Social Housing: Chatsworth Gardens, Ashchurch Place, Fleet Street Hill, Baden Powell Close, Hannibal Road Gardens

This return comprises five social housing projects undertaken by Peter Barber between 2009 and 2013, some built, some unbuilt. The un-built projects contribute significantly to the development of Barber’s research agenda over this period. The primary research questions addressed by the projects are: Can urban life can be regenerated through well designed, mixed use high-density housing? Can sustainable development can be achieved through good design? Can better use of land and resources can be achieved through higher densities in housing? How can energy saving objectives be met in high-density housing? Each of the projects was developed through observational site visits and discussions with clients, community members and local planning officers. Conceptual design strategies drew on the writings of Walter Benjamin and Jane Jacobs, in line with Barber’s on-going interest in the cultural life of the urban street, and in-depth analysis of vernacular housing typologies and the work of his contemporaries. Key urban design moves were established early on in design processes and remained consistent through their evolution. Extensive physical model making, three-dimensional sketching and other forms of visualisation tested design options and refined the overall configuration of the buildings in terms of accessibility, circulation, lighting, housing typology and general functional viability. The many exploratory physical models for each scheme were all constructed with the same logic as the real construction operations would be on site, being regularly and quickly updated throughout the whole process. Positive coverage of these projects has appeared in the architectural press and popular media. Hannibal Road Gardens was awarded a 2013 RIBA London National Award. Baden Powell Close was shortlisted for a 2010 RIBA Award. In the same year, Peter Barber Architects was awarded the 2010/2011 Building Design Architect of the Year Award for Housing. This followed commendation in the 2008 Civic Trust Awards

Maximum hitting for n sufficiently large

For a left-compressed intersecting family \A contained in [n]^(r) and a set X contained in [n], let \A(X) = {A in \A : A intersect X is non-empty}. Borg asked: for which X is |\A(X)| maximised by taking \A to be all r-sets containing the element 1? We determine exactly which X have this property, for n sufficiently large depending on r.Comment: Version 2 corrects the calculation of the sizes of the set families appearing in the proof of the main theorem. It also incorporates a number of other smaller corrections and improvements suggested by the anonymous referees. 7 page

V. The Semiclassical Foldy-Wouthuysen Transformation and the Derivation of the Bloch Equation for Spin-1/2 Polarised Beams Using Wigner Functions

A semiclassical Foldy--Wouthuysen transformation of the Dirac equation is used to obtain the radiationless Bloch equation for the polarisation density.Comment: 7 pages. No figures. Latex. Paper 5 of a set of 5. others are physics/9901038 physics/9901041 physics/9901042 physics/990104

Spin decoherence in electron storage rings --- more from a simple model

This is an addendum to the paper "Some models of spin coherence and decoherence in storage rings" by one of the authors [1] in which spin diffusion in simple electron storage rings is studied. In particular, we illustrate in a compact way, a key implication in the Epilogue of [1], namely that the exact formalism of [1] delivers a rate of depolarisation which can differ from that obtained by the conventional treatments of spin diffusion which rely on the use of the derivative $\partial \hat n/\partial\eta$ [2,3,4]. As a vehicle we consider a ring with a Siberian Snake and electron polarisation in the plane of the ring (Machine II in [1]). For this simple setup with its one-dimensional spin motion, we avoid having to deal directly with the Bloch equation [5,6] for the polarisation density. Our treatment, which is deliberately pedagogical, shows that the use of $\partial \hat n/\partial\eta$ provides a very good approximation to the rate of spin depolarisation in the model considered. But it then shows that the exact rate of depolarisation can be obtained by replacing $\partial \hat n/\partial\eta$ by another derivative as suggested in the Epilogue of [1], while giving a heuristic justification for the new derivative.Comment: 17 page

Doris's Place

Barber is well known as one of the most talented British architects operating in housing design, linking his research into the nature of street life with the creation of high-density housing models. This built project, completed and inhabited in 2002, consists of an ultra-dense mixed-use urban regeneration scheme on a 4.5m wide slot infill site in Hackney. The project wraps a retail unit, two maisonettes and a live/work unit around a central courtyard at first-floor level; by doing so it achieves a density level which is equivalent to 650 habitable rooms per hectare, almost three times the density of local development. Research issues explored by Barber included how to design models of high-density mixed-use building that could help improve urban sustainability, and how to utilise new fabrication technologies – notably the parabolic roof vault to the rear – given a tight budget and construction schedule. In terms of research, Barber’s scheme offers a novel spatial and technical response to the pressure on mixed-use development in a city like London with its land shortage and extremely high land unit costs. As such, Doris’s Place contributes squarely to contemporary research into higher densities of urban living, as being urged upon the profession by bodies such as the Urban Task Force and by architectural figures like Lord Richard Rogers and Ricky Burdett. The project was shortlisted for a RIBA London Region Award, and was written up variously in the Guardian, Independent, etc.; the innovative roof construction was subsequently analysed in Building Design (6 May 2005, p. 22). Barber is frequently invited to give public lectures, now having presented nearly 50 talks across Britain and abroad – including a special session on housing policy at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester (October 2006), and at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran, Iran (October 2007)

Donnybrook Quarter

This built project by Barber is a dense mixed-use scheme with living units along with community, work and retail spaces – all configured into an innovative terrace/courtyard hybrid typology. Research issues include how to use the program requirements and site conditions to generate models of high-density housing, and how to reinforce the role of urban streets as socially cohesive devices in the contemporary city. As such, the Donnybrook scheme should be seen as a further contribution to investigations into densified urban living, with the aim of improving urban sustainability. The notion of the street as the locus for social interaction has a long pedigree within architectural thought, as promoted by writers like Jane Jacobs and Richard Sennett. Barber had previously designed a well-received masterplan proposal which sought created a renewed sense of street culture in two Dalston estates, as discussed in Building Design (9 March 2001, pp. 12-13) and Local Government News (July/August 2001, p. 16). The Donnybrook Quarter is published in Accommodating Change (Circle 33 Housing Group, 2002) and The Buildings of England – London Vol.5: East (Yale, 2005, pp. 625-6). The scheme was positively reviewed in the architectural press, including Building Design (24 February 2006, pp. 12-15) and RIBA Journal (April 2006, pp. 32-40). It was also included in the New London Architecture Exhibition in 2005. The project originated when it won Circle 33's 'Accommodating Change: Innovation in Housing' competition in 2002, and subsequently it received a Housing Design Award (2004; shortlisted again in 2006). The Donnybrook Quarter was highly commended in the Royal Academy Summer Show Architecture Awards (2004), received an American Institute of Architects (UK/London Chapter) Design Excellence Award (2006), and won a RIBA Regional Design Award (2006). The scheme was included on the long-list for the 2006 Stirling Prize, and only just narrowly missed the final cut