Young people and place shaping

So much has been said about the legacy of the Olympic Games, but not often enough by the people supposed to benefit. After a very interesting presentation by the Stratford Renaissance Partnership, Nick Edwards of Fundamental Architectural Inclusion ran a very interesting tour. It was not so much what he showed us, but what he told us of the young people who he's helping getting involved in place shaping, notably running a Legacy Youth Panel for the LLDC. The aim is not only to help them influence the masterplans, but also (given how few of these plans see light of day) to keep feeding into the development process. Unfortunately, there is not much money for this kind of activity, however inspirational.

I was chatting to Nick about the possibility of some of the youngsters he has engaged give tours of their own neighbourhoods. I bought my apartment in Paris' 20th district after going on such a tour of what was then an overlooked working class area of Paris (whose popularity has risen since I wrote this:!!!) The tours of alternative quartiers of Paris are quite popular and I think there could be a real demand for them post Olympics (Old and New Stratford, Hackney Wick).