As
a psychogeographer I am particularly interested in pieces of land
that appear to be waiting for something to happen. These can be owned
by either the local council or a property developer and can be in
abeyance for many reasons, including land-sitting (buying property to
stop someone else buying it, or buying land speculatively).
Sometimes, in the case of local councils, funding might have run out
and the land development halted. Rarely, are they owned by
individuals, although there are cases of private houses being left
vacant, as has appeared on the news recently.
The land in the image above is off Low Lane, Horsforth, Leeds, and I think it might be waiting for further development in relationship to the future Woodside Railway Station in Horsforth, although I'm not certain.
This strange liminal space is in Hunstanton, Norfolk (below), is just off the promenade, but is easy to miss. Who does it belong to? Was it part of someone's garden? Do the council own it?
He introduces a neat formula that is used in calculating land value which is dependant on the market value of existing properties in the local area:
L = S - [l + c + i = e + p]
S = anticipated selling price of completed development
l = estimated land preparation and infrastructure costs
c = estimated construction costs
i = estimated interest charges on land and construction costs
e = estimated legal and marketing costs
p = estimated developer's profits
Local
councils acquire space currently used for private housing through
Compulsory Purchase Orders.
They just need
to have a 'good reason' to do this, invariably economic, and it can
be done with little recourse. The laws in this regard changed in the
1980s and became vaguer in relation to urban policy. This meant that
just about anything could be done under the aegis of adding economic
value to a region. We can thank Margaret Thatcher for this. Anna
Minton writes about it in her book Ground Control
Kivell comments on land speculation when discussing power in relation to acquisition. He remarks that some critics of it claim that it "provoked the 1974 recession through an unbalanced flow of land onto the markets, the distortion of production costs of firms and the reduction in the spending power of households." (p. 131). I have heard this theory from other sources, too.
While Kivell does not talk philosophically about the cutting up of space (this is not his field), he does talk about zoning: the demarcation of space by the State for specific purposes. I think G. Spencer Brown's Laws of Form may be a useful way to approach this, coupled with deconstruction, so Part 2 of the blog will investigate the cutting up of space from that perspective.
Student farm in Brooklyn
The land in the image above is off Low Lane, Horsforth, Leeds, and I think it might be waiting for further development in relationship to the future Woodside Railway Station in Horsforth, although I'm not certain.
This strange liminal space is in Hunstanton, Norfolk (below), is just off the promenade, but is easy to miss. Who does it belong to? Was it part of someone's garden? Do the council own it?
Philip
Kivell's book 'Land and the City' is a really interesting book and
discusses these issues:
He introduces a neat formula that is used in calculating land value which is dependant on the market value of existing properties in the local area:
L = S - [l + c + i = e + p]
Where:
L
= developer's bid price for the landS = anticipated selling price of completed development
l = estimated land preparation and infrastructure costs
c = estimated construction costs
i = estimated interest charges on land and construction costs
e = estimated legal and marketing costs
p = estimated developer's profits
There
is a lot of development going on in the Holbeck area of Leeds,
although it has somewhat come to a halt recently; for instance, the
demolition of the terraced houses in one particular area. The
satellite map below shows the rows of terraced houses that are under
threat. It is not easy to see, because the road names block the view
of the actual streets, but some of the terraces have already been
pulled down. A local solicitor told me that the only reason that the
demolition has stopped is because the council ran out of money.
Kivell comments on land speculation when discussing power in relation to acquisition. He remarks that some critics of it claim that it "provoked the 1974 recession through an unbalanced flow of land onto the markets, the distortion of production costs of firms and the reduction in the spending power of households." (p. 131). I have heard this theory from other sources, too.
While Kivell does not talk philosophically about the cutting up of space (this is not his field), he does talk about zoning: the demarcation of space by the State for specific purposes. I think G. Spencer Brown's Laws of Form may be a useful way to approach this, coupled with deconstruction, so Part 2 of the blog will investigate the cutting up of space from that perspective.
Please click here for part 2 of this blog:
Student farm in Brooklyn
