From his early career at Ford and McKinsey to founding URBED with backing from Lord Sainsbury, Nick traces the projects that shaped his thinking, including Rotherhithe, Covent Garden, King’s Cross, Hulme and the Jewellery Quarter. He shares the story behind URBED’s 2014 Wolfson Economics Prize win, his ABC framework for successful placemaking (ambition, brokerage and continuity) and his outspoken views on the New London Plan, greenbelt development and where Britain’s next generation of new settlements should go. It’s a masterclass in patient, practical city building from someone who has spent a lifetime doing it.
Nicholas has also shared some further resources for anyone who wants to dig deeper after listening. There’s a seven minute video on the transformation of King’s Cross, plus a free copy of his book Why Not Social Cities?. His organisation URBED has recently launched a new website, urbedtrust.org, where all of URBED’s reports and publications are freely available. Nick also gave us a preview of his latest project, Oxford Digital Intelligence, which combines different types of spatial data to help identify the best areas for growth, an approach that builds directly on the data led thinking he discusses in the episode.
Watch the episode over on Urban Forecast’s YouTube channel.