Tom Brigden's ‘Views with value’ featured by The Guardian

The Guardian has covered Purcell Associate Dr. Tom Brigden’s fascinating analysis of cities’ protected views, and how they impact development. Read The Guardian’s coverage here.

Cities across the globe are constantly under pressure to develop to accommodate economic growth, the movement of people and their changing needs. Typically, this development features the addition of tall buildings that have a direct impact on the visual character of the city.

One reaction to this is to protect and conserve the familiar visual experience of cities, which is equally celebrated and extremely risky, both politically and financially, for developers, architects, planners and politicians alike.

Now, more than ever, we need a debate on the impact of tall buildings upon views of our cities. While policies of view protection have been around for some years now, have they been successful at protecting the views which matter most to people? And what are the values embedded within those views? Is shaving the profile of a tall building with respect to rigid sightlines, planes, coordinates and vectors enough, or do we need to re-think what is really important about the sensory experiences of our cities?

— Dr. Tom Brigden, Purcell Associate

Tom's RIBA-published book about the philosophies of protecting architectural views, Value in the view: Conserving Historic Urban Views, offers informed insight into this fascinating topic and brings engaging guidance to architects and urban planners on the application of policy and the design of development within historic urban environments.

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