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David Roberts is a Teaching Fellow in Architectural Design and Architectural History & Theory Tutor. David is also a Research Ethics Fellow at the Bartlett Faculty of Built Environment.

Ìýis a Teaching Fellow in Architectural Design and Architectural History & Theory Tutor. David is also a Research Ethics Fellow at the Bartlett Faculty of Built Environment. Alongside his work at »Ê¼Ò»ªÈË, he is part of collaborative art practiceÌýÌýand of architecture collectiveÌý.

David uses poetry and photography to explore the relation between people and place. He has exhibited, lectured and published work related to public housing, architecture, critical methodologies and site-specific practice.

David's PhD thesis in Architectural Design,Ìý, explored the history and future of two east London housing estates undergoing regeneration: the Haggerston Estate, a 1935–8 London County Council neo-Georgian perimeter block demolished in 2014; and Balfron Tower, a 1965–7 Brutalist high-rise designed by Ernö Goldfinger facing refurbishment and privatisation in 2016. It won aÌýRIBA President’s Award for Research 2016Ìýand received aÌýHigh Commendation.

David's research, art and cultural activist practice engages community groups whose homes and livelihoods are under threat from urban policy, and extends architectural education to primary and secondary school children. Through this collaborative practice he co-wrote and co-produced the feature-length documentary/fiction film,Ìý. He co-curated a six-week projectÌý, opening PEER up as a social, discursive and imaginative space around issues of housing and spatial justice in East London through a constantly changing series of exhibitions, screenings, discussions, readings and workshops. He developed an interactive websiteÌýÌýand co-coordinated a successful campaign to list Balfron Tower at Grade II*.Ìý, a collection of concrete poems about life and loss in language and stone, will be published by Copy Press.

David is driven by an aspiration to defend welfare state architecture and salvage the principles at its foundation.

Research subject

Make Public: Performing public housing in regenerating east London

First and second supervisors:ÌýProfessor Jane Rendell & Dr Ben Campkin

Abstract

The history of housing the working population in Britain has a predictable circularity in architectural form; one generation’s panacea becomes the next generation’s problem, only to be reappraised with remorse after it has passed.

My thesis is a practical and theoretical research project into this cycle. It explores the history and future of two east London housing estates undergoing regeneration; theÌýHaggerston Estate, a 1930s London County Council neo-Georgian perimeter block demolished in 2014; andÌýBalfron Tower,Ìýa 1960s Brutalist high-rise designed by Ernö Goldfinger facing refurbishment and privatisation in 2016.

To ‘make public’ expresses a demand and an aspiration;ÌýmateriallyÌý– to protect and extend public housing provision at a time when austerity measures are dismantling it in ideal and form [Phillips and Erdemci, 2012];ÌýprocedurallyÌý– to make visible problematic processes of urban change that are increasingly hidden from public view under the pervasive metaphor of regeneration [Campkin, 2013], and;ÌýmethodologicallyÌý– to make public the act of research through long-term collaborations with residents and other practitioners, using archival research and socially-engaged performance practice that reveals spatial changes and their affects on social relations [Harvie, 2013].

The thesis draws on the idea of ‘multiple publics’ to re-conceptualise a constructive approach to public housing and to evaluate the ethic of ‘making public’ [Fraser, 1990]. It works between architecture and performance to forge new connections with the research of Forty, Rendell, Schneider and Roms, and choreograph relationships between buildings, texts and residents through critical acts of writing, dramaturgy and re-enactment.

The practice is conducted through performative workshops that open a social, discursive and imaginative space for residents to re-enact the histories of each estate and build collective knowledge and experience. This collaborative work is shared with wider publics through a feature-length artist’s filmÌýEstate, site-specific performanceÌýEmpty Words Build Empty Homes, and six-week exhibitionÌýReal Estates, and is documented in the thesis as two acts, comprising scenes interspersed with reflective essays. The evidence gathered is fed into formal and legislative frameworks with the aim of influencing housing policy: in Haggerston, a redesigned housing surveyÌýHousing AlternativesÌýand at Balfron Tower, a successful Grade II* listing bid and online archiveÌýBalfron Tower: a building archive.

Sources of Funding

David was awarded a UCL Graduate Research Scholarship and an AHRC Studentship in Architectural Design.Ìý

Publications and other work

David Roberts, ‘‘We felt magnificent being up there’: Ernö Goldfinger's Balfron Tower and the campaign to keep it public’, in Peter Guillery and David Kroll (eds.),ÌýMobilising Housing Histories: Learning from London’s PastÌý(London: RIBA Publishing, forthcoming - 2017).

