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Futures Fair 08-
15 May 2008.

Book your place now for the RIBA’s Futures Fair Conference 2008 at the Royal Institute of British Architects

“Architects have a great tradition as advocates of change. We have at regular intervals been purveyors of the brave new world and excitable visionaries, but we cannot achieve lasting change without the partnership and co-design of others. Futures Fair 08 intends to move the debate forward by proposing a co-operative in ideas.”
Sunand Prasad, RIBA President

How will the Mekong Delta, the Rio Salado or the Humber influence the future of our built landscape?

How will movement of the ‘Global Elite’, displaced populations or Polish migrant labourers affect a fundamental rethink of our future housing stock?

How will our choices of technologies affect our society if we favour the unbounded potential of nanotechnology over traditional processes?

The future has always been speculative, but architects have often in history been at the forefront of how we choose to face the future. In times of unprecedented movement of commerce and people, new technologies and possibilities, re-evaluating the shape of our future environment has never been more crucial.

Confirmed Speakers include:

Sir David King, Director, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University

Mary Reilly, Chair, London Development Agency

Reinier de Graaf, Partner of OMA Rotterdam & Director of its think tank AMO

Spencer de Grey, Head of Design, Fosters and Partners

Saskia Sassen, Professor of Sociology, LSE and Columbia University, New York

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Building Futures Launches the Building Futures Game!
24 January 2008.

Building Futures with CABE and architectural practice AOC, today launched the ‘The Building Futures Game’ at an event in Daventry, Northamptonshire. The Building Futures Game presents an accessible and innovative new approach to tackling the big issues involved in town planning and development.

Essentially, The Building Futures Game is a form of scenario planning. Participants work through a lively and interactive process of ‘playing out’ a range of possible futures, generating a number of possible resolutions. Working through this process, participants are given a chance to really get to grips with the fundamental issues affecting town planning in their towns and cities.

The event featured a live game playing exercise based on a real proposed retail scheme for Daventry by Henry Boot developers and MCA architects with the West Northants Development Corporation (WNDC). The proposals will impact greatly on the town centre area and form part of a wider strategy for the town’s regeneration and future growth. The Building Futures Game will give stakeholders in this scheme the opportunity to discuss their aspirations for the proposal area in a new and alternative way.

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“Building Happiness”
August 2008.

Building Happiness discusses the nature of happiness within our built environment. This Building Futures publication, in association with Blackdog Publishing, includes ideas and debates informed by architects such as Herman Hertzberger and Aldo van Eyck, with these brought up to date through the work of contemporary architects and commentators.

The publication is the outcome of project work begun early in 2007, the aim of which was to discuss the nature of our environment, how we use it and how we are conditioned by it. Buildings and spaces have a great bearing on our wellbeing and how we use them. The project and its publication discusses in detail how we might construct happiness and what spaces promote wellbeing.

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