TrustNews Sep 22
Chairman's Jottings
Station Hill looking towards Sussex Street. Photo by City of Winchester Trust
Recently a Trust member sent us the video of a thought-provoking Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) talk by a designer many of you will probably know - Thomas Heatherwick.
Thomas Heatherwick studied design at Manchester Polytechnic, and then attended the Royal College of Art , where Terrance Conran recognised his talent and became a mentor in his early business years. His design background occasionally comes to the fore, with eye-catching examples such as the new London Buses, the London Olympic flame holder and the Manchester Commonwealth Games sculpture. However, buildings seem to have become his passion, where he applies a refreshing industrial designer educated eye. In other words he designs 'outside the box'.
In the talk Heatherwick starts by saying "we are living through an epidemic of boringness where buildings are concerned." Although he is talking about recent capital city development, nonetheless you can apply his thinking to Winchester, in particular housing estates. In my opinion, these are probably the most boring and possibly the most difficult to design well, for it is generally against an uphill battle against hide-bound legislation and unimaginative big estate developers who seem to apply minimum standards for maximum profits. Developers generally do not want to go near a designer who thinks, for they cause trouble to housing developers' well-tried, bland housing layout standards.
It would be really interesting to issue a challenge to Thomas Heatherwick and an imaginative developer to see what sort of mass housing scheme might result.
Another thought-provoking theme Heatherwick questioned was the scandal of building demolition - 50,000 buildings were demolished in this country last year. Many of these were buildings built to become redundant after a limited time scale. Heatherwick considers it a crime to build buildings in this way, as well as pulling redundant buildings down that could be recycled. In his opinion, all buildings should be built not only to last for ever and to inspire, but also with flexibility and with emotion so that people can enjoy and love them.
Keith Leaman