next? NAM's 3rd Annual Congress will be at Hull this year. It has been fixed for the 25-27th of November at Hull University School of Architecture. There will be further details announced in SLATE 4. Se | Fillintheformbelowandsenditwithacheque/PO(payabletotheNewArchitectureMovement) NAME. subjects; ARCUK and SLATE 3 ‘Fell off my bike with laughter’ . Prof. Reyner for £2.95 plus 10p post and packing to NAM, 9 Poland St., London W1. Finally, after his short period of redundancy our congratulations to found- er member Morris Williams on his recent appointmentwithawell-knownarchitec- aADDRESS. oe eal tural practice in London. SLATE 3PAGE 15 | London Building Design Staffs branch of TASS ring Andrzej Michalite to confirm time and place (work- 485 4161, saturday 20th; Constitution Group Meeting in Cardiff saturday I3th; Liaison Group Meeting, ring Neville Morgan for details (work- 633 8388, home- 580 5270 Special aan ee vill isfor Pacheco | London Group meeting at the "Roebuck" o Tottenham Ct Rd at 7.30. be the NAM constitution. London Group Meeting at the "Roebuck" in Tottenham Ct Rd, London Group meeting at the "Roebuck"o Tottenham Ct Rd, at 7.30. Special eb ieee wil] be the NAM Congress at Hull. MANIFESTO FOR PLANNERS 14 working groups were set up by the CONFERENCE OF SOCIALIST PLANNERS’ founding conference in February this year, (see ‘planners for Socialism’ -p3, SLATE 1). The London Group’s task is to gather material for a formal manifesto to ‘provide a focus for planning issues’ and as a way of defining CSP’s stand on these issues, NAM wishes them every success in their fight against paternalistic state planning policies and we look forward to their next national conference at Leeds in October this year. Anybody interested in CSP should contact Nic Clifford at 40, Bramcote Road, London S.W.18. AND NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS 4 A FULL SESSION OF LAMBETH Council gave final consent to the scheme to rehabilitate 21 units of housing in St Agnes Place, Kennington. (seeSLATE 1,p12.) The question of the future of this war- veteran of the housing crisis had obtained a mixed response in it’s passage through the various committee’s -at the Planning Committee meeting al the greying die- hards of the Conservative opposition (including the Mayor!) were wheeled in to vote against the proposal. “But wait a moment” the sceptics say “the Council permanent civil servants will not have buried the hatchet and will be preparing for an al out under-cover war to try to prevent the realisation of the proposal”. One can be sure that the Lambeth Housing Depaartment will not finally release it's grip over the control of a sizable wedge of housing without some spasms of remorse. =| | SLATE 4 will featurea series of articles |on UNEMPLOYMENT and THE BUILD— ING INDUSTRY. Special sections will | NAME ADDRESS. TELEPHONE( HOME ) NAME ADDRESS. focus on the particular effects that the crisis has had on Local Authorities and Architectural Education. It was also decided to hand over the rehabilitation of the houses to Lambeth Self Help Building Co-operative. The Housing Corporation will hand over the £27,500 from within it’s ‘mini-HAG’ scheme. _ The fact that this option would cost the Council nothing and would increase rate revenue certainly contributed to it’s eventual suczess SUBSCRIBE! ISSUE! (WORK ), third Annual Congress in Hull and full |details will appear in this issue. NEXT | | We will also be preparing for NAM’s | Also featured will be the work of the Green Ban Action Committee in Birming- ham: They have united a wide platform of |support amongst trade unionists, environ- mentalists and preservationists against the demolition of the Victorian Post Office and and proposed redevelopment on this site. dave mckay ittogetherwithacheque/postalorderaos totheNewArchitectureMovement)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. If you would like to receive SLATE without joining NAM fillin the form below and send it together with acheque/postal order (payable totheNew Architecture Movement )for£200 toNAM at9, Poland Street, London W.1. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Various Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Andrew Brown/FLeP Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource July/August 1977 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/61de4ddd3c2aad47571fc45b8ec9d544.pdf d9a6550c1d163e2794ef5606a4ae5943 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 Introduction and Origins 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 Tolmers Destroyed Subject The topic of the resource Report on the effect of property speculation on the Tolmers Square community. Not listed elsewhere. 16 printed A4 pages Description An account of the resource Contents Introduction This report shows what a large property developer has donetoasmallareainthecentreofLondon. Itspur- ose is: E 1. To stimulate immediate action in Tolmers Square. 