This House Believes We Should Fortify Our Cities.
Assessing Risk in the Public Realm
SUPPORTING
OPPOSING
PIERS GOUGH AT CZWG WITH JOHN ADAMS UCL.
Summer, 25 June 2008.
As part of the London Festival of Architecture, Building Futures hosted an evening looking at the nature of conflict in the urban realm. Terrorist attacks on our buildings and cities is a real threat; a recent EU Terrorism Report finds that isolated terrorist attacks have been, and will, increase in the future. How those in the built environment can or should respond to these threats is the key focus of the debate. What role can architects play in tackling these threats so that our cities do not end up as a series of barricaded streets or gated communities?
The evening asked: If terror threats are long term, can we employ some enlightened thinking as to how we design our spaces in reponse? Will this be possible or is security simply at odds with the notion of ‘public’ space? Isn’t open access to public buildings and spaces worth taking the risk? Have we anything to fear?
The debate forms part of Building Futures’ own Conflict and Architecture Project
LISTEN TO PODCASTS
Chair,Sunand Prasad
Carl Whitley-Jones
John Adams
Lorraine Gamman/Adam Thorpe
Piers Gough
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Building Futures Debates Series 2008 are kindly supported by Macdonald and Company , BDP and the Evening Standard’s Homes and Property Magazine
For more information on the series contact buildingfutures@inst.riba.org
