Building Communities Routledge Revivals

Building Communities: The Co-Operative Way, first published in 1988, sets the flourishing of housing co-operatives throughout the 1980s in a theoretical and historical framework that suggests that tenant control is the best way out of the still-problematic issue of housing policy. Before the First World War, co-operative housing was poised to become a potent force in government policy, but instead municipal housing rose to prominence. However, alongside a growing crisis of confidence in state housing and a continued decline in the private rented sector, a new political consensus has emerged that has placed co-ops firmly at the top of the agenda. Setting out the argument for collective dweller-control of housing, Birchall demonstrates that the arguments for co-operatives are strong, based on a broad spectrum of political thought. He charts the early and recent history of co-operative housing, and shows how they provide a flexible and stable means of meeting housing needs.

First published in 1987, this title was one of the first to explore the emerging popular movement of Community Architecture, championed by Prince Charles, which gained momentum throughout Britain in the 1970s and 1980s. The conceptual framework rests fundamentally on the principle that the built environment is most effective when those who live in a particular area are actively engaged with its creation and daily administration. A work that has influenced policy makers and planning legislation, Community Architecture remains one of the key reference works for student architects and planners.

First published in 1987, this title was one of the first to explore the emerging popular movement of Community Architecture, championed by Prince Charles, which gained momentum throughout Britain in the 1970s and 1980s. The conceptual framework rests fundamentally on the principle that the built environment is most effective when those who live in a particular area are actively engaged with its creation and daily administration. A work that has influenced policy makers and planning legislation, Community Architecture remains one of the key reference works for student architects and planners.

First published in 1992, this Routledge Revival sees the reissue of a truly original exploration of the nature of urbanization and capitalism. Linda Clarke’s vital work argues that: Urbanization is a product of the social human labour engaged in building as well as a concentration of the labour force. The quality of the labour process determines the development of production. Changes to the built environment reflect changes in the production process and, in particular, the development of wage labour. To support these arguments, the author identifies a qualitatively new historical stage of capitalist building production involving a significant expansion of wage labour, and hence capital, and the transition from artisan to industrial production. Linda Clarke draws from a wide range of original material relating to the development of London from the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth century to provide a complete description of the development process: materials extraction, roadbuilding, housebuilding, paving, cleansing, etc; profiles of builders and contractors involved, and a picture of the new working class communities, as in Somers Town – their living conditions, population, working environment, and politics.

First published in 1978, the objective of this book is to provide an authoritative and selective overview of current, user-orientated programming methods within the field of environmental design. The 19 chapters compiled in this volume describe procedures and the information content of innovative approaches used by leading programming experts in the private and institutional sectors. Emphasis is placed on a qualitative and illustrative focus of selected approaches to environmental programming with the eventual occupants in mind. The chapter groupings are intended to reflect three major areas of professional engagement that serve the field of facility programming. The first group describe the approaches of firms or groups that were organised exclusively to provide environmental analysis and programming services. Part II is composed of chapters by authors who belong to established architectural firms with programming departments and Part III presents evidence that pertains to the supporting role of research and guidance literature from authors primarily affiliated with government agencies or supported by large organisations.

Initially published in 1974, this is a work of applied social and political philosophy which relates the philsophical analysis to various forms of community work theory and practice. Raymond Plant emphasizes that 'community' has a wide range of both descriptive meanings and evaluative connotations, linking this dual role of the word in the description and evaluation of social experience to its history in ideological confrontations. The book takes account of some liberal criticisms of the community ideal, and finally seeks to re-state a theory of community compatible with a liberal ideology.