Designing the Future: Emma’s Bo’Ness Project

While in Scotland last year, we were able to follow in Emma’s architectural footsteps on a trip to Bo’Ness, a river town near Glasgow, where she went on a class trip to do fieldwork. Before we went, her tutor, Luca Brunelli, shared the project with us as well as photos. They give us a glimpse into Emma’s mind and architecture of the near future. 

Because of her prior classwork and studies, Emma entered the renowned Mackintosh School of Architecture as a second-year student, which is unusual. Also atypical, she opted for the part-time mode, which would allow her to work in an architectural practice at the same time. We learned that for our daughter, work was more important than school. When asked about her “side gig” at the firm New Practice, she replied, “No, my side gig is university!” Cautious about taking on ANOTHER bachelor’s degree, Emma told us she would test the waters at the Mack School. As the term went on, Emma told us she enjoyed alternating school and work—and reserving the weekends for friends, hiking, biking and living. 

Emma’s classmates were exploring the idea of “conviviality” in their second year.  This was “inspired by the thought of philosopher and social critic Ivan Illich (1973). The idea is that architecture can promote conviviality. Luca explained: “A convivial architecture is the one that gives people the freedom to interact and to contribute creatively to the environment in which they live outside the dominant forms of production and consumerism, opening the potential for new and more sustainable forms of living together that can counter the climate crisis.” 

For the Bo’Ness project, Luca asked students to pick one of four preselected sites in town and reimagine it, drawing on their chosen historic precedent. They were to build physical (cardboard) models as well as two-dimensional and three-dimensional digital drawings, document everything, and make an oral report (see photos below). The building was to combine residential and work spaces and address environmental, constructive and structural aspects. 

As her historic precedent, Emma chose the Roosendal Terraced Houses, built in 2008 in the Netherlands by architect Kempe Thill, noted for its economy, simplicity, and materiality (see photo). https://divisare.com/projects/80867-atelier-kempe-thill-ulrich-schwarz-berlin-a-row-of-houses. Terraced houses, as I would learn, are what Americans call “town homes.” Luca wrote, “The focus of this exercise is not the visual appearance of the building, but the main characteristics and spatial relationships evident in the project.” 

 

Then, the students were to design architectural proposals to adapt the precedent, to reflect the changing needs or dreams of the residents. Luca sked them to “think about different scenarios of your choice,” for example: live-work, multi-occupancy, demographic or mobility change,” for example, an extra space for grandma or for hobbies, involving “enlargement of the building to accommodate at least two more rooms.” Emma thought about a couple that had separated, could not afford to move, but needed separate spaces to keep from bumping into one another. Luca told us that he wondered whether Emma had lived through such a scenario, and whether we, her parents, were separated! (Photo above Emma presenting her work, MSA photographer Vivian Carvalho.)

Next came part three of the project, with the trip to Bo’Ness on Nov. 3. Students were to select one of four sites in the town, and imagine a multiuse scenario, using the work on their precedent. Emma picked the site of a former bakery, and reimagined that it would be rebuilt as a bakery on the ground floor, with apartments on the next floor—perhaps for the bakery’s workers. (Google Maps link: https://goo.gl/maps/MQmBzk4cjEcHoQbk7.) Plus, the bakery would have a café where people could gather and of course purchase goods. She imagined that, as a plus, the wonderful smells of bread baking would waft into the apartments! 

As someone born and raised in Paris, with a bakery on many a corner, this idea was probably near and dear to Emma. Whenever she came home to visit us, I would be sure to have a baguette waiting for her or on the table for breakfast.  Emma, in our view, was fortunate to attend the Mack School where, as she was building a life, she was deep in thought and practice about how to build a better world for others too. We are very grateful to Luca for sharing the project and stories about Emma with us, and to the director Sally Stewart for her support from our first trip to Glasgow to our most recent one last month for the legal proceedings. And thank you to Shellie for taking us to Bo’Ness!

(For more photos go to https://photos.app.goo.gl/thX1C38Nkxhpt1Nk9. Let me know if you cannot access and I will make it happen!)

 

Emma at the former bakery site in Bo’Ness, 3 Nov. 2024. Photo: Emily Earsman