The Fifth Megacities lecture:

The fragmented city and the role of the architect
Lord Richard Rogers

Full Text: click here
Co-review by Aaron Betsky: click here
report of the evening: click here

The report published by the Urban Task Force entitled Towards an Urban Renaissance, is the basis for the lecture by Rogers. In this regard, Rogers has visited many European cities and has had discussions with many managers and planners. To him, the development in the Netherlands is a source of inspiration: he wants to restore the pursuit of compact cities, with economical energy usage, emphasise public transport, bicycles and walking, intense mixtures of functions and care for the quality of the external space. Besides the examples in the Netherlands, the manner in which Barcelona has been transformed is also an important source of inspiration for Rogers. For a long time, the English planning tradition has run parallel to that of the Netherlands. Garden cities, greenbelts, new towns are English concepts that have stamped their mark on the practices in the Netherlands. In the mid-eighties, an abrupt end was made to the parallel development because the Thatcher government regarded urban development regulation, just like so many other forms of regulation, as a restraint to the economic development. Since then, the pace of the deterioration of the city centres and the encroachment of the green space by unstructured urban layout has increased rapidly, with serious consequences not only for the spatial quality, but also for the social cohesion, the opportunities for education and work, the cultural participation, and security and criminality.

Programme
15 November 2001
20.00 uur / hours
language English

19.30 /Reception

20.00 Welcome
Ir. Seen van der Plas

20.05 Fifth Megacities Lecture
Lord Richard Rogers
An Urban Renaissance

20.45 Coffee break

21.15 /co-review
Aaron Betsky

21.35 Discussion
chairman Dr. Rick van der Ploeg

22.15 Drinks

23.00 end

Aaron Betsky (co-review) is the director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi). From 1995 to 2000 he was the curator for Architecture, Design and Digital Projects associated with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. As a critic of architecture, he has issued various publications including Violated Perfection (1990) and Architecture Must Burn (2000).

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