2019_Thesis Book: Maria Diavolova

Info

hands pause momentarily, long enough to listen for a third bell, before they continue to demarcate ship routes along the earth’s waterways. The gestures are sprightly, visibly foreign to the shores of Bermondsey, which are filled with stillness in spite of its bustling warehouses. The air is motionless, thick with an amalgam of foul smells pressing down upon the streetscape. Warehouses have long outgrown the marshland, creating tall and narrow corridors, indistinguishable from the airless interiors of their surroundings. Each stands tall, like a brick silo lining the industrial waterfront; a building for the organization of imperialism. The men sit one on top of the other, their voices hardly distinct from one another, as they continue to debate distribution schedules. Schedule after schedule, wharf laborers rush to fulfill quixotic demands. Their bodies are pulled backwards, forwards, upward over footbridges through a dense substance they can hardly call air. Little distinguishes a wharf laborer from a Sherpa scaling the Himalayas. Fleets glide, first colonizing, then extracting before they retreat from offshore territories, circle the earth and land upon the Thames. The great schism meanders inland from the North Sea, bifurcating the metropolis into north and south. Every inch of its shores is lined with bollards onto which ships will imminently moor; in the brief moment they stand empty, wharf laborers sit atop their heads. Yet, the river ebbs and flows, ceaselessly ushering in vessels. the penang from west ferry road, national maritime museum london https://www.crouchrarebooks.com/maps/view/mylnehttp://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/ ConMediaFile.4696/The-Penang-in-the-Britannia-Dry- Dock-Millwall.html 003 SPRINKLED with fragments of Roman Londinium, the northwestern topographical highland is the crowning jewel of the city, the land of the metropolis as imagined by thousands of countrymen, women and children migrating en masse from the English countryside. Every corner of the city beyond is a function of this highland, built to manage the northern reality. South London is the waste land of this horizon; the land for the production and redistribution of goods; the land of toxicity that is unwelcome within the visual field of the northwest. The universal solvent 33 swells, its molecules pulled upward by the strings of a cosmic gravitational force. The new moon rests silently above the stratocumulus clouds of South London, its force field withdrawing London’s water reservoirs from their internal world. Water inches along the gravel deposits lining the Thames Basin, fleetingly lifting the sediments before continuing its upward surge. Cautiously, in search of entry, it begins to meet edges between timber pilings and makeshift quays, land and water. The men rush in, climbing upward with as many crates of goods they can carry. Gradually, then all at once, its body spills over the haphazard web of dirt roads, cobblestone lined streets and patches of remnant fields, indiscriminately sweeping along the filth. The landscape of loose paper and dust sweeps inward in a pulpous mixture, turning encrusted streetscapes into mud. Knee-high, untraversable, disease ridden mud. Loose objects, some having lined the riverside wharves, others having drifted ashore, rush inward to create islands of stray wood, tea and spice. Laborers hang over warehouse apertures, hypnotized by the viscous substance, which stirs up the filth to reveal a new geological stratum. Oliver hangs alongside them watching as the firm land he landed upon is set in motion. The scars of industrialization meander inward, impersonating River Neckinger, once branching off of the Thames at St. Saviour’s Dock. the thames and tower bridge, albert kahn, 1924 https://vakin.livejournal.com/834469.html st. saviour’s dock, a.g. linney, 1930 https://www.museumoflondonprints.com/ image/374725/a-g-linney-st-saviours-dock-1930 2020 capital fuel defense impermeability preservation st. saviour’s dock, dockhead, 1983 http://petermarshallphotos.co.uk/pics/34f35.jpg 017 018
liquidity 80,000 75,000 70,000 65,000 60,000 55,000 50,000 45,000 40,000 35,000 30,000 25,000 The city…does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, the gratings of the windows, the banisters of the steps, the antennae of the lightning rods, the poles of the flags, every segment marked in turn with scratches, indentations, scrolls.” 