2. To persuade Councils, Governments and ordinary people to take action to prevent anything similar happening again. The financial operations of property companies have been exposed in other publications. Here we concen- trate on the effect of one property company — Stock Conversion and Investment Trust on acommunity. _ What follows is not only a moral condemnation of those people who run Stock Conversion and their ass- ociated companies. It is also an incrimination of a sys- tem which allows these people to operate in the way they do. The Tolmers Square development area lies due west of Euston Station. It consists of decaying Georgian terraces, shops, workshops, warehouses, Indian rest- aurants, cafes and pubs. In this report we are primarily concerned with the property owned by Stock Conver- sion and Investment Trust, as shown on the next page. Buying Property Stock Conversion have been buying property in the Tolmers Square area since 1962, using several subsidi- ary companies as agents, to allay suspicion. They have now amassed approximately 5 acres. What follows are extracts from notes kept by one owner occupier at No. .Tolmers Square. “15 March 1968 Received first letter from an agent saying clients interested in acquiring No. .Tolmers Square.” “I made one phone call to Agent...to say that I cannot do anything until my husband returns from abroad.” “28 February 1969 1rang Agent who con- firmed that J. Levy is their client -they expect to start a development on the triangle of Euston Rd./ Hampstead Rd./North Gower St, which includes Tolmers Square, in 2 years time.” “12 March 1969 First offer received from Agent — £3,000. (Ignored)” “27 March 1969 Letter received from Agent asking for a reply to above offer — clients prepared to increase offer. (Ignored)” “15 May 1969 Further letter from Agent asking what are my terms?” 21 May 1969 Ifinally wrote to Agent saying not interested as offer does not represent market value of house and not sufficient to buy a comparable house. Told them to come back when plans accepted by competent Authority.” “20 June 1969 Agent replied to above saying clients prepared to allow me to remain in the house (at a rental) for a couple of years. What price would Iaccept? (Ignored) November 1970 Land costs now estim- ated at £375,000 per acre. At this figure /and on which my house stands isworth £10,000. “3 December 1970 Agent rang to say clients now prepared to offer more than previously (£3,000) — would pay in excess of £5,000 if vacant possession given. I told them my position is same as 2 years ago and am not interested.. This approach coincided with an article in local press that Housing Minister told Camden to look elsewhere for cheaper land.” “17 August 1973 Agent wrote to say clients now very interested to purchase my house and wish to discuss price. (Letter igndred).”” “30 January 1973 Draft CPO notice rec- eived...”” These extracts show the methods used by Stock Con- version to purchase the land. There is nothing illegal about it, but it depends for its success on the owners being unaware of the plans for the area, and thus the true value of the land. The above owners were not to be bullied. Not for financial reasons, but simply because they do not want to move- they like it in Tolmers Square. Other owners were not so smart and gave in after per- sistent approaches from agents. They invariably sold for sums far below the true market value. Five houses in Tolmers Square were sold for £3,500 each in 1969. Even then the land value alone of each house was £10,000. Now itisapproaching £30,000. 1965 1970 Increase in the market value of land. INTRODUCTION BUYING PROPERTY NEGLECT & DECAY Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 a) Removing the people b) Leaving Property Empty c) An Occupied House Page 5 Page 7 Page 11 e) Demoralisation CONCLUSION APPENDIX — ABrief History of Redevelopment Page 15 Negotiations. “2 April 1968 Agent asking ifI have made a decision.’ (letter ignored) “16 May 1968 Third letter from Agent asking if|am now ready to discuss sale.” (letter ignored) “25 February 1969 Agent phoned to ask if any decision forthcoming as clients were going to have a big meeting in the Haymarket office (obvi-- ous now that it is J. Levy)” Edited by Nick Wates -June 1974 Published by the Tolmers Village Association 102 Drummond Street London NW1 Tel: 01 — 387 4004 Further copies available (20p including postage). Layout: Barry Shaw, Suzi Nelson, Penny Reel. & others. Typesetting: Penny Reel Cover Photograph: Martin Slavin Map showing property owned by Stock Conversion & Investment Trust. (No responsibility is taken for errors). Page 12 Page 14 Second letter from Aerofilms 1969 £50,000 Zz 2 and we would First Remove the People CASE 1. Ms. E lives-on the top floor. For 3 years her roof leakedsobadlythatshehadtohave adustbininher room to collect the water. She constantly complained and every few months Levy’s builders came around and re-plastered the ceiling; a completely pointless ex ercise since itcame down again the next time itrained In fact, what was needed was a new gutter, and when the TVA complained about the situation, a