ISSUES Brave New City Edinburgh event causes a stir

ISSUES Brave New City event last month brought together representatives from across the urban design, building, architecture, research and environment sectors, using film clips from ITN Source to spark off a debate around the future of Scottish cities.

The tough-talking panellists and audience members discussed:

• the failure of simplistic land use and building systems driven by profit and hyper-efficiency
• the crippling absence of ‘placemaking’ in city building and design
• the ‘five minute pint’ city
• the threat of mass migration caused by climate change
• the renewable energy industry as major future employer

Panellists included:

Professor Paul Jowitt, President-elect of the Institution of Civil Engineers and Professor of Engineering Systems, Heriot-Watt University

Riccardo Marini, City Design Leader, Edinburgh

John Thomson, Director of Strategy and Communications, Scottish Natural Heritage

Dr Mike Groves, 'Everyman'

Chaired by Hugh Raven, Commissioner, Sustainable Development Commission and Director of the Soil Association.

Brave New City was organised by the ISSUES project as a means of connecting key thinkers in the area of urban sustainability. ISSUES is the knowledge transfer arm of the Sustainable Urban Environments Programme - an EPSRC funded portfolio of research looking at ways of improving sustainability in the urban environment. This includes research related to a variety of sectors spanning Transport, Building, Urban Planning, Water and Waste, Energy and Pollution. The ISSUES team is based at Heriot-Watt University and Cambridge University.

Read about the event in the news! Brave New City featured in The Herald - read article

What the panellists said: read a summary of the issues discussed here

Mocked-Up Film Posters cause a splash - view online

To access materials displayed during the wine reception, see ISSUES Outputs and Materials.

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Coming Soon: Brave New City London, early 2010.