"72 propositions for ideal homes", Royal Commission for Fine Arts for Scotland, Edinburgh

Exhibition Text

At the invitation of EDI, 36 Students of architecture from ECA have made propositions for 72 ideal homes at Wauchope Square in Craigmillar. Homes for a colourful mix of fictional characters. The resulting dense urban carpet of houses is predicated on the suspension of guidelines, operational practices and regulations which prevent people living this close together. These restrictive rules were identified and discussed. The conversation then focussed on ways forward through current research in fire engineering and less conventional approaches to privacy. When the density of houses on the ground can approach that of flatted developments the financial playing field starts to level out. There is a groundswell of opinion for a radical shift in thinking on rules which prohibit the realisation of reasonable human aspirations. This exhibition is set to provoke conversations about how people might want to live. There is no place for cynicism here. What are your views?

Ideal Homes Project
As this project began a “master plan” was in hand for two hundred and eighty nine new dwellings with on street parking at Wauchope Square in Craigmillar, between Niddrie Mains Road and Niddrie Mains Drive. Craigmillar is by and large an extensive post war housing estate with schools, churches, a health centre, shops and community centres. A small town beyond the core of the City. The masterplan is one of many components in the regeneration of Craigmillar. On the site there are a considerable number of partly inhabited blocks of flats which are planned to be demolished. Yet, over eighty percent of the new dwellings in the master plan were flats and maisonettes also in blocks, three, four, five and six storeys in height. It is no surprise when one hears that people in Craigmillar would prefer to live in a house on the ground. Why then more blocks of flats to replace the existing blocks of flats?

The wider benefits from living in tenements in the city centre are clear. A profusion of unique facilities and urban experiences are on hand and within walking distance, in spite of the migration of many previously orthodox components of urban life towards the periphery. No such benefits come to mind at all from living in a block of flats in Craigmillar which is geographically remote from the city centre and with a hardly dynamic public transport system.

"For many of the people their lives already feel empty and limited due to the immense pressures of poverty, low pay and temporary solutions to long-term problems."
(quotation from the Craigmillar Community Website.)

Many illustrated guidelines on how housing should be designed have been published with illustrated examples of do’s and don’ts. Bids to ensure the continuity of supposed rural or urban regional character through superficial observations and nostalgic interpretations of what exists. Often leading to the banality of neutral comfort. What’s new?

Last year Steven Tolson the senior development surveyor with EDI, the City of Edinburgh Council’s Economic and Investment Company, participated in an Ideal Homes project in the Borders with third year students of architecture at Edinburgh College of Art. A project aligned with academic objectives towards speculative urban strategies and imaginative designs for the ideal homes of fictional characters. Steven invited this year’s students to locate their ideal homes project in Craigmillar, at Wauchope Square, Houses on the ground with private outdoor space and integrated parking and for fictional characters. An alternative pattern of domestic occupation to that planned for Wauchope Square was mapped out. A dense carpet of double house plots with occasional gaps for external social activity. It was felt that the two new future schools on Niddrie Mains Drive might share their outdoor recreational spaces with the community Niddrie Mains Drive is after all labelled to become a “Community Street”. A place to spend time, without spending money?

Last year Steven Tolson of the EDI Group, participated in an Ideal Homes project in the Borders with third year students of architecture at Edinburgh College of Art. A project aligned with academic objectives towards speculative urban strategies and imaginative designs for the ideal homes of fictional characters. Steven invited this year’s students to locate their ideal homes project in Craigmillar, at Wauchope Square. Houses on the ground with private outdoor space and integrated parking and for fictional characters.

An alternative pattern of domestic occupation to that planned for Wauchope Square was mapped out. A dense carpet of double house plots with occasional gaps for external social activity. It was felt that the two new future schools on Niddrie Mains Drive might share their outdoor recreational spaces with the community. Niddrie Mains Drive is, after all, labelled to become a “Community Street”. A place to spend time, without spending money?

Each student selected a fictional identity out of the hat and at the same time became an imaginary client. Each student then selected a double house plot and a pair of colleagues as their own ideal imaginary clients all from the list;

Astronomer, Asylum Seeker , Ballet Dancer, Bee Keeper, Bouncer , Buddhist monk , Bus driver , Car Salesman , Celeb, Clown, Demolition Contractor,Gardener, Hairdresser, Housewife , Jobless , Judge, Junky , Local Councillor,Lollipop Woman , Masseuse , Minister , Mormon with Ten Wives ,Mortician , Night guard , Nurse , Peace activist, Pimp, Policeman , Postman , Refuse collector, Rock climber , Teacher, Tightrope walker , Wannabe , Window Cleaner , Zoo keeper

Client character profiles were made up through questionnaires. These told something about the imaginary clients’ social life, family, health, pets, phobias, traumas, disabilities, talents, obsessions and police record. As architects the students analysed their clients’ desires and the character relationship between their clients who were to live on the same double house plots. The result was the product of conflicting wish lists and acts of persuasion.