VISION - Architect’s Vision for Tameside

Phil Griffin
Consultant to Ian Simpson Architects

A city needs to look forward. Cities are built from ideas as much as bricks and mortar. Can you believe the success of the car sticker “I love New York”. When that was written, NY was a dump. It had hit an all time low – look at it now. The I love New York phenomenon is quite incredible – but it was a great starting place for a new approach to the city. We should all of us want to leave the place better than we found it and that means creative design. The North West has very few signature buildings. These are structures that indicate its place in the world. Jodrell Bank is one such signature building in the North West. It is high tech, modern and has its place in the twentieth century. It is an iconic structure. It was Jodrell Bank that told the USA that the USSR had launched satellites in space.

You need to know that something on your horizon tells you that you are currently living in the 21st century. Every building around us should say something about our past and our future. I’m not fond of this idea of tidying out cities up. Why do we have to. I pass some graffiti everyday (relates to Vietnam), a political slogan from the 1960’s. I like it because every time I pass it makes me think of those times in history and wonder about the person who wrote it. I don’t want it removed that’s the ‘signature’ from that period in time. It’s nostalgic.

Urbis is such a building for the 21st century. It is making an impact – albeit good and bad – but that doesn’t matter. Designers and planners must not be timid – they need to be brave and make a statement. Whatever you design will not please everyone. Design is subjective and personal – so you may as well really go for it. I think the planners in Manchester were as bold as the architects – after all they commissioned it in the first place – so TMBC take note. Towns and cities are places where people live. It is important therefore that everyone involved in projects such as this start at the beginning and ask people – what do you think, what do you want? Consultation is vital. I love New York, I love Tameside. People do love their towns, and you might be surprised if you just ask them.

Profile

Phil Griffin was born in Ancoats in 1951. He worked as a presenter and reporter on Piccadilly Radio when it opened in 1974. He was a researcher, producer and director with Granada Television from 1978 to 1989. In 2000 he presented a series of short pieces about North West buildings for Granada Tonight.

He has been a features contributor to Manchester’s City Life magazine for eight years. He has been writing the column Archisnap, about Manchester buildings, for five years. In 2000 Archisnap became the basis for a large-scale exhibition – Look More Slowly – at CUBE, the Centre for Understanding the Built Environment, in Manchester. He has collaborated with Ian Sompson Architects for a number of years, and is preparing a monograph celebrating the first 15 years of the practice, that will appear later this year.