This week's Open Lecture Series lectures were on the theme of Future Cities.
Drone Futures: UAS for Landscape & Urban Design
Paul Cureton talked about the current and potential future uses of drones in the field of urban design. Cureton works at Imagination Lancaster, which is "an open and exploratory research lab that investigates emerging issues, technologies and practices to advance knowledge and develop solutions that contribute to the common good". They aim to transform the world through design-led research.
After introducing Imagintion Lancaster, the lecture then looked at the fascination with aviation and the aerial present in 20th century urban design and architecture, notable examples being Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright. Then, the focus moved to more present day examples, and speculation on where it could go next.
Cureton noted that there were clear advantages to the technology of drones, but also possible threats and concerns. One example of this was the technology of drones with camera attached, which can be used either to closely monitor and control public space, at the dystopian end of the scale, or design that public space better by using similar data, at the utopian end of the scale. The primary concern highlighted is surveillance, and its contribution to 'surveillance capitalism.
Urban Droneport by Saul Ajuria, one of the speculative projects referenced
Futurism & a bit about what is going on in Leeds
After this talk on drones in quite a speculative sense, Nadir Kahn then talked about Leeds and the more concrete plans for its future as a city. Kahn was speaking from his perspective as a member of the Leeds planning department.
This lecture brought to my attention more information about schemes in the pipeline for Leeds that I was not well-informed of prior to this. The majority of the talk focused on the HS2 project and associated development around the Leeds South Bank. A large part of this is to deliver housing close to the city centre, and Kahn stated that Leeds was required to deliver 52,000 houses by 2033; 3200 houses per year.
Proposed visual for the new Leeds HS2 station by Foster + Partners
In discussions at the end of this, concerns were raised by the floor about the priorities of some of this development, and whether it was focused enough on providing enough of the right sort of housing for people who need it. Hopefully, valid criticisms like these are coming from many different people and will alter the course of some of this planned development.
Comments