Autumn 2016 Urban Design Group Journal 140Urban Issn 1750 712x Design food and the city

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the members of the Executive Committee, library (in pre-internet days) I saw a copy of regional representatives and our Director Urban Design Quarterly, and a promise of Robert Huxford for all of their efforts, as an interesting career. well as the new members of the Executive What do I get from the UDG? Some 25 Committee, and Paul Reynolds, who is now odd years later, I am still playing at design the UDG Secretary. As chair, I find myself in and – here is the best bit - I have not the enviable position of being surrounded stopped learning. Even though more people by a wealth of design talent that shares a can see that streets make great places to common objective and interest in the built live, the development industry is now famil- environment. Magic! iar with the perimeter block, and we believe What attracted me to urban design? that Manual for Streets 2 has nailed it, there I have a long addiction to 2000AD - a are as many challenges facing designers 1970s science fiction comic (and still go- now as there were then. Some are new, and ing strong) - which portrays a futuristic some a variation on a theme,... enter the dystopian, dysfunctional life in city blocks UDG. within mega cities that cover most of our So what am I currently interested in? urban areas. The vision was fascinating and The mega city future? Tall buildings? Driver- foretold initiatives such as the elimination less buses? No, it is the bin and how the of smoking from public spaces; 'Mega City relatively straightforward need for servicing One' banished smokers to special smokato- development can negatively impact upon View from the riums. I have an ambition to get one of the everything else. It is not a sexy issue and Chair – COLIN authors to explain themselves to the UDG I do not have a passion for refuse trucks one evening… But this wasn't my princi- themselves, but ask yourself: how often has PULLAN pal motivation. As with most designers, it your building, street space and material was opportunity. Having never quite got to specification been compromised by bin grips with physics or creating modernist stores and the turning requirements of a Lego houses (other bricks are available), thirty tonnes monster? As the new chair of the Urban Design Group architecture was not for me. Planning was • (UDG), I would firstly like to thank my interesting - my degree is in planning - but I Colin Pullan, Urban Design Director, NLP predecessor Katy Neaves for her work over soon discovered the Joint Centre for Urban Planning the last two years. Also, thanks are due to Design at Oxford Polytechnic where in the

and cities. But another change has had a The final change has been about eco- The Director’s far greater impact. It is illustrated by the nomics. These very large container ships News stunning view from Louie’s apartment, of have reduced the cost of international the North Lamma anchorage area in Hong freight so that the combined costs of haul- Kong – part of one of the busiest seaways in ing a container by road from factory-to-port the world. and port-to-distribution depot are the In July, Louie Sieh, convenor of the Urban The ship pictured is a container vessel same as shipping the container half the way Design Book Award, relocated from London built in 2012, capable of carrying 13,000 20 around the globe. Factory workers in the de- to Hong Kong. We were pleased that she foot ISO shipping containers, up to 80,000 veloped world are in direct competition with agreed to continue in the role, even though tonnes. It takes the vessel about 4 weeks people in developing countries who are paid she is now far away. The internet has made to travel from China to Europe, through the just a few dollars a day. They have contrib- it as easy to contact someone on the other Suez Canal. Containerisation and container uted to the long-term decline in traditional side of the planet, as the other side of an ships are city and nation changers. Contain- manufacturing communities, such as the office. The internet is changing business erisation led to the closure of traditional Rust Belt in the USA and the north-south practice, lifestyles and the shape of towns docks, and thirty years later some are divide in the UK. Equally they have brought now among the most valuable real estate, jobs, opportunities and increased income although many are still wastelands. to those living in developing countries. The The articulated lorries that transported impact of containerisation shows the impor- containers became the dominant crite- tance of understanding urban design at a ria in highways design, with the width of global level. We should also remember the streets and junction radii dictated by their importance of maintaining contacts, friend- dimensions. Unfortunately some highway ships and goodwill, the world over. We wish authorities still require high street junction Louie well in her new home. designs that are HGV focused, rather than • people focused. Robert Huxford

WEDNESDAY 16 NOVEMBER Look out for December events on the UDG Diary of events Food and the City website! A focus for regeneration? A catalyst for stronger communities? A contribution to Note that there are many other events reduced food miles and environmental run by UDG volunteers throughout the UK. Unless otherwise indicated, all LONDON impact? A means to improve the health For the latest details and pricing, please events are held at The Gallery, 70 Cowcross and wellbeing of the population and check on the UDG website www.udg.org.uk/ Street, London EC1M 6EJ at 6.30 pm. reduce obesity? Featuring the theme in events/udg Urban Design 140.

Urban Design ― Autumn 2016 ― Issue 140

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Autumn 2016 What other element Urban Design Group Journal brings such long lasting 140 ISSN 1750 712X diverse benefits to urban URBAN space than establised trees DESIGN FOOD AND THE CITY Contents

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Supported by 25 years of research & expertise This issue has been generously sponsored BOOK REVIEWS Enables successful urban tree planting and increased leaf canopy by GreenBlue Urban 40 — Re-framing Urban Space, Urban design for emerging hybrid and high-density COVER conditions, Im Sik Cho, Chye Kiang Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, Brooklyn, New Heng and Zdravko Trivic York. Photography by Elizabeth Reynolds 40 — Rethinking Smart Cities From the 01580 830 800 [email protected] greenblue.com URBAN Ground Up, Tom Saunders and Peter DESIGN GROUP FUTURE ISSUES Baeck URBAN DESIGN UD141 Africa 41 — The End of Automobile Dependence. GROUP UD142 Health, Ageing and Urban Design Peter Newman and Jeffrey Kenworthy Urban Design Group UD143 Estate Regeneration 41 — Also Received: Chair Colin Pullan 21st Century Garden Cities of Patrons Irena Bauman, Alan Baxter, UPDATE To-Morrow, A Manifesto, Philip Ross Dickon Robinson, Helle Søholt, Lindsey 3 — Kevin Lynch Memorial Lecture, and Yves Cabannes; Whitelaw and John Worthington Sir Terry Farrell Context, Architecture and the Genius 3 — Industry and Urban Design of Place, Eric Parry Office 4 — Street NW Manchester 4x4 Urban Design Group 4 — The Byzantine Peloponnese 42 — PRACTICE INDEX 70 Cowcross Street UDG Study Tour 47 — EDUCATION INDEX London EC1M 6EJ 6 — Urban Design Group AGM 49 — ENDPIECE Tel 020 7250 0892 7 — Urban Design Library #19 Plant room, Joe Holyoak Email [email protected] 8 — My Favourite Plan Website www.udg.org.uk VIEWPOINTS Editorial Board 9 — Safeguarding Quality via Permission Matthew Carmona, Richard Cole, in Principle, Matthew Carmona Tim Hagyard, Joe Holyoak, 10 — Street, Not Highway, Design, Michael Sebastian Loew, Daniela Lucchese, King Jane Manning, Chris Martin, 12 — Influencing Inequalities in Urban Malcolm Moor, Geoff Noble, Renewal, Rowan MacKay Judith Ryser, Louise Thomas TOPIC: FOOD AND THE CITY Editors 14 — Food and the City, Jane Manning Louise Thomas (this issue) 16 — Food and Urbanism: Connecting Urban [email protected] Design and Food Space, Susan Parham and Sebastian Loew 19 — Edible Urbanism – London’s Next [email protected] Foodie Trend? Elizabeth Reynolds Book Review Editor 21 — The Productive City: Urban Agriculture Jane Manning on the Map, Katrin Bohn and André Viljoen Design 24 — Towards an Indigenous, Sunlit, Rooftop trockenbrot Food Production, Oscar Rodrigeuz (Claudia Schenk and Anja Sicka) 28 — Urban Farming and Family Farms, www.trockenbrot.com Olusola Olufemi 31 — Edible Eastside, Jayne Bradley Ghosh Printing Henry Ling Ltd 34 — Allotment of the Future, Helen © Urban Design Group ISSN 1750 712X Grimshaw and Jie Lu 36 — The Food Parliament: An Infrastructure Advertising enquiries for Resilience, CJ Lim Please contact the UDG office 39 — Food and the City Reviewed, Jane Manning Material for publication Please send text by email to the editors. Images to be supplied as jpeg

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 2 leader Living with Brexit

Events this year have triggered changes in the In this issue of Urban Design, we explore the way that we view other people. The use of public topic of Food and the City, expertly curated by space and places of social gathering appears to Jane Manning: it is a good example of how the be, and perhaps has become less safe, given the Brexit vote is causing uncertainty. As several recent levels of terrorism. Public space is now authors note, Britain’s food supply and prices being observed and guarded much like privately are likely to be significantly destabilised by controlled spaces, and as a result creates Brexit, as many agricultural workers may not be an urban design dilemma. We appreciate the eligible to work here, and our dependence on reassurance that the presence of other people in produce from our now disaffected neighbouring public space does not constitute a threat, but as countries increases. In the last three years, this urban designers we strive to create public places journal’s topics have ranged from Tall Buildings, which can be used freely and without a second Industry and Urban Design, Designing Housing, thought… The City as Developer, Garden Cities, Greening the City, Urban Design and New Technology, The after-effects of Britain’s vote to leave the Waterfronts, Central and Eastern Europe, Market European Union continue to be felt around the Towns, to Art in the Public Realm. It is hard to country, and this in turn has triggered a new imagine how parochial these topics would have awkwardness in relationships and therefore in been without articles about European practice or planning for the future. The contrasting views held written by contributors with experience of living between urban and rural areas across Britain has and working both in Britain and Europe. Each left the country wondering about its true character year, contributions from our European colleagues and identity, and politically in limbo – without equate to around a third of Urban Design’s pages. a clear route map and with our friends feeling Therefore it is in all of our interests to work hard to decidedly alienated. maintain an ethos of openness and of sharing new ideas, so that we can learn about best practice from all sources of expertise.•

Louise Thomas, joint editor and independent urban designer

How to join To join the Urban Design Group, visit www.udg.org.uk and see the benefits of taking out an annual membership.

Individual (UK and international) £50 UK student / concession £30 Recognised Practitioner in Urban Design £80 Small practice (<5 professional staff) £250 Large practice (>5 professional staff) £450 Education £250 Local Authority £100 UK Library £80 International Library £100

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 update 3

his projects. He showed that London and Hong Kong share the same ratio of green to built-up areas; the former’s open spaces are woven throughout the urban fabric, while the latter is built as a ribbon on the edge of a nature reserve. The importance for urban design interventions is to understand the urban grain and work creatively with it. He sees suburban gardens as precious ecologi- cal assets that should not be concreted over as they, together with its 8 million trees, contribute to London’s biodiversity and The City as a Tangled and order, and Buckingham Palace – the micro-climate. monarchy, and how these seats of power Acknowledging the shift from civic Bank, Kevin Lynch and influence seep out into their surround- spaces traditionally provided by the state, ings and define their urban character, is an to hybrid private sector-dominated estates, Memorial Lecture by example of what needs to be understood for he sees a publicly accessible and well-main- Sir Terry Farrell better integrated connectivity, or seeing the tained realm as an essential feature of future ‘place as client’. urbanity. What counts is the quality of urban The Gallery, London, 8 June 2016 Farrell has redesigned large chunks of spaces, the diversity of city fabric, and acces- London’s fabric, at Old Oak Commons or sibility – very much the role of urban design Earl’s Court. Some of his schemes counter- guiding the interventions of all built environ- act the adverse interventions of previous ment professions. This idea underpinned his planning philosophies, such as the aboli- initiative to create the Urban Design Alliance Is Terry Farrell an optimist? Judging by the tion of underpasses or the prevention of the to raise the awareness not only of the im- many impressive ideas he has pursued with Mies van der Rohe’s tower and monumental portance of urban design for the main built perseverance during his long career, he square in the medieval City fabric. Although environment professional institutions, but must be. At the very least his explorations of sometimes in opposition to mainstream also its economic merits. Together they could urban history as a means to direct his own politics, his ideas are reaching the establish- foster integrated sustainable urban growth. interventions, together with his visions for ment. An example of this is his blue-green During a lively discussion Farrell focused on future urbanity, reveal his passion for dealing plan for the Thames Estuary where he dem- the practical applications of his ideas, high- with the complexity of cities. His inspiration onstrates that the ambitious housing targets lighting the interdependence between urban also comes from nature, abstract repre- of the then government could be easily ac- design and politics. sentations such as maps, and past master- commodated in this vast area, and turn • planners. His perception of the dynamics London into a national park city. Judith Ryser, researcher, journalist, writer between Trafalgar Square – the people’s Ecology and the importance of green and urban affairs consultant to Fundación place, Parliament Square – the heart of law spaces in cities are reflected in many of Metrópoli, Madrid

more industries out. Ferm acknowledged that London has a growing population and a housing crisis, and therefore competition for land is fierce. But she suggested that policies are needed to accommodate both housing and industry, and mixed use is too weak a term. More leadership from the Mayor and demonstrations projects would help. The scale of the talks changed with Tim Catchpole’s presentation on industrialisation in the ‘new world’. He began with success- ful British industrial towns and villages (e.g. Industry and Urban encourages interaction and creativity. This New Lanark, Saltaire, Bourneville, Port Sun- partly explains the concentration of media light), where good facilities and a pleasant Design and IT businesses in Shoreditch, in build- environment led to happier workers and ings vacated by earlier industries. These higher productivity. Translating these princi- The Gallery, London, 13 July 2016 buildings provide the right kind of spaces ples to huge industrial centres in the Middle for innovative ways of working and a mix of East or Asia has been much more difficult; activities, including social exchange. Having Jubail in Saudi Arabia was the only exam- analysed this, Martins wondered whether ple that had been successfully completed. Emilie Leclerq, topic editor of UD138, intro- the area represented good urban design, as Crucially it has high quality infrastructure, duced three speakers: the first was Juliana it would be difficult to design and repre- facilities, urban areas and good environmen- Martins, from the Bartlett UCL, who looked sented a fragile ecosystem. Jessica Ferm, tal practice. Some ideas were challenged in at the role of urban design in relation to also from the Bartlett, then spoke about the ensuing discussion and questions asked creative production in the city. Creative the loss of industrial land in London, which about how to keep manufacturing alive in ex- cities, clusters and industries are rela- was much greater than planned. Industries, isting busy urban centres. tively new, reflecting changes in production which service the city, provide jobs and make • processes and connections between culture areas vibrant, have trouble finding space in Sebastian Loew, architect and planner, writer and economy. Creative industries are urban urban areas, and so move out. This spiral of and consultant and attracted by city life; close proximity decline fuels property speculation, forcing

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 4 update

May 2016 saw the return of the Manchester post-war housing in conflict zones. STREET NW 4x4 Lecture Series, an event which STREET In Freedom, the final event explored Manchester 4x4 – NW has proudly sponsored for the last three freedoms in design and public spaces, the years. The format this year was the same as concept of people choosing to live in cities The Big Questions in previous years: four events every Wednes- or conversely in suburbia to be free, the free- day evening in May, each with four guests dom of civic places, and protest in the public speaking for 15 minutes each. This year’s realm. theme was The Big Questions – Money, Love, Manchester 4x4 is an annual event and War and Peace, and Freedom. we are looking forward to being evolved with Money proved to be a fiery first subject. next year’s programme which promises to Talks ranged from the role of money in the be just as engaging and topical. Be sure to profession of architecture, inequality and visit our Facebook page for more informa- different ways of measuring wealth in cities, tion on this and other on upcoming events in to temporary urbanism and its effect on the the North West. https://www.facebook.com/ built environment. Street-North-West-Urban-Design-Group. In Love, the second event, Mick Timp- • son asked us all to love what we do and to Harriet Harkis and Mark Foster, STREET NW love how we do it. Community participa- coordinators at Turley tion, architecture, space and poetry were explored, as well as a personal account from Sophia De Sousa of her love affair with the built environment and in particular the city of Florence. The third event on War and Peace ex- plored the themes of architecture in conflict, the battles we face every day just to find our way around public spaces, and designing for

classical sites proved indefensible in more from piracy. The majority of housing was in UDG Study Tour: turbulent medieval times, and new foun- the upper town, on the summit of the rock, The Byzantine dations in more easily defended positions which retains its defensive wall and massive gained greater importance. cisterns to enable the town to withstand a Peloponnese siege, but is otherwise a series of ruins and MYSTRA inaccessible due to archaeological inves- 4–12 June 2016 Mystra, the seat of a despotate encompass- tigation. The lower town, on the southern ing most of the Peloponnese, occupies a slope of the rock, is also enclosed within a precipitous site outside ancient Sparta, with defensive wall, but retains its labyrinthine a 12th century citadel capping the rocky network of streets, a fine central square and summit, and the ruler’s palace and atten- a substantial cathedral, the largest in south- dant churches on the upper slopes. Sinuous ern Greece. Though, by the Second World streets snake down into a lower walled War, the town had declined to house just a enclosure encompassing merchants’ houses handful of families, much restoration and and the cathedral. With Constantinople in reconstruction has since taken place, to the terminal decline, Mystra became during the extent that the town now gives an excel- 14th and 15th centuries the principal cultural lent impression of how it must have been in and intellectual centre of the Byzantine its heyday. This is despite the fact that most world, taking inspiration in its architecture buildings now accommodate guesthouses, and urban layout from the mother city. From second homes, cafés, restaurants and craft its original population of 20,000, decline set shops. in under Turkish occupation, until the town was finally evacuated following fires dur- THE FRANKISH INFLUENCE ing the Greek War of Independence. Today By way of contrast, we visited a trio of small the site is under archaeological investiga- towns, Dimitsána, Stemnítsa and Karítena tion, though a number of fine churches and which owe more to the Frankish domination merchants’ houses are still standing and the of the Peloponnese, or Morea as it was then despots’ palace is being rebuilt. called, during the 13th century, after the We were impressed by the continuity Crusaders’ sack of Constantinople. Teeter- of Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture and ing above the Loúsios gorge, those towns 1 wall painting, which maintains a more or less profited from water-powered milling of vari- Thirty five UDG members, spouses and unbroken stylistic line from the Aghia Sofia in ous products from grain to gunpowder, but friends set off from London to look at the Constantinople through to the 19th century, at Karítena, the Frankish Castle, perched on Byzantine urban heritage of the Peloponnese, even under Turkish domination. a pinnacle, testifies to a more warlike past. studiously ignoring classical sites apart from Mystra’s port of Monemvasiá, founded In all three towns tall, squarish belfries from the Athens Acropolis. in the 6th century on an impregnable rocky the Frankish period give the skyline a more Some Byzantine towns evolved from clas- promontory, rapidly outstripped its parent Western-European look. From the 10th to sical origins, losing their public buildings city in importance, gaining a population of the 17th century, the inaccessible sides of and spaces, but gaining merchants’ houses 60,000, and profiting not only from produc- the Loúsios gorge was attractive to monas- and market places. However, many of the tion of the famous Malvasia wine, but also tic orders that built about four monasteries

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 update 5

1 Mystra, intact monasteries and derelict streets 2 Mystra, view in its heyday 3 Dimitsana 2 3

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7 bridge over the mouth of the Gulf of Corinth at Pátras designed to speed access from Athens to northwest Greece. Unfortunately 4 Monemvasiá, the economic boost forecast as a result of upper town from the Games did not materialise, and a motor- lower town square way linking Athens to the bridge is only now 5 Vathia, abandoned village under somewhat desultory construction. in the Mani We travelled on a new high-speed railway 6 Street art in from Athens which was also intended to Athens reach Pátras, but was only completed to just 7 New railway station waiting for beyond Corinth. Some stations have been tracks to connect it built, but are not linked by tracks, and a 6 resumption of works is not foreseen anytime precariously cantilevered out from the cliff blood feuds which prevailed from the 14th soon. Meanwhile the metre-gauge network fence, some of which continue in their origi- century onward. More recently tourism has which the new line was designed to replace nal use. resulted in an influx of investment in holiday has closed and most towns are only linked by homes, which, though following the tower bus. The recent opening of a new motorway MANI house design code, are more accessibly to Kalamáta in the southwest Peloponnese The building of roads in the 20th century located on the modern road system. The has spelt the end of rail access to the region. changed the face of these towns, which historic villages remain abandoned and in a Apparently the building of Greece’s original were previously laid out around a network state of decay. railway network using German loans in the of donkey tracks. The abandonment of the 1890s also bankrupted the government; how donkey track network coincided with rural ATHENS 2004 AND THE RECESSION history repeats itself! depopulation and the abandonment of whole We were also interested in the state of • villages in the Máni, a remote peninsula in modern Greek infrastructure after eight Alan Stones, architect-planner, urban design the south-west corner of the Peloponnese. years of financial crisis. The Athens Olympics consultant and former Head of Design at Villages in this area are characterised by of 2004 saw the opening of a new airport Essex County Council tower houses, necessitated by the inter-clan and metro lines, and a dramatic wide-span

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 6 update NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON URBAN Urban Design Group’s DESIGN 2015 Financial Review 2014–5 Annual General The 2015 conference held at the SS Great Britain Museum in Bristol, featured triple Totals Meeting parallel sessions, and achieved record INCOMING RESOURCES attendance. Addresses were given by the Subscriptions £100,072 The Gallery, 70 Cowcross Street, Bristol North West MP, Charlotte Leslie and Publications and Awards £40,939 London, 8 June 2016 the then Bristol Mayor, George Ferguson. The Conference Fees & Sponsorship £20,213 programme was organised by Andrew Dakin London events £1,912 and Dan Black. The conference was run as a Donation from Urban Design non-profitmaking event, in partnership with Services Ltd £26,102 Urban Design Group (UDG) Chair Katy the RICS, RTPI, RIBA, RSA, Landscape Insti- Activities to Generate Funds Neaves highlighted the following points tute, Academy of Urbanism, and the Urban Interest Received £338 in the Annual Report to 29 February 2016 Land Institute. Inland Revenue: Gift Aid (£3,600) before stepping down, and handing over Miscellaneous Income £458 the role to Colin Pullan for 2016-17. Colin EVENTS – LONDON TOTAL INCOMING RESOURCES £185,976 thanked Katy for her leadership over the last The UDG has continued to develop and two years, which has helped to sustain the expand its ambitious programme which now RESOURCES EXPENDED Group during a period of personnel change. includes around 20 events per year at Cow- Charitable Expenditure cross Street alone. Led by Paul Reynolds, the Publications & Awards £57,846 MEMBERSHIP 2015-16 programme included presentations, General £72,019 Memberships have decreased this year most- discussions, a film night, and walks. Conference Expenditure £18,295 ly in the individual and practice subscription Governance costs (accountancy) £1,200 categories; however Recognised Practition- URBANNOUS – VIDEO ON DEMAND ers membership continued to increase, as Thanks are due to Fergus Carnegie who TOTAL RESOURCES EXPENDED £149,360 did local authority, university and library continues his largely voluntary work to re- NET (EXPENDITURE)/ subscriptions. Overall, paid memberships cord the UDG’s monthly events at Cowcross INCOME FOR THE YEAR £36,616 have declined since 2015; on the other hand, Street, making them available to a global the take-up of the Urban Update e-bulletin audience through the Urbannous website. FUND BALANCES has increased. This is a great resource and a tremendously BROUGHT FORWARD £140,734 valuable archive of the huge number of pres- FUND BALANCES URBAN DESIGN JOURNAL entations given at the UDG over recent years. CARRIED FORWARD £177,350 Urban Design has seen a number of very high In the past 12 months the visibility of the lec- quality contributions this year on topics such tures on the site has been greatly enhanced CURRENT ASSETS £182,418 as: The City as Master Developer, Design- by the development of a subject index. CURRENT LIABILITIES £5,069 ing Housing, Latin America, and Industrial TOTAL NET ASSETS £177,350 Urban Design. Members are encouraged to UDG REGIONS contact the editors with subjects that they Colin Munsie continued as UDG Vice-Chair would like to cover in future issues. for the regions, working to strengthen the Group’s links throughout the UK and beyond. NATIONAL URBAN DESIGN AWARDS The following are leading events in these 2016 areas: Led by Awards Chair Noha Nasser, this year’s Solent, Peter Frankum awards event at the Victory Services Club • East Midlands, Laura Alvarez in March was very successful, with a record • North East, Georgia Giannopoulou attendance to-date. It was generously spon- • North West, STREET NW Mark Foster, sored by Marshalls, and the Francis Tibbalds • Harriet Harkis and Rebecca Newiss Trust continued to give its generous support • Scotland, Francis Newton and Jo White through the provision of financial prizes in • Yorkshire, Rob Thompson the Practice and Student categories. The fi- • Wales, Noel Isherwood nalists and winners for 2016 were as follows: • West Midlands, Michael Vout PRACTICE AWARD Joint Winners – Baca URBAN DESIGN STUDY TOURS •for Eiland Veur Lent, Nijmegen and IBI Group This year’s study tours have been to Toulouse for Barnsley Town Centre and the Bastides of Gascony led by Alan Stones, and Hamburg including Hafen City & PUBLIC SECTOR AWARD – Stockton Coun- IBA led by Sebastian Loew. •cil for Stockton High Street Regeneration URBAN UPDATE STUDENT AWARD – Sama Jabr, University The UDG’s email newsletter continues to be •of Strathclyde for A New Laurieston a valuable resource for urban designers, and is received by around 2,000 individuals. It is BOOK AWARD – Young – Old: Urban Uto- hoped that the newsletter will become more •pias of an Aging Society by Deane Simpson regular over the coming year. (Published by Lars Müller) •

The LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD was •given to Professor Bill Hillier

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 update 7

as hand-outs, but as a means of self-devel- important issue. She is a staunch believer in opment, self-reliance and capacity building, planning at all levels, but with better trained and dealing with urban and rural issues. In planners to counteract the ‘lottery spirit of her view, education was the key to emanci- speculation’. She evokes planned solutions pation, leading also to greater consciousness from east and west, as well as the devel- of the worth of a finite planet, which re- oping world. They include the countryside, quired housekeeping and the conservation of discussed in A Green and Pleasant Land with its ecosystem to remain capable of accom- ideas of rural communities to preserve herit- modating rapidly increasing populations and age and deal with neglected fringe land. their aspirations. She embraced the ‘small She addresses macro-urban problems is beautiful’ philosophy without naming it, in Reshaping the Nation and discusses the with an emphasis on community respon- shortcomings of social housing and com- sibility and autonomy, accessibility rather munity. She is a pioneer of polycentric than mobility, equity instead of choice. She mega-regions, thinking small, and formal sympathised with Jane Jacobs’ pragmatic subsidised citizen participation. People are activism, but her interest lay in the develop- the settlements makers, as well as the custo- ing world. She embraced information and dians of environmental protection. She also building technologies, and was in favour writes about integrated transport policy, of resorting to all means to improve living values accessibility over mobility, calls for standards within the limits of the planet. compact settlements, and sees ecological Urban Design Library rural development as an integral part of set- The book and its message tlement strategies. #19 The structure of the book consists of short A large part of the book is dedicated sections grouped into six parts. In The Com- to The Poor World’s Settlements. Through- Barbara Ward, The Home of Man, ing of the City she starts with the origin of out her career Ward combated poverty and Penguin 1976 the city, planned or unintended. In Into the fought for social justice. Focusing on infor- 20th Century she focuses on the period of mal settlements, she sees a point to the ‘site sanitation, rapid urbanisation, the effects and services’ approach, but insists on peo- of the car, and the city of a transactional ple’s resourcefulness to provide their own Forty years ago, Barbara Ward, stood in the society. The Unintended Metropolis is at- shelter and work, with more international Habitat Forum in Vancouver to share her pas- tributed to lack of planning and foresight, aid and state contributions for sanitation, in- sionately held views with a large audience. with unexpected growth due to migration frastructure and urban services. 1976 marked the first United Nations Habitat and economic expansion. Life at the Margin When she turns to Problems of Urban conference on Human Settlements. She had in Cities looks at segregation, central ghetto Management she seeks to empower citizens chosen that venue in preference to Vancou- formation and the middle class flight to the to manage their own affairs at the local level, ver’s CBD where the official United Nations suburbs, with examples from the develop- given the lack of horizontal and vertical co- conference took place. Young activists, alter- ing and the developed world. She reminds ordination in urban services, and remains natives and artists had shaped the People’s us not only about the importance of shelter, critical of ‘masterplan unconnected with the Forum from drift wood on Jericho Beach, but also water, which is seen as the most people with its unpleasant undercurrent of some five kilometres west of downtown important cause of struggle in the longer ‘mastery’ which can tear a city apart more Vancouver peninsula. Ward was President of term future. easily than it can build a better one’. the International Institute for Environment Under A Thousand Schools she does not Finally in The Universal City she proposes and Development, which she created in 1971. shy away from the unpleasant aspects of city a new economic order, with intergovernmen- She saw the environment and the preserva- building: the tendency towards domination tal management as the key to achieve a just tion of the planet as linked to the survival of and polarisation, megalomaniac self-repre- and environmentally sustainable society. all humans at an adequate standard of living. sentation of dictators, violence, destitution This treats people as a resource, not a prob- This was to be achieved through sharing and and poverty. For her, the human city cannot lem. In the epilogue she optimistically calls redistribution between rich and poor coun- survive without freedom, but needs to strive for ‘loyalty to the planet itself which carries tries and regions. She refers to ‘outer limits’ of towards cooperation and greater justice. our earthly life and all the means of sustain- the caring capacity of the planet and to ‘inner She asks whether such hope and optimism in ing it’. limits’ meaning adequate quality of life for the future is possible and mentions ‘sustain- all. She had already written Only One Earth in able development’. In her view capitalism, Ward’s relevance today 1972 with Rene Dubos and coined the expres- and later communism, rested on an ideology Not surprisingly some contextual dimensions sion ‘sustainable development’ on which of infinite expansion of planetary resourc- have changed forty years on. For one thing, she expands here. The tripod of physical, es, regardless of the ecological reality. She the state as custodian of democracy is being economic, social-cultural dimensions and calls for cooperation to combat famine, challenged. Individualism and the virtual their interdependence are a guiding principle stave off the nuclear threat, and preserve world seem to undermine social cohesion in throughout the book. non-renewable resources - to find a better the public realm. This does not mean that What is fascinating is how current the balance between material power and human at least some self-determining communi- book still is. This could either mean that the purposes. ties are living in harmony with each other, world has not progressed much since then, In The Technological Order she discuss- even if they have not replaced the state as or that she was very long-sighted in her vi- es economic constraints, which reflect the Ward had imagined. Most importantly, many sion of the future and what was essential orthodoxy of that time. However she revisits concepts coined by Ward in this book have for a sustained good life, namely using the absolute property rights and the liberal be- entered mainstream planning and are here to planet’s resources with care. lief in market rationality. She reconsiders the stay. They could also usefully be revisited to From her perspective as an economist role of the economy in providing easy access deal with current urban issues enshrined in and government adviser, efficiency figured to remote parcels of land and the attribu- unchallenged planning laws. highly in her work on resource consumption, tion of ‘unearned increments’ an issue that • but also urban management with an empha- remains unresolved today. The separation Judith Ryser sis on the need to redistribute wealth, not of development from property rights is an

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 8 update What to learn from it… There are many lessons to learn from the masterplan, including how the Architects’ Department worked as three multi-discipli- nary teams, each working under an assistant chief. Architecturally it has been a mixed success; some of the housing is typical of the era with now unfashionable Radburn style layouts. However, some of the public build- ings delivered are successful. The Library in Market Place in the town centre is a hidden gem designed by the John Madin Group in 1974-5. The building is still well used, al- though the interior has been remodelled and modernised. One element of the masterplan that has been particularly successful is the landscape strategy, prepared by Roy Winter as Chief Landscape Architect. Over three million trees were planted by the Development Cor- poration during the construction of the town and today the evidence of this is apparent in the mature landscape which surrounds the built form. On the other hand, an element of the original masterplan that was less success- ful despite its lofty aspirations, is the vision for the transport system. Unfortunately, the masterplan was not fully realised, with areas of the town originally designated as public transport corridors remaining undeveloped. This has resulted in the car being the domi- nant mode of transport for getting about. However, scratch the surface of the move- ment network in the town and you will find a Redditch was designated a New Town in network of well-used footpaths, cyclepaths My Favourite Plan – 1964 providing overspill accommodation for and bridleways. Annabel Keegan Birmingham. The New Town Masterplan was Given the current requirement for the prepared by Hugh Wilson, who had exten- delivery of new housing I believe there are Redditch New Town Masterplan, sive experience in Development Areas and valuable lessons to be learned from look- Second Generation New Town, as Chief Architect and Planner had been re- ing back at our New Towns. Redditch has designated 1964 sponsible for Cumbernauld New Town from successfully accommodated its envisioned 1956-62. population growth and remains a popular The vision for the masterplan was to place to live and work. Despite my mother’s blend the old with the new, with the aim of initial reservations, my parents still live in Why I like it… increasing the population of the town from the town 47 years later. When I was invited to write this article, I 35,000 to 90,000 by 2000 (the population thought long and hard about my favourite was actually 84,300 by mid-2011). The design plan, and kept coming back to this one. Any- was based on housing and industry clustered one reading this who knows anything about around ‘bead-centres’. The masterplan had Redditch might think I have taken leave of an ambitious vision for transport, with Mr my senses. Wilson quoted in 1965 as keeping an open mind about what form the public transport should take: it could be buses, it might be a Current position monorail, or something which had not yet Principal Consultant, Phil Jones Associates, been devised. Overall the concept proposed Birmingham that although cars would be given access to all parts of the town, the pedestrian and Education public transport routes would be designed MA Urban Design, University of Central as the most direct and possibly the speediest England (2007); BA (Hons) in Architecture, method of moving about the town. University of Liverpool (2001) My parents moved to Redditch in 1969, my dad to take up a new job with Redditch Specialisms Development Corporation as a Civil Engi- urban design, streets and movement, mas- neer helping to deliver the masterplan, and terplanning and community participation. my mum as a teacher at a brand new primary school. As a result, I have always loved this Ambition map. I grew up looking at it pinned to the wall to deliver well-designed streets and spaces; in my dad’s office and have watched it being to ride the Redditch monorail; and, to own a constructed; alas there is still no monorail. sausage dog.

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 viewpoint 9

Safeguarding Quality via Permission in Principle Matthew Carmona outlines a way of improving this broad-brush approach to planning approvals

but without the requirement for a detailed masterplan. Their use is encouraged in paragraph 59 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). Coordinating codes would be slimmed-down simple codes that establish on a single page the critical principles for making the place. As shown in the example (prepared by Place Alliance and Studio Real), they would: 1. Focus on the four place issues that are common to almost all sites: Community and land use, Landscape setting, Move- ment, and Built form/ massing issues; 1 An example of a Co- 2. Contain minimal text that describes only ordinating Code for a brownfield site, developed by these fundamental design parameters and studio REAL and Place Alliance fixes the expected design response; and 1 3. illustrate the design concept in two The new Housing and Planning Act deliv- and so forth, and what this means for how dimensional terms through a simple plan ers a radical departure for British planning uses and spaces are distributed on a site, graphic, so that the essential parameters through the move to permitting development it is impossible to properly determine of place are clear. via a Permission in Principle (PiP), which re- whether a proposal for development is lates to sites on a register of brownfield land suitable for a site or not. This would bring forward the proper con- or otherwise identified in the development In particular it is very difficult to assess sideration of fundamental (not detailed) plan. The new system potentially allows • the quantum of development appropri- design and place quality concerns in order advanced approval to be given to significant ate for a site and the right mix of uses to streamline the technical consents process housing projects up and down the country (both issues that the legislation proposes later on. It would guarantee a level of qual- long before fundamental design, or a wide should be decided at PiP stage), without ity to give certainty to both developers and range of other material considerations, are having due regard to how this will actu- local communities about what the develop- ever considered. It raises a big question: how ally be delivered. Will it, for example, be ment would entail, and would provide a will place quality be guaranteed through this stacked up high in a single tower, laid basis against which to make ‘an estimate of new system? Ultimately, it is only by more out in streets, or perhaps distributed in a the number of dwellings that the site would systematically delivering high-quality new series of detached units? be likely to support’ (which the explanatory homes and places that the vital support of Communities will quite rightly be resistant notes to the Housing and Planning Act sug- local communities will be garnered for the • to the giving of Permission in Principle gested would be required information in the new housing that the nation so clearly needs. to new development without having any register of brownfield land). Finally it would The former Minister of State for Hous- sense of what that would mean on the help to avoid increased community opposi- ing and Planning, Brandon Lewis agreed ground and how it might affect the sur- tion to proposals, as they would have a much with this when he argued last October at the rounding context and properties. What is better idea of what they are being asked to Place Alliance BIG MEET 4 that ‘an increased currently proposed may actually increase approve. focus on good quality design could help us rather than decrease local resistance to Coordinating codes would be simple, to deliver more homes, at a quicker pace, development. quick and easy to prepare (this example which communities can feel proud of’. took two days) either by local authorities In Clause 136 of the Act itself, there is The coordinating code, or developers promoting a particular site. provision for a new process of Technical de- a possible solution Because they would be site-specific (not tails consent to be determined in accordance The three aims of a Permission in Principle generic), the qualities they espouse could with PiP; PiP plus the technical details con- are to: be subject to public engagement early in sent will represent the planning permission. streamline the process of securing con- the development process (as proposed in More recently a Technical Consultation on •sent to develop the Technical Consultation), and would help the implementation of the changes proposed increase certainty for developers and to ensure a greater focus on securing early that design would be one of the matters for •investors, and agreement about the need for high-quality consideration at this later technical details maintain a focus on quality outcomes. new development. Finally they would help stage. This, however, raises concerns: • to make planning propositional once again, Design is not a detail, but a fundamental It may be possible to combine the designa- reviving the role of planning as a positive, • part of the process of assessing a planning tion of PiP with the production of a simple confident and proactive force for change. application. Without proper consideration Coordinating Code for each allocated site. • of the fundamental design considerations Design codes are tools that establish the Matthew Carmona, Professor of Planning and that relate to matters such as height, key urban design parameters for a site with Urban Design and Head of the Bartlett School density, landscape, layout, connectivity a particular focus on making the place, of Planning, UCL

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 10 viewpoint

Street, Not Highway, Design Michael King shows that street design is re-emerging from a road-side ditch

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Streets have existed for millennia, and until of majaalis [meeting rooms] arranged in a and 9pm in downtown Buenos Aires. the Industrial Revolution their design was hierarchical manner flowing from the privacy Streets were largely undemarcated, with largely a community affair. Cities, towns and of the interior of the house to the larger few pavements. ‘Pavements protected pe- neighbourhoods were laid out according to public spaces’ (Lockerbie). destrians from wheeled traffic and were used various principles based on: religion, health, Streets have been designed and used as long ago as Roman times, but had been economy, organisation, environment, and for a number of purposes. They were built forgotten until the late 17th century. After security. Streets were seen and designed as for ceremonies and parades. Wide streets the Great Fire of London in 1666, pavements equal parts thoroughfare and location. They were introduced to allow light and air into were provided in all the newly constructed were meant to allow passage and be places cramped quarters. Calle Amsterdam in streets. In France and Germany pavements of commerce, living and pausing. Some Mexico City was designed as a horse racing were not known until the middle of the 18th streets, such as alleys and cul-de-sacs, had track; now the central strip is a walkway and century, and then only in the ‘better’ streets. no through function other than to provide the outside used by vehicles. Harlem River Haussmann and Alphand included pave- local access. Drive in New York City was once a horse race ments in all streets in Paris’ (Hass-Klau, track, complete with stadium seating; now it 1990). Brief history is a highway. Chinese cities were organised according to For the most part, streets were his- standardisation and danwei, such that there was little reason torically the province of those on foot. motorisation for people to travel beyond their own self- While goods were wheeled in carts and Streets began to change during the In- constrained work-unit world. Roman cities the wealthy had horses and chariots, most dustrial Revolution. Designs began to be were largely organised along the dual Cardo people walked. Charles Dickens’ novels are standardised, and space was given over to (north-south) and Decumanus (east-west) filled with people perambulating – a ride in mechanised transport: horse-drawn carts on axes. Anglo-Saxon cities typically consisted a horse-drawn cab was a rare treat. Streets rails, trolleys, bicycles, and cars. ‘By the end of a series of squares, while Latin cities pre- were prime mercantile space as much busi- of the 19th century, attempts at controlling ferred courtyards and walls. Islamic cities ness was done out of doors before the traffic by way of developing a street hierar- followed Shariah law which dictated a ‘net- invention of electricity. ‘Congestion in the chy were developed in the most sophisticat- work of narrow winding streets consisting of streets of Rome...led Julius Caesar to ban ed way by German engineers and planners’ public and private and semi-private streets carts and chariots from the city between (Hass-Klau, 1990). Reinhard Baumeister’s and cul de sacs’ (Saoud, 2001). ‘One es- sunrise and sunset. The Forum of Pompeii 1876 book Stadterweiterungen in Technis- sential characteristic of the traditional street could only be used by pedestrians and the cher, Baupolizeilicher und Wirtschaftlicher pattern is the ability for people, particularly street leading to the Forum ended as cul-de- Beziehung (Town Extensions in their Techni- men, to meet in a series of unstructured en- sac roads’ (Hass-Klau, 1990). As late as 1911 cal, Surveying and Economic Relationship) counters. Open areas are effectively a series wheeled traffic was forbidden between 11am was perhaps the first effort to codify street

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 viewpoint 11

1 Slow and fast lanes, Ahmedabad, India 2 A shared space, Abu Dhabi. 3 Repurposing an historic city gate for trucks, Aachen, Germany 4–5 Streets with a horse track in the median, Mexico City 6 A pedestrian street, St Louis, USA. 7 A monumental street for parades, Vientiane, Laos design principles. It called for street widths RE-EMERGENCE OF STREET DESIGN based on motor vehicle traffic volume, a In the 1960s and 70s, communities and street hierarchy, different lanes or carriage- professionals began to question the way that ways for fast and slow traffic, a standard streets were designed. A series of alternate ratio between carriageway, landscaping, and approaches were developed, and the whole pavements, and ring roads. science of road building was questioned. As streets filled with higher-speed The use of streets for people not driving mechanised vehicles, efforts were made to emerged as a serious study. These ap- simultaneously clear space and protect oth- proaches have continue to develop, and the ers street users. It was fairly easy to manage following principles and practices could be rail-based transport as long as other travel- called complete streets, context-sensitive lers could be kept off the rails. Harder were solutions, traditional neighbourhood design, 7 vehicles that could be steered, such as bi- traffic calming, resilient streets, or sustain- 8. Embrace the politics. In that a street is a cycles, cars, and trucks. Lanes were created able design: public good, its design must occur in the for slower, faster, larger and smaller vehi- public realm. As such, there is a political cles. Pedestrians began to be confined to the 1. Clear policies and compliance. There is component to street design, for better or pavements or ‘sidewalks’. so much decision-making in the design worse. In addition to street design, the street of a street, it is incumbent to have clear network was challenged. No longer was it policies on the ultimate direction of the CONCLUSIONS sufficient to have a seemingly meander- design. Compliance with those polices Designing streets is inherently not sexy. It ing network of lanes. ‘The French architect must be transparent. involves drainage, traffic control, passive H Descamps designed his Cité moderne 2. Non-prescriptive street design guid- observation, and political chutzpah. There (published 1927 and 1928) as a new town ance. There are millions of variations in is little room for swooping illustrations and consisting of a network of 100m wide streets streets, from size to use, to length, to feats of technical brilliance. The public must which were laid out in blocks of 500–1500m look. It is impossible to dictate all the be dealt with. There are typically no ribbons distance’ (Hass-Klau, 1990). Le Corbusier’s various scenarios. The key is to provide for politicians to cut. Starchitects need not new town of Chandigarh was organised on a guidance for deciding critical issues. apply. But, as we move away from the Foun- 800m x 1200m grid. 3. Three physical properties of safety: tainhead model, we find that a good street A system called functional classifi- separation, protection, and reduction. is a fundamental building block of a good cation was put in place in order to codify If two objects are separated, either city. It sets the stage for a higher quality of and streamline the building of roads (and • temporally or physically, there is little life, one which is safer, more productive, and ultimately streets). Roads were ordered chance of conflict. longer lasting. hierarchically, dichotomously and mono-mo- If two colliding objects are encased in • dally. They were viewed as vines, with cars •padding (helmet, air bag), impact will Michael King, architect and founder of as ants climbing up the arterial stalk onto a be lessened. TrafficCalmer.com collector branch and ultimately a local leaf. If speed or weight is reduced, either Policies on minimum standards were •absolutely or the differential thereof, references developed to guide road production. These the impact will be lessened. Carmen Hass-Klau, The Pedestrian and City were often based on tenuous grounds, even 4. Five measures of a street: throughput, Traffic. Belhaven Press, 1990 though they were listed as scientific. The access, context, economy, and priorities. John Lockerbie, An approach to under- classic example is the story of the dead dog. Streets serve many functions and all must standing Islamic urban design, http:// When attempting to determine how severe a be accommodated. catnaps.org/islamic/islaurb1.html, ac- vertical curve (aka: hill) could be, practition- 5. Street network and street design over- cessed 2014.06.22 ers developed a standard called ‘stopping lap. Streets and their intersections can Rabah Saoud, Introduction to the Is- sight distance’. The idea was that a driver never be viewed in a vacuum. They are lamic City, http://muslimheritage. should be able to see a dead dog in the road part of a web of interaction which must be com/article/introduction-islamic- and stop in time. No matter that the history respected. city#_Toc240280830, 2001, accessed of crashes with dead dogs was practically 6. Size does not equal traffic. The size of a 2014.06.22 non-existent or that a crash with a moose or street is disassociated from the amount The TOD Standard, Institute for Transporta- cow would be much more damaging (Hauer, of traffic it can or should have. Narrow tion and Development Policy, 2014 1999). To build a safe highway is an admi- rights-of-way may process many vehicles, rable goal, and there is nothing to suggest while wide boulevards may be prime loca- that highways built in the 20th century were tions for flowers and playgrounds. A wider not as safe as they could be; nevertheless, right-of-way is never justification for more issues arose when the standards were trans- traffic. ferred to city streets. 7. Parking is a proxy for driving. If one can- not park, one is less likely to drive. (TOD Standard, 2014)

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 12 viewpoint

Influencing Inequalities in Urban Renewal Rowan Mackay describes how a Bristol community’s high demands proved key to its success

collective ownership and public activism made placing the community at the heart of the process essential. In response, CAG, supported by BCC, has served as a conduit for the area’s many outspoken voices, with the capacity to engage professionally and build relationships with major stakeholders.

