The Real Unreal: Lessons from the Atherton Gardens Design Project

Recently a poster was seen at the university that said in big letters across the top URBAN DESIGN WORKSHOP, below which was a picture of recently devastated areas of China. On closer inspection, the poster was actually a Rad Cross appeal, and below the workshop heading was written: 'We don't need your researchers [sic], please we just need your money.' This poser succinctly highlights a central problem of the live project: delivering the goods, The university seems like the ideal partner to broker the interesting solutions to real problems that are at the edge of design practice, driven by ideas and research agendas rather than by commercial imperatives and relationships. However, the reasons that suggest the involvement of the university rather than commercial practice are often the very thing that ultimately causes the project to fall.