build first and ask for permission later 3

7/28/2019 Build First and Ask for Permission Later 3

1/15

BUILD FIRST AND ASK FOR PERMISSION LATER


2/15

Konstantina Eleni KoulouriIntermediate 2

Year 3HTS Tutor: Costandis Kizis


3/15

Brazil, where hearts were entertaining June

We stood beneath an amber moon

And softly murmured someday soon

We kissed, and clung together there

Tomorrow was another day

The morning found me miles away

With still a million things to say

Now, when twilight dims the sky above

Recalling thrills of our love

There's one thing I'm certain ofReturn I will to old Brazil

Theme song from the film Brazil1

1Brazil is a science fiction movie directed by Terry Gilliam. The story concerns a bureaucrat in a retro future

world who tries to correct an administrative error but ends up becoming a rebel. The main character is split

between the bureaucratic world he works for and his dreams of escaping it. The title Brazil and the lyrics of the

theme song reveal the main characters nostalgia for a less bureaucratic reality.

Movie analysis: Brazil (1985). Wikke Novalia et al. 2 December 2011. Netherlands. 24 March 2013

< http://brazilanalysis.wordpress.com/>


4/15

(1) Extract from a newspaper that reveals the thoughts of the minister on chaotic planningMr. Panayi is a property developer in

Caledonian road.2 He arrived in England from

Cyprus in 1985. Now, he walks around

showcasing the flats he has managed to squeeze

onto extra floors, in backyards and underground,

many built without planning permission. Build

first and ask for permission later is the motto

of his small company. His friend adds that townhall planners bring the crucifixes when they hear

his name because he disregards enforcement

action and he never gets punished. Mr. Panayi

has created a complex series of spaces that are

outside bureaucratic recipes and are successfully

used because there is demand for them.

2The information on Mr. Panayi are taken from a

BBC documentary:

Joseph Bullman (producer). The secret history

of our streets: Caledonian Road.BBC, London,

26 January 2012.

The new planning vision that Mr. Boles3 throws

on the ministers table concerning a more

chaotic type of planning could vindicate Mr.

Panayis architecture; an architecture that is

freed by the grim world of paperwork. Building

without bureaucracy is the theme of this essay.

Notions of non-plan and sub-plan will be

examined.

Launching off, the government Acts that first

brought the idea of strict planning in England

3 Planning rules and bureaucracy swept away so

buildings can be extended without local authority

permission. James Chapman and Martin Robinson

et al. 6 September 2012. United Kingdom. 24 March

2013.


5/15

(2) 1947 Town and Planning Act imposed strict regulations on planning architecture. (Scene from the movie Brazil)

(1947)4 and the formation of the RIBA

Committees (1929)5 especially concerned with

planning issues are being presented. How does

the resulting city that is being regulated through

these Acts look like? Later on, Richard Sennetts

idea of an open city and Reyner Banhams

article Non-Plan: an experiment in freedom are

being investigated as a response to the

bureaucratic world. What might the bureaucrats

horror of disorder look like?

4 All the information on the 1947 Town and Country

Planning Act in this essay is from:

Jonathan Hughes and Simon Sadler (eds), Non-plan :

essays on freedom participation and change in

modern architecture and urbanism, (London: 2000),

pp. 68-69.5

All the information on the 1929 and 1947 RIBA

committees is from:

Ibid.

1929/ RIBA Advisory Panels

Beginning from 1929 the RIBA, in conjunction

with the Council for the Preservation of Rural

England, had formed the Control of Elevations

Joint Committee to deal with matters of

uniformity and preservation. Its concerns were

to secure means for ensuring that the elevations

and sittings of new buildings were in accord

with their surroundings and that alterations to

existing buildings of interest were controlled by

an independent body. These Advisory Panels

were the first formations attempting to impose a

specific approach towards planning through

aesthetics and appearance.


6/15

(3) The Act aimed at reforming the physical and social order by producing homogeity (Scene from the movie Brazil)

1947/ Town and Country Planning Act

In 1947, the Town and Country Planning Act

was put into action. For the first time, under this

Act every potential development had to secure

planning permission. The result of these changes

was that any future development was to be

governed by plans produced by local authorities

that had to be passed by central government. The

documents of this Act included control of land

use, distribution of industry and development

areas, road design and layout and of course,

town and country planning legislation.

1947/ RIBA Panels and Government Policies

Later the RIBA Panels formed in 1929 were

named the Central Committee for Architectural

Advisory Panels. This Committee also advised

the government on the 1947 Town and Country

Planning Act. Within the advices coming from

the Committee, prescriptions on the use of

suitable materials, standards of house design and

the layout of open spaces were included.

