The Disobedient Buildings podcast explores everyday lived experiences of inhabitants of ageing blocks of flats in three different European welfare states: the UK, Romania and Norway. It is conceived and presented by Inge Daniels, the principal investigator, and the project’s two postdoctoral researchers: Gabriela Nicolescu and Anna Ulrikke Andersen.
NEW SEASON: In Season Two the research packs that participants used to study their own home and collect samples take centre stage. By drawing on pack materials, in particular dust samples, we discuss our key research themes including loneliness and companionship (EP1), inequality and precarity (EP2), ageing and health (EP3) and safety and trust (EP4). By taking seriously even the smallest speck of dust, we focus on issues that really mattered to our participants on the ground.
SEASON 1: In Season One, we scrutinised the key themes guiding our research on Disobedient Buildings such as disobedience, inequality, urban development, welfare and health. Across 10 episodes, we interviewed local experts and highlighted commonalities and differences experienced by residents in our field sites in London, Bucharest and Oslo. We asked, what is a disobedient building, why is home ownership promoted, and will the State look after you?
In Season 2 Episode 1, a dust sample containing cat hair, leads the Disobedient Buildings team into a discussion about the many ways in which block residents in Oslo, London, and Bucharest foster connections with others. We will delve into how people’s relationships with neighbours, pets and wild urban animals, and specific environments (parks, cafes, WhatsApp groups) influences their overall sense of wellbeing. However, we will also demonstrate that frictions and disputes can always emerge. How do block residents forge, manage and maintain multiple networks of support and care, particularly in times of uncertainty and crisis? Is loneliness inevitable and has the concept of ‘community’ become obsolete?
30 Oct 2023
S2 E2
Starting with a dust sample containing feathers from a duvet in Oslo, in Episode 2 the Disobedient Buildings team examine the impact of inequality, precarity, and stigma on the wellbeing of tower block inhabitants. In the post-war period, these buildings were often seen as the pinnacle of modernity and technological innovation, but over time they have become associated with deprivation and poverty. This episode aims to challenge these negative stereotypes: why do so many participants love living in their aging blocks? By reimagining these spaces, we hope to inspire practical solutions, however small, for current housing issues.
30 Oct 2023
S2 E3
Prompted by some unusual dust samples, in Episode 3 the Disobedient Buildings team explores what it means to be an ageing body in an ageing building. What are the contradictions between the intentions and imaginaries of the original architects and the present-day realities and needs of ageing block residents? As populations in European cities are aging, how we can improve older people’s overall health and wellbeing? And how can we design housing that matches people’s desire to continue to live in their own homes – even when they need care and help to do so?
30 Oct 2023
S2 E4
In Episode 4, a speck of dust from a windowsill in London opens up a discussion about the uncertain impact of pollution and new development projects on residents’ health and wellbeing as well as their sense of safety, security, and trust in the state. Across field sites, the Disobedient Buildings team found that home ownership and the weakening of welfare systems have chipped away at people’s trust in the ability of governments and local authorities to offer them care and security. How have decades of deregulation, disinvestment and institutional neglect impacted the lives of residents of ageing blocks? How can we re-evaluate the future potential of vertical living in our cities?
21 Feb 2022
S1 E1
In the first episode Inge Daniels, the principal investigator, leads a discussion with the other two team members, Gabriela Nicolescu and Anna Ulrikke Andersen. They first unpack ‘disobedience’ as a concept and explore its usefulness during their empirical research in the three countries studied. This is followed by a comparative exploration of the pack methodology that they designed to conduct in-depth fieldwork during the pandemic. Can buildings be disobedient? How were the packs received by research participants?
20 Feb 2022
S1 E2
In this episode Inge Daniels talks to Danny Dorling, Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford. He has written numerous books and articles about social and economic inequality in the UK and beyond, including Finntopia (2020) and 32 Stops (2013) mentioned in the recording. Professor Dorling uses statistical analysis about populations to gauge the state of welfare and wellbeing in Europe. He shares some of the idiosyncrasies and ironies of London that have emerged from his research. Is London the most unequal city in Europe? Why is life expectancy falling? Is cladding mainly done for other people’s views? What might happen if citizens start to challenge misleading narratives of prosperity and individual responsibility propagated by those in charge?
