Building Estate Research Articles

Developing Victorian Battersea: The Story of James Lord and George Todd, Junior

Although the broad outlines of the development of ‘ordinary’ mid- to late-Victorian building estates in suburban London are well known, there remains a large potential for more detailed studies, both of individual suburbs and estates. Records of local developers, surveyors and builders, other than what may be gleaned from official sources or from randomly surviving deeds are scarce, and the motivations and finances of the vast majority are either obscure or completely unknown. Occasionally, however, a power searchlight illuminates the complex relationships that underlie the transformation of fields into streets. The core of this study is an action in Chancery of 1870–1, brought by barrister and estate developer James Lord against builder-turned-auctioneer/surveyor George Todd junior. The ups and downs of their often less-than-businesslike relationship over the preceding seven years no doubt mirrors many similar, but unrecorded, examples, not only in Battersea but across Victorian London.

Research on Civil Engineering with Comprehensive Evaluation Model of Urban Old-Age Real Estate Building Energy Saving

Based on the analysis on civil engineering of existing old-age real estate building energy saving, this paper builts comprehensive evaluation index system, and analyzes its evaluation index content and determines the standards. Using grey relational analysis to establish the simplified evaluation index system,and based on artificial neural network, this paper then establishes a comprehensive evaluation model of urban old-age real estate building energy saving, which not only helps to control building energy saving effect, but also helps to guide new old-age real estate building energy saving to carry out, and promotes the development of civil engineering industry.

Seeking Sydney From the Ground Up: Foundations and Horizons in Sydney’s Historiography

It was an essay by geographers Robyn Dowling and Kathy Mee on Western Sydney public housing estates in the 1950s and 1960s which prompted me to write that we need histories ‘from the ground up’. Dowling and Mee compared longstanding stereotypes of Western Sydney and public housing estates with real demographic profiles and the lived experiences of suburban people, stories that ‘highlight the social promise and ordinariness embedded in the building of estates’. Here was recognizable, human Sydney, full of ‘people doing things’, recovered from the condescension of almost everybody. In this article I want to first explore what ‘from the ground up’ has meant in my own work, and look at its implications for urban history more generally. Then I will trace some key movements and breakthroughs in Sydney’s urban historiography over the past half century, noting particularly what happens when close-grained research is fused with larger conceptual and theoretical approaches and models. My own approach to urban history ‘from the ground up’ is urban ethnographic history. The aim is Annales-inspired histoire total, for I seek to ‘see things whole, to integrate the economic, the social, the political and the cultural into a “total” history’. The Annales emphasis on space, and the perception, co-existence and interaction of different historical timescales, have of course been germane to the emergence of urban history since the 1960s, while cross-disciplinary exchange and thinking (something in which we bowerbird historians excel!) also lies at the heart of urban studies.

O Programa Minha Casa, Minha Vida na Região Metropolitana de Natal: uma análise espacial dos padrões de segregação e desterritorialização

Essa pesquisa propoe uma analise sobre as formas de producao da moradia e seus impactos na reconfiguracao espacial das metropoles, concentrando-se no estudo dos empreendimentos do Programa Minha Casa, Minha Vida destinados a populacao de faixa de renda de zero a tres salarios minimos (faixa 1), construidos na Regiao Metropolitana de Natal. A partir da evidencia de que os empreendimentos do PMCMV destinados a populacao de baixa renda implantados no territorio da RMN, em sua maioria, estao sendo construidos em localidades distantes do tecido urbano, com pouca ou nenhuma oferta de transporte publico e equipamentos sociais, essa pesquisa buscou investigar se a construcao dessas moradias tem promovido a segregacao social dessa populacao, impactando diretamente no cotidiano dos moradores, da forma como Haesbaert define a desterritorializacao. Foram visitados 32 empreendimentos, distribuidos em 8 municipios da RMN, caracterizando sua localizacao e insercao urbana, refletindo e verificando se a carencia de servicos e infraestrutura determinam uma segregacao da populacao residente, implicando em consequencias marcantes no seu cotidiano e promovendo o processo social de desterritorializacao.

