Urban Design Quarterly The Journal of the Urban Design Group

Winter 2001 / Issue 77

Viewpoints: The UDG Procedural Review The Urban White Paper The Role of Landscape

Topic: UDAL Conference

Case Studies: Bristol Legible City 2 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 772 1

CONTRIBUTORS

Dr. Matthew Carmona is Sauerbuch and Hutton Senior Lecturer in Planning and are partners in an architectural Strasbourg and Urban Dewsign at the Bartlett practice with offices in London School of Planning, University and Berlin Zahringer towns College London Tim Heath and Tanner Oc I Sir Neil Cossons OBE is the are lecturers in the School of the Chairman of English Heritage and Built Environment of Nottingham a leading authority on industrial University. archaeology. Andrew Gibbins and Robert Cowan is director ot the Michael Rawlinson of City ID Urban Dedsign Group and joint are consultants to Bristol City project manager of the Council. Placechecks Initiative

Christos Daskalakos is an Regular Contributors architect and urban designer working in South Africa. Derek Abbott John Billingham Tim Catchpole Brian Evans is a partner of Richard Cole Gillespies and is artistic professor Peter Eley of urban design at Chalmers, Bob Jarvis Sweden. Sebastian Loew Judith Ryser Richard Leese is the Leader of Manchester City Council.

Sir Stuart Lipton is Chairman of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.

Nick Raynsford, MP is Minister for Housing and Planning at the DETR

Urban Design Group Study Tours 26 May - 3 June 2001 and Alison Peters and Ashley 1 June-4 June 2001 Scott were Open Spaces Strasbourg is famous as the home of the European courts and Consultants for the Urban Design parliament, but it is also a fine historic city which has replanned its of Putrajaya in Malaysia. New service public spaces and transport over the last ten years, and is home to a number of interesting new buildings. The "short tour" from Friday 1 st Les Sparks OBE to members June to Monday 4th will include a visit to the Vitra complex and the is a Commissioner for the Beyeler Foundation near Basle. The cost of air fare, hotel (b & b) and Commission for Architecture and The Urban Design Group is trip to Basle will be around £340.- per person (double room) for UDG the Built Environment and chair introducing an email members and £380.- for non-members. information service for its of the Commission's Regions members. If you would like to You may if you wish combine this with a longer tour from Saturday Committee. He is a Patron of receive regular news about 26th May to Sunday 3rd June which includes visits to a number of UDG. urban design direct to your historic towns in nearby Germany and Switzerland founded by the desktop, send an email to Dukes of Zahringen in the 1 2th C. They are amongst the earliest Jane Todd is Director of [email protected] giving your medieval planned towns in the German Holy Roman Empire and Development for Nottingham UDG region and the name include Fribourg, Bern, Freiburg-im-Breisgau and Rottweil. Freiburg is City Council. (personal, practice or noteworthy for its green planning and transport policies and we shall organisation) in which your find more about them from the local planners. We shall also be visiting UDG membership is held. This the Rhine frontier fortress towns of Breisach and Neuf-Brisach. This tour, Professor Michael Hebbert service is available to all UDG including rail travel and participation in the Strasbourg visit, costs is head of the School of Planning members at no extra cost, and £500 for UDG members and £540 for non-members. and Landscape at the University of Manchester you can cancel it at any time. In order to obtain lowest airfares we recommend early bookings. Booking forms from UDG office. Further information is available Hugo Wuyts is Planning Officer Apologies to Susanna Heron as from Alan Stones, Fullerthorne, Church Street, Kelvedon, with the London Borough of the photograph of her Water Essex C05 9AH, pho ne 01376 562828 or from Sebastian Loew, Barking and Dagenham 17/17 Broad Court, London WC2B 5QN, phone 020 7240 2659 Feature in Priory Place, Coventry e-mail [email protected]. uk on page 28 was printed upside down. Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 3 1

