I am really pleased to be starting a regular blog. I realize that I have not communicated very well with the people I have met over the years in many countries and others who have contacted me.

This way I hope I can begin a conversation about the things I am doing and to share articles I have written, photos and interesting things I have come across.

It involves some commitment and time on my behalf. I hope I can meet my promise and that it is mutually worth it.

It has been a long time since I started doing work around the nexus, culture, creativity and the city, in 1978. Some things have remained similar and others completely different.

The desire for places and people within them to reflect their distinctiveness and imagination has been a constant, but the pace and urgency has escalated dramatically. Feeling at ease with blending the
local and global is a continuous battle. The most marked changes are the explosive growth of cities world-wide, although less so in Europe, and the increasing divides between rich and poor within them. Then there is the intense competition between cities and in response their desire to spectacularize themselves. And, of course, the level of connectivity and this blog is just one manifestation of that. Everyone knows the delights and problems of the ‘here and there phenomenon’. Its dangers are reduced attention span, the tendency to take in only bite sized fragments of information and knowledge and a lack of deeper reflection of how everything hangs together.

This website and blog attempts to explore what all these changes mean and what we can do to make better places.