FIVE YEARS OF CHANGE In the five years since CAG’s founding, the project has seen BCC’s development partner Knightstone Housing Association withdraw, the suspension of the Compulsory Purchase Order process, and further consultations 1 on plans from a second developer, Fifth On a busy street in Bristol, passers-by pause heart of decision-making, in a process that Capital, which are currently in the final to take stock of the latest piece of public reads like a textbook for inclusive urban stages of planning before work can begin service information to adorn the walls of the redevelopment. on site. Tracing the history of the project Carriageworks Site. This group of derelict Yet while the project’s success gains rec- over the last five years, with generous help buildings in the heart of the city’s thriving ognition, its achievements reveal the often from CAG members Lori Streich and Julian cultural quarter, Stokes Croft, have long insurmountable difficulties facing communi- Mellor, many inclusive methods and prac- served as a political backdrop to the area, ties in similar situations. The extraordinary tices emerge. Two examples of how local symbolising the neglect of its buildings and circumstances and efforts made by all par- interests have remained central to the site’s communities, while providing a canvas for ties show how difficult it is for communities future are: CAG’s acquisition and scrutiny the community’s outspoken creativity. Such to play a meaningful role in the growth of of Fifth Capital’s viability assessment; and, has been the level of public interest in the cities, and highlight the ineffectiveness of BCC’s support for a community-led manage- site that when numerous planning applica- policies and mechanisms aimed at enabling ment plan for the completed development tions failed, a council-led scheme looked set that. It took a national campaign fronted by (through the S106 agreement). In drawing to write a new future for the Carriageworks, comedian Russell Brand to secure the inter- out the bigger lessons from the Carriage- as public pressure demanded nothing less ests and avoid the eviction of 93 families on works’ complex history, three particular than full involvement in the development London’s New Era Estate in 2014; likewise events are key. process. the case of the Carriageworks is exception- The first was in September 2011 when, al. But just as the trade-off between local shortly after the creation of CAG and with DERELICTION AND INEQUALITY interests and financial viability becomes a funding from the Homes and Communi- The area around the Carriageworks site has defining narrative of change, the Carriage- ties Agency (HCA), BCC commissioned the changed dramatically over the last 30 years. works case helps to hold a mirror up to the production of the Carriageworks Com- A victim of the deprivation that befell many wider process, to understand the limita- munity Vision. Undertaking six months of city centres in the 1970s and early 1980s, tions and inequalities of current policies and comprehensive and wide-reaching public Stokes Croft has since reinvented itself and practices, and to bring the question of who consultations, CAG were easily able to mo- become synonymous with post-industrial determines the future of cities to the fore- bilise public involvement, with professional cities across Europe. But while the area’s in- front of public debate. support from two local built environment creased popularity has seen creative indus- specialists funded by BCC. The document tries-led urban revitalisation over the last PUBLIC ACTIVISM details the collective needs, opinions and decade - turning squats into cafés and office The degree to which the communities of aspirations of the communities. The Commu- blocks into artist venues - the Carriageworks Stokes Croft have been able to participate nity Vision has since been used by CAG and (a Grade II listed 19th century carriage ter- can be attributed to the formation, resourc- BCC as the main point of reference for stake- minus and two adjacent buildings, derelict ing and continued perseverance of the Car- holder negotiations and to inform Council since 1986), have remained inaccessible to a riageworks Action Group (CAG). The need decisions. Establishing the professional le- community desperate for space and eager to for an inclusive and transparent process gitimacy of the local community set a clear put buildings to good use. was made very clear when in April 2011, agenda from the start. With the capacity Given the level of public frustration, riots erupted in Stokes Croft. Protesting the to communicate technically and knowled- in 2011 Bristol City Council’s (BCC) Prop- closing of one of the area’s popular squats- gably, CAG have been able to form trusting erty Department initiated proceedings to turned-arts venues to make way for a Tesco relationships with major stakeholders and in compulsorily purchase the site and lead a Express store, a member of a local activist doing so, to negotiate local interests on an mixed-use redevelopment scheme. Over group remarked ‘there is an extraordinary equal footing. the last five years, the council-led scheme refusal to accept injustice in this communi- Secondly, in March 2015, after the with- has put the opinions, needs and aspira- ty’. So for those at BCC setting out a strategy drawal of BCC’s preferred developer and the tions of most affected communities at the for the Carriageworks, the acute sense of suspension of the CPO process, the Council’s

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 viewpoint 13

2 An EU referendum mural on Westmoreland House. Image Credit: VIA 3 Carriageworks consultations in Kingsdown, Bristol. Image credit: 2md 4 The revised 1 The Carriageworks Carriageworks proposal building and adjacent showing public access Westmoreland House. to a new public space. Image credit: The Image Credit: Fifth Bristol Cable Capital 2 Planning Committee deferred the deci- are rare, and the many guises of consulta- sion on Fifth Capital’s planning application. tion aimed at empowering communities and Stipulating the need for greater collabora- devolving decision-making in planning are tion between Fifth Capital, CAG and BCC often ill-placed or lack the resourcing to was testament to CAG’s emergence as an make them effective. A landmark Supreme effective pressure group and to the efforts Court ruling in 2014 that public consulta- of its volunteers. Being in the rare posi- tions must, by definition, offer arguably tion of understanding both the community’s different options for public discussion, needs and the realities of the planning and provides an important precedent for chal- development process, CAG have fulfilled a lenging tokenistic engagement initiatives role missing from very many urban regenera- (UKSC, 2014). The failure of the Localism Act tion projects: ensuring public transparency to serve the most vulnerable communities, 3 and awareness of the all-too-often opaque the Housing Bill further restricting councils’ aspects of development, while providing an ability to respond to local need, and the only informed and legitimate platform for local mechanism for communities to negotiate voices to be heard. planning proposals coming at the end of the The third event highlights the defining planning process (in s106 agreements) are challenge of regeneration projects today, just a few of the barriers to inclusive urban that of finding a successful balance between growth. local interests and the financial reality of in- ner city development, not to mention those EQUALITY that come with a derelict Grade II listed site In attempts to mitigate the inequalities of like the Carriageworks. Such challenges are the property market, efforts to replace ATV 4 not new, and property developers are held with Land Value Tax (LVT) and a greater bring about the cultural shift in stakeholder accountable for inadequate regeneration role for housing associations in the private collaboration that is needed across both responses to local needs. But the Catch 22 rented sector have each gained momentum the private and public sectors. In an age of decision faced by cities between the con- recently. Taxing land based on its location austerity, funding like that received by Bris- tinued neglect of neighbourhoods or the through LVT would incentivise inner city tol cannot be counted upon, and mean that proliferation of inequitable development, development by taxing brownfield or derelict authorities need to think more progressively has its roots in wider issues than develop- sites the same as an adjacent profit-making about how to enable participation, beyond ers’ balance sheets. To point the finger solely development, thus penalising the wilful der- traditional forms of service provision. One at developers when issues such as a lack of eliction of neighbourhoods in anticipation of city where this approach is being explored is affordable housing arise, as has been the increasing land values. The emergence of an Sheffield, in a partnership between Sheffield case here, can be short-sighted. In the case ethical private rented sector is one conse- School of Architecture and the City Coun- of the developer Fifth Capital, after a rocky quence of the punitive policies levelled at cil. By linking the ambitions of a socially start, the impressive efforts made by direc- housing associations in recent years, and a engaged university with a resource-strapped tor Marc Pennick to understand the situation good example is Bristol City Council’s part- authority, the Live Works initiative is de- in Stokes Croft have won praise from a de- nership with Acorn HA in 2015 and the adop- veloping a model of regeneration through manding crowd. Ultimately, his openness tion of a city-wide Ethical Lettings Charter. co-production, exploring how mutual inter- to working with CAG and to consult on and The story from Bristol shows that in the ests can foster urban development projects review the original proposals (about which pursuit of inclusive and equitable change for in close partnership with local stakeholders. BCC received some 1,400 objections) result- our cities, the greatest innovations are need- While CAG and the communities of ed in permission being granted in October ed locally. Bristol City Council’s actions in Stokes Croft wait eagerly to put the Car- 2015 with support from local communities. enabling meaningful community involvement riageworks to good use, the final lesson is Just two objections were received by BCC. in the Carriageworks redevelopment should that in ensuring our right to the city, whether not be understated. These were: as a council or company, it is our responsi- PUBLIC CONSULTATION QUALITY facilitating the Community Vision bility to demand more. The collaborative efforts made by the Coun- • building the capacity of local representa- • cil, community and developer in delivering • tives on equal terms with major stake- Rowan Mackay, urban designer and an inclusive redevelopment process, and se- holders, and researcher, based in Bristol curing a future for a contested site deserves pursuing conflict resolution through recognition. Yet while the case offers many • closer stakeholder partnerships. Reference lessons, given Stokes Croft’s long history of UKSC (2014), R [on the application of Mose- public activism and CAG’s refusal to accept BCC have shown the potential of a wil- ley (in substitution of Stirling Deceased)] anything less than full participation, it is ful and, crucially, well-resourced local (AP) (Appellant) v London Borough of hard to see how a lesser approach could authority. Haringey (Respondent), UKSC, London have been possible. Such an acute sense of Simply strengthening local authorities’ collective ownership and level of activism ability to intervene, however, would not

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 14 Topic Union Street Orchard by Wayward Plant Registry. Photography by Mike Massaro

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 Topic 15 Food and the City

The relationship between food and the city Susan Parham provides the starting point, is fascinating. As urban designers we like charting both the city’s relationship with food and nothing more than to illustrate a proposal with a the growing recognition of food as a design factor vibrant street market or a row of suitably active over the last twenty years. Elizabeth Reynolds then restaurants and cafes. provides an overview of the spectrum of ‘edible urbanism’ ideas being developed and how they As places increasingly urbanise, the demand for are being applied in cities such as London, from food grows. Over the last 50 years the points of underground farms beneath high streets to apps food production and consumption have become to identify potential rooftop growing space. increasingly further apart, and the link between the farm and the plate is at times imperceptible. The next two articles look at two theories in In the 1940s the Dig for Victory campaign of more detail. In the first Bohn and Viljoen outline the Second World War resulted in there being the evolution of their concept for continuous 1,400,000 allotments in the UK. Today there are productive urban landscapes and the lessons scarcely 300,000. Growing space, whether it is learned from applications across Europe. Oscar allotments, back gardens or agricultural fields, has Rodriguez then focuses on rooftop farming and been under increasing pressure for development, the enormous potential for London to embrace and in many cases has been a soft target. this type of food production. He illustrates the opportunities in both new build and refurbishment Feeding the UK’s burgeoning urban populations schemes. is no mean feat. Around 95 per cent of fruit and 50 per cent of vegetables consumed in the UK are After this, three articles review different types imported. The nature of food distribution into the of site-based intervention. To start are Olusola city has changed hugely over the last decades, Olufemi’s views on the more traditional farm and with major distribution centres positioned around how this typology is evolving at the urban-rural the city and fleets of refrigerated lorries and fringe, to respond to both food demands and delivery vans teeming out from these hubs. As social needs. Next, Jayne Bradley Ghosh provides one digs deeper into the issue of food, one a fascinating insight based on her pioneering cannot help but ask if this is an aspect where experience in Birmingham, into what it’s like to set the accepted conviction that higher density up a community garden from scratch. development is more sustainable comes unstuck. However, for those that are taking on the Finally, Helen Grimshaw and Jie Lu introduce the challenge of designing food back into cities, there Allotment of the Future, a recent installation in are a myriad of opportunities, many that are borne Manchester of futuristic but practical solutions for out of higher and higher density forms. domestic food production. This issue concludes on a futuristic note with CJ Lim setting out his This edition of Urban Design dives into these idea for a Food Parliament, a fictional look at how opportunities, exploring the changing relationship the governance of London could be structured of the city with food. It looks into some of the around food, raising some very real and pertinent trends that have emerged over the last decade to questions about how designers and planners respond to the challenge, as well as looking into might give greater priority to food. the future as to where we, as designers, might So, please tuck in...• need to head. Jane Manning, Associate Director, Allies & Morrison Urban Practitioners

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 16 Topic Food and Urbanism: Connecting Urban Design and Food Space Susan Parham shows how food has grown within the urban context

1 hen I started theorising about food and city design FOOD NOW in the early 1990s, I argued that how food is grown, How things have changed! Food is now Wtransported, bought, cooked, eaten, cleaned up and increasingly recognised among those disposed of has significant effects on creating a sustainable, working in built environment professions resilient and convivial future for urban space. I suggested that and academia to be a critical topic in urban urban designers needed to recognise and reflect this in their design and urbanism, at the intersections practice. One of my work colleagues came up to me after a of social science, planning, architecture lecture I’d given on ‘gastronomic strategies for Australian cities’, and design. Food, we now tend to agree, where I made specific suggestions about how we might focus on matters enormously in making convivial food-centred design, and said ‘It is a joke, isn’t it?’ and sustainable places. A fair bit of schol- With the benefit of hindsight I can see his point. No-one arship, professional practice and policy practising strategic planning and design nor almost any work has been undertaken to explore the planning and urban design theory I found at the time (with myriad connections between food and Christopher Alexander et al, Bernard Rudofsky and William urban design, and to try to reflect those H Whyte perhaps being honourable exceptions), seemed to be insights in policy and place-making. making design connections between the food system and city Strangely, the most ‘modern’ places and form. Where it was acknowledged that food markets and cafes countries have got things most wrong. give local colour and vibrancy, food was to be added in once the Those experiencing a more traditional important place design aspects, like parking, had been done. food system – regionalised, food specific, Planning for food production, retailing and consumption was and culturally connected to gastronomy mostly about accommodating bigger and bigger supermarkets, – have better food and make places many moving wholesale food markets to more ‘efficient’ fringe of us want to visit. But we have also seen a locations, treating retail food markets as leftover forms in irre- kind of ‘group think’ which says that while deemable decline, situating urban agriculture as a romanticised we can see many places like this in both hippie lifestyle adjunct, and so on. Food was not understood 1 Complex the global north and south, such spatial infrastructure interplay to have any profound relationship to place-making in cities, at Borough Market, practices are symptomatic of a nostalgic whether in central areas or burgeoning suburban and post- London past, which could not expect to influence urban regions. contemporary, go-ahead city form.

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 Topic 17 Food geographers and sociologists have argued that ‘you are where you eat’, and to grapple with the spatiality of food. Some have explored ideas of edible urbanism through design, landscape and architecturally based approaches which began to emerge early in the 21st century. These include shaping cities as productive spaces for food, identifying places that represent ‘convivial ecologies’, and seeking ways to reshape urban form toward more food-centred ends through continuous productive urban landscapes (see Andre Viljoen’s article). There are now many food policy councils, food strategies and design guides which explicitly focus on food in particular places. What seems to have stayed a constant is the central under- pinning argument I made nearly 25 years ago about food and place design:

‘Sharing food together allows for a daily physical and social re-creation of the self that is also fundamental to the sense of human connection to others. The physical design of cities 2 can determine the richness of experiences of food and eating; design and social science-based research working for or against the expression of conviviality by the I explored the rise of what I termed ‘food way space is shaped and urban development approached. quarters’ emerging from the ashes of a Opportunities for conviviality in the city rely upon an series of moribund wholesale and retail extended set of “gastronomic” possibilities. And these food markets, at Borough, Broadway and possibilities can be widely conceived in city planning and Exmouth Markets. design. They relate as much to kitchen layout as to market Today these places are obvious gardening, to the psychology of the café as to policy for London food destinations, but this metropolitan growth’ transmogrification was at an earlier, far (Parham, 1992). less fully-realised form when I was doing fieldwork there. I argued from my urban The urban conditions about which I wrote have shifted since design analysis, interview and observa- then, but much of that change has been in terms of extrapolating tional data that these resurgent market trends already becoming apparent then, and which are now that spaces and their connected, surrounding much more substantial and severe globally. Dominant tenden- urban quarters were experiencing a cies in urbanisation were already undercutting opportunities kind of hybrid form of food-centred for both conviviality and sustainability. The drift to cities was spatial development. I saw this as an well underway, cities themselves were morphing into massive urban design-centred transformation in conurbations, dense central cities were being undermined, car- which traditional urban form (including based sprawl was increasingly common, and rural-urban edges compact, accessible streets, public spaces were finding their food systems under threat. A meta-level trend that made excellent outdoor rooms, was and remains the way that the huge dominance of car-based within fine grained, mixed use areas) both urbanism, as a place-shaping urban design reality, has squeezed underpinned and was intertwined with out food space and coarsened the urban grain to food and the new forms of local sociability. planet’s detriment. The food-centred design transforma- tion of such quarters also had much wider RANGE OF SCALES spatial design implications, supporting In Food and Urbanism (2015), I explored all of that at a range sustainable food related supply chains of scales from the table to the productive region. In a sense this back towards production as well as was also a design history of urban form in food terms since the forwards towards personal consumption. Industrial Revolution; moving from food in the traditional city, The result was a highly paradoxical one through the foodscapes of early suburban expansion, and onto in which these areas experienced both food’s design expressions in the huge post war development of gentrification and the creation of design post-suburban space, and 21st century urban transformations related convivial ecologies. into megalopolis. It showed that the effects of modernism on food space design have been exceptionally profound and prob- GENTRIFICATION AND lematic, and they are still seriously underestimated in relation to CONVIVIALITY their negative impact on both sustainability and conviviality in I am able to keep in touch with Broadway the future. Market’s further development along Food and Urbanism demonstrated that from the kitchen, these paradoxical lines through the Even- dining room, garden, street and shop, food market, townscape, ing Standard’s Property pages, which productive green space, suburb, urban edge, conurbation, city offer the interested reader a regular (if region and countryside, the design of food spaces has resulted unintended) update on the course of from a series of place-making decisions that have not necessarily gentrification and conviviality relating recognised, acknowledged or come to terms with their food to food space. The edition on 15 June implications. It asserted the importance of treating food space 2016 for example revealed fascinating design through ‘nested scales’ of urbanism, in order to address snippets from the estate agents who have what are connected design issues along the food chain with huge moved in to capitalise on the revival of effects on individual quality of life and the health of cities. London’s market areas. Ruth Bloomfield 2 Traditional street I dealt with the urban design of one of these foodscape scales market and stalls explained that ‘over the last five or six in an earlier book Market Place (2012) which reflected on pri- at Chapel Market, years Broadway Market in Hackney has mary field work undertaken in London over 2005-2008. In that London also been transformed, from a few tired

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 18 Topic

3 4 stalls to a hipster haven’ (Bloomfield, Evening Standard Homes a business park employment centre for and Property, June 15, p.10). A local estate agent was quoted say- incoming workers, while also continuing ing that prices in the area had increased by 8 or 9 per cent above to house those stranded by earlier de- those in the rest of the area ‘thanks to the high-profile market... industrialisation. Using visually-based it’s not just the market, it’s all the other things it supports – the urban design scenarios among other boutique shops, the cafés and pubs’. methods, the work explored how food- It may be obvious to urban designers now, but what cannot centred urban design could help to retro- be underplayed is how important food is to our increasingly fit a series of spaces along the food chain urban future, and how much urban design can do to help make from the urban edge to the town centre, that a more sustainable and convivial prospect. each currently judged dysfunctional in a number of ways connected to their design URBAN DESIGN’S ROLE quality. Many food system writers situate our current global food Retrofitted spaces proposed included situation (broadly) as a fight between an insecurity-producing food ways along over-engineered road mainstream food system and so-called Alternative Food systems, peri-urban orchards, revived Networks. These seek to challenge assumptions that soil, water midblock allotments, business park and space-depleting approaches are needed to feed the world’s located vegetable and community population. This is an urban fight and an urban design one. In a gardens, and revived central markets context of rapid urban expansion allied to increasing inequality and shopping streets. I argued that such played out through food insecurity, food poverty and obesogen- retrofitting work could support the food ity, where does urban design come in? I would like to think that resilience and sustainability of New urban designers could act as a vanguard – asserting the need Towns (and similarly configured places). for human-scaled, locally sensitive, place-dependent design In my view this is one of many design approaches in the face of structural forces of crude technological settings that food-centred urban design modernism. work can and should be exploring as part One of the most interesting areas that designers will need to of the art of town making. think about relates to the food-centred retrofitting of the huge In closing, it is clear that urban design amount of dysfunctional space created through poor urbanism. and food are intimately interconnected. Existing urban spaces developed from the post Second World The more aware that designers become War era right up to today seem especially rich in opportunities of the food dimensions of place, the more for improvement because we have departed from the rules of likely we are to make both convivial and urban design that Roger Trancik has spelled out so beautifully. sustainable living environments – some- There are a range of approaches to design-based food ret- thing we should all be aiming to do to rofitting now offered by designers from different perspectives. address the need for living space of high Andrés Duany›s 2011 proposals for food-led retrofitting Agrarian and resilient quality. Urbanism might be considered a subset of retrofitting urban • design within a sprawl repair paradigm. More landscape archi- Susan Parham, Head of Urbanism, Centre tecture focused methods like those of Andre Viljoen and his col- for Sustainable Communities, University of Hertfordshire and Academic Director of the leagues of continuous productive urban landscapes mentioned new International Garden Cities Institute, earlier fit here too. Letchworth

NEW TOWNS References Recently I published the results of primary research on a food Parham, Susan, (1992) ‘Conviviality by retrofitting theme in a New Town context in the United King- Design. Gastronomic Strategies for dom (see Shrinking Cities and Food: Future Directions for the Australian Cities’ Urban Futures, Vol.2 European Shrinking City, 95, 2016). The New Town in which 3–4 London‘s Borough No.2, Canberra Market as a convivial this fieldwork was undertaken is shrinking in some ways while food quarter, and stalls Parham, Susan, (1990) The table in space: growing in others: it was designed along post war place-shaping under its 19th century A planning perspective Meanjin, 49 2 lines, suffered from post-industrial decline and became largely canopy Melbourne, Winter

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 Topic 19

1 Edible Urbanism – London’s next Foodie Trend? Elizabeth Reynolds explores the capital’s potential

s Kevin Archer explains in his book The City: the Basics, ‘the limited territorial extent of the city precludes the A possibility of feeding all from within’ (Archer 2013, p.2). However what if cities aimed to be as productive, resourceful and self-reliant as their geography allowed? Whilst increasingly sophisticated consumers might demand exotic varieties of food to be traded across the four corners of earth, many cities could benefit from producing more food within their footprint. So, how might a commercial farming business be established in London to offset one city’s rather large appetite?

London’s Food Footprint Over 50 per cent of the United Kingdom’s fresh produce is sourced internationally, contributing significantly to the eco- logical footprint of Greater London, being approximately 293 times larger than its actual land area. The ecological footprint of a city reflects the food, transport, energy, water, land, materials and waste consumed by a city, compared with the amount of the same resources produced within that city’s geographical area. Aside from the significant ecological impacts of current consumption, this context presents risks to London’s food security and leaves consumers with fruit and vegetables that are 1 Eagle Street potentially less nutritious as a result of the time needed to pick, Rooftop Farm, Brooklyn, New York process, store and transport. 2 Abram Games In 2004 Greater London contained only 366 hectares of hor- poster for HMSO, ticultural land, a 77 per cent decrease since 1970. In parallel to 1942 2 Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 20 Topic industry, techniques for food growing, marketing and sales. In summer 2016 Farmopolis will open on the Greenwich Peninsula: the floating community garden will be landscaped using plants left over from the Chelsea Flower Show. Farmopo- lis is intended to evolve to include food incubators, hydroponic farming, green recreational areas, orchards, farm-to- table restaurants, and event spaces. Turning to commercial food growing ventures, the FARM:Shop in Dalston, accommodates an aquaponic micro fish farm, indoor hydroponics, a chicken coop and poly-tunnel greenhouses. Grow Up Farms also recently began aquaponic and hydraponic farming from a 6,000sqft industrial warehouse in Beckton, where they hope to produce more than 20,000kg of sustainable salads and herbs and 4,000kg of fish each year. The Grow- ing Underground Farm in Clapham also utilises hydroponic farming techniques to 3 grow fresh micro greens and salad, but in a more unusual location: 33m below street level in a former air-raid shelter. Using LED technology, crops can be grown year- round in a pesticide-free environment with an even temperature and minimal water. In 2014 the Japanese technology company Toshiba established a trial clean factory for food, where in a former semi-conductor factory, they plan to grow three million heads of lettuce every year without using sunlight, soil or pesticides. Similar technology and modular growing systems are also being promoted by US company Growtainer in partnership with technology company Philips. In addition to growing fresh produce, 4 there is also an urban trend towards small the reduction in horticultural space within London, average farm scale, high quality food processing. The sizes elsewhere in the UK have increased, offering cheaper prices London Honey Company, Crate Brewery, through economies of scale. Larger farm sizes coupled with Square Mile coffee roasters, Clean Bean cheap imported produce and the scale of distribution offered tofu, Hansen-Lydersen wood smokers, by many major food retailers and supermarkets is therefore a Sipsmith gin distillery and Square Root formidable combination with which to compete. Soda are just a few of the specialist food Although London is a dense, historic city there are plenty of businesses helping to make London a opportunities to use land more efficiently. Indeed a 2008 report more productive city. titled Living Roofs and Walls estimated that in the areas of Can- non Street, Oxford Street, Tottenham Court Road and Canary How food could reshape our Wharf alone, over 74 hectares of usable roof space could be avail- cities able (GLA 2008). Clearly many roofs are too small, or restricted In New York the city skyline is becoming by land tenure, design and ownership constraints to realistically greener through the installation of roof- be used for roof farms. However, taking a considered approach, top farms, and although London’s historic a significant amount of ‘land’ could potentially be unlocked. In building fabric is less able to accom- fact, using just 30 per cent of the 74 ha of roof space identified modate this scale of green development, at a 60 per cent coverage rate could yield approximately 2,000 there are other ways in which urban tons of produce and £7 million revenue per annum. landscapes could be improved through food production. If undertaken on a large Urban Farming Pioneers enough scale, commercial, community Although London produces a relatively small amount of the and home farming could reduce the num- food that it consumes, there are a few farming pioneers in the ber of delivery vehicles on city streets. community and commercial sectors. The Spitalfields City Farm Public landscaping could also include 3 The organic E5 provides a space for school children to learn more about farming Bakehouse in an old more fruit trees and edible plant species. and has been operating through volunteer time and the sale of railway arch, London Electronically controlled LED lighting fresh produce for almost 40 years. At Kings Cross Skip Garden, a 4 Using LED and watering systems could also convert technology to young volunteer group grows fresh produce in disused skip bins. grow vegetables previously disused spaces into places for The vegetables are then sold to local cafes and restaurants, help- underground in growing a range of fresh produce. The ing volunteers learn more about sustainability, the construction Clapham, London vertical farming techniques promoted

