Manifesto #1

I was born in the Whittington Hospital in Archway in 1987. It's not a glamourous part of the city, despite its proximity to Highgate and its hillside views across the capital. I am twenty-two years old and have lived in London my whole life.

I come to this course after having worked at East Architecture, landscape, urban design ltd. for the best part of two years. At East I was involved with urban projects that aimed to plan parts of the city, such as Farringdon, West Croydon and Tottenham.

This gave me an insight into the various factors and variables that need to be taken into account when designing the city and it gave me a glimpse into the organisations and governance of the city, be they private stakeholders, local residents, businesses, authorities, transport bodies and quangos.

It revealed too some of the limitations of planning and got me asking questions like:

Why do we plan?
Why are we financial bound?
Why do we plan the city when we don't plan the economy?
Who knows what we're doing and to what extent are we accountable?

In the end I became dissillussioned with the masterplan. I see it as a top-down, flawed system that is too dependent on private land, private money, personal relationships and personal agendas. It marginalises the communities it is designed to serve and its fat, red, site boundary, by default, will always exclude someone or something in need. And in the end, the market will dictate and landowners will decide.

So I stopped. And I wondered how I can better grapple with the subject - perhaps as a Planner? Not as an Architect. As an Urban Designer? Where am I best suited? How can I make the change? Where should I put the lever?

I applied for three courses - not wanting to do any of them. I do not want to just be an Architect, or an Urban Designer, or a Planner, or an Educator, or an Artist or an Activist. I would like to be a floater.

I enjoy engaging with the city. It is my primary concern. I hope to use this course to test my critique of the system. I need to assess my understanding so far so that I can experiment with new ways of planning the city and engaging with its inhabitants.