new gutter was fitted within a few weeks. CASE 2 Mr and Ms. C have lived in North Gower Street for 35 years. They have two rooms on the first floor. They have no bath. They have cracks in the front wall thro- ugh which you can see daylight. There is damp on the kitchen ceiling. Ms. C used to keep flowers on the balcony but has given it up as she is frightened to walk on the balcony.in case it collapses. They have comp- lained to Levy’s but the builders say they cannot spend more than £5 or “the boss would kill me.” CASE 3 Ms. D one day found that her front door bell was no longer working, so she phoned Levy’s who sent a man with a van up from South London. The old bell was rusty and obsolete, yet the electrician twisted the wires together and got it to work. He said he was un- able to put in a new bell as it would cost more than £5 Needless to say, the bell broke down again a few days later. This £5 ceiling for repairs has been mentioned by several other people, and shows an extraordinary men- talityonthepartofapropertycompanywhosenet tangible assets in 1973 were over £62 million, and whose total profits for 1972/73 were over £5 million. Not a penny is spent on painting or maintaining the exteriors. The balconies inTolmers Square are a symbolic ex- ample These balconies are structurally very strong with steel bars protruding from the front wall of the house. But if they are not painted, the weather penetrates the plaster facing which then cracks and drops off, so giv- ing the balcony the appearance of imminent collapse. If left in this state for long, the weather erodes the brick pillars until they become unsafe. But at this point instead of replastering and painting, Levy’s builders merely knock down the balcony altogether, leaving an ugly scar. There is little objection from the residents, as by this time they are terrified that every time they walk in and out of their front door it is going to coll- apse, and are easily persuaded (wrongly) that the bal- conies are structurally unsound. The first balcony was taken down in 1969, and now only8 of the original 15 are left standing. TWO HOUSES IN TOLMERS SQUARE: Guess which house isowned by Stock Conversion? No obvious cases of winkling have come to light. Fortunately all the remaining tenants are oncontrolled and unfurnished tenancies. Stock Conversion’s methods are more subtle: they simply do the minimum of repairs, and do thosebadly, until the tenants are so fed up that they can’t wait to. get out. Martin Slavin Gower Street Houses taken from a Martin Slavin “The neighbours warm and friendly, The shops were bright and gaysnem Until plans were developed To change their lives one day.” (extract from apoem by Margarite Westo, akcal resident) As members will be aware, the area is run down and ripe for redevelopment.” (Camden Council Minutes 10 Jan 1973). That the area is now run down is evident toevery- one.W hether is is ripe for re-development is open to debate. W hat is seldom asked is why the area is run down. On closer i spection it appears that the area is run down mainly as a result of the activities of Stock Conversion who seem to have a deliberate policy of creating neglect and decay. “Our areawillneverbethesameaga not want it to be. What we would like is to bring back the varied life and bustling activity of the commur ity asitwasbeforepoliticalandfinancialspeculation ~ stepped in to lower the quality of life and cause the houses to fall to rack and ruin,” (Sheenagh Goodingham — Tolmers News No. 4) CASE 4 Mr. and Ms.A live in Hampstead Road with their two children and Ms. A’s mother. They are Greek and can- not speak English. They live on the first and second floors for which they pay £20 per month. The third floor has been empty since 1960 and ispresently occ- upied by an assortment of buckets and baths to collect the water which comes through the roof and subsequ- ently to their flat. The basement and ground floors have been empty since 1948 and are frequented only by rats. A musty smell emanates from these floors and pervades the whole house. Many of the walls are damp and peeling, and in the toilet it is only several thicknesses of lino which prevents one from falling through the rotten floor. There is no bath. “Someone came round from Stock Conversion three months ago, but they said they were not inter- ested in doing repairs because the buildings would be coming down. They didn’t say it like that, they used big posh words that we’re not used to.” explained Ms. A’s son-in-law, who was acting as interpreter. AccordingtoalocalnewspaperreportCae Journal 7/6/ 1974), a spokesman from’ I.E.& J. Levy said “Nobody from here has examined‘the house at all.”