Gentrifying the Environment

How is it possible to find an interaction of contemporary user and his-torical building in the functional re-purposing process? My argument is that in the revitalization of derelict buildings there is often a lack of human contact with possible users in the functional re-purposing pro-cess. Gentrification is an inevitable phenomenon in today’s urban devel-opment context. Within it are constructive develdevel-opments of the urban environment: local municipal governments self-evidently subscribe to this kind of starting position in their cooperation with developers. Yet what are the social effects on the population of gentrification? Gentrifi-cation as a process is an intensifier of changes in the spatial and built environment. Housing costs (rents) rise as a result of an area’s devel-opment, and the original aura that generated a (creative) community lifestyle and inspired self-generated initiatives and developments disap-pears with the replacement of the area’s residents. The role of architec-ture and spatial values is often ignored in the course of contemporary pragmatic (interior) architectural project design and the functional re-purposing of space or, in other words, spatial intelligence has been forgotten in a site-specific sense. I argue that in the transformation of historical buildings, only the building’s physical substance is protected by the Heritage Conservation Act, and the non-material intangible values of buildings are not protected.

Fig 14: Williamsburg, the cradle of gentrification, New York 2017.

Gentrification is a process of urban renewal or re-urbanisation, in the course of which an abandoned district with presumed potential is invested in to launch its development through the combined effect of economic and cultural impulses. Gentrification occurs when there is a substantial replacement of a neighbourhood’s residents with

newcomers who have higher incomes and who, having acquired homes cheaply, renovate them and upgrade the neighbourhood. Revitalisation, vitalisation, aristocratisation and elitisation are synonyms for gentrifi-cation, which is also known as middle-classisation because the mid-dle class has replaced the working class due to the displacement of industry. There are several theoretical approaches to researching gen-trification: demographic-ecological, socio-cultural, politico-economic, environmental network-centred, and social movement-centred.⁸¹ Two primary approaches are in use: economic/production-centred and cultural/consumer- and lifestyle-centred.⁸² The effects on gentrification arising from age, gender, sexual preference, nationality and race have also been studied.

Needless to say, the investment of capital brings changes in both buildings and landscape, yet the social renewal of the area by groups of people with greater economic capital is accompanied by the displacement of the group of residents with lower income.⁸³ Rent-gap theory dominates here, meaning that the run-down dis-tricts of the city centre have potential, which when developed brings higher capital value or, in other words, this expresses the difference between the existing and the potential cost of rent and land.⁸⁴ Gentrification has become a global phenomenon that spread in the 1950s from the north-eastern USA to the cities of Western Europe and Australia. The sociologist Ruth Glass adopted the term

‘gentrification’ on the basis of the example of the Islington workers’

district in London,⁸⁵ which has gone through great changes both in reality and in research, summed up as ‘waves’. Nowadays, the period of economic downturn in the early 1970s is known as the first wave or pioneer gentrification, when districts in the city centre with low levels of investment became the target of investments. The gentrifi-ers were creative people attracted by advantageous prices. The sec-ond wave, or corporate / professional gentrification, followed with the economic upturn at the end of the 1970s, where the gentrifiers were the ‘new middle class’. The third wave, or supergentrification, or financification, emerged in the 1990s, in the course of which finance capital investment took place repeatedly, the gentrifiers were the elite, and local governments started participating in the 81 J. Palen, B. London, Gentrification, Displacement and Neighborhood Revitalization. Albany:

SUNY Press, 1984, p. 1.

82 N. Smith, Toward a Theory of Gentrification: A Back to the City Movement by Capital, not People. – Journal of the American Planning Association 1979, vol. 45(4), pp. 538–548.

83 M. Davidson, L. Lees, New-Build ‘Gentrification’ and London’s Riverside Renaissance. – Environment and Planning 2005, vol. 37, pp. 1165–1190.

84 N. Smith, Toward a Theory of Gentrification, pp. 538–548.

85 R. Glass, London: Aspects of Change.

process.⁸⁶ Fourth wave gentrification is spoken of in reference to the hurricane destruction in New Orleans and the HOPE IV housing programme in the USA, for instance.⁸⁷

