Future City – who?

Fifth Capital are making great play of their appointment of London and Cambridge consultancy Future City to prepare a cultural, arts and community strategy for the site.  Future City describe themselves as providers of “a platform for predominantly private sector involvement in culture-driven development of our urban centres”. They don’t seem to have any track record in Bristol but elsewhere they have worked for the likes of Barretts, Wimpey, Crossrail and British Land.

Future City probably do some great stuff (amazing sculpture at Heathrow Terminal 2) and certainly their founder Mark Davy seems well respected in the world of art, but just as plunk art was once derided as a poor substitute for integrating public art into developments, shouldn’t plunk consultancies be considered in the same way? And why bring them in at such a late stage when so many key decisions about the site design and planning application have already been made?

Your thoughts? Have your say below.

One thought on “Future City – who?

  1. Perhaps the Stokes Croft arts community could contact their counterparts at Future city to explain the community’s opposition to these plans. I am sure they have no idea what they are letting themselves in for and if they know could possibly change their minds about working with Fifth Capital, nobody likes bad publicity!

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