*He suggested that the men who called on the family were “probably bogus and from one of these local associations which set themselves up as do- gooders.” “If you are talking about the top floor, the family doesn’t have the top floor as part of their ten- ancy, so it is no concern to them.” he added.” As soon asany property isvacated, either because the occupants move away or die, it is boarded up and left empty. At present Stock Conyersion own 67 houses. Of these, 14 are completely empty, or occupied by squatters, 31 are partially empty. Altogether, 242 habitable rooms are empty, which represents 39% of their housing stock. They also own approximately 98,000 sq. ft. of commercial space, of which 28,000 sq. ft. is empty; comprising 8 shops, 1 bank, workshops, storage and offices. Over 2/3 of an acre of their land is vacant or being used for temporary car parking. Some houses in the area have been empty for over 8 years. This is totally absurd when in 1971 the number of ‘officially’ homeless in Greater London was more than 13,000. (Shelter Paper 4 1972) POPULATION DECLINE These figures taken from the electoral rol show the decline in population in properties now owned by Stock Conversion. The view from the kitchen window Georgian house empty in North Gower Street |b= Le s ey / _ t= ‘ she i Ci a* . te hie aT = =wi 3S a> 1953 1955 1960 1965 1968 1972 1974 342 312 269 249 243 189 173 + 39 squatters. i Leaving Property Empty (Editor's survey, May 1974) Camden Journal buckets and baths to prevent the rain water in the top room. Martin Slavin mpys Cung he ) ‘ ' CASE 5 As soon as a building is left empty it starts to decay; leaks in the roof go undetected, windows are smashed and left broken, pipes are ripped out for their metal content, and vermin breed. Several houses have had their roofs deliberately des- troyed, the tiles having been taken off and stacked up neatly; probably by lead thieves. With water running constantly through the house, ceilings collapse, rot sets in, and decay is guaranteed. This is the inevitable consequence of leaving houses empty and can only be construed as a deliberate policy to cause neglect and decay. CASE 6 In 1972, Ms. F, unable to find anywhere to live, was staying with a friend in North Gower Street. She not- iced that one of the flats in the house was empty, so she rang D. E. & J. Levy, the agents of the block, and asked if she could rent the flat. At first they fobbed her off by ‘denying the existence of the block.’ But after further phone calls and persistence, they did admit that one of the flats was vacant but “the block is coming down and it’s not worth re-letting.” However, they were kind enough to offer her an- other flat with a 3 year lease for £2,500 and £25 per week rent. Unfortunately, she had to decline the offer. Two years later, still being without a flat, she decided to occupy it without permission and squat. ENTER THE SQUATTERS With so many houses empty, it was inevitable that squatters would move in eventually, despite Stock Conversion’s efforts at making the houses totally un- inhabitable. The first Stock Conversion house was occupied in September 1973, when 8 people moved into No. 12 Tolmers Square. The House had been empty for 18 months. The ground floor and basement were bricked up, the roof was leaking, windows were smashed and the toilets dismantled. Water and gas had been dug up in the road, and al the water pipes in the house had been ripped out. Electrical wiring and fittings had also been taken. The house had been used by dossers and cats and was piled high with rubbish and cats’ shit. Two months later, at a cost of roughly £100, and a great deal of labour, this house was providing a home for eight people, each with a room of their own, plus a shared living room, kitchen/dining room, and toilet. All the services had been re-connected, windows un- bricked and repaired, and the roof repaired. Since September, 8 other houses haye been occup- ied and restored. They are now housing 39 people. No. 12 BEFORE No. 12 AFTER Tiles removed from the roof ofa house in Hampstead Road. Leaving houses empty and derelict does not merely affect those people who might otherwise have been living in them. It affects the whole community. Empty houses attract vanadalism, dossers, damp and rats. Shopkeepers suffer because trade windles. Residents suffer if shops have to close down. In once case, an inhabitated house in Hampstead Road suffers permanent damp because the house next door has had its roof removed. An empty shop in Drummond Street was nick- named “the pet shop’ because people could watch rats playing behind the glass. Eventually the Council came around and whitewashed the windows. A symbolic gesture. Martin Slavin The Eis an Indian restaurant in Hampstead Road run by Nepalese people. They obtained a lease from D.E. & J. Levy for the ground floor and basement. As the restof the house was vacant, the staff of the restaurant moved upstairs, and spent a considerable amount of money in doing it up. When Levy’s found out, they asked them to leave immediately. The manager tried to persuade Levy’s to rent the upper floors, but with- out success. He was told that because the roof was in bad condition (although it did not leak), and because the house did not have an inside toilet (like many of the houses in the area, the bathroom and toilet are in the back yard), it was not possible. The staff now have to commute to Finchley by taxi every night after they close the restaurant at 1 am to get a few hours sleep before being back at 9 am, to start work. The house upstairs remains empty. 