CONTENTS

Enquiries and change of address: Cover 6 Ashbrook Courtyard, Westbrook Street Exchange Square, Manchester Blewbury, Oxon OX11 9QH (Lee Grant for Manchester CC Special Projects) Tel: 01235 851415 Fax: 01235 851410 Email admin@udg. org.uk News and events Leader 4 Chairman Marcus Wilshere 020 7287 3644 Virtual Reality in Urban Design 4 Dimensions of Sustainability 4 Patrons Streets for People 5 Alan Baxter Lisbon - UDG visit 6 Terry Farrell The Good Place Guide Feedback 7 Peter Hall Viewpoint Richard MacCormac The UDG procedural review, Marcus Wilshere 7 Les Sparks The White Paper-A New Vision for Urban Living? John Worthington Matthew Carmona 8 The role of Landscape Architects in Urban Design UDG Regional Activities Alison Peters and Ashley Scott 9 Regional convenors: Scotland Leslie Forsyth 0131 221 6175 International Northern Ireland Barrie Todd 01232 233363 Studying Urban Design in Sweden, Brian Evans 10 North Bill Tavernor 0191 222 6015 Johannesburg Social Housing Projects, Christos Daskalakos 12 Yorks/Humber Lindsay Smales 0113 283 2600 North West Chris Standish 01254 587586 Topic West Midlands Peter Larkham 0121 331 5152 Urban Design Week 2000: Introduction, Judith Ryser 15 East Midlands Nigel Wakefield 0116 252 7262 The Governments View, Nick Raynsford 16 South Richard Crutchley 01793 466 476 Maximising Opportunities, Sir Neil Cossons 18 South Wales Sam Romaya 02920 874000 Resolving Conflicts, Sir Stuart Lipton, Les Sparks 20 South West John Biggs 01202 633633 International Perspectives, Michael Hebbert, 23 East Anglia Elizabeth Moon 01245 437646 Maintaining Premier League Status, Richar Leese 25 Nottingham's Framework, Jane Todd 26 Editorial Board Testing Placechecks, Robert Cowan 28 Derek Abbott London Bus Tour, Sebastian Loew 29 John Billingham Barking & Dagenham: it's just a kiss away.. ,,Hugo Wuyts 30 Matthew Carmona Urban Strategies for Berlin, Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton 31 Tim Catch pole Richard Cole Research Peter Eley Susta inability Through Converting Buildings to Bob Jarvis Residential Use, Tim Heath and Tanner Oc 35 Sebastian Loew Case Study Tony Lloyd-Jones Bristol Legible City, Andrew Gibbins and Michael Rawlinson 37 Judith Ryser Book Reviews Editors: Sebastian Loew Tourists in Historic Towns by Aylin Orbasli 41 Architetes by Louis Hellman 41 Editor for this issue: John Billingham The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism by Eric Mumford 42 Conservation Plans in Action, English Heritage 42 Topic editors: Judith Ryser and Sebastian Loew Hundertjahre Hochhauser by Bruno Flierl Huss-Medien 43 City of Westminster High Buildings Study, EDAW 43 Book reviews Tim Catchpole Streets for All, English Heritage 44

56 Gilpin Ave, London SW14 8QY Practice Index 45

Education Index 51 Design consultant Simon Head Endpiece 51 Print production Constable Printing Who wants yesterday's papers?

© Urban Design Group ISSN 0266 6480 Future issue: Material for publication: please send text on hard copy and disc (Word or RTF) to the editors at the UDG office. Contact editors for further details. Current subscriptions: The Quarterly is free to Urban Design Group members who also receive newsletters and the biennial Source Book at the time of printing. Websites New annual rates: Individuals £35 Students £20. Individuals with on line services £55. Urban Design Group website: http://www.udg.org.uk/ Corporate rates: Practices, including listing in UDQ practice index and Sourcebook £200. includes Urban Design Quarterly one issue in arrears. Libraries £40 Local Authorities £100 (2 copies of UDQ). The Resource for Urban Design Information (RUDI) Overseas members pay a supplement of £3 for Europe and £8 for other locations. contains general information on Urban Design: Individual issues of the journal cost £5. http://www.rudi.net Neither the Urban Design Group nor the editor is responsible for views expressed or statements made by individuals writing in this journal. 4 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 774 1

NEWS AND EVENTS

Virtual Reality in Urban Currently Hall is working on the Good News Design possibilities of producing a 3D The Gallery 20 September model of a whole town.

