I was invited by the Guardian's architecture and design critic Olly Wainwright to speak in the last of a series of talks at Central Saint Martins discussing beauty and the built environment, prompted by the government's 'Building Better, Building Beautiful' commission.
Also on the panel were one of the authors of the report, Nicholas Boys Smith, prolific artist and broadcaster Grayson Perry, excellent architect Amin Haha and Deirdra Armsby, Director of Planning at City of Westminster. We had been asked to speak for 5 minutes, Boys Smith spoke for 12.
Does beauty have a place in the planning system?
I argued no (at 21 min 30s in in vid below). Beauty is the wrong metric for determining architecture because buildings do more for us than satisfy an aesthetic need (which is all the commission was referring to in its application of the term 'beauty'). Good architecture is more likely to result from a rigorous design process than a fixation over appearance.
We had a good debate at the end (from 54min30s) satisfyingly, I got to have the last word (1hr47mins46s).
To the question of a purge of planning regulations: 'be careful what you wish for'.
