Jessica Birch

About

Jessica Birch is a second year MA Architecture student at the Royal College of Art. Having previously graduated from Manchester School of Art with first class honours in BArch Architecture, she developed her professional and personal spatial practice whilst working as a Part I Architectural Assistant at Bennetts Associates in London.

Her first-year project in ADS3, Refuse Trespassing Our Bodies — Fertility, Exhaustion and All that Matter/s led by spatial duo Cooking Sections, explored the post-industrial legacy of arsenic and its toxic effects in Devon.  

After receiving a distinction for her dissertation ‘The Gentrification of Brick Lane: Craft Beer & Trauma’, which explored the history of migrant communities in Brick Lane as well as the ongoing issue of urbanisation vs gentrification, her focus in her final year was researching diasporic communities and the impact of place-markers in the urban realm.

Her final design project, Reimagined Ritual, seeks to explore the history of past migrant and diasporic communities in East London, focusing on the area of Brick Lane. Her project deals with understanding how traditions and rituals of both past and present communities in Brick Lane can form and mark a space for groups as a form of resilience and protest against ongoing and imminent gentrification and displacement. 


Contact

Degree Details

Statement

Reimagined Rituals investigates how past rituals and traditions of communities can be utilised to inform a contemporary and convivial space which challenges present issues of redevelopment in Brick Lane.

“The nomad’s space - ‘his place’ - is not tied to a specific location. Thus the notion of place had to be divorced from a fixed geographical definition, and became a portable entity” – Eyal Weizman

Addressing the above statement of permanence and portability, Reimagined Ritual explores the significance of placemaking, boundaries and physical markers of diasporic and migrant communities who have settled in London. As space gets reimagined, rebuilt, and regenerated over the years, physical spaces and personal items are sometimes less tangible, so traditions and rituals become even more important in retaining the spirit of the past communities and families that used to be and are still in the area.

Addressing the question of, ‘how can communities come together to celebrate the culture and traditions of the past whilst fighting to save the history of Brick Lane?’ atypical boundaries and typologies of the diasporic and nomadic ‘home’ are explored.  Understanding how the diasporic notion of home has been abstracted and distorted as generations have undergone multiple migrations, this project investigates how past rituals and traditions of communities (The Huguenots, Jewish and Bengali) can link the space back to its history in an appreciative and convivial manner. The proposed intervention aims to give agency back to the existing community through the act of protest, taking inspiration from past and present community’s anarchist movements rituals and traditions. A series of portable structures, both acting as and enabling new forms of community placemaking through protest, enables meeting, tea drinking, discussions and textile making, for the use of the anti-gentrification movements on Brick Lane and East London to re-engage with the wider community and local authorities whilst marking a claim to the space.  


THE KOSHER BUTCHER

The Kosher Butcher — The East End was the ultimate refuge for peoples persecuted and displaced and is notably a historic hot spot for Jewish refugees over the years. Brick lane was my site of choice initially as my great grandpa fled Poland just before war broke out, and started a Kosher butcher shop on Virginia road, 2 minutes north of Brick Lane. Brick Lane was a major safe haven for many diasporic and migrant communities like the Huguenots, the Jews, and now most recently the Bengali community.

PLACE-MAKING

Mapping of Community Placemarkers in London
Mapping of Community Placemarkers in London — 1. North London Eruv, boundary through the use of poles and wire 2. The Sukkah, a temporary ‘home’ in the urban space 3. ChinaTown Paifang to mark the entrance of Chinatown and presence of the Chinese community in London 4. Nottinghill Carnival, the carnival parade marking territory through movement representing the Caribbean community 5. The Kimbanguist band similarly marking space through parade and movement 6. The Brick Lane 'BangalTown' Arch
Physical Placemarkers
Physical Placemarkers — By identifying physical boundary markers that define the culture and heritage of a space as well as to define its borders, such as the London Eruvs, and the Banglatown Arch on the edge of Brick Lane, I have been able to understand the social and political factors of their presence and evaluate the success of both in defining and characterising space.
Placemarkers in East London
Placemarkers in East London — Illustration depicting placemarkers and rituals introduced into Brick lane to explore if a new type of space can be created through rituals. Understanding a building itself as a placemarker (the butcher shop), as well as introduced temporary spaces.

ABSTRACTING RITUAL & SPACE

Abstracted Rituals and Space
Abstracted Rituals and Space
Abstracting Ritual & Space
Abstracted Rituals

REBELLION IN THE EAST END

Research Newspaper
Research Newspaper — To further reconnect with the rituals and traditions of the past East end, which still has a thriving print trade, I recreated a newspaper which informs the reader of east London’s history as a safe haven and at the forefront of rebellion. This recreation was inspired by the Yiddish newspaper ‘The worker’s Friend’ which was distributed and used as an act of anarchism. Newspapers such as this circulated amongst the locals of east London, and could be distributed from local shops.
Rebellion of The East End — Recording and documenting rituals and traditions of notable chosen spaces, understanding how the spaces would've been used by anarchists and rebels.
Mapping Spaces of Rebellion and Performity in the East End
Mapping Spaces of Rebellion and Performity in the East End — I mapped notable spaces of the past and present. First looking at my great grandpas kosher butcher shop, now new build flats, where kosher meat would be wrapped in the Jewish anarchist newspapers and given to customers. Looking at whitechapel waste and gallery, where the anarchists workers friend club use to meet, drink tea and talk politics and issues. The Bengali activists also meeting in similar unconventional spaces to talk politics. The Troxy is a modern space where people can perform.

