interview
Design guru Wayne Hemingway believes the UK must look abroad for solutions to its lack of people-friendly, people- focused cities. He talks to Tom James.
Overseas inspiration
THE LOOK and function of the modern city has been the subject of much conjecture for the last half-century. The experimental approach from city and urban planners in the 1950s and 1960s is still taking its toll on many UK towns and cities today, with poor design and a lack of focus on enhancing urban living having contributed to the issues that face centres today. Many are suffering a fall in visitor footfall and an alarming number of shop closures. That said, the tipping point of people living in urban areas over rural locations has come and gone, signalling a clear (and continuing, if forecasts are to be believed) preference for city living. But the penchant for and continuing
migration to city centres places even greater importance on the quality and breadth of leisure culture and urban spaces, in terms of how planners approach city design and how they fuse shifting leisure, retail and
commercial demands with architectural styles, building functionality and tougher environmental norms. Design guru and television commentator on urban living Wayne Hemingway is a fierce
We need to create cities with communities in mind
advocate of people-friendly, people-focused cities. His recipe for saving city life as we know it, not only aims to stem the tide of high street shop closures but also to take account of the fact that more of us now live in cities, and seemingly will do so increasingly. We caught up with Hemingway to probe his thoughts on why the UK should look to the continent for inspiration. The various annual World’s Most Livable Cities indices, published by such opinion- formers as The Economist, show that the most popular towns and cities have urban centres that offer the vital ingredients for good living, be that a healthy hectarage of well-loved and utilised green space, sufficient leisure provision and a preponderance of walking and cycling over car travel. Hemingway talks of the importance of having “uplifting public space” in achieving successful urban planning. “There’s plenty of examples of it in Europe and in London.
bflmagazine.co.uk 13
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68