Choreography of Bodies and Spaces in Arrival Sequences:British Housing 1750-2020

Housing discourse tends to focus exclusively on either non-physical (policy, finance, tenure, social) or physical issues (typology, plan types, spatial evolution or transformation). Studies which focus on experiential issues (identity, use, everyday practices) tend to favour agency over the spatial structure. Housing, as an architectural programme, blurs these categories; as well as sitting between the perceived difference between architecture and urbanism, it also joins the public and private realms. The arrival sequences in housing most reflects the interrelation and interdependence of many of the categories listed above. Within this arena this paper seeks to examine the link between bodies and space and its relationship to the formation of identity (both spatial and individual). <br/>The paper draws on Michel de Certeau’s balanced approach to the relationship between spaces and practices. This addresses the false opposition between structure and agency that often leads to privileging one over the other (per Thomas Gieryn’s assertion that Giddens favours agency while Bourdieu favours structure). <br/>An examination of Alexandra Road housing estate (Neave Brown, 1978) demonstrates the intertwined and variable influence of spaces and practices. A sketch overview of notable historical projects are outlined to articulate two points: a) the relationship between the identify formation of places and individuals, and b) how arrival sequences contribute to either the possibility of belonging (through the articulation of clear moments of transition) or alienation (through the creation of an antagonism between the city and the home).<br/>If “bodies and things are not easily separated terms” (Thrift) then the choreography as a performed routine or ritual knits them together. In order to understand bodies (which body, whose body, what body) its critical to examine the space it is in as a practiced thing with attention paid to the possibilities exploited, those yet to be acted on, and those that are rejected in the built order. <br/>