Evening Standard: "What more can Lord Rogers give to London?"

Link to Evening Standard

"Richard Rogers, star designer, member of the House of Lords, and the most influential British architect of his generation, laid out his vision for London at the Royal Institute of British Architects on Portland Place.

"... If Rogers is taking less of a leading role within his practice, he is as evangelical as ever about cities, and London in particular. ... His vision of a high-density, compact and bustling city, linked by efficient public transport, and with great public spaces, is compelling. Perhaps the only problem with it is that it's the same vision he had 15 years ago. To hear him talking about it in this new political and economic climate makes one feel nostalgic for the optimistic first term of Tony Blair. Austerity Britain might see Rogers slip behind the agenda for the first time in his career."

"... His solutions? They are the same as they have always been. Bring more people into the city, with more dense development around nodes of good public transport. Use only brownfield, ex-industrial land to preserve the Green Belt. He says the NPPF will lead to an unprecedented rise in the amount of out-of-town shopping developments, further damaging high streets that are already suffering."