Chris Bailey, head of partnerships and innovation, Westway Development Trust, London, will be in Australia presenting a keynote address for the 5th International Urban Design Conference being held in Melbourne September 10-12 this year.
Bailey has worked at Westaway Development Trust for 11 years, with his work centred on public involvement and development planning and regeneration.
Architecture & Design spoke to him about the LED lights of a lighting project in Portobello, why professionals need to engage with the community and the UK approach to regeneration.
What has been one of the most memorable projects you have worked on?
In terms of permanent legacy it has to be Westway sports Centre under the White City/Westway roundabout with the climbing centre roofed by the flyover. Laid out within what is, in construction terms, a vertically tented courtyard. I came in when that was mostly completed though so I can’t claim any impact on the original design or implementation.
The Westway sports Centre. Image: Westway
This means I would go for the synchronised multi-coloured lighting project under the Westway in Portobello [between Portobello Road and Ladbroke Grove]. The LED lights shine down the support columns and across junctions and the column lights change colour pairs on a 40 minute cycle. The concrete undercroft and columns were also painted white for maximum reflectivity and colour carriage. They turn a place that architecturally looks a bit like a service road or back alley into a special place — they capture the excitement of the area’s daytime existence as a well-used public and market space and carry that into the night with a dynamism that is ordered and subtle.
The place looks more modern at night than by day and the lit environment talks to the future as the markets and people who animate it during the day do. The scheme raises the bar for the future development of the area as we plan to renew 30 or 40 year-old buildings.
You say that your approach is that for localism to be meaningful it has to involve enterprise, ownership and sustainability and these are all best delivered through real community involvement. Do you think this happens enough around the world in countries like the UK?
The easy answer is not often. When it does it can produce great results, but then again, sometimes an imposed vision like Bilbao’s Guggenheim can also work wonders and end up well-loved. But that is, lets face it, a different scale — it’s not about localism so much as about the locality talking to the world. When I said that I was talking about the locality talking to itself and its hinterland and particularly about projects aiming to produce results that generate social good as well as material returns.
I think it is easy for professionals not to realise how engaged with their area and its look and feel many urban residents are. It is easy to destroy community history unwittingly by demolishing the wrong landmark building, but then again sometimes change is what is needed to move areas on and to stimulate creative and enterprising responses. Sometimes a depressed community needs a building that it would never dream of asking for to inspire it.
I like projects where local social enterprises test ideas, build up experience and can then make demands of their professionals from a position of knowledge and empowerment.
What advice would you give to architects involved in regeneration projects?
Don’t underestimate the public’s ability to be engaged and to fall in love with strong, original interventions. Treat people with respect and cut down specialist language that alienates the general public, or explain it if you have to use it. Walk people through things and show them the potential — be honest about what you can do within your brief and budget but be prepared for them to suggest alternatives.
Be open to offering a real legacy as opposed to changing a paint finish, maybe the money is better spent on the local youth centre than on a panel of local history guff. Also, ask people, if it is a public facing project, what they want; and if it’s a big scheme meant to deliver fundamental change, if possible leave a real community asset for them to fight over. Big schemes can be alienating - leave them a way in.
What is the UK approach to regeneration?
Simple answer just now is I’m not sure there is one. It used to be ‘ask them, then tell them what you already decided’; there may be a bit of that creeping back. For a while some schemes started to have a slightly stronger commitment to community involvement and legacy, though for all that most big schemes built in our boom years failed to really engage communities.
Communication about what is happening has definitely improved, even if input hasn’t, and is let’s face it, it is impractical in some cases. Equally sometimes a regeneration scheme is aiming to create a new community and house people and businesses from elsewhere, so there are limits to how much those currently nearby may have to input, though common sense suggests that you should not want to alienate them.
Sadly we have a government that talks green but has leading cabinet ministers telling us that ‘British cities should be designed around the needs of the private car’ — not the private person — and which has removed many incentives to introduce environmental technology. However, the market and people are ahead of politicians here and will drive change if only to create more efficient buildings that are cheaper to run and use.
What is the most important lesson you’ve learnt in your career?
Don’t assume that you know that answer, but always start with an opinion - or you have nothing to test assumptions or proposals against.