Le trasgressioni delle regole. Un altro possibile punto di vista

This text discusses the hypothesis that rules and transgression are not two opposites or two alternatives, but that a complex, structured relationship exists between these that has (at least) two aspects: transgression of the rules and the rules for transgression. The frame of reference is the field of urban planning. Therefore I consider the rules for the use and transformation of real estate (buildings and land) and the transgression of these rules, or rather illegal, unauthorised buildings and urban planning. I analyse in particular the first of the two aspects, the transgression of rules, for which I propose an classification. This allows me to show that the world of urban transgressions is more complex and structured than is expressed by the term ‘illegal', that transgressions have features that are different, differentiable, and frequently paradoxical, and above all have a deep, complex relationship with rules.

The Problem and Needs of Existing Urban Multifamily Building Estates in Poland

Abstract The present paper explains in a descriptive way the findings and derivations, concerning the various needs, solutions and priorities which are identified in existing urban building envelopes of Poland, especially in Rzeszow housing estates.

Closure to “Win-Win Concession Period Determination Methodology” by Xueqing Zhang

Min Wu; Kwong Wing Chau; and Qi Ping Shen Professor, Management School, Chongqing Jiao Tong Univ., P.R. China (on leave); Instructor, Dept. of Building Services Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ., Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong (corresponding author). E-mail: bewumin@polyu.edu.hk Chair Professor, Dept. of Real Estate and Construction, Univ. of Hong Kong. E-mail: hrrbckw@hku.hk Chair Professor and Head, Dept. of Building and Real Estate, Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ., Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. E-mail: bsqpshen@inet.polyu.edu.hk

Il Serapeo ed i Granai Imperiali di Pozzuoli

Il Serapeo ed i Granai Imperiali di Pozzuoli

Determination of domestic flushing water consumption in Hong Kong

PurposeTo determine the domestic flushing water consumption for a building development.Design/methodology/approachA statistic mathematical model is proposed and the model parameters are sampled with the Monte Carlo sampling technique. The frequency distribution of the parameters for Hong Kong is identified from the survey results of the water closet usage patterns in five typical residential building estates. In particular, the density function of the diurnal variations of occupant load and flushes per occupant, and the cistern volume of the water closets in 597 apartments are used to establish the model.FindingsThe flushing water consumption of the residential developments in Hong Kong is determined and compared with the measurement result of typical residential buildings.Research limitations/implicationsThe model parameters are not exhaustive and are determined from surveys in Hong Kong, which perhaps limits the model's usefulness elsewhere.Practical implicationsA useful source of reference in determining the domestic flushing water consumption of building developments for those involved in building design and management related to the flushing water systems of residential buildings.Originality/valueThis paper proposes a statistical mathematical model of domestic flushing water consumption and presents a template to determine the required model parameters. The model offers practical help to professionals involved in planning, designing and managing the flushing water facilities for domestic buildings.

Produire du terrain constructible et urbanisé

Urban development means taking into account in the urbanization project all the facilities required to finalize the building operation, then the implementation of this project. It proved to be particularly efficient when constructing large building estates, but also during the development of industrial areas or leisure areas. Normalized and quantified, the principles it had defined turned out to be invaluable when conducting large scale operations difficult to implement due to their complexity, their considerable cost and the time required for completion.

Story-telling and history construction: rereading George Cadbury's Bournville Model Village

In 1895, an innovation in the provision of model housing by manufacturers occurred with the development by George Cadbury of Bournville Model Village. This was the first model settlement to provide low-density housing not restricted to factory employees. This paper uses the Bournville archives to explore the accepted history of this settlement. It is argued that the accepted history is a particular reading of this planning experiment. The paper explores the construction of the «accepted history», identifies some of the authors behind the history and uses the minute books and secretary reports of Bournville Village Trust to construct an alternative historical narrative. The alternative history is one in which Bournville begins as a building estate rather than as a model village. The building estate was provided with no community facilities, and the houses were targeted at the lower- and upper- middle classes. Cadbury repackaged the building estate by appropriating the garden city movement, in return the garden city movement also appropriated Bournville by using it as a working example of a model garden village. The paper makes a contribution to theoretical debate by linking a literature from organizational studies concerned with story-telling and construction to historical geography.

