{"id":2403,"date":"2013-01-12T23:30:06","date_gmt":"2013-01-13T06:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=2403"},"modified":"2013-01-19T11:49:13","modified_gmt":"2013-01-19T18:49:13","slug":"built-environment-and-culture-notes-upon-leaving-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=2403","title":{"rendered":"Built Environment and Culture: Notes Upon Leaving London"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON<\/strong> 12 January 2013<\/em> \u00a0A visit to the English capital never disappoints.\u00a0 Tomorrow I head home to Denver further enriched by what London has to offer. The goal this time was to research the status of post-Olympics\u00a0East End regeneration<\/a> and collect other material suitable for use in my Culture and The City<\/i><\/a> course. I also took a side trip up to Leicester<\/a> to explore how the built environment of that midlands city reflects its multi-cultural character. \u00a0There\u2019s much to reflect upon and write up. But for the moment here are some aspects of the built environment of these two cities that made an impression given the themes and concerns of this blog.<\/p>\n

\"Greenway.640\"<\/a>

Olympic Greenway (D. Saitta)<\/p><\/div>\n

In London the Olympic event venues were closed for retrofitting but I walked the site\u2019s greenway<\/a> beginning at Hackney Wick<\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s certain that when the Olympic Park re-opens as Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park<\/a> that it will be an outdoor and sports enthusiast\u2019s paradise. The London Green development\u00a0Omega Works<\/a> along the River Lee<\/a> nicely reflects its environmental context and the East End\u2019s gritty, industrial past.\u00a0 In Homerton the Digby Road<\/a> housing scheme appears to be satisfying the criteria of affordability and sustainability. Hackney Museum<\/a>\u00a0had a really nice buzz and very informative exhibits about the contributions made by different ethnic groups to the borough\u2019s history and sense of place.<\/p>\n

\"HWHousing.640\"<\/a>

Omega Works Development (D. Saitta)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Homerton77.640\"<\/a>

Digby Road Housing showing Green Wall (D. Saitta)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"HackMus7.640\"<\/a>

Hackney Museum (D. Saitta)<\/p><\/div>\n

Like London, the multicultural character of Leicester is evident in its numerous small museums and community centers.\u00a0 But there are other physical acknowledgements of the city\u2019s multiculturalism. In Victoria Park<\/a>\u00a0a small commemorative marker located along the \u201cPeace Walk\u201d leading up to the park’s\u00a0War Memorial<\/a> honors the sacrifices of immigrants from the Indian sub-continent, Africa, and Caribbean. It is twin to an identically sized plaque honoring \u201call of Leicester\u2019s people\u201d located directly across the paved walk. \u00a0Nelson Mandela Park<\/a> contains, at its three major entrances, quotes from the African civil rights activist and politician.\u00a0 The fa\u00e7ade of the John Lewis Department Store at Highcross<\/a> makes a number of cultural references<\/a>, including Leicester\u2019s 200-year history of textile production and the decorative culture of the city\u2019s large Indian population.<\/p>\n

\"Marker.Walk.640\"<\/a>

Commemorative Marker, Victoria Park, Leicester (D. Saitta)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"MandelaPark.640\"<\/a>

Nelson Mandela Park, Leicester (D. Saitta)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"LewisStore.640\"<\/a>

John Lewis Department Store, Highcross, Leicester (D. Saitta)<\/p><\/div>\n

As noted, there\u2019s much more thinking to do about the relationship between culture and materiality in both cities.\u00a0 London still has open questions about the extent to which post-Olympics East End regeneration will serve the resident working class population, especially where it comes to affordable housing.\u00a0 Leicester\u2019s multi-ethnic fabric is fraying because of government austerity measures, Britain\u2019s immigration debate, and the consequent upwelling of local identity politics. Whether new approaches to designing space and making place can help mend that fabric remains to be seen. At the very least my visits produced some ideas about how we might do more to use space, public monumentality, and architectural design to facilitate intercultural placemaking here in Denver. Those ideas will be woven into future posts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON 12 January 2013 \u00a0A visit to the English capital never disappoints.\u00a0 Tomorrow I head home to Denver further enriched by what London has to offer. The goal this time was to research the status of post-Olympics\u00a0East End regeneration and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[18,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intercultural-city","category-london"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1H2bI-CL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2403"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2439,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403\/revisions\/2439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}