Posted by Melissa Mean
at 7:58pm on Tuesday, 12th September 2006
Last week we went to Amsterdam to talk to all the people who have set up urban beaches in the city, and just next door to Strand West beach we found this temporary student accommodation. The area it is in is a not-quite-post industrial landscape set for major redevelopment, but they aren’t quite sure what they are going to do with it yet. So in the meantime, they are using the space to help address the student housing shortage in city.
But just look at the quality. The desultory quality of most British development is well-catalogued by CABE. If the UK managed to make something this good for the majority of its permanent new build, we might be getting somewhere. There may well be lessons for the Thames Gateway here too- a major bit of land that no one seems quite sure of what to do with or how to do it…. hhhmm sounds familiar. Why not give up trying to pretend someone must have all the answers, relax, and try a few temporary things out. You never know we might just learn something.
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