St Dunstan's Church
Stepney City Farm Site Visit RSS
It was still dark when I woke up on the 17th January 2011. Opening the curtains I was quite disappointed to see it was a particularly grim day of heavy rain and wind. Walking around and sketching a farm wasn't top of my list of priorities in this weather but I was excited to see the area for our new project. The project in question is called Caravanserai and the task involves designing a community centre and rural crafts centre for Stepney City Farm.
City (or urban) farms have been appearing in urban centres all over the country as city dwellers become more aware of their impact on society and want to improve living conditions within this environment. City farms bring the countryside into the city providing residents, as well as school and community groups, the opportunity to learn and most importantly, experience farm life for themselves.
The journey to London took around an hour and a half due to heavy traffic. We were dropped off and had to walk through a churchyard to St Dunstan’s church for an introductory lecture provided by those involved in the farm.
David Haney, the first year co-ordinator, introduced the first speaker who was the vicar of the church. She told us about the church’s history and about the community that was built around it saying that a church had been on that site since around 900BC, it had formed the heart of the community. She mentioned that Stepney was very multicultural, and in particular had a large Bangladeshi community. I want my buildings embrace this idea in order to ensure all people, from all backgrounds feel welcome and encouraged to use the farm. The Wikipedia article on Stepney contains a lot of information about the history of the area as well as the current demographics, geography and governance. According to this article the most recent census stated that the area was 43% Bangladeshi making this community the racial majority. More information can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepney
The church was important to merchant traders in the past as a place to record births and deaths. I think it is important to include influences of the sea and sailing in my design somehow so that this heritage is not forgotten.
With the church being so close to the site and effectively dominating it, I think it is important to be sympathetic to it with my design. However I do not want the farm buildings to resemble additional church buildings as this might limit the building implying that it is particular to one faith. Perhaps I could use similar materials to the church in order to allow it to blend with it whilst not taking on the same identity.
We also heard from an archaeologist who explained the history of the site. We learnt that the site was heavily built on with houses in the past that had been levelled by bombing during World War II. We heard from the farm’s blacksmith who told us about the rural crafts centre and what he hoped to achieve with it. He was passionate about his trade and what he hoped could be done with the centre by demonstrating the rural crafts of bygone years.
Finally, one of the staff members of the site explained to us that the farm is community based and run by volunteers. They encourage the locals to come and do their own farming as well as giving school and community groups the opportunity to come and learn more about the countryside and where their food comes from. The farm provides the opportunity to experience these things for real and not just out of a book.
After leaving the church, we split up into our groups to begin the first set of tasks. We were sent off to do the art task but unfortunately the weather meant that we couldn’t do any of the sketching that had been planned. Instead the tutors improvised and we had a photography task involving taking photos of things that were textural.
I found this quite interesting because it was something that I hadn’t really done before. What particularly stood out for me was how many natural and interesting textures I could find in such an urban environment, the presence of which could be put down to the farm and the churchyard. Another thing we noticed was the dangerous mini roundabout on the corner of Stepney Way and Stepney High Street. I think it might be a good idea to make an entrance to the site around the corner, near the zebra crossing on Stepney High Street, to encourage people to cross the road here to avoid the roundabout.
After walking around and photographing everything we could, we went into the warm, got some wax crayons out and began to draw things that interested us or inspired us about the site. The outside walls of the current community centre building were very colourfully painted with branches, leaves and animals and I wanted to capture this on paper. It reflected the fun aspect of the site and made it feel more welcoming. I thought it was good that the people that used the site had made the buildings their own. I have recently been reading “Lessons for Students in Architecture” by Herman Hertzberger and in this, Herman writes about how the occupants of the space could be encouraged to make a space their own instead of architects dictating exactly how the building should be. I think the community being able to make the new buildings their own should be an important part of the design. It should be a building by the community, for the community.
After lunch and our free hour we looked around the site with a landscape architect and it was a shame to see the condition of the current buildings. The community centre was made up of cold and uninviting portable cabins. The rural crafts centre was a breezeblock shed which it turned out, was unfit for the purpose needed by it. A tarpaulin had been erected outside the shed to provide a sheltered area for the blacksmith to forge. The toilets were situated inside another portable cabin. All the buildings on site were providing a solution to a need but not in the best way and not with the most comfort. As we walked around the farm we saw areas for growing food, the pens for animals and a set of old ruins that are of archaeological interest.
One problem I noticed about the site was not being able to look towards the farm area from the site due to the sheds and fences. I really wanted to frame this view for people sitting in the café which means I will need to think of a way around this problem.
Next we went on the historical context walk with David Haney. This involved a short walk up Stepney Green to Mile End road which is the main high street through the area and also part of the route of the London Olympic 2012 marathons. The Olympic games will directly benefit this area by being injected with lots of money and regeneration programs. More information on this can be found at: http://highstreet2012.com/HighStreet2012.pdf On the way to Mile End road we passed the historic ruins of Worcester House that existed on the site between 1597 and 1858 when the house was demolished to make room for more houses. On one side of the Stepney Green were several run down tenement blocks, but these were contrasted by many quite beautiful townhouses on the other side of the road. Mile End road was particularly busy with pedestrians making their way home from work or school or visiting the shops. We passed by the run down Wickhams Department Store and down Hannibal Road and Jamaica Street. This is where we completed the circuit at Stepney Gardens which was a particularly lush and inviting park located alongside the farm. Most of the area we walked through is a designated conservation area designed to protect areas of important historical or architectural significance. The map showing which parts of Stepney are protected by the conservation area can be seen in this document produced by the Tower Hamlets council: http://moderngov.towerhamlets.gov.uk/Published/C00000320/M00002035/AI00013789/ConsAreasCAsMGsAdoptionAppxC11StepneyGreen.pdf
The walk helped us understand the surrounding area better, to see how dilapidated and in need of renovation it was and how much it was influenced by the multi-cultural communities that inhabited it.
To finish off the day we walked away from the site and towards the Thames through a very affluent and modern area. I was shocked at how abruptly the area could change from run down to plush and modern from one street to the next. From a boardwalk running alongside the Thames we could see nearby Canary Wharf and I couldn’t help but think that with development, Stepney could really benefit by people moving into the area to utilise its proximity to the business district.
We walked further down the river and after taking in the sights we found the buses and headed back to Canterbury with our minds racing through all sorts of ideas and things to factors to consider.