the website for mayor ken's architecture division has gone live, with some interesting uk names involved including rogers, martha schwartz, farshid moussavi (FOA) and peter st john (caruso st john architects). here's hoping this is a positive step in generating a higher level of discussion and built work in the uk. design for london
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Why does the London map look like a Damien Hirst?
what was debate london like belle? where do you think this will head down the road?
the 'discussion' i saw as part of debate london was, unfortunately, really disappointing. it had the potential to be really interesting, and tackle the social and design issues around the housing crisis in london, and take a hard look at the changes that need to be made in terms of the procurement of housing, and the role of designers in creating sustainable communities.
instead it was hijacked by the politicians and became a point scoring event between the noisy left and the silly right (Boris johnson, for goodness sake, he's alright on tv quiz shows but that's about it).
as an example of how frustrating the event was, they had managed to get saskia sassen to take part, and gave her a measly 90 seconds to respond to some of the nonsense the politicians had been arguing about.
having said all that, i think i like ken and i have seen a few lectures by people from the design for london team and i was very much impressed by their levels of research, and the fact that they are looking into issues, such as flooding in london, that don't get a lot of attention.
so at the moment my attitude is: fingers crossed!
i'd be interested to hear other londoner's opinions about this...?
that is indeed unfortunate about sassen's limited time. was there a reaction or rather any discussion how the olympics has historically been used as hammer for urban development? it would be great to hear what all you other londoners think.
unfortunately there was not much discussion about the olympics at all...
there may have been more at the other debate london events, i only managed to go to one...
i would say, however, that out of the panel one of the most interesting speakers was a planner from Tower Hamlets Council (in the east end of london, location of the olympics). as an architect i'm not used to having warm feelings towards planners so i was suprised!
what did he say that impressed you?
Just looking back at my notes (how come they always turn into gibberish as soon as you make them?)
The planner was called emma peters - she talked a lot about the need for local and national government services to be more ‘joined up’ – to be able to communicate better with each other and be more targeted on the actual goals of the project rather than the intricacies of their various organisational structures. She was also concerned about how the procurement of all the new housing, especially affordable housing, in London will be managed. Each speaker didn’t really have a long time to talk, so she didn’t go into much detail about specific projects and initiatives… but she was using all the right words about communities – sustainable, diversity, public space etc
Another interesting guy was tony travers from the LSE – he counteracted the Conservative’s claim that market forces will provide housing at all levels (supply and demand forces won’t cut it, as there is just overwhelming demand so developers can hike their prices as much as possible), and talked about how hard it was to tax the developers. This was topical as that week a report had come out about how much land with planning permission developers were leaving empty, waiting for the most lucrative moment to develop it.
on the whole, the event raised more questions than answers and it was not focused on design, despite the presence of nigel coates and alex de rijke...
A few interesting facts about London that came out from the debate:
If you live in a culturally diverse area of London you are less likely to say that diversity is a problem, however you may have a higher level of anxiety
Areas which are undergoing the most rapid change are the most troubled
Londoners on the whole are more positive about the city as a whole rather than the area in which they live
For each stop of the central line on the underground you go, east from notting hill to Bethnal green, the average age expectancy decreases by 1 year
Infant mortality in London is increasing
some of this links in to the global cities exhibition on at tate modern just now, which i also thought could be in the catagory of 'could do better', especially zaha's contribution.
did anyone who saw that actually understand it?
belle, i'd like to hear some more of that opinion too. perhaps we can open this discourse into the discussion forums and see if other people can voice what they think. i wonder if this will draw in more people who saw it?
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