{"id":731101,"date":"2024-02-27T08:04:55","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T08:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/?p=731101"},"modified":"2024-02-27T10:50:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T10:50:08","slug":"why-were-launching-a-new-aj-series-for-big-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/why-were-launching-a-new-aj-series-for-big-ideas","title":{"rendered":"Why we\u2019re launching a new AJ series for big ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the noughties, Terry Farrell would tell an anecdote about his time as Edinburgh\u2019s design champion<\/a>. Working with then city design leader Riccardo Marini, Farrell recounted how Marini would exhort him not to limit the scope of his vision, saying: \u2018Thunk bug, Terry!\u2019 Try saying it in a Glaswegian accent and you\u2019ll get the joke. <\/span><\/p>\n

Whether or not Farrell achieved his ambitions in Edinburgh \u2013 to raise awareness of good planning and design, improve walkability and give it some of the regenerative spirit of Bilbao \u2013 there is something precious about visionary architectural thinking. <\/span><\/p>\n

And, alongside the disappearance of bold political ideas, it seems to be getting rarer by the day. Look back to that period and the charismatic Will Alsop was proposing the partial flooding of Bradford to distinguish it from Leeds and suggesting Barnsley could be remade as a Tuscan hill town<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Look further back still and the young Kate Macintosh, inspired chiefly by Scandinavian design, was creating a project reminiscent of a Tuscan hill town in the unlikely setting of East Dulwich. Dawson\u2019s Heights, completed in 1972, is a thrillingly bold social housing scheme that manages to avoid some of the mistakes of other post-war estate designs by ensuring the needs of the individual are not overridden by the grand vision. <\/span><\/p>\n

As Macintosh told the AJ<\/a> a few years back, her architecture sought to balance conviviality with privacy, and she noted that many people \u2018reproached modern architecture for suppressing the individual and making them feel of no consequence\u2019. <\/span><\/p>\n

The consequences of visionary thinking can, of course, be good or bad. But Farrell, Alsop and Macintosh all sought to balance their eye-catching civic interventions with a sense of collaboration and humility. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is with this generous, open-minded spirit that the AJ is launching a new platform for big ideas. We\u2019re calling it Blueprints for Change and through it we want to discover and publish what today\u2019s architects and others in the built environment sector are proposing to tackle the most pressing social and environmental challenges. We want to highlight your ability to solve problems, to think laterally and to question the status quo. Thunk bug!<\/span><\/p>\n

The first of our Blueprints for Change is 5th Studio\u2019s proposal for the Arc \u2013 a 100-mile landscape from Oxford to The Wash with water at its heart<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The AJ is launching a new platform for big ideas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81280,"featured_media":731740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"ep_exclude_from_search":false},"categories":[681],"tags":[100812],"yoast_head":"\nWhy we\u2019re launching a new AJ series for big ideas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The AJ is launching a new platform called Blueprints for Change. 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