Staff Appearances

ResPublica Director Phillip Blond will be speaking at the RIBA Research Symposium.

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) will be holding its fifth annual research symposium on 23 September 2010, focusing upon one of the basic principles of architecture: beauty.

Architecture is often judged on its success in creating beauty, yet beauty is a slippery, uncomfortable and divisive subject. It is both a universal good and an enduring source of controversy, but what does it really mean?

As a society we are uneasy about discussing beauty, both on an individual and a professional level. The word rarely features in modern political discourse, and the concept can be dismissed as arbitrary, subjective, unnecessary, unaffordable, or elitist. Debates purporting to be about the beauty of the built environment often turn out, on closer inspection, to be about style, taste or political symbolism.

So how can beauty be both understood and applied? Do beau

ResPublica Director Phillip Blond discussed prison reform on BBC Radio 3's Night Waves programme July 7th 2010. Click here to listen to the programme.