Modern British cityscapes aren't just bland – they're killing us too

Telegraph

19 hours ago

In the first series of Building Soul with Thomas Heatherwick (Radio 4, Monday), the British designer had an alarming theory. Modern architecture in British cities isn't merely bland and monotonous and alienating, it's dangerous too. Swathes of urban areas being transformed into homogenous, rectangular, glass-filled deserts rots the very fabric of society, makes us physically ill and, just maybe, can cause wars. Our buildings are killing us.
It was ear-catching stuff and, if you're anything like me, completely persuasive – cities worldwide are being rapidly flipped into soulless mini-Dubais. Next time you're in a foreign city, head to the newest part of town. It could be Rotterdam or anywhere, etc. Having converted me to his cause, Heatherwick has returned with a new series with a radical solution. Out with the Nimbies and the Yimbies – what we need are Pabbimbies (tortured acronym, author's own).
Pabbimbies (people against boring buildings in my back yard) are Heatherwick's secret weapon in what he calls Britain's 'blandemic'. Once again, I was persuaded. In 2025, no building project can be undertaken without its environmental impact being taken into consideration. Developers have had to go green, because the Government has demanded it. And the Government has demanded it because we, the people, have decided it's important. Can we do the same with beauty or, to borrow a Heatherwick phrase, 'interestingness'?
Heatherwick tried to get to the bottom of who was to blame for this blandemic, but found a thoroughly modern and thoroughly depressing unvirtuous circle. It's not the politicians or the city planners or the developers or the architects who are to blame, it's all of them. And none of them. Each feel powerless while thinking of the others as all-powerful. Adam Curtis, whose latest documentary series focused on how disenfranchised British people have become, would have nodded along approvingly.
Yet the British people can mobilise when it comes to buildings. We campaign to save them, we renovate them, we adore them, we travel hundreds of miles to look at them, we pay annual subscriptions to organisations that exist to prop them up. We just need to take this energy, which we seem to reserve for old buildings, and channel it into new buildings. We revere our architectural past, we should demand a say in our architectural future.
It matters too. In a chat with Kevin McCloud, the celebrity house renovator, Heatherwick hit upon something startling and depressing. Discussing Peter Barbour's extraordinary Edgewood Mews, a housing project in Finchley, London, that resembles the fortifications of a particularly groovy medieval Spanish town, Heatherwick described it as 'generous'. McCloud agreed. 'It's a gift to humanity,' he said. Once again – go and find the newest development near you. Can it be described as generous or a gift to humanity? More likely it's miserly and a blight. If you're ever in north London, go to see Edgewood Mews. It's worth the trip.
Heatherwick didn't exactly explain how we Pabbimbies should mobilise and rise up against our glass and steel overlords, but there are two episodes left in the series so hopefully our instructions will come. What's clear is that change won't happen unless we demand it. 'In France, the architect is seen to not know the value of the sunset,' said the architect Kengo Kuma (look up his work – now there's interestingness). We can add city planners, politicians and developers to that too. Those of us who do know the value of the sunset cannot allow our urban areas to be dictated by those who do not. Pabbimbies assemble!
Episode one of Building Soul with Thomas Heatherwick is on BBC Sounds now and continues on Mondays on Radio 4 at 9.30am