Recent media focus on the urgency of the problem of Global Warming has heightened awareness of the paramount importance of moving beyond rhetoric and cosmetic measures and taking radical action now to achieve sustainability. Since energy and resource use is overwhelmingly used by and for cities, it is in the urban planning and development process that these changes need to be made.  These changes must go beyond technological fixes and address the heart of the matter; the transformation of our urban way of life from a life-denying, stress-inducing competitive-aggressive mode to a life-affirming one based on respect for Nature and the human spirit.

The Leeds Schumacher Lectures 2006 will focus on turning the deep ideas of sustainable urban development that have emerged over the years from the Schumacher community into practice. This involves connecting the everyday lives of people with strategic decisions and vice versa.  In order to achieve this, it has been decided to link the lectures to a series of follow-up weekend workshops that engage real-life planning issues in Leeds; the intention is to bring those directly involved with these issues into direct contact with radical, leading-edge thinking from around the world.

The Speakers

Susan Roaf
SOLAR CITIES
Lecture: 15 Sept
Weekend course: 16-17 Sept

Susan Roaf, former professor of architecture at Oxford Brookes University, was convenor of the recent ground-breaking Solar Cities Conference. For the last ten years she has researched the relationship between energy, the environment and buildings. Not content with a merely academic approach, she built her own ground-breaking solar electric house in Oxford, the first in Britain. She publishes widely on many topics, including the traditional building technologies of developing countries, and is co-founder of the International Organisation for Teachers of Architecture.

Schumacher UK President Herbert Girardet is internationally recognised as one of the leading thinkers on sustainable urban development, his long record of intensive research and practical involvement in the issues uniquely qualifies him to address the deep strategic problems of creating an authentically sustainable and humane urban environment. As Research Director of the World Future Council, he is also uniquely qualified to comment on the crucial issue of the need for a new level of political vision and leadership in tackling the momentous issues we are now confronting.

Ezio Manzini
THE SUSTAINABLE EVERYDAY
Lecture: 3 Nov
Weekend course: 4-5 Nov

Ezio Manzini is Director of the Interdepartmental Centre for Research on Innovation for Sustainability, Milan, and is perhaps the world's leading expert on sustainable design, with a focus on solutions that encompass both environmental and social quality. His concept of the 'Sustainable Everyday' - sharing of local initiatives that enhance quality of life and build community solidarity while contributing to environmental sustainability - has won widespread recognition as a key element in the emerging new strategies of sustainable development.

Peter Harper
BUILDING SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
Lecture: 8 Dec
Weekend course: 9-10 Dec

Peter Harper is Head of Research and Innovation at the Centre for Alternative Technology, Wales, where he has been involved in a unique experiment to create a sustainable community for over 25 years. A biologist, horticulturalist and author of the Natural Garden Book, he coined the term Oalternative technology¹ in 1972 and has been a leading force in the movement since.