Places, architecture and Yorkshiremen

I’ve only been on ASC’s Foundation Degree course a few weeks but I’ve already been asked a rather strange question by one of my peers. Over dinner, I was asked to consider this: do you think of yourself more as a man or a Yorkshireman? Not an easy one, I have to admit. But what the question triggered was an interesting discussion on the part played by place in one’s identity. Why is it so important?

All of which brings me to an important point about the whole notion of sustainable communities. And that is that people identify largely with a place – not necessarily a building. As a (pre-registration) architect that’s perhaps a hard lesson to learn but an important one and something those of us doing this course perhaps have to recognise. So the buildings we create – say the £1million school extension I’m working on at the moment – are not often what make a place for people. Instead, it’s how people respond to their surroundings, and with our climate, that often involves a building.

Since school I’ve been working towards becoming an architect. After intermittent bouts of studying and employment, I now work with Leeds City Council’s professional design services team: the Strategic Design Alliance. As a career choice I’m lucky: it’s both a pastime and a job, which is probably just as well really with all the training involved.

Since coming to Leeds, I’ve become involved in a number of urban design bodies and user participant initiatives that hope to create better places as well as better buildings. These include the Leeds Architecture Design Initiative, being a Design Quality Indicator enabler and a facilitator for CABE’s Spaceshaper programme. And what has dawned on me is that we’re seeing more and more discussion about ‘place’ – buildings and the spaces, activities, interest, and connections between them.

That’s something I’m quite happy about, although I recognise that it’s not the be all and end all when it comes to creating a sustainable community. Everybody brings something unique to a conversation; nobody can be expected to know or do everything but it’s my hope that participating in the ASC course will help me make the best contribution to our environment.

The early signs are good. To date, my academic life in architecture has been largely about the interpretation of an image or an idea, then re-packaging it and communicating it in a drawing format. At Sheffield, I think the focus is going to be more on the interpretation of the written word and how it is translated onto the ‘ground’.

I’m looking forward to this even if my writing skills are not, at present at least, great. So I’ve been impressed by the way the tutors have basically said: “we don’t care where you’ve all come from, we’re going to treat you all the same, get you up to a certain level and we can progress from here together”. So we’ve all been taught how to reference, how to use the library’s resources more effectively and how to search for online materials. So with this information, and the support of our peers and colleagues, our voices may eventually be heard.

This is the first blog from Richard Oliver in a series about ASC’s foundation degree