Here & Now Journal - Autumn 2022

Welcome to the slightly belated October 2022 edition of Here & Now, the Journal of The Academy of Urbanism.

We lead with an article by Joanna Jones describing how she has created an urban salon in her home in Dover. In another article Ombretta Romice, David Rudlin and Husam Al Waer seek to define urban design and argue that it should be a profession. Shane Quinn and Connie Dales report on their visit to Placemaking Week in Pontevedra, Nicholas Falk suggests some reading for the new prime minister along with more grumpiness from C.Gull and a review of the history of architects and social housing from the Urban Idiot.

All this plus another bumper crop of ARTplaces and MyPlaces curated by John Mullin. 

ARTICLES

A Place for the Salon in Urbanism
When you arrive in a new place to live, what do you do? Joanna Jones described how she turned her own home in Dover into a salon and urban room.

Time for Urban Design
Our ongoing inability to create good places is, at least in part, a failing of urban design. Ombretta Romice, David Rudlin and Husam Al Waer argue that we need to redefine what we mean by urban design and recognise it as a distinct profession. 

ARTplace

Lingering Legacies of Lockdown
Anna Liu - Tonkin Liu Architect

Trilogy
Ellen Pickering - Cinematographer

St. Urbans
John Bruce Mullin AoU - Teacher and Urbanist

Elk Among the Trees
Carey Riall-Molter - Gallery Director

MyPlace

Geera, Cyprus
Andreas Markides - Chairman, Markides Associates

Mildrake Cottage, Harrogate
Camilla Cousins - Teacher

Cooper-King Distillery, York
Chris Jaume & Abbie Nielsen - Founders

Nethermains, Ayrshire, Scotland
Dave Watson - Trade Unionist

Bamber & Brown, Birk Crag, Harrogate
Pippa Brown - Proprietor

Trinity College, Cambridge
Sumita Singha OBE RIBA - Architect

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Wallace Erabu - Architectural Assistant

Lawn Road Flats, Belsize Park, London, NW3
Alistair Barr RIBA, AoU - Architect and Tutor at Anglia Ruskin University

NEWS & REVIEW

Two Urbanists Explore Place Making Week
The final week of September saw the town of Pontevedra in Spain come alive with Placemaking Week Europe, billed as ‘Europe’s largest placemaking festival’. Shane Quinn and Connie Dales had the joy of attending in the Academy’s name.

Stand and Deliver
At a time of political turmoil Nicholas Falk suggests some reading for the new Prime Minister but laments that that much of it says nothing about cities and urbanism.

OPINION

C. Gull: Something the Matter with Glasgow
On a sunny day in Glasgow C. Gull finds little to be grumpy about on a visit to the new Burrell Collection but the same could not be said of Hill House Helensburgh...

THE URBAN IDIOT: Architects and Social Housing
Why is it that best intentions and high ideals often end badly in the built environment? Revisiting on of his early columns, that only ever appeared in print, the Urban Idiot asks why architects insist on reinventing housing.

The AoU Journal is sponsored by Space Syntax