Ian Bentley

Bentley has a background in architecture and property development as well as a great deal of experience in postgraduate teaching and research on urban design. Bentley is the author of the books “Urban transformations: power, people and urban design” (1999) and “Identity by design” (2007), with Georgia Butina-Watson, as well as many journal articles on urban design. With colleagues from the Joint Centre for Urban Design at Oxford Brookes University, he has won prizes in a number of urban design and public art competitions.

In 2011, Bentley founded with Sue McGlynn the International Network for Settlement Design as a think-tank to develop and promote a more holistic approach to the design of human settlements. As part of INSD”s work, he is involved in the development of “EcoResponsive Environments”, a book which synthesises a set of urban design principles intended to guide the genesis and development of urban settlements rooted in the unique characteristics of local cultures and ecological systems.

With other members of the Responsive Environments team of authors, Bentley has recently been awarded the UK Urban Design Group”s Lifetime Achievement Award. From the 1980s until 2009, he was involved in the multi award-winning regeneration of Brixton”s Angell Town estate.

He has also been invited as keynote speaker at conferences in UK, Colombia, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Canada and the Czech Republic, and as an assessor for urban design competitions in New Zealand and Viet Nam. Bentley has recently been involved in exploratory masterplanning work in Russia and the Cayman Islands. Drawing on his practical and research experience, he has designed and implemented many bespoke training courses for Local Authority officers and Members, consultancies and developers, covering a wide range of urban design issues.

Paula Barros

PhD Urban Design at Oxford Brookes, UK (2010); MA Contemporary Urban Renaissance at Liverpool Hope University/Liverpool UNiversity, UK (2003); PGDip Contemporary Architecture at Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, Brazil (2000); BA Architecture and Urbanism at University Federal of Minas Gerais, Brazil (1996).

Interview

This e-mail interview took place in February and March of 2012. It involved the development of an initial set of pre-defined questions on urban design, which was followed by the formulation of new questions based on the analysis of the answers received.