Rod Hackney, Born 1942
community architect & president of the riba
Rod Hackney is an architect, born in Liverpool and brought up in north Wales, who pioneered the concept of community architecture. His first such project was at Macclesfield, near Manchester. While undertaking his PhD at Manchester University he had bought a small Victorian terrace house in Black Road, an area that was under threat of mass demolition and redevelopment. Working with his neighbours he successfully fought off the demolition threat, and organised a self-help improvement of Black Road as a General Improvement Area. This was both cheaper and more popular than mass demolition. It became the model for many other schemes for refurbishing Victorian terrace houses instead of replacing them with massive modern housing developments which were seriously prone to vandalism, dilapidation and crime. He served as President of the Royal Institute of British Architects from 1987 to 1989.
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