Changing Places - Case Studies

• South Bank Qualitative Data (John Atkinson Grimshaw):

  • Shows the economic and social life of Victorian Leeds
  • Seeing shipped goods, but not where they're being sold
  • Leeds = dangerous place
  • Sunday Night Painting --> peaceful, nobody is working

  
• South Bank Qualitative Data (JMW Turner):

  • Painting of Beeston Hill
  • Celebrates economic success and resilience of Leeds (and by extension, Britain)
  • Smoky Industrial Landscape of Leeds, placing John Marshall's Flax Mill at the centre of his composition (lots of smog, can't see parts of Leeds)
  • Linear developments + building on hills
  • Activity: Commerce

  
• Leeds 2023 - Financial Aspect:

  • Total investment: £25 million, which was funded by various event partners
  • Forecasted to increase the city’s economy by an impressive £115 million during 2023 alone 
  • Boost in tourism: 4% risen in footfall annually, forecasted to raise an additional £140 million by 2030 
• Leeds 2023:

  • Cultural scene in Leeds is fragmented - not enough places for artists to develop and people to support them
  • Event was insignificant to anyone outside of Leeds - didn't make national news --> Impacted those inside of Leeds (to an extent)
  • Rothwell MP: 'could've been great if the proper money was invested in it'
  • 264 events - most were small-scale --> "localised activity is planned in all 33 wards of Leeds and beyond the city centre"
  • Not advertised very well
  • Very Parochial
• South Bank, Leeds - Facts:

  • 'South Bank' is an idea invented by Leeds City Council
  • Its identity is outsider driven (Vastint)
  • Close proximity to Leeds City Centre
  • Bell towers (campanile) were actually chimneys + are unique to Leeds
  • Industrial Heritage still present around Leeds Dock
  • Marshall's Mill is an Egyptian style building
  • Thousands of back-to-back housing were completely razed (were unsanitary)
• South Bank Quantitative Data:

  • OS Maps + VGI Maps (Volunteered Geographical Information) --> Example: Open Street Maps
  • Census Data (Datashine) --> Occupants of South Bank are mainly younger, educated people (i.e. students and professionals)
• Dharavi as a Contested Place:

  • Issue of 'who belongs' in Dharavi highlights tensions over land values and built densities at the base of contested visions of Mumbai's future
  • Accentuates social inequalities and drives the struggle over space from significant government and market pressures
• Dharavi Media Representation - Exogenous:

  • Slumming it --> main example
  • Highlights Dharavi's sense of community and happiness as well as poor sanitation
  • Shows micro industries within Dharavi and how people live on a day to day basis
• Dharavi Media Representation - Endogenous:

  • Slumdog Millionaire (?) and Indefensible Spaces are both examples of Endogenous Media
  • Indefensible Spaces = highlights how unsafe Dharavi can be when trying to use the community toilets, especially when alone or at night
  • 'At Dharavi, you can't build a new lavatory or repair an existing one, it's not allowed legally'
• Dharavi Media Representation - Dharavi Biennale:

  • Idea of salvaging or upcycling discarded objects or materials in such a way to create a product of higher quality or value than the original materials
  • Largely driven by engagement --> an online community is present and people are being represented
  • Example: Dharavi resident Vandana Kori created a sculpture of a pregnant woman out of injection bottles to explore the vulnerability of women bearing children
• Dharavi - Facts (1/2):

  • Around 250,000 - 800,000 people living there (as opposed to 1 million people)
  • 4% of the population fall ill every day with typhoid, diphtheria and polio 
  • Dharavi is one square mile wide
  • One very rich family has a 27 storey high skyscraper
  • Water is available for two hours a day at around 7/8am 
  • Hard for the businesses in dharavi to pay taxes as they are unofficial 
  • Over 500 people use one toilet a day 
• Dharavi Facts - (2/2):

  • The ‘ vertical slums ’ (apartments) they’re building in order to rehouse people living within the slum cost between £80 - 90,000, which have three rooms and are 7 - 8ft wide
  • $1 billion of industrial products come out of Dharavi every single year as of 2009
  • Dharavi’s main industry is recycling
  • 80% of Mumbai’s waste is recycled there 
  • 85% of people work 
  • 15,000 factories and workshops
  • 85 nagars
  • 1000 recycling plants
• Leeds South Bank Summary [1]:

  • Regeneration of a formerly heavily industrialised area, south of the River Aire, covering an 253-hectares.
  • All heavy industry and all previous occupants gone, replaced by flats, education, shops and light industry.
  • Current South Bank: a creation of LCC and Vastint (the main developer)
  • The South Bank project aims to reclaim and revive the area by giving a connection between the industrial history of Holbeck and Hunslet, such as Marshalls Mills, Leeds Dock and The Tetley. 
• Leeds South Bank Summary [2]:

  • New population is younger and better educated.
  • Census data, OS maps are key quantitative data.
  • Royal Armouries, the ‘Education Quarter’ and CITU (Climate Innovation District; 955 riverside homes, no cars,  ) are part of the regeneration. 
  • Art includes Turner 1815 showing smog in East Leeds from industry, Grimshaw’s Leeds Bridge (1880), showing warehouses by the Aire full of goods, boats waiting to load and factory buildings.