Creating Sustainable and Diverse Cities

This year's Reith lecturer is Richard Rogers, one of the most influential British architects of our time. He has established himself and his practice at the forefront of today's architecture industry through such high-profile projects as the Pompidou Centre, the headquarters for Lloyds of London, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and the Millennium Dome in London. His series of lectures is entitled 'Sustainable City' and each lecture focuses on architecture's social role and the sustainable urban development of towns and cities through social and environmental responsibility.

In his second lecture, Richard Rogers explores how cities have become, in his view, socially divisive and environmentally hazardous. In the beginning we built cities to overcome our environment; in the future we should build cities to nurture it. We must, he argues, reinvent a dense and diverse urban space that grows around social as well as commercial activity. Strategies to improve the sustainability of our environment can fundamentally improve the social life of our cities.