1969/ Non plan6

20 years after the enforcement of the Planning

Act, cities had started to become uniform

landscapes. The governments planning

decisions for social housing resulted to massive

developments. This governmental architecture

that prescribed how to live started to become a

6All the information on Non plan is from:

Jonathan Hughes and Simon Sadler (eds), Non-plan :

essays on freedom participation and change in


pp. 20-21.


7/15

(4) In the 70s Reyner Banham and Richard Sennett expressed their ideas opposing the bureaucratic city

problem. A group of architectural figures

produced an article arguing for the concept of

non plan. In 1969, Cedric Price with Paul

Barker, Reyner Banham and Peter Hall wrote an

article responding to the grim world of

paperwork. The article was titled Non-Plan: an

experiment in freedom published in a social

affairs magazine titled New Society. The idea

emerged after a conversation about the appalling

results of current urban planning strategies. At

the time, Non-Plan was going against the

established order and controlled uniformity of

the built environment. The main question was

What would happen if there were no plan?.

The idea of Non-plan did not mean the complete

abolition of planning. Non plan does not reject

planning. To deny planning overall is irrational

because it would mean to deny the basis of

economic life as developed in the second half of

the 20th century7. Banham suggests that the

economies of all advanced industrial countries

are planned, whether they call themselves

capitalist or communist. In the United States or

Japan or Germany or Britain, the need to make

elaborate and long-term plans is as pressing for

the individual firm, as it is for the central

government.8

Instead Banham argued what was wrong was the

misconception of the term planning as the

7Jonathan Hughes and Simon Sadler (eds), Non-plan

: essays on freedom participation and change in


p. 208

ibid


8/15

(5) Banham and Sennett argued for an architecture that is freed from the strict bureaucratic policies of 1947 (Scene from

the movie Brazil)

imposition of certain physical arrangements,

based on value judgments or prejudices9. These

become an established order that instruct the

implementation of architectural rules that dont

take into consideration time and space context.

The Town and Country Planning Act was a

result of time and space context. The destruction

of towns during WWII called for strict planning

regulated by the government. Nonetheless, by

1969 England was healed and was booming.

Thence, planning policies needed to be changed

because they were not responding any longer to

the context.

9Jonathan Hughes and Simon Sadler (eds), Non-plan

: essays on freedom participation and change in


p. 20

Banham, then, calls to scrap off the prejudices

born in 1947 and create a new idea of planning

that directly responds to the frenetic and

immediate culture10. Thus, planning is

conceived as having an inherent element of

spontaneity. Physical planning becomes

adaptable.

In order to achieve spontaneity, bureaucratic

processes and planning permissions should not

endorse the type of architecture to be built. As

an alternative, planning should consist ofsetting up frameworks for decisions, within

10Jonathan Hughes and Simon Sadler (eds), Non-

plan : essays on freedom participation and change in


p. 20


9/15

which as much objective information as possible

can be fitted11.

Then this type of non plan brings about change

and the development of a natural social progress

of land usage.

1970/ The Uses of Disorder12

During the same period, Richard Sennett writes

about the The uses of disorder. In his essay

The open city13, he argues that city planning

declined dramatically after the middle of the 20th

century. This deterioration in city design is due

to one fault; over-determination. This over

determination is due to the absence of context in

planning policies presented in Banhams Non

plan concept. Over determination was

necessary after WWII in order to restore living

standards, but now that the living standards were

recovered there was no need for strict state

intervention.

Sennett argues against the unprecedented high

level of modern zoning regulations of over-

determination14. The Town and Country

Planning Act led to a regime of power that wants

11Jonathan Hughes and Simon Sadler (eds), Non-

plan : essays on freedom participation and change in


p. 2612 All the information on The Uses of Disorder is

from:

Richard Sennett, The uses of disorder: Personal

identity and city life, ( New York: 1970), p. 27-3013

All the information on The Open City is from the

article:

Richard Sennett. The open city. Urban Age, Berlin

(November 2006).14

ibid

order and control. A regime that pursued the

proliferation of bureaucratic and zoning

regulations was created. This proliferation of

rules led, however, to the restriction of local

innovation and growth. Instead the type of

growth that bureaucratic regulations push

involves erasure of what existed before and the

placement of a new imposed structure. This

closed system, as Richard Sennett names it, is

the result of the bureaucratic system where the

city is segregated through zoning and there

exists a specific regulation for the meaning of

places in order to homogenize the population.

Cities and communities were regulated through

bureaucracy by the welfare state.

When neo-liberalism arrived these regulations

were passed on to an elite that was speaking the

language of freedom whilst manipulating closed

bureaucratic systems for private gain15. Hence,

the city still consists of over determined spaces

imposed onto the population although the

context has changed.

According to Sennett, over determination

creates a Brittle city, in which the urban

environment and its population decay faster than

ever before. This excessive order freezes the

individual and the architecture in rigid structures

that eradicate spontaneity.

