We like putting together lists. This is one of peole we like [urban designers, planners, writers, artists and even some architects] because they are inspiring, have good ideas, or just get things done.
Douglas Coupland for being a great polymath ... writer, sociologist, artist, architectural guide [to Canada and Vancouver] and recently even a film maker.
Wayne Hemingway for having the good sense to see Le Corbusier as a town planning vilain [so apologies for the 'modulor' body], for having common sense about volume house builders and building something nice in Gateshead [although not a rare as it used to be]; for championing the Building for Life standard; for swearing when you need some swearing in public presentations on urban design and for have a nice cool - and we think rather 'home-made' - web site full of design classics.
Mark Thomas for standing up and using humour to make a difference for environmental and ethical concerns. Since reading his books I have stopped drinking Coca-Cola and torturing Nelson Mandela. He has also promoted the Ethical Property Company and the work of the New Economics Foundation which we like.
Rolf Disch as perhaps the longest and most dedicated environmental architect working in Europe. He trully is a green giant in technological and social innovation, championing Passiv Haus and Energy Plus standards.
Christopher Alexander for his understanding of complexity and urban systems operating at different scales ... as described in his Pattern Language. Sometimes his ideas on historical patterns and their significance are hard to follow but tend to make sense in practice.
Forest Jackson [a.k.a. Fdog] for having a professional split personality - design, construction and grunge contracting. Check out his Wad alongside his Green Contracting. And don't think for one second he is only included on this list because of any family connections!!
Klas Tham for being the masterplanner behind one of the best sustainable urban developments in Europe in Malmö's Västra Hamnen / Western Harbour. A great source of ideas and precedent downloads.
Leon Krier for putting urbanism before architecture in his approach to place-making. And then writing about the principles of good urbanism to the point of influencing the urban villages foundation, the urban task force and the on-going work of the Prince's Foundation.
Al Gore for being a socially useful politician and using his influence to draw attention to the inconvenient truth and if you watch the film you will also notice his preference for Macs and Keynote rather that PCs and Powerpoints. He also uses his own money for ethical and sustainable investments.
E.F. Schumacher for inspiring small ideas for building sustainable communities with ideas for localising finance and understanding that money is a means to an end and not an end in itself. His ideas for what the 'ends' should be are more relevant than ever. And is he really the big thinker behind the big society?
Clough William-Ellis might be an unfashionable type of architect with a taste for bow ties but he knew about place-making and the relationship between the landscapes of the Welsh and Irish coasts with beautiful and appropriate architecture.
James Lovelock for being an independent scientist that isn't confined by silo-based funding or institutions. A true scholar distinct from career academics, who shared an understanding of complex self-organising systems to environmental science and urban planning. And a great writer (of software and books).
Stuart Brand as a leading first-wave environmentalist who was inspired to write by the early space missions. Famous for the Whole Earth Catalog (please forgive the American spelling), he also took the message of the small blue dot in space into popular culture via the Rolling Stone and other music and cultural magazines.