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Urban Designs

Will Self laments what he sees as an absence of rational urban planning in our big cities and a fashion for dramatic skyscrapers driven by short-term commercial values.

Will Self laments what he sees as an absence of rational urban planning in our big cities and a fashion for dramatic skyscrapers driven by short term commercial values. "It occurred to me that the contemporary metropolitan skyline is really only a fireworks display of decades-long duration: a burst of aerial illumination intended to provoke awe, but doomed eventually to subside into darkness."
Producer: Sheila Cook.

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10 minutes

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Sun 20 Jan 201308:50

A Point of View: Staring at the Shard

A Point of View: Staring at the Shard

Will Self confesses to being dazzled by the skyscrapers that dominate urban skylines, but wonders if they have overshadowed visionary dreams of making cities better places to live.

Read Will Self's article on BBC News website.

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  • Fri 18 Jan 201320:50
  • Sun 20 Jan 201308:50

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