The London visionary

Life is too short to design buildings that will never be built. In a 2018 interview in The Architects’ Journal, Richard Upton clarified what is the attitude to be a successful property developer. A real estate developer’s duty is to build beautiful and useful things, respecting the role of design but also the needs and desires of communities.

For more than three decades, Upton has worked on transforming places across the United Kingdom, focusing heavily on creating Public Private Partnerships and exposing himself personally to protect spaces with a crucial role for community life — as in the case of the campaign launched with the aim of saving London’s Smithfield Market.

For over thirty years Upton has recognized and enhanced the potential of places, creating new and original narratives in order to increase the seductive power of urban areas. Does the combination of capital, collaboration and creativity led to more just and inclusive places? Utopian Hours seeks to provide an answer by interviewing one of the leading international experts in this field.