I've always felt that Leeds needs a cultural figure to spearhead its urban design issues. Someone who is media savvy, knowledgeable, influential on people who can make decisions and is not afraid tell people who frankly shouldn't be in positions of power exactly what is happening in no uncertain terms. Well step up to the plate Wayne Hemingway. While considering names such as Damien Hirst (from Leeds) and wondering where the next Tony Wilson is we chanced upon a lecture Wayne was giving at Leeds University to design students. Immediately after this Wayne went to the town hall to tell people from the council why pictures of cheerleaders in the vision for Leeds design manual means "bugger all". Ok so Wayne is from the other side of the Pennines but I'm not sure I care. His observations of Leeds (which agreed is typical of other cities in the UK) were spot on. Wayne cares you see. His ideas are pretty much agreed common ground in design disciplines but are somehow lost to councils and developers. That is, poor design, especially in an urban and housing context, really does affect people’s lives. To see someone talk about it so bluntly with no waffle, I fail to see how anyone can argue that crap housing and degradation in our cities is massive influence on people’s happiness and the creation of social ills.
This is a link to the lecture from another city but with pretty much the same content:
Isn't it great that a guy who used to be a fashion designer can have such strong opinions on urban design? on a profession that historically has either been populated by do-gooders or angst men in tweeds?
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