Guide book

Owen Hatherley's book A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain might make uncomfortable reading at MediaCityUK. 

He explains his theme in today's Guardian thus: "what the speculative redevelopments of inner cities look like after the debts have been called in. They have become the new ruins of Great Britain. These places have ruination in abundance: partly because of the way they were invariably surrounded by the derelict and un-regenerated, whether rotting industrial remnants or the giant retail and entertainment sheds of the 80s and 90s; partly because they were often so badly built, with pieces of render and wood frequently flaking off within less than a year of completion; but partly because they were so often empty, in every sense. Empty of architectural inspiration, empty of social hope or idealism, and often empty of people"

MediaCityUK has every change of avoiding the same fate; people, in the shape of the BBC, students (and maybe even Granada) will be there soon  - but it really needs Phase 2 to make sense of the space. Will the Coalition come through with support in the same way as Labour and the NWDA ?