213 North Gower Street is one of three adjacent houses owned and left empty by Stock Conversion. It may also provide clear evidence of deliberatevandal- ism by the owners. The rear dormer windows and framesofeach house have been pushed out and are still where they fell in the back yards. The rainwater gulleys have been removed and, in 213 at least, holes punched in the adjacent wall. Rainwater running off a rT’ An Occupied House Collapses ral! above: an empty house decays. On Saturday 13 October 1973, an occupied house owned by Stock Conversion collapsed with only a few minutes warning. Mr. Maria Castro and two friends who were living in the house managed to escape with- out serious injury, although they lost al their possess- ions. Mr. Castro suffered extreme shock. The cause of the collapse was never made public despite a call for a public inquiry made by the TVA. Camden’s District Surveyor felt that there was no need for an inquiry. He commented that “thebuilding just got tiredof standing.” According to the Hampstcad & Highgate Express (19 October 1973), a spokesman for D. E. & J. Levy said they would be holding a thorough investigation into what had happened. The results of this have not been released. Various theories were put forward as to why the building collapsed: It may have been affected by the heavy traffic in Hampstead Road; or by strong vibrat- ions which occured when piles were driven into the ground for the foundations ofthe Euston Centre across the road; or perhaps an ill-conceived conversion, which knocked holes in the party wall to make a large caravan showroom and thus weakened the struc- ture. Some people believe it was deliberate, as Builders hired by Stock Conversion were actually working in the building minutes before the collapse. While it would be unfair, perhaps, to accuse Stock Conversion of deliberately knocking the building down, collapsing houses is the logical conclusion of their pol- icy of neglect and decay. “Joe Levy was responsible for this” was an extremely apt, though short-lived, slogan painted across the hoardings. The unwillingness of the Council to hold an inquiry into the cause of the collapse shows the reluctance of the Council to take any action which might antagonise Stock Conversion. left: The potential of the house becomes apparent after squatters have begun work + OO yeneaee vbbbber the roof pours into the room below and holes, probab- ly deliberately made, in each of the floors, allows this water to run down the inner face of the wall. In time, the wall will, ifleft, bow and eventually collapse. This house has recently been moved into by squat- ters, who are attempting to renovate it and make it habitable. moys cung New Civil Engineer Ken Morgan i |iis (D.a ily Telegraph Magazine 30/10/1970) The Tolmer Ci a was another victim. It was bought by Stock Co 1and closed in March 1972. No- one asked the + rons if they would prefer an office block Mr. Andrew Keeshan, the manager, said; “It’s a terrible shame to see the place close. We haye more than 1,000 regular patrons and Idon’t know where they will go.” (St Pancras Chronicle 17/3/72, The cinema was pulled down in June 1973, despite a petition from local residents asking that it should be left standing until they had moved away. Stock Con- version just moved the bulldozers inone Saturday morning. For over a year, the site has remained empty, surroun- ded by abarbed wire fence. Stock Conversion wanted to use the site for a car park but this was quashed after a petition to the Council from the Tolmers Village Ass- ociation. The Association wanted to use it for a child- ren’s play area or recreation space but Stock Convers- ion was not amenable to the idea. There is no profit in playgrounds. Who Are The Real Vandals In Our Society? Ken Morgan Destruction of Tolmer Cinema ‘A mere two tube stops from the Cinicenta you'll find, if you look hard enough, “the cheapest cinema in the UK” -the Tolmer.....at 2s 6d. downstairs, and 3s 6d. up, it is probably the cheapest cinema around, and just to make sure that this fact doesn’t breed contempt, there’s a little notice pinned up above the ticket booth No sleeping in the s ...the university crowd are turning ~ ,“and we get a lot of young couples. The is a loyal matinee too: old age pensioners. Some of them come three times a week. We only charge them Od-” Slavin Mart Demoralisation All these tactics employed by Stock Conversion lead to demoralisation. In Tolmers Square no-one is surpri- sed to see things collapsing any more. Decay and neg- lect have become ‘the way things are’. They are part of life In practice, this means different things for differ- ent people. Some people (those that can) give up and move elsewhere. But the majority are not so lucky They cannot afford to move and the Council has been unwilling to rehouse people until the land comes into their ownership. (Why should they anyway? They didn’t cause the problem). These people just sit and wait and watch things falling apart around them. Some are angry, but most are merely disillusioned about everything and every- body and give up al hope of ever being able to do any- thing constructive. Sometimes there is talk about what a nice place it used to be, but even this is forgotten and gives way to the shame of living in such despicable surroundings. As Ms. H, a particularly resilient person, says; ‘I want to get out. It’s not for me, it’s for the kids. They’re ashamed to live in these houses.’ Her son, aged fifteen, won’t tel his friends where he lives, and will never let them come into the house. ‘He keeps saying, “when are we going to move?”’’ The whole of Tolmers Square now has such a neglect- ed, crumbling appearance that only those with tech- nical knowledge, or vision, can imagine that it is poss- ible or desirable to renovate and restore it. In fact, the houses are structurally sound and could still be renov- ated if action is taken soon. Martin Slavin “The buildings date back to the mid-nineteenth cen- tury, and although the original standard of construct- ion is not high, the houses have stood for over a hund- red years and are capable ofa useful future life.” ‘The case for retention should not be based on the extent of structural work required. Virtually al the buildings in the area will have a further 30 years life if certain localised repairs were carried out.” (Renton Howard Wood (Consultant Architects) Report No. 2, March 1974). The situation described is intolerable in a ‘civilised’ society, and exposes the inadequacy of our present system for managing city development. To summarise the situation in Tolmers Square: 1. Stock Conversion’s interests in the area are purely financial. They are only responsible to their shareholders, probably none of whom live in the area. No-one who lives or works in the area has any control over Stock Conversion, nor any way of influencing them, other than by direct action. Yet Stock Conversion have been able to disrupt the lives of many people, and virtually destroy a thri- ving part of a city. They have been able to exploit the rising land value and rising office rents to such an ex- tent that the Council has been unable to develop on their own, so forcing the Council to do a deal with them in order to obtain any re-development, a redev- elopment made increasingly necessary by Stock Con- version’s destructive behaviour. 2. Successive councils have been completely un- successful in carrying out any development or main- taining the area. Despite repeated declared intentions tore-develop ,they have been constantly thwarted by lack of planning legislation, lack of resources, and lack of government support. 3. Asa result, the area has suffered extreme plan- ning blight. 4. The vast mass of housing and public health leg- islation has proyen totally ineffective in preventing decay, bad housing conditions, and loss of amenities. 5. There must be an end to speculation in land and property. The government must either nationalise land, or tax al speculative profits at 100%. What has happen- ed in Tolmers Square is largely the result of rising land values. The land has risen from £50,000 per acre in 1965, to approximately £800,000 per acre in 1973; an inc- rease of 1,600%. Even if the land is compulsory pur- chased now, Stock Conversion would still make a profit because the Council (in other words, the ratepayers and taxpayers) would have to pay compensation at the pre- sent market value of the land; approximately £3 million. This profit would be obtained by doing absolutely no- thing except buying up land and running down a com- isrise in land value has nothing to do with the area itself, but merely the potential use of the land which is determined by planning permission given by local authorities. Inother words, itisa yaluecreated by the community at large. All profits created by the exploitation of this increasing value should therefore accrue to the community, and not to private individ- uals. As far as Tolmers Square is concerned, the whole area must be brought into public ownership immedi- ately, and legislation should be introduced so that the community does not haye to pay the inflated costs. 6. Planning and management must be decentralised so as to give people more control over the places they live and work in. Whether the controlling agency is a Council or property company, it is becoming increas- ingly clear that they are unable to plan or manage their property effectively. Resources and power should be channeled to as lowalevel as possible; i.e. to com- munity associations, tenants’ groups, self help projects etc. Only in this way will the barbarity presented in this report be avoided. & = = If these houses were renovated, they would almost certainly provide a higher standard of housing accom- odation than can be provided by new Council constr- uction at the present time. CONCLUSIONS a APPENDIX Brief History Of Redevelopment Negotiations commercial profits. However, the end result was that Stock Conversion stood to make £20 million profit, whereas Camden’s subsidy was £3'% million. Camden’s officers were asked to commence nego- tiations with Stock Conversion. 