Professor Tony Hall started his talk The following debate moved from on the use of new technology in technological questions regarding urban design by expressing his how the images were produced to The Urban Design Group has good reasons to pat belief that computers are there to whether the techniques might not make life easier for people: they itself on the back: not many campaigns succeed in reinforce the discussions around should allow ordinary people to the limited "aesthetics" rather than changing the language used in government understand and influence urban more general principles. It would publications and policy statements in the way that the design. He then presented a be an exaggeration to say that the number of examples showing the select audience was entirely UDG has. Circumstances and an improved climate evolution of the techniques and convinced of the advantages of the have helped, but so has the hard work of the group's applications, starting in the early new technologies, but it was members. Few could have hoped in the early 1980s 1980s with computer models of certainly alert and willing to public spaces in South Woodham engage in the debate. # to see the words "urban design" mentioned with such Ferrers. The case studies that frequency and not just in the specialised press. The followed varied in scope and in S.Loew scale. One scheme for a house latter is giving the subject much wider coverage than extension could be modified easily hitherto and it has reached the letter pages, a good on the screen, allowing for new gauge of the interest raised by a subject. ideas to emerge effortlessly in discussions between the applicant and the planning officer. The effects The government's increasingly positive attitude is of alternative designs on neighbouring properties could be reflected in the Urban White Paper - even if this did Dimensions of Sustainability tested immediately, as could The Gallery, 18th October not fulfil all our expectations. Matthew Carmona's peoples reactions to variations in article outlines the contents of this document. The colouring of a particular housing On a very wet evening the development. Hall emphasised that substitute lecture room at Alan Commission for Architecture and the Built the general impression given by the Baxter's Associates was packed Environment (CABE) is being proactive by setting up simulations was more important with a mainly young audience an Urban Design Skills Working Group to try to than the accuracy of detail. eager to hear Chris McCarthy of Battle McCarthy give his views on overcome one of the most difficult obstacles to the Animated models have emerged the role of the engineer in relation improvement of the quality of the built environment in more recently and allow for the to sustainability. Introducing him, its widest sense. CABE's chief executive Jon Rouse is simulation of driving or walking UDG s chairman Marcus Wilshere remembered that when working for committed to the cause and hopes to convince the through an area. The level of realism of the images can be McCarthy, he had difficulties in professional institutions of the need to collaborate. In increased or reduced according to keeping up with the flow of ideas this context the future role and financing of UDAL is necessity and budget (the higher emerging at great speed from the the degree of realism the higher the speaker. Undoubtedly the same being discussed at the highest level with cost). The animated examples happened to the audience and this encouragement from the Commission. shown - with a less than perfect report will do little justice to a talk projector - were rather hard to that was constantly stimulating and follow and made this viewer surprising. In the capital, the Mayor has stated that urban design queasy, but Hall assured the is high on the agenda and this is endorsed with audience that the quality of the McCarthy started by emphasising the need to rethink constantly as enthusiasm by his deputy Nicky Gavron. image is normally much better. The assumption is that these models can change produces more knowledge be used to allow elected members and new challenges, such as the The UDG itself is entering a new phase partly as at and members of the public to better ageing of the population and understand the effect of traffic or increasing concerns with health result of the above mentioned changes but helped architectural schemes on urban and environmental matters. The also by the appointment of Rober Cowan as its first design, thus helping them to arrive engineers' role is to predict the Director. In a very short time the profile of the group at better decisions. future and computers help them do so more effectively than ever. He seems to have risen steeply. The website is Further applications include local thought there should be four basic increasingly successful and the e-mail newsletter to plans available on the web through criteria for his work: be started in the New Year should facilitate the hyperlinks, on which an individual applicant could locate his property Committed leadership: having a information reaching members with greater speed. with the policies affecting it. This vision could then be used to base a Focus on the customer (the architect Sebastian Loew planning application upon and to is the engineers customer) negotiate interactively with Drive for quality in everything development planning offices. Respect for people and trust. Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 5 1

