Iain Borden
Iain Borden is Professor of Architecture & Urban Culture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, where he is also Vice-Dean Education for the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, having previously served as Director and Head of the Bartlett School of Architecture from 2001-09.
As an architectural historian and urban commentator, my work has explored intersections of architectural history, cultural history, critical theory and urbanism. I am particularly interested in the ways in which urban and architectural spaces are experienced and perceived by people after the moment at which these spaces have been first constructed - that is, the various ways in which buildings and cities constantly change and evolve depending on their different uses and lives over many years and through different media. My inaugural professional lecture – “Machines of Possibility” (2004) – describing this approach is available for download from the link on http://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/people/?school=architecture&upi=IMBOR56.
My wide-ranging research interests within architecture and urban culture are described below. Most recently I have been working on a history of automobile driving, urban experience and cinema, now being followed by new work on an experiential history of large, everyday buildings and spaces around the world, as well as a substantially revised and updated book on skateboarding.
Research Summary
Research by Iain Borden explores how architecture and cities are experienced and re-used by members of the public. Architecture and cities are crucial to how people live and society operates. Without homes, shops and parks, without offices, workplaces and airports, our world would grind to a halt. As a historian and theorist of architecture and urban culture, I am interested not just in how our cities function but also how they are designed, what they mean to people and how they are experienced. The role of architects and urban designers plays a big part in this, and high quality of design is a crucial ingredient in what people expect from architecture. What do buildings look like? How do they satisfy people’s needs? How do they speak of deeper cultural issues today and in the past? But it is not architects who are the most important judges of architecture. Ultimately, architecture is assessed by those who use it on an everyday basis, and much of my research work has consequently been about how people who are not trained in architecture perceive and experience the cities in which they live. To do this, I have studied a diverse range of subjects and places, ranging from the urban spaces of Italian renaissance piazzas to the use of surveillance cameras in shopping malls, from architectural modernism to recent postmodernism, from issues of gender and ethnicity in city spaces to the way architecture is represented in cinema and photography.
In particular, I have completed an in-depth study of the urban practice of skateboarding, looking at how skateboarders have adopted modern cities as their own pleasure-ground, creating a concrete wonderland with its own subculture of clothes, attitudes and actions. I have also extended this area of investigation into the world of automobile driving, looking at films and movies to explore how people’s experiences of the city from the car changes their engagement with, and understanding of, architecture and urban space. Recent work explores how specific places and buildings in London can be encountered through different kinds of social engagement, such as knowledge, memory and risk-taking.
Authored and co-edited publications include:
• Drive: Journeys through Film, Cities and Landscapes (2013).
• Bartlett Designs: Speculating With Architecture (2009).
• The Dissertation: an Architecture Student’s Handbook (third revised edition, 2014; Chinese edition 2010).
• Transculturation: Cities, Spaces and Architectures in Latin America (2005).
• Bartlett Works (2004).
• The City Cultures Reader, (revised edition, 2003). • Manual: the Architecture and Office of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (2003).
• Skateboarding Space and the City: Architecture and the Body (2001; Japanese edition 2006; revised edition forthcoming).
• The Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space (2001).
• The New Babylonians, special profile n.151 of Architectural Design (AD), v.71 n.3, (June 2001).
• InterSections: Architectural Histories and Critical Theories (2000).
• Gender Space Architecture: an Interdisciplinary Introduction (1999).
• Strangely Familiar: Narratives of Architecture in the City (1996). Architecture and the Sites of History: Interpretations of Buildings and Cities (1995).
A full list of publications can be found here https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/research/publication/index?upi=IMBOR56
As an architectural historian and urban commentator, my work has explored intersections of architectural history, cultural history, critical theory and urbanism. I am particularly interested in the ways in which urban and architectural spaces are experienced and perceived by people after the moment at which these spaces have been first constructed - that is, the various ways in which buildings and cities constantly change and evolve depending on their different uses and lives over many years and through different media. My inaugural professional lecture – “Machines of Possibility” (2004) – describing this approach is available for download from the link on http://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/people/?school=architecture&upi=IMBOR56.
My wide-ranging research interests within architecture and urban culture are described below. Most recently I have been working on a history of automobile driving, urban experience and cinema, now being followed by new work on an experiential history of large, everyday buildings and spaces around the world, as well as a substantially revised and updated book on skateboarding.
