Building4Change is dedicated to sustainability issues in the built environment.
This week the Evening Standard reported that Notting Hill Gate is up for sale.
If you have a spare £130million, a chunk of this street could be yours! In all seriousness though, this could be a real opportunity for a dreary thoroughfare to become a place people actually want to spend time. So rather than dashing through to Westfield, Portobello Road or Kensington (or at best staying there but only diving straight into the cinemas), imagine Notting Hill Gate with cool little independent cafes, art spaces, proper fruit and veg shops and so on.
But before we get too excited there are a couple of things to remember; firstly there’s no getting away from that fact that it is a major traffic artery. Secondly, and more importantly, a genuine community has to develop organically; it can’t be bought in. Luckily, in and around Notting Hill Gate there is a large group of local residents that could and should play a big part in deciding its future.
Visit the pavegen site at www.pavegensystems.com and take a look at the article in the Observer at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/16/laurence-kemball-cooks-ethical-pavegen
Over the weekend, dezeen published more photos of Thomas Heatherwick’s pavilion taking shape on site in Shanghai, along with some interesting facts and figures. The Seed Cathedral (nicknamed The Dandelion) is made up of 60,000 acrylic rods, each containing a seed from Kew Garden’s Millennium seed bank and China’s Kunming Institute of Botany. After the six month Expo ends, the rods will be recycled and distributed to schools across China and in the UK, and to Kew and its Chinese partners.
Aside from the pavilion, the story includes a couple of surprising and heartening facts from UK Trade & Investment:
• The UK, the sixth biggest manufacturer in the world, has the largest industries in Europe for creative industries, life sciences, financial services and ICT.
• With four out of six of the world’s top universities, the UK is the largest recipient of R&D investment in Europe, and has won more Nobel prizes than any other country in Europe.
So despite of our current economic woes, and the fact that Britain is spending a whopping £600 per person on defense (against what??) compared to the education budget at only £1250 per person, it’s good to be reminded that it’s not all doom and gloom for the UK and our education sector is still performing. Time to cut the defense budget NOT the education budget.
Single person households are marketing gold, providing marketeers even greater numbers of consumers who are co-habiting only with their gadgets, especially as they increasingly manipulate our technology-based culture. Social media is another control mechanism whereby social interaction can be managed, at an emotionally disconnected distance. On top of that, technologically influenced architecture serves to isolate people as is demonstrated by airports and ‘malls’ and by our emotional responses to them. Designers are principally to blame for the deterioration in quality of the built fabric of communities and the erosion of any real sense of diversity. But in light of the rise of social media, is it possible to marry the success of virtual communities with real physical communities to get people to care for their neighbourhood and be involved? Taking this further, maybe arresting the influence of global brand blandness, changing the miserable generic appearance of our local high streets, getting the community to resonate with local services, businesses and most importantly relationships once again.
Thankfully, developers are becoming more aware of the social value of a good quality neighbourhood and that new developments have a responsibility to enhance and contribute to the existing community. The physical environment cannot, however, magically engineer this without people becoming more involved in their own neighbourhood and more involved in their neighbours’ lives. As development control has shifted to larger organisations local voices have been polarised and rendered less effective. However, where local ideas have been sourced, it has often led to far richer and more successful design, which is eventually adopted with a greater sense of pride by the neighbourhood.
These are issues that SUSD plans to grapple with, openly discuss and ultimately help solve. For now though, here are some interesting links to check out
Facebook and Bebo risk ‘infantilising’ the human mind – A report on Baroness Susan Greenfield’s observations on social networking sites and their relationship how our brains will develop in the future
www.thesocialorganization.com Established by Rachel Happe to use social media to enhance organisations and communication
www.heidelberg.org – community arts project in Detroit
www.goodwilldetroit.org – giving a hand-up, not hand-out to people in Detroit.
Our development in Harlesden is the subject of an in-depth review by Graham Bizley in the latest Building Design. You can read the story and access drawings here.
Many thanks to Graham, David Grandorge and BD for a fantastic article.
BBC2 has just broadcast Julien Temple’s amazing film ‘Requiem for Detroit?’ Described as ‘a moving elegy for the death of the city’ you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Detroit was finished for good. Note the question mark in the title though. By going through the city’s history in such detail, the film actually reminds us that Detroit’s past is full of ups and downs, it was ever thus. This is a city of resilient, imaginative and resourceful people. Hence despite its current problems – lack of city government finance and action, dangerous abandoned buildings, ghost-neighbourhoods and, particularly appalling, the closure of 29 schools last year – the hurdles are being overcome. Read more…
Read an interesting profile on the borough of Croydon’s planning department in The Observer yesterday. It’s great to see a local authority planning team achieving such a high level of engagement. I think we’re starting to see more of this from other borough councils.
Last night’s ‘Kitchen Table’ debate at Leila’s shop focused on development and regeneration plans in and around Arnold Circus in E2. Many people in the room have achieved great success in terms of fundraising and awareness and yet still seemed dispirited, even negative. Why? I believe that their efforts to date are highly praiseworthy. For real complaints these can be addressed by making formal representations to the powers-that-be! And it was somewhat disheartening to witness architects, developers and residents all reverting to type, just when I thought we were making progress.
I would like to discuss ideas for how to generate a more proactive, upbeat attitude and am hoping that we can continue the debate. Watch this space.