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Our Approach
The Max Lock Centre has been devoted to the principle
of Planning by People.
Background
The Max Lock Centre is a multi-disciplinary research and consultancy group
at the University of Westminster based in the School of the Built Environment.
Here the flexibility of the Centre with its long inheritance of grassroots
development planning is firmly associated with the practical academic
research tradition of the former London Polytechnic, now the University
of Westminster.
Max Lock was an early disciple of Patrick Geddes with his concept of place,
folk and work. Max Lock's philosophy sought to articulate the perceived
needs of a community in focused programmes for investment in affordable
and environmentally sustainable solutions. The Centre has been developing
and continuing this tradition through its research activities and its
expanding network of like-minded professionals.
The Max Lock Centre has developed from the archive
of papers, letters, notebooks and publications of Max Lock and the Max
Lock Group. Recently the papers of John F.C.Turner have joined this
archive. The common factor in these two archives is the profound influence
of Sir Patrick Geddes on both men and their work.
Aims of the Centre
The aims of the Centre are to promote community development and planning
by people in all parts of the world based upon:
- Multi-disciplinary co-operation
- Community participation in decision-making
- Public - private - community partnerships
- Land, planning and fiscal law reform
- Action plans for enhancing the environment
- Positive programmes for economic regeneration
- City region development strategies
- Development practices adapted to local traditions and cultures
- Maintaining a balance between the market and the public
good
- Improved livelihoods, shelter and quality of life for all
- Sustainable development eliminating waste of human and natural
resources
- Prevention rather than cure
- Cost-effective technical solutions to asset management and
development
- The application of survey to plan - Civic Diagnosis
Development Research
The Centre focuses on research in international development; in policy
and practice for planning and managing the built environment; in poverty
reduction; in community empowerment; and in the creation of sustainable
livelihoods at neighborhood, city and regional levels.
Getting the Message Across
The immediate product of the team's work, whether it be technical reports,
architectural drawings, video, film, workshop presentation, community
handbook, compact or floppy disc is seen as only a means to an end. A
single method or a combination may be needed. Text, presentation and illustration
are symbiotic. The philosophy of hands on and down to earth practicability
is paramount.
Building Capacity in Collaborative Development Practice
The Centre is working with colleagues in the University of Westminster
Department of Community and Collaborative Practice, the Centre for Nutrition
and Public Health and in education and communications to offer research
capacity and training in collaborative development practice. The aim is
to aid communities in developing social and physical environments that
encourage the prevention of ills, poverty, ignorance and squalor rather
than spending their scarce resources on cures.
Planning and Managing Development
The Centre can draw upon teams of experienced, community-responsive and
professional consultants in all the relevant disciplines to assist a community,
at whatever scale - village, neighborhood, town, city or region - to create
a strategy for its future socio-economic and spatial management, or adopt
simple, practical measures for improving their environment and economic
well-being.
Sustainable Building Design and Physical Asset Management
The Centre can help devise simple strategies that enable the inherent
skills and resources of communities to be most effectively mobilised in
the planning, design, management, maintenance assessment and renewal of
their physical assets. This philosophy of providing and obtaining direct
assistance allows full local involvement in community building with minimum
external monitoring.
The Team
The Centre can draw upon a range of professional
experts from within the University and from a network
of closely-linked consultants within and outside the UK who share the
philosophy of the Centre.The team can offer
a complete range of specialisation appropriate to the needs of Architecture,
Physical Planning and Urban Development with specific relevance to Urban
Poverty.
Ongoing activities
Currently the Centre is undertaking DFID projects. More
on Research projects
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