GCPH Seminar Series 5: -Professor Stuart MacDonald: The Micropolitics of Urban Space

Talking Cities – The Micropolitics of Urban Space

From Kevin Macleod to Prince Charles, it seems everyone is talking cities. What
makes an eco-town or city? What is sustainable design? Architecture and
happiness? Perhaps more importantly, what does inclusiveness, equality and
diversity mean in the built environment?

Place-making, the new term on the block, is generally agreed to be central to
social inclusion, cultural well-being and identity. But what makes a good space?

People experience their environment in different ways depending upon their
social, cultural and economic circumstances. Policies can enable good spaces
but they can also be exclusive.

If all citizens are to be comfortable in and identify with the spaces and places they
inhabit, then the full diversity of this experience has to be considered. It means
adopting a human-centred design approach.

In this lecture Stuart MacDonald will look at the effect of an inhospitable built
environment – the impact of bad design - as a way of looking at inclusion.
Because the impact of the designed environment upon us huge, he will suggest
that everyone should be talking cities as a fundamental part of democracy.