001 — Italo Calvino 34 (34) SKYE LANDS at the intersection of Jacob Street and Georges Row, just off of Bermondsey Wall. 35 The street is lined in asphalt. Modified, but standing, the brick silhouettes of formerly industrial buildings fill the street with clay off tones. Black, damp-proofing paint lines the first thirty courses of brick, a vertical extension of the bitumen that covers the streets. Every ten feet, the brick course is interrupted by a corrugated plastic weep hole or vent. Turning left onto Mill Street, Sky glances up at the 180-foot Vogans Mill Wharf, a former silo, turned luxury apartments, which towers over its surroundings; its white, lace stucco finish is starkly contrasted against the earthy tones of its neighbors. The stucco’s ridges have already turned off-white as footprints of pollutive activity. Skye turns right onto Jamaica Road. The wind picks up, the only indication of the river’s proximity. She walks along toward the Shard, the only glass skyscraper along the southern shoreline. She leans over the wall at the foot of St. Saviour’s Dock 36 mesmerized by the glistening mud beneath. A fluorescent traffic cone sits lightly atop an island of clay. There is no traffic. Wood piles line the shores of each building, their color progressing in a patchy gradient from heavily soaked brown to algae green, inching upward in independent streaks, which follow along the wood’s grain. Skye turns right onto Shad Thames. 37 The alleyway is quiet. The footbridges stand still. Skye walks with neck outstretched toward the sun; it’s a futile gesture considering the sun reaches halfway through the fifty-foot building before being replaced by its heavy shadow. Skye turns left onto the stretch of Shad Thames that runs parallel to River Thames. The entrance to Butler’s Wharf is on right. 002 The “divorce between appearance and performance…keeps the illusion of architecture intact, while surrendering wholeheartedly to the needs of the metropolis” (Koolhaas and Mau, 1998, 937) The building typology of Bermondsey is sufficient to tell of the borough’s history, as well as hint at the socio-economic status of its current residents. The warehouse building type, comprising of tall, brick structures with arched openings; the iron ornaments on the façades; the iron hooks; the signage in latex, reading “Butler’s Wharf,” etc. are all recognizable symbols of an industrial past. The restoration of these emblems is a form of restorative nostalgia—which stresses “nostos and proposes to rebuild the lost home and patch up the memory gaps” (Boym, 2010, 41).; in restoring the architectural emblems of colonial activity, they become an aesthetic tool for the sale of luxury apartments. Thus, the borough relegates its past as an actor within the imperial network. This expression of restorative nostalgia bears a significant energy cost. Specifically, aerial views reveal the extensive HVAC systems, which adorn the rooftops of these grade II listed buildings. Jorge Otero-Pailos says, “while it’s important to continue to care for built heritage and art, we also have to recognize that what we’ve been caring for is pollution…pollution is our cultural heritage” (Otero-Pailos quoted in Raskin). Analogously, what we’ve been caring for along the shore of Bermondsey is carbon. 75,000 70,000 65,000 60,000 55,000 50,000 45,000 40,000 35,000 30,000 25,000 Atlas of Erosive Potentialities 1’ = 20,000’ N atlas of erosive potentialities 2020 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0 THE GATE RISES in a seamless rotation from the underbelly of the riverbed to a cross-section in the water. On a clear day, when the barrier rises for its monthly maintenance, the water remains visibly undisturbed, though Skye is well-aware its natural ebb and flow come to an engineered stop. Looking out from the balcony atop Butler’s Wharf shortly after four o’clock, Skye watched the ever-murky water of the Thames oscillate against the embankment in conflicting sinusoidal motion. The water crawled up the masonry, inching toward its smooth edge. This was day seventeen in the barrier’s battle against the relentless offense of England’s increasingly volatile climate. Water came from all directions as rainwater battered stone, brick, shingle indiscriminately. Sewage gargled through gridded manholes, always on the brink of spilling over. London was enshrouded by thick mist, denying the city its horizon. The international face mist market had taken a hit in recent months as the dry, chill winters of the European northwest were replaced by a perpetual wetness. Londoners had gone on to schedule daily rituals—vigilantly observing the river for signs of the barrier’s performance, while simultaneously offering their melanindeprived faces to the bottomless sky. Even if imperceptible to the eye, sunlight was out there, they thought. And they were calling it forth. Skye exhaled a full lung capacity’s worth of cigarette smoke as the water aerial view of butler’s wharf showing systems google earth (35) 51°30’03.0”N 0°04’07.9”W (36) 51°30’01.6”N 0°04’25.1”W (37) 51°30’02.5”N 0°04’25.5”W 019 020
Page 1 and 2: atlas of erosive potentialities URB
Page 3 and 4: contents abstract...010 preface...0
Page 5 and 6: 15% London 40% UK carbon emissions
Page 7 and 8: preface “Creative agents advance
Page 9: capital of capital blackfriers rail
Page 13 and 14: erosive potentialities “I am not
Page 15 and 16: 30,000 25,000 20,000 30,000 25,000
Page 17 and 18: 031 032
Page 19: atlas of erosive potentialities URB

2019_Thesis Book: Maria Diavolova

Transform your PDFs into Flipbooks and boost your revenue!

Delete template?

Save as template ?