When:

15th April 2010, 07:00PM

Where:

BDP Hub, 16 Brewhouse Yard, Clerkenwell, EC1V 4LJ

John Thompson, Chairman of John Thompson & Partners
Nick Johnson, Deputy Chief Executive for Urban Splash Group LTD
Stephen Hill, Director of C20 Future Planners
Owen Hatherley, Freelance Writer on Urbanism and Architecture
Richard Reeves, Director of Demos, Chair
With other speakers TBC

Demos and RIBA Building Futures are delighted to present a debate on whether politics or design are to blame for broken places.

Are the places we live, and the buildings around us reasons for the social inequalities that blight Britain? Today’s planning system is predicated on short-term political thinking and a reliance on populist 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.

The debate will address views from prominent actors within architecture and urban design, centered around such questions as: how new localist agendas and their advocates will bring more power to the local level, whether this will this bridge social gaps or simply lead to a more centralised Government? How will a new Government impact on the built environment profession’s ability to provide successful places that foster community cohesion?

Speakers including John Thompson, Chairman of John Thompson & Partners, Nick Johnson, Deputy Chief Executive for Urban Splash Group, Stephen Hill, C20 Future Planners will discuss these issues, and Owen Hatherley, Freelance Writer on Urbanism and Architecture, followed by a public Q & A chaired by Richard Reeves, Director of Demos. 

RSVP to lauren.mckirdy@inst.riba.org, informing us of any access needs. Join us for a drink from 6.30pm.