Methodology For The Building Estate Knowledge:Analytic Tools For Identifying DegradationProcesses

This contribute derives from a research, which this Department is developing since five years both at teaching level and at methodology study level. The main objective for this research is aimed to define a method to analyse the state of the building envelope, with particular attention for the traditional buildings. The diagnostic phase requires the knowledge of all pathologies that can be identified on the analysed building and the existing relations with the main relevant factors, which are involved into the degradation process, in order to reach the possible causes of disease. T h s study is based on a visual survey of the degradation conditions and it is carried out through the employ of the main classification systems for the degradation pathologies. The case study is the Real Albergo de' Poveri in Naples, a 7 0 0 ~ architecture, designed by Ferdinando Fuga, characterised by a very extensive and complex plan-volumetric development. The envelope of this building presents on the external wall (principal front length 354 mt.) a basement made of stone blocks (piperno) while the superior part is plastered. The facades along the internal courts are actually without plaster. The contribute will be articulated through the following points: 1. Degradation pathologies on the envelope of traditional buildings Classification tools 2. classification of the envelope system Individuation of factors Relations between pathologies 3. Analytic card Transactions on the Built Environment vol 55, © 2001 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509

Risk Management at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, is a Grade I listed building housing an internationally important art collection of half a million objects. The building and the collections belong to the University of Cambridge, of which the museum forms a department. Maintenance of the fabric and equipment is the responsibility of the university's Estate Management and Building Service, with whom museum staff work closely to ensure appropriate conditions for the collections and the reduction of risks to objects and staff. Following the drafting of a conservation plan and an examination of risks and their management, this case study reviews the museum's risks. It proposes the development of a building ‘bibie’ and attention to staff communication as essential elements of the risk management strategy it outlines. A second paper will examine the effectiveness of the conservation plan in relation to maintenance works and an extension of 3,000 m2, which will be built in 2002–03.

The influence of former land-use on vegetation and biodiversity in the boreo-nemoral zone of Sweden

Pollen analyses were carried out at two sites with contrasting land-use histories (in-field and out-land) within a single estate. The aim was to distinguish the relative importance of natural processes and cultural influence on the development of vegetation and biodiversity. The estate lies in the boreo-nemoral zone of southern Sweden, and attention is focused on the distribution of coniferous and deciduous trees. The in-fields. which lie close to the estate buildings, are currently dominated by deciduous trees, and have a documented history as fields and hay meadows. The more distant out-lands were primarily used as grazing land in the past, and support coniferous forest at present. The study covers the last 4000 yr, 2000–1000 BC: the out-lands site supported natural, dense forests consisting of Quercus, Betula, Tilia, Alnus and Corylus. 1000 BC–AD 1100: several events are best interpreted as an increased cultural activity in the area. Agriculture was based on animal husbandry and the recorded cereals probably originate from a kind of shifting cultivation. AD 1000–1800: agriculture intensified on the in-fields with cereal cultivation of increased importance, while the out-fields were used for slash-and-burn agriculture and forest grazing. The forests became more open in structure but the composition remained unchanged. An increase in Colluna was a possible consequence of over-exploitation, AD 1800 onwards: the out-field deciduous forests were rapidly replaced by Picea-Pinus coniferous forests during the l800's. The in-fields retained deciduous forest with a continuity of Quercus and other species. There is a close, positive relationship between floristic diversity and cultural influence during the last 4000 yr. A comparison is made with a similar investigation on another estate in the region, revealing small differences between the estates, but striking similarities in the effects of land-use types on the development of vegetation. The significance of former in-fields for nature conservation is discussed, particularly as a potential source for increasing the deciduous component in commercial forestry practice.

Changing Operations?: Building Society and Estate Agency Activities in Rural Housing Markets

Recent years have witnessed the deregulation and restructuring of (mortgage) financial markets in Britain. While such changes have been widely discussed by housing researchers, relatively little attention has been given to their impacts at the local level. This paper explores these impacts in two local housing markets located in rural Wales by focusing on the (changing) operations of building society branches and estate agencies in these areas.