A New Wave of Protest in the East End

My site is the Truman brewery redevelopment plot on woodseer street which is planning to become a shopping centre and office space which will remove existing small businesses and take away footfall from the curry houses as well as raise rents even more. 

The Save the Brick Lane foundation have been one of the groups fighting this redevelopment, and its made up of groups like the Spitalfields and Banglatown Forum and Nijjor Mannush who have a strong following but at times have more online presence than physical.

My proposed intervention would give agency back to the community through form of protest and re-connection to ritual. Although there are existing community centres, these proposed structures and spaces would be adaptable and for the exclusive use of the anti-gentrification movements.

RE-PLACEMAKING WITH TEXTILES

Re-Placemaking

My proposed intervention, of lightweight, portable structures, seeks to give agency back to the existing residents of Brick Lane and surrounding East London. Intended use for the save the Brick Lane foundation as well as other anti-gentrification groups. Through acts of reimagined rituals and traditions of the past, taking inspiration and precedents from the previous rebellion movements of the east end, as well as traditions of past and present communities (Huguenots, Jewish and Bengali), the space seeks to root itself back to the history of the area which is slowly being lost through redevelopment. 

Using craft and textiles, inspired by the strong textile trade of the old east end, the flags and items made in the workshop space allow people in the area to create their own flags of something which roots them back to the area.

The pickle flag, for example, also to be used as a tablecloth to redirect the use of the space, links back to the heritage of the area. Through the use of motifs taken from the different communities part of the area and imagined through fabric, the flag turned tablecloth invites people to eat, drink tea and talk politics in a shared space. Linking back to the textile trade, food and curry houses, as well as the anarchists movement of the past.

Plaster-cast model of Woodseer street site showing portability of objects
Image of model
Image of model
Examples of flags made on site
Examples of flags made on site
1:1 Pickle flag/tablecloth
1:1 Pickle flag/tablecloth
embroidered flags
embroidered flags — Embroidered flags representing the different communities of Brick Lane, of masonry, textile, food and culture, represented through form and patterns of the fabric. The green and red also representing the flag of Bangladesh
Flag & Apron
Flag & Apron — This flag in the shape of a Jewish dreidel, also able to act as an apron, links back to the food industry of the site whilst using Bengali and Jewish motif patterns. By wearing on site as well as in nearby curry houses, the apron/flag serves as a new portable place-marker and form of protest more active in rituals and traditions than the more static existing place-markers across London.
Around the Pickle Tablecloth
Around the Pickle Tablecloth
Reconfigurable Spaces
Reconfigurable Spaces — New variations of space can be made through reorganising the structures and fabric so that they can also be moved off site when there is inevitable redevelopment on Woodseer street.
Adaptable, Temporary, Moveable
Adaptable, Temporary, Moveable — The structures are light and movable, made out of recycled wood and chipboard, so they can be dismounted easily. The chosen site will eventually be redeveloped into whatever’s decided, therefore these elements will be on wheels, so they can be reconfigured, moved off site, used for protests or rallies in the street, placed by future sites under threat of gentrification for protest, occupying the space with rituals of the past.

RECLAIMING BRICK LANE

Axonometric Illustration of Proposal
Axonometric Illustration of Proposal
The Textiles Making Space
The Textiles Making Space — The craft area, surrounded by retractable timber beams, is where the community, tourists and more can interact with the Save the Brick Lane movement and design their own form of placemarkers and protest signs using textiles.
Detail of Moveable Beam
Detail of Moveable Beam — Extendable timber beams are attached to the existing structure to act as hangers for the flags made in the craft space, to enable the flags to temporarily occupy and surround the site.
Structures for Protest
Structures for Protest — The structures designed enable a gathering space for lectures, informal meetings, tea drinking, eating and protesting.
The Tea Space
The Tea Space
The Making Space
The Making Space
Section Through Site
Section Through Site — Section showing textile crafting space, tea and gathering area, as well as platforms being used to sit and hang flags across site, creating an informal covered space.
Elevation of Outer Wall
Elevation of Outer Wall — The outer wall elevation on Woodseer street plays with temporality and fixity of the site. Through methods of pushing through as well as extrusion, new spaces for protest and gathering can be made as well as pathways into the space.

REIMAGINED RITUAL

My intervention, of lightweight, portable structures, seeks to give agency back to the existing residents of Brick Lane and surrounding East London. Intended use for the save the Brick Lane foundation as well as other anti-gentrification groups.

Through acts of reimagined rituals and traditions of the past, taking inspiration and precedents from the previous rebellion movements of the east end, as well as traditions of past and present communities (Huguenots, Jewish and Bengali), the space seeks to root itself back to the history of the area which is slowly being lost through redevelopment.

Using craft and textiles, inspired by the strong textile trade of the old east end, the flags and items made in the workshop space allow people in the area to create their own flags of something which roots them back to the area. Example flags made, for example the pickle table cloth, help to reconfigure the way in which the space is used to create informal gathering, creating new forms of placemarkers and protest.