19 Feb 2022
S1 E3
In this episode, postdoctoral researcher Gabriela Nicolescu talks to Ștefan Ghenciulescu from the University of Architecture and Urbanism in Bucharest and editor of Zeppelin Magazine. Ghenciulescu is interested in the historical layers of Bucharest, from its 16th century conception when city walls were forbidden to the socialist period when wide boulevards and concrete blocks of flats were constructed to create an ideal vista. He explains how socialist flats were built for ‘everybody’ – the policeman, the doctor, the worker – but how in recent years privatisation together with an obsession with car ownership has led to stealth ‘ghettoisation’. What has been the impact of the privatisation of public properties and services on the health and prospects of local communities?
18 Feb 2022
S1 E4
In this fourth episode, postdoctoral researcher Anna Ulrikke Andersen interviews Jack Hughes and Else Abrahamsen from MakersHub Oslo. This Oslo-based architectural practice focuses on participatory processes, resulting in sustainable design projects that promote integration, skill sharing and pride over public space in the local community. They often work with marginalised groups, designing for what they consider to be “the forgotten people and the forgotten space”. Many of their projects are based in the borough of Gamle Oslo, where Andersen’s Disobedient Buildings fieldwork takes place. What are some of the challenges this borough faces? How can participatory-led methods of design counteract the utopian ideas of modernity?
17 Feb 2022
S1 E5
In this episode Inge Daniels talks to Jacky Peacock, director of London-based charity Advice for Renters. Based in the London borough of Brent the organisation provides private tenants in crisis legal advice, financial services and mentoring to help them improve their living conditions. London is a city of extremes. Its reputation as a tax haven has attracted investors buying luxury housing that remains empty for much of the year. Yet simultaneously, poverty is rampant and poor-quality housing and rough sleeping is increasing. How has COVID-19 impacted society’s most vulnerable? What hopes are there for change in the future?
16 Feb 2022
S1 E6
In the sixth episode, postdoctoral researcher Gabriela Nicolescu talks to Ilinca Păun-Constantinescu, lecturer at the University of Architecture and Urbanism in Bucharest. In her work on shrinking cities Păun-Constantinescu focuses on cultural, social and infrastructural phenomena that have occurred during the transformation of Bucharest from a socialist to a post-socialist city. She describes how contemporary residents have lost not only their sense of ‘community’ and civic duty but also vital public facilities, services and green spaces. How do dysfunctional buildings and the infrastructure of cities impact residents experience of urban life?
15 Feb 2022
S1 E7
In this seventh episode, postdoctoral researcher Anna Ulrikke Andersen talks to Tom Davies from the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. His research into the preservation of post Second World War architecture, explores the different ways that the social aspects of space have influenced the design process and how local authorities aim to meet the needs of diverse and complex communities living in ageing buildings. Working within a British and Norwegian context, Davies has a unique insight into the complex relationship between post-war designs and welfare . What were the priorities when blocks of flat were built after the war, and what are the practical and material challenges that residents of these aging blocks of flats face today?
15 Feb 2022
S1 E8
In episode 8, Inge Daniels, the project's principal investigator, leads a discussion on welfare with Disobedient Buildings researchers Gabriela Nicolescu and Anna Ulrikke Andersen. In the post Second World War period many European countries established robust welfare systems to protect the health and wellbeing of their citizens. But with the rise of neoliberalism a weakening of trust between society and those who govern has occurred. The teams researchers examine the continuities and differences across the three field sites, who have all experienced major changes to their welfare systems in the last 30-40 years. We ask what does welfare mean in London, Bucharest and Oslo today?
14 Feb 2022
S1 E9
In this episode Inge Daniels, Gabriela Nicolescu and Anna Ulrikke Andersen discuss the characteristics of house ownership in London, Bucharest and Oslo. With the neoliberal turn, from the 1970s onwards, residents in these cities have experienced a move towards privatization and the end of socialist values that aimed to provide every citizen with suitable housing. How have changes to social housing provisioning and the deregulation of the housing market increased social inequality across the three cities? And how do the different characteristics of ownership in blocks of flats put restrictions on the ways in which residents live?
13 Feb 2022
S1 E10
In the final episode of the series, Inge Daniels talks with Gabriela Nicolescu and Anna Ulrikke Andersen about how COVID-19 has influenced domestic life in London, Bucharest and Oslo. During the pandemic’s lockdowns residents valued the sense of security that was established in their community but also experienced frictions with neighbours both within and beyond block boundaries. Key to these experiences was sound, which brought both positive and negative implications. How did noise directly affect the health and wellbeing of participants?
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