A Designer Talks of a Home / A Resident Talks of Home (I)

00:00:00    we spend 87 percent of our lives inside buildings

 

00:00:34    I was conceived within these walls in ’87

 

00:01:09    how they are designed really affects how we feel

 

00:07:53    the wallpaper was here before me, I don’t claim it

 

00:01:43    how we behave

 

00:08:13    Mum says this is a good home. When I was little I used

                  to peel the yellow from the wallpaper

 

00:01:56    design is not just a visual thing; it’s a thought process

 

00:12:12    once I swallowed an apple pip & a guy from the 12th

                  floor told me

 

00:02:20    it’s a skill . . .

 

00:14:02    an apple tree will grow out from my belly

 

00:02:39    design is a tool to enhance our humanity. . . a frame

                  for life

 

00:15:45    don’t that mean I will be the first treeboy on the estate?

 

00:02:50    putting the human experience at the beginning of

                  the process 

 

00:17:39    the guy said trees live as long as boys do here that’s

                  why we have concrete

 

00:03:32    tactile memory

 

00:18:01    at the back of our block there is a wall full of RIPs . . .

                  a thousand unlived lives of boys & trees

 

00:03:46    empathy is the cornerstone of design

 

00:18:50    y’know the architect that designed this estate killed

                  himself

 

00:03:53    it’s all about showmanship and theatricality

 

00:19:20    Mum reckons that’s why they covered the rot with

                  cladding

 

00:04:01    it’s about how things feel & smell as much as how

                  they look

 

00:20:15    ’cause concrete smells like a siege . . . when it rains

                  I like to

 

00:04:23    imbue people with a sense of wellbeing,

                  empowerment, gentle joyfulness

 

00:21:09    pretend I live

 

00:04:56    translate the future life of a building into design

                  language

 

00:22:23    on the 19th floor you can see everything but the future

 

00:05:03    those great long corridors reduced people

 

00:23:59    we see the same view even when we’re not looking,

                  we’re usually not looking

 

00:05:25    to see that a building could have such an impact

                  on the way people felt, on the way they interacted

 

00:25:48    at the scene we know who did it . . . keep our

                  mouths shut when boydem come with their

 

00:09:13    it’s about interrogation and empathy

 

00:26:03    [laughter]

 

00:09:58    materials are the things that tell the truth

 

00:27:29    if these walls could talk our ears would bleed.

 

00:10:17    humans are naturally drawn to the material

 

00:28:32    is fire a material?

 

00:13:03    we discover the world through our senses

 

00:29:10    some animals only map the world through one

                  sense . . . & so can survive smoke

 

00:13:54    our materials speak to us

 

00:30:02    concrete makes me feel safe . . . when I leave my

                  block I don’t feel safe

© Caleb Femi, from Poor (Penguin, 2020)

from Poor
by Caleb Femi
(Penguin, 2020)

Caleb Femi

Raised on the North Peckham estate in South London, Caleb Femi is a poet and director. He has written and directed short films for the BBC and Channel 4, and poems for Tate Modern, the Royal Society for Literature, St Paul's Cathedral, the BBC, the Guardian and more. He has been featured in the Dazed 100 list of the next generation shaping youth culture. From 2016 to 2018, he served as the Young People's Laureate for London. He recently wrote the liner material for Kano's 2019 album Hoodies All Summer.