METROPOLITAN ENCHANTMENT AND DISENCHANTMENT. METROPOLITAN ANTHROPOLOGY FOR THE CONTEMPORARY LIVING MAP CONSTRUCTION

We can no longer interpret the contemporary metropolis as we did in the last century. The thought of civil economy regarding the contemporary Metropolis conflicts more or less radically with the merely acquisitive dimension of the behaviour of its citizens. What is needed is therefore a new capacity for imagining the economic-productive future of the city: hybrid social enterprises, economically sustainable, structured and capable of using technologies, could be a solution for producing value and distributing it fairly and inclusively. Metropolitan Urbanity is another issue to establish. Metropolis needs new spaces where inclusion can occur, and where a repository of the imagery can be recreated. What is the ontology behind the technique of metropolitan planning and management, its vision and its symbols? Competitiveness, speed, and meritocracy are political words, not technical ones. Metropolitan Urbanity is the characteristic of a polis that expresses itself in its public places. Today, however, public places are private ones that are destined for public use. The Common Good has always had a space of representation in the city, which was the public space. Today, the Green-Grey Infrastructure is the metropolitan city's monument that communicates a value for future generations and must therefore be recognised and imagined; it is the production of the metropolitan symbolic imagery, the new magic of the city

A critical analysis of the continued use of Georgian buildings: a case study of Darley Abbey Mills, Derbyshire.

This thesis undertakes a critical assessment of the impact of Statutory Legislation and UNESCO World Heritage Designation upon the sustainability and continued use of historic industrial buildings, utilising the late 18th Century Georgian Industrial Buildings of Darley Abbey Mills, Derby, as a case study. This thesis provides an indepth and longitudinal analysis of the morphology and evolution of Darley Abbey Mills between 2006-2015, during this time the assessment of whether the mills would find a sustainable and continued contemporary use has shifted from a concern that the site was slowly disintegrating with the danger of an important historical artefact being lost for ever or becoming irrevocably damaged through lack of maintenance and repair to a position where the future of the mills is looking promising. What makes Darley Abbey Mills so unusual or unique is that it possesses the highest possible levels of statutory protection, but that is also under private ownership. The initial findings in an analysis of policy documents and planning applications between 2006- 2010 was that there was limited engagement with the external heritage and conservations stakeholders or the Local Authority, an ‘umbrella of statutory protection’ was not providing barriers or protecting the site, there was just a lack of action by all parties. This changed during the period 2010-13 when the site came under new unified ownership, the new owners started to make small adaptations and repairs to the site that enabled them to encourage new tenants from the creative and artisan communities to the site, however all of this work was not authorised, nor was planning permission sought. Although there was still a lack of enforcement of what can be seen as ‘aspirational urbanism’, a dialogue was started between the owners and the wider stakeholder community. Between 2013-2015, the relationship between all of the stakeholders became more formalised and an unofficial partnership was formed between the owners and the monitoring bodies that resulted in the successful planning application to adapt the West Mills and Long Mill, which moved some of the way towards ensuring the sustainable and continued use of Darley Abbey Mills

Sonic heritage: listening to the past

History is so often told through objects, images and photographs, but the potential of sounds to reveal place and space is often neglected. Our research project ‘Sonic Palimpsest’1 explores the potential of sound to evoke impressions and new understandings of the past, to embrace the sonic as a tool to understand what was, in a way that can complement and add to our predominant visual understandings. Our work includes the expansion of the Oral History archives held at Chatham Dockyard to include women’s voices and experiences, and the creation of sonic works to engage the public with their heritage. Our research highlights the social and cultural value of oral history and field recordings in the transmission of knowledge to both researchers and the public. Together these recordings document how buildings and spaces within the dockyard were used and experienced by those who worked there. We can begin to understand the social and cultural roles of these buildings within the community, both past and present