The Programme
In what ways can a city be actively good for our mind, body and soul?
The festival will explore how we should design and manage a city to promote the following qualities…
Connection to nature
Exercise
Relaxation
Play
Shared Experience
Sensory Delight
Therapeutic City Festival launch
6-8pm Friday 20 September
The Brunswick Room, The Guildhall, Bath
Introduction to the festival via a pecha kucha* style event with a series of thought-provoking talks on the past, present and future of Bath as a Therapeutic city.
*Pecha kucha is a lively presentation style from Japan with each speaker allowed 20 seconds x 20 slides.
Speakers:
- Past: Allan Brodie – Historian, Historic England
- Past: Chris Pound – Architect, Town planner, Author & World Heritage expert
- Present: Martin Gledhill – Senior teaching fellow in the Architecture & Civil Engineering Dept, The University of Bath
- Present: Tom Boden – General Manager, The National Trust
- Future: Claire Smith – Partner, Buro Happold
- Future: Andrew Grant – Founding Director, Grant Associates
Chair:
- Caroline Kay – Chief Executive, Bath Preservation Trust
Tickets: Free, but booking required
The Walking Cure
2-3pm Saturday 21 September
Starting from outside the Abbey
Join Martin Gledhill, Senior teaching fellow in the Architecture and Civil Engineering Department at Bath University and Jungian PhD candidate, on a walk through Bath exploring the built and natural landscapes of the city and how we interact with the space around us.
Tickets: £5
Love Milsom Street
Saturday 21 to Sunday 22 September
Milsom Street
Explore car free Milsom Street!
Delivered by Bath & North East Somerset Council, as part of the Love Our High Streets project funded by the West of England Combined Authority, with support from Visit Bath and Bath BID. Find out more https://visitbath.co.uk/listings/single/love-milsom-street/
Tickets Free
‘What-if’ design workshop
2-5pm Saturday 21 September
Pop-up / pop-in event at 8 Broad Street
Is the city good for health and wellbeing? What would you change in the Bath’s public spaces to make them better for our mind, body and soul? Could Bath build on its origins and show the world what a 21st Century therapeutic city looks like?
We invite residents and visitors to Bath to explore designs for an area of the city to transform it for a place for people and nature. These could be small interventions or a major rethink. Let your imagination run wild.
International engineers and local company Buro Happold will curate this session and capture all of the ideas to be shared in a report presented to the city later in the year.
This is a drop-in event aimed at all ages and backgrounds so come and share your thoughts.
No booking required
Kingsmead Square Improvement consultation
Monday-Tuesday 23-24 September
Kingsmead Square, Bath
Come and give your views on a traffic free Kingsmead Square.
B&NES are proposing vehicles be restricted from accessing Kingsmead Square daily during the hours of 11am-12pm, to encourage café culture and create a space more focussed on pedestrians and cyclists. During Monday 23rd and Tuesday 24th September ‘parklets’ will be in situ on New Street and Avon Street to test the concept of reclaiming parking spaces as mini public parks with seating and planting.
B&NES officers will be at the parklets to discuss the proposals and get feedback from the public on Monday 23rd 16:00-18:00 and Tuesday 24th 12:00-14:00. No booking required, just pop by.
No booking required
Healthy City Café Debate 1
5.30-7pm Monday 23 September
The Avon Parade Riverboat, Bath
How should we be planning our cities to create places that are good for our health and wellbeing? What changes do we need to be making to policies about infrastructure, energy, transport and masterplanning? Join us for a lively debate , on a boat!
Speakers:
- Joanna Wright – Cabinet Member for Transport Services, Bath & North East Somerset Council
- Allison Dutoit – Lecturer of Architecture and the Built Environment, UWE and Architect, Gehl Architects
- Liz Mills – Independent Policy Analyst & Associate, Institute for European Environmental Policy
- Mark Minkley – Environment Manager at Bath & North East Somerset Council
Chair:
- Elena Marco – Head of Department Architecture and the Built Environment, UWE
Tickets: £5
Soundwalks
1-2pm Monday 23 September
Meet at Prince of Wales Monument, located at the centre of Queen Square, Bath.
5.30-6.30pm Thursday 26 September
Meet in Brunel Square outside Bath Spa Station.
What is it to hear a city… rather than just see it? Part of Bristol Soundwalks and Hush City academic research, join an experienced acoustic specialist and urban designer and rediscover spaces you thought you knew in Bath. Learn about noise pollution and what effect it has on our day to day lives. Help create a quiet map of Bath, with the potential of guiding future use, development and regeneration to positively impact on the future health of the city, people and nature.
Please download the app here before the soundwalk
Led by Sarah Jones Morris, founder of Landscape Architecture practice Landsmith Associates, and Paul Driscoll, Acoustic Director of Formant.
