George Ferguson
Wednesday 14th May 2008, The Watershed
George Ferguson who described himself as: 'An architect not afraid to speak his mind' gave an informative and passionate talk to an almost sell-out crowd in Watershed 3, on the subject of Real Regeneration by Design.
Architecture training is about designing objects, but George Ferguson considers the spaces between buildings as important as the buildings themselves.
His practice has developed The Academy of Urbanism whose aims include producing an environment, which encourages:
- A high quality of living
- A healthy and creative way of life
- Support for the economic, social, political and cultural lives of communities within small intimate spaces. 'All good places are to do with complexity' and this involves being intimately connected with the place – which is why Renzo Piano is considered a hero in his native Genoa; not a seagull consultant (fly in, crap on it, fly out).
George gave a number of examples of these principles in practice, both in this country and abroad:
Malmo in Sweden, where 90% of people cycle, where cars are tolerated but pedestrians have priority and where the whole place is seen as a playground, which includes sheltered housing where elderly people can view and be part of the activity around.
Duke of York Square in London, where a 400-year view is taken of any development.
One of Ferguson's best known developments in Bristol is the Tobacco factory, which he bought part of to test his theories of multi-use spaces. This now has a theatre space, a café bar and dance studios used by local schools as well as housing and encourages friendly though carefully managed use of the spaces.
He feels that we should stop expanding into the Green Belt and that isolated eco towns are no good. Cities need to be connected to have green spaces for food growing amongst the architecture.
Everyone should be encouraged to do one mad thing in his or her own communities and see where it leads.
His people based approach is not without its critics however, and he brought a small demonstration to the Watershed against a current plan he has for a development in the centre of Bristol. He seems to relish the challenges though and some of the direct questions about this scheme led to a lively discussion at the end of the talk.
