TY - JOUR

T1 - Urgent Minor Matters

T2 - Re-Activating Archival Documents for Social Housing Futures

AU - Kajita, Heidi Svenningsen

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Architectural archives of large-scale housing projects are usually ordered with construction in mind, but can they also function in support of the social in housing? This article reveals how particular notions of inhabitation were inscribed in documents used in the design processes of a post-World War II housing estate, the Byker Redevelopment in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (1968-83). From their site office, Ralph Erskine’s Arkitektkontor AB experimented with communicative processes with residents, some of which were kept on record and stored. Scribbles on furnished drawings point to particular imaginaries involving sometimes just one household; residents’ voices are noted in lists, in a local newspaper and in evaluative reports. Re-activating the office archive ethnographically, I stitch together episodic accounts from these scant scraps. The aim is not an all-embracing representation of historical events, but instead the possibility to attend to small truths of the social – urgent minor matters – in mainstream housing futures.

AB - Architectural archives of large-scale housing projects are usually ordered with construction in mind, but can they also function in support of the social in housing? This article reveals how particular notions of inhabitation were inscribed in documents used in the design processes of a post-World War II housing estate, the Byker Redevelopment in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (1968-83). From their site office, Ralph Erskine’s Arkitektkontor AB experimented with communicative processes with residents, some of which were kept on record and stored. Scribbles on furnished drawings point to particular imaginaries involving sometimes just one household; residents’ voices are noted in lists, in a local newspaper and in evaluative reports. Re-activating the office archive ethnographically, I stitch together episodic accounts from these scant scraps. The aim is not an all-embracing representation of historical events, but instead the possibility to attend to small truths of the social – urgent minor matters – in mainstream housing futures.

U2 - 10.1080/20507828.2022.2093603

DO - 10.1080/20507828.2022.2093603

M3 - Journal article

VL - 10

SP - 483

EP - 511

JO - Architecture and Culture

JF - Architecture and Culture

SN - 2050-7828

IS - 3

ER -