Research Summary
Research by Iain Borden explores how architecture and cities are experienced and re-used by members of the public. Architecture and cities are crucial to how people live and society operates. Without homes, shops and parks, without offices, workplaces and airports, our world would grind to a halt. As a historian and theorist of architecture and urban culture, I am interested not just in how our cities function but also how they are designed, what they mean to people and how they are experienced. The role of architects and urban designers plays a big part in this, and high quality of design is a crucial ingredient in what people expect from architecture. What do buildings look like? How do they satisfy people’s needs? How do they speak of deeper cultural issues today and in the past? But it is not architects who are the most important judges of architecture. Ultimately, architecture is assessed by those who use it on an everyday basis, and much of my research work has consequently been about how people who are not trained in architecture perceive and experience the cities in which they live. To do this, I have studied a diverse range of subjects and places, ranging from the urban spaces of Italian renaissance piazzas to the use of surveillance cameras in shopping malls, from architectural modernism to recent postmodernism, from issues of gender and ethnicity in city spaces to the way architecture is represented in cinema and photography.
In particular, I have completed an in-depth study of the urban practice of skateboarding, looking at how skateboarders have adopted modern cities as their own pleasure-ground, creating a concrete wonderland with its own subculture of clothes, attitudes and actions. I have also extended this area of investigation into the world of automobile driving, looking at films and movies to explore how people’s experiences of the city from the car changes their engagement with, and understanding of, architecture and urban space. Recent work explores how specific places and buildings in London can be encountered through different kinds of social engagement, such as knowledge, memory and risk-taking.
Authored and co-edited publications include:
• Drive: Journeys through Film, Cities and Landscapes (2013).
• Bartlett Designs: Speculating With Architecture (2009).
• The Dissertation: an Architecture Student’s Handbook (third revised edition, 2014; Chinese edition 2010).
• Transculturation: Cities, Spaces and Architectures in Latin America (2005).
• Bartlett Works (2004).
• The City Cultures Reader, (revised edition, 2003). • Manual: the Architecture and Office of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (2003).
• Skateboarding Space and the City: Architecture and the Body (2001; Japanese edition 2006; revised edition forthcoming).
• The Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space (2001).
• The New Babylonians, special profile n.151 of Architectural Design (AD), v.71 n.3, (June 2001).
• InterSections: Architectural Histories and Critical Theories (2000).
• Gender Space Architecture: an Interdisciplinary Introduction (1999).
• Strangely Familiar: Narratives of Architecture in the City (1996). Architecture and the Sites of History: Interpretations of Buildings and Cities (1995).
A full list of publications can be found here https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/research/publication/index?upi=IMBOR56
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Articles by Iain Borden
Skateboard England and Skateboard GB are delighted to launch the UK’s first official “Design and Development Guidance for Skateboarding” in partnership with Sport England. The guidance document aims to support the creation skateparks and skateboard facilities, through advice on design, construction and build. The guide provides information on the skateboarding environment, an overview of skateparks and skateable spaces, examples of skate parks and places to skateboard, procurement and supporting information on all aspects around planning for providing skateboard spaces in the UK.
A great planning document for Councils, Local Authorities, Community Groups, Charities and individuals planning to build a skatepark or skateboarding facility.
(1) SKATEBOARDING BENEFITS
Skateboarding has been in the UK since the 1960's and today, it is widely practiced by 750,000 people across just about every village, town and city nationwide. Skateboarding continues to grow in participation by many of whom may not otherwise engage in sports activity. There are a number of reasons for this, including; affordability, accessibility, culture and it’s diversity.
With Tokyo Olympics set to showcase skateboarding for the first time, skateboarding is likely to become increasingly popular in the number and diversity of riders. This provides a new opportunity to release the activity’s untapped potential within our communities, Skateparks, alongside riding in public spaces and streets, which generate massive physical and mental health benefits, often among those who otherwise might not be active. These benefits range from introducing young children to sport as a playful activity, to engaging teenagers who might otherwise be un-attracted to team sports, through to maintaining consistent activity throughout peoples lives.
(2) SKATEBOARDING AND SKATEPARKS
Most UK skateparks are situated outdoors and are constructed from a variety of materials including concrete, metal, composite and timber. Indoor skateparks tend to be constructed from timber. It is generally recommended that outdoor skateparks should be constructed in concrete because the material boasts a better and safer riding surface, significant durability with minimal maintenance, lower noise pollution and customisability of design. Skateparks typically incorporate one or more of the three main types of riding terrain: Street, Transition and Flow.
As their name suggests, skateparks are often focused at the needs of skateboarders. In fact, many skateparks are used by a variety of different wheeled devices, including: Skateboards, BMX, Other bicycles, WCMX (adapted wheelchairs), Scooters & Roller skates (traditional and in-line). Skateparks are not just sports facilities, but significant community spaces, and therefore often include a high quality of landscape design for their immediate setting and surroundings, in which the community can exist and develop.
(3) SKATEPARKS: SIZES AND EXAMPLES
Skateparks come in a wide range of sizes, designs and prevalence. Indeed, like golf courses, no two skatepark facilities are exactly alike, with each offering a near unique combination of challenges and opportunities for its riders. The size of skateparks varies hugely starting with a micro skate park, small, medium, large, national through to international standard.
