An Urban Room for Cambridge

Posted byCambridge Town OwlPosted inUncategorized

Newcastle has one – The Farrell Centre which “is a vital new platform for debating the future of architecture and planning, ensuring that everyone has a voice in this critical conversation.“

TL/DR? Read:

  1. The announcement from Cambridge University here
  2. P12 of Cambridge Architecture 85
  3. The Community Consultation on Quality of Life
You don’t need me to tell you why such a venue and facility could be transformational for the future of Cambridge.

If ministers make the necessary policy changes in both planning, local governance, and finance of developments.

Worst case scenario: The University of Cambridge and the Cambridge Association of Architects establish the venue and facility, and it becomes a talking shop that big developers and their financial backers send their consultants to keep the public occupied while they get on with ‘maximising the financial value of the land they have acquired’. Only that’s what too previous consultations have felt like. Hence my ‘one man and his placard’ demo outside the public consultation event at the Guildhall for the proposed comprehensive redevelopment of the Hobson Street Cinema. It doesn’t need to be like that as the proposals from Jonathan Gimblett demonstrate.

“The Cambridge Room will take a big picture approach to built and natural environment issues across the area, fostering debate, helping communities and others make sense of and bring order to the many types of initiatives that are on the go.”

https://www.arct.cam.ac.uk/research/urban-room-cambridge

Which feels like a permanent version of what I’ve proposed [unsuccessfully it seems] as an event for Open Cambridge 2023. In the grand scheme of things, I think The Cambridge Room proposal should be the one to go for – in part because I feel too burnt out to make my idea become reality all on my own.

“Where could we have a Cambridge Urban Room?”

The Guildhall. You may have seen the news coverage recently on making it more publicly accessible. Where better than here to host the debates on the future of our city? (Mindful of Florence’s mayoral centenary in 2032-33 – enough time to revamp the facade?)

When you look at the Cambridge Room Charter, it covers many of the issues that I’ve spent over a decade moaning about and getting very little with.

“What things happen in such a venue?”

Have a look in Newcastle. They have events covering:

Above – one of the photos posted from one of the Farrell Centre’s events – this one on play streets and recreation.

“Why aren’t Cambridge’s area committees like this?”

Because reasons. (I wrote more about revamping them here, only the current system is clearly broken as few know they occur and even fewer table public questions for them.)

Read-ins and teach-ins

Activists over the years may have participated in teach-ins – where informal talks and discussions take place a subject of public interest. It’s similar with unConferences and open space sessions – see what pitching looks like in the context of central government public administration. (From UKGovCamp 2016).

I’ve been pondering asking a number of activist groups to organise/host monthly ‘read-ins’ where we all bring a range of magazines that cover a range of issues from an applied rather than a theoretical perspective (focusing on what people are doing rather than an intellectual article on the theoretical principles behind what people could be doing), and seeing where any conversations go from there.

Above – magazines from the distance and recent past – getting a sense of what has been tried before & working out why things worked/failed.

For example are there any editions of previous editions of specialist magazines that example an issue in Cambridge? Below – the top three covering:

  • East-West Rail – in Modern Eailways
  • The Cambridge Guided Busway – in Buses Magazine from 2011
  • Opening of the Abbey-Chesterton cyclebridge (The Chisholm Trail) by CamCycle

Above – from local specific (Cambridge City Council and how we used to live) to contemporary history (overhauling schools from the perspective of children) and more distant history – educating people about democracy, from 100 years ago shortly after the introduction of universal male franchise at a time when most men did not receive. an education beyond elementary school)

My thinking is that the content from the above could be used to spark not just discussions but creative outputs in the fields of art, drama, music, and more. Something that could be hosted by Kettle’s Yard in their workshop?

Either way, I look forward to the Cambridge Room opening in 2024 and hope it has a massive positive impact on our city.

At least that way we won’t have to rely on Michael Gove deciding what is/isn’t good enough for Cambridge!

Food for thought?

If you are interested in the longer term future of Cambridge, and on what happens at the local democracy meetings where decisions are made, feel free to: