Urban View

Three different view points of the urban.

A series of three lectures running over consecutive weeks, Urban View will present specialist areas of research to inform current debates surrounding Preston’s regeneration.
23 November 2005
The Making (and remaking) of the Preston Landscape.
Dr David Hunt, Local Historian

30 November 2005
Risking the Unknown City:
Prof. Iain Borden, Architectural Historian and Urban Commentator.

7 December 2005
Designing Informalities:
Andreas Lang, Architect and member of Public Works

Since November 2004, the Harris Museum and Art Gallery in partnership with the
University of Central Lancashire has been running a prestigious programme of free public talks and debates exploring the role of artists and architects in the regeneration of the city of Preston. Preston City Council and Grosvenor Limited have signed a Development Agreement for the £500m regeneration of almost one third of Preston’s existing city centre, known as the Tithebarn Project.

The role of public art as a means of improving our experience of the urban environment has long been accepted. However, increasingly, planners, developers and the wider public are understanding that artists can have a much greater impact on the development of our cities, from influencing the decisions of masterplanners, engaging with innovative public consultation processes, to providing a vision as to how the public environment might need to evolve and adapt to accommodate the changing needs of visitors and residents.

Executive Member for Regeneration, Community and Leisure at Preston City Council, Councillor Veronica Afrin, explains, “These talks will inform future debates in the city about how we can best use the diverse skills of artists to improve the quality of life of all of its inhabitants. Traditionally artists’ involvement has been limited to making art for public spaces but there are a host of other possibilities which we are now in a position to explore. These talks will bring together examples of best practice from across the country and will be invaluable in developing our plans in Preston."

Speaking of Art is part of the In Certain Places project which includes the Tithebarn Lead Artist scheme and Here + Now temporary public art project.

Urban View Speakers:

23 November 2005
The Making (and remaking) of the Preston Landscape.
Dr David Hunt, Local Historian

David Hunt was born in Preston in 1955. He studied Economic and Social history at Dundee, before taking an MA in Archaeology at Durham and returning to Dundee to study a PH.D in prehistoric archaeology. As curator of the small community museum at Leyland in 1982, he began to research and lecture on the history of the district with particular reference to the cotton industry. A series of local studies began with the 'History of Leyland' (1990), Preston (sponsored by the Borough Council for the 1992 Guild), and Walton-le-Dale (1997). From 1996-2002 he was the first Visiting Fellow in Local & Regional History at the University of Central Lancashire.

Recent publications include, 'Preston: Centuries of Change' (2003) and 'The Wharncliffe Guide to the Local History of Preston' (2005) and 'Power, Politics and the People, A Social History of Preston North End FC' (2000).

30 November 2005
Risking the Unknown City:
Prof. Iain Borden, Architectural Historian and Urban Commentator.

Risking the Unknown City: “ The public spaces of the city should bring together the micro and the macro, the everyday and the spectacular, the inside and the outside, work and leisure, the durable and the ephemeral . . . they should be situated between the practised, the conceived and the imagined. In this kind of city, not knowing allows the city to become familiar yet strange, comforting yet challenging, safe yet exhilarating, a catalyst to thoughts and actions.”

Iain Borden is Head of the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, where he is Professor of Architecture and Urban Culture. An architectural historian and urban commentator, his wide-ranging interests have lead to publications on critical theory and architectural historical methodology, boundaries and surveillance, Henri Lefebvre and Georg Simmel, film and architecture, gender and architecture, body spaces and the experience of space. His books include Manual: the Architecture and Office of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (2003), Skateboarding Space and the City (2001) and The Unknown City (2001). Iain is currently working on a history of automobile driving and urban experience.

7 December 2005
Designing Informalities:
Andreas Lang, Architect and founding member of Public Works

Andreas Lang was born in Oberhausen, Germany in 1968 and graduated from the Architectural Association London in 1999. He currently teaches at the Architectural Association, London and is a founding member of Public Works.

Public Works is an art/architecture collective consisting of Architects Sandra Denicke-Polcher, Torange Khonsari, Andreas Lang and Artists Kathrin Böhm and Stefan Saffer. The team has been collaborating since 1998 and specialise in consultation and design projects for public spaces and institutions. Their interest lies in the relationship between institutions that offer and govern public space, and the users of those spaces. Public Works create designs which address and articulate the dynamics and agendas of both groups; to find architectural solutions that bridge the contradicting interests. The group use on-site interventions in order to continuously feed the brief making and design process in both master planning and building projects. Their contribution as artists/architects is to propose and implement communication and physical structures that support and make use of the existing local networks and resources and at the same time offer, propose and stimulate new activities and ways of exchange.

The programme is developed by the Harris Museum and Art Gallery and University of Central Lancashire and funded by Arts Council England.

All lectures are on Wednesdays at 6pm in the Green Bank Lecture Theatre, University of Central Lancashire, Preston.

All events are free, but booking is essential. To book a place e-mail e.speight@preston.gov.uk,or telephone 01772 905102.

Speaker(s):	Professor Iain Borden | talks | www
Date and Time:	30 December 2005 at 6:00 am
Duration:	1 hour 30 minutes
Venue:	Greenbank Lecture Theatre University of Central Lancashire Preston PR1 2HE 01772 905102 Show map
Organised by:	Here + Now See other talks organised by Here + Now...
Tickets:	Free
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