David Roberts, ‘Housing Acts: performing public housing’, in Andrew Filmer and Juliet Rufford (eds.),ÌýPerforming Architectures: Contemporary Projects, Practices and PedagogiesÌý(London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, forthcoming - 2017).

David Roberts, 'Three Demands',ÌýRIBAJÌý(December 2016).Ìý

Anne Louise Buckley, Briony Campbell, Chantel Forrester, Elam Forrester, Jahcheyse Forrester, Lorna Forrester, Rosie Fowler, Taina Galis, Steve Hart, Therese Henningsen, Lasse Johansson, Gillian McIver, Lewis Osbourne, Eric Phillip, David Roberts, Adam Rosenthal, Georgia Sangster, Ruth-Marie Tunkara, Smart Urhiofe, Julie Vandemark, Julia Vandemark, Cathy Ward, and Andrea Luka Zimmerman, ‘From ‘Heroin’ to Heroines’, in Ben Campkin and Ger Duijzings (eds.),ÌýEngaged Urbanism: Cities & MethodologiesÌý(London: IB Tauris, 2016), pp. 73-82.

David Roberts, ‘Make Public: a building archive of London’s Balfron Tower’, in Yasminah Beebeejaun (ed.),ÌýThe Participatory CityÌý(Berlin: Jovis, 2016), pp. 65-73.

David Roberts, ‘None of the Lively Detail’, in Eduardo Padilha and Torange Khonsari (eds.),ÌýMy Home is Your HomeÌý(London: public works publishing, 2016), pp. 18-29.

David Roberts,ÌýBalfron Tower: a building archiveÌý(2015).

Fugitive Images,ÌýEstate, 83 min, LUX artists’ moving image agency, 2015. A feature-length documentary/fiction film.Ìý

Theron Schmidt, John Pinder, Louise Owen, Andrea Luka Zimmerman, David Roberts and Sophie Hope, ‘Beyond Glorious: The Radical in Engaged Practices’,ÌýContemporary Theatre Review, v. 24 n. 2 (2014), pp.284-288.Ìý

Thomas-Bernard Kenniff, Christian Parreño, Mariana Pestana, David Roberts and Danielle Willkens, ‘Lobby foreward’, inÌýLobbyÌý(London: Aldgate Press, 2014).

David Roberts, ‘Telling Stories / Empty Words Build Empty Homes’,ÌýOpticon1826, v.16 (2004).Ìý

Ben Campkin, David Roberts and Rebecca Ross (eds.)ÌýRegeneration RealitiesÌý(Northampton: Belmont Press, 2013).Ìý

David Roberts and Andrea Luka Zimmerman, ‘The Certainty of Uncertainty’, in Ben Campkin, David Roberts and Rebecca Ross (eds.)ÌýRegeneration RealitiesÌý(Northampton: Belmont Press, 2013), pp. 11-12.Ìý

Elam Forrester, Rosie Fowler, David Roberts and Polly Rodgers,ÌýMoving: An oral history of the Haggerston EstateÌý(London: Printed, 2013).Ìý

David Roberts and Amy Thomas, ‘Harmony and Discord’, inÌýPhD Research Projects 2013Ìý(London: Bartlett School of Architecture, 2013).Ìý

David Roberts,ÌýEmpty Words Build Empty Homes: A play for estatesÌý(London: Victory Press, 2012).Ìý

David Roberts, ‘Collaberate’, in Magda Fabianczyk and Sophie Hoyle (eds.),ÌýWe were trying to make sense...: Exploring Artist and Non-Artist CollaborationsÌý(London: An Endless Supply, 2012), pp. 33-36.Ìý

Jon Anderson, Kye Askins, Ian Cook, Luke Desforges, James Evans, Maria Fannin, Duncan Fuller, Helen Griffiths, David Lambert, Roger Lee, Julie MacLeavy, Lucy Mayblin, John Morgan, Becky Payne, Jessica Pykett, David Roberts and Tracey Skelton, ‘What is geography's contribution to making citizens?’,ÌýGeography, v. 93, n. 1 (2008), pp. 34-39.

Ian Cook, James Evans, Helen Griffiths, Lucy Mayblin, Becky Payne and David Roberts, ‘‘Made in... ?’ appreciating the everyday geographies of connected lives?’,ÌýTeaching GeographyÌý(Summer 2007), pp.80-83.

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