Place making

“It’s time to think about the effect of our environment on human beings, and [seize] our responsibility as designers. The [contemporary] city has been built as a machine, for production. We built a society that in fact is not social, a society of individuals without connection, and the spaces where they live don’t allow them to make any real connections. If you [compare this with] the ancient towns, you will notice a difference. It’s typical in a small Italian town for the elders who went to the modern towns to want to come back. Because they can, for example, sit down and start talking to other people. If they need somebody, they can ask for help. Of course, we can’t go back to the past, we can’t build again what has been built by another society, another economy. But we can learn something. We want to build a contemporary architecture, a contemporary urbanism that uses contemporary materials, but that pays attention to these aspects as very relevant. (…) Recycling space, bringing it back to the quality of “place,” is not an expensive operation. [It’s] not about concrete, trucks, and big money. Beauty is a matter of relationships.” Via Shareable: http://www.shareable.net/blog/biourbanism-rethinking-the-science-of-space

CREW report: the Tredegar “Deep Place” study The Deep Place Study is an attempt to develop a complete understanding of a single disadvantaged location, in this case Tredegar. The study has attempted to identify all current weaknesses which constrain that location, as well as opportunities which could be exploited to establish a sustainable future for the community. The study is not limited by current practice, policy or contemporary austerity constraints, but does instead aim to explore cutting-edge opportunities that could help lift the community out of poverty to become a fully sustainable location by 2030. By Regeneration Wales. Follow this link.