Costs for skateparks vary greatly depending on size, ground conditions, materials and the riding features. As a ballpark figure, an outdoor concrete skatepark costs approximately £400 per m2 for its design and construction, with a micro skatepark costing from £40,000 - £50, 000 through to an international sized park costing anything upto £2 million.
(4) SKATEPARKS: PROCUREMENT
There are various important stages and elements of the skatepark procurement process. Each project is, of course distinctly different and faces a diverse set of individual challenges, and most projects will not necessarily follow this route exactly.
Consultation: Commonly, there are a number of stakeholders in the process including: riders, local residents, council & community groups.
Location: Choosing the best location for a skatepark can often be one of the most challenging and important decisions in the process. Considerations need to be made for access, safety, surrounding landscape, noise, land ownership, services and conflict of activities.
Design: Quality of design is critically important to the success of a skatepark. The entire process relies on a design idea that brings to life all the hopes and dreams of the people involved. There are many fundamentals & design standards which need to be considered.
Planning Permission: The process is the most robust form of public consultation you can undertake. It enables you to build your skatepark in an agreed location, within a 3-year time frame.
Funding: There are a lot of potential sources for funding who will want to see that you are organised and have a worthwhile and realisable project to support.
Construction: Most construction works begin with written confirmation of a formal order. Once complete, a safety inspection needs to take place before the skate park can open.
(5) GOOD EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDIES
Skateparks play a fundamental role in providing accessible spaces for skateboarders to learn and develop skills, as well as valuable opportunities to exercise, socialise and be creative. To maximise the provision of skateboarding spaces and secure the maximum socio-economic benefits of skateboarding, it will be necessary to facilitate the provision not just skateparks, but also skateable public spaces in our towns and cities, by which we mean public spaces which positively welcome and cater for a diversity of uses and people, including skateboarding and skateboarders.
Good examples include:
UK - Hungerford Bridge in London, Riverside Museum in Glasgow & Buszy in Milton Keynes.
Europe - Rue Léon Cladel in Paris, Rådhusplassen in Oslo, Landhausplatz in Innsbruck & Tampere in Finland.
This chapter charts the documentation of skateboarding in the UK capital as caught on film, showing how these sites made up a vibrant skateboarding scene. In doing so, it also charts the dramatically changing technologies by which these film documentations occurred, from the earliest days of amateur movies and sporadic news coverage (capturing the relatively innocent arrival of skateboarding as a youthful pastime), through camcorder footage of the burgeoning street-skateboarding scene of the 1990s (raising issues of subculture, urban space and masculinity) through to todays scene, where a plethora of art-based films, documentaries, social media clips and guerrilla-style advertising have become an integral part of a rich and pluralistic skateboard scene.
Film is thus shown to not only help record different space and sites, but also to express and give voice to a changing set of social meanings over the the last 40 years.
Published in Pam Hirsch and Chris O’Rourke (eds.), "London on Film", (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), pp. 173-92.
Keywords: Singapore, Singapore Flyer, observation wheel, modernity, Bergson, movement, experience.
Draft version.
Final version published as:
Iain Borden, 'The Singapore Flyer: Experiencing Singaporean Modernity through Architecture, Motion and Bergson', The Journal of Architecture, v.19 n.6 (2014), pp. 872-902.
DOI 10.1080/13602365.2014.984482.
Skateboard England and Skateboard GB are delighted to launch the UK’s first official “Design and Development Guidance for Skateboarding” in partnership with Sport England. The guidance document aims to support the creation skateparks and skateboard facilities, through advice on design, construction and build. The guide provides information on the skateboarding environment, an overview of skateparks and skateable spaces, examples of skate parks and places to skateboard, procurement and supporting information on all aspects around planning for providing skateboard spaces in the UK.
A great planning document for Councils, Local Authorities, Community Groups, Charities and individuals planning to build a skatepark or skateboarding facility.
(1) SKATEBOARDING BENEFITS
Skateboarding has been in the UK since the 1960's and today, it is widely practiced by 750,000 people across just about every village, town and city nationwide. Skateboarding continues to grow in participation by many of whom may not otherwise engage in sports activity. There are a number of reasons for this, including; affordability, accessibility, culture and it’s diversity.
With Tokyo Olympics set to showcase skateboarding for the first time, skateboarding is likely to become increasingly popular in the number and diversity of riders. This provides a new opportunity to release the activity’s untapped potential within our communities, Skateparks, alongside riding in public spaces and streets, which generate massive physical and mental health benefits, often among those who otherwise might not be active. These benefits range from introducing young children to sport as a playful activity, to engaging teenagers who might otherwise be un-attracted to team sports, through to maintaining consistent activity throughout peoples lives.
