Michael Edwards

On the way back from 3 very good days in Netherlands with Bob Colenutt on our Leverhulme project about fixing broken British urban development and housing systems.  Highights for me were learning more about state leasehold forms of development and seeing the incredible variety of tenure forms and housing configurations in Ijburg.  Lots more pictures if you click on one of these.

collective / co-op project of flats, shared space, cafe, theatre in Ijburg.

…and some ideas not so easily transferred to UK: next house arrives at floating neighbourhood from factory 120km away. Small tug on right.

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On Tuesday 30 March about 40 people came to a seminar, organised on the initiative of CITY journal, which followed on from Peter Marcuse’s visit last autumn. There was a good discussion on actions surrounding the London Plan and Right to the City actions and organising in the USA.  There will be an extended write-up. Meanwhile there is a flyer here and a two-hour sound file.

rttcflyer03_10-3 and the podcast is here

Had to start a discussion today, at the London Planning and Development Forum, on the UK Conservative Party’s “Green paper” on planning. It’s bad, but i was trying to make light of it. [Later: this text later appeared in Issue 73 of Planning in London Ap-Jun, along with some other, more normal, reviews.] (more…)

Went on Wednesday 11th to a seminar at which Mike Ball was presenting a study he led for a (Treasury-inspired?) agency called NHPAU, exploring the variation in time it took for planning permission to be granted for housing schemes. It transpired I had heard it before (at UCL I think) and read the report so I was a bit prepared - as was Duncan Bowie who also took part. We both made critical comments and received some tongue-lashing for our pains. But it is worth discussing as an example of hegemonic discourse having weak underpinnings. (more…)

My brother gave me for christmas Perry Anderson’s The New Old World (Verso 2009) and I have just finished reading it, mostly with huge enjoyment, and have learned a lot. I rarely read 500-page books (the last time was Braudel during a Greek island holiday ten years ago) but this one has grabbed all the time (more…)

The Woodberry Down social housing estate in Hackney, subject of a “regeneration” scheme in which blocks are demolished to make space for private developers to build flats for sale and for a “city academy” school. This sign must be a lawyer’s attempt to prevent anyone claiming that the land is public and thus inhibiting its privatisation. The site is a fine hill top with long views. I sent the picture round the pnuk list as a new year greeting and Peter Marcuse replied, saying he would use it in a lecture in Taiwan (with attribution). Nice.

Later: London Federation of Tenants is campaigning (with others) against the displacement of social rented housing to make way for owner-occupers, legitimated on the grounds of “social mix”.  See their submission about the draft London Plan.

Debates, discussions and solid work are building up as part of the consulltation process on Boris Johnson’s ‘Draft Replacement London Plan’ with a small but excellent group of UCL students working to support Just Space network of community and voluntary groups.  Strong and rapidly-developing set of critiques at http://ucljustspace.wordpress.co The 22 strong  submissions by groups in Just Space which came out of all that can be seen at http://justspace2010.wordpress.com

In December there was a seminar at LSE on the London Plan.  The main presentations are here.  In the mean time this is what I contributed. (more…)

I have just been reading a report by the great and the good, The Future of Housing: rethinking the UK housing system for the twenty-first century, being the result of a 3-day seminar chaired by Richard Best and published by the “Building and Social Housing Foundation” of which I had never heard.  It came free in the post (from Coalville) and… (more…)

Very stimulating few days at seminars on a programme for the restoration of old buildings in 50 villages in Palestine, hosted at Bir Zeit by a wonderful team of people led by Suad Amiri and the organisation Riwaq which organised it as part of a biennale. This picture is a link to my photos. (more…)

[action at last! - December - but an ice hazard in January. Serious action in February. See end. ] For four decades I have been commuting daily through Euston in London where I (and thousands of others) walk to and from the station through a public garden, Euston Square. Just where we all pass through a narrow gap (between railings and a wall) there is a puddle. It’s been there for decades and looks like this
[click the picture for more shots] On 2 September 2009 I decided to report it. (more…)