Gentrification can be called part of re-urbanisation in association with certain social groups and economic processes. According to the anthropologist Neil Smith, two main theories from the approaches to theoretical research are in use: the approach focusing on economic profit, and the approach focusing on culture/consumerism, which is tied in with specific social groups.⁸⁸ In turn, diverse subcategories can be discerned in the gentrification process, such as studentifi-cation, where a large number of students change the appearance of an area and this, generally speaking, also brings an increase in socio-cultural capital; similar to this is rent gentrification, tourism gentrification, where a poorer residential district becomes a centre of tourism and entertainment, super-gentrification, which takes place in an already gentrified environment, and new-built gentrification, in the course of which the overall appearance of an area changes due to new construction.89 Rural gentrification, with its subcategory cottage-isation, is the result of the degeneration of agriculture, where people lead an alternative lifestyle and invest in rural dwellings.⁹⁰ Throughout the world, gentrifiers categorised by race, age, gender and sexual orientation are also topics of research. From the Marxist viewpoint, gentrification is contemporary social violence moderated by its approach focusing on culture. I have followed changes in this process with interest on the basis of new publications from gentri-fication theoreticians,⁹¹ where changes in the demographic profile of the residents are observed in a process in which the alternative design projects of artists, designers and architects are involved in the regeneration of residential districts. Newly completed documen-tary films also confirm the continuing topicality of the theme of gentrification. They are presented to the public at film festivals, for instance the Amsterdam Architectural Film Festival Architektur. Film.

Sommer 2015 – Shelter, Housing and the Formation of Cities, where

86 J. Hackworth, N. Smith, The Changing State of Gentrification. – Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 2001, 92(4), pp. 464–477.

87 L. Lees, T. Slater, E. Wyly, Gentrification. Routledge: New York, 2008, pp. 185–187.

88 N. Smith, Toward a Theory of Gentrification, pp. 538–548.

89 L. Lees, T. Slater, E. Wyly, The Gentrification Reader, Routledge: London, 2010, p. 391.

90 M. Phillips, Other Geographies of Gentrification. – Progress in Human Geography 2004, vol.

28(1), pp. 5–30.

91 J. Brown-Saracino, A Neighborhood That Never Changes: Gentrification, Social Preservation, and the Search for Authenticity. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2009;

Houses in Transformation: Interventions in European Gentrification. Eds. T. Kaminer, M.

Schoonderbeek, J. J. Berg, J. Zonneveld. Rotterdam: Nai Publishers, 2008.

films examined community problems in the gentrification process in the high-rent district of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which has been settled by yuppies.⁹²

What are manifestations of gentrification like in Estonia? It is impor-tant to examine the reasons and to create associations with the mutual effects of economic/production-centred processes and gen-trification’s cultural/consumer-centred aspects. The Estonian essay-ist Hasso Krull claimed that, in the temporal dimension, Estonian culture is founded on the motif of interruption, where the first posi-tive interruption was breaking free from the Baltic German cultural association, and generally from the German variant altogether, by manifesting independence. The first negative interruption was the historical myth of the loss of ancient independence. All subsequent interruptions have to a greater or lesser extent been variations of these main interruptions. This fundamental motif once again very prominently came to the fore in the 1990s. Positive interruption was marked by the restoration of political independence, together with breaking free of what went before, while negative interruption was being subjugated under Russian rule in the course of the Second World War.⁹³ The entire current cultural discourse is based on empha-sising these interruptions, whereas a certain period (longer than five years) is directly perceived as a time of interruption.

The emergence of private property, the reorganisation of the economy, the restructuring of the labour force, and the rapid stratification of the population accompanied the restoration of independence in Estonia.

Housing construction policy and that of real estate developers in the post-industrial era, however, depend on economic factors, the invest-ment climate in the region, and on Estonia’s small size, which ampli-fies several processes. Here it is important to understand the nature of transitional society over the last decade of the 20^th century and its influence on the form of the opening of the borders of a closed society, including the proliferation of the desire to consume con-nected with the disappearance of deficits. At the same time, global examples and the tendency to dissolve into them must be taken into account. For instance, there is Americanisation in urban space in the form of auto-mobilisation and large shopping centres, which has led to the emptying of city centres of pedestrians and small shops.

In the context of interiors, gentrification can be viewed as preva-lence characteristic of a certain era where the residents’ economic 92 For example the films The Domino Effect (2015) by M. Sperry, D. Phelps, B. Paul and Tonita´s

(2015) by B. Boyacioglu & S. Diaz.

93 H. Krull, Katkestuse kultuur. Tallinn: Vagabund, 1996, p. 7.

opportunities, social background and cultural stratum are reflected.

