Ornament from grime: David Adjaye's Dirty House, the architectural 'aesthetic of recycling' and the Gritty Brits

Journal of Architecture

Volumn 12, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 367-392

  Campkin, Ben ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 65849298790     PISSN: 13602365     EISSN: 14664410     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13602360701614649     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (133)

1. Adjaye, http://www.adjaye.com (accessed 26/06/07).
2. Anon., 'Paints, sealants and finishes', http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=482&storycode=30 51188 (accessed 29/06/07).
3. Anon, http://www.cleanstreets.co.uk/PL13.pdf (accessed 29/06/07)
4. Anon, http://www.houldsworth.co.uk/previous/03-imaginglondon/text.html (accessed 06/07/07)
5. Anon, http://www.kultureflash.net/archive/136/default.htm#event3019 (accessed 06/07/07)
6. Anon, http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/noble-webster-articles.htm (accessed 22/06/07).
7. P. Allison, 'The house of the artist: David Adjaye designs a studio house for London's new generation of artists', Domus (December, 2002), pp. 60-69.
8. P. Allison, ed., David Adjaye Houses: Recycling, Reconfiguring, Rebuilding (London, Thames and Hudson, 2005).
9. P. Allison, ed., David Adjaye: Making Public Buildings. Specificity, Customization, Imbrication (London, Thames and Hudson, 2006).
10. P. Aspden, 'Rising star with a store of ideas', Financial Times (27th January, 2006).
11. A. Baillieu, 'Mirror mirror on the wall. Building study: Dirty House, east London', RIBA Journal (November, 2002), pp. 34-38.
12. Z. Bauman, Wasted Lives: Modernity and its Outcasts (Oxford, Polity, 2004).
13. S. Biernoff, 'The Art of Rubbish', unpublished lecture, UCL (January, 2003).
14. th July, 2002).
15. G. Bruno, 'Ramble city: postmodernism and Blade Runner', October, Vol. 41 (Summer, 1987), pp. 61-74.
16. B. Campkin, 'Degradation and regeneration: theories of dirt and the contemporary city', in, B. Campkin and R. Cox, eds, Dirt: New Geographies of Cleanliness and Contamination (London, I. B. Tauris, 2007).
17. W. J. Cohen and R. Johnson, eds, Filth: dirt, disgust, and modern life (Minneapolis and London, University of Minnesota Press, 2005).
18. M. Cousins, 'The Ugly', AA Files, 28 (1994), pp. 61 -64.
19. M. Cousins, 'The Ugly', AA Files, 29 (1995), pp. 3-6.
20. J. Deitch, 'Black Magic', in T. Noble and S. Webster, Wasted Youth (New York, Rizzoli, 2006), unpaginated.
21. M. Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London, Routledge Classics, 1966/2002).
22. A. Forty, Objects of Desire: Design and Society Since 1750 (London, Thames and Hudson, 1986).
23. H. Foster, 'Why all the Hoopla', London Review of Books, Vol. 23, No. 16, 23 (August, 2001); http://www.lrb. co.uk/v23/n16/print/fost01-.html (accessed 06/05/07).
24. S. Hall, 'Negotiating Architecture', in, P. Allison, ed., David Adjaye Houses: Recycling, Reconfiguring, Rebuilding, op. cit., pp. 9-11.
25. C. Hamnett and D. Whitelegg, 'Loft conversion and gentrification in London: from industrial to postindustrial land use', Environment and Planning A, volume 39 (2007), pp 106-124.
26. A. Harris, 'The installation of Hoxton: culture and capital in 1990s' inner London', Branding Urban Space: the Creation of Art Districts in Contemporary London and Mumbai, unpublished PhD thesis, University of London (September, 2005), pp. 123-166.
27. M. Harris, 'Tim Noble and Sue Webster at 20 Rivington Street', Art in America (July, 1998).
28. N. Kirkwood, ed., Manufactured Sites: Rethinking the Post-Industrial Landscape (London and New York, Spon, 2001).
29. K. Long, 'David Adjaye', Icon, 17 (2004), pp. 84-92.
30. J. Rendell, Art and Architecture; A Place Between (London, I.B. Tauris, 2006).
31. C. Rosenblum, 'The Carnegie's Gritty Brits offers keen architectural minds at work', http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A22477 (accessed 06/07/07).
32. C Roux, 'The Tale of a House', in, P. Allison, ed., David Adjaye Houses: Recycling, Reconfiguring, Rebuilding, op. cit., pp. 132-137.
33. R. Ryan, ed., Gritty Brits: New London Architecture (Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art, 2007).
