City Futures Conference, Sheffield Hallam University

Subtitled 'New Perspectives on Placemaking', this one day conference at the other Sheffield university looked like a timely opportunity to open a specifically local conversation about urbanism wide range of practioners, arts and environmental organisations. The two Universities don't often have much to do with one another (I was the only delegate from TUOS), particularly the two architecture departments which are often characterised as being at opposite ends of the spectrum. While SSoA prides itselfs on its independent critical approach and social/political awareness, while Hallam's architecture course sits within the department for the built environment and arguably has a greater focus on the commercial and technical aspects of the profession.

My own interest in the subject of 'city futures' is at least threefold; the RECITE research project is very much interested in how people define 'places' and how this knowledge might aid designers, as an architect and design professional I am interested in the other side - how best practice current and planning policy are being using in urban design, and from a personal political level I have a keen interest in the direction the city is headed after the mini boom and subsequent failures of Sevenstone and Housing Market Renewal.

The conference - essentially made up of 5 keynotes and a series of afternoon workshops - kicked of with Kevin Murray of the Academy of Urbanism, an independent British think-tank for urban regeneration that seek the development of progressive, sustainable, economically viable and attractive cities. Though they promote that they are a-political, there was a clear belief that better cities are achieved in the Scandinavian model; top-down, with progressive government and long-term, creative strategies - in partnership with designers, planners and businesses. A telling moment of this engaging run-through of principles of urbanism was in the discussion of the AoU award for outstanding city. This annual prize was intended to alternate between a British and European example - but they had already run out of British cities. Even the most recent British example - Glasgow - felt a bit thin now that the New Labour millennium money has run dry (and they are building yet another motorway through it). As a result the presentation borrowed heavily from the lessons learnt in Freiburg - which essentially seemed to be that at least 30 years of clear strategic committed policy and investment were required. Unlikely to be happening here any time soon!

Next up the new Head of Planning for SCC, David Caulfield. His talk - about how important 'quality of place' (which roughly seemed to be equated with plenty of tended grass and granite paving) was for the economic competitiveness of the city. To crudely summarise what was a fairly crude argument - if we give lawyers and financiers a nice place to eat their sandwiches and go for after-work drinks they will be more likely to move their HQ here rather than say, an M1 business park or Leeds. This same economic argument was then able to be reused to explain why we need more car parking, why we need to 'regenerate' the markets and various other controversial decisions. However, thanks to the broad range of Sheffield voices in attendance, David had a much more difficult Q&A than he might have expected, especially in relation to the politics of keeping the station bridge public and the increased difficulty of access that have resulted from the much lauded revamp of the train station.

With many of the workshops appearing to follow on from the morning's theme, I opted to take part in the one that sounded most different - based on some of the entries to the Forgotten Spaces exhibition. Unfortunately the structure was not well thought through - and two short presentations (akin to 'provocations') from the speakers left the rest of the group unsure how to participate. However, the essential thrust seemed to be that cities are not all about the commercial and main public spaces, but the other lifeblood of urban areas is the terrain vague and in-between bits; spaces that people might colonise, daydream about, or simply pass by on their way to work. This is a conversation that has been going on at SSoA since Jermey Till's Softspace in 2005 (and probably for many years before that)!

Fortunately a much more resonant tone (though pre-judged as 'alternative' by the chair and Head of department) was struck by Owen Hatherley, who took us on a romp through the failures in planning and design of the 20th century, some the most notable of which were identified in Sheffield (the student flats by Park Square - a slum in waiting). Though Owen seemed unafraid to heavily criticise the politics of regeneration in the UK, it was interesting that his critique of Urban Splash's Parkhill was not nearly so strident as in his Guardian article a few days later.

The day finished with a very brief but fascinating sales pitch from Martyn Ware (formerly of the Human League & Heaven 17) and his new venture in 3d sound interventions. Though he couldn't say exactly why, he was sure that these installations 'somehow change the way you look at the city' (I have paraphrased). After a day severely lacking in the subtle nuances of what 'place' is and the uncertainty and delight of cities - this was good note to end on for my own research interests.