HPA Director Debates the Past and Future of Lancaster

Last week, HPA Director Richard Wooldridge was invited to speak at Lancaster University’s Tea Talks, as a part of its regular Festival of Social Science. Richard, alongside several other distinguished speakers, discussed key debates and ideas surrounding the topic of ‘Urban Futures.’

As part of the morning sessions, Richard decided to focus on the success of his recent involvement with the Lancaster Rewind Festival 2022, with his talk entitled: ‘Lancaster: Looking Back to Move Forwards.’ He debated what worked and what didn’t over the past fifty years in our local city, focusing on three key examples of areas that had significantly and visibly changed.

This knowledge surrounding the heritage of Lancaster stemmed from Richard’s own interest in how geography, economics, politics, and history engage and interact with architecture and subsequent planning. As well as his own discussion, Richard participated in dialogue with other researches, students, community members, and even policy makers about what exactly defines the term ‘Urban Futures.’

The School of Architecture’s Tea Talks will be available to stream on their official YouTube channel in a few months.

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