Thinking Allowed - 06/05/2009

Can the tubular steel and smoked glass dreams of leading architects ever take account of the mess of life? Jeremy Till claims that architecture exists in a bubble and ignores the way people really live. He joins Laurie Taylor to discuss how architecture engages - or fails to engage - with the society for which it builds. They are joined by Ricky Burdett, Chief Architectural Advisor for the Olympic Development Authority, to critique a profession whose output we all have to live with. Plus, Will Atkinson from Bristol University introduces his groundbreaking study into the life decisions made by the children of working class parents. He finds that despite claims that we live in a new society, class is remarkably durable.