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 Topic 21 by Dick Despommier were recently used as the basis for a col- shortens the supply chain and delivers laborative Agritecture Workshop arranged through the CASS fresher food. School of Architecture, Southbank Consulting, the Association for Vertical Farming and Blue Planet Consulting. The winning Conclusion team named CitiSalads proposed to develop an underused Lon- Urban planners and designers need don space in Spitalfields into a vertical farm with underground to identify strategic opportunities to mushroom production, using an old mail tunnel to deliver their encourage the production of food in cit- fresh produce more easily to market. ies. Be it small scale community-driven initiatives or high-tech commercial farms, Ones to watch urban agriculture has an important role Technology is also influencing how food can be grown and to play in improving the sustainability of distributed in cities. The Swiss company Urban Farmers AG cities and the health of residents. have developed a Farm Scout App that uses geotagging to locate • rooftops and evaluate them on their potential use for farming. Elizabeth Reynolds, Director, Urben The app also helps aspiring farmers to connect with other people interested in urban agriculture and partners able to help them References implement their farming projects. In the UK a service called Archer, K., 2013 The City: The Basics New Farm Drop is working to fix the foodchain by providing an online York: Routledge farmers market where food is harvested to order. Farmers are Greater London Authority 2008 Living able to receive between 70-75 per cent of the retail price of their Roofs and Walls Technical Report: food, rather than the 25–50 per cent typically offered by super- Supporting London Plan Policy Lon- markets. Less food is wasted as it is harvested, baked, or caught don: https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/ to order. After ordering online, customers receive their produce default/files/living-roofs.pdf from an electric delivery vehicle. This tailored approach also The Productive City: Urban Agriculture on the map Katrin Bohn and André Viljoen call for the integration of urban food production

ndeniably, during the last twenty or so years, urban agriculture has U become an increasingly common feature of many urban areas in the global north and – responding to social, envi- ronmental and economic concerns – has long been practised in the global south. Urban agriculture is now understood as a movement and as a land use typology. It was defined in 1996 and has been widely researched ever since. Irrespective of definitions, it is prob- ably the stark contrast between the words urban and agriculture – picture them both individually – that triggered the imagina- tion and creativity of those who used the term and sent it out into the world with a question mark and an exclamation mark. Above all, it expresses the duality of a spatial observation – the adjacency and immediacy of the urban and the field (agri) – and a direct action – to grow (culture). 1 The CPUL Over the last ten years, design concept: green research and academic explorations of corridors urban agriculture and its spatial effects provide a continuous have significantly increased in the global network of north. From an architectural and urban productive design point of view, concepts such as open space, and routes for Agrarian Urbanism (Waldheim 2010) and pedestrians Transition Towns (Hopkins 2008), as and cyclists well as our ‘continuous productive urban 1 Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 22 Topic

2 landscape’ (CPUL) or CPUL City work, are examples of thinking informing the final shape and extent of holistically about the origin, current practice and future of spa- its productive landscapes. It envisages tially integrated urban food production. a mixed economy of growers practising urban agriculture: projects for and by the The CPUL CITY concept community, small-scale and large-scale, Our work proposes design strategies and prototypes that can commercial and communal, low-tech and make urban space more productive and more desirable for its hi-tech. Broadly speaking, commercial- citizens. We start from our experience of the dense European or scale production will be necessary if Western urban area and attempt to enrich the qualities of urban urban agriculture is to have a quantifiable life whilst, at the same time, reducing the negative environmen- impact on food production, whilst per- tal impact of current urban food systems. We have developed the sonalised production is very significant CPUL City concept to address this. from a social and behavioural change CPUL City describes an urban future based on the planned perspective. Yet urban agriculture will not and designed introduction of what we call continuous productive meet all of a city’s food needs, and any in- urban landscape – landscapes defined by urban agriculture – depth review of urban food systems must into existing and emerging cities. CPUL City has fundamental consider the relationships between a city, physical and social implications. It follows a systematic approach its local region and beyond. and proposes that urban agriculture can contribute to more So, the spaces envisaged in a produc- sustainable and resilient food systems, while also adding benefi- tive city such as CPUL City, are not only cially to the spatial quality of the urban realm. It is an environ- food-yield-productive, but their everyday mental design strategy, and provides a strategic framework for use is also guided to be healthy, fair, the theoretical and practical exploration of ways to implement economically stable and convivial. These such landscapes within contemporary urban design. spaces are green and open, and they flow Central to the concept is the creation of open urban space out and into the countryside, and back networks providing a coherent, designed multifunctional from there, as do wildlife, air, people, and productive landscape that complements and supports the built above all food. environment. CPUL’s physical manifestation will fundamentally change the urban landscape and implies an equally fundamental The growing practice of Urban change to the way that societies and individuals experience, Agriculture value and interact with it. Within the CPUL City concept, urban It is neither possible nor desirable to feed agriculture refers to fruit and vegetable production, as this a city solely through urban agriculture. provides the highest yields per square metre of urban ground. However, coordinated and well-managed The key features of CPUL are outdoor spaces for food growing, 2 Spiel/Feld Marzahn relationships between urban, rural and in Berlin, where leisure, movement and commerce shared by people, natural hab- landscape architecture international agriculture can lead to an itats, non-vehicular circulation routes and ecological corridors. students run a pilot environmentally optimal and equitable Its network connects existing open urban spaces, maintaining place-making and urban food system. In our 2005 book community food- and, in some cases, modifying their current uses. growing project Continuous Productive Urban Land- The CPUL City concept recognises that each city and each site supported by the scapes: Designing Urban Agriculture for will present a unique set of conditions and competing pressures borough Sustainable Cities, we argued for a mix: a

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 Topic 23 mix of open urban space uses around urban agriculture, as well as a mix of foods from various origins for the urban consumer. The increasing emergence of There, we presented estimates for potential self-sufficiency in projects that are demonstrably fruit and vegetables of about 30 per cent. Subsequently, similar figures have been calculated by other planners and researchers successful enterprises... such as Michael Sorkin and Mikey Tomkins, and architect Joe provides proof of the Lobko who presented findings for a housing development at the 2011 Ontario Association of Architects conference in Toronto. acceptance of productive urban Urban agriculture brings many advantages to a city, social, landscapes as a desired and health, environmental, local, educational, and can be practised not only for food production, but to achieve these wider planned urban land use outcomes. However, international experience shows that more and more projects are being set up explicitly to produce food in larger quantities and that existing practice is being optimised. urban landscapes, so that they can reach The increasing emergence of projects that are demonstrably both their full food-growing potential, successful enterprises – traditionally economic or newer social – and move beyond niche activism, to provides proof of the acceptance of productive urban landscapes become part of integrated urban food as a desired and planned urban land use. It also offers a reality systems, consequently gaining spatial check of the ideas. significance within the urban fabric. Contemporary and new forms of urban agriculture in the north have, in the main, originated in North America and, look- Four main challenges can be identified: ing eastwards, spread from there since the early 2000s to the UK 1. In order to coherently embed urban and Europe. The establishment of economically viable schemes agriculture spatially into urban areas for various types of urban agriculture during the past five, or and local contexts, both temporarily even ten to fifteen years, is new on both sides of the Atlantic, and permanently, research- and plan- complementing older, more leisure-based and communal prac- ning-led urban design and architec- tices, such as the European allotments or the North American tural concepts are needed. (Keyword: community gardens. productive urban landscape). In the UK, the Capital Growth project gave the London com- 2. Despite the great accumulated knowl- munity gardening scene an important boost in 2009 with the edge about and the huge social capital goal of creating 2,012 new projects in the three years to the 2012 invested in urban agriculture, clear Olympics. Several British cities, such as Brighton (Brighton and applicable guidance and best practice Hove Food Partnership 2012), Bristol (Bristol Food Network dissemination are essential to enable 2010), Leeds (Leeds Permaculture Network n.d.) or London and augment the capacity of urban (Sustain n.d.) have developed strong dedicated food-growing food growers, their projects and their networks and programmes since at least 1999 (which is when sites. (Keyword: toolkit/ actions). Sustain was founded). The first farmers’ market was set up in 3. Recognised regulations or agree- Bath in 1997, followed by the nationwide establishment of the ments with public decision-makers National Association of Farmers’ Markets in 1998, and policy (e.g. planning, trading, land rights) interest is evident in several places, for example in London with and other food-related entities (e.g. the Cultivating the Capital report (London Assembly 2010) or in rural, markets, accreditation bodies) Brighton and Hove where the local council requires a statement 3–4 The Urban are needed to support and safeguard about food growing for every new-built planning application. Agriculture Curtain urban agriculture practice and sites. shows the CPUL Taking all of these facts as signs of a public willingness to concept applied to (Keyword: food policy). address urban food systems, the question now is how best to buildings as a vertical 4. To become widespread and maximise support the development of urban agriculture and productive hydroponic system its associated social, public health

2 Caption 3 4 Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 24 Topic and environmental benefits, urban agriculture needs to be which make it easier to tackle more local integrated into mainstream food production and procurement challenges, provided that the bigger systems. (Keyword: urban food systems). picture stays in focus. Urban agriculture and productive urban landscapes are, These four challenges need to be developed in parallel within or should be part of both scales of urban a city’s particular local, regional and international urban food food systems. systems. However, whilst historic models of urban agriculture evolved out of necessity, Designing urban food systems in the contemporary city we now have a Urban agriculture is always part of something. As a land use window of opportunity to plan coherent type, it may be part of more strategic concepts, such as CPUL strategies for its introduction. As urban City or other development concepts adopted by a municipality. agriculture, in all its different forms As a food-growing activity by individuals or groups, it is part of a appears and grows within cities, the network of processes aiming to sustain urban life, either directly next critical step is to get it written into by the produce grown, or by the commercial exchanges it gener- planning documents and legislation as a ates. Additionally, supportive policy frameworks – food policies proactive way of improving current urban – generally do not target productive urban landscapes or urban food systems and providing value beyond agriculture alone, but wider and often very complex networks of direct financial return. In doing so, a rich food provision supplying city dwellers, i.e. urban food systems. public discourse can develop, as seen in In the 1990s, researchers in the USA laid the foundations New York, Berlin or London, articulating for an understanding of urban food systems that is still used and urban agriculture’s many benefits from referred to today. Kenneth Dahlberg’s work, for example, aimed environmental motivation to ornament, at developing food-related policy as a basis to devise specific to behaviour change, and challenging strategies for food planning in particular urban contexts, empha- current measures of success. The other sising the need for understanding food systems as local systems. action required, and here architects, Around the same time, Kameshwari Pothukuchi and Jerome planners and designers have a lot to do, is Kaufman began urging for food systems to be placed on the to knowingly bring forth the design and urban agenda in order to fully address the quality of life in urban development of processes, landscapes, localities. Both researchers later wrote the now seminal 2007 buildings and infrastructure which new APA Policy Guide on Food Planning which crosses the divide urban farmers and the wider urban popu- between food systems planning and urban spatial design. We lation need and desire. see urban agriculture and productive urban landscapes as ways • to contribute to this vision of a more sustainable and equitable Katrin Bohn, senior lecturer, and Professor provision of food for cities. André Viljoen, at University of Brighton, co-founders of architectural practice and Urban food systems can be broken down into smaller environmental consultancy Bohn&Viljoen components such as household or neighbourhood food systems, Architects Towards an Indigenous, Sunlit, Rooftop Food Production Oscar Rodriguez looks at London’s capacity to change

ood prices are expected to rise after the UK’s Brexit vote. We are F 40 per cent reliant on EU fruit and vegetable imports, and critically reliant on labour, research funding, farmer subsidies and environmental protection legislation. In 2014, we imported £8.7bn and exported £0.9bn-worth of fruit and vegetables globally (mostly with Europe), amounting to a trade deficit of £7.8bn. Concerns over quality, chemical content and farm-working conditions have led to increasing unease with cheap imports. If the pound’s recent devaluation marks a new normal, the price of foreign produce will rise and spark a renewed cost of living 2 Caption panic and a politically-motivated oil price 1 Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 Topic 25

2 decline is unlikely to muffle it. Professor Tim Lang and Victoria skin’, the interface between the city and Schoen’s recent Food and Brexit briefing summarises the mood: the sky where the next epochal shift in decentralised energy-capture beyond ‘The post-Brexit food world will be characterised by volatil- electricity must occur to complement the ity, disruption and uncertainty. Food import costs will rise if gains of the internet age. the price of sterling falls. UK exposure to world commodity Architects and planners frequently prices and competition with large trade blocs would rise.’ use the term urban fabric, a reference to the inert patterns of built massing, Our attitudes towards our food and health remain woefully interstitial spaces and infrastructures dysfunctional. 30 per cent of adults aged 19-64 years and 10 per that describe a city. An ‘urban skin’ cent of boys and 7 per cent of girls aged 11-18 years meet the 5-a- builds upon that definition and posits an day fruit and vegetable recommendation. Obesity continues to additional analytical lens that considers rise with the WHO projecting 74 per cent of men and 64 per cent their activity: their absorptive, deflective, of women in UK to be overweight by 2030. Food waste levels diversionary and protective roles in man- remain an unwavering embarrassment. If the cost of healthier aging incident, natural resources. Eventu- eating rise alongside a continued lack of action on consumer ally, with the onset of Circular Economy behaviour, projections like these may even be conservative. thinking, these activities will integrate with urban waste streams (heat, nutrient, A Radical Rethink and Rooftop Farming water) and other forms of excess capacity One silver lining is that these conditions may incentivise a (labour, transport) forming hyperlocal radical rethink of our food system. Fruit and vegetables are at industrial ecologies that could move cities the centre of this; we should be eating more of them, they are from their current, overtly consumptive the most efficient conversion of solar to chemical energy and, paradigm into a more resilient, produc- if adequately designed, we can happily live next to them as they tive alternative. grow. For these reasons, fruit and veg (F+V) could have an archi- Urban rooftop farming is one of the tectural role in our cities, in urban farming and its subsets. There more elegant applications of these ideas. is a wide range of applications and modes, from allotments In its most idealised form, it employs and community gardens to hyper-insulated plant factories and incident natural resources; integrates architecturally-acrobatic vertical farm-scrapers. intelligently and intimately with their The mode of particular interest to this author is that of the host buildings and communities; rooftop greenhouse farm and its variants. Their attraction lies captures local waste streams and serves in their challenge to the thinking that roofscapes serve a merely hyperlocal markets with a fresher, more inert, protective and deflective role, protecting the contents and accountable, more flavoursome (on integrity of a building from rainwater, sunlight and temperature account of its emancipation from food differentials, or just a site for unsightly mechanical plant. Most miles) and cleaner product. Its proximity are clad in materials that degrade on exposure to the elements, to market offers it the flexibility to sell becoming a maintenance liability rather than a productive asset. directly to consumers and respond more Solar generation, rainwater harvesting and green roofs immediately to their demands, enabling have prompted the beginnings of an identity shift which, in the the introduction of new, underserved immediate term, promotes increasing urban biodiversity, beauti- varieties of produce. Crucially, food fication and operational cost reductions by substituting reliance 1 A new mixed tenured prices would stabilise, freed from global on centralised utilities. These roles for roofscapes are largely in terraced block could commodity markets and kept as low as accommodate a their infancy. Rainwater harvesting continues to attract a return rooftop greenhouse possible through reduced dependence on investment concerns in the UK; solar generation suffers from over multiple properties on utilities. Eventually, urban farming’s volatile and politicised financial incentive structures, while 2 Southwark: Studley grand plan includes substituting open Hyperlocal’s retrofitted green roofs have long outgrown their popularity to become just greenhouses on a field industrial agriculture and releasing another planning condition. What is needed is a more radical modernist social land back to forestry. interpretation of a roofscape as the highest plane of an ‘urban housing scheme The challenges are also significant.

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 26 Topic efficiency of LED lights for low-rise, leafy and micro-green plants on hydroponic trays. The consistency of inputs and outputs is a major benefit of the Plant Fac- tory mode of vertical farming, which has attracted considerable investor attention for its bankability. Tall fruiting plants like tomatoes and peppers cannot exploit this verticality bonanza economically given their already considerable height, high energy demand and considerably lower fruit to plant weight ratios. Rooftop greenhouses are 3 better placed to deal with them as they are more judiciously arranged as a single layer crop. Coordination, rather than competition between these modes, will be essential to creating a new hyperlocal food production capacity. London’s roofscape has two notable low-tech greenhouse interventions with mildly commercial mandates. The Cul- peper gastro-pub in Aldgate has a small retrofitted greenhouse nursery where 4 plants are incubated that eventually supplement their kitchen. The ‘grow your Modernist social housing schemes are own’ narrative has supported long waiting rich retrofit opportunities and significant lists and a recognition for their craft. In 2010, Azul Valerie Thome established sources of flat, vacant roofscape FOOD from the SKY – a soil-planter and with surrounding space that could plastic-bottle greenhouse rooftop farm and educational event space over Budgen’s accommodate access cores and new store in Crouch End. The hyperlocal, service risers organic produce grown by its experienced farmers and volunteers made its way downstairs to a branded stand, attracting Finding the right rooftop over an adequately structured build- strong sales. FOOD from the Sky unfortu- ing with adequate human, service and logistical access, and all nately closed down in 2014 when a roof within a catchment area with an appetite for hyperlocal fresh leak was apparently discovered that led produce willing to pay a premium is a needle in a haystack its founders to seek alternative premises. proposition for retrofits. Most of these are more manageable Having hosted countless horticultural with new-build, though planning restrictions will still apply training, arts events and discussions while the concept remains without precedent and supporting around food polemics, it heroically carved legislative guidelines. Supermarkets remain the lowest-lying fruit a modest precedent in how rooftop farms thanks to the immediacy of the point of sale. Schools, sheltered might go beyond mere production and housing and other institutions offer educational and therapeutic play a community-forming role. opportunities. Residential integrations could be community At a domestic level, Charlie Paton, the forming in scope. inventor of the Seawater Greenhouse and North America currently leads the field with two distinct prolific urban farming advocate, installed models of rooftop farm business as exemplified by Gotham large rooflights on his Hackney terraced Greens and Lufa Farms. New York’s Zone Green text amend- house. On the top floor he installed a ment is a permitted development planning legislation allowing simple, tall-plant hydroponic system and rooftop greenhouses on commercial and institutional buildings grows tomatoes using sunlight. Paton to a maximum height of 25ft and a footprint 6ft within the host found the excess internal heat gains were roofline. worth capturing and diverting through Zurich-based Urban Farmers have recently completed their a sensor-driven fan and riser distribu- 1,500sqm aquaponic rooftop greenhouse over the vacant De tion system, which eventually rendered Schilde office building in the Hague. The greenhouse occupies the central heating system surplus to the roofscape, while the 700sqm of the top floor accommodates requirement. fish tanks, services and other logistical spaces. Their plan is to convert the building into a demonstrator project of novel urban The Emergency Projection farming technologies through partnerships and rental agree- In 2012, the London Rooftop Agriculture: ments with providers. A Preliminary Estimate of London’s Productive Potential study estimated that London Urban Farming Scene within London’s 1,572 square km there London has ventured into high-tech urban farming with two 3–4 A&f’s ideas for are approximately 200 million sqm of notable artificially lit, indoor farming businesses concentrat- the Ringcross Estate total roofscape; 92 per cent of it is pitched and the major Tesco ing on high-value, quick turnaround salad leaves, herbs and supermarket in Brixton and inert. microgreens. GrowUp and Growing Underground are exploiting to retrofit horticultural With a population of 8.2 million the vertical stackability and considerable (and growing) energy greenhouses. people, each consuming an average 150g

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 Topic 27 of greenhouse, fruiting-plant products per day (tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc.), Londoners would demand a total of 450,000 tons of fresh produce per year. Employing a conservative figure of 40kg/sqm/year average productivity for greenhoused water-based growing (where tomatoes are 40-80 kg/sqm/yr, and peppers are 25-30kg/sqm/yr), retrofitting, con- verting or integrating rooftop greenhoused production over 5.6 per cent of London’s total roofscape could conceivably meet that total demand. Commercial considerations aside, such a move is valuable as an emergency response to severe supply chain disruption.

The Overnight Projection In 2009, I estimated that London’s total flat roofscape was 1,600 hectares. Most of this space is on extensions to otherwise pitched, detached and semi-detached residences. Inspired by Mark Ridsdill Smith’s Vertical Veg blog documenting the 5 illuminating growing potential of these spaces, I calculated that Londoners could overnight establish a productive capacity ful- filling 5-10 per cent of London’s fresh produce demand, simply by refashioning containers into open air planters, filling with soil, seeding and laying out efficiently. Small, domestic, rooftop greenhouses could offer two or three times that amount.

Estates Projection Modernist social housing schemes are rich retrofit opportuni- ties and significant sources of flat, vacant roofscape with surrounding space that could accommodate access cores and new service risers. Integrating anything over the heads of active communities is naturally going to be challenging if careful con- sultation is not carried out. Social enterprise models with softer commercial outlooks and more social impact mandates might be better placed to accommodate these challenges. My consultancy Architecture & food (A&f) collaborated with Hyde Group estate managers, an urban farming specialist from Arup, and two horticultural consultants on a hypothetical com- petition entry to retrofit a high-tech horticultural greenhouse operation over the roofscape of the Studley Estate in Stockwell 6 called Studley Hyperlocal. It would manage its social compact with that community through a new, resident-led, urban Conclusion commons called Studley Commons. Studley Hyperlocal would For the rooftop greenhouse to become a cede a proportion of its equity to Studley Commons yielding a recognisable urban typology, its econom- social dividend, with which further funds could be leveraged for ics must justify its investment. Its integra- community-forming interventions in vacant and underutilised tion must therefore be in synergy with its spaces or renovations. It included a community kitchen and functions. For a start, it may offer a build- grocer as a point of sale, hosting events, food literacy and cook- ing owner or developer a diminished roof ing and horticultural training programmes supported by the maintenance liability as responsibility horticultural operation. A functional relationship would give the would pass to the new tenant occupying horticultural operation a self-actualised, motivated marketing a space typically left or designed to be department of hundreds of voices, while the community would vacant. As economic uncertainty spreads, gain an income-generating vehicle contributing to its civic pressure to squeeze optimum asset values identity. will become pronounced. In the longer Within the borough of Islington, retrofitting greenhouse run, the very real concerns over our operations on the following six, flat-roofed housing estates food system and its biospheric impact identified by A&f’s London Rooftop Farm Survey – Bemerton, will come to the fore, incentivising ideas Popham Street, Popham Road, Girdlestone, Redbrick and the that are not only resource efficient, but Ringcross Estate – could supply 14 per cent of the borough’s in their absorption of incident natural demand for fresh, greenhouse horticulture produce assuming resources, become resource effective. conservative productivity values. • Oscar Rodriguez, architect and founder of New-Builds consultancy Architecture & food In 10 years, London’s population will grow by one million 5 Charlie Paton’s people. For every Londoner, the city has 25sqm of roofscape. If home rooftop we are to assume the ratio is maintained, 25 million sqm of new greenhouse 6 A&f’s terraced roofscape will be built. If 50 per cent of that area were commit- housing designed ted to production at 40kg/sqm/yr, the capacity would meet 100 to harvest every per cent of London’s demand. Opportunities to optimise the photon, capture every drop of metabolics of the model would be readily available and such an rainwater and cycle endeavour would require a mature, supporting legislative and every scrap of incentives framework. organic waste

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 28 Topic Urban Farming and Family Farms Olusola Olufemi describes examples of farms in three very different cultures

sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and produc- tion, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality. This article examines urban farming and family farms across three cultures from Wageningen in the Netherlands, Toronto in Canada, and Ibadan, Nigeria.

Paradijs Farm, The Netherlands Paradijs Farm is a multifunctional family ‘care’ farm established since 2006 on the previous site of a defunct farm, and rapidly expanding in demographics and activities. Currently in the Netherlands the number of care farms has increased at an alarming rate from 75 in 1998, to more than 800 in 2008. There are about 750 certified care farmers in The Netherlands. 1 Paradijs Farm’s activities represent 60 ‘Small farms have been a historic bedrock of cultures…and per cent care and 40 per cent agriculture. they can be a crucial part of more efficient, ecologically The farm provides therapeutic care for rational agricultural systems that sustain dignified liveli- the elderly (aged 60 and over), autistic hoods in the future’ children (up to 16 years old), people (Weis, 2007, p.9). with dementia, Downs’ Syndrome and Parkinson’s disease. Knowledge, passion, rban farming, family farms, or families engaged in care, and good living form the core of the farming constitute an integral part of the food and city farm’s values. Care farming is becoming Uconversation. The contribution of family farms (about increasingly popular and widely accepted 570 million family farms globally) to livelihoods and food in the Netherlands for the elderly, those security cannot be overemphasised when one in eight people suffering from mental health problems, go hungry daily and, as we look towards 2050 to sustainably children with autism and the mentally secure ‘our hungry planet’ with sustainable food production and or physically handicapped. It is a form of healthy diets. 2014 was declared International Year of Family green care with the associated benefits of Farming. Family farming is a means of organising agricultural, being around nature. forestry, fisheries, pastoral and aquaculture production, which Originally Paradijs Farm covered is managed and operated by a family and predominantly reliant about 60ha, but now about 20ha have on family labour, including both women and men. ‘Family farms been rebuilt to accommodate mixed represent the dominant form of agriculture in most countries. farm activities which include livestock They range in size from tiny, subsistence holdings to large-scale, care (cows, goats), petting zoo, vegetable commercial enterprises, and they produce a vast range of food garden, horticulture, horse riding, feed- and cash crops in all kinds of agro-ecological conditions’ (SOFA, ing or grooming, and an organic farm 2014, p.8). Alluding to ensuring a food secure planet, the second with about 6,000 chickens. It serves Sustainable Development Goal affirms the need to end hunger, the local food market within 60-80km achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote radius. Paradijs Farm forms part of a sustainable agriculture; two of the targets aim by 2030 to: farmers’ park corporation, comprising Double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small- about 13 farmers collaborating together scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, in the region. Farm produce is sold to family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through local hotels, restaurants and universities. 1 Jane and Finch secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and apartments overlooking It makes a connection between city and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportuni- Black Creek Farm, rural production through care, education ties for value addition and non-farm employment; and Ensure Toronto, Canada (raising awareness) and food production.

