An excerpt from Mark Davy’s article in “Cultural City – A Gallery Without Walls” in this mont’s issue of Capital Watch, a Cushman & Wakefield Publication
“Successful 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.”
Cultural City - A gallery without walls
30/6/2017
An excerpt from Mark Davy’s article in “Cultural City – A Gallery Without Walls” in this mont’s issue of Capital Watch, a Cushman & Wakefield Publication
“Successful 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.”
Read the entire article in Cushman & Wakefield’s Capital Watch