(2) SKATEBOARDING AND SKATEPARKS
Most UK skateparks are situated outdoors and are constructed from a variety of materials including concrete, metal, composite and timber. Indoor skateparks tend to be constructed from timber. It is generally recommended that outdoor skateparks should be constructed in concrete because the material boasts a better and safer riding surface, significant durability with minimal maintenance, lower noise pollution and customisability of design. Skateparks typically incorporate one or more of the three main types of riding terrain: Street, Transition and Flow.
As their name suggests, skateparks are often focused at the needs of skateboarders. In fact, many skateparks are used by a variety of different wheeled devices, including: Skateboards, BMX, Other bicycles, WCMX (adapted wheelchairs), Scooters & Roller skates (traditional and in-line). Skateparks are not just sports facilities, but significant community spaces, and therefore often include a high quality of landscape design for their immediate setting and surroundings, in which the community can exist and develop.
(3) SKATEPARKS: SIZES AND EXAMPLES
Skateparks come in a wide range of sizes, designs and prevalence. Indeed, like golf courses, no two skatepark facilities are exactly alike, with each offering a near unique combination of challenges and opportunities for its riders. The size of skateparks varies hugely starting with a micro skate park, small, medium, large, national through to international standard.
Costs for skateparks vary greatly depending on size, ground conditions, materials and the riding features. As a ballpark figure, an outdoor concrete skatepark costs approximately £400 per m2 for its design and construction, with a micro skatepark costing from £40,000 - £50, 000 through to an international sized park costing anything upto £2 million.
(4) SKATEPARKS: PROCUREMENT
There are various important stages and elements of the skatepark procurement process. Each project is, of course distinctly different and faces a diverse set of individual challenges, and most projects will not necessarily follow this route exactly.
Consultation: Commonly, there are a number of stakeholders in the process including: riders, local residents, council & community groups.
Location: Choosing the best location for a skatepark can often be one of the most challenging and important decisions in the process. Considerations need to be made for access, safety, surrounding landscape, noise, land ownership, services and conflict of activities.
Design: Quality of design is critically important to the success of a skatepark. The entire process relies on a design idea that brings to life all the hopes and dreams of the people involved. There are many fundamentals & design standards which need to be considered.
Planning Permission: The process is the most robust form of public consultation you can undertake. It enables you to build your skatepark in an agreed location, within a 3-year time frame.
Funding: There are a lot of potential sources for funding who will want to see that you are organised and have a worthwhile and realisable project to support.
Construction: Most construction works begin with written confirmation of a formal order. Once complete, a safety inspection needs to take place before the skate park can open.
(5) GOOD EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDIES
Skateparks play a fundamental role in providing accessible spaces for skateboarders to learn and develop skills, as well as valuable opportunities to exercise, socialise and be creative. To maximise the provision of skateboarding spaces and secure the maximum socio-economic benefits of skateboarding, it will be necessary to facilitate the provision not just skateparks, but also skateable public spaces in our towns and cities, by which we mean public spaces which positively welcome and cater for a diversity of uses and people, including skateboarding and skateboarders.
Good examples include:
UK - Hungerford Bridge in London, Riverside Museum in Glasgow & Buszy in Milton Keynes.
Europe - Rue Léon Cladel in Paris, Rådhusplassen in Oslo, Landhausplatz in Innsbruck & Tampere in Finland.
This chapter charts the documentation of skateboarding in the UK capital as caught on film, showing how these sites made up a vibrant skateboarding scene. In doing so, it also charts the dramatically changing technologies by which these film documentations occurred, from the earliest days of amateur movies and sporadic news coverage (capturing the relatively innocent arrival of skateboarding as a youthful pastime), through camcorder footage of the burgeoning street-skateboarding scene of the 1990s (raising issues of subculture, urban space and masculinity) through to todays scene, where a plethora of art-based films, documentaries, social media clips and guerrilla-style advertising have become an integral part of a rich and pluralistic skateboard scene.
Film is thus shown to not only help record different space and sites, but also to express and give voice to a changing set of social meanings over the the last 40 years.
Published in Pam Hirsch and Chris O’Rourke (eds.), "London on Film", (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), pp. 173-92.
Keywords: Singapore, Singapore Flyer, observation wheel, modernity, Bergson, movement, experience.
Draft version.
Final version published as:
Iain Borden, 'The Singapore Flyer: Experiencing Singaporean Modernity through Architecture, Motion and Bergson', The Journal of Architecture, v.19 n.6 (2014), pp. 872-902.
DOI 10.1080/13602365.2014.984482.
Iain Borden, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
James Hope-Gill, Skateboard England
Tom Baines, Camden Council
Russ Holbert, Maverick Industries
Alex Jordan, The Skateparks Project
Chris Lawton, Skate Nottingham
Ricardo Magee, Brighton & Hove City Council