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Event
Future Vision: Future Cities
06 December 2003 — 06 December 2003
Association Of British Science Writers, The (ABSW)
Speakers include:
Laurie Taylor (broadcaster); Miranda Sawyer (BBC Late Review and author 'Park & Ride'); Peter York (management consultant); Claire Fox (Institute of Ideas); Jonathan Glancey (architecture critic, The Guardian); Tom Heap (BBC Rural Affairs correspondent); Dr Henry J McCracken (Paris Observatory); Timandra Harkness (script writer); Dea Birkett (author and travel writer); Sean Topham (author 'Where's My Space Age'); Penny Lewis (Prospect magazine); Phil Mullan (author 'The Imaginary Timebomb); David Ashford (author 'Spaceflight Revolution', Bristol Spaceplanes); Peter Cook (founder, Archigram); Daniel Ben-Ami (author 'Cowardly Capitalism); Austin Williams (Technical Editor, Architects' Journal); Vicky Richardson (author, 'New Vernacular Architecture'); Julian Morris (director, International Policy Network); Greg Klerkx (science writer, former senior manager, SETI institute); Marina Benjamin (author, 'Rocket Dreams'); Kevin McCullagh (director, Foresight, Seymour Powell); Professor Tim Dyson (head of Population and Development, LSE); Ceri Dingle (director, WORLDwrite); Kim Newman (novelist and critic); Gordon McGranahan (director Human Settlements Programme, IIED); Victoria Nash (senior researcher, IPPR, author 'Making Sense of Communities'); Dr Graham Barnfield (lecturer in journalism and print media); Peter Smith (lecturer, Travel & Tourism); Martin Wright (editor, 'Green Futures'); Joe Kerr (Head of Dept of Critical and Historical Studies, Royal College of Art); Terence Bendixson (President, Pedestrians' Association); Xan Brooks (editor, Guardian Film Unlimited); Sandy Starr (technology editor, spiked) ; Jeremy Newton (chief executive, National Endowment for Science and Technology in the Arts)
For more information on booking, contact: mail@transportresearch.org.uk
Arrivals & introduction
10:00 Opening remarks
On the 100th anniversary of Ford’s production plant, the Harley-Davidson and the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight, as well as Britain’s first Garden City at Letchworth and the 150th anniversary of Haussmann’s planning for Paris, this conference is timely. It will examine transport and city visions - past and present - to understand what's changed? It will cover issues of risk-taking and risk-aversion; visionary thinking versus low horizons; and techno-fears and techno-solutions. This conference attempts to capture the pioneering spirit.
10:15 - 11:30am OPENING PLENARY
Dan Dare or Dan Daren’t
Whatever happened to the jet-pack; the monorail; the personalised Lear jet; Maglev; automated highways; the long-haul flights by space shuttle? Commonplace aspirations for the future in the Sixties, which seem to have been replaced by more sober transport predictions in the Noughties. Nowadays, aviation policy demands restraint, transport gurus cycle to work, and space travel is deemed to be too risky.
Whatever happened to the Walking City; intelligent homes; climatic domes; Plug-in cities; New Towns; underwater houses; and domestic robots? Today, what place is there for labour-saving devices when saving resources is preferred to saving time; what role is there for the city when city planners promote urban villages; what place for human intervention when nature is prioritised; and what about urban growth when urban compaction is the new big idea?
Have we lost our vision or are we just more sensible?
Speakers:
Peter York (management consultant and commentator)
Sean Topham (author, 'Where's my Space Age')
Laurie Taylor (broadcaster)
Peter Cook (Bartlett Professor of Architecture; founder, Archigram; RIBA Gold Medal winner)
Timandra Harkness (journalist and script writer)
chair: Austin Williams (Technical Editor, Architects' Journal; director, Transport Research Group)
Readings:
"What the Victorians Did for Us," Adam Hart-Davis, Headline. 2001
"The Lunar Men: The Friends Who Made the Future," Jenny Uglow. Faber and Faber, 2003
"Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition," Bent Flyvbjerg, Cambridge University Press. 2003
"Where’s my Space Age? The rise and Fall of Futuristic Design," Sean Topham, Prestel, 2003
"Tunnelling to the Future: The Story of the Great Subway Expansion That Saved New York," Peter Derrick, New York University Press. 2001
"The Victorians," A N Wilson, Hutchinson. 2002
11:30 – 12:00
Coffee & Tea Break
12:00 - 13:00 CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS
From Dystopia to Myopia: "Metropolis" to "Blade Runner"
A look at the changing historic visions of the city using different cinematic examples from different periods. Has the image of the city become more dystopian? Can we achieve a useful examination of the subject through a cultural rather than a political critique?
A discussion with film clips.
