This interview could start with ‘Dear John’, a project of care conceived by architect and interior designer Marianna Karalioliou about the dwindling Brixton barrows, and more specifically the craftsmen that look after them. In a covid 19 world, projects about the public space and/or that look after community members are more than welcome. We salute you, ‘Dear John’.
In your project about the Brixton Market, you propose to create a space for John, the man that repairs the barrows. Can you tell us a bit more about it?
During the second and final year of my MA studies in Interior Design at the Royal College of Art, I chose to do my Thesis project in the Interior Detail platform, run by senior tutor Ian Higgins. The general subject of the Detail platform for the year was the re-use of abandoned railway arches in London. After a potential site exploration that the group of Interior Detail did in South London, we decided that the common site for our thesis projects would be the railway arches of Valentia place, in Brixton.
Having established a site, the next step was to decide what function I would insert in the arch to start building up my project. My personal research for Brixton led me to discover a very peculiar issue that has been rising concern among the locals for quite some time. The market's traditional barrows are dwindling in number, as the craftsmen that are able to repair these ageing vehicles are few and far from London. This would palpably alter life in Brixton market, as the stallholders still rely entirely on the use of the barrows to run their businesses.
This is the beginning of 'John's' story. He's my fictional craftsman that embodies the initiatives of the locals to save the Brixton barrows. In his live – work space, within a set of railway arches that becomes part of an imagined masterplan where a new public space is created, John lives among other makers and offers his craftsmanship to the market people, repairing their barrows and preserving the character of the market and the area in general.
- Do you think that markets are important in urban cities like London?
Definitely. I might be a little biased as I come from Greece, a country where markets are an integral part of everyday life, but markets do not only enrich a city's public life, they also create a micro-scale in the modern metropolis. This micro-scale is what transforms co-existence to conviviality, a quality that is quite scarce in urban cities, from my experience at least.
- One of the things that I like about your project is the combination between arts and crafts. As an architect, do you think that they are important?
I couldn't imagine the one existing without the other and I wouldn't like to imagine how life would be without both of them. Arts and crafts in their greatest manifestations, such as in Ancient Greece, Renaissance etc., were leaps in the evolution of human civilisation, but I believe that the significance of their harmonious combination in everyday life is of equal importance. The quality of our lives is substantially improved when objects and 'things' are both thoughtfully considered and beautifully crafted, not only serving their purpose of making one's life easier but also offering aesthetic pleasure, at some level at least.
- Do you think that these roles - like John and others that repair boats, work with woods, etc - are important for the sustainability of society?
I have enormous respect and admiration for craftsmen like 'John', and I believe that their existence will always be of crucial importance for the sustainability of society. Despite the fact that they are somehow the exception in an economy that fosters standardisation and mass production, their significance lies within the invaluable knowledge and skills that pass on from generation to generation and have been formed throughout decades of experience. The hands on approach that craftsmen have is characterised by, what I would like to call, a sentimental intelligence and ingeniousness, as the relationship they build with their work is something much deeper than mere production and has quite a 'parental' quality to it. I don't think that the knowledge deriving from such personal devotion to a craft could ever be replaced, even in the most technologically developed societies.
- How do you perceive the public space in a covid 19 context?
In a circumstance where the private sphere is becoming the dominant part of everyday life as it forms a safety zone, public space either maintains the identity of a space of decompression, or is facing the danger of becoming a zone where insecurity dominates. As the Covid-19 is a quite recent context, I think we are all trying to find a new balance and discover new ways of living in public. The way I perceive public space hasn't drastically changed, as I still consider it as a way out of normal, everyday city life. The fact that we have to re-adjust and follow a new set of rules for the protection of public health might create some restrictions in public life and the way we inhabit public space. However, as public space is a living space that evolves and adapts to current social needs and circumstances, I would like to perceive it as a space of undiscovered opportunities. I certainly hope that the new terms of a global pandemic will create the ground to discover new ways of safely living in public.
- People speak in human ecology, a term that I dislike, but your project has the beautiful quality of looking for the others in the city. Do you think that covid 19 changed the terms in which we relate to one another?
Thank you for your comment. The truth is that my project had started before the Covid-19 outbreak and the public aspect of it had already been addressed and settled before the massive change the virus brought in our lives. However, something that started as a need to create a proposal that would be closely connected to the site and become an organic part of the area rather than a proposal that would focus solely on the design of John's space, soon acquired an additional dimension. It was as if the neighborhood I was envisioning to be born and nurtured by the vibrant area of Brixton became a reminder of the importance of public life in an urban city. Covid-19 certainly pushed us indoors and made us build stronger relationships with our closest ones, but it changed the way we define ourselves in the vaster social network of a neighborhood, an area and a city. Social distancing has made people more alienated and suspicious to each other, which is quite a natural reaction to such an unprecedented situation causing fear to all. However, I believe that this numbness we are all feeling is somehow creative, as it is making us reconsider how we want our social lives to be particularly in urban cities, when things hopefully return to normal, at least to some degree.
