‘Lighter, quicker, cheaper – The case for more timely, less capital intensive, more human-scale development,’ a presentation before the LAI London Chapter by Eric Reynolds, Founder of Urban Space Management.
Pow! Straight between the eyes! Eric confronted us, at our lunch on 23rd March 2010, with the idea that, when it comes to development, we all think too big. He has been practising small-scale, low-cost, high-speed development for many years, with considerable financial and productive success; he wonders why most of us get caught up in 'comprehensive' development, always seeking to expand both the envelope of the sites with which we deal, and their conceptual framework.
The answer to that question lies, for him, in the mindset of the professionals involved. Perhaps reflecting one of the fundamental fallacies of professionalism, everything has been made more complicated than it needs to be; whilst he didn’t make the charge, more complication may lead to more fees. Thrusting aside such a base motive, there is a natural tendency amongst intelligent people to make things ever-more complicated. We have fallen for that tendency, with deleterious effects.
In the terms of the development process, it has greatly expanded the timescale for renewing our urban fabric, and increases the risk that, by the time a development is completed, the world will have moved on in some important respect. The larger new structures created may also have shorter productive lives, thus accelerating the cycle of disruptive development. Most existing structures, well-set in their social environment, are surprisingly adaptable, and adaptation may be better, and more profitable, than reaching for the demolition ball and trying to make the figures work by enlarging the enterprise. Whilst 'sustainability' has rightly become a buzz-word, large buildings encourage the restriction of that word to the building itself, rather than building plus environment.
Apart from this, big tends to be less socially conducive -– large tower cranes show a lack of respect for the local society into which they are introduced. Large developments also encourage the developer to think too much of the interior, and too little of the urban context, in social terms, into which the building is being inserted. In my own experience, I recall my dismay at the pot-holed roads and cracked pavements that surrounded some gleaming new creation. I blamed the local authority, but Eric might argue that I should have seen the beam in my own eye.
Having been pushed onto the ropes by Eric, some of us tried to punch on the rebound with examples of where urban renewal had to be thought through on a large scale, and, of course, large space needs for single occupiers. Nevertheless, I sensed that he made some progress in his amusingly presented challenge; maybe we need to plan things in a large framework, but perhaps most occupiers are telling us that 'smaller is beautiful'.
Michael Mallinson
To get a copy of the PowerPoint presentation please go to the link below, which is available through March 31, 2010:
Download presentation here
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