John Burrell is participating in an exchange between the United Kingdom and China as part of Beijing Design Week 2018. He is joining representatives from different British practices and consultancies, in Beijing, to take part in the “City for Tomorrow Conference 2018: Leisure City”, organised by Design Collective London.
His talk entitled “Healthy Mind, Healthy Body.. Healthy City, How people make cities” will focus on the importance of harnessing the initiative, energy, vision and diversity of individuals and communities within the city as an alternative to large scale interventions and isolated mono-functionalised ‘use’ zones, over-scaled buildings, anonymous spaces and wasted land.
John will discuss how, through harnessing local initiatives, we can create cultural, recreational and leisure buildings and spaces that relate to each individual ‘locality’ and its topology. He will show how, with a range of activities, it is possible to grow a new local identity and community related to good public spaces, such as streets, squares, parks, gardens, markets etc., to make new neighbourhoods, with human scale, individual character and identity.
The talk will make reference to successful places of a scale where everyday work/leisure life style is in itself inherently healthier, e.g. the ‘15 minute city’ alternative; moving towards more balanced energy-efficient liveable places, that are locally structured to give a better use of time for leisure, sporting, recreation and cultural pursuits for all ages on a daily basis.
John will draw upon BFF’s many UK-wide cultural and creative ‘hub’ projects including the site for the New Museum of London in the centre of the city, an alternative for Spitalfields and the Depot Cinema and cultural ‘hub’ in Lewes.
Depot Cinema, Lewes