This House Believes Politics not Design is to Blame for Broken Places
Where does the culpability really lie?
Owen Hatherly – Academic and Columnist for BD and the New Statesman and Stephen Hill – Director of C20 Futureplanners
15th April 2010
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NICK JOHNSON
JOHN THOMPSON
OWEN HATHERLY
STEPHEN HILL
Are places and buildings responsible for social problems, or does fault lie with the political and planning processes that create these spaces? Today’s planning system is predicated on short-term political thinking and a reliance on popularist agendas to design public spaces and buildings; and the proliferation of quangos in the past 13 years has both vastly complicated the decision-making in the planning process and obscured accountability within it.
Will new localist agendas and their advocates – which claim to bring more power to the local level by scrapping regional powers – be the answer to our problems or will it simply lead to a more centralised Government? Or should we look to architects and urban designers to carry the responsibility of fractured communities? How will a new Government impact on the built environment profession’s ability to provide successful places that foster community cohesion?
Building Futures and DEMOS present an evening of exciting discussion in the lead up to the general elections.
For more information on this debate contact: BuildingFutures@riba.org
