Derek Walker, after six years as Chief Architect and Planner in Britain's Milton Keynes New Town, is now in private practice designing buildings in the UK, Italy, Saudi Arabia, and the USA. He blames current attitudes to land-use planning for the "sterility, blandness and lack of variety" in recent city developments, and would like to see instead what he calls a circular three-dimensional process with an urban designer in charge of it.
He confesses to preoccupations with the manipulation of major landscapes, as well as a continuing love-affair with detail. In his talk he illustrates examples of his work, from early buildings in the north of England to a recent building design in New York in conjunction with Norman Foster; and some imaginative building projects for Milton Keynes, done as a private practitioner, which include a city park, a sculpture park, a city club, and the recently completed central shopping building.
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