Sam Stafford chats with John Myers (YIMBY Alliance), Barbara Weiss (Barbara Weiss Architects) and Matt Thomson (CPRE) about building both more homes and better places.

Adding storeys, mansion blocks and other forms of gentle densification seem attractive in principle, but how can this kind of development be encouraged in practice? Do we keep going up in the meantime? Not everybody likes tall buildings. Do we go out? Lots of people like the Green Belt...

John Myers (@LondonYimby) worked as a lawyer, an analyst and in technology before cofounding London Yimby in 2016.

https://yimbyalliance.org/about-us/

Matt Thomson (@MattThomson42) is Head of Planning at CPRE. Matt is a professional town planner with over 15 years’ experience in local government and was formerly head of policy and practice at the RTPI. 

https://www.cpre.org.uk/about-us/who-we-are/meet-our-spokespeople/

Barbara Weiss founded Barbara Weiss Architects in 1987. Barbara has been involved in the Skyline Campaign, which 'aims to stop the devastation of London by badly designed tall buildings in the wrong location'.

http://www.barbaraweissarchitects.com/the-practice/people/barbara-weiss

Some reading to accompany this episode:

https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/building-better-building-beautiful-commission

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2020/jan/new-housing-design-england-overwhelmingly-mediocre-or-poor

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/comment/dont-forget-a-lot-of-housing-design-is-getting-better/5103978.article

https://www.londonyimby.org/research