34. P. Savonuzzi and C. Wolter, 'So what's trash in architecture?', in, L. Vergine, ed., Trash: From Junk to Art (Milan, SIAE, 1997), pp. 255-261.
35. K. Shonfield, 'Dirt is Matter Out of Place', in, J. Hill, ed., Architecture-the Subject is Matter (London and New York, Routledge, 2001), pp. 29-44.
36. D. Sibley, Geographies of exclusion: society and difference in the west (London and New York, Routledge, 1994).
37. J. Stallabrass, High Art Lite: the rise and fall of young British art (London and New York, Verso, 1999/2006).
38. rd July, 2005); http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists-m-z/janet-street-porter/ article296382.ece (accessed 28/07/07).
39. D. Sudjic, 'Building in London', in, P. Allison, ed., David Adjaye Houses: Recycling, Reconfiguring, Rebuilding, op. cit., pp. 186-191.
40. J. Tagg, Grounds of Dispute: Art History, Cultural Politics and the Discursive Field (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1992).
41. M. Thompson, Rubbish Theory (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1979).
42. C. Turner, 'Chaos Theory', Tate Magazine, 26(Autumn, 2001).
43. P. Vance, Loft Loving (London, Ward Lock, 1999).
44. L. Vergine, Trash: From Junk to Art (Milan, SIAE, 1997).
45. V. Walsh, Nigel Henderson: Parallel of Life and Art (London, Thames and Hudson, 2001).
46. H. Webster, ed., Modernism Without Rhetoric: Essays on the Work of Alison and Peter Smithson (London, Academy Editions, 1997), pp. 10-123.
47. E. Wilhide, New Loft Living (London, Carlton Books, 2002).
48. R.Wilson, 'At the limits of genre: architectural photography and utopic criticism', The Journal of Architecture, Volume 10, Number 9, pp. 265-273.
49. P. Wright, Journey through Ruins: The Last Days of London (London, Radius, 1991).
50. S. Zukin, Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban Change (Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins UP, 1982 / London, Radius, 1988).
51. M. Douglas, Purity and Danger: an Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London, Routledge Classics, 1966/2002), pp. xvii-xviii.
52. Ibid., p. 36. Douglas writes: 'If we can abstract pathogenecity and hygiene from our notion of dirt, we are left with the old definition of dirt as matter out of place.'
53. Francis Bacon, quoted in C. Turner, 'Chaos Theory', Tate Magazine, 26 (Autumn, 2001), p. 53.
54. Bacon's studio is briefly described in P. Savonuzzi and C. Wolter, 'So what's trash in architecture?' in, L. Vergine, ed., Trash: From Junk to Art (Milan, SIAE, 1997), p. 256: 'empty bottles, jars full of dried brushes, a layer of dust and a coat of colour on everything, as if each object touched by him had settled in that special place'.
55. Bacon had been an interior decorator before becoming an artist.
56. For example, see: Z. Bauman, Wasted Lives; Modernity and its Outcasts (Oxford, Polity, 2004);
57. M. Cousins, 'The Ugly', AA Files, 28 (1994), pp. 61-64
58. and AA Files, 29 (1995), pp. 3-6;
59. A. Forty, Objects of Desire: Design and Society Since 1750 (London, Thames and Hudson, 1986);
60. M. Thompson, Rubbish Theory (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1979);
61. K. Shonfield, 'Dirt is Matter Out of Place', in, J. Hill, ed., Architecture - the Subject is Matter (London and New York, Routledge, 2001), pp. 29-44;
62. D. Sibley, Geographies of exclusion: society and difference in the west (London and New York, Routledge, 1994);
63. and P. Wright, Journey through Ruins; The Last Days of London (London, Radius, 1991).
64. S. Biernoff, 'The Art of Rubbish', unpublished lecture, UCL (January, 2003);
65. L. Vergine, Trash: From Junk to Art, op. cit.,. Drawing on and updating this survey, Biernoff argues that in modernist art rubbish is incorporated into the art work as an index of the everyday; while in postmodern art rubbish is used to represent the relics and ruins of modernism. She surveys the 'art of rubbish' from Duchamp's Fountain (1917) to Tracey Emin's abject My Bed (1998).
