Bob Colenutt and I have both gained Leverhulme Fellowships to research, write up and disseminate ideas about how the dysfunctional urban development mechnisms of the UK can be replaced by ones which are fairer, more stable, better value for citizens and more collective than the market individualism which has recently been dominant. Read the rest of this entry »
Leverhulme Fellowships for re-thinking urban development
May 30th, 2009Talking about the crisis: Marx and Schumpeter
May 15th, 2009On 14 May Peter Hall and Michael Edwards had an open debate at UCL, discussing the current crisis and especially the kinds of insights offered by Schumpeter and Marx. There was a good discussion among about 20 people and it was resolved to have further sessions this summer and/or autumn. Please let us know if you would like to join in and/or if there are topics or speakers we should include. Here is a short paper by Peter Hall (reprinted from Town and Country Planning) hallcrisis0905141, a short note from Michael Edwards edwards090514 and an adequate but not very professional podcast (1 hour 33; 32MB) Recording of the seminar
Victory at Queen’s Market
May 15th, 2009After a lot of lobbying and a defeat at Newham’s Development Control Committee, local residents and traders are delighted that London’s new (and conservative) Mayor Boris Johnston has used his powers to REJECT the council/St Modwen proposals to replace the Queen’s Market with a new market + a lot of shops + a very dense residential development. The campaigns had been opposing the scheme because of the risks it would pose to the viability and cheapness of the market, and also because the housing scheme was only 14% ‘affordable’ housing. Boris has rejected the scheme because he regards a 30+ storey tower as inappropriate for the area. But a victory is a victory and there is great jubilation. More on their web site http://www.friendsofqueensmarket.org.uk
Victory in a debate… (now with podcast)
March 28th, 2009For once the tables were slightly turned. There was an RIBA debate on whether the UK ‘urban renaissance’ really happened. Curious idea, and a bit like being at school. But it was between Roger Madelin (Argent plc) and Fred Manson (formerly Southwark LB) on the one side and myself and Austin Williams (in effect an anti-authoritarian architect) on the other. The chairman initially took a vote and found 3 on our side and everyone else, with some abstainers, on the other. But in the end we won by 42 to 41 so clearly it was possible to sway some opinion and I was enouraged by that. Read the rest of this entry »
The coming crisis and London planning
January 27th, 2009Did a seminar yesterday in the LSE geography department’s London series. My talk was a modification of what I did in Berlin (below) and it seemed to generate quite a good discussion - not least because Ian Gordon, Duncan Bowie and Paul Cheshire were active. The slide show here for those who want to see it - edwardslselondon09 and you can find it on the lse London site, apparently. Read the rest of this entry »
New Year / housing
January 1st, 2009For the new year I just wrote a letter to the Guardian, finding myself irritated by the recent splatter of letters they have had on housing, triggered by CPRE etc people a couple of weeks ago. It’s probably too long for them to publish. [later: it was. ] This is it:
You have carried a great deal of material on the housing crisis this year and since Tristram Hunt’s tear-jerker on the protection of green belts (17 December) there have been sporadic responses in the letters page. Most of the coverage and correspondence, however, has been piecemeal and trivialising of a complex field. Can we start the new year, please, by taking a more comprehensive view which sees the dire housing situation as the outcome of lots of different aspects of the neo-liberal project? Read the rest of this entry »
December seminar on the crisis, housing
December 14th, 2008Just spent a highly stimulating day in a workshop on housing, real estate and the crisis, and was particularly interested to meet one of the other guest speakers Christian Zeller, a young prof in Wirstchaftsgeographie Salzburg whose analysis was very strong. I’ve tried to summarise it below. Read the rest of this entry »
Pessimism or optimism / Glancey / Guardian
November 19th, 2008Jonathan Glancey wrote an engaging article in the Guardian’s G2 section outlining the bleak prospects for architects in the crisis. Elena pointed it out and is using it with the students. [ Here is the article. ] It seemed to me he had missed the point of his own story - how radical social innovation in building could crack unemployment - so I wrote to the Guardian as follows Read the rest of this entry »
King’s Cross - what next?
November 5th, 2008The Camden New Journal asked me to write a piece on what should happen now if the current proposals fall victim to the crisis. Here it is. [Later: it did appear, and led to an exchange of correspondence with Robert Evans at Argent.] Read the rest of this entry »
A memoir of UCL / The Bartlett
November 1st, 2008I just retired after 39 years and a month at UCL in the Bartlett School. There was a wonderful party organised by friends on 29 October and I cobbled together some pictures and anecdotes which now I should work up into a readable text here. For the moment you only have the whole period in pictures which are here
You can see them as a slide show or one-by-one in which (latter) case you can read the captions which some of them have. The story as a full text begins in 1964 and so far reaches 1966. Read the rest of this entry »