How can we conceptualise the city of the future and what makes a place worth living in? This presentation introduces principles of placemaking, examines four case studies and poses some bigger questions.

1. 21st century placemaking
visions, principles and challenges
Julian Dobson, director, Urban Pollinators
@juliandobson

2. ‘CHANGE AND DECAY IN ALL AROUND I SEE...’
DOES REGENERATION HAVE THE CAPACITY TO RESOLVE EXISTENTIAL ANGST?

3. 1 Brave new world: some visions of placemaking
2 The matrix: placemaking as principles
3 Love’s labours lost? Four case studies
4 All’s well that ends well? Questions and
discussion

4. 1: BRAVE NEW WORLD
SOME VISIONS OF THE FUTURE CITY

5. THE CIVILISED CITY
A RETURN TO AN URBAN ‘GOLDEN AGE’?

6. ‘...the biggest and most cosmopolitan cities, for
all their evident disadvantages and obvious
problems, have throughout history been the
places that ignited the sacred flame of the
human intelligence and the human imagination.’
Peter Hall, Cities in Civilization, 1998

7. THE EXPRESSIVE CITY
THE CITY AS A PLATFORM FOR HUMAN PERFORMANCE

8. ‘It is through the performance of creative acts, in
art, in thought, in personal relationships, that the
city can be identified as something more than a
purely functional organisation of factories and
warehouses, barracks, courts, prisons and
control centres.’
Lewis Mumford, The City in History, 1961

9. THE HUMAN-SCALE CITY
THE FIGHTBACK AGAINST URBAN PLANNING

10. ‘One principle emerges ubiquitously... This
ubiquitous principle is the need of cities for a
most intricate and close-grained diversity of
uses that give each other constant mutual
support, both economically and socially.’
Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great
American Cites, 1961

11. THE LIFESTYLE CITY
THE CITY AS A CREATIVE CHOICE

12. ‘Access to talented and creative people is to
modern business what access to coal and iron
once was to steelmaking. It determines where
companies will choose to locate and grow, and
this in turn changes the way cities must
compete.’
Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class,
2002

13. THE MARKET CITY
THE CITY AS ECONOMIC POWERHOUSE

14. ‘Firms no longer need to locate near raw
material sources or markets, but can choose the
best location for productivity and dynamism.’
Michael E. Porter, The Competitive Advantage of
Nations, 1998

15. THE CONTESTED CITY
THE CITY AS THE SITE OF STRUGGLE

16. ‘...urban space continues to serve
simultaneously as the arena, the medium and
the stake of ongoing struggles regarding the
future of capitalism.’
Brenner, Marcuse and Mayer (2009)
Brenner, N., Marcuse, P. and Mayer, M. (2009). Cities for people, not for profit. City 13
(2-3), pp 176-184.

17. 2: THE MATRIX
IS THERE A FORMULA FOR CREATING GREAT PLACES?

18. THE EGAN PRINCIPLES
A BRIEF CONSENSUS ON PLACEMAKING?

19. ‘Delivering better communities requires not only
the professional skills of planning, architecture
and surveying, but also a broad range of generic
skills, behaviour and knowledge - such as
governance of communities, economic planning
for prosperity, communication, risk taking, and
above all leadership and partnership working.’
Sir John Egan, Skills for Sustainable
Communities, 2004

20. WELL RUN
‘LOCAL PEOPLE ARE INCLUDED IN THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS’

21. WELL CONNECTED
‘THERE ARE FACILITIES TO ENCOURAGE SAFE LOCAL WALKING AND CYCLING’

22. WELL SERVED
‘HIGH QUALITY SERVICES... ACCESSIBLE TO THE WHOLE COMMUNITY’

23. ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE
‘ACTIVELY SEEK TO MINIMISE CLIMATE CHANGE... CLEANER, SAFER, GREENER NEIGHBOURHOODS’

24. FAIR FOR EVERYONE
‘PEOPLE OF ALL AGES, RACES, CULTURES, SEXES AND ABILITIES ARE GIVEN ACCESS TO SERVICES...’

25. THRIVING
‘LOCAL PEOPLE HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE MONEY AND HAVE A GOOD QUALITY OF LIFE’

26. WELL DESIGNED AND BUILT
‘BUILDINGS ARE ATTRACTIVE, SAFE AND USEFUL TO THE PEOPLE WHO USE THEM...’

27. ACTIVE, INCLUSIVE AND SAFE
‘A COMMUNITY SPIRIT IS CREATED. PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS WELCOME TO JOIN IN...’