The Olmsted Brothers and Richard T. Crane, Jr at Castle Hill, Ipswich, Massachusetts

Incomplete information and misattributions have distorted the reporting of the history of the gardens at Castle Hill, Ipswich, Massachusetts. Since 1949 the Trustees of Reservations, the nation's oldest conservation organization, has presided over this estate (figure 1). Its conservatorship has produced a few studies, including Peter Hornbeck's Historic Landscape Preservation and Maintenance Policies and Procedures Jor the Richard T. Crane, Jr. Memorial Reservations Castle Hill (Trustees of Reservations, 1977) and, in 1984, an engineers' structural report for the estate's buildings and two of the gardens. One academic essay by Eleanor Pope, ‘Castle Hill gardens and grounds’ (a paper for the Radcliffe Seminars, 1981), relied on Hornbeck. In 1992 the Trustees published an official brochure, but it, like the works that preceded it, parroted hearsay, all but ignoring the Olmsted correspondence at the Library of Congress and altogether omitting the records of the architects of the original house, Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge.1 These reports consistently give false attributions for two out of the five garden areas. They reiterate Sidney Shurcliff's claim in his privately printed memoir, Upon the Road Argilla (Boston, 1958), that his father Arthur Shurcliff designed the now-defunct maze. On the other hand, they mistakenly give the Olmsted Brothers credit for laying out part of the ‘Grande Allée.’2

In Praise of Tim Burton

IN PRAISE OF TIM BURTON: FINDING THE MASTERPIECE IN MARS ATTACKS "Science fiction is a literary province I used to visit fairly often; if I now visit it seldom, that is not because my taste has improved but because the province has changed, being now covered with new building estates, in a style I don't care for. But in the good old days I noticed that whenever critics said anything about it, they betrayed great ignorance.... A great many writers use it for satire; nearly all the most pungent criticism of the American way of life takes this form, and would at once be denounced as un-American if it ventured into any other. C.S. Lewis"(1) Published two years before his death in 1963, Lewis's comments on critical methods and practices were written in order to highlight the dangers of pigeonholing the entire corpus of a popular...

Victorian Estate Housing on the Yarborough Estate, Lincolnshire

One of the legacies of the great landed estates in England is the large number of distinctive estate cottages which are scattered throughout the countryside. These are, of course, more in evidence in some counties than others, particularly in those where a considerable proportion of land was owned by the elite. Estate cottages survive in some numbers from the eighteenth century, but the greatest number was built in the nineteenth. Research on estate buildings has tended to highlight the model village, built largely during the first half of the nineteenth century and created for aesthetic reasons. A well-known example is Somerleyton in Suffolk, designed in the 1840s for the then owner of Somerleyton Hall. Here, the cottages, built in a variety of styles – some with mock timber-framing, others with thatched roofs – surround the village green. Ilam in Staffordshire is another example, where cottages which were designed by G.G. Scott in 1854 display a range of styles and materials, many alien to the local area. A third example is Edensor on the Duke of Devonshire's Derbyshire estate, where the stone buildings exhibit distinctive Italianate features. The list could be extended, but these examples were clearly designed to impress, to provide aesthetic pleasure for the owners and, in the case of Ilam, to create a picturesque image of idyllic contentment among the labouring population as much as to provide good, spacious, sanitary accommodation for employees. In each of these examples, the cottages are generally of individual design and thus expensive to build.

Analysis of fuel concumption in a building estate

The analysis of fuel consumption is of prime importance for a real estate manager. A complete analysis must have recourse to two complementary methods: on the one hand, the elaboration of tables or curves revealing the annual evolution of consumption by each building and, on the other hand, a statistical analysis leading to reference values. The originality of the methods here presented lies in the following characteristics: the strictness in the definition of the floor areas, the importance of the building population analysed, the choice of the “energy signature” for meteorological corrections, and complete automation.

Tissu urbain, tissu social : stratégies antagonistes d'occupation de l'espace à Abidjan

Urban Landscape and Social Différenciation in Abidjan. The growth of Abidjan has brought about diversification in social strata and they are complex links between the Government and the different social groups. Until the early eighties, while favouring the creation of ground-rents, the governmental policy served the emergence of an urban bourgeoisie and, as a consequence, the boom of the high standing building sector (but also the development of shanty towns!). At present, with the economic recession and the slackening of the city growth, the authorities are helping the middle class access to property. That is why the urban landscape has found a new balance with the building of housing estates for low-income dwellers and the revitalization of traditional housing.