Greenwich Millenium Village

Before lunch with friends in Greenwich, I took advantage of my location and nipped into the O2 for the a quick look (interior nothing special) and the much-vaunted Greenwich Millenium Village.

At first glance, the GMV looks amazing. Funky cars sit comfortably on the sidewalk (there is a somewhat American feel to the place), attesting to the hip young residents inside. Yellow wallks, and red, green and blue square balconies made the place look bright and chirpy, even on a rainy day. Local ammenities including a doctors surgery and nail salon are within walking distance, and well-thought out public spaces abound. The wheelie bins that blight so many of Britain's cityscapes are even housed in tlittle cupboards at the front of every house. But look a bit closer and a problem does start to emerge: the windows. It was midday and every single blind was closed because when they aren't you can see right inside the houses. No walking around naked inside your appartment in GMV.....

Regenerating the Turin Shroud - and other stories

Thanks to good Italian connections, Bartlett spatial planners travelled to Torino for the MSc field-trip to study the various development schemes in the industrial city and the legacy of the 2006 Olympic Games. We saw a wonderful modernist church, the Chiesa del Santo Volto, on the site of the old Bogaro steel mills. Architect Mario Botta preserved a heavy industrial feel for the chunky building which many found ugly on the outside (I kinda liked it), and saved a chimney from the steel mill (the tower with swirly things around the outside). The interior is all light and grace - and emblazoned on the wall behind the pulpit, the Turin Shroud.



Since 1997, Turin has been mobilizing regional, national and European funds to regenerate declining industrial areas of the city. These projects were given a boost by the Olympic bid. While we were there, the CEO of Fiat was threatening to move the headquarters of the Italian car manufacturer to Detroit, a worrying move for a city where so many jobs still revolve around cars. This was evident in the new developments we visited, many of which still lacked public transport infrastructure. Our guide, Professor Silvia Saccomani, said Turin has the highest petrol use per person in Italy and is constantly getting into trouble with the EU for exceeding pollution norms - yet people still remain attached to their cars. She also said housing developments went ahead without schools and other infrastructure. Prof Nick Gallent remarked how different planning in Italy is to Britain - while developers are not bound by the same sorts of environmental contraints as here (with more space to build), they are forced to conform to a list of stipulations governing size of windows, thickness of walls etc.

The Olympics buildings are housed on the edge of town, and many of them are now "empty sheds," according to Professor Marco Trisciuoglio.










The games were used to make improvements to the city centre, which now houses car-free squares thanks to underground car-parks.

Near the Olympic village, a bridge leads over to the fabulous Lingotto factory, once a Fiat plant and now a shopping centre refitted by Renzo Piano to retain much of its glorious industrial past. Built in 1923, Cars were once built on a ramp that went up through the building. Finished cars emerged at rooftop level, where there was a test track. Le Corbusier called it "a guideline for town planning". The car ramps are still there, although one is now reserved for pedestrians. On special occasions, wheels still turn as celebrities are whisked from the helipad on the roof out of the building.

Milano 2015 - and other mega-events

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As the exhibition at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan on the Milano Expo 2015 clearly states, governments have been staging mega-events since at least the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851, designed to show off to the world Britain’s industrial prowess. As part of my masters, I've been looking at whether they like up to the hype.


Milan, one of the most built-up cities in Europe (with few parks), bid to host the 2015 Expo by promising new green credentials. Judging by the presentation, organisers are attempting to link green technologies with food, a weapon Italy often uses to charm (indeed Milan's best bakers were giving away to die-for foccacia the day we visited). The logic being that with growing populations and environmental concerns, the world is going to have to change the way it makes food. And because Italy makes great food (no argument there!), it should take the lead. However, friends inform me that many of the other green promises that were part of the bid - such as a green network of cycle routes - have quietly been dropped. And municipal authorities took advantage of the Christmas period (when protesters were absent) to start demolishing one of the few meighbourhood parks to make way for a new skyscraper for the local authority. Meanwhile, even the stated legacy objectives appear pretty flimsy: for example "the expo will leave geopolitical and geo-economic networks as an asset to the city and the entire country."

Let there be jobs

Many planners, like French politicians, seem to think that the economy is like some sort of tap which you can adjust to get the number of jobs you want out of it. It must be very frustrating for them that while - to some extent at least - they can shape the built environment, the economy is a much more slippery monster. Attempts to force companies to employ the numbers and sorts of people that politicians would like, and under conditions that workers would prefer, often results in scaring them off. And its the most vulnerable - the young and the unskilled - who suffer the most.

How refreshing, therefore, to hear the (Labour) mayor of one of the most deprived boroughs of England, shadowed by the Eldorado of Canary Wharf, take such an astute attitude to attracting business and jobs.

Speaking as he launched an investment prospectus for Newham at an NLA conference at ExCel, Sir Robin Wales had this to say:

“Newham is absolutely supportive of business and development. What we want is the jobs that come with it… and relationships that build up and get out people access to those jobs, either unskilled jobs that people can walk into straight away, or skilled jobs that we can then get our people skilled up and into them. ”

"Aspiration is the only way that we are going to crack the issue of poverty. German’s don’t turn their noses up at vocational skills. It’s just us that turn their nose up at it"

The Royal Docks 'The Last Great Development Opportunity in London'

As part of the launch of Newham's Investment Prospectus, I took a tour around the Royal Docks, which despite horrendous weather I still found quite enchanting. Water and big old industrial buildings clearly do something for me. Sitting next to me on the boat were investors from China, interested in the potential of a business centre near City airport (with a direct link to New York) and all the other transport connections (Crossrail, high-speed train link to Europe etc). Earlier in the day, it had been noted that while it is difficult to get Londoners to overcome their East End prejudice, foreign investors see the potential in developing on some of the last large plots available in the capital. Sure, there's some miserable, unconnected spots still. And while the Excel centre appears to be a great success, other initiatives haven't really taken off. The students at the University of East London might feel quite lonely in the student accommodation, which leaves them bereft of the local conveniences I take for granted in London. But possibly not for too much longer......