In Episode 13 of A is for Architecture, I speak with John Letherland, urbanist, masterplanner and director of John Letherland Ltd. John was a founding partner of Farrells, having worked alongside Sir Terry Farrell for 35 years, before setting up his own firm. I work alongside John at the Kent School of Architecture & Planning, where until recently, John ran the urban design Masters programme, MAUD.

In this episode, we speak about the nature and character of urban design and masterplanning as distinct disciplines, related to – and obviously complimentary to - but fundamentally different from architecture. We touch on urban design’s core functions and how it is enacted, discuss its relationship to community, and the natural, organic processes of development common to non-formal and less formal urban spaces. Of course, we also talk about how it should – but isn’t often – taught.

John’s KSAP profile can be seen here and his LinkedIn profile is here. Our conversation was informed by two particular documents, the first an article by David Rudlin called ‘What is it about architects and urbanism?’ which attempts to explain to architects the difference between architecture and urbanism; and the second, the Canterbury Campus Masterplan (‘The Framework Masterplan for the Canterbury campus’) for the University of Kent which John wrote for the University in April 2019, finalised in Oct 2019, particularly Chapter 5.

www.aisforarchitecture.org

Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/2p8d9t7p

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/3va6a6b3

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Music credits: Bruno Gillick.