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 Topic 29 ‘Paradijs Farm brings a new perspective to development and farming (having a clear production process and business plan), the notion of the farmer as entrepreneur, inter-generational farming, social integration, getting back to nature, and consum- ers prepared to pay but wanting to know the origin of their food due to a lot of food scandals’(Discussion with farm manager, October 2015).

Black Creek Community Farm, Canada Black Creek Farm is located in a high-density, low-income built-up neighbourhood of Jane and Finch, Toronto. Black Creek Community Farm is a youth-focused urban farm on the City of Toronto’s land, leased from the Toronto and Region Conserva- tion Authority (TRCA). The TRCA‘s idea of a living city vision with an agricultural policy focus is showcased in the Black Creek Community Farm. The six-acre urban farm focuses on empower- ing the youth in the community in food production (with organic produce for sale) and horticultural skills training, plus recrea- tional activities. Other urban farm projects on TRCA’s land holdings include a working farm developed at the Kortwright environmental education centre in Vaughan, and the McVean Farm, designated Category A heritage resource, which is located on conservation lands with 37 acres. It provides a New Farm Incubator Program offering access to land, equipment, business plans and technical training. The Places to Grow Act and the Growth Plan for the 2 Greater Golden Horseshoe in 2006 as well as Ontario’s Greenbelt Act in 2005, protects 1.8 million acres of environmentally sensi- tive and agricultural land around the Greater Golden Horseshoe area. Residential developments incorporating rooftop gardens, community gardens as well as urban farms into their design are gaining prominence in Toronto. Gallant and Wekerle (2009, p31) note that ‘the rise in incorporating farms into residential developments may reflect growing concerns for food security, food safety and local food and there is greater public awareness of food issues… resulting in pressures to provide more opportu- nities for food production in urban and peri-urban areas that go beyond community gardens and allotments’. Farm subdivisions ‘have a number of distinct forms, providing different models for preserving agricultural land, growing local food or financing agricultural operations. Some focus on open space preservation and ecologically important landscapes, including farmland. Oth- ers are designed around a plethora of local food initiatives. They 3 are initiated by developers, government and non-profits’.

Altona Lea Farm, Canada Altona Lea Farm covers about 750 acres with about 55 cows. The barn was built in 1910 but the parents of the current owners bought it in 1978. Located on favourable topography, the farm cultivates soybean, wheat, barley, corn and hay for horses. Altona Lea Farm is a family-focused dairy operation anchored by their three-time Master Breeder Herd of Holsteins. Altona Lea is a champion producer earning high county herd production and milk quality, and Lifetime Production awards. The family has bred the Grand Champion variously between 1992 and 2005 at the Royal Highland Show in Scotland and has exported cattle to the United Kingdom, Scotland and Ireland. The challenge however, is the rapidly expanding metropoli- tan development in the Greater Toronto Horseshoe especially Durham region, coupled with the extension of Highway 7, which is rolling north and so some farms (especially dairy farms) are 4 moving further north and rebuilding. There is a debate between Romsky Ranch, Nigeria white-belt land and greenbelt land, and the conundrum is Most family farms in Nigeria are located between preserving the land and taking money from the devel- 2 Black Creek in rural-urban peripheries, at the bounda- opers. However, the greenbelts seemingly slow down develop- Community Farm, ries of major cities or in secondary towns ment. ‘Our herd is uniquely suited to provide young stock that Toronto bordering major cities or rural com- 3 The Altona Lee has the potential to be foundation animals for herds around the farmhouse, Toronto munities. Romsky Ranch covers about 10 world. Development is coming to farming and displacing farms’ 4 The cattle on Romsky hectares, and is located in Lagelu Local (Discussion with farmer, 2014). Ranch, Nigeria Government Area, Ibadan, Nigeria. It

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 30 Topic the scalability in terms of the local or • regional coverage, the size of the farms – small to medium scale the opportunities for enterprise, where • most of the owners have business skills, innovation, market-based and supply chain management sustainability in terms of green care • and preservation.

Consequently, planning tools, urban design approaches to ensure minimal degradation of the ecosystems, and the utilisation of land and nature should revolve around these common denominators. The farms have locational and spatial advantages reaching a wider catchment 5 area within their respective regions contributes to feeding families, the local food system, com- and they already exhibit some of the munity development and food security within the cities (Lagos principles of New Ruralism, reconnect- and Ibadan) by creating direct access to fresh farm produce at ing people, farmers, landowners, local affordable prices. administrators, traditional leaders and Accessing food grown locally is sustainable and the food developers with the land, in a sustain- value chain is based on local food production, from farm to fork. able way. They serve the sub-regions The Ranch is equipped with a modern farm house (two rooms) and in terms of scalability they extend and two other thatched houses, which serve as residences on the beyond the local food belt and are part Ranch. There is a fully functional borehole facility with 8,000 of the local food cluster. Connectivity, litres overhead storage tank capacity, both for water consump- good habitat management, preservation tion and future irrigation plans during the dry season, a generat- of biodiversity and infrastructures are ing plant with 5 KVA capacity, and a mill. germane to New Ruralism, while family Romsky Ranch is family-owned and began in August 2013. Its farms are central to addressing hunger, produce includes plantain suckers intercropped with the pineap- poverty, malnutrition in the rural and ples. Yams and maize were also planted and there are two sepa- sub-regional areas and in preserving the rate 3,000 fingerlings capacity fishpond on the farm. Romsky natural environment against degradation. Ranch adopts the intercropping method of cultivation. 48 cattle Thus, New Ruralism principles and farm heads were raised for eight months but due to mismanagement subdivisions seem to be major factors in by the handler and increasing mortality, the farmer was forced to the planning and design of urban family sell them. Six rams and six goats were also raised alongside the farms. cattle on the ranch. Harvested produce e.g. plantain, pineapples Though ‘New Ruralism is the preser- and yams, is targeted to feed families within (including road-side vation and enhancement of urban edge food entrepreneurs and retailers) and beyond the local food shed rural areas as places that are indispensa- extending even across local governments and state boundaries ble to the economic, environmental, and (Oyo and Lagos States). Other natural spinoffs from the farm are cultural vitality of cities and metropolitan vegetables like jute leaves and water leaf, which are harvested regions’ (Kraus, 2006, p27), farm subdivi- and given to different families and at times of huge crops taken sions proponents argue that subdivisions to the market to sell. preserve productive farms, contribute Labour in the farm is predominantly manual. Apart from to ecological sustainability, meet rising the cattle herders, who are Fulani (nomadic pastoralists) from demands for local food production and the northern part of Nigeria, local labour is erratic and has to be bring farmers and consumers close sourced from neighbouring countries like Togo. Men work on together and they combine opportunities the farm especially during rainy season, and women within the for residential development with commu- community are often hired on a daily basis for harvesting and nity urban farms, horticultural education, maize shelling. Embedded in the preservation of the agricultural, youth training (Gallant and Wekerle, ecological, and local cultural attributes, Romsky Ranch is located 2009). in a virtually virgin, pristine land, or natural habitat where the These questions remain: do planners land use is primarily agricultural, incorporating pastoral activi- want to continue to separate agricultural ties and wildlife. The land has palm trees referred to as money land use from residential land use? trees and these have become source of livelihood for palm wine How do planners want to accommodate tappers (fresh, undiluted palm wine is derived from the trees). the growing expansion of cities and its The palm trees are also source for making shea butter, palm encroachment on agricultural lands and kernels, and red palm oil. the greenbelts? What kind of planning tools (e.g. zoning regulations) need to Common Denominators be developed? How do we design food- Family, food access and availability, contribution to the local friendly cities without compromising food economy, innovation, preservation, entrepreneurial farm- agricultural lands and greenbelts? How do ers and green care (nature, restorative health, mental, social we design around therapeutic urban farm-

connection, physical activity and therapy) are some of the 5 Coming out of the ing that promotes healthy foodscapes and common denominators that connect these three urban farming kitchen at Romsky ecosystems? cultures, specifically: Ranch, Nigeria.

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 Topic 31 Conclusion References The primary use of the land for family farms in the three cultures Gallant, E. and Wekerle, G.R. (2009) Farm helps to preserve the habitat, ecosystems and wildlife, and to Subdivisions: Preserving Farmland promote the area as a local food belt. With proper planning, and/or Exurban Amenity Space? Plan communities in the vicinity could develop comprehensive plans Canada, 2009, vo. 49, no. 2, p31-4. (including conservation) that will integrate all farming activities Hopkins, S (2011) ‘t Paradijs – A Tale of and developments, and incorporate agri-tourism or food tour- Man and Nature, accessed October ism operations that embed food festivals/local food flavours. 27, 2015 from http://ruralsociolo- Integrating the concept of New Ruralism or green urbanism into gywageningen.nl/2011/04/20/ per land use planning and farm subdivisions is pivotal to: cente2 per cent80 per cent98t- Attaining sustainable, resilient food systems, and secur- paradijs- per cente2 per cent80 per • ing family farms that are threatened by land grabbing and cent93-a-tale-of-man-and-nature/ encroachment by development Kraus, S (2006) A Call for New Ruralism, Re-connecting with the land and nature, encouraging smart accessed June 27, 2015 from http:// • growth, and ensuring sustainable food production systems www.farmlandinfo.org/sites/default/ that utilise resilient agricultural practices to increase produc- files/new-ruralism_1.pdf, tivity, production, and maintain ecosystems health SOFA (2014) The State of Food and Agri- Helping family farms across the three cultures to work har- culture 2014: Innovation in Family • moniously with nature and present good practice for research Farming, FAO of the United Nations and development, and a teaching laboratory for farmers Report, Rome, www.fao.org, 161pp. especially the young, women and the marginalised. Weis, T (2007) The Global Economy: • The Battle for the Future of Farming, Olusola Olufemi, Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, Fenwood Publishing, Canada: Halifax and independent freelance consultant, mentor and educator and Winnipeg.

Edible Eastside Jayne Bradley Ghosh tells the story of a Birmingham food garden

1 2 n September 2016, after five years of food production in the The site before city centre of Birmingham, Edible Eastside will close. The Edible Eastside was thus born in the I third of an acre former gas-filling station is to be returned regeneration area called Eastside. The to the landowner, who has plans for its redevelopment. This day site was part of a five-acre redevelopment was always on the cards for us. scheme owned by ISIS Waterside Regen- The land needed to create a model for an urban food system eration (part owned by the then British had to have the following criteria: be as close as possible to the Waterways). The site was surrounded by city centre; appear improbable as a food growing space; and ide- canals and the River Rea within Warwick ally, involve land where development had stalled. On a practical Bar, an important conservation area 1 Birmingham: note, it would also need some element of enclosure so that we Edible Eastside in for the city. It is still occupied by heavy could secure it. I initially took the site on a ten-year lease (with a 2013 industries – my neighbours are a concrete three-month break clause) at a peppercorn rent. 2 The site in 2011 batch plant and a metal processor – and

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 32 Topic

4

5

3

Our vision was for a city populated with pop-up food gardens on abandoned or derelict land, adding food production to the urban topography, a deliberate unplanned occupation

6 creative industries are only just moving in. The Warwick Bar area renewal. Corner shops sold cigarettes, had been masterplanned and its owners were seeking planning cans, newspapers, milk and biscuits. permission for a dense mixed use scheme in 2008, just when the Where did people in inner city housing credit crunch hit the property sector. The landlord abandoned estates source their food from? Food the project when the banks withdrew their funding in early deserts are a well-documented feature of 2009. city life. And so while a food garden can’t To help me set up the project, I recruited a small team of four, meet all of people’s food needs, it can sug- who then became the directors of the not-for-profit company gest alternative possibilities. Could we go with the same name. The team was deliberately multi-discipli- from a desert to an oasis? nary consisting of artists, public artists, architects, horticultur- From the outset the project approach ists and sustainability experts. When we opened for our first was to create a demonstration of what growing season in 2012, this was our ambitious mission: urban food might look like. Given that the feature of cities is their changing urban ‘Edible Eastside is a visionary initiative to transform a der- form, land use and economic resilience, elict brownfield site into a vibrant and contemporary urban our hypothesis was that an urban agricul- garden for people to learn to grow plants and food. ture scheme also needed to be flexible, Edible Eastside wants to explore through a collaborative pro- adaptable and resilient, and be ready to cess, issues of urban resilience, sustainable development and move where the opportunity and needs the role of culture in climate change. It hopes to offer a cen- are. tralised resource and strategic support for artists, architects, Our project would be entrepreneurial, urban gardeners, community activists and regeneration not charitable. It would celebrate the fact agencies interested in urban food growing. that urban land would never be available for agriculture on any long-term basis. Our aim is to increase our understanding of urban produc- Given our location, people asked how a tive landscapes with research in practice involving artists, community growing space could oper- designers, gardeners and chefs to explore a new aesthetic for ate with no community. Our industrial urban environments.’ 3–6 Birmingham’s neighbours thought we were activists. We Edible Eastside: the thought their wooden pallets and forklift plots were available to My own background in public art and community regeneration rent, and the weekly trucks would come in handy. Like all the schemes had led me to explore food as a cultural resource, and to harvest was soon best inventions, we would create the identify the absence of food system planning in neighbourhood extensive demand and make our community.

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 Topic 33

7 8 Rent a plot authority. Despite much land still being Our vision was for a city populated with pop-up food gardens on unoccupied in city centres (on average abandoned or derelict land, adding food production to the urban about 25 per cent of land is vacant), over- topography, a deliberate unplanned occupation. coming the obstacles and putting land to The project operated as a business. We rented container food use is one of the many barriers to beds, which we called plots. They were 2m x 1m in size, filled urban food growing, which keeps it in the with compost, ready for growing and costing £100 a year to rent. margins of food supply. A bit of politick- We adopted the allotment model of annual rents as a strategy to ing would have made all the difference. secure buy-in. Renters were our members, who would volunteer The proposed terminal for HS2 in to help run the project as part of their rental agreements. The Birmingham can be seen from our garden plots were designed to be mobile (using a forklift truck). Other and will dominate the area. Our original income came from events, workshops and funded creative and landlord, ISIS, decided to sell rather than workshop programmes. develop the site and sold it at the begin- The project was site-specific, responding to its limits and ning of 2016. Inevitably it was time for opportunities. We deliberately created a destination space, us to move on as Eastside is again being because as creative people, we were easily able to work with the primed for regeneration. With HS2 as space to create iconic imagery, play with the juxtaposition of the the driver, confidence is high, and while I landscape, and add metaphor. We also worked with students of welcome the regeneration, we decided to architecture and planning with a series of artistic events each close rather than move. year. We attracted over 200 people to our live art events, we Our biggest impact was our ability to hosted touring exhibitions and held seminars on urban food capture the imagination of visitors and supply. users, who were sometimes overwhelmed We also grew vegetables: we started with 12 plots and by the lushness of the garden in such a increased it to 40 plots within two growing seasons. Our place- gritty environment. The project attracted marketing approach worked in so far as we became one of the about 1,000 visitors a year and sustained many cultural destinations in the city, a regular Friday night a cohort of growers for five years. Most of hang-out in summer. our gardeners went on to have allotments. Strategically, we situated ourselves within the context of the The future of urban food growing is independent food sector that had also emerged in Birmingham positive with interest remaining high. The over the last five years. Linked to our vision, we were food cul- evidence so far is that the social benefits ture, not horticulture. Our wild-food café helped to shape what of growing food outweigh any impact on later became a cookery school programme and dining club, using the environment, food supply or diets. the garden produce. Our project was no different: I began a Before I opened the garden I was warned that it would take campaign to see food growing as a feature over my life. The ambition to see pop-up food gardens across of city life because I care about food. the city became impossible in the sheer workload of keeping the In the end people were inspired by our single garden operating as a going concern. For example, in the grassroots entrepreneurialism to shape hot summer months it took over two hours each evening to water the city as we wanted it to be. the garden. Our rainwater harvesting attempts suffered from no • guttering and we could never afford an irrigation system. Jayne Bradley Ghosh, Director of Edible Eastside CIC, www.edibleeastside.net Moving on 7 A view of Edible We began looking for new sites in 2015 but by then the economy Eastside with a painted gas tank across the was picking up and it became harder for landowners to commit canal to any future timeframe. In addition, our vision for city-wide 8 Another part of the pop-up food gardens was not necessarily shared by the local site in 2011

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 34 Topic Allotment of the Future Helen Grimshaw and Jie Lu describe a recent innovative and thought-provoking exhibition

1 2 t is not surprising that the urban population is expected to Allotment of the Future design grow over the coming decades given rates of global popula- Our brief for the Allotment of the Future I tion growth; estimates are that more than 60 per cent of was twofold. Firstly, it had to be an engag- people will be living in cities by 2050. This poses huge chal- ing public exhibition; something with lenges, not least in how to ensure equitable access to nutrition- scale and impact to get people interested. ally balanced and low-carbon diets. Secondly, it had to be relatable, allowing The food and drink that we consume at home accounts for 11 visitors to envisage the future of food per cent of the total UK consumption-based greenhouse gases. growing at the domestic scale; and, of the As the Centre for Alternative Technology report People, Plate future but not so futuristic that people and Planet (Blake, 2014) points out, beyond production, the would feel it was beyond their reach. transportation, packaging, processing, refrigerating and cook- This led us to develop the design ing of food, all contribute to this, as does the 42 per cent of our around a one-metre grid populated with imported food. Climate change is also a threat to food security, modules and planters. As well as offering with access, utilisation and price stability potentially affected. flexibility and ease of assembly, this scale With these issues in mind, how might we respond to these chal- worked well with the space available lenges through urban growing? within St Ann’s Square, Manchester, This is a question that the Allotment of the Future project allowing a flow of people as well as space started to explore through a week-long installation in Man- for activities. We were also keen that visi- chester city centre, part of the Science in the City festival. The tors could imagine this modular concept aim was to promote an increased understanding of the science in their own homes. So, we explored typi- involved in food production, along with practical information cal balcony and terrace sizes, and devised and activities to inform everyday food choices. a concept that would provide horizontal Sustainability is the thread that weaves through all of and vertical growing areas in similar small URBED’s work, so when we were asked to help design and urban spaces. coordinate the Allotment of the Future installation, it felt like a For the planters and modules (finessed natural fit. Beyond the salad crops that we grow in our office, we and built by Salford based M3 Industries) have a strong professional interest in the promotion of sustain- we adopted a simple material pallet that able and healthy food systems. We worked on the Alpha Farm takes references from commercial grow- project commissioned by Manchester International Festival in ing systems. This seeks to differentiate 2011, exploring how far we could minimise the energy required the space from the typical rustic aesthetic for innovative indoor growing systems to work. These ideas, of most allotments, but is still mindful including aquaculture (fish), vermiculture (worms) and fungi- of sustainability and could be achieved culture (mushrooms) were put into practice in the Wythenshawe as a DIY project. We explored human Biosphere (delivered by Biomatrix Water) at Manchester College. 1 A concept sketch for dimensions and considered how we could We are currently working with Liverpool-based Squash Nutrition the Allotment of the create different sensory experiences by Future and the local community in Toxteth on the designs for a new 2 The design of the displaying crops at different levels. The community food hub, complete with a shop, cafe, kitchen and concept modules at planters are made from plywood and can growing space. different stages be arranged in a variety of ways; either

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 Topic 35 directly on the floor (the perfect height for toddlers to explore, or with a lid, a comfortable height for a seat), hung within the metal frames to provide raised beds, or placed at the base with the taller metal frames providing the infrastructure for climbing plants. The galvanised steel of the key clamp frames provides a very low maintenance finish, and for the exhibition week provided a ready-made structure for the information on display. Mindful of creating a legacy after the week-long installation in St Ann’s Square, the modular design means elements can be easily divided and transported to new homes.

Alternative sources of protein Based on current trends, it is estimated that global meat con- sumption will reach 460 million tonnes in 2050, a 65 per cent increase on 2009. This places huge pressures on greenhouse gas emissions and land use. By reducing the amount of meat 3 and dairy in our diets, emissions could be reduced by as much as 34 per cent (Blake, 2014). These themes are explored within the allotment by showcasing alternative crops with a particular focus on how we might grow protein domestically, using exam- ples such as sorghum, a grain with a similar protein content to wheat that can cope with drought and high temperatures, and algae rarely considered in our urban diets but a sector with rapid growth (estimated at 10 per cent each year) with the protein content of some species as high as 35per cent. Mushrooms are another healthy, high protein alternative to meat, that Squirrel Nation are exploring with Farmlab, an award winning pop-up farming experiment. Fungi are incredibly effec- tive at recycling nutrients; in this case the used coffee grounds from the adjacent coffee cart are used as a growing medium for fungi spores. Throughout the week people were invited into the lab to make their own DIY mushroom bag, and could see and taste the mushrooms fruiting on site. 4 Insects are already eaten by around 30 per cent of the global crops and livestock. For the domestic population and are seen as an excellent source of protein, and urban grower, soil quality can be calcium and iron. Despite this, consumption in Europe is very improved by using particular plants such low; according to the Food Standards Agency, there are just 13 as lupins and peas to add and fix nitrogen. companies in the UK selling insect products. This is partly due to The Allotment of the Future project food safety regulations which restrict the import of insects into demonstrates that design has a role to Europe, although undoubtedly the psychological hurdle amongst play in the future of urban food produc- consumers also needs to be tackled. At the allotment, informa- tion, as well as creating fun, friendly and tion explored the benefits of insects as a food source, and at educational spaces in the city that work workshops visitors were encouraged to try crickets. for both people and wildlife. As profes- Through cooking demonstrations, the Tyndall Centre for Cli- sionals, we can seek out opportunities to mate Change Research and Real Junk Food Manchester explored design spaces that work more intensively how our shopping basket might look in 2050, with staples like and incorporate food growing, and to potatoes, corn, bread and dairy (as well as cocoa, wine and beer encourage our clients to understand the production) all potentially suffering from fluctuations in precipi- importance of food in creating resilient tation and temperature. communities. We should also embrace the opportunities for exciting collaborations Growing in urban spaces with other creative professionals, experts The community organisation Real Food Wythenshawe show- and community organisations. We hope cased both familiar crops (leeks, carrots, peas and tomatoes) that we have successfully designed a and the more unusual (corn, tom-tatoes, cucamelons and platform that showcases the innovative, lentils), showing the possibilities of growing food in small urban unusual and familiar elements, from algae spaces. This theme carried through to the hydroponics instal- through to peas. But more importantly, we lation built by Sow the City, demonstrating that technology can hope this provides a basis for the conver- facilitate higher yields from small spaces. Here the plant roots sations that we all need to be having about are grown in an inert material which has a nutrient-rich solution how we feed ourselves in the future. running through it, and the pump is powered by a solar panel. • Helen Grimshaw, Senior Sustainability The importance of soil Consultant and Jie Lu, Urban Designer, Working with scientists from the University of Manchester and URBED Salford, the allotment also communicates the importance of soil to food security, key threats being the depletion of nutrients and 3–4 Manchester’s Reference loss to erosion. Soil is also vital to our efforts to mitigate climate Allotment of the Future Blake, L (2014) People, Plate and Planet: change, with soil and peat lands both acting as huge carbon exhibition: algae The impact of dietary choices on high in protein and sinks. Two large soil profiles explored the different layers and hydroponics crops health, greenhouse gas emissions properties of soil in different environments, the chernozem grown with minimal and land use. Centre for Alternative profile being particularly fertile and capable of supporting both inputs Technology.