Speakers:
Kim Newman (novelist and critic)
Xan Brooks (editor, Guardian Film Online)
in conversation with Dr Graham Barnfield (lecturer in journalism and print media, University of East London)
Readings:
"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Philip K. Dick, Gollancz, 1999
"Projected Cities: Cities and Urban Space," Stephen Barber, Reaktion Books. 2003
"The Cultural Economy of Cities: Essays on the Geography of Image-Producing Industries," Allen J Scott, Sage. 2000
"I. Robot," Asimov, Collins. 1971
OR
More Speed; Less Haste
Whatever happened to the dream of the 24-hour city - and would we lose something if we achieved it? Were we better off – or just better organized - when we traveled less and worked more regular hours? Some people argue that we have diminished our pleasure in life by forgetting to take time to enjoy things. Why is speed – in transport and in everyday life experience - regularly portrayed in a negative way? Should we learn to slow down or move up a gear?
Speakers:
Terence Bendixson (president, Pedestrians' Association; secretary, Independent Transport Commission)
Joe Kerr (head of Dept of Critical and Historical Ideas, Royal College of Art)
Dea Birkett (author and travel writer)
chair: Peter Smith (lecturer, Travel and Tourism)
Readings:
"Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything," James Gleick, Pantheon, 1999
"Living on Thin Air: The New Economy," Charles Leadbeater, Penguin, 2000
"The Sky's the Limit: policies for sustainable aviation," Simon Bishop and Tony Grayling, Institute of Public Policy Research. 2003
"Thrust: the Remarkable Story of One Man's Quest for Speed," Richard Noble, Partridge. 1998
13:00 - 14:00
Lunch
14:00 - 15:00 CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS
Megapolis: The dense city question
Often, the discussion of cities, densification, urban migration, etc, is a coded way of talking about the population question? Are there too many, or too few people living in cities? What differences are there in the debate relating to First World cities and Developing World cities? Should we take up more space or less?
Speakers:
Gordon McGranahan (director, Human Settlements Programme, International Institute for Environment and Development)
Ceri Dingle (director, WORLDwrite)
Professor Tim Dyson (head of Population and Development, London School of Economics)
chair: Phil Mullan (economics journalist; author, 'The Imaginary Timebomb')
Readings:
"To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform," Ebenezer Howard, new edition with foreword by David Lock, Routledge (Taylor & Francis). 2003
"Cities for a Small Planet," Richard Rogers, ed Philip Gumuchdjian, Faber and Faber, 1997
"Sustainable Cities in Developing Countries,"Cedric Pugh, Earthscan. 2000
"The Population Bomb," Paul Ehrlich, Buccaneer Books, 1997
"The Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Cities," ed. David Satterthwaite, Earthscan, 1999
"Big & Green: Toward Sustainable Architecture in the 21st Century," ed David Gissen, Princeton Architectural Press, 2003
"The UN Strategic Vision," UN Human Settlements Programme, May 2003, downloadable from: http://www.unhabitat.org/documents/HabVision030505Public.pdf
"The State of the World's Cities Report 2001," http://www.unchs.org/istanbul+5/statereport.htm
OR
To Boldly Go…?
After the Columbia disaster, has space travel had its day? In the 60s we dreamt of space colonies, or interstellar vacations, (and Electric Sheep). But back then - in an era of Mutually Assured Destruction – did this reflect something of a survivalist mentality? Were Gerard K O'Neill’s Island One, or even the terrestrial versions of Buckminster Fuller’s Spaceship Earth or Paolo Soleri’s Arcosanti, positive aspirations?
Is space travel just another way to get away from it all? Is space the final frontier or just the preserve of rich tourists? Is space an irrelevance, an escape or an ambition? Is it a thing of the past? After all, what is space travel for?
Speakers:
David Ashford (director, Bristol Spaceplanes; author, 'Spaceflight Revolution')
Marina Benjamin (author, 'Rocket Dreams: How the Space Age Shaped Our Vision of a World Beyond'),
Dr Henry J McCracken (Astronome Adjoint, Institute d'Astrophysique de Paris/Observatoire de Paris)
chair: Sandy Starr (technology editor, spiked)
Readings:
"Rocket Dreams: How the Space Age Shaped Our Vision of a World Beyond," Marina Benjamin, Chatto and Windus. 2003
"The Case for Mars," Robert Zubrin, Pocket Books. 1998
"The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky technology, culture and deviance at NASA," Diane Vaughan, University of Chicago Press, 1997
"Our Final Century: The 50/50 Threat to Humanity's Survival," Martin Rees FRS, Heinemann. 2003
"2081: A Hopeful View of the Human Future," Gerard K O'Neill, Jonathan Cape, 1981
"The First Men in the Moon," H.G. Wells, Gollancz. (1895) 2001 edition
"High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space," Gerald K O'Neill (introduction by Freeman Dyson), Apogee Books. (1975) 2001 edition
"Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next 50 Years," Bruce Sterling, Random House (December 2003)
15:00 – 15:10 Interval
15:10 – 16:10 CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS
Drivers for Efficiencity
On the 30th anniversary of the publication of EF Schumacher's 'Small is Beautiful', we ask whether cities are efficient or inefficient places to live and work. After all, cities use many times more resources and create much more waste per capita that non-urban areas. Is that a problem?
It does seem to be a curious situation that we transport things long distances when we can produce similar goods locally? Would small-scale production and consumption cycles add something to the quality of city living, or is that more suited to patterns of village life?
Should we save labour or save resources? Is reducing waste a waste of energy? Are cities and their transport systems really disorganised or do we overstate the problem? In terms of manufacture, transport and consumption, should 'efficiency' be encouraged, ignored or imposed; and what is meant by 'efficiency' anyway?
Speakers:
Julian Morris (director, International Policy Network)
Tom Heap (BBC Rural Affairs correspondent)
Vicky Richardson (author, 'New Vernacular Architecture'; practice editor, RIBA Journal)
chair: Daniel Ben-Ami (author, 'Cowardly Capitalism')
Readings:
"The Gaia Atlas of Cities: New Directions for Sustainable Urban Living," Herbert Girardet, Gaia Books. 1996
"Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things," William McDonough, Michael Braungart, Rodale Books. 2002
"Natural Capitalism: The Next Industrial Revolution,"Paul Hawken, Amory B. Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins, Earthscan. 2000
"Cowardly Capitalism: The Myth of the Global Finance Casino," Daniel Ben-Ami, John Wiley and Sons, 2001
OR
There is no such thing as society… only local solutions
The government's first Urban Renaissance award, presented by John Prescott at the Urban Summit, didn't go to a scheme featuring loft living, street cafes and pedestrianised boulevards as might have been expected from the hype about development-led urban regeneration. Instead, the award for the project that best made 'towns and cities better places to live and work' went to an estate in Northampton that had evicted 'anti-social tenants', introduced neighbourhood wardens and pruned trees as an 'innovative approach… to reduce crime.'
From New Urbanism to the new urban renaissance, regeneration seems to be centred on community participation and local solutions. Is this democratic empowerment for local people or an anti-democratic collapse of national solutions? Does it cohere - or fragment and isolate? Is localism the precursor to more universal worldview; or its antithesis? Is this the starting point of globalism; or a reversion to parochialism?
Speakers:
Miranda Sawyer (BBC Late Review; author 'Park and Ride'),
Victoria Nash (senior researcher, Institute of Public Policy Research; author 'Making Sense of Communities'),
Jonathan Glancey (architecture critic, The Guardian)
chair: Penny Lewis (editor, Prospect)
Readings:
"Making the Connections: Transport and Social Exclusion," Report by the Social Exclusion Unit, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. 2003
"Park and Ride: Adventures in Suburbia," Miranda Sawyer, Abacus. 2001
"The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators," Charles Landry, Earthscan. 2000
"The Chosen City," Nicholas Schoon, Spon Press. 2001
"Towards an Urban Renaissance: Final Report of the Urban Task Force," Urban Task Force, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. 1999
"Art for who’s sake," Pauline Hadaway, Architects’ Journal, 24 July 2003. pp38-40
16:10 – 16: 30 Tea & Coffee Break
16:30 – 17:45 CLOSING PLENARY
Tomorrow's World: Visions of the Future
Where shall we live and how shall we travel? What are today’s guiding principles that are shaping our future vision? What needs to be done to benefit future generations?
This session will tie together many of the themes of the day.
Speakers:
Martin Wright (editor in chief, Green Futures)
Kevin McCullagh (director of Foresight, Seymour Powell)
Greg Klerkx (science writer; former senior manager SETI institute)
Jeremy Newton (chief executive, National Endowment for Science and Technology in the Arts)
Claire Fox (director, Institute of Ideas)
chair: Austin Williams (Technical Editor, Architects' Journal; director, Transport Research Group)
Readings:
"Future Shock," Alvin Toffler, Pan. (1970) 1985 edition
"Tomorrow's People" Baroness Susan Greenfield, Allen Lane. September 2003.
"Inevitable Surprises: Thinking Ahead in a Time of Turbulence,' Peter Schwartz, Free Press. 2003
"Culture of Fear: Risk Taking and the Morality of Low Expectation," Frank Furedi, Continuum. 2002
"Free Flight Inventing the Future of Travel," James Fallows, PublicAffairs. 2002
"City After the Automobile: Architect's Vision," Moshe Safdie, Wendy Kohn, Westview Press, 1998
18:00 – 19:30 WINE RECEPTION
Tickets: £12 and £8 (concessions)
To book, make cheques payable to 'Transport Research Group' and forward to:
Austin Williams
c/o AJ
151 Rosebery Avenue
LONDON
EC1R 4GB
Tel: 020 7505 6711 or 07957 534 909
Future Visions: Future Cities is organised by the Transport Research Group in association with LSE Cities Project
http://www.transportresearch.org.uk/FutureCities.htm