8 / 32
THE HOT ISSUE
Mark Davy of leading placemaking agency
Futurecity sets out why culture is playing
an increasingly important role in the
creation of city quarters, and what the
property industry, planning authorities
and the arts need to do to react.
Cultural City –
A GalleryWithout Walls
S
uccessful places, in spite of all
their individual particularities,
have a common ‘taste’; a similar
atmosphere. At Futurecity we would
describe this as ‘seductive urbanism’,
meaning urban space as playful,
lucid, varied, beautiful, pleasurable,
rewarding and surprising. We
believe that whilst culture is the
key to unlocking former industrial
landscapes and suburban edge
city sites, it is still regarded by
developers, architects, planners
and politicians as ‘magic dust’,
something to be sprinkled on a new
development or city quarter, using
an approach that has changed little
in 30 years.
The late Sir Peter Hall talked of
‘the City as Pleasure Principle’* and
referred to 18th century Vienna, 19th
century Paris and New York in the
20th century, as cities that offered
a symphonic experience—formal,
creative, adventurous, breath-taking
and spectacular even. But in the
20th century planners and architects
adopted a more utilitarian approach,
building successively the Industrial
City, the Hygienic City, the Information
City and the Investment City. Now is
the time of the city as a blank slate
for beauty, an urban theatre for
authentic experiences. But a new
cultural language is required and the
developers of our 21st century cities
need to adapt their thinking to a
rapidly changing world.
When 20th century architect
CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD
08
THE HOT ISSUE