In the case of our Finnish neighbours, gentrification began in the 1980s. Gentrification as a process has been acknowledged in Estonia since the 1990s, but so far no theory has been worked out regarding the period after the restoration of independence. A few bachelor’s and master’s theses have been completed in this century on local manifestations of gentrification.⁹⁴ Studies have appeared focused on the city districts of Kalamaja, Kadriorg and Supilinn.⁹⁵ Socio-cultural changes conveyed through interviews and questionnaires are at the centre of attention. Economic reasons require studies based on sta-tistics in places such as Viljandi’s city centre and Kantreküla, Pärnu’s city centre, Rääma and Ülejõe, Tartu’s Karlova district, and Tallinn’s Old Town, Uus-Maailm, Kopli, Kassisaba and Pelgulinn, in addition to the above-mentioned studies.⁹⁶

In the 1990s, the gentrification process as an already globalised phe-nomenon spread in the real estate market from the city centre to the suburbs as well. Opposition to gentrification has abated and national or local government supports developers. Processes resembling gen-trification have started to proceed region by region, as well as in indi-vidual buildings. Primarily two theoretical approaches with different orientations emerge in the research of gentrification: cultural and economic. The first is based on enthusiasm: cultural consumption of post-industrial urban space as a lifestyle. The other approach is based on the financial calculation that renovating an old building is more economical than building a new one, whereas the favourable location of a building that is to be vitalised, the surrounding historical environment and distinctive architecture turn out to be advantages in their own right.

Similarly to the rest of the world, post-industrial society affects urban space in Estonia as well: industry has died out and cities are shrinking.

Due to the economic crisis, manufacturing has shut down or moved to Asia due to cheap labour, as is the case elsewhere in the world. The

94 A. Aksiim, Gentrifikatsiooni uurimine Eestis. Master’s thesis. Tartu: Tartu Ülikool, 2013; M.

Feldmann, Gentrification and Social Stratification in Tallinn: Strategies for Local Governance.

Vienna: Institite für die Wissenschaften vom Menchen, 2000; K. Männik, Gentrifikatsiooniprot-sess. Tartu Supilinna näitel, aastatel 2003–2007. Master’s thesis. Tallinn: Eesti Kunstiakadeemia, 2008; E. Vollmer, Maade aadeldumine Lahemaa Rahvuspargis. Master’s thesis. Tartu: Eesti Maaülikool, 2007;

95 M. Hiob, N. Nutt, S. Nurme, F de Luca, Risen from the Dead. Slumming to Gentrification. – Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences 2012, no. 36, pp. 92–105; N. Nutt, S. Nurme, S. Salmistu, M. Hiob, Gentrification in a Post-Socialist Town: The Case of the Supilinn District, Tartu, Estonia. – Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences 2013, pp. 109–123.

96 A. Aksiim, Gentrifikatsiooni uurimine Eestis.

part that continues to function effectively has been moved out of old buildings to the edge of the city in modern-day hangars. As a result of this phenomenon, impressive old industrial architecture can be found in the centres of cities that nobody seems to need any more. What can be done with these vacant buildings? There are many different factors impacting how these decisions are made. In today’s post-industrial soci-ety, the enthusiastic redesign of historical industrial buildings into con-temporary dwellings, and the transformation in general of all manner of buildings to serve new functions have developed as a result of gentrifi-cation. The question arises: how do an old building and a contemporary lifestyle fit together?

In Estonia there has been a tradition of organising cultural events in abandoned buildings since the restoration of independence. An eye-opener is the old Noblessner foundry, reused as a concert hall with some of the best acoustics in Tallinn, or the Tapa railway station re-purposed as a theatre performance pop-up site due to its great location. A popular engaging discussion popped up as 57. Välkloeng:

Architecture and Rebirth in the Tallinn Polymer Culture factory.⁹⁷ Sev-eral master’s theses in the Estonian Academy of Arts deal with con-ceptualising the possibilities of the potential, the temporary activa-tion and continuous change issues of the living environment.⁹⁸ There are professional practitioners dealing with re-purposed commercial building projects according to the needs of contemporary clients.⁹⁹

Estonia’s distinction in this process can be observed in the context of recent history characterised by demographic changes and the absence of the regulatory role of the socialist era market. The birth of private property, the reorganisation of the economy, the restructur-ing of the labour force, and the rapid stratification of the population

97 Moderated by the young urbanists Grete Veskiväli and Maria Alnek [Ruumiringlus] on 13 April 2017.

98 E. Komp, Urban Pauses. Five Spatial Etydes in Central Tallinn. Master’s thesis. Tallinn: Estonian Academy of Arts. Faculty of Architecture, Department of Architecture and Urban Design, 2014.

The author maps and analyses possibilities and strategies to revitalize urban pauses, and their impact, with the aid of theories of temporary urbanism and urban planning.

L.-L. Pihu, Demolish or not to Demolish? Master thesis. Tallinn: Estonian Academy of Arts.