66. G. Bruno, 'Ramble city: postmodernism and Blade Runner', October, Vol. 41 (Summer, 1987), p. 64.
67. Hence, the ease with which Douglas transposes 'pollution behaviours' from 'primitive' religions and the Old Testament to her own contemporary western social context. Given the apparent contradictions of Douglas's structuralist theory, it is surprising to note how dominant it has remained, across many disciplines. The impact of related theoretical work after Douglas, such as Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection, has been more limited in architectural and urban debate than in, for example, art and film theory, geography and sociology, where a more elaborate discussion of dirt and related topics - cleanliness, abjection, waste, recycling - in the context of postmodern cultural production has taken place. For a fuller critique of Douglas's and other theories of dirt in relation to contemporary cities see B. Campkin, 'Degradation and regeneration: theories of dirt and the contemporary city', in, B. Campkin and R. Cox, eds, Dirt; New Geographies of Cleanliness and Contamination (London, I. B. Tauris, forthcoming 2007).
68. Gritty Brits: New London Architecture, Carnegie Museum of Art, Heinz Architectural Centre, Pittsburgh, USA (January to June, 2007).
69. As well as Adjaye/Associates, the group includes Caruso St. John Architects, FAT, Níall McLaughlin Architects, muf and Sergison Bates Architects.
70. P. Allison, ed., David Adjaye Houses: Recycling, Reconfiguring, Rebuilding (London, Thames and Hudson, 2005);
71. P. Allison, ed., David Adjaye: Making Public Buildings. Specificity, Customization, Imbrication (London, Thames and Hudson, 2006).
72. D. Sudjic, 'Building in London', in, P. Allison, ed., David Adjaye Houses: Recycling, Reconfiguring, Rebuilding, op. cit., pp. 186-191.
73. These buildings combine and rework the conventional typologies of library and community centre.
74. See, for example: P. Allison, 'The house of the artist: David Adjaye designs a studio house for London's new generation of artists', Domus (December, 2002), pp. 60-69;
75. th July, 2002), p. 1;
76. A. Baillieu, 'Mirror mirror on the wall. Building study: Dirty House, east London', RIBA Journal (November, 2002), pp. 34-38;
77. K. Long, 'David Adjaye', Icon, 17 (2004), pp. 84-92;
78. rd July, 2005).
79. See C. Roux, 'The Tale of a House', in, P. Allison, ed., David Adjaye Houses, op. cit., pp. 132, 135, for comment on Adjaye's training at the Royal College of Art and links to contemporary London artists, and particularly to those such as Chris Ofili and Jake and Dinos Chapman, whose work explores ideas about dirt and abjection.
80. http://www.kultureflash.net/archive/136/default.htm#event3019 (accessed 06/07/07)
81. See A. Harris, 'The installation of Hoxton: culture and capital in 1990s inner London', Branding Urban Space: the Creation of Art Districts in Contemporary London and Mumbai, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London (September, 2005), pp. 123-166;
82. and J. Stallabrass, High Art Lite: the Rise and Fall of Young British Art (London and New York, Verso, 1999/2006).
83. P. Allison, 'Living in Ruins', in, P. Allison, ed., David Adjaye Houses, op. cit., pp. 83-88.
84. S. Hall, 'Negotiating architecture', in, P. Allison, ed., David Adjaye Houses, op. cit., p. 10.
85. J. Stallabrass, High Art Lite, op. cit., p. 256.
86. C. Rosenblum, 'The Carnegie's Gritty Brits offers keen architectural minds at work', http://www.pittsburgh-citypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A22477 (accessed 06/07/07).
87. R. Ryan, Gritty Brits, op. cit., p. 11.
88. Ibid., p. 12.
89. Ibid., p. 11.
90. Ibid.
91. Reyner Banham, quoted in H. Webster, 'Modernism without rhetoric: the work of Alison and Peter Smithson', in, H. Webster, ed., Modernism Without Rhetoric: Essays on the Work of Alison and Peter Smithson (London, Academy Editions, 1997), pp. 10-123.
92. At the Institute of Contemporary Arts and the Whitechapel Art Gallery respectively.
93. V. Walsh, Nigel Henderson: Parallel of Life and Art, London (London, Thames and Hudson, 2001). See especially, pp. 89-122.
94. rd August, 1996.
95. http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/noble-webster-articles.htm (accessed 22/06/07).
96. M. Harris, 'Tim Noble and Sue Webster at 20 Rivington Street', Art in America (July, 1998).
97. J. Deitch, 'Black Magic', in T. Noble and S. Webster, Wasted Youth (New York, Rizzoli, 2006), unpaginated.
98. Ibid.
99. th July, 2007).
100. A. Baillieu, 'Mirror mirror on the wall', op. cit., p. 34. Baillieu explains that developing the original factory building rather than demolishing it completely and rebuilding left the clients liable to an additional tax - the UK's Value Added Tax - of 17.5%.
