Future Imperfect: London’s Creative Conundrum

Munira Mirza (Deputy Mayor for Education and Culture, London) chairs a panel with speakers Matthew Freud (Chairman of freuds), ICA Executive Director Gregor Muir and Ole Scheeren (Architect and principal of Buro Ole Scheeren), discussing art and artists’ relation to urban development and change in London. Addressing the impact of urban development on creativity in London, the panel ask when development is acceptable, and when does the balance tip as gentrification overrides creativity? Challenging the idea of London as a creative centre, the panel discuss questions such as: how can artists afford to live and work in one of the most expensive cities in the world, and what are the challenges of affordable housing?

This marks the launch of London Burning: Portraits from a Creative City (co-published by TransGlobe Publishing and Thames & Hudson, 2015), edited by Hossein Amirsadeghi and Maryam Eisler. London Burning features new interviews and specially-commissioned photographs that introduce creative personalities young and old, set against the variegated scenes they inhabit. Tracing the city’s sparking of change across architecture, theatre, dance, fashion, media, music, design and the visual and culinary arts, London Burning explores the dynamics that have always underpinned the city’s creative scene.

Matthew Freud is Chairman of freuds, the international public relations and marketing company he founded in 1985.

Munira Mirza leads on cultural, education and social policy programmes for the Mayor of London’s Office, with responsibility for over £40m investment in the current Mayoral term. Previously, she worked for a range of cultural and charitable organisations including the Royal Society of Arts, the independent think tank Policy Exchange and Tate. In 2009 she completed her PhD in Sociology at the University of Kent and published The Politics of Culture: The Case for Universalism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). She has written and broadcast widely about cultural and social policy in the UK. Munira is currently a member of Arts Council England, London Regional Council, and the boards of the Institute of Contemporary Art and the Royal Opera House.

Ole Scheeren is a German architect and principal of Buro Ole Scheeren with offices in Hong Kong and Beijing. Educated at the universities of Karlsruhe and Lausanne, he graduated from the Architectural Association in London and was awarded the RIBA Silver Medal. At Buro-OS, Ole Scheeren is working on the Guardian Art Center, the new exhibition space and headquarters for China’s oldest art auction house currently under construction in close proximity to the Forbidden City in Beijing; DUO, a large-scale mixed-use urban development in Singapore; a new high rise tower in Vancouver,and a largescale mixed-use urban development in Shenzhen, China. Prior to launching Buro Ole Scheeren in 2010, Scheeren was Director and Partner along with Rem Koolhaas at OMA, and responsible for the office’s work across Asia. 

Thanks to, and supported by TransGlobe Publishing, London