Faculty of Architecture, Department of Architecture and Urban Design, 2016.The Master thesis is focusing on vacant buildings and investigating the possibility of reusing building materials, analysing the potential of material reuse of vacant buildings in Estonia.

J. Rannula, Station Buildings On The Baltic Railway. Master thesis. Tallinn: Estonian Academy of Arts. Faculty of Architecture, Department of Urban Studies, 2016. The thesis analyses the transformation of railway station buildings in Estonia as a process that involves spatial as well as social dimensions.

99 Great examples: Margit Aule, Margit Argus (Kaos Architects); Koit Ojaliiv, Joel Kopli, Juhan Rohtla (Kuu Architects), Andrus Kõresaar, Raivo Kotov (Koko Architects).

accompanied the restoration of independence in Estonia. Housing construction policy and that of real estate developers in the post-industrial era, however, depend on economic factors, the investment climate in the region, and Estonia’s small size.

Manifestations of gentrification emerged in Estonia as a result of owner-ship reform, where tenants of properties returned to their former owners were forced to vacate their living spaces in favour of the new owners (and their construction activity). In Estonia, gentrification has been researched primarily on the basis of culture-oriented and consumer-centred theory.¹⁰⁰ The approach to this issue based on economic and manufacturing-centred theory is marginal by comparison. Recently a valuable doctoral research was published on the shifting paradigm of spatial planning: the role of neighbourhood participation and the con-servation of built-up areas based on the case study of Supilinn, a historic suburb of Tartu, by Mart Hiob. The thesis analyses the secret planning process, from the Stalin era in the 1950s up to the 2000s, when it turned into active participation by the local community. The thesis highlights the differences between historic and built environments, while the transformation of a poor housing estate has turned it into one of the wealthiest living areas of the city, through the prismatic view of gentrifi-cation. The author has considered the built environment according to Lefebvre’s theory of perceived, conceived and lived space, where lived space represents the most valuable living environment. In the conclu-sion of this thesis, the author evaluates the protection and development of existing values.¹⁰¹

100 A. Aksiim, Gentrifikatsiooni uurimine Eestis; M. Feldmann, Gentrification and Social Stratifica-tion…; K. Männik, Gentrifikatsiooniprotsess; E. Vollmer, Maade aadeldumine Lahemaa Rahvuspargis.

101 M. Hiob, The Shifting Paradigm of Spatial Planning in Estonia: the Rise of Neighbourhood Participation and Conservation of Built-up Areas through the Detailed Case Study of Supilinn, a Historic Suburb of Tartu City, Estonia. Tallinn: TUT Press, 2016, https://digi.lib.ttu.ee/i/file.

php?DLID=5979&t=1 (accessed 20 April 2017).

3.

METAMORPHOSES OF SPACE

Like a living organism, architecture continuously transforms

as the result of the efforts of architects and builders, reflecting

the development of society and culture. A building outlives

its original purpose and it is used for something else. Yet

changes in the spatial environment are not limited to building

construction processes alone. People are similarly affected by

installation spatial art that breaks out of the white cube: into

urban space, and into nature.

3 . 1 S P A T I A L M E T A M O R P H O S E S , T H E T R A N S F O R M A T I O N O F B U I L D I N G S

The word transformation is synonymous with metamorphosis, of Greek origin – deformation, reshaping – and refers to a process that can be forced but can also be autonomous and independent.

According to Paolo Portoghesi (an Italian theoretician on archi-tecture and the curator of the first Venice Archiarchi-tecture Biennale in 1980), ‘transformation describes a transitive action performed by a subject, and metamorphosis seems to allude to a process that is autonomous or even endogenous. Architecture is continuously transformed by the efforts of those who design it and build it [---]

in its constant changing, it seems similar to a living organism that undergoes continuous metamorphoses’.¹⁰²

The original identity of a building changes over the course of recon-struction in the search for a new use for the space. This change can range from extreme replacements to delicate restoration; it can be temporary or permanent, superficial or profound, broadening or constricting. According to Portoghesi, the intervention of the archi-tect determines the identity of the building. The transformation of a building or a part of a city by an architect may pertain to intended use and its form. It may be radical, like replacements, or limited, as in remodelling and restorations. It may be superficial or deep. It may be lasting or fleeting, temporary or permanent. It may improve or worsen, it may raise or lower, expand or contract, and so on. Without question, it alters, and sometimes cancels out or changes the build-ing’s very identity.¹⁰³

The sustainability of materials has become the focus of the re-purposing process. According to Brooker and Stone, sustainability

The sustainability of materials has become the focus of the re-purposing process. According to Brooker and Stone, sustainability