101. Ibid., p. 36.
102. P. Allison, 'The house of the artist: David Adjaye designs a studio house for London's new generation of artists', Domus (December, 2002).
103. P. Aspden, 'Rising star with a store of ideas'. This quotation is used by the practice on their website http://www.adjaye.com (accessed 26/06/07).
104. C. Roux, 'The Tale of a House', in, P. Allison, ed., David Adjaye Houses, op. cit., p. 135.
105. Full details of the coating, known as PL 13, can be found here: http://www.cleanstreets.co.uk/PL13.pdf
106. th July, 2007).
107. th July, 2007).
108. http://www.houldsworth.co.uk/previous/03-imagin glondon/text.html
109. The scaffolding covers a synagogue being converted into a house for a prominent London-based sculptress.
110. R. Wilson, 'At the limits of genre: architectural photography and utopic criticism', The Journal of Architecture, Volume 10, Number 9, pp. 265-266.
111. J. Tagg, Grounds of Dispute: Art History, Cultural Politics and the Discursive Field (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1992), p. 101.
112. This is true of some, although not all, of the other Gritty Brits.
113. 'Page 3' girls are so called in reference to the fact that British tabloid newspapers such as The Sun have traditionally featured images of semi-naked women on page 3.
114. Conversation with Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Dirty House, London, op. cit.
115. The artists report that Adjaye approves of the new floor; although in publications such as the Gritty Brits exhibition catalogue, Adjaye/Associates describes the original floor as though it is still in situ.
116. A. Baillieu, 'Mirror mirror on the wall', op. cit., p. 34.
117. G. Bruno, 'Ramble city: postmodernism and Blade Runner', October, Vol. 41 (Summer, 1987), p. 64.
118. E. Wilhide, New Loft Living (London, Carlton Books, 2002), p. 92.
119. L. Alloway, quoted in H. Webster, ed., Modernism Without Rhetoric: Essays on the Work of Alison and Peter Smithson (London, Academy Editions, 1997), p. 43.
120. S. Zukin, Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban Change (Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins UP, 1982), p. 3.
121. Celebrated in the kind of coffee-table books that one might expect to see accessorising such properties, this genre of prestige property development remains popular but has attracted surprisingly little in the way of critical commentary within architectural discourse, despite its pastiche, and by now clichéd aesthetic. For two recent examples of publications which uncritically celebrate loft spaces and the lifestyles associated with them, see P. Vance, Loft Loving (London, Ward Lock, 1999)
122. and E. Wilhide, New Loft Living, op. cit.
123. D. Harvey, 'Foreword', S. Zukin, Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban Change, op. cit., p. ix.
124. Ibid., p. xi. Since the publication of Zukin's book, academic debates have ensued over the appropriate degree of analytic emphasis on the roles and levels of responsibility of individual agents, and broader structures and socio-cultural factors, in contributing to 'loft living' as a form of gentrification. For a recent example, see: C. Hamnett and D. Whitelegg, 'Loft conversion and gentrification in London: from industrial to postindustrial land use', Environment and Planning A, 39(2007), p. 110.
125. Conversation with Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Dirty House, London, op. cit.
126. D. Harvey, 'Foreword', S. Zukin, Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban Change, op. cit., p. xii.
127. J. Stallabrass, High Art Lite, op. cit., p. 242. Stallabrass discusses the work of a number of contemporary British artists as operating in this mode of urban pastoral, including Damien Hirst, Keith Coventry and Sarah Lucas.
128. Ibid., p. 255.
129. Ibid., p. 256.
130. J. Rendell, Art and Architecture: a Place Between (London, I. B. Tauris, 2006) p. 89. Rendell discusses Blees Luxemburg's Caliban Towers I and II (1997) as part of her exploration of 'ruin as allegory' in art and architectural projects.
131. Adjaye, quoted in P. Aspden, 'Rising star with a store of ideas', Financial Times, 27th January, 2006. This quotation is used by the practice on its website: http://www.adjaye.com (accessed 26/06/07).
132. H. Foster, 'Why all the Hoopla', London Review of Books, Vol. 23, No. 16 (23rd August, 2001); http://www.lrb.co.uk/v23/n16/print/fost01-.html (accessed 06/05/07). Thanks to Barbara Penner for drawing my attention to the relevance of debates over Gehry's house in discussion about my ideas for this paper.
133. '[Adjaye] has captured the imagination with a blend of postmodern architecture that has gone beyond the feeble first phase of that movement, all pastiches and literalism, to engage with the dominant social trends of the day: access, democracy, civic empowerment': P. Aspden, 'Rising star with a store of ideas', op. cit.