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'Is this going to be a joyous place?' … the architects asking revolutionary questions

How do you build the perfect town? You send for Public Practice, the architecture initiative shaking up our streets for the greater good

“Developers keep looking at me as if I’m a total nutter,” says Ione Braddick. “I’ve got into the habit of asking them if people would feel joy when walking around their developments. I ask them to think, ‘Is this going to be a joyous place?’”

Braddick is an urban design officer at Epping Forest council in Essex and her nuttiness is important. Her question is one that is rarely asked in the making of new places, when the forces of finance often trump any interest in the quality of the streets, buildings and spaces being created. And it is particularly crucial in this part of Essex, where a new “garden town” of 10,000 homes is currently being planned around Harlow – a scale of new development not seen there for a generation.

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from Culture | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Wt5PLH
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