This was a conference that a group of us had the opportunity to go to. It had four speakers and started off with the introduction of “What makes a place into a space” and “There is no there, there”.
Lorna Walker from Cabe was the first speaker. She talked about the relationship between people and the built environment. She gave good and bad examples of places in relation to the Built environment, Security, Recreation, Culture, Access, and Mixed community. One of the examples was Peckham Library. This building has now become the educational centre for the community. It has created a pleasant atmosphere for people to learn and interact with others of varying backgrounds and ages.
Peckham Library
I found this talk really interesting and to see examples of why the environment is important to people and how it can affect your health and attitude. One of these examples was Nature Deficit Disorder and how children now are more likely to stay indoors playing computer games instead of going out and climbing a tree.
The second speaker was Jason Prior the vice president of Edaw. He talked about the legacy of Lea Valley after the London Olympics games. Also how regeneration of the area starts now and not in 2013 after the Olympics which has been the mistake of other Olympic host cities in the past, such as Sydney and Athens.
It was really good to hear what will happen after the games with the scaling down, for example, the 40 hectares of paving that will be built for the game’s, three quarters will be removed once the games are over because the area will not be dealing with huge quantity of people. The presentation was really enjoyable and was the most useful compared to the other presentations in seeing good quality images. The work which was shown is what I am interested in and something that I may explore in my year out.
The third speaker was Patricia Brown from Central London Partnership. She spoke about creating cities where people want to be. The final speaker was Professor Robert Bruegmann from the University of Illinois, Chicago. He spoke about the history of Sprawl and its economic, social and environmental affects.
