It's the hammer of Thor and Thor himself who may come together at any point in the Universe of probabilities. Sometimes our differences can be our greatest ally. Planners may possess the ability to be law like and we may want them to be to a certain degree, but what is it that drives their hammer towards us. is it our suit of intelligence beyond the parallel Universe intertwined with the god particle? surely we as Architect's know that we are very Royal and we are protected by the Architects Act of 1997, is that our shield we are bearing? we know what we are doing? I know I sure do.....
Maybe Thor might be able to help me here. Maybe I need to borrow his hammer for a short time, the hammer after all returns back to him in many of the superhero movies.
So here are some questions Architects think of when dealing with planning and yes this list is by no means exhaustive:-
Will that Planning Officer return my calls back to me?,
Will they give us exactly 8 weeks for a decision?
What's with the Unitary development plan? and other acronyms?
Will it take them longer to eat the cake?
How many planners are there out there?
Who's in charge of planning?
Is the government in on it?
Will he/her answer my emails?
Why is it taking so long (please see previous blog)
Will I get planning permission?,
Has it all become a legislative concept?
Do planners talk to other departments or are they relying solely on the Architect?
Are we still human?
Are we becoming cyborgs of another entity?
Do we need permission to design?,
Do we need to draw in a certain way like building design partnership (BDP)
Do we need our own dinner token to enter the planning department?
Why does my hand want to draw something contrary to the desire of our planning policies?
Are we living in equilibrium?
Have planners neglected negligent flair for the sake of Policy?
Why are all the houses the same?
Is this not mass production like the automobile?,
Has the urban grain become so uniform that the grid is what we adhire to?
Are we being programmed?
Are you a battery?
A cell?
or a barcode with an expiry date?
Are we recreating George Orwell's 1984?
Are they the thought police?
Is this brave new world?
Do planners have green eyes?
Do planners like lots of pieces of paper?
What's with the TPO?
Are they controlling everything in the cities?
Does P stand for Planning?
Why do we need planning?
How many years have they studied?
What's with the shoes and long coats?
Why's that umbrella pointing at me?
What's with the pen?
Whatever Architect's think of planners it is true, they are definitely a different form of species, however, and there always is one of those, I believe we can balance the Universe (we really don't need extra electricity, or global warming any longer) and if we want to address the issues of Policy, we can connect with their desires and there existence promotes the required connection for us to do designs that are more regimental to the cause of world war 2, or world war z or any time in the future before a nuclear cataclysmic event, (by the way maybe there are zombies after all), come on we can let the planners off on this occasion? surely? Can we? are we going to? What happens if I go against them? will it be an unstoppable force hitting an immovable object? Are we getting close to Einstein again? I will let you decide....