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Brian Anson - Architect, Story Teller, Poet, Revolutionary... passed away over the weekend
national |
housing |
news report
Monday November 23, 2009 20:41 by dunk - bold collective fuspey at yahoo dot co dot uk BCN
From Donegal and Clare, and Connaught and the Munster hills...... Your plea is remembered and we battle on, energised by your passion Brian Anson - Architect, Story Teller, Poet, Revolutionary Im sure people up on Belfast`s Divis street and amongst the quiet green Donegal fields of Gaoth Dobhair will be thinking about a strange English man who came to their respective communities during times of war, listened to their stories and did his damdest to assist them in their fight for the kind of world they wanted. HOMAGE TO MARTHA Brian Anson (1934-2009) advocator of community inclusion in the process of design and architecture for over fifty years and he promises to play a fundamental role in EASA 2008. Born into into a working class background in Liverpool, England in 1935, he worked as an urbanist and planner in his native city and the city of Dublin in 1960s. In 1969 and 1970 he worked tirelessly for the preservation of Covent Garden, a small inner city borough of London.The buildings and the community dwelling there were under threat of total annihilation by a group of developers and local planning authorities,instilling a policy which had ripped the heart out of England's post Industrial cities through out the decade. After rounding the local community and after group consultations, a proposition and compromise was reached which was deemed acceptable by the local authorities. Covent Garden was saved and has since been seen as a successful regeneration project, where old buildings and existing communities can be adapted and evolve without their total demise. Its model has served as a precedent for other projects, most notably the Temple Bar regeneration project in Dublin. A book was published in 1981 entitled "I'll Fight You For It", outlining the Covent Garden struggle. As a result of the Covent Garden success, Brian was accepted by the Architectural Association where he acted as Unit Master from 1972. It was here that Brian was involved with discussions and debates with architects such as Peter Cook, expressing and reiterating the importance of community involvement. Growing slowly disillusioned with the path his colleagues were taking, he strove to create an alternative future to the profession through the founding of the Architects Revolutionary Council (ARC). Brian Anson realised that the problems plaguing the profession, i.e. the pandering to developers and lack of ground roots community communication were a result of a deeply flawed education system. His reaction to this was the foundation of the Schools of Architecture Council (SAC) in 1979. The role of the SAC was a body whose purpose was to show an alternative to the formal education, then on offer in the schools of architecture. Brian Anson was elected president of the organisation by the students as a protest against the established schools. In summer 1979, over 800 students attended a gathering in a tower block in Sheffield. Students from all over England exchanged ideas and created their own educational systems and architectural proposals, independent of a main organisation. The gathering was repeated in Hull the next year but unfortunately, the SAC was dissolved in 1981. The momentum did not dissipate however and its framework was recycled in the form of the Winter Schools, one of which was held in Anson's native Liverpool. The Winter School was such a success that the students, among them Richard Murphy decided to invite students from around Europe and England to investigate the urban blight of decay then ravishing the city. This organised gathering, void of any political agenda or motivation would be later regarded as the first European Architecture Student Assembly. It was the legacynof an idea which had germinated in the winter schools of the late 1970s. Brian Anson continued his community work. He was invited by the community of Gaoth Dobhair, Donegal to propose suggestions for the retention of a culture and a language under siege by inept planning authorities. A dossier was published, outlining coherent plans for future development. It was a plan which had grown from the roots of the community and despite having a lack of the Irish-Gaelic language, Anson portrayed a deep and profound understanding for the people and their history, with a future full of hope. He envisioned a community that would become self dependent over time, utilising and mobilising it's innate skills and practices. It was rejected however, as being far too radical. Unfazed, Anson took part in the Mobile Unit Scheme between 1983 and 1986. He travelled as part of a team in a converted camper van through Britain and Ireland, uniting community groups and causing a media flurry where ever he went. His journeys brought him form the post-industrial collier towns of Thatcherite England to the war scarred streets of Belfast. It was here that the story of the Divis Street flats came to the fore. Anson unveiled a woefully inadequate housing scheme, where a British Army base was built practically atop the residents dwellings. The case was brought to London and received full media attention at the time. A campaign was instigated which led to eventual demolition of the complex. Brian Anson has been living in France since 1991 where he has been painting, reading and writing his views on architecture and its possible future. He has run a series of annual modules in the University of Birmingham where students from around the world exchange views and learn from Brian's vast experience of working within a local and community framework. It is the privelege and honour of EASA Ireland to have him as a tutor and speaker at the Assembly this August and without a doubt, he will play an integral part in the proceedings.
http://www.radio4all.net/responder.php/download/37463/42702/59461/?url=http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/brian_anson_-_divis_st_flats.mp3
http://www.radio4all.net/responder.php/download/37463/42702/59462/?url=http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/Brian_Anson_interview_at_EASA_letterfrack.mp3 |
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Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 4 3 2 1Architect, planner and tireless battler on behalf of the underdog
Small in stature, but wiry, resilient and endowed with talents that grew over time, Brian was a wonderful wordsmith, a considerable artist, a beautiful draughtsman and a true raconteur and revolutionary.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/dec/17/bria...tuary
Dear All,
Thank you so much for the kind and uplifting words for Brian.
My father was a remarkable man. I possibly did not see it as much as his comrades throughout the world, as I remained always his tear-away son.
Often I said to Pop, 'You are my father, my teacher and a friend'
I miss him dearly but know, fullwell, the hills will resound with laments at his passing and ever the people he loved will remember him.
Go raibh mille maith agat!!!!
Finn Anson
To whom it may concern,
Brian has been a friend for some 25 years, his thinking, writing and actions have influenced me greatly. He combines a considerable intellect with a deeply felt social conscience. his opinions about contemporary issues such as the suffering of the neglected sections of society, about life in cities and the function and form of architecture are extremely pertinent.
As a community leader in Belfast, Covent garden and Hoxton he has worked to improve the environment of the disadvantaged. when Mark Fischer and i were writing our book entitled “A New London”, we asked Brian to advise us.
Now he lives in France where he thinks and writes. We correspond regularly and he never lets me forget that there is another world, a much more important world than the world i usually serve.
I can not recommend Brian more highly other than to say that he is one of the very few people who is passionately concerned and has a deep understanding about the state of contemporary society and most rare he knows how to communicate this to others
Brian, like a few other unique people I have had the good fortune to know, has a touch of genius, I hope you will give him the chance to communicate this.
Lord Rogers
Riverside
London - Summer 2008
_____________________________________________________________________________
Above letter is transcribed from the Letterfrack letter, which we read from while talking to Brian in 2008
Richard Rogers - AA Dipl, M Arch (Yale), RIBA, RA (Hon), FAIA (Hon), Dr RCA (Hon), BDA (Hon)
Richard Rogers is the 2007 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, the recipient of the RIBA Gold Medal in 1985 and winner of the 1999 Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Medal. He is also winner of the 2000 Praemium Imperiale Prize for Architecture, the 2006 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement (La Biennale di Venezia) and the 2007 Tau Sigma Delta Gold Medal. Richard Rogers was awarded the Légion d’Honneur in 1986, knighted in 1991 and made a life peer in 1996.
http://www.richardrogers.co.uk/render.aspx?siteID=1&nav...8,107
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Rogers
Thank you bold collective for the audio, interesting conversations with an interesting man.
Wonder what all those Tiger cub architects are going to do now.
Strange that a self professed socialist seemed shocked to be thrown out of the professional club
when he challenged its power structures.
Where can I get my hands on a the book mentioned on Covent garden.