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 36 Topic

The Food Parliament: An Infrastructure for Resilience CJ Lim describes a vision for the future

‘Parliament examines what the Government of the United that future built environment efforts Kingdom is doing, makes new laws, holds the power to set towards resilience can provide potential taxes and debates the issues of the day. The business of multiple benefits to cities. Parliament takes place in two Houses: the House of Com- mons and the House of Lords in the Palace of Westminster, A FOOD LEGISLATIVE BODY more commonly known as the Houses of Parliament. The The Food Parliament is the fictional architecture has transformed from royal residence to the supreme food legislative body for London home of a modern democracy and has continually evolved, and its territories. Reimagined here as a sometimes by design, sometimes through accident or landlocked sovereign city-state, it has an attack’. area of approximately 3.15km2 overlaid (www.parliament.uk 2014) onto the existing city. As a secondary infrastructure, the Food Parliament he Rockefeller Foundation’s president, Judith Rodin, functions as a holistic ecology: an has defined resilience as ‘the capacity to bounce back environmental strategy and food system T from a crisis, learn from it, and achieve revitalisation. that is self-perpetuating yet engaged in A community needs awareness, diversity, integration, the a symbiotic dialogue with contemporary capacity for self-regulation, and adaptiveness to be resilient’. London below. The main territory of the Society can only be resilient when the city delivers basic func- Food Parliament sits 100m above sea tions to its entire community, in both good times and bad. The level and traces the outline of the historic resilience movement also has important roles to play in both City of London, defined by the defensive ensuring that current architecture assets and cultural heritage London Wall built around AD 43 by the are protected from long-term and acute effects, and developing Romans to enclose Londinium. Twenty- revolutionary new spatial programmes and systems fit for the eight new vertical service-circulation challenges of the 21st century. The effects of climate change on cores, a network of appropriated satellite the built environment are not limited to changes of weather, 1 The Food Parliament parks, disused sites and streets named as a holistic ecology but include the impact on architectural efforts towards changes with vertical service- after influential food sources constitute in behaviour, demographics, population growth and economic circulation towers, and the extension of the infrastructure into environment. Globally, governments are now acknowledging satellite parks the city.

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 Topic 37 The Food Parliament enjoys similar privileges to that of the CULTIVATION AS A PRIORITY City of London with a singular relationship with the Crown, Food cultivation, a typical oversight for and possessing a unique political status as a communal city. The most cities, is now at the heart of all formally unorthodox, collaborative parliamentary components urban planning and urban health initia- promote the advantages of decentralisation and independence. tives in London. The Food Parliament The Food Parliament has three main pledges: has adapted city laws to address issues to promote the city as the world’s leading international centre of land security and tenure, and declared • of excellence for food sovereignty; indefinite free rights to cultivate food on to facilitate local communities and individuals in the cultiva- disused private sites and vacant municipal • tion, processing and distribution of food within the city; and land. The new micro-economy invites the to disseminate the new notion of wealth. English arcadia back into London; wildlife • corridors and bio-diversity traverse car- PARLIAMENT REIMAGINED free municipalities. The infrastructure of The functionaries of the United Kingdom’s supreme legislative the Food Parliament accommodates the body are transfigured into tectonic analogues, responsible for welcome return of locally grown food in tabling and implementing the new acts of parliament. Each tec- London. Land is legitimately appropri- tonic analogue, steered by Erskine May’s guide to Parliamentary ated for bio-diverse green allotments of Practice, uses spatial relationships to reframe the spaces of food urban agriculture, and wild deer graze consumption and production, analysed through historical prec- in public parks in a campaign to restore edent, function and form. The characters are not human, but nature’s civil liberties. Urban kitchens anthropomorphic totems that perform duties running in parallel and bakeries will only source food within to their real world flesh-and-blood counterparts. There are 646 a 10 mile radius. Consumerism is no Members of Parliament (MPs) regulating the city and responding longer the sterile, cursory experience to the manifold problems created by urbanisation. ‘Victoria Tow- redolent of supermarket aisles – streets ers’ are water harvesters, the ‘Red Briefcase’ is a food repository, are alive with trade, gastronomy and and ‘10 Downing Street’ an urban scarecrow. Simultaneously, the ecology. The wetland habitat from the historical and geographical resources of early urban tectonics River Thames has migrated onto the city’s of London are appropriated to fuel the processes of the second undulating rooftops, harvesting fresh city. The ‘River Thames’ collects urban organic waste and feeds it rainwater for aquaculture and irrigation back into the agriculture above, instigating a waste-free cycle. within repeated fish ponds perched on The Food Parliament propagates sustainable capital as part the skyline. Historically, the distribution of the new economic model and is the support mechanism for of provisions to modern cities is tenu- transparency in local and national food governance. The city’s ous, relying on transport and storage green micro-economy is rooted in the earth and the environ- mechanisms that are taken for granted, ment, establishing equality and shared accountability for the but nonetheless vulnerable to natural propagation of wealth. The Food Parliament is premised on the and manmade disasters. Here, local fresh adoption of food as the local currency standard of London. Food food is distributed along a green national is a commodity that is in increasingly short supply in the real grid without the historical overriding reli- world. World agricultural production has declined with severe ance on extensive food miles. natural global disasters and the rapid urbanisation of arable The second city acts as both a catalyst land. The rural is becoming urbanised through the migration of and support network for a safe, nutritious urban and peri-urban areas, and the appropriation of the rural and life-enhancing diet that is agro- for the burgeoning city. Simultaneously, food-producing nations ecological, through social inclusivity, are imposing food export restrictions, and constrained access to community and personal empowerment. sustainable energy and water are further inhibiting affordable Socio-economic responsibilities are food. Given the failures of our debt-based monetary system, the devolved amongst London’s constituents fragility and unsustainable nature of our agricultural practices, with a user-centred approach, developing and the social exploitation orchestrated by vast unregulated social relationships and trust through corporations, a reserve currency backed by the tangible asset of local food production to boost individual food, although improbable, is not illogical. and collective recovery capital. Social enterprises nurturing food provenance A GREEN RELIGION and safety empower communities. The With the Food Parliament comes a new green religion. The third age is no longer side-lined in demo- green ascription is protecting more than just food; it secures graphic state policy – pensioners are ecological and social wealth for the city by expanding the com- invited to mentor a new generation of cul- monly received notion of wealth to include fresh air and water, tivators with their invaluable food related natural daylight, green space and reduction of greenhouse gas knowledge and experience. Food support emissions. Urban sprawl and the old building stock are synony- partnerships may appear modest in scale mous with climate change issues, including air pollution from but they play a vital role in stimulating transport and the relentless increase in energy consumption, the perceptual shift in how city dwellers resulting in negative health impacts. The new infrastructure of think about and procure meals. The Food the Food Parliament sets out an optimum environment for the Parliament can demonstrate spatial city below to prevent the problem of increasing summer air-con- phenomenology in the city, stimulating ditioning and winter heating. The innovative renewable energy our eyes, ears, noses, minds and tongues technologies of the city silently co-exist alongside nature, har- – vision made real, social capital that can vesting solar, wind, bio and hydro energies, and recycle organic be tasted. municipal waste for urban agriculture. Zero carbon deer-pulled carriages have replaced all London buses and taxis. In the past, CIVIC SYSTEMS London has failed to address the issue of energy consumption, as The Green National Insurance Policy pro- well as its food sourcing. motes sustainable vegetable cultivation

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 38 Topic

2 pollinating insects, and studded with lush The popularity of the garden agriculture, is a provocation. The physical rekindles mankind’s natural absurdity of the proposal intends to raise serious questions about the priorities bond with food, nature and of our governing bodies and to engage society, offsetting contemporary individuals with issues of food sover- eignty and climate change. However, the introverted pursuits in digital principles that underlie its premise and media with real time the justification for its existence, in some form or other, are both real and urgent. Food is the driver for the restructuring and animal husbandry to protect food and social security. of employment, education, transport, London’s inhabitants have come together to cultivate using health, communities and the justice the new infrastructure; and convert patios, rooftops and system, re-evaluating how the city func- unused parking lots into productive vegetable allotments and tions as a political and spatial sustainable reared livestock in a collective effort redolent of the World entity. The Food Parliament ensures its War II victory gardens. Civic enterprises are taking root with constituents the freedom to exercise their employment opportunities for every generation disseminat- new green religion, cultivating a green ing knowledge and life skills to cultivate collective and indi- notion of wealth – the city is ready for the vidual wealth. Co-ops are established, owned and managed by future. local communities encouraging renewable energy ecosystems • in the food cultivation chain, providing substantial cost sav- CJ Lim, Professor of Architecture and ings and healthy revenue. Urbanism, The Bartlett, UCL and founder of The Food Parliament firmly believes in ‘prevention rather Studio 8 Architects than cure’, and has invested in a local food distribution system and nutritious diet plan. Through the Nutritional Health Service, the second city communicates with its constituencies by employing gastronomic festivities, and disseminating nourishment and knowledge on wellbeing. The service also educates urban cultivators in methods of permaculture, composting and the use of biological controls. Permaculture enables the city to have a sustainable high-yielding ecosystem and increased biodiversity. The vertical allotments transform London’s skyline, providing city dwellers with a ‘green health centre’ to rediscover the meaning of hand-to-mouth existence. The popularity of the garden rekindles mankind’s natural bond with food, nature and society, offsetting contem- porary introverted pursuits in digital media with real time.

2 The Food Parliament IS THIS A REALITY? hovers over the city The Food Parliament, a fertile plain over London busied by 100m above sea level

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 Topic 39 Food and the City Reviewed Jane Manning sums up the lessons to be learned

extending the sale of local food into the average weekly shop has not yet been achieved, but could be. Examples such as OrganicLea in the Lea Valley illustrate a stepping stone towards this, with an extensive nursery garden on the urban edge and shop outlet and cafe in the high street. Broader trends of how we might buy our weekly food shop and have food delivered in the future are less clear. In Amsterdam, businesses are already dis- tributing food to the restaurant trade and local supermarkets by bike, transforming the nature of servicing in the streetscape. For designers, all of this is really exciting. It is a big challenge right at the scale we work best at. Many designers will have been thinking along these lines for years; for others the issue is now coming into focus. It is fair that for many 1 urban designers, architects and planners, he articles in this issue of Urban Design have shown that food production and logistics are a step growing more of our own food cannot just be considered outside their comfort zone, unless they T as a ‘nice to have’ – one of those little bonuses sprinkled were lucky enough to grow up on a farm in at the end of the design process to make a scheme more palat- or to have an allotment. However, we are able or score more points. Rather, the sheer challenge of feeding used to bringing in other disciplines and growing populations in a sustainable way, means that these ideas specialists, and we work very well as the need to be mainstream and the principles integrated into strate- fulcrum between multiple disciplines. gies and schemes from the outset. If we want to see Brexit as an Designing for productive landscapes must opportunity, producing significantly more of our own food isn’t now become another string to our bow. a bad place to start. Reinventing building and block But it is more than just about growing food. One of the most typologies and creating new ones will be striking conclusions from the site-specific articles was the ben- needed, carving out growing space from efit that growing space has beyond environmental sustainability floor plans and sections. There will be and nutrition. The social and mental health impact of making challenges for public realm design, where food space can be far-reaching. A big part of what motivates us, growing space will need to be integrated as designers, is the idea that we are making people’s lives better: across the public -private space defini- more enjoyable, more fulfilled and more convivial. If we want to tion. The best masterplans will need to avoid the now widely predicted mental health disaster from com- use growing space in a creative way rather ing over the next 50 years, we will need to broaden our responses than a protective way, opening up com- to the housing crisis from simply piling lots of small housing munity gardens rather than defending boxes on top of each other, to creating homes and neighbour- allotment boundaries. hoods that contribute, rather than restrict, residents’ health, This issue of Urban Design has only both physical and mental. Food will be central to this. scratched the surface of the subject, It could be about rethinking the role of farms around the and there are many aspects that we’ve urban-rural fringe and, dare I say it, the green belts of the larger not been able to cover: street food and UK cities, to act as more interactive spaces for food production food distribution are just two examples and social care. It could be about accepting that neither the local that are continually evolving and will no church nor the local pub will be the centre of local communi- doubt head in directions we cannot yet ties in the future, but rather the community garden. Closer to anticipate. The issue of feeding communi- people’s homes, it will be about making sure every home has the ties in a sustainable manner will become scope to grow something, whether on balconies big enough to increasingly critical, and therefore we 1 Rogers Stirk Harbour accommodate a module of URBED’s planters or roof top green- + Partners’ recreation must take up the challenge, join the houses on every housing estate block. of the Millennium debate and design our way out of the One aspect of food and its relationship with the city that Dome, at WATG’s The problem. Great Architectural • has been evident for some time and will no doubt increase in Bake Off, as part of importance, is the retail of locally produced food: the farmers’ London Festival of Jane Manning markets, the independent cafes and restaurants. Substantially Architecture

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 40 book reviews

Re-framing Urban Space, density much more consistently and convinc- Rethinking Smart Cities ingly than us. Urban Design for Emerging The authors of this intriguing book do From the Ground Up not specify what they consider to be the op- Hybrid and High-Density Tom Saunders and Peter Baeck, timum density in cities, but instead argue Conditions that higher density is a necessary pre-req- 2015, Nesta, Download from uisite for complexity, intensity and urbanity www.nesta.org.uk Im Sik Cho, Chye Kiang Heng and and that there are overwhelming benefits Zdravko Trivic, Routledge, 2015, of building at higher densities. The book ex- This short e-book highlights many of the ISBN 978-1-138-84986-0 amines what this means for public spaces issues that smart cities need to address and where to look for inspiration and best and argues that the smart city movement This book addresses head on an increasing practice. should combine the best aspects of technol- preoccupation of policy makers around the In their search they examine over 50 ogy infrastructure while enabling greater world: how to create high quality, liveable global examples that they systematically collaboration between citizens and city gov- and sustainable urban spaces in areas of dissect, using a framework to understand ernments. It encourages cheaper methods high density. Whilst for many cities – New how they came about, what works and what of tackling urban problems using internet York, Hong Kong and even Paris – these does not. They alight upon the concept of based apps that involve citizens more: this is are hardly new concerns, for many others ‘hybrid urban space’ in order to understand referred to as ‘smart cities 2.0’. After reading widespread densification and its implica- the types of spaces that emerge when we this and other smart city literature, I am con- tions are relatively new and urgently need to start to build more densely. In others words vinced that we urgently need ‘smart city 3.0’, be grappled with. not the streets, squares and parks of the which would include the design and planning In London, the New London Architec- traditional city, but instead a dissection and perspectives. This report results from an ture’s recent study, revealing that 250 or re-combination of these and other building interesting, even surprising, collaboration so new high-rise buildings were in planning and infrastructural elements in order to deal between Intel China (a US high tech company or under development, sent shock waves with new situations of density. normally associated with the expensive big through the city. But perhaps it shouldn’t In doing so, the authors define three data smart city), the independent not-for- have. If you regularly travel on a suburban overlapping modes of hybridisation present profit company Cinnovate supported by the train line out of the city, this is plain to see, in high density contexts: spatial hybrids, pro- Chinese Government, UNDP China (who will although perhaps it is difficult to get a sense gramme hybrids, and operational hybrids, be publishing the full set of case studies of the impact across London as a whole. At a or the physical context, uses, and manage- later) and Nesta, a UK innovation charity. smaller scale, similar processes are happen- ment of spaces respectively. These are found The aim of the study is to inspire and guide ing in major cities across the country, and in the case studies that are in five categories: smart cities in China, which is claimed as the whilst their respective skylines are of con- intensified residential developments, mixed site of most smart city experiments. India, cern to many, for me it is the physical and use developments, infrastructural transit-led which is promoting 100 smart cities, is prob- social impact on the ground – on the public spaces, recreational green hybrids, and hy- ably neck-and-neck with China. realm – that is of more concern. brid urban voids (the final category referring The authors highlight how smart cities But is this the fault of densification per to bits of the city that have been reclaimed have failed to deliver on their promise by se, or just our inability to design well at for new uses). promoting and finding uses for big expensive higher densities? Jane Jacobs commented This is an interesting book, packed with technology rather than using cheaper solu- that we need to build at densities in excess examples, high quality illustrations, and tions to solve pressing problems for citizens. of 100 dwellings per acre (250 per hectare) thoughtful analysis that has much to teach The report begins with a history of smart in order to force people out onto the street us about the implications for the public cities exposing the four flaws of the original and invigorate the public realm. She cau- realm of building at higher densities. Whilst I smart city vision: starting with technology tioned, however, that above 200 per acre remain to be convinced of the need for a new rather than urban challenges; insufficient use we inevitably see uniformity in design, and language of hybridisation to discuss these, or generation of evidence; lack of awareness this should be avoided. But we are nowhere this book represents a valuable contribution of how others are trying to improve cities; near that and even our densest boroughs in to the literature and our understanding of and little role for citizen engagement. It con- London, at around 70 per hectare, are well public space in a fast changing world. cludes with five policy recommendations for below Jacob’s lower threshold, and this re- • city governments that make this a really use- duces to less than 10 per hectare in some Matthew Carmona ful and essential read for all those involved outer boroughs. Clearly some cities do in urban planning.

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 book reviews 41

Case studies show how the smart city series from the authors. large car parking areas. It is perhaps unfair vision should recognise the role of behav- The first, Cities and Automobile Depend- to judge this piece of work on predictions iour and culture in the way that cities work. ence was published in 1989, followed in 1999 it does not make, because this is a valu- Investing in smart people and not just smart by Sustainability and Cities; Overcoming able examination of car usage and provides technology, harnessing collective intel- Automobile Dependence. The authors draw a useful introduction to the Global Cities ligence, participatory planning, sharing from a long-standing and broad dataset, Data-base. cities, the collaborative economy, con- developed by them and known as the Global • nected citizens and community groups, are Cities Database. The earliest data goes back Richard Cole architect and planner, formerly all commendable initiatives, but design is to 1960 and runs up to 2000, and it draws Director of Planning and Architecture of the not mentioned. The report stresses the real on information from 26 cities across the Commission for New Towns benefits of bottom-up interventions by un- world. Of particular interest to the authors is leashing a plethora of small tech initiatives the growth of ‘vehicle-kilometers-travelled ALSO RECEIVED which, given the failures of many major plan- (VKT)’, a key factor which increased steadily 21st Century Garden Cities of ning interventions, may be the most effective over the first 40 years of the database re- To-Morrow, A Manifesto, Philip Ross way to bring worthwhile improvements to cords and is now reducing. and Yves Cabannes, 2014, existing cities. But how this fits with master- The book is divided into eight chapters www.lulu.com, ISBN 978-1-291-47827-3 planning, especially for major expansions examining: the rise and fall of automobile The authors of this small book see them- and new communities, is not addressed, nor dependence, patterns of urban transport selves as the genuine heirs of Ebenezer how these myriad tech interventions will po- in cities worldwide, car dependence in Howard and attempt to interpret his ideals tentially influence urban form, streets or the emerging cities, a theory of urban fabrics, and ideas to today’s environment. Having public realm. Masterplans are intended to the utility of transport planning, what is analysed the original text, they put forward be flexible and robust, capable of embrac- inhibiting the end of car dependence, the twelve principles that would constitute the ing unforeseen change, but the widespread consequences of ending car dependence; it basis of a future true Garden City. Communal adoption of smart city interventions could concludes with a look at Life after Automo- land ownership, energy efficiency and par- precipitate a cascading series of changes bile Dependence. ticipatory planning are seen as important, beyond the scale of anything envisaged. The authors clearly have a mission: they not the planting of trees or nostalgia based Technologists and social planners have the are troubled by the impact of cars both on architecture. This radical manifesto will initiative, and the research funds, to set the the form of cities and on global energy use. struggle to find a responsive audience today, agenda for smart cities and we need smart They view the reduction of individual car use but the attempt is commendable. urban design to catch up. as a positive benefit to the world as a whole • and to the character of cities, which they Context, Architecture and the Genius Malcolm Moor, architect and independent believe are likely to be re-urbanised rather of Place, Eric Parry, Wiley, 2015, consultant in urban design; co-editor of Urban than suburbanised. In developing countries, ISBN 978-1-119-95271-8 Design Futures where the authors believe car dependency A mixture of history, anthropology architec- is most damaging, they see two problems: tural theory and sociology is used to analyse a lack of good data and the increasingly dif- various aspects of the city from the bottom The End of Automobile ficult task of introducing public transport (pavement) to the top (horizon) and from systems in rapidly and haphazardly expand- the small space (room) to the large one (par- Dependence. How Cities are ing communities. ish). It also considers the role of the street Moving Beyond Car-based The authors see future urban transport in making a successful place, and finally the as being increasingly focussed on walk- urban garden and its artificial representation Planning ing, cycling, rapid transit systems and on of tamed nature. This is a very personal and TODs (transit-orientated developments). It idiosyncratic book, not easy to read but with Peter Newman and Jeffrey is unfortunate that having such a rich vein some interesting insights. Kenworthy, Island Press, 2015, of historic data to mine, they seem blind to • ISBN 9781610914635 the potential impact of autonomous vehicles Sebastian Loew and their potential for delivering a transport Think of automobiles and the image of a system that uses sustainable energy, does gas guzzling, be-finned monster of the road not rely on major infrastructure development comes to mind. It is upon this image that this as it can use existing highways, and can de- book is based. It is the third, and last, in a liver flexible transport without the need for

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 42 Index

Allies & Morrison: ASH SAKULA ARCHITECTS The Bell Cornwell Urban Practitioners 5 Hatton Wall, London, EC1N 8HX Partnership Practice 85 Southwark Street, London SE1 0HX T 020 7831 0195 Oakview House, Station Road, Hook, T 020 7921 0100 C Cany Ash Hampshire RG27 9TP C a nthony Rifkin E [email protected] t 01256 766673 Index E [email protected] W www.ashsak.com C s imon Avery W www.urbanpractitioners.co.uk Ash Sakula is an architectural e [email protected] Specialist competition winning urban partnership with projects spanning W www.bell-cornwell.co.uk The following practices and urban regeneration practice combining housing and mixed-use developments, Specialists in Masterplanning and the design courses are members economic and urban design skills. cultural and educational buildings, coordination of major development of the Urban Design Group. Projects include West Ealing and masterplanning and urban design. proposals. Advisors on development Please see the UDG’s website Plymouth East End. plan representations, planning www.urbandesigndirectory.com for Assael Architecture applications and appeals. more details. Amec Foster Wheeler Studio 13, 50 Carnwath Road Environment & London SW6 3FG Bidwells Those wishing to be included in Infrastructure UK Ltd t 020 7736 7744 Bidwell House, Trumpington Road future issues should contact the Gables House Kenilworth Road, C r ussell Pedley Cambridge CB2 9LD UDG Leamington Spa, Warwicks CV32 6JX e [email protected] T 01223 559800 70 Cowcross Street t 01926 439 000 W www.assael.co.uk M 07500 782001 London EC1M 6EJ C David Thompson, Technical Architects and urban designers C johnny Clayton t 020 7250 0892 Director covering mixed use, hotel, leisure and E [email protected] C robert Huxford e [email protected] residential, including urban frameworks W www.bidwells.co.uk e [email protected] W www.amecfw.com. and masterplanning projects. Planning, Landscape and Urban W www.udg.org.uk Masterplanning, urban design, Design consultancy, specialising development planning and landscape Atkins plc in Masterplanning, Townscape within broad-based multidisciplinary Euston Tower, 286 Euston Road, Assessment, Landscape and Visual environmental and engineering London NW1 3AT Impact Assessment. ADAM Urbanism consultancy. t 020 7121 2000 Old Hyde House C Paul Reynolds Boyer Planning 75 Hyde Street Andrew Martin Planning e [email protected] Crowthorne House, Nine Mile Ride Winchester SO23 7DW Town Mill, Mill Lane, Stebbing, W www.atkinsglobal.co.uk Wokingham, Berkshire RG40 3GZ T 01962 843843 Dunmow, Essex CM6 35N Interdisciplinary practice that offers a t 01344 753220 C Hugh Petter, Robert Adam T 01971 855855 range of built environment specialists C s teve Punter e [email protected] C andrew Martin working together to deliver quality e [email protected]. [email protected] E [email protected] places for everybody to enjoy. W www.boyerplanning.co.uk W www.adamurbanism.com W www.am-plan.com Offices in Wokingham, Colchester, World-renowned for progressive, Independent planning, urban design Baca Architects Cardiff, Twickenham and London. classical design covering town and and development consultancy. Advises Unit 1, 199 Long Lane Planning and urban design consultants country houses, housing development, public and private sector clients on London SE1 4PN offering a wide range of services urban masterplans, commercial strategic site promotion, development t 020 7397 5620 to support sites throughout the development and public buildings. planning and management, planning C r ichard Coutts development process: from appraisals appeals, masterplanning and e [email protected] to planning applications and appeals. Alan Baxter & Associates community engagement. W www.baca.uk.com 70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ Award-winning architects with 100 per BOYLE + SUMMERS t 020 7250 1555 Applied Wayfinding cent planning success. Baca Architects Canute Chambers C a lan Baxter 3rd floor, 22 Stukeley Street have established a core specialism in Canute Road e [email protected] London WC2B 5LR waterfront and water architecture. Southampton S014 3AB W www.alanbaxter.co.uk T 020 7017 8488 T 02380 63 1432/ 07824 698033 An engineering and urban design C richard Simon Barton Willmore C richard Summers practice. Particularly concerned with E [email protected] Partnership E [email protected] the thoughtful integration of buildings, W www.appliedwayfinding.com READING W www.boyleandsummers.co.uk infrastructure and movement, and the Applied Wayfinding is an international The Blade, Abbey Square Space-shapers, place-makers, street creation of places. design consultancy with expertise in Reading RG1 3BE designers and development promoters. designing legible systems for complex t 0118 943 0000 Value generators, team workers and Albonico Sack Metacity environments. Applied’s approach C james de Havilland, Nick Sweet site finders. Strategists, pragmatists, Architects & Urban and methods have evolved from many and Dominic Scott specialists and generalists. Designers years of experience in developing MANCHESTER Visioneers, urbanists, architects and PO Box 95387 world-class wayfinding schemes for Tower 12, 18/22 Bridge Street masterplanners. Grant Park, Johannesburg cities, campuses, parks, mixed-use Spinningfields 02051 South Africa developments and internal spaces. Manchester M3 3BZ Building Design Partnership t +27 11 492 0633 T 0161 817 4900 16 Brewhouse Yard, Clerkenwell, C m onica Albonico AREA C Dan Mitchell London EC1V 4LJ e [email protected] Grange, Linlithgow e masterplanning@bartonwillmore. T 020 7812 8000 W www.asmarch.com West Lothian EH49 7RH co.uk C andrew Tindsley A multi-disciplinary practice t 01506 843247 W www.bartonwillmore.co.uk E [email protected] specialising in large scale, green field, C Karen Cadell/ Julia Neil Concept through to implementation on W www.bdp.co.uk urban regeneration and upgrading e [email protected] complex sites, comprehensive design BDP offers town planning, strategies, as well as residential, W www.area.uk.com guides, urban regeneration, brownfield Masterplanning, urban design, special and educational projects. Making places imaginatively to deliver sites, and major urban expansions. landscape, regeneration and the successful, sustainable and sustainability studies, and has teams Allen Pyke Associates humane environments of the future. be1 Architects based in London, Manchester and The Factory 2 Acre Road, 5 Abbey Court, Fraser Road Belfast. Kingston-upon-Thames KT2 6EF Arnold Linden Priory Business Park t 020 8549 3434 Chartered Architect Bedford MK44 3WH BPUD Ltd C David Allen/ Vanessa Ross 31 Waterlow Court, Heath Close t 01234 261266 155 Hurdsfield Road, Macclesfield e [email protected] Hampstead Way C n y Moughal Cheshire SK10 2QX W www.allenpyke.co.uk London NW11 7DT E [email protected] T 01625 262924 Innovative, responsive, committed, T 020 8455 9286 W www.be1architects.co.uk C bob Phillips competitive, process. Priorities: people, C a rnold Linden be1 is a practice of creative and E [email protected] spaces, movement, culture. Places: Integrated regeneration through the experienced architects, designers, W www.bpud.co.uk regenerate, infill, extend create. participation in the creative process of masterplanners, visualisers and A multi-disciplinary town planning and the community and the public at large, technicians. We are skilled in the urban design consultancy dedicated to of streets, buildings and places. design and delivery of masterplanning, the delivery of high quality development architectural and urban design projects solutions working with public, private and are committed to designing the and community organisations. appropriate solution for all of our projects.

