onwards and upwards

As usual after the end of a 4x4 Lecture Series, the diverse group of architects, planners, urban designers, engineers, environmentalists and others disperses for another 11 months in anticipation of meeting up again at Leeds Met the next year.

Clearly there's something wrong with this - not with the 4x4s themselves, which are excellent, but with the fact we all go back to our little silos again and do whatever it is we do that messes up what everyone else in their other silos do. Argulably, we're not going to make much progress in planning and managing cities if we carry on with this; and this position was argued at Thursday's lecture, suggesting all Built Environment degree courses should start with a common first year. But what is a Built Environment degree, and who is a Built Environment professional? Aruably the guy who collects the wheely bins from the end of my street is as much a Built Environment Professional as the Mayor, not to mention everyone in between.

Anyway, to sidestep the issue and begin to make whatever small steps we can, I am proposing a new event, along the lines of the very successful Café Scientifique (which also started in Leeds), where we have a speaker every month, introducing an idea or topic for 20 minutes, followed by a discussion. I'm off in the next few weeks (after Easter) to talk to a lecturer at Leeds Metropolitan's School of Built Environment, and Leeds' most high profile architect, Ian Tod; both of whom are interested in the idea... because as much as it hurts our professional pride, the bin man (for example) can probably see things we can't.