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Richard Artus takes a look at the history of lofts and urban spaces' part in it.
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a history of loft living
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| a history of loft living | | |
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All decades have buzzwords. Girl Power, cable TV and mad cow disease dominated dinner party conversation in the nineties. The only words that really mattered on the lips of the chattering classes however was "the loft".
The estate agents told you that the loft offered not so much a lifestyle but an attitude. Something that would set you apart from the dull conformity of suburban living and allow you as the individual, to express creativity through your everyday environment. The disciplined order of conventional living in specific rooms for each task was about to be eschewed for the romantic notion of the bohemian decadence of open space.
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So how did loft fever start?
In order to establish this we have to look at the economic and social factors that shaped this movement and go back to the turn of the century when in the great cities of Europe and America there was a heavy concentration of cast ironed framed buildings being erected. These properties, designed for light industrial use had large open floor plates, benefited from powerful expanses of wall to ceiling glass frontages and were a forerunner to the architectural concepts of the modernist movement. All housed huge workforces crowded together in sweatshop conditions or stored exotic foods and spices.
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In the 1950's American culture was rich with the beat generation of Kerouc and Cassidy and the age of Warhol was dawning at the same time as these properties became no longer suitable for the requirements of industries modernising for the times. Landlords were forced to look towards the artists who were prepared to take advantage of the space and economy and in particular, SoHo (the area south of Houston, in New York formerly nick named "hells one hundred acres") saw dramatic change as it became gentrified by the influx of a creative community.
Between 1957 to 1967 the area became vibrant and hip as the likes of artists such as Janis Joplin's Texan alumni Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns moved in as described in Marcus Fields excellent book Lofts (published by Lawrence King Publishing). The community was further boosted and the range of artistic activity expanded by Co-operatives such as the leading art project "Fluxhouse no 2" and works being performed by artists as diverse as Bertold Brecht and Yoko Ono.
The course of art did not run easy and these pioneer loft dwellers did not have an easy time. Planning regulations, being what they still are today, tend to obstruct the natural forces of community evolvement and many occupiers were forced into a strategy of subterfuge to hide their domestic use of commercial studios. Within minutes of a surprise visit by the fire officer, apartments would be turned into workspace by the use of pulleys and false walls to conceal living and sleeping arrangements. At all times, litter carefully concealed the remnants of domestic goods, which could betray the real use of the premises.
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A pivotal moment in the movement of the SoHo loft came about as numerous plans were submitted for SoHo's development amongst which were designs to demolish entire blocks for an expressway. Enter one Professor Chester Rankin. Employed by the city to undertake a social, economic and physical study of the district, his resultant Rapkin Report of 1963 identified significant economic activity, a regeneration of the area and highlighted the importance of conservation. This last issue was picked up by other pressure groups in other cities, such as Berlin and London, who campaigned for the protection of similar loft buildings.
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As the use these spaces became legitimate and widespread, the images of Warhol partying with the Velvet Underground became etched on to the consciousness of an international audience and the Loft became synonymous with cool.
In London, the loft boom owed much to someone who was the furthest thing from cool - Margaret Thatcher. In her government's misguided attempt to boost the pockets of property owners camouflaged as an attempt for urban regeneration, the Use Class order of 198 was passed. Basically, this attempt to simplify planning meant that industrial and office property were classified as one, giving landlords the opportunity to charge office rents on inner city workshop and light industrial units.
The area of Clerkenwell, long the home of the printing industry and small jewellery workshops was dramatically effected as tenants were forced to move rather than pay exorbitant rents and this trend paved the way for large scale office developments. However, Black Monday followed by a recession put paid to many developers dreams and the area became littered with vacant Victorian industrial buildings which could not attract back the traditional manufacturing businesses who had modernised their operations.
Much in the same way as Soho had become illegitimately occupied, artists, ever being forced east, took advantage of the same economic conditions and took up residence in these magnificent buildings as Landlords turned a blind eye in order to create income.
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Recognising a trend and in an inspired attempt for regeneration Islington council, as others did, promoted the change of use of these properties to residential, knowing the shortage of new homes that were available for the changing demographics of the nations capital. One of the first buildings to be converted was a magnificent art deco building in Summer Street, which was bought from liquidators at a bargain price by Manhattan Loft Corporation headed by John Hitchcock, (who is now a director at urban spaces). The success of their advertising campaign linking cool to inner city living and the opportunity to design your own living space resulted in miles of press coverage and a velocity of sales that alerted entrepreneurial developers.
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Whilst, London did house a few scattered lofts (film director David Lean had lived in a converted warehouse in Docklands from the sixties), Clerkenwell soon became perceived as the home of the loft and in 1995 Urban Spaces was started by Richard Artus to specialise in the market.
It did not take long for the supply of buildings to evaporate as developers unsympathetic to the ideals of the genuine loft bartered at high prices for a piece of the action. The result was space became sold as much smaller, crudely named, "loft style" apartments. In order to distance itself from the inferior product urban spaces stayed one step ahead of the media (who constantly asked them where the next trendy area was) and escorted their clientele further east to Spitalfields, Bethnal Green and Hackney. Thanks to much urban development, the team is now also leading the way to the south east and south west of London.
Today Loft living is embraced in most of the capitals in the world as and the company is embracing all the technology of the 21st Century to expand its focus over the rest of London and the UK to offer a comprehensive one stop shop for people interested in joining the loft revolution.
Cyberspace may be a long way from the days of pulleys and clandestine behaviour of the 1950s but at least you can deal with urban spaces knowing our empathy with the history of the product means we have an understanding of the future.
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