Streets for People The Gallery 15 November

Two new publications on roads and streets have been produced by UDAL working groups and three members of the groups, Robert Huxford, an engineer, Lynda Addison, a consultant, and Barry Sellers described the work. The two parallel initiatives produced "Returning Roads to Residents", a practical guide to what can be done, and "Designing Streets for

People", showing how this can be .f/,',v/>yi5 Aretss To St' AEvts-cp achieved and ways forward for future practice. Barry Sellers referred to the need Robert Huxford presented the way for integrated design teams in local in which the road has changed authorities, and for a mechanism to from the Almond Tree Avenue of work across departments. He interwar suburbia to the initial illustrated ways in which street impact of vehicle parking, followed design could be improved or reflect by concreted front gardens. Roads existing qualities of places using the have many functions to perform but grain of a place, space syntax To place matters in context, and experiments with new most current solutions are directed techniques, strategies for walking, McCarthy mentioned that materials. These are important as in at single interests - traffic, refuse, lighting, public and private engineering is a £60 billion the future we will need to have security and few consider holistic transport, which all needed to be business employing 1.5 million better construction process and to solutions. One way forward is for considered within a strategy. people, of which 30% goes to reuse materials in order to reduce the local authority and residents to Details of spaces in hard lawyers and insurance companies, waste: concrete and timber are work together to form a Quality landscape terms, the use of and less than 1 % to research; 40% inadequate for this purpose; metals Street Partnership, assessing the arcades, reduction in signs to a of the work is commissioned by the are good but other smarter street, exploring options, forming a meaningful level rather than a government. He then described the materials are being developed. vision, investigating funding, chaotic jumble could all assist. various tasks performed by his entering into a street agreement Design codes could be used in office and pointed out that Other issues covered by McCarthy and maintaining the area. new development and charrettes measurable matters such as wind, included the criteria used to assess could bring all participants together sound and weight were what they Greenwich Urban Village and the Huxford illustrated some of the either in a street or in a wider dealt with, human beings on the need to manage sustainability in options contained in the environment. other hand dealt with the same an integrated form. He listed the publication emphasising that each elements in a less rational manner three essential global issues with road is unique and needs a The discussion referred to other and engineers had to understand which we needed to deal: solution tailored to its own groups involved in action such as this. So for instance a masterplan Biodiversity, C02 emissions and circumstances. Moving the "Recover the Streets". The real way had to be adapted to the change Resource depletion. He carriageway, echelon parking, forward appears to be to of seasons. emphasised the importance of landscape solutions and dividing encourage pilot schemes to occur building good quality houses that the street space into smaller areas throughout the country. In this McCarthy then illustrated the fact are flexible and can be adapted in could all be investigated. respect Placechecks could be that engineers serve architects and the future and suggested that if we applied specifically to of help them resolve practical build at higher densities acoustic "Designing Streets for People" roads/streets to show the benefits problems, with a series of insulation is essential. Finally he looked at better ways to manage of all parties working together. examples such as Allsop's thought that because of new and maintain street environments. More information needs to be Marseilles Town Hall, Farrell's Big technologies (the swipe card in The complex legal and available on the form that public Bang building in the City of London particular) there was a future for management systems tends to realm strategies could take - they and others from Tibet to Kent. In all tower blocks which would really concentrate on single interest are not yet used commonly enough the examples matters of function like streets with services, guidance with nothing about - and on successful street sustainability were dealt with, gardens, and multiple uses. combining functions in workable improvements. It is encouraging to particularly natural ventilation and solutions. Ways to move forward have a UDG meeting where an lighting control. In one case, Much more was said that could not include a Street Excellence Model, engineer is leading the finding a solution for the ventilation be noted quick enough. An Public Realm Strategies, Design presentation, as real progress will of a school in Jersey led to the amazing number of ideas were put Codes and Street Management only be made when all members of manufacturing of wind towers now forward with the greatest apparent Codes. Lynda Addison described the design team see things in the sold worldwide. Similarly casualness and total conviction of the Street Excellence Model which round and not as single interest innovative solutions had to be their importance and the need to is based on the Business Excellence solutions. found for the top down ventilation make them universally acceptable. Model, and identified the main of Bluewater or the environment A job for all us. # factors from leadership to results. Copies of the publications are control of Nintendo's 'think tank'. People are the key, partnership is available from the ICE 020 7222 Battle McCarthy prepares models Sebastian Loew critical and the process needs to be 7722. # to measure energy consumption right. John Billingham 6 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 776 1

