Places & Spaces artwork
50 Shades of Planning

Places & Spaces

  • E28
  • 51:21
  • September 8th 2020

A place, in the urban context at least, is its buildings, the spaces around them and the hustle and bustle of people making their way betwixt and between them.

The only place that many people have known for a while though is home. On the one hand we have got to know our local environs more, but, on the other, and as we creep tentatively back into towns and cities, how will we find urban places now? The buildings are less densely populated and might soon need to be used for different things. The spaces have more demands upon them from restaurateurs, cyclists, pedestrians and urban dwellers coming out for air. There is less hustle and less bustle.

How permanent might these changes be and how might the certainty and confidence with which new places have been created be affected as a result. How will the pandemic change the nature of place?

Sam Stafford discusses these themes in this episode with Ruairidh Jackson (Founding Director at Start Advisory), Sue Manley (Director at Placemarque) and Katie Wray (Assistant Director at Deloitte).

Katie and Placemarque are on Twitter at @kluw and @placemarque, and Start Advisory is on Instagram at @start_advisory.

Some accompanying reading.

'Coronavirus: we’re in a real-time laboratory of a more sustainable urban future' by Paul Chatterton.

https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-were-in-a-real-time-laboratory-of-a-more-sustainable-urban-future-135712

'The city and the virus' by Max Nathan.

https://medium.com/@maxnathan/the-city-and-the-virus-db8f4a68e404

‘We can’t go back to normal’: how will coronavirus change the world?' by Peter C Baker.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/31/how-will-the-world-emerge-from-the-coronavirus-crisis

Some accompanying listening.

Places And Spaces by Donald Byrd.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unbgblfgsQI

50 Shades of Planning

Sam Stafford started posting on the 50 Shades of Planning blog in 2012 and in 2019 turned it into a podcast. 50 Shades of Planning is about the foibles of the English planning system and it's aim is to cover the breadth of the sector both in terms of topics of conversation and in terms of guests with different experiences and perspectives.

50 Shades episodes include 'Hitting The High Notes', which is a series of conversations with leading planning and property figures. The conversations take in the six milestone planning permissions or projects within a contributor’s career and for every project guests are invited to choose a piece of music that they were listening to at that time. Think Desert Island Discs, but for planners. If you would like to feature on 'Hitting The High Notes', or know somebody that would make a great guest, please email [email protected].

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast you will have heard Clive Betts say that...

'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'.

Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

Sam is on Bluesky (@samuelstafford.bsky.social) and Instagram (@samuel__stafford), and his blogs can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com.

As with the 50 Shades Blog, the 50 Shades Podcast is a platform for Sam's personal opinions, which may or may not represent the opinions of his past, present or future employers.

50 Shades of Planning is produced in association with Cavendish (www.cavendishconsulting.com).

The image of the Piece Hall is used with the kind permission Ellis Robinson (I: @ellisjrobinson) and has been turned into the 50 Shades logo by Vicky Payne (I: @_.vicky_payne._).

Why Fifty Shades? Well, planning is not a black and white endeavour. There are at least fifty shades in between...

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