This House Believes the Urban Renaissance Never Happened

Featuring Roger Madelin of developers Argent, former Director of Regeneration at the London Borough of Southwark and urbanist Fred Manson, Austin Williams at Future Cities and Michael Edwards author and senior lecturer at the Bartlett, University College London.

1998’s Urban Task Force, led by Lord Rogers, aimed to identify the causes of urban decline and establish a lasting vision of future cities that promoted social wellbeing and design excellence. It was to be the new orthodoxy in town planning. We would walk to work or use public transport, eat out more often, bask in open squares and take advantage of new cultural spaces. In the last decade there has been a considerable shift in favour of development in towns and cities, reflecting a nationwide drive towards the Urban, but have we really embraced it?

The evening asks, with the financial downturn severely weakening the property market and exposing our reliance on commercial giants to deliver the urban agenda, how much of what has been built is desirable in the long term and how much of what we have built can be considered Cappuccino urbanism mere froth?

Building Futures Debates Series 2009 are supported by BDP and the Evening Standard’s Homes and Property Magazine