reSITE has opened its 2018 Conference with a provocative overview by Prof. Richard Burdett on "endless cities" and the future of housing to provide a theoretical overview at the main stage of reSITE, which is held on June 14–15, 2018 at Prague’s Forum Karlin.

"There is a huge risk about taking the housing issue just as an object", said Richard Burdett at the resSITE's first lecture. Burdett also proposed a workable solution for a healthier planning for housing issue. 

The issue of Regeneration should be considered with Housing+Jobs and this should be part of the whole Planning process, according to Burdett. 

"There should be a general attempt to regeneration issues in the cities and there should be a certain political and social vision," he added.   "Housing is not an object, it is the very physical reality of the whole cities, so the questions of housing should be well framed for every city," continued Burdett.

"For urban growth, people are not actually aware of what will be happening in cities in the near future. Accoding to the statistics, people have short life when they have no enough green to live with," added Burdett. 

"Where are the actual housing solutions," he asked. 

reSITE’s this year’s theme is ACCOMMODATE, focusing on the future of housing, affordable living and innovation for new housing models. Sou Fujimoto, BMW-MINI, Airbnb, WeWork/WeLive and OMA’s Reinier de Graaf, Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang, Michel Rojkind of Rojkind Arquitectos, Richard Burdett, Professor of Urban Studies at the London School of Economics and Director of the Urban Age and LSE Cities are among the speakers at reSITE’s 2018 Conference.

reSITE, the annual conference penetrating in all segments of architecture, urbanism ad innovation, has hosted its first keynote address and conversation with Ricky Burdett, Professor of Urban Studies and Director of LSE Cities and the Urban Age Programme, after Martin Barry’s - Founder & Chairman of reSITE, opening speech at the reSITE stage.

In the first lecture, Burdett evaluated the development of cities and emphasized how the new urbanization models could enable new housing and how these cities should finance new homes in the cities, along with a closer look at the regeneration of east London.

Richard Burdett also showed some examples and statistics suffering from the informal settlements and "uncontrollable" growth, such as Sub-saharan cities, Ethiopia, for example, 60% of Sub-saharan is informal, emphasised Burdett. Huaxi Village from China, Mexico City and Venezuela were a few examples highlighted during the lecture. 

Burdett also emphasised the development and growth of London, "London has no one centre, it's an island and it has many centres," said Burdett.

"London has a particular physiognomy, but "branding" is also an important part of London," he added. "London is the economic engine of UK and there are 200,000 migrants in London and this is growing each year." 

Ricky Burdett in conversation with Martin Barry, Founder & Chairman of reSITE

Burdett sits on the Mayor of London's Cultural Leadership Board, is a Council Member of the Royal College of Art and Trustee of the Norman Foster Foundation. He was Chief Advisor on Architecture and Urbanism for the London 2012 Olympics and architectural advisor to the Mayor of London from 2001 to 2006. He was Director of the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2006 and curator of the Global Cities exhibition at Tate Modern in 2007.

Burdett has been on architectural juries for high-profile projects including Tate Modern, London's Aquatic Centre, Rothschild Bank Headquarters, Holland Green and Elizabeth House and has worked on major regeneration projects across Europe and the USA. He was appointed CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in the Queen's 2017 New Year's Honours List.

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