Forthcoming book!

Home and Community: lessons from a Modernist housing scheme

Co-Authors: Sandra Costa-Santos, Nadia Bertolino,Vanessa May, Stephen Hicks, Camilla Lewis.

We are happy that the book collecting reflections and findings of our research project will be published in Spring/Summer 2018 by Routledge.

This book explores connections between architecture, home and community, through the empirical examination of domestic experiences in Claremont Court. The book’s novel cross-disciplinary approach broadens understandings of home and community, by looking at how residents make home and articulate a sense of belonging, inescapably bounded by architecture. The first part of the book develops the relevance of Claremont Court through a cross-disciplinary reading from both the architectural and socio-cultural perspective. The second part of the book explores the domestic experiences of current residents in Claremont Court. The findings of the research develop the relationship between architecture, home and community through this case study, offering valuable insights for the current debate on housing, home and community. This book will be a must-read for academics and researchers on architecture and the social sciences, in particular those that seek practical guidance on how to combine text-based and visual methods.

 

Research Seminar _ Place, belonging, atmosphere: an interdisciplinary dialogue

The University of Manchester, Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives
Wednesday, 22nd November 2017
2-4 pm

After introducing the genesis and aims of the project, the seminar will focus on the architectural and social science methods we used and what bringing these methods together has brought to our understanding of place, belonging and atmosphere in Claremont Court.

 

Research Workshop  _ Investigating individual perception and use of common spaces in Claremont Court 

Edinburgh, 24th November 2016

We invited Claremont Court residents to “map” in two stages some specific contents and actions that closely relate to their use and perception of the common spaces in Claremont Court. This fostered a reflection about the linkages between spatial and social aspects, in particular:
  • Do the shared spaces allow for neighbours interaction, as they were meant to do according to the original design intentions?
  • Are these spaces effectively used by the residents? And what are their feelings towards them? Do these spaces and their design affect the social behaviour?
  • Is there any formal or informal process of community-led spatial appropriationcurrently ongoing in the tenement?
The workshop took place on 24th November 2016, during the Claremont Court Resident Association meeting.
  
A critical reading of this workshop’s outputs and a reflection on our methodological approach have been presented at the international conference “Cities, Communities and Homes: Is the Urban Future Livable?“, University of Derby- June 2017. Read more here.