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1968 1970 _ Planning application submitted by private developers to build a 24 storey block on the site between Tolmers Square and Euston Rd. * (eventually shelved) Another planning application submitted for asimilar scheme. (also shelved) LCC start considering including the area in a comprehensive development area. Stock Conversion and Investment Trust star- ted buying up property in the Tolmers Sq. area. At this time land was worth only £50, 000 per acre. _ Planning blight sets in: An owner occupier is advised by the Council’s (St. Pancras) archi- tects department ‘not to make any expensive decorating or repairs — just normal upkeep’ as demolition is imminent. (Owner occupier’s diary} ; Camden Council issued a compulsory purch- ase order on some of the property in the area. Owing to ‘financial aspects’ none of this pro- perty belonged to Stock Conversion. The Minister of Housing and Local govern- ment turned down the compulsory purchase order principally because of the excessive cost of the land, at that time considered to be in the region of £300,000 per acre. The minister was not prepared to pay more than £200,000 per acre. The increase in land val- ues was of,course largely the result of Stock Conversion’s activities. Smaller speculators and landowners, realising what was happen- _ing, revalued their property upwards, so con- tfibuting t6 the general inflationary situation in land prices. Stock Conversion proposed a deal to the Council for ajoint redevelopment scheme. 1973 Jan. July. Aug. Sept. The Council considered that the Levy deal was ‘the only way in which the Council will obtain the planning objective of comprehen- sive development providing asatisfactory housing content.....and at the same time, ensure that the land can be acquired at a cost acceptable to the Department of the Environ- ment’ (Council Minutes 10 January 1973). The Council therefore approved the heads of agreement, and started issuing compulsory” purchase orders. Claudius Properties proposed a deal to Cam- den Council. They offered to do exactly the same as Levy except that being a non-profit making company, al the profits from the scheme would be ploughed back into the community. —(The Tolmers Cinema was demolished) The Tolmers Village Association was formed by local people to represent their interests. The Council’s Committe Planning and Res- ources Committee (now in charge of Tolmers Square development) recommended that the Council should go ahead with the Levy Deal. They rejected the Claudius proposal on the grounds that the ‘Secretary of State would be most unlikely to confirm a compulsory purchase order to enable the Council to carry out the proposals.’ Stock Conversion were by this time the major landowners with a total of 4.96 acres, and the Claudius proposal was dependent on the compulsory purchase of their property. Land was now costing between £600,000 and £1,000,000 per acre. The “Stop The Levy Deal Campaign’ was launched by several Camden tenants’ groups to persuade the Council to change its mind on the grounds that: “CAMDEN willsacrificethechanceofhou- sing twice as many people with the money from Tolmers Square. CAMDEN will sacrifice the chance of proving that the profits of commercial dev- elopment can be kept for the community. CAMDEN willsacrificethechanceof proving that the power of the big developers can be challenged. (Stop The Levy Deal Leaf- let). 8,000 signatures were obtained. The full council turned down both deals pending investigation of other alternatives. 1971 THE LEVY DEAL “The company was to retain one acre of the site on which it was to build 250,000 square feet gross of officespaceand120,000squarefeetofindustrial space; the remainder of the site was to be turned over to the Council to build housing. As part of the bargain the Council would support an application for an office development permit — despite a plot ratio of 8: 1 — and obtain compulsory purchase orders on any part of thesitenotownedeitherbyStockConversionorthe Council.’ (CIS Report). In addition to subsidised hou- sing land, the Council was to be given a share in the | TOLMERS SQUARE Oct. Nov. _ Occupied house in Hampstead Road collapses. 1974 April | Compulsory purchase orders are issued but again not on any of the property owned by Stock Conversion. Instead, the Council asks their officers to prepare a report on the ‘imp- lications of acquisition by compulsory pow- ers of further housing and other properties in the area.’ (Council Minutes — 24 April 1974). Martin Slavin Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tolmers Village Association, Edited by Nick Wates Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Andrew Brown Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1974