28. But what happens to the best-laid plans?
‘...a considerable cost difference between the
type of scheme that most people with an interest
in place would like to see and what those in the
industry believe can actually be delivered...’
email from Sheffield council officer, 2014

29. 3: LOVE’S LABOURS LOST?
ABSENT PLANNING, BAD PLANNING OR BAD LUCK... PLACEMAKING IN PRACTICE

30. CASE STUDY 1: DUDLEY, WEST MIDLANDS
THE CURIOUS CASE OF MERRY HILL SHOPPING CENTRE

31. From industrial giant...
‘...a vast Cyclopean workshop... a standing
monument of the enterprise of capital and the
skill of labour united’
Description of Round Oak steel works, 1868

32. ...to Enterprise Zone...
‘The incentives offered, in particular the removal
of planning restrictions, were hugely
appealing... Why would we go to Dudley town
centre when we could get a bigger, quicker
return on our investment elsewhere?’
Spokesman for the Richardson brothers
(Planning magazine, 2011)

33. ...and at what cost?
An analysis by the Centre for Cities in 2011 put
the cost of the 1980s Enterprise Zones at
£26,000 of public investment per job.

34. ...to ‘heart of the community’?
‘We are an active member of the local
community and take pride in contributing to
many local organisations...’
Westfield Merry Hill website, early 2014

35. ...or a nifty bit of business?
‘...a rare and attractive opportunity to acquire a
further two prime shopping centres in line with
our strategy to focus on the UK’s largest and
most successful destinations’
intu chief executive David Fischel, after buying
Merry Hill for £407.7m in March 2014

36. CASE STUDY 2: LIVERPOOL
WHAT IS ‘SUCCESS’ AND WHO BENEFITS FROM IT?

37. ‘The Liverpool One Masterplan has single-handedly
reversed the fortunes of the city by
bringing a new social and economic vibrancy...
an entirely revitalised city centre that now
connects properly with the Docks.’
Royal Institute of British Architects awards panel
Bayley, S. (2010). Liverpool: Shaping the city. London: RIBA Publishing (p86)

38. Out of 64 cities in 2013, Liverpool ranked:
• 55th for population growth
• 59th for businesses per head of population
• 58th for number of jobseekers claiming
benefits (ranked low to high)
• 63rd for employment rate
Centre for Cities, 2014
Centre for Cities (2014). Cities outlook 2014. www.centreforcities.org

39. CASE STUDY 3: LONDON’S SOUTH BANK
THE PUBLIC REALM, CREATED BY THE PUBLIC

40. ‘It was about empowerment, about community
self-help, about a political ambition to redress a
perceived imbalance of opportunity and to
promote “another way” of doing things... they
proudly displayed a banner across the street
proclaiming “There is another way”.’
Ash Amin, 2009
The Social Economy: international perspectives on economic solidarity. 2009, Zed
Books

41. CASE STUDY 4: TODMORDEN
RETHINKING SPACE WITH FOOD: INCREDIBLE EDIBLE TODMORDEN

42. ‘Simply by using this language of food, we have
opened up conversations, new ways of looking
at space, new ways of working across our
communities, new ways of bending existing
investment.’
Pam Warhurst, Incredible Edible Todmorden

43. BUT BEWARE OF EASY ANSWERS...

44. ‘Plans designed to solve problems either failed
to solve them or created problems worse than
the problems they had been designed to solve.
Some of the problems planners were most
anxious to influence - poverty, crime, urban
congestion and decay - seemed tenaciously
resistant to intervention.’
Donald Schön, The Reflective Practitioner
Schön, D. The Reflective Practitioner: how professionals think in action. 1995, Ashgate
(chapter 7)

45. Some bigger questions
1 What is sustainable? What approaches to
placemaking are likely to be valid for future
generations as well as our own?
2 Who should we listen to? Whose views need to
be considered if sustainability is to be at the
heart of placemaking?
3 Who benefits? Who is reaping the rewards of
investment in our towns and cities, and how will
we know?

46. thank you
www.urbanpollinators.co.uk
Twitter: @juliandobson