The performance of place

This paper argues that urban designers need a new conception of art if they are to create lovable places that respond adequately to ‘big’ social, economic and environmental issues. The paper acknowledges the need to think about settlements as complex systems made up of a number of subsystems. Designers consider both the individual subsystems on their own in addition to analysing the relationships between these different subsystems, thus setting up a ‘central memory archive’. This archive details positive types or minimum specifications from which to create the art of urban design, an analogy being that of performance art: dynamic, multisensory and created through collaboration between expert users and designers.