“Poverty is not a disgrace. Not everyone can be born into feudal manor house. But to pretend such a thing to one’s fellow men is ridiculous, immoral. So let us not be ashamed of the fact that we live in a house with many others who are socially our equals. Let us not be ashamed of the fact that there are materials which would be too costly for us as building materials. Let us not be ashamed of the fact that we are people from the nineteenth century, and not those who live in a house which, in its architectural style, belongs to an earlier time.” Adolf Loos, 1898.
Kano’s video for Pan-Fried featuring Kojo offers a collage of deteriorating housing developments across East London. He contrasts celebratory lyrics against imagery that portrays something entirely different - “We celebrate life non-stop, cos we made it off the block”, in contrast to the visual of excessive fly tipping outside derelict housing. Much of the cinematography is focused on the architecture, and when people are shown as well as buildings, it is the buildings which occupy the majority of the frame. Pan-Fried describes the culture of this part of London authentically, trying to communicate that this urban decline wasn’t just something to be dismissed or scoffed at, it was a catalyst for a subculture which should be cherished. In the chorus, Kojo sings as his hair is being groomed by a young woman, in-flux as opposed to the final presentation - a clear reference to changing urbanism. Kano makes the same point that Adolf Loos made in 1898, via a different medium.
Most people’s perception of a building very rarely has anything to do with its style. When I moved to London as a kid, I had a very neutral perception of such council estates. I had spent my early years in cliché modernist developments in an entirely different cultural context, crisp white towers surrounded by landscaping etc. Yet most British people at the time associated this with the deteriorating reputation of social housing and poverty. By 2020, we have gone full circle, where the brutalist icons are considered a part of national heritage and a renaissance of council housing is taking root. As a teenager, I would have associated Balfron tower with the hood, now I think of lucrative property investment. I had this discussion with a colleague who pointed out that the design of the buildings remains unchanged – rather the societal perception of the design has changed. Architecture cannot be more powerful than politics.
More than a hundred years ago, it was declared that Ornament is Crime. Yet, no matter how revolutionary at the time, stylistic and material preferences of one era will become ornamentation and imitation for the next. An in-situ concrete wall, or the latest recycled eco-plastic rainscreen can also be used as ornamentation without any function much like a baroque style moulding, they are just communicating something else. Kano’s video shows that buildings which were rejected in the noughties can become a cultural driving force for the twenties. So equally, let us not be ashamed of the fact that not everyone can splash out half a million on a property in a brutalist icon, to harp back to this style in design terms would be equally immoral. As an architect, you cannot control society’s perception of a material finish in the long term, you must innovate at a level that goes beyond stylistic communication and sinking budgets on specification and product displays. The best things about buildings don’t have to cost anything.
Pan-Fried by Kano feat Kojo, 2019