THE GUILDFORD SOCIETY
CELEBRATING ARCHITECTURE IN GUILDFORD
"Living Spaces for the future"
Guildford’s fifth Annual Architecture Lecture was held on June 7th, a town-and-gown event jointly presented by the Guildford Society and the University of Surrey in the presence of the Mayor of Guildford, Councillor Terence Patrick, the Chairman of The Guildford Society, Michael Jeffrey and a number of official guests. The lecture was introduced by Pat Grayburn, Arts Administrator at the University.
Angela Brady
President Elect RIBA
Angela Brady, Cllr Patrick - Mayor
Michael Jeffery - Chair G/Society
The audience of students,
staff, Society members and a wide range of interested people was treated
to a stimulating talk by President-Elect of the Royal Institute of
British Architects Angela Brady in the University Management School
theatre.
When two years ago we invited a President of the Royal Institute of British Architects to speak at the University of Surrey for the first time, we said that we hoped it would not be the last.
The speaker showed a fascinating range of images of buildings by her own practice pointing the way to Living Spaces for the Future, the theme of her talk.
We saw firstly an innovative scheme of 200 homes in London's Dockland resulting from designers engaging with the community and providing integrated housing for key workers, families and higher income groups. Then we saw an intriguing scheme in Dublin to house disadvantaged young people known as a "Foyer des jeunes", a scheme of 75 homes in Highbury and Islington which challenged the trend for such projects to adopt baseline standards, and a Croydon scheme which combines housing for old people with a balanced community.
These schemes all illustrate the speaker's commitment to mould-breaking housing and ideas which she experienced in Copenhagen in 1982 when she obtained a government scholarship to work there on "co-housing" and "eco-housing".
She talked in quick succession about One Planet Living, a Zero-Carbon Task Force, the Tree Design Action Group, the difficult future facing architectural education in the face of student fees, high-growth cities and the contrast between iconic buildings and those which naturally evolve from community participation.
All these themes, combined with the speaker's aim of bringing architecture to the people through the media (witness her Channel 4 "Home Show" and her "Building the Dream" project at Witham Friary in Somerset) show that the RIBA is set for two action-packed years when she takes up the presidency in September.
The chairman of the Guildford Society, Michael Jeffery, thanked the speaker and many from the audience repaired to the Lakeside Restaurant for supper.
Photographs by Mike Sleigh
(June 2011)