T28 Peter Bishop

Peter Bishop, London Development Agency (LDA) Group Director of Design, Development and Environment and Deputy Chief Executive

Well delivered lecture, smooth transition between slides, and great speech in slow, well mannered voice. Peter Bishop was selling us his own vision. And he was doing it so well.

To begin with he quoted Kieślowski “Beware of people who know the answers”. I believed he was suggesting he is a man with many questions. So followed many observations: on cities which disappear in a matter of days (Portuguese moving out from Angola in Ruanda), and monuments lasting for thousands of years (Roman Arena), on reused contractions (temporary housing in Istanbul), and cities cut in 2 (Berlin). And a final well made pont: there are elements that endure and there are ideas that will be followed. One just needs to get it right (Leying down Baroque Rome, Fontana).

The STRONG IDEA is the key to success of any city concept. But the branding of it is the way to make people listen to your idea. Better yet the branding is now the way to convince people the idea is a god one, to generate interest and investments and to start the ball rolling. Visions of City East, Olympic Park and King’s Cross are prime examples of branding exercises. Olympic logo sends a simple but strong message of connecting people. Can such a message be refused? The mushrooming developments of East London got a new name recently: Green Enterprise District. Can any company in 21^st century reject this fashionable concept? Kings Cross was not necessarily an effect of branding but an example of social engineering of investors and various parties around Section 106 at the beginning of development. And we were socially engendered to trust and believe Peter Bishops judgements. An 18 year development around a growing up time of a child in Kings Cross sounded great. A child needs schools and later in life it needs training and as the development progress all these successively were to be built for this child / youngster . It was a tool to make investors build what a visionary wanted.

Peter Bishop is good at branding. He is a man with answers a man we should ‘be ware of’. I think it’s because this is his job. How else would be so good in selling visions? Toward the end of his smooth speech I started feeling a bit crossed. I was sold the ideas, I had the enthusiasm for the new exciting frontiers of urban growth in London, but I felt I was forgetting something in the speed of things. I was brainwashed to forget all the details of those developments, all obstacles and also historical heritage of some places. Is this: the business like speed and branding what we need to make building happen?