Often people ask me for a "primer" or an "idiot's guide" that they can read to get a quick 'n' dirty feel for urban regeneration.
I've been asked this more so recently - in response to these troubled times I guess. It's a tough call.
As you would expect, I always make all my students and the APC (Assessment of Professional Competence) graduates at CBRE read Jane Jacobs' great book The Death and Life of Great American Cities which is almost the philosophical underpinning of genuine regeneration in itself.
There is also the seminal work by Christopher Alexander The Timeless Way of Building. Both of these books are old (written decades ago), deeply cerebral and very philosophical in nature.
For sex 'n' sizzle in a turbulent context, I recommend the
Robert A. Caro's biography of Robert Moses,The Power Broker, as a great read (almost a thriller really) - and I would be interested to learn of my correspondents' views on the man who achieved so much greatness and wreaked such destruction (almost as two sides of the same coin) in New York City.
But as the "more for less" agenda continues to dominate, people are looking for guides as to how to do regeneration with very little money about. As we have rehearsed elsewhere, there will have to be a radical re-think of the old master-plan-led methodology and a stripping back of all projects to first principles.
The emphasis will be on hard deliverables. Everything must be questioned and scrutinised to produce the best value for money.
People will have to be more resourceful, directing their efforts into, say, delivering construction training projects in partnership with Job Centre Plus, rather than commissioning a feasibility report from one of the big consultancy firms.
Regeneration practitioners always needed to be savvy and now they need to do more than ever before! People will have to reconnect with their communities and use the local assets at their disposal very creatively.
Technology is a great support of course, with people being able to readily access information at the very least, and at best, contacts, toolkits and guides. Partnerships are key, as is learning from the very best practice out there. BURA comes into its own during recessions: this is Our Time.
However, I would struggle to point to one "How To do Regeneration" guide. Particularly one which would equip practitioners for these troubled times. And in response to the vacuum of the "one book" for Our Time, I have started writing a guide book myself. It is catchily entitled More for less: how to leverage resources for urban regeneration projects and I'm hoping to have it ready soon (partly spurred on by making undertakings in public like this!).
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