We know that in modern constitutional monarchies there is generally a tradition, what tradition, that is, as a member of the royal family or a king or a crown prince, you cannot casually discuss social affairs or political affairs, so as not to tell people that you are involved in politics, it is best to be neutral in everything. But Crown Prince Charles of England is different, how about him? He likes to express opinions everywhere, so some opinions often provoke social controversy. Sometimes you think these arguments are ridiculous, sometimes you admire him, for example, in 1984, he used to talk about a bunch of the most famous architects in Britain. Scolded several architects.
Those architects are the great masters of modern architectural history, but what does he say? He said that the things they built were like coffins, cold, inhuman, and no ordinary people would like them, and the result was an uproar. Many architects laugh at Prince Charles and say don't think you know art if you are the crown prince, you are a complete layman, you don't know what architecture is. But Prince Charles's words were later considered by many to be one of the most important milestones in modern community architecture and community planning.
The book I introduced to you today, "Community Architecture", the recommendation behind this book is Wells, that is, the recommendation written by Crown Prince Charles to them, then the authors of this book, Lee Kearz and Charis Kennywicz, both of whom are architects who have long been concerned about community architecture and community planning in the Uk, with some writers, and journalists.
Well, back, what is community architecture and what is community planning? In fact, the reason for this is that it originated in the late sixties and seventies of the last century, and it was not until the eighties that it really began to become a trend, a movement. What was its original starting point? At that time, there were many cities, and many areas were dilapidated, and after living for a long time, the houses were broken and old. So the government has always treated this situation, the standard approach, that is, for example, to tear it down, the residents are demolished, and in the city center, right, I sell to the merchants and sell to the real estate developers can still make money, right, this is very important, this is also a scene that we can see all over the country today.
But at that time, there was a group of residents who came up with completely different ideas, what kind of thinking? That is to say, I refuse to move away, yes, it is not good for us to live in this place now, but we can improve it, why don't we want to move away, first of all, this place is in the city center, our children go to school in a nearby place, I work in a nearby place, you move me away, what will I rely on to survive in the future? Right. Second, we already have a network of communities in this place, just like we introduced the U.S. Secretary of State this Monday... Speaking of which, community networks are the most important treasure resource for a city, right?
Then in this case, the people of these communities are united, they want to do a good job in their own communities, they want to do a good job in their own buildings, they refuse to demolish, they refuse to move, they want to find another way out. As a result, we look at what they find a way out, and there is a very classic example of this, that is, there was such an area, it was in a city in the middle of england, such a street, it was Black Street.
This Black Street was meant to be demolished, to be completely demolished, but the people here asked a local architect to help them repair the place, so they set up a committee. This committee is the decision to leave the architect to help them re-plan the place, and then at the same time the people themselves try to find a way to persuade the government and the parliamentarians to keep the place and not move them, which becomes a social movement.
What's interesting about it? It was this architect, who they were looking for to live in, and of course there was an architect all over the world who was not sitting in his office, but in the neighborhood that he was going to build and renovate, staying there twenty-four hours a day. And then what do you do with him? This architect and planner are not like the traditional planners and architects of the past, sitting in the office from top to bottom, looking down like a god to think about how you live the most comfortable, how you live the best, but completely refer to the opinions of the people and go to the people. As a result, the size of the door of each house is different, and the arrangement of this room of each family is also different, which is completely in accordance with the needs of each family.
And, if we look at these pictures, you can also see that they have also developed a lot of planning games for community buildings, such as taking some models of houses, some models of buildings on the ground for children to move around, and experimenting with how to plan the place. What's more powerful is that they also encourage themselves to build houses, do not want to rely on real estate developers do not want to rely on middlemen, each of us can learn some very simple techniques, with very simple materials can build their own houses for themselves, this is a community building movement is a essence.
That is to say, we are now planning the city, we are now planning buildings and residential areas, and the units we live in do not need to rely on some experts and the government or real estate developers to help us arrange it. We can people self-reliant, according to the needs of the people, there are professionals to put down their bodies, he from a designer in the past, to become a promoter, in order to educate everyone how architecture is going, how planning is going on, everyone understands and then tell him his opinions, he helps everyone develop their own professional theories, and jointly complete such a plan.
I think that today's Chinese cities are facing many, many problems, can we also consider the planning of more and more catering rooms, the urban space, the use of the city, the right to use the house and the right to design back to the hands of each of us? I remembered that when I was in college, I once went to a friend's house on New Street, and his home was very strange in shape, it was a bungalow, a field, very irregular, and he liked to point it out to me, you see this room was built by my father, and the room was built by my father in which year, and I said your father built a house? He said no, my dad was a farmer.
I remembered that people in the past really built their own houses, all had this ability, I don't know when the relationship between us and our houses became either buy or rent, we rarely think about building our own houses. Of course, what is needed to build a house is land, and land, as we said the day before yesterday, is the most important commodity under our capitalist society, and it is so easy to hand it over to you. Host: We know that in modern constitutional monarchies, there is generally a tradition, what tradition, that is, as a member of the royal family or a king or a crown prince, you cannot casually discuss social affairs or political affairs, so as not to tell people that you are involved in politics, it is best to be neutral in everything. But Crown Prince Charles of England is different, how about him? He likes to express opinions everywhere, so some opinions often provoke social controversy. Sometimes you think these arguments are ridiculous, sometimes you admire him, for example, in 1984, he used to talk about a bunch of the most famous architects in Britain. Scolded several architects.
But at that time, there was a group of residents who came up with completely different ideas, what kind of thinking? That is to say, I refuse to move away, yes, it is not good for us to live in this place now, but we can improve it, why don't we want to move away, first of all, this place is in the city center, our children go to school in a nearby place, I work in a nearby place, you move me away, what will I rely on to survive in the future? Right. Secondly we already have a network of communities in this place, just like we introduced (in English) the U.S. Secretary of State this Monday... Speaking of which, community networks are the most important treasure resource for a city, right?
I remembered that people in the past really built their own houses, all had this ability, I don't know when the relationship between us and our houses became either buy or rent, we rarely think about building our own houses. Of course, what is needed to build a house is land, and land, as we said the day before yesterday, is the most important commodity under our capitalist society, and it is so easy to hand it over to you.