This blog marks 30 years of my exploring answers to this question for places in South Yorkshire.
I recently had the chance to see Richard Alston's dance programme at Sadler's Wells, Quartermark, which celebrated 25 years of his work including a piece called ‘Proverb’.
In the programme notes, he explains that Proverb was inspired by a Wittgenstein quote:
“How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life.”
He says, "Proverb made me think of the anonymous but extraordinarily skilled artisans of the Middle Ages, who worked often at real risk to their lives on the adventurous experiments which produced the great European cathedrals. That sense of courageous and committed teamwork carried out in blind faith is the imagery of the choreography."
As Lyndsey Winship says in her review, "it seems an apt sentiment for Sir Richard a choreographer who has predominantly pursued a single idea over the last 50 years: the relationship between music and dance."
Alston's work is distinctive and consistent; he has chipped away at the same idea over the last 25 years.
“I realise that I admire people who stick at things, who plough a furrow, who collaborate through “committed teamwork”, who ‘worry away’ at ideas through practice.”
I have plenty of people around me who fit this description. Tony Stacey, Chief Executive of South Yorkshire Housing Association, my employer, saw Cathy Come Home as a child and decided there and then that he wanted to work in housing. 50 years later he leads one of the "Cathy" housing associations, founded in the wake of the film, and is still worrying away at homelessness.
Prue Chiles, Professor of Architecture at Newcastle University, friend and collaborator over the last 20 years, has worried away at the importance of narrative as an inspiration and guide for everyone engaged in changing their city, neighbourhood or home.
For her, narrative involves "the construction of narratives of the future through storytelling and scenario playing, but also…the uncovering or representation of personal and social lives within the city." (What if? A narrative process for reimagining the city in Architecture and Participation ed Peter Blundell Jones, Doina Petrescu, Jeremy Till 2005).
Ken Loach’s cathy come home inspired tony stacey. 50 years on he is still worrying away at homelessness as chief executive of south yorkshire housing ASSOCIATION.
For me, there are three key things make Prue's work distinctive:
#1 Its focus on narrative and thinking as a prerequisite for good design.
#2 Creating tools that facilitate conversations between people to develop a narrative.
#3 Investigating how narrative can be explored at different spatial scales, from the individual to the neighbourhood, city and region, combining the personal and the everyday with strategy and vision.
Prue will appear in several of the projects in this blog because she has been such an influence on my practice over the last 20 years.
“you can see the rain coming round the corner from bakewell” resident from a Norfolk part tower block in SHEFFIELD.
”at city level it is the topography - the hills and valleys, the rivers, the trees, linear urban parks and the clustering of the built form - that gives SHEFFIELD a distinctive image.” prue chiles writing in materialising SHEFFIELD - re-imagining the city of SHEFFIELD.
justine gaubert sharing the thinking behind the branding of one of our housing developments in kelham island, sheffield, ‘dun works; at tedx doncaster 2019.
Justine Gaubert is a more recent collaborator and friend. She has spent much of her 26-year career uncovering voices that are usually hidden or unheard. With Silent Cities, the social enterprise she founded in 2010, she used creativity and technology to help 'silent minorities' find their voice and self-employment opportunities in the creative industries.
Her work resonates so strongly with me because of her interest in the brand and identity of individuals and communities. And because of the value she places on the everyday stories and hyper local details that make visible that identity.
She was the first person I turned to for help in creating this blog. Who better to give voice to the stories behind our less discovered places? I am so grateful for her help, support and guidance.
“Who you admire says a lot about your own values. ”
Seeing Proverb made me ask myself - what have I been worrying away at over the last 30 years? And what am I still worrying away at in my work today?
I seem to have been concerned with how to make places that have meaning for the people who live and work there, how to uncover and make visible their distinct identity, how to tell their stories.
And to create beautiful places and experiences for people who didn’t expect to experience beauty.
My work has been exclusively in South Yorkshire and so I have been concerned with how to make places that are authentically "of South Yorkshire".
I set out hoping that writing about this work would sharpen my understanding of these themes - what we were trying to do, what worked and what questions we are left with - so that I could draw threads between my past, present and future work and make new connections to develop my practice. I also wanted my children to know what I had spent their childhoods doing….
One year on, I have been surprised at what I have gained. The process of reflection and research, of digging out old photos, connecting with former colleagues and writing it up has been fun - and has given me a much clearer understanding of what binds my work together, how to improve my current practice and where to focus next. It has been lovely to celebrate South Yorkshire and South Yorkshire Housing Association. And best of all it has opened a conversation with my family, in particular my brother, who now “gets” what I’ve been doing at work all these years.
Muriel Spark's ‘A Far Cry from Kensington’. Photograph the guardian: Hulton Deutsch/Corbis via Getty Images
In Muriel Spark's ‘A Far Cry from Kensington’, Mrs Hawkins offers advice to authors who don't know where to start, which is to imagine writing a letter to a friend "…privately not publicly; without fear or timidity, right to the end of the letter as if it was never going to be published." The point is to write for a friend you know is interested in what you have to say.
I have chosen my friend and colleague Juliann Hall as the recipient of this letter - I hope it answers your questions and inspires further conversations.