QUESTION TIME
To help nurture the community that will eventually live within London’s latest ‘village’ – East Village – communal gardens, public spaces and local amenities feature heavily.
viewed their city. The second key theme seems
to be that lots of smaller shops and cafes, for example, are more socially interactive than larger ones. There is currently a very interesting project in Oakland, California where a group of shop owners concerned about the growing number empty shops and acknowledging the economic difficulties people have opening new ones, got together to see if they could find a way of increasing footfall with new shops and thereby business for themselves. They explored
the idea of short-term rent-free occupation of the empty shops by preferred users such as bicycle and bookshops. The city council also took active steps, providing grants for initial fitting out, and landlords responded positively with the lure of empty rates relief and possibility of rental income in the future. The third theme would
appear to be precisely the one that makes the Oakland project a success – people power. A shop owner was concerned about the demise of the street, spoke to other shop owners and
then got the city council and bigger businesses involved. I think this is what we are about to call ‘Localism’ – the community pulling together, getting involved and active. And it would appear that this Localism is indeed what will ensure a village can exist and thrive. If this is your place and you can feel involved, then you will work to make it a success - be it a rural hamlet in Northumbria or a urban community in central London. As architects and urbanists what we need to understand is
Our industry THE EXPERTS...
experts provide a compelling
insight into the topical issues of the day
KARL RENNER PARTNER, CLARKE RENNER ARCHITECTS
With more than thirty-six years experience Karl has worked with many of the
major housing developers, such as Berkeley, Linden, Barratt and London Square. He studied Architecture atManchester Polytechnic and worked at BDP, Feilden andMawson, Chapman Taylor and Covell MatthewsWheatley, before forming Clarke Renner Architects (with David Clarke) in 1985. Since then he has worked on many projects, but has concentrated on housing, both private and affordable.
JAMES CARR DESIGN PARTNER, BARTONWILLMORE
James took over as design partner in the London office of BartonWillmore in 1996 he refocused the teamto the core skill of designing high quality,
viable and sustainable developments that could always deliver added value.His extensive involvement in the design and construction of a wide range of building types, frominception to completion has allowed himto be keenly aware of howandwhere this added value can be achieved. He has considerable knowledge and experience of the planning system.
how to be involved in that process and to ensure that the aspiration of the village can be the same as that of a developer. It is down this path that proper sustainable communities
surely lie.
Our panel of architects are experts in their field and have experience in a vast area of architectural design including; landscape, public sector and private residencies. If you would like to contribute as a panelist email:
rebcecca.gibson@
onecoms.co.uk
ArchitectNews.co.uk | Architects Choice | 11
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