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 Index 43

Broadway Malyan CSA Environmental FarrellS Garsdale Design Limited 3 Weybridge Business Park Dixies Barns, High Street 7 Hatton Street, London NW8 8PL High Branthwaites, Frostrow, Addlestone Road, Weybridge, Ashwell SG7 5NT t 020 7258 3433 Sedbergh, Cumbria, LA10 5JR Surrey KT15 2BW T 01462 743647 C max Farrell t 015396 20875 T 01932 845599 C Clive Self E [email protected] C Derrick Hartley C jeff Nottage E [email protected] W www.terryfarrell.com e i [email protected] E [email protected] W www.csaenvironmental.co.uk Architectural, urban design, planning W www.garsdaledesign.co.uk W www.broadwaymalyan.com Delivering masterplanning, design and Masterplanning services. New GDL provides Masterplanning and We are an international interdisciplinary coding and implementations. buildings, refurbishment, conference/ urban design, architecture and heritage practice which believes in the value of Specialist knowledge across exhibition centres and visitor services developed through 25 years place-making-led masterplans that are landscape, ecology, archaeology and attractions. wide ranging experience in the UK and rooted in local context. urbanism leading to well-presented, Middle East. high quality, commercially aware FaulknerBrowns Brock Carmichael schemes. Dobson House, Northumbrian Way, Gillespies Architects Newcastle upon Tyne NE12 6QW LONDON • GLASGOW • MANCHESTER • 19 Old Hall Street, Liverpool L3 9JQ David Huskisson Associates t 0191 268 3007 LEEDS • OXFORD • ABU DHABI t 0151 242 6222 17 Upper Grosvenor Road, C b en Sykes 1 St John’s Square C m ichael Cosser Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 2DU e [email protected] London EC1M 4DH e [email protected] t 01892 527828 W www.faulknerbrowns.co.uk T 020 7253 2929 Masterplans and development briefs. C n icola Brown FaulknerBrowns is a regionally-based London Mixed use and brownfield regeneration e [email protected] architectural design practice with a E [email protected] projects. Design in historic and W www.dha-landscape.co.uk national and international reputation. Oxford/Abu Dhabi sensitive settings. Integrated Landscape consultancy offering From a workload based initially on E [email protected] landscape design. Masterplanning, streetscape and education, library, sports and leisure Glasgow urban park design, estate restoration, buildings, the practice’s current E [email protected] Burns + Nice environmental impact assessments. workload includes masterplanning, Manchester 70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ offices, healthcare, commercial mixed E [email protected] t 020 7253 0808 David Lock Associates Ltd use, industrial and residential, for both Leeds C marie Burns/ Stephen Nice 50 North Thirteenth Street, private and public sector clients E [email protected] e [email protected] Central Milton Keynes, W www.gillespies.co.uk W www.burnsnice.com Milton Keynes MK9 3BP Feria Urbanism Urban design, landscape architecture, Urban design, landscape architecture, t 01908 666276 Second Floor Studio, 11 Fernside Road architecture, planning, environmental environmental and transport planning. C Will Cousins Bournemouth, Dorset BH9 2LA assessment, planning supervisors and Masterplanning, design and public e [email protected] t 01202 548676 project management. consultation for community-led work. W www.davidlock.com C r ichard Eastham Strategic planning studies, e [email protected] Globe Consultants Ltd Carter Jonas area development frameworks, W www.feria-urbanism.eu 26 Westgate, Lincoln LN1 3BD Berger House, 36-38 Berkeley Square development briefs, design guidelines, Expertise in urban planning, t 01522 546483 London W1J 5AE Masterplanning, implementation masterplanning and public C l ynette Swinburne T 020 7016 0720 strategies, environmental statements. participation. Specialisms include e lynette.swinburne@globelimited. C rebecca Sanders design for the night time economy, co.uk E [email protected] Define urban design skills training and local W www.globelimited.co.uk W www.carterjonas.co.uk/our- Unit 6, 133-137 Newhall Street community engagement. Provides urban design, planning, services/planning-development.aspx Birmingham B3 1SF economic and cultural development Multidisciplinary practice working T 0121 237 1901 Fletcher Priest Architects services across the UK and throughout the UK, specialising in C a ndy Williams Middlesex House internationally, specialising in urban design and masterplanning, e [email protected] 34/42 Cleveland Street sustainable development solutions, place-making, new settlements and W www.wearedefine.com London W1T 4JE masterplanning and regeneration. urban extensions, urban regeneration, Define specialises in the promotion, t 020 7034 2200 sustainability and community shaping and assessment of F 020 7637 5347 GM Design Associates Ltd consultation. Complemented by development. Our work focuses on C j onathan Kendall 22 Lodge Road, Coleraine in-house architecture, planning, strategic planning, masterplanning, e [email protected] Co. Londonderry BT52 1NB development, investment, property and urban design codes, EIA, TVIA, estate W www.fletcherpreist.com Northern Ireland minerals teams. strategies, public realm design, Work ranges from city-scale t 028 703 56138 consultation strategies, urban design masterplans (Stratford City, Riga) to C b ill Gamble Chapman Taylor LLP audits and expert witness. architectural commissions for high- e [email protected] 10 Eastbourne Terrace, profile professional clients. W www.g-m-design.com London W2 6LG DHA Planning & Urban Architecture, town and country t 020 7371 3000 Design FPCR Environment planning, urban design, landscape e [email protected] Eclipse House, Eclipse Park, & Design Ltd architecture, development W www.chapmantaylor.com Sittingbourne Road, Maidstone, Lockington Hall, Lockington frameworks and briefs, feasibility MANCHESTER Kent ME14 3EN Derby DE74 2RH studies, sustainability appraisals, Bass Warehouse, 4 Castle Street t 01622 776226 t 01509 672772 public participation and community Castlefield, Manchester M3 4LZ C m atthew Woodhead C t im Jackson engagement. t 0161 828 6500 e [email protected] e [email protected] e [email protected] W dhaplanning.co.uk W www.fpcr.co.uk Hankinson Duckett Chapman Taylor is an international Planning and Urban Design Integrated design and environmental Associates firm of architects and urban designers Consultancy offering a full range practice. Specialists in Masterplanning, The Stables, Howberry Park, Benson specialising in mixed use city centre of Urban Design services including urban and mixed use regeneration, Lane, Wallingford OX10 8BA regeneration and transport projects Masterplanning, development briefs development frameworks, EIAs and t 01491 838 175 throughout the world. Offices in and design statements. public inquiries. C b rian Duckett Bangkok, Brussels, Bucharest, e [email protected] Düsseldorf, Kiev, Madrid, Milan, Environmental Dimension Framework Architecture W www.hda-enviro.co.uk Moscow, New Delhi, Paris, Prague, Sao Partnership and Urban Design An approach which adds value through Paulo, Shanghai and Warsaw. Tithe Barn, Barnsley Park Estate 3 Marine Studios, Burton Lane, innovative solutions. Development Barnsley, Cirencester GL7 5EG Burton Waters, Lincoln LN1 2WN planning, new settlements, CITY ID t 01285 740427 t 01522 535383 environmental assessment, re-use of 23 Trenchard Street C t om Joyce C g regg Wilson redundant buildings. Bristol BS1 5AN e [email protected] e [email protected] t 0117 917 7000 W www.edp-uk.co.uk/ W www.frameworklincoln.co.uk C m ike Rawlinson The Environmental Dimension Architecture and urban design. A e [email protected] Partnership Ltd provides independent commitment to the broader built W cityid.co.uk environmental planning and design environment and the particular dynamic Place branding and marketing vision advice to landowners, and property of a place and the design opportunities Masterplanning, urban design, public and energy sector clients throughout presented. realm strategies, way finding and the UK from offices in the Cotswolds, legibility strategies, information design Shrewsbury and Cardiff. and graphics.

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 44 Index

HOK international Ltd IDP Group Land Use Consultants Levitt Bernstein Qube, 90 Whitfield Street 27 Spon Street 43 Chalton Street, London NW1 1JD Associates Ltd London W1T 4EZ Coventry CV1 3BA T 020 7383 5784 1 Kingsland Passage, London E8 2BB t 020 7636 2006 T 024 7652 7600 C adrian Wikeley t 020 7275 7676 C t im Gale C luke Hillson E [email protected] C g lyn Tully e [email protected] E [email protected] GLASGOW e [email protected] W www.hok.com W www.weareidp.com 37 Otago Street, Glasgow G12 8JJ W www.levittbernstein.co.uk HOK delivers design of the highest We are IDP. We enhance daily life T 0141 334 9595 Urban design, Masterplanning, full quality. It is one of Europe’s leading through architecture. We use design C martin Tabor architectural service, lottery grant bid architectural practices, offering creativity, logic, collaboration and E [email protected] advice, interior design, urban renewal experienced people in a diverse range pragmatism to realise places and W www.landuse.co.uk consultancy and landscape design. of building types, skills and markets. space. Ideas, delivered. Urban regeneration, landscape design, masterplanning, sustainable LHC Urban Design Hosta Consulting Jacobs development, environmental planning, Design Studio, Emperor Way, Exeter 2b Cobden Chambers 226 Tower Bridge Road, environmental assessment, landscape Business Park, Exeter, Devon EX1 3QS Nottingham NG1 2ED London SE1 2UP planning and management. Offices t 01392 444334 T 07791043779 T 020 7939 1382 also in Bristol and Edinburgh. C j ohn Baulch C Helen Taylor C nivedita Vijayan e [email protected] E [email protected] E [email protected] Landscape Projects W www.lhc.net W www.hostaconsulting.co.uk W www.jacobs.com 31 Blackfriars Road, Salford Urban designers, architects and An urban landscape design studio that A multi-disciplinary design and Manchester M3 7AQ landscape architects, providing an use an innovative approach to create technical services practice specialising T 0161 839 8336 integrated approach to strategic green spaces for people, biodiversity in urban design and place making C neil Swanson visioning, regeneration, urban renewal, and the environment projects from concept design, E [email protected] Masterplanning and public realm masterplanning up to detailed design W www.landscapeprojects.co.uk projects. Creative, knowledgeable, HTA Design LLP and implementation stages. We work at the boundary between practical, passionate. 106-110 Kentish Town Road architecture, urban and landscape London NW1 9PX JB Planning design, seeking innovative, sensitive Liz Lake Associates T 020 7485 8555 Chells Manor, Chells Lane design and creative thinking. Offices in Western House, Chapel Hill C simon Bayliss Stevenage, Herts SG2 7AA Manchester & London. Stansted Mountfitchet E [email protected] T 01438 312130 Essex CM24 8AG W www.hta.co.uk C Kim Boyd Lanpro Services t 01279 647044 HTA Design LLP is a multi-disciplinary E [email protected] 4 St Mary’s House C m att Lee practice of architecture, landscape W www.jbplanning.com Duke Street, Norwich NR3 1QA e [email protected] design, planning, urban design, JB Planning Associates is an T 01603 631 319 W www.lizlake.com sustainability, graphic design and independent firm of chartered town C Chris Leeming Urban fringe/brownfield sites where communications based in London and planning consultants, providing expert E [email protected] an holistic approach to urban design, Edinburgh, specialising in regeneration. advice to individuals and businesses W www.lanproservices.co.uk landscape, and ecological issues can Offices in London & Edinburgh. on matters connected with planning, Multi-disciplinary consultancy provide robust design solutions. property, land and development. providing specialist advice in the fields Hyland Edgar Driver of town planning, masterplanning, Malcolm Moor Urban Design One Wessex Way, Colden Common, JTP urban design, project management and 27 Ock Mill Close, Abingdon Winchester, Hants SO21 1WG 23-25 Great Sutton Street monitoring, landscape architecture and Oxon OX14 1SP t 01962 711 600 London ECIV 0DN interior design. t 01235 550122 C j ohn Hyland t 020 7017 1780 C m alcolm Moor e [email protected] C m arcus Adams Lavigne Lonsdale Ltd e [email protected] W www.heduk.com e [email protected] 38 Belgrave Crescent, Camden W www.moorud.com Innovative problem solving, driven Edinburgh Bath BA1 5JU Master planning of new communities, by cost efficiency and sustainability, 2nd Floor Venue studios, 15-21 t 01225 421539 urban design, residential, urban combined with imagination and Calton Road, Edinburgh EH8 8DL TRURO capacity and ecofitting studies, design coherent aesthetic of the highest t 0131 272 2762 55 Lemon Street, Truro involvement with major international quality. C a lan Stewart Cornwall TR1 2PE projects. e [email protected] t 01872 273118 IBI Group W www.jtp.co.uk C m artyn Lonsdale MCGREGOR COXALL Chadsworth House Addressing the problems of physical, e [email protected] 77 Stokes Croft, Bristol BS1 3RD Wilmslow Road, Handforth social and economic regeneration W www.lavigne.co.uk T 07496 282281 Cheshire, SK9 3HP through collaborative interdisciplinary We are an integrated practice of C michael Cowdy T 01625 542200 community based planning. masterplanners, Urban Designers, [email protected] C neil Lewin Landscape Architects and Product W www.mcgregorcoxall.com E [email protected] Kay Elliott Designers. Experienced in large We are a global multi-disciplinary W www.ibigroup.com 5-7 Meadfoot Road, Torquay scale, mixed use and residential design firm dedicated to assisting We are a globally integrated urban Devon TQ1 2JP Masterplanning, health, education, cities achieve sustainable prosperity. design, planning, architecture, town t 01803 213553 regeneration, housing, parks, public Our international team provides planning, master planning, landscape C m ark Jones realm and streetscape design. services through Urbanism, Landscape architecture, engineering and e [email protected] Architecture and Environment technology practice. W www.kayelliott.co.uk LDA Design disciplines. International studio with 30 year history 14-17 Wells Mews, London W1T 3HF Iceni Projects of imaginative architects and urban t 020 7467 1470 Metropolis Planning and Flitcroft House designers, creating buildings and places C Vaughan Anderson Design 114-116 Charing Cross Road that enhance their surroundings and add [email protected] 4 Underwood Row, London N1 7LQ London WC2H 0JR financial value. W www.lda-design.co.uk T 020 7324 2662 T 020 3640 8508 GLASGOW C greg Cooper C nivedita D’Lima Sovereign House, E [email protected] E [email protected] 158 West Regent Street W ww.metropolispd.com W www.iceniprojects.com Glasgow G2 4RL Metropolitan urban design solutions Iceni Projects is a planning and devel- T 0141 2229780 drawn from a multi-disciplinary studio opment consultancy with an innovative C Kirstin Taylor of urban designers, architects, planners and commercially-minded approach E [email protected] and heritage architects. aimed at delivering success. Offices also in Oxford, Peterborough & Exeter Multidisciplinary firm covering all aspects of Masterplanning, urban regeneration, public realm design, environmental impact and community involvement.

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 Index 45

Metropolitan Workshop NJBA A + U Philip Cave Associates Pod 14-16 Cowcross Street 34 Upper Baggot Street 70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ 99 Galgate,Barnard Castle London EC1M 6DG Dublin 4, IRE – D4, Ireland t 020 7250 0077 Co Durham DL12 8ES t 020 7566 0450 t 00 353 1 678 8068 C Philip Cave T 0845 872 7288 C David Prichard/Neil Deeley C noel J Brady e [email protected] C a ndy Dolby e [email protected] e [email protected] W www.philipcave.com E [email protected] W www.metwork.co.uk/ W www.12publishers.com/njba.htm Design-led practice with innovative yet Masterplanning, site appraisal, layout Metropolitan Workshop has experience Integrated landscapes, urban design, practical solutions to environmental and architectural design. Development in urban design, land use planning, town centres and squares, strategic opportunities in urban regeneration. frameworks, urban regeneration, regeneration and architecture in the design and planning. Specialist expertise in landscape design codes, briefs and design and UK, Eire and Norway. Recent projects: architecture. access statements. Second office in Ballymun Dublin, Durham Millennium Node Urban Design Newcastle upon Tyne. Quarter, Adamstown District Centre 33 Holmfield Road Phil Jones Associates Dublin, Bjorvika Waterfront Leicester LE2 1SE Seven House, High Street Pollard Thomas Edwards T 0116 2708742 Longbridge, Birmingham B31 2UQ Architects Mouchel C nigel Wakefield T 0121 475 0234 Diespeker Wharf, 38 Graham Street, 209-215 Blackfriars Road E [email protected] C nigel Millington London N1 8JX London SE1 8NL W www.nodeurbandesign.com E [email protected] t 020 7336 7777 t 020 7803 2600 An innovative team of urban design, W www.philjonesassociates.co.uk/ C r obin Saha-Choudhury C l udovic Pittie landscape and heritage consultants One of the UK’s leading independent andrew Beharrell e l [email protected] who believe that good design adds transport specialists offering the E [email protected] W www.mouchel.com value. Providing sustainable urban expertise to deliver high quality, viable W www.ptea.co.uk Integrated urban design, transport and design and masterplan solutions at all developments which are design-led Masterplanners, urban designers, engineering consultancy, changing the scales of development with a focus on and compliant with urban design best developers, architects, listed building urban landscape in a positive manner, the creation of a sense of place. practice. and conservation area designers; creating places for sustainable living. specialising in inner city mixed use high Novell Tullett Place By Design density regeneration. Nash Partnership The Old Mess Room, Home Farm Unit C, Baptist Mills Court 23a Sydney Buildings Barrow Gurney BS48 3RW Bristol BS5 0FJ Project Centre Ltd Bath, Somerset BA2 6BZ t 01275 462476 T 01179 517 053 Level 4, Westgate House T 01225 442424 C s imon Lindsley C Charley Burrough Westgate, London W5 1YY C Donna Fooks-Bale E [email protected] E [email protected] t 020 7421 8222 E [email protected] W www.novelltullett.co.uk W placebydesign.co.uk C David Moores W www.nashpartnership.com Urban design, landscape architecture e [email protected] Nash Partnership is an architecture, and environmental planning. Planit-IE LLP W www.projectcentre.co.uk planning, urban design, conservation 2 Back Grafton Street Landscape architecture, public realm and economic regeneration Origin3 Altrincham, Cheshire WA14 1DY design, urban regeneration, street consultancy based in Bath and Bristol. Tyndall House T 0161 928 9281 lighting design, planning supervision, 17 Whiteladies Road C Peter Swift traffic and transportation, parking and Nathaniel Lichfield & Clifton, Bristol BS8 1PB E [email protected] highway design. Partners Ltd t 0117 927 3281 W www.planit-ie.com 14 Regent’s Wharf, All Saints Street, C e mily Esfahani Design practice specialising in the Pro Vision Planning & London N1 9RL E [email protected] creation of places and shaping of Design t 020 7837 4477 W www.origin3.co.uk communities. Our Urban Designers Grosvenor Ct, Winchester Rd C n ick Thompson Planning and urban design consultancy work at all scales from regeneration Ampfield, Winchester SO51 9BD e [email protected] strategies and conceptual masterplans T 01794 368698 W www.nlpplanning.com Paul Drew Design Ltd through to Design Codes – making C james Cleary Also at Newcastle upon Tyne and 23-25 Great Sutton Street environments, neighbourhoods and E [email protected] Cardiff London EC1V 0DN spaces for people to enjoy. W pvprojects.com Urban design, Masterplanning, t 020 7017 1785 heritage/conservation, visual appraisal, C Paul Drew Planning Design Practice PRP Architects regeneration, daylight/sunlight e [email protected] 4 Woburn House, Vernon Gate 10 Lindsey Street, assessments, public realm strategies. W www.pauldrewdesign.co.uk Derby DE1 1UL London EC1A 9HP Masterplanning, urban design, T 01332 347 371 T 020 7653 1200 New Masterplanning Limited residential and mixed use design. C scott O’Dell C andy von Bradsky 2nd Floor, 107 Bournemouth Road, Creative use of design codes and other E [email protected] E [email protected] Poole, Dorset BH14 9HR briefing material. W www.planningdesign.co.uk Architects, planners, urban designers t 01202 742228 We are a multi-disciplinary practice and landscape architects, specialising C a ndy Ward Ove Arup & Partners offering services in planning, in housing, urban regeneration, health, e office@new Masterplanning.com Consulting West Team architecture and urban design who education and leisure projects. W www.new Masterplanning.com 63 St Thomas Street seek to create better places. Our skills combine strategic planning Bristol BS1 6JZ Randall Thorp with detailed implementation, design T 0117 9765432 +Plus Urban Design Ltd Canada House, 3 Chepstow Street, flair with economic rigour, independent C j Shore Spaceworks, Benton Park Road Manchester M1 5FW thinking with a partnership approach. E [email protected] Newcastle upon Tyne NE7 7LX t 0161 228 7721 W arup.com T 0844 800 6660 C Pauline Randall Nicholas Pearson C richard Charge, Tony Wyatt e [email protected] Associates Pegasus Group E [email protected] W www.randallthorp.co.uk 30 Brock Street, Bath BA1 2LN Pegasus House, W www.plusud.co.uk Masterplanning for new developments t 01225 445548 Querns Business Centre Specialist practice providing and settlements, infrastructure design C simon Kale Whitworth Road, Cirencester GL7 1RT strategic masterplanning, urban and urban renewal, design guides and E [email protected] T 01285 641717 design guidance, analysis, character design briefing, public participation. W www.npaconsult.co.uk C michael Carr assessment and independent design Masterplanning, public realm design, E [email protected] advisory expertise. Random Greenway streetscape analysis, concept and W www.pegasuspg.co.uk Architects detail designs. Also full landscape Masterplanning, detailed layout and PM DEVEREUX Soper Hall, Harestone Valley Road architecture service, EIA, green architectural design, design and 200 Upper Richmond Road, Caterham Surrey CR3 6HY infrastructure, ecology and biodiversity, access statements, design codes, London SW15 2SH t 01883 346 441 environmental planning and sustainable design, development t 020 8780 1800 C r Greenway management. briefs, development frameworks, C julian Seward e rg@randomgreenwayarchitects. expert witness, community involvement e [email protected] co.uk and sustainability appraisal. Part of the W www.pmdevereux.com Architecture, planning and urban multidisciplinary Pegasus Group. Adding value through innovative, design. New build, regeneration, ambitious solutions in complex urban refurbishment and restoration. environments.

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 46 Index

Richard Coleman Sheils Flynn Ltd spacehub Terra Firma Consultancy Citydesigner Bank House High Street, Docking, Grimsby Street Studio, Cedar Court, 5 College Street 14 Lower Grosvenor Place, Kings Lynn PE31 8NH 20a Grimsby Street Petersfield GU31 4AE London SW1W 0EX t 01485 518304 London E2 6ES t 01730 262040 t 020 7630 4880 C e oghan Sheils T 020 7739 6699 C l ionel Fanshawe C lakshmi Varma e [email protected] C giles Charlton [email protected] e [email protected] W www.sheilsflynn.com E [email protected] W www.terrafirmaconsultancy.com Advice on architectural quality, Award winning town centre W www.spacehubdesign.com Independent landscape architectural urban design, and conservation, regeneration schemes, urban strategies spacehub is a young design studio, practice with considerable urban historic buildings and townscape. and design guidance. Specialists in specialising in public realm, landscape, design experience at all scales from EIA Environmental statements, listed community consultation and team ecology and urban design. We are to project delivery throughout UK and buildings/area consent applications. facilitation. passionate and committed to creative overseas. thinking and collaborative working. Richard Reid & Associates Shepheard Epstein Hunter THrive Whitely Farm, Ide Hill, Phoenix Yard, 65 King’s Cross Road, Spawforths Building 300, The Grange Sevenoaks TN14 6BS London WC1X 9LW Junction 41 Business Court, East Romsey Road, Michelmersh t 01732 741417 t 020 7841 7500 Ardsley, Leeds WF3 2AB Romsey SO51 0AE C r ichard Reid C s teven Pidwill t 01924 873873 T 01794 367703 E [email protected] e [email protected] C a drian Spawforth C g ary Rider W www.richardreid.co.uk W www.seh.co.uk e [email protected] e g [email protected] SEH is a user-friendly, award-winning W www.spawforths.co.uk W www.thrivearchitects.co.uk SAVILLS (L&P) LIMITED architects firm, known for its work in Urbanism with planners and architects Award winning multi-disciplinary 33 Margaret Street regeneration, education, housing, specialising in Masterplanning, practice encompassing architecture, London W1G 0JD Masterplanning, mixed use and community engagement, visioning and urban design, masterplanning, design t 020 3320 8242 healthcare projects. development frameworks. coding, regeneration, development W www.savills.com frameworks, sustainable design/ SOUTHAMPTON Sheppard Robson Stride Treglown planning and construction. Residential 2 Charlotte Place, 77 Parkway, Camden Town, Promenade House, The Promenade and retirement care specialists. Southampton SO14 0TB London NW1 7PU Clifton Down, Bristol BS8 3NE t 02380 713900 t 020 7504 1700 T 0117 974 3271 Tibbalds Planning & Urban C Peter Frankum C Charles Scott C graham Stephens Design e [email protected] e [email protected] [email protected] 19 Maltings Place, 169 Tower Bridge Offices throughout the World W www.sheppardrobson.com W www.stridetreglown.com/ Road, London SE1 3JB Savills Urban Design creates value Manchester t 020 7089 2121 from places and places of value. 27th Floor, City Tower, Piccadilly Plaza Stuart Turner Associates C Katja Stille Masterplanning, urban design, design Manchester M1 4BD 12 Ledbury, Great Linford, e [email protected] coding, urban design advice, planning, t 0161 233 8900 Milton Keynes MK14 5DS W www.tibbalds.co.uk commercial guidance. Planners, urban designers and t 01908 678672 Multi-disciplinary practice of urban architects. Strategic planning, urban C s tuart Turner designers, architects and planners. Scott Brownrigg Ltd regeneration, development planning, e [email protected] Provides expertise from concept St Catherines Court, 46-48 town centre renewal, new settlement W www.studiost.co.uk to implementation in regeneration, Portsmouth Road, Guildford GU2 4DU planning. Architecture, urban design and masterplanning, urban design and t 01483 568 686 environmental planning, the design of design management to public and C alex Baker Signet Urban Design new settlements, urban regeneration private sector clients. e [email protected] Rowe House, 10 East Parade and site development studies. W www.scottbrownrigg.com Harrogate HG1 5LT Townscape Solutions Integrated service of architecture, T 01423 857510 Studio Partington 208 Lightwoods Hill, Smethwick urban design, planning, C andrew Clarke Unit G, Reliance Wharf, West Midlands B67 5EH Masterplanning, involved in several [email protected] Hertford Road, London N1 5EW t 0121 429 6111 mixed use schemes regenerating inner W www.signetplanning.com t 020 7241 7770 C Kenny Brown city and brownfield sites. A team of talented urban C r ichard Partington [email protected] design professionals providing e [email protected] W www.townscapesolutions.co.uk Scott Tallon Walker masterplanning, detailed layout and W www.studiopartington.co.uk Specialist urban design practice Architects architectural design, design and Urban design, housing, retail, offering a wide range of services 19 Merrion Square, Dublin 2 access statements, design codes and education, sustainability and including masterplans, site layouts, t 00 353 1 669 3000 development frameworks throughout commercial projects that take design briefs, design and access C Philip Jackson the UK. a responsible approach to the statements, expert witness and 3D E [email protected] environment and resources. illustrations. W www.stwarchitects.com Smeeden Foreman ltd Award winning international practice Somerset House, Low Moor Lane studio | REAL Turley covering all aspects of architecture, Scotton, Knaresborough HG5 9JB Oxford Centre for Innovation 10th Floor, 1 New York Street urban design and planning. t 01423 863369 New Road, Oxford OX1 1BY Manchester M1 4HD C m ark Smeeden t 01865 261461 t 0161 233 7676 Scott Worsfold Associates e [email protected] C r oger Evans C jaimie Ferguson The Studio, 22 Ringwood Road W www.smeedenforeman.co.uk e [email protected] E [email protected] Longham, Dorset BH22 9AN Ecology, landscape architecture W www.studioreal.co.uk W www.turley.co.uk T 01202 580902 and urban design. Environmental Urban regeneration, quarter Offices also in Belfast, Birmingham, C gary Worsfold / Alister Scott assessment, detailed design, contract frameworks and design briefs, town Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, e [email protected] / alister@ packages and site supervision. centre strategies, movement in towns, Leeds, London and Southampton. sw-arch.com Masterplanning and development Integrated urban design, W www.garyworsfoldarchitecture. Soltys: Brewster Consulting economics. masterplanning, sustainability and co.uk 4 Stangate House, Stanwell Road heritage services provided at all project An award winning practice of chartered Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan CF64 2AA Terence O'Rourke stages and scales of development. architects, urban designers and experts t 029 2040 8476 Linen Hall, 162-168 Regent Street Services include visioning, townscape in conservation, all with exceptional C s imon Brewster London W1B 5TE analysis, design guides and public graphic skills and an enviable record in e [email protected] t 020 3664 6755 realm resolution. planning consents. W www.soltysbrewster.co.uk C Kim Hamilton Urban design, masterplans, design e [email protected] Tweed Nuttall Warburton strategies, visual impact, environmental W www.torltd.co.uk/ Chapel House, City Road assessment, regeneration of urban Award-winning planning, design and Chester CH1 3AE space, landscape design and project environmental practice. t 01244 310388 management. C j ohn Tweed e [email protected] W www.tnw-architecture.co.uk Architecture and urban design, Masterplanning. Urban waterside environments. Community teamwork enablers. Visual impact assessments.

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 Index 47

UBU Design Ltd URS Infrastructure & White Consultants 7a Wintex House Environment Enterprise House Easton Lane Business Park 6-8 Greencoat Place 127-129 Bute Street Education Easton Lane London SW1P 1PL Cardiff CF10 5LE Winchester SO23 7RQ T 020 7798 5137 t 029 2043 7841 T 01962 856008 C ben Castell C s imon White Index C rachel Williams E [email protected] E [email protected] E [email protected] W www.ursglobal.com W www.whiteconsultants.co.uk www.ubu-design.co.uk Also at Birmingham, Leeds, A holistic approach to urban Ubu Design is an innovative urban Manchester and Plymouth regeneration, design guidance, public ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY design and landscape architecture Urban design, planning, landscape, realm and open space strategies and Department of Engineering & Built practice. We combine creativity with economic and architectural design town centre studies for the public, Environment, Marconi Building understanding to shape development expertise supported by comprehensive private and community sectors. Rivermead Campus, Bishop Hall Lane and produce designs that are multidisciplinary skills. Chelmsford CM1 1SQ considered, viable and inspiring, from WYG Planning & T 01245 683 3952 strategies and frameworks, through Vincent and Gorbing Ltd Environment C Dr Dellé Odeleye masterplanning to detailed design. Sterling Court, Norton Road, 100 St. John Street e [email protected] Stevenage, Hertfordshire SG1 2JY London EC1M 4EH W Full time: Urban Design Futures t 01438 316331 T 020 7250 7500 www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/ 34/1 Henderson Row C r ichard Lewis C Colin James prospectus/pg/Urban_Design.html Edinburgh EH3 5DN e urban.designers@vincent-gorbing. E [email protected] Part time: t 0131 557 8944 co.uk W www.wyg.com www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/ C s elby Richardson W www.vincent-gorbing.co.uk Offices throughout the UK prospectus/pg/_urban_design.html e [email protected] Masterplanning, design statements, Creative urban design and MSc in Urban Design, Post Grad W www.urbandesignfutures.co.uk character assessments, development masterplanning with a contextual Diploma or Certificate in Urban Design. Innovative urban design, planning briefs, residential layouts and urban approach to place-making and a The emphasis is on sustainable urban and landscape practice specialising capacity exercises. concern for environmental, social and design and cultural approaches in Masterplanning, new settlements, economic sustainability. to place-shaping. The course is urban regeneration, town and village Wei Yang & Partners based upon key requirements in the studies. 4 Devonshire Street ’Recognised Practitioner in Urban London W1W 5DT Design’ designation. It can be taken full Urban Initiatives Studio T 020 3102 8565 time (1 year) or part time (2 years). Exmouth House, 3-11 Pine Street C Dr Wei Yang London EC1R 0JH E [email protected] Cardiff University T 0203 567 0716 W www.weiyangandpartners.co.uk Welsh School of Architecture and C Hugo Nowell Independent multi-disciplinary School of City & Regional Planning E [email protected] company driven by a commitment to Glamorgan Building W www.uistudio.co.uk shape more sustainable and liveable King Edward VII Avenue Urban design, transportation, cities. Specialising in low-carbon city Cardiff CF10 3WA regeneration, development planning. development strategies, sustainable t 029 2087 5972/029 2087 5961 large-scale new settlement master C allison Dutoit, Marga Munar Bauza Urban Innovations plans, urban regeneration, urban e [email protected] 1st Floor, Wellington Buildings, and public realm design, mixed use [email protected] 2 Wellington Street, Belfast BT16HT urban complex design and community W www.cardiff.ac.uk/cplan/study/ t 028 9043 5060 building strategies. postgraduate/urban-design-ma C tony Stevens/ Agnes Brown One year full-time and two year part- e [email protected] Weston Williamson + time MA in Urban Design. W www.urbaninnovations.co.uk Partners The partnership provides not only 12 Valentine Place Edinburgh School of feasibility studies and assists in site London SE1 8QH Architecture and assembly for complex projects but T 0207 403 2665 Landscape Architecture also full architectural services for major C Chris Williamson ECA University of Edinburgh projects. E chris.williamson@ Lauriston Place, Edinburgh EH3 9DF westonwilliamson.com T 0131 651 5786 URBED (Urbanism W westonwilliamson.com C Dr Ola Uduku Environment & Design) E [email protected] Manchester West Waddy ADP LLP W www.ed.ac.uk/studying/ 10 Little Lever Street, The Malthouse postgraduate/degrees Manchester M1 1HR 60 East St. Helen Street Jointly run with Heriot Watt University, T 0161 200 5500 Abingdon, Oxon OX14 5EB this M.Sc in Urban Strategies and C j ohn Sampson t 01235 523139 Design focuses on urban design e [email protected] C Philip Waddy practice and theory from a cultural, W www.urbed.coop e [email protected] and socio-economic, case-study LONDON W westwaddy-adp.co.uk perspective. Engaging students The Building Centre Experienced and multi-disciplinary team in ’live’ urban projects, as part of 26 Store Street, London WC1E 7BT of urban designers, architects and town the programme’s ’action research’ C nicholas Falk planners offering a full range of urban pedagogy, it also offers research T 07811 266538 design services. expertise in African and Latin American Sustainable Urbanism, Masterplanning, urban design and planning processes. Urban Design, Retrofitting, WESTON WILLIAMSON + Consultation, Capacity Building, PARTNERS Research, Town Centres and 12 Valentine Place Regeneration. London SE1 8QH T 020 7401 8877 URBEN C Chris Williamson 33a Wadeson Street E [email protected] London E2 9DR W www.westonwilliamson.com T 0203 005 4859 Weston Williamson is an award T 0845 054 2992 winning architectural, urban design C e lizabeth Reynolds and masterplanning practice with a e [email protected] wide variety of projects in the UK and e [email protected] abroad.

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 48 Index

THE GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART Nottingham Trent University College London University of Nottingham Mackintosh School of Architecture University Bartlett School of Planning Department of Architecture and Built 167 Renfrew Street, Glasgow G3 6RQ Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU 14 Upper Woburn Place Environment, University Park T 0141 353 4500 T 0115 848 6033 London WC1H 0NN Nottingham NG7 2RD C joanna Crotch C stefan Kruczkowski T 020 7679 4797 T 0115 9513110 E [email protected] E [email protected] C matthew Carmona C Dr Amy Tang W www.gsa.ac.uk/study/graduate- W www.ntu.ac.uk/apps/pss/ E [email protected] E [email protected] degrees/architectural-studies/ course_finder/108169-1/6/pgcert_ W www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/planning/ W www.nottingham.ac.uk/pgstudy/ Master of Architecture in: Urban Design planning_urban_design_and_ programmes/postgraduate/ courses/architecture-and-built- and Creative Urban Practices; Urban sustainable_development.aspx mresInter-disciplinary-urban-design environment/sustainable-urban- Building; Computer Aided Architectural NTU offers postgraduate opportunities The MRes Inter-disciplinary Urban design-march.aspx Design; and, Energy & Environmental in urban design with a particular Design cuts across urban design Master of Architecture (MArch) in Studies. The MArch programme is focus on residential led development. programmes at The Bartlett, allowing Sustainable Urban Design is a research research and project driven with a multi- Modules are available as either stand- students to construct their study in and project-based programme which disciplinary input that begins begins alone CPD learning or as part of a flexible manner and explore urban aims to assist the enhancement of with a series of core lectures and postgraduate awards. Modules include design as a critical arena for advanced the quality of our cities by bringing seminars that is balanced by literature Built for Life(TM) and Garden Cities and research and practice. The course innovative design with research in enquiry to enable students to develop Suburbs. Our courses are designed for operates as a stand-alone high level sustainability. a multi-disciplinary perspective as a those working full-time with a one-day a masters or as preparation for a PhD. grounding for shared discourse. month teaching format. University of Portsmouth University of Dundee School of Architecture Leeds Beckett University Oxford Brookes University Town and Regional Planning Eldon Building, Winston Churchill School of Art, Architecture and Joint Centre for Urban Design Tower Building, Perth Road Avenue, Portsmouth PO1 2DJ Design, Broadcasting Place, Headington, Oxford OX3 0BP Dundee DD1 4HN T 02392 842 090 Woodhouse Lane, Leeds LS2 9EN C georgia Butina-Watson, Alan Reeve T 01382 385246 / 01382 385048 C Dr Fabiano Lemes t 0113 812 3216 t 01865 483403 C Dr Mohammad Radfar / Dr Deepak E [email protected] C e dwin Knighton Diploma in Urban Design, six months Gopinath W www.port.ac.uk/courses/ e [email protected] full time or 18 months part time. MA one e [email protected] / architecture-property-and-surveying/ W www.courses.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/ year full-time or two years part-time. [email protected] ma-urban-design/ urbandesign_ma W www.dundee.ac.uk/postgraduate/ The MA Urban Design course provides Master of Arts in Urban Design consists UCLan – University of courses/advanced_sustainable_ the opportunity to debate the potential of 1 year full time or 2 years part time or Central Lancashire urban_design_msc.htm role of design professionals in the individual programme of study. Shorter The Grenfell-Baines School of The MSc Advanced Sustainable generation of sustainable cities. One programmes lead to Post Graduate Architecture, Construction and Urban Design (RTPI accredited) is a year full time and two years part time. Diploma/Certificate. Project based Environment, Preston, PR1 2HE unique multidisciplinary practice-led course focusing on the creation of T 01772 892400 programme set in an international University of Sheffield sustainable environments through E [email protected] context (EU study visit) and engaging School of Architecture, The Arts interdisciplinary design. W www.uclan.ac.uk/courses/msc_ with such themes as landscape Tower, urban_design.php urbanism, placemaking across cultures Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN London South Bank The MSc in Urban Design enables and sustainability evaluation as T 0114 222 0341 University students to work with real cities integrated knowledge spheres in the C Florian Kossak Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences and live projects, politicians, policy creation of sustainable places. E [email protected] 103 Borough Road, London SE1 0AA makers, architects and designers in a W www.shef.ac.uk/architecture/ C b ob Jarvis critical studio environment. This along University of Huddersfield study/pgschool/taught_masters/ t 020 7815 7353 residential study tours to European School of Art, Design & Architecture maud MA Urban Design (one year full time/ cities help to prepare students for Queen Street Studios One year full time MA in Urban Design two years part time) or PG Cert practice addressing the demands of Huddersfield HD1 3DH for postgraduate architects, landscape Planning based course including units our urban future. T 01484 472208 architects and town planners. The on place and performance, sustainable C Dr Ioanni Delsante programme has a strong design focus, cities as well as project based work and University College London E [email protected] integrates participation and related EU study visit. Part of RTPI accredited Development Planning Unit W www.hud.ac.uk/courses/full-time/ design processes, and includes programme. 34 Tavistock Square postgraduate/urban-design-ma/ international and regional applications. London WC1H 9EZ MA; PgDip; PgCert in Urban Design (Full Newcastle University t 020 7679 1111 Time or Part Time). University of Strathclyde Department of Architecture, Planning C giulia Carabelli The MA in Urban Design aims to provide Department of Architecture and Landscape, Claremont Tower E [email protected] students with the essential knowledge Urban Design Studies Unit University of Newcastle, Newcastle The MSc Building and Urban Design in and skills required to effectively Level 3, James Weir Building upon Tyne NE1 7RU Development programme combines intervene in the urban design process; 75 Montrose Street, Glasgow G1 1XJ t 0191 222 6006 cultural, social, economic, political and develop academic research skills, t 0141 548 4219 C g eorgia Giannopoulou spatial analysis in the effort to present including critical problem-solving and C Ombretta Romice e [email protected] a critical response to the growing reflective practice; facilitate design e [email protected] W www.ncl.ac.uk/apl/study/ complexities within the design and responses to the range of cultural, W www.udsu-strath.com postgraduate/taught/urbandesign/ production of urban realms. political, socio-economic, historical, The Postgraduate Course in Urban index.htm environmental and spatial factors. It Design is offered in CPD,Diploma The MA in Urban Design brings University College London also aims to promote responsibility and MSc modes. The course is design together cross-disciplinary expertise Bartlett School of Planning within urban design to consider the centred and includes input from a striking a balance between methods 22 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0QB wider impact of urban development and variety of related disciplines. and approaches in environmental T 020 7679 4797 regeneration. design and the social sciences in C Filipa Wunderlich University of Westminster the creation of the built environment. E [email protected] University of Northampton 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS To view the course blog: W www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/planning/ The University of Northampton t 020 7911 5000 ext 66553 www.nclurbandesign.org programmes Park Campus, Boughton Green Road C b ill Erickson The MSc/Dipl Urban Design & City Northampton NN2 7AL e [email protected] Planning has a unique focus on the T 01604 735500 MA or Diploma Course in Urban Design interface between urban design & city E sabine.coadyschaebitz@ for postgraduate architects, town planning. Students learn to think in northampton.ac.uk planners, landscape architects and critical, creative and analytical ways C sabine Coady Schaebitz related disciplines. One year full time or across the different scales of the city W www.northampton.ac.uk/study/ two years part time. – from strategic to local -and across courses/courses-by-subject/social- urban design, planning, real estate and sciences/integrated-urbanism-msc sustainability. MSc Integrated Urbanism: Eight Urban Design and Urbanism Modules plus Master Thesis to explore the complexities of creating and managing people-friendly sustainable urban environments.

Urban Design ― autumn 2016 ― Issue 140 EndpiecNewse Plant room

For once, more by chance than intention, this Endpiece is actually written on the theme of the issue. HP Sauce used to be made at Aston Cross in Birmingham. On the opposite corner stood Ansells brewery. The unique combined smell from these two buildings – malt, hops, vinegar and I don’t know what else (Cette sauce de haute qualite est un melange de fruits orientaux, d’epices et de vinaigre…. you may remem- ber reading the HP Sauce bottle label) - was a distinctive example of olfactory place- making, which I wrote about in UD108. Both institutions migrated away years ago – Ansells to Allied Breweries in Burton, and HP Sauce to Heinz in the Netherlands, and Aston no longer has its distinctive smell. What was the dense inner-city social 1 node of Aston Cross is now also devastated by highway building and faceless redevelop- ment. But the HP site was at least bought and redeveloped by another business deal- ing in exotic foodstuffs: East End Foods, a huge supplier of Indian food ingredients. The chairman of this family company, the genial Tony Deep Wouhra, told me that the location was quite deliberate, as he was conscious that HP was an iconic element in the urban landscape, and he wanted to reproduce its landmark quality by building there. The huge cash-and-carry warehouse, with 1,000 solar panels on its roof, has a big cylindrical glazed volume on the corner, which is both its entrance hall and a vertical urban farm. On several levels, trays of plants, growing hydroponically in water enriched with nutrients, slowly rotate around the space on a sort of miniature fair- ground circuit, in a light, heat and humidity- regulated environment. It is intended as a demonstration installation, mainly for educational purposes, not for economic 2 production. Growing more in the city of what we eat expertly looked after by a Filipino nurse. But clearly this model of internal verti- in the city is clearly a good thing: reducing I wondered, who is nursing the hospital cal farming is capable of being expanded food miles, and increasing the freshness patients in Manila? on a big scale, at which economically viable of food. But at the same time it occurs to • food production in the city is possible. me that there is a dystopian side to the Joe Holyoak, architect and urban designer Wouhra is motivated by two imperatives. future that I am imagining. What will be Firstly to source his products as close to the environmental impact, and the energy home as possible, and secondly to ensure impact, of enormous mechanised high- the products are pure. He employs an Indian rise greenhouses? And conversely, will our agronomy firm, Jain Irrigation, to advise patchworks of urban allotments survive, him. Not being an expert, I don’t know the that contribute so much to the city in limitations of what can be grown verti- environmental and social terms? Will we cally. At East End Foods, they are growing continue to be as alienated from the sources stuff such as basil, chard, spinach, chervil, of our food as we are at present? chives, dill, coriander, mint and parsley – all There is a global question too, arising fairly small plants. The argument is that by from Wouhra’s ‘import only what you cannot growing vertically, productivity is increased. grow here’ ethic. If we can grow green car- You can grow more plants per square metre damoms in Birmingham in a controlled en- 1 East End Foods premises than you can on a square metre of ground, vironment, instead of importing them from on the old HP Sauce site, and you can grow them faster. Growing Birmingham Guatemala, what do Guatemalan peasants 2 Vertically farming herbs times vary with species, but some are as do for a living? I had a related thought last hydroponically as a short as three weeks. year, when after my heart operation I was demonstration project

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