Thus, he proposes the open city that is based on

an open system. The open city embraces three

15Richard Sennett. The open city. Urban Age,

Berlin (November 2006).


10/15

elements; passage territories, incomplete forms

and narratives of development16. A type of

planning that deliberately seeks to promote

discontinuity and contradiction is suggested. It

would be a planning focused on efficiency and

minimums catering to fine-scale variety, rather

than ideal end states and onerous rules

benefiting large-scale development17.

The open city that Sennett argues for results

from the ideas of urbanist Jane Jacob of a city

that is dense and diverse (1961). Conditions of

over-crowded places produce unexpected

encounters, chance discoveries and

innovations18. The growth then of such a

system differs from the concept of growth of a

closed system. In the latter, as discussed above,

growth signifies erasure and then replacement.

In the former, growth is a dialogue between the

past and the present rendering growth an

evolution.

According to Jane Jacobs, strategies that

promote an evolutionary urban development

include encouraging quirky, jerry built

adaptations or additions to existing buildings

and encouraging uses of public spaces which

dont fit neatly together, such as putting an

AIDS hospice square in the middle of a

shopping street19

. Hence, planning becomes a

series of schemes that produce unresolved and

16ibid

17ibid

18Richard Sennett. The open city. Urban Age,

Berlin (November 2006).19

ibid

discordant city spaces. As a result the city is

understood as a process of spontaneity

adaptability and unrest, rather than a definitive

plan. The eclipse of a definitive plan on the

functioning of the city creates spaces that

become an experiment for a new architecture

and a new place meaning.

2008/ Permitted Development Rulebook20

In 2008 the realization of Banhms and Sennetts

assumptions got a preliminary form. The

planning issues that Mr. Boles suggested to the

prime minister where finally accepted and

signed in 2008. The result was the publication of

the Permitted development rulebook.

The excuse for the publication of this book came

from a research on the UK planning system. As

part of a wide-ranging analysis of the UK

planning system, the 2008 Killian Pretty Review

found that 97% of all planning applications

were for householder, minor or other small

scale development, 80% of which were directly

approved by planning officers. The Reviews

findings suggested that local planning

authorities were devoting excessive time and

resources to minor applications, leaving too few

resources available for major developments. In

response to this bureaucratic blockage, the

20All the information on the Permitted Development

rulebook is from the article:

DK-CM. Living on Infrastructure. Architecture

Today Issue 212, United Kingdom ( October 2010)


11/15

(6) Image of the Subplan city whre the grey volumes are spaces created based on the ambiguity of legal terminology

Reviews recommended solution came in the

form of a radical expansion of Permitted

Development - the set of laws dating from1948

which define what can be built without planning

permission. In response, the Permitted

Development (PD) rulebook was duly rewritten

by the UK government in October 2008 to fulfill

these recommendations.21

The PD rulebook states that certain alterations

and extensions to houses can be carried out

without a planning permission. In the book there

are guidelines of how these structures should be

constructed. However, the obscurity of the

terminology allows for various interpretations.

21DK-CM. Living on Infrastructure. Architecture

Today Issue 212, United Kingdom ( October 2010).

Thus, the rulebook has flaws. The undefined

assumptions has led to confused owners and

angry neighbors unable to understand their

rights. In April the legislation expanded to

include permitted development in shops, offices,

schools and industrial buildings.

2009/ SUBPLAN22

Subplan is a publication lead by DK-CM

architectural studio. Their book examines the

legal loopholes created by the enforcement of

the PD rulebook and finds opportunities for a

new type of architecture that is characterized by

the quirky, jerry built additions that Jane

Jacobs suggests. The assumptions made in the

22The information on Subplan is from the DK-CM

architectural studio website:

< http://www.dk-cm.com/writing/under-the-radar/>


12/15

book explore the new physical landscape of

planning without bureaucracy.

Where non-plan and the open city advocated the

strategic abolition of laws in specific areas, sub-

plan finds opportunity in the existing planning

system.

One example of such a loophole that is

described in the book concerns a couple that

want to build an extension to their house in order

to place a home cinema. If they decide to build

an extension then they can only build 4m back,

4m high and up to half the width of their house.

Nevertheless, they can decide to build what is

called an independent structure. The size of such

a structure can be up to half of their open plot

and can stretch all the way to the plot boundary.

Still, questions arise on how close the structure

could be to the house and still be considered an

independent structure. In addition, the rulebook

states that as long as the structure is 2m from the

plot boundary, giving it a double pitched roof

allows it to reach up to 4m. If the back wall is

slightly pitched, does the structure have a double

pitched roof? The final outcome floats in an

ambiguous state where the independent structure

could actually result to a cinema capable of

containing the whole neighborhood.

