Walking in a little late, we tried not to disturb the audience as the hard-wood floors of the Tabernacle creaked with our every movement. “Where is David Byrne?” I whispered to my friend. We finally saw Byrne sitting amidst a panel. Celebrities always look different when you see them in person- a little shorter, sunken almost. But after a few seconds the former Talking Heads star had gripped my attention. From his pitch black suit emerged shiny white sneakers and a mop of grey hair.
Byrne was a guest speaker at the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) conference on Wednesday, the 19th of May (http://www.cnu.org/healthiercirculation). This year’s topic was Healthier Circulation: The Future of Getting Around. The panel consisted of urbanists: Ellen-Dunham Jones, professor of architecture at Georgia Tech; Charles Brewer, developer of Glenwood Park in Atlanta; and Scotty Greene, executive director of the Buckhead Community Improvement District.
What was Byrne doing there, you ask? Byrne’s new book Bicycle Diaries documents the concepts of environmentalism, community, spaces and architecture that the above mentioned urbanists study. Byrne’s journeys through the cities across the world using a bicycle as his sole means of transportation allowed him to view cities differently revealing spaces otherwise hidden.
As he came up to the podium with his rock-star confidence I knew I was in for a ride. He brought my attention to cities today and how closely they resembled the giant structures that Hugh Ferris in his vision of future cities showed: Human interaction will be significantly reduced by large structures. He showed several pictures of these other-worldy grey shadowy figures that on closer look resembled many of our cities today. A chilling thought.
Standing there in the spotlight with this painting by Hugh Ferris as a background, made Byrne look like he walked out of Star Trek. “Kill the Streets”, he exclaimed was the motto of architects like Corbusier: Our streets are being killed when interactions between people is being cut because of people’s dependency on cars and highways. Come to think of it this could be one of the reasons why Decatur is comparably very community oriented—it’s easy to walk and bicycle around.
He also mentioned how he enjoyed the close encounters with people in the narrow streets of Ferrara, Italy where almost everyone cycled and cars simply could not fit into the streets. According to Byrne we need to stop accommodating cars. Instead the urban landscape around us should encourage cycling. Inspired by examples of bike parking from cities like Berlin and Japan, he has invented his own artistic vision of bike parking that he is implementing in New York City (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brCk1-AVvRk)
Bicycle diaries is on the top of must read books list. David Byrne is definitely an example of someone who walks the talk, or in this case cycles the talk.
