16 July 2015 – On 7 August I will be flying with Jan van Grunsven and Wouter Veldhuis to London to chair a panel discussion on urban design as a two-fold activity: catching multiple desires and investment flows and steering them in such a way that they support and amplify each other. Pioneered in Britain by practices such as East, this sensibility is proving relevant in the post-economic crash in the Netherlands.

The debate will consider the value of an approach grounded in pragmatism, realism and locality versus one focused on idealism and form-making. The architect Fiona Scott and botch founding partners of East, Julian Lewis and Mark Brearley, will be present at the debate with Jan and Wouter.

On the occasion of the debate my research paper Catch and Steer has been translated in English. It will be made available to the visitors to the panel discussion and it is intended to publish the paper with the results of the debate.

7 August, 6:30 PM, Royal Academy, London