{"id":6494,"date":"2019-09-06T16:28:24","date_gmt":"2019-09-06T15:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/architecture\/?page_id=6494"},"modified":"2019-09-06T16:28:24","modified_gmt":"2019-09-06T15:28:24","slug":"march-unit-17-2019-20","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/architecture\/march-unit-17-2019-20\/","title":{"rendered":"MArch Unit 17: Anthropocene Parliament. Chris Roberts & Mark Davies\/David Morley Architects"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Edward Burtynsky, Iberia Quarries No.8 – Cochicho Co Pardais Portugal, <\/em>2006<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In\n2003 David Morley made a telephone call to Cedric Price to inform him of a\ncommission to build the Kentish Town Sports Centre over the site of his\nInter-Action Centre and ask for his blessing for it to be demolished. Of course\nhe said he was absolutely delighted to hear the news and that he\u2019d been waiting\nfor this call for years! We later discovered that he\nwas the only architect to be a fully-qualified member of the National Institute\nof Demolition Contractors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Program & Site<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Re-imagining The Houses of Parliament:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Development on The Houses of Parliament site in Westminster\ndates back at least 1,000 years when Danish King Cnut ordered for a palace to\nbe built on the north bank of the River Thames.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Houses of Parliament we see today designed by Charles\nBarry and Augustus Pugin was commissioned after a fire in 1834 that destroyed\nthe old palaces. This 1,100 room redevelopment was completed by 1870 but it is\nreported to be suffering from subsidence and has required a constant\nmaintenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been recent reports that it could be sold off to developers and schemes have been prepared by various Architects for the 650 members of parliament to decant into temporary accommodation in order to allow the necessary repair and future proofing works to be completed over a 5-7 year period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ultimate fate of The Houses of Parliament is yet to be\ndecided, however, when considering it against the three measures of\nobsolescence (Functional, Economic and Physical) the Unit will move forwards on\nthe basis that it is officially obsolete. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any event, we need to be contingency planning for the\nprospect of losing The Houses of Parliament due to a catastrophic event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So whilst the UK Government and its Houses of Parliament\nappear to be in a state of collapse and the edifices of our democracy are\nliterally crumbling around us, we need to be planning to restore stability and\nbe prepared to react to an unpredictable future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The timing of the 19th<\/sup>C collapse and\nreconstruction of The Houses of Parliament as we know it today coincides with\none interpretation of the dawn of the Anthropocene epoch, relating to or\ndenoting the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human\nactivity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this age we know that the buildings we lay down leave\ntraces, not only on their physical sites, but also from the material and energy\nutilised in their construction and operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What should be the make-up of the house?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is its political landscape?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will it leave a fossil record?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The unit\u2019s approach will be propositional; to re-imagine The\nHouses of Parliament for our epoch, the Anthropocene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Words:\n\nAnthropocene\n\/ Parliament \/ Obsolescence \/ Homeostasis \/ The\nParliamentary Glossary of Terms\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2003 David Morley made a telephone call to Cedric Price to inform him of a commission to build the Kentish Town Sports Centre over the site of his Inter-Action Centre and ask for his blessing for it to be demolished. Of course he said he was absolutely delighted to hear the news and that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6494","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}