Tickets: £10
Photo: Ferla Paolo ©
Healthy City Café Debate 2
5.30-7pm Tuesday 24 September
Chapel Arts Café
What major projects are planned or underway in Bath? How are these embracing placemaking and liveability? In this debate we will be inviting project commissioners and designers working on projects in the city to discuss design quality and wellbeing relating to the public realm – what do these look like, how do we achieve them and what are the barriers?
Speakers:
- Wendy Maden – Design Project Officer, Bath & North East Somerset Council
- Edward Nash – Founder, Nash Partnership
- Daniel Lugsden – Partner, Nash Partnership
- David Barnes – Associate Director, Donald Insall Associates
- Anna Baker – Project Director, Cleveland Pools Trust
Chair:
- Funda Kemal – Urban Designer, Bath and North East Somerset Council
Tickets: £5
Healthy City Café Debate 3
5.30-7pm Wednesday 25 September
Boston Tea Party, Alfred Street, Bath
How are designers incorporating health and wellbeing into their work? A look at some innovative local and UK projects by several award-winning Architects and Landscape Architects.
Speakers:
- Fergus Fielden – Director, Feilden Fowles Architects
- Marc Dix – Founder, LT Studio Landscape Architects
- Rob Mitchell – Founding director, Mitchell Eley Gould Architects
- Gemma Griffin – Director, Macgregor Smith Landscape Architects
Chair:
- Victoria Thornton – Chair of Open House Worldwide and President and Chair of the Architectural Association
Tickets: £5
Borough High Street by LT Studio. Photo: Craig Sheppard ©
Taking the Waters
4.30-6pm Thursday 26th September
The Drawing Room, Roman Baths
There is only one thermal spring in the UK.
Join us to hear how Bath Abbey and The Roman Baths are harnessing the water as a sustainable energy source for the first time in 2,000 years.
Introduced by Councillor Dine Romero
Speakers:
- Stephen Clews – Archaeologist and Manager, Roman Baths & Pump Room Manager
- Alix Gilmer – Footprint Project Director, Bath Abbey
- Neil Francis – Associate Director, Buro Happold
Chair:
- Geoff Rich, Partner, FCBStudios
The discussion will be followed by drinks and privileged access visits to the spring.
Tickets: £10—£8
Pre-conference launch
6-10pm Thursday 26th September
Green Park Station, Bath
Hosted by Urban Scandinavian Design Company Vestre.
Vestre will be showcasing their range of urban street furniture in an evening of food, drink and talks in the spectacular setting of Bath’s Green Park Station.
Tickets: Invitation only
Therapeutic City conference
9.00-5.30pm Friday 27 September
Apex Hotel, Bath
A key conference for professionals, with leading local, national and international speakers. This day-long event will ask how we can create places that are good for the mind, body and soul by exploring the best examples from the UK and around the world. Through different sessions it will look at how we should design and plan our cities; how green and blue space is more important than ever before; what the link is between place; water and wellbeing; how the economy and wellbeing are directly related and why our cities need to allow for play and leisure.
- Ben Derbyshire – Immediate past President, RIBA
- Funda Kemal – Urban Designer, Bath and North East Somerset Council
- Dr Louis Rice – Architect, Urban Designer and Senior Lecturer, University of the West of England
- Marcus Grant – Advisor to WHO Healthy Cities programme and Editor-in-Chief of Cities & Health
- Dan Merrett – Bathscape Manager, Bathscape
- Sue Morgan – Director of Architecture and Built Environment, The Design Council
- Andrew Grant – Founding Director, Grant Associates
- Rob Delius – Head of Sustainability, Stride Treglown
- Andrea Dates – Associate, Townshend Landscape Architects
- Marcos Zotes – Partner / Architect, Basalt Architects (joining us from Reykjavik)
- Hrólfur Karl Cela – Partner / Architect, Basalt Architects (joining us from Reykjavik)
- Mark Hepworth – Founding Director, The Good Economy
- Liz Zeidler – Co-founder and Chief Executive, Happy City
- Beatrice Fraenkel – Chair, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Penny Hay – Senior Lecturer in Arts Education, Bath Spa University and Director of Research, House of Imagination
- Amy Harrison – Head of Learning and Participation, the Architecture Centre
- Anna Liu – Director, Tonkin Liu Architects
- Jan Christian Vestre – CEO, Vestre (joining us from Oslo)
Keynote speaker:
- David Rudlin – Director, Urbed
- In conversation with Piers Taylor – Founder of Invisible Studio, to be confirmed
Chairs:
- Eleanor Young – Executive Editor, RIBA Journal
- Alex Wright – Professor and Head of Architecture, University of Bath
Tickets: £65, Student rate £20
Supporters
We are immensely grateful to the following sponsors and supporters.
If you would like to find out how you could also sponsor or support the event or for any more information please contact: info@architectureis.org.uk
Sponsors in kind
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