1985/ Mr. Panayi

For the conclusion, we return to the small scale

developer on Caledonian Road, Mr. Panayi and

his semi legal properties. Mr. Panayi by

exploiting the ambiguous terminology of the law

is creating a new type of architecture. One that is

planned based on legal loopholes. By

recognizing the faults of the bureaucratic system

he has succeeded in behaving according to

Sennetts idea of an open system.

The type of planning Mr. Panayi is carrying out

is a planning focused on efficiency and

minimums. Rather than committing to centrally

directed localism applied either by the Town and

Planning Act in 1947 or the large scale

developments; Mr. Panayi has chosen to commit

to localism in a much finer scale. He has

acknowledged that the governments

commitment to localism is desperately weak and

has cunningly recognized the grey areas of poor

legalese. He has created his own interpretation

of planning; a type of planning that is not

concerned with existing legal boundaries.

When a projects premise lies on existing legal

boundaries then it invites bureaucrats to

comment on it. Many times the bureaucratic

system will conclude that the scheme is on the

wrong side of the boundary. Mr. Panayis

scheme, however, involves the concealment of

his real plans from the government. As a result,

the boundary emerges only after the scheme is

completed.

The structures Mr. Panayi is creating operate

beyond the law and push legal boundaries. One

of his ideas that he is very proud of, is to build

underneath sidewalks. He is trespassing public

space but because the space he creates is


13/15

invisible he is able to compromise with the law

later and create a new legal and physical

boundary.

This strategy is in accordance with the view of

the growth of the city as an evolution and a

process rather than a determined space. Working

beyond the legal boundaries undermines the

existing boundaries. As a result, planning

policies are rendered undetermined. Spaces

evolve through the breakage of boundaries.

Legal loopholes reduce the permanence of the

assumed past uses of the space because there is

no specified legitimate reinforcement. Hence,

new priorities of land usage emerge.

After the publication of the Permitted

Development rulebook, the planning statement,

takes on a less powerful role. The city without

planning permissions becomes a space of

continuous unevenness in both process and

result. The spaces of ambiguous legalese

become acute. The obscurity creates opportunity

areas for the development of a new type of small

scale architecture. If multiplied however, the

impact of such structures can change the

environment of the city.

Nonetheless, the eclipse of controlled

development has an inherent fault. Mr. Panayi

has proved that pure human greed that thrives on

human need can develop planning. The

underground sidewalk spaces he has created,

where there is almost no light, are not respectful

to the residents.

Hence, the Permitted Development Rulebook

assumes that people respect an unwritten law.

The publication of such a legal book that frees

planning (to some extent) relies on the fact that

there already exists an unwritten law that is

valued.

Mr. Panayi is the extreme position of a person

that completely disrespects the spoken law by

trespassing public space. However, the example

of Mr. Panayi can be studied by architects. The

PD rulebook allows for a type of architecture

that can be built beyond legal boundaries. New

land uses can be found within the city to create

theSubplan city.

The movie Brazil presents the suffocating

organization of a future city as perceived in the

1970s. The main character is unable to escape

his bureaucratic existence in order to chase his

dreams. He stands beneath an amber moon and

hopes that someday soon, he will return to old

Brazil. Now, in 2010, he can find another way to

realize his dreams. Rather than escape it

involves the maneuvering between the

boundaries of the Permitted Development

Rulebook.


14/15

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jonathan Hughes and Simon Sadler (eds), Non-plan : essays on freedom participation and change in

modern architecture and urbanism, Architectural Press: London, 2000.

Richard Sennett, The uses of disorder: Personal identity and city life, Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1970.

Pat Morton (ed.), Pop culture and Postwar American Taste, Blackwell: London, 2006.

Paul Barker, The freedoms of suburbia, Frances Lincoln: London, 2009.

ARTICLES

Richard Sennett. The open city. Urban Age, Berlin (November 2006).

DK-CM. Living on Infrastructure. Architecture Today Issue 212, United Kingdom ( October 2010)

WEB PAGES

Movie analysis: Brazil (1985). Wikke Novalia et al. 2 December 2011. Netherlands. 24 March 2013

Planning rules and bureaucracy swept away so buildings can be extended without local authoritypermission. J ames Chapman and Martin Robinson et al. 6 September 2012. United Kingdom. 24 March2013.

DOCUMENTARIES

Joseph Bullman (producer). The secret history of our streets: Caledonian Road.BBC, London, 26

January 2012.


15/15

L IST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure 1: Newspaper extract on new planning reformsSource: www.thisismoney.com, 24 March 2013

Figure 2: Scene from the movie BrazilSource: www.imdb.co.uk, 24 March 2013

Figure 3: Scene from the movie BrazilSource: www.imdb.co.uk, 24 March 2013

Figure 4: Collage. Background scene from the movie Brazil. Foreground Richard Sennett and ReynerBanhams facesSource:

Figure 5: Subplan drawingSource: www.dk-cm.com, 24 March 2013

build first and ask for permission later 3

Documents