The fact that it is difficult to name a single successor to Richard Rogers’ public and political role (Leader July 19) is not altogether a bad thing.

While he did much to bring forward the importance of public space, public transport and general design of the built environment, his understanding of how this should be realised was too often superficially drawn from other European cities, without really getting to grips with the places to which they were applied.

The legacy of this in London is a series of spaces that are sometimes exclusive, rather than inclusive, and often incoherent with their surroundings. Plazas have become prioritised over the general fabric of the city.

In London especially the latter is the fundamental DNA of the place, as appreciated much earlier by the Danish planner Rasmussen in London: the Unique City.

Maybe it’s not all his fault, but the problem with “official” forms of engagement with politics, such as the Urban Task Force, is that politicians need simple answers. The city resists such simple understandings and the current pluralism in architecture offers more hope of constructive subversion.

Roland Karthaus
London EC1

Postscript

Email letters to buildingdesign@ubm.com including your postal address. We reserve the right to edit all correspondence

Topics