Chapter 12
Experimental Residential
CONTRIBUTOR PROFILE: MARK PARSONS
Mark Parsons is an architect and co-founder of Studio Polpo. He has worked in a number of practices, most recently Architype (from 2002), with whom he continues to collaborate. Mark has taught at the University of Sheffield School of Architecture on both degree and master’s courses since 2005.
Experimental Residential was a piece of research that came out of a ‘failed’ project (the client was unable to source funding). Studio Polpo had been asked to put together a feasibility proposal for the reuse of an empty commercial building as a short-term live-work space for the Common People community interest company (CIC) – an organisation primarily involved in pop-up shops and events in the city.
We suggested to Common People that – in order to overcome their funding problem – support might be available for the project if the feasibility work they required were documented in such a way that it could be disseminated, forming a useful document for other groups considering similar projects. In the first instance research was used as an ‘initiating tool’1 which connected critical and theoretical knowledge with a live, prototypical and exploratory project.
Practice profile: Studio Polpo
Studio Polpo is a Sheffield-based micro architecture practice (six people) set up as a social enterprise, which works primarily with the third sector. The practice works collaboratively – with a range of organisations and individuals – at various scales, from bespoke furniture to buildings.
The practice uses research as a mechanism for exploring new ideas; research is either driven by a project-specific issue or an issue of interest to the practice. They approach research as a way of creating a space in which to test ideas that allows for failure or unexpected results. The practice also uses research methods to collate, analyse and summarise knowledge from others, which they then disseminate – for example online.2
Context
The city of Sheffield has a large number of empty commercial and industrial buildings in its centre, many of which are of little architectural significance by themselves, but which form the layers of history that give the city its character. The city council has been keen to address the issue of these – often prominent – empty spaces.
We have undertaken a number of projects and collaborations which demonstrate how these types of building can be adapted or inhabited. One example is the ongoing OPERA series of pop-up houses,3 which use performance to reintroduce residential activity into unused buildings. As a result of the project we were approached by Common People, who were keen to explore how empty buildings could be used as short-term places to live.
Common People had identified 121 Eyre Street, Sheffield (a mid-twentieth-century former funeral parlour and college) as a building that could be used as a large shared house. The building has solid brick walls and single glazing, and had only recently been vacated, leaving it in a good state of repair. The desire was to explore how to create a cooperative model for a shared house and work space, both in terms of organisational (rental and governance) and building (fire strategy, heat loss and planning) terms.
Approach
Philosophy
All of our projects – including our research projects – are underpinned by our desire to work towards social, environmental and economic sustainability. These aims led us to set up our practice as a social enterprise, where profits are reinvested in the business or in the community.
We are interested in influencing, intervening and changing how things are done. We also want to support others striving to do good things, and we use part of our profits to invest in new initiatives and help get projects off the ground. Most of our work is in collaboration with others – we believe that engaging with people from different disciplines and backgrounds makes our work more interesting.
Methods
As the client could not fund feasibility work, we suggested that we apply for funding and, if successful, use this to pay for research and design work, but also for documentation and dissemination, so that whatever the eventual outcome of the Eyre Street project there would be a publicly (and freely) available piece of work that could inform others and, we hoped, make a difference in the city. We secured funding from Innovate UK, but then learned from the client that – for legal reasons – the building could not be used as anticipated.
This changed the emphasis of the project from a site-specific focus to a more general one. We decided to concentrate more on collecting and analysing relevant case studies, instigating roundtable discussions with planners, housing officers and developers to explore and understand policy and the barriers/opportunities associated with reuse of these building types; as well as prototyping and testing (including thermal testing) a demountable and low-cost secondary glazing system, for which a need had been identified on similar projects. For the latter we worked with acoustic specialists from the University of Sheffield, as well as building on previous student work.4 The findings have been made available in both digital5 and newspaper formats to achieve maximum reach.
Insights and Impact
The most straightforward outcomes for the practice have been from our research into the rules, laws and issues related to planning and building use – primarily around rates versus Council Tax, and the way in which temporary use planning works – that have increased our knowledge base. Our discussions with diverse council officers and organisations working with empty buildings have both opened up new avenues of work for the practice and highlighted grey areas within the planning system, which we are seeking to understand further – for example it appears that it may not actually be illegal to inhabit spaces without change of use.
The secondary glazing prototype has generated interest from two organisations interested in using it, and further development and installation of this has been built into a funding bid by another client. Although currently open source – to allow uptake and development – this is potentially a system that could become a start-up business in itself.
For the client, as a company initiating temporary use strategies in the city, Common People now have a publication associated with them that will help them to gain publicity. Most importantly, through sharing this material and taking advantage of the client’s networks and contacts, we are not only raising the practice’s profile but (we believe) putting important research – which would otherwise remain within academia – into the public realm where it can be used.
Lessons
We believe that freely sharing knowledge (while being clearly associated with its production) is crucial to allowing others to usefully build on what has been done before. For example, we have been invited to share details about Experimental Residential at two recent housing conferences (which has also led to new contacts and opportunities for the practice).
There is often no time or space for reflection, testing or research in practice. Applying for funding with clients or other bodies is a very useful way of securing both time and a structure to allow research to happen outside of normal project pressures. Engaging people from outside the practice to assist with research projects can also bring a valuable external perspective; one example of this is our recent collaboration with a filmmaker as part of the OPERA projects. Finally, we believe that research should be integral to prototyping – not just of products, but also approaches, strategies and local government policy.
Prototype of secondary glazing joint