NEWS AND EVENTS Lisbon - The UDG visit to a rainbow city

Urban Design Services' first neglected buildings, rickety study tour, set off from trams and sophisticated Stanstead in the early hours of "bendy-buses". We met with 12 October. The group of 26 Paulo Martins Barata to members and friends flew explore why this should be. He above rainbows glinting in the believed that distortions of the sun. Were they the promise of property market led owners to colourful sights or would our neglect their assets, and vision be dampened by rain? bureaucratic inertia and Two hours later glimpses of corruption inhibited Portugal's Atlantic coast were development. Nevertheless replaced by a tracery of roads there was strong investment and an apparently from Britain and Holland; the uncoordinated scatter of sheds Expo venture had allowed for and tower blocks, villas and the clearance of industrial blight stadia, parks and woodland. and left behind BDP's Low over roofs, through a belt shoppping centre and of rain and the group had Calatrava's station. In spite of arrived. an extensive and cheap public transport system, the city Off on the usual taxi grand prix suffered from the influx of and already the tracery seen 150,000 cars per day. Attempts from above was forming into to control this through tolls on an impression of avenues and the bridges failed, through emerging topography. Finally blockades by truckers(I). Barata we arrived at the Baixa, claimed that the Portuguese Lisbon's downtown. A quick used their cars to compensate "fresh up" and Sebastian led for the poor quality housing. Top: UDQ members getting their bearings from the Castelo Sao Jorge the team up the precipitous An effect of this was the use of steps to Alfama and its Castelo the city's squares for Above: Calatrava's Oriente station at the EXPO 98 site de Sao Jorge. Here the city underground car parks: we saw spread before us and its hardly a square in the Baixa tarts, confirmed the lack of splendid and centre place was structure became cleared. The that did not have a cluster of spatial integration that seemed the Palacio Nacional with its shores of the Tagus with their site huts and tower cranes. Is to typify the city. Replete on oast-like kitchen chimneys. belt of docks and railways to there a vision for the future of tarts we set off on trams and Back in Lisbon there was time the south, a distant glimpse of the city? No, it seems that metros to Expo 98, its fine new to explore lifts and funiculars, the 7 mile Vasco da Gama opportunism rules and station and shopping centre. and to shop. The evening saw bridge beyond the flatlands of professional jealousy guides. Any former exhibition site on a the whole group getting the Expo 98 site to the east, and Lisbon has not taken Expo as a Friday afternoon in early together for a final meal. Great the heights of Bairro Alto with chance to define a strategy as Autumn is likely to be quiet. company in a great setting. Sintra and the Atlantic Barcelona had done with the Expo 98 is not exception. There glistening in the far west. Olympics. There is a master was a distinct feeling of "after Sunday, a last exploration by Inspired by the view the group plan in preparation but Barata the ball is over": deserted aerial tram or foot before the taxi wound its way through narrow was not optimistic about its rides, empty cafes, windblown Grand Prix to the airport and streets first to the Se (cathedral) success. stadia, but good landscaping the traumas of GO. Did we find with its extraordinary cork and and interesting architecture. the foot of the rainbow? Lisbon terracotta nativity. We gathered Day two saw a ride on a bendy Has it contributed to the quality is certainly a city of contrast: our thoughts in the cafe and tram to Belem at the mouth of of Lisbon's urban life? there is much of interest but space fronting the Casa dos the Tagus and its exuberantly perhaps too much reliance on Bicos with its curious blend of decorated Jeronimos Saturday dawned bright, after individual enterprise and 16th Century and neo- Monastery, a blend of the Fado highlights of the night opportunism. The public Manueline architecture. Now at Manueline gothic and classical before. A train ride through the transport system is river level it was an easy stroll styles. Satiated with its carved sporadic suburbs with their extraordinary in its variety, to the Pra^a do Comercio and richness we moved on to the tower blocks and shopping cleanliness and the design of the Baixa with its grid plan laid stark Centro Cultural de Belem. centres (oh, for a master plan!) stations. There is much to do our following the earthquake of Built in 1993 this soulless place and we arrived at the summer and a concern that there is no 1755. is finely detailed but ads little to town of Sintra with its fairy tale co-ordinated vision to help the surrounding area. A march palaces and Moorish castles. guide this potentially wonderful Our first encounter had shown to the Torre de Belem and a The determined climbed to the city into the new millennium. # us the contrasts of the city: fine hike to the Antiga Casa dos Castelo dos Mouros' ramparts historic structures mixed with Pasteis with its splendid custard and beyond. The view was Richard Cole Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 7 1

VIEWPOINT: MARCUS WILSHERE

The Good Place Guide; Feedback The UDG Procedural Review

There was a modest level of Marcus Wilshere, UDG Chaiman outlines his view for the future of the UDG response to the special Good Place Guide issue of the UDQ, (No 75, July 2000). There were a number of spelling and grammatical items that will require our attention. An item of particular concern was the proposed inclusion of Priory Meadow in Hastings. This had been the subject Many members have expressed the view that a review of the • Members with subscription of a highly controversial initial management of the UDG is overdue. In the future, the running arrears will not be issued with proposal and a representative of the Group needs to be more democratic, transparent, a ballot paper, as their copies group of local UDG members had inclusive, representative and accountable. I have already of the Quarterly will be been involved in an energetic consulted widely on this topic both through the Policy suspended. campaign of objection. Certainly Committee, the Regional Groups and on the Group's web • Policy Committee meetings the new evidence shows there to site and this article summarises some preliminary conclusions. should be open to any member be some less than satisfactory to attend as an observer aspects to the completed The Group needs a simple, streamlined management • Agendas and minutes of the development and on balance structure with transparent procedures. In addition, the Policy Committee and Regional Priory Meadow will not feature in appointment of Rob Cowan as our first Director requires a Groups will be published on the ultimate guide. One new place Steering Group to oversee priorities set down by the Policy our web site was proposed but it seemed to us Committee. This Steering Group will consist of the Chair, Vice that it inclusion was perhaps Chair and Treasurer plus members of the Sub Committee Women contribute to the running of premature. Peter Heath suggested relevant to projects. the Group to an extent that is that we should focus more closely disproportionate to their numbers, I on the criteria within the text and he The Policy Committee will continue to meet four times a year would like to see women better has a point. We need however to to set the general direction of the Group and will consist of: represented on the Policy be careful to avoid being too • Chair Committee, Subcommittees and esoteric and technical if we are to • Treasurer Regional Groups. Other reforms have a wide non technical appeal. • Vice Chair that should be implemented include The way of recognising Peter's • Director a new role for our annual point is perhaps through careful re- • Regional Convenors (11 Regions) Conference which offers an writing of the introduction. • Chairs of subcommittees (Publicity, Events, Education, important opportunity for Publications and Business) membership to come together and What is the next step? Using the July • Our representatives on the UDAL Steering Group (2) debate the direction of the Group. issue we are now able to approach potential publishers and sponsors, a I want to make it easier for members to get involved so as to The regional structure also needs to task we have in hand. Meanwhile bring in a continual stream of fresh blood and fresh ideas. be supported and inactive groups there is still an opportunity for Similar procedures could eventually be introduced for revived. At a recent conference in additional places to be included. electing Regional Convenors. Key features of the proposed Dublin, I realised that there is scope Do let us know of your favourite Policy Committee structure are: for establishing a regional group in good place and thanks to all those the Irish Republic - national who have responded so far. # • The Sub-committees and the Regional Groups should be boundaries should be no limit to conduits into the Policy Committee expanding the UDG's membership Richard Cole • Chairs and Convenors should be able to delegate to in this way. deputies • Policy Committee members should attend at least 50% of I hope that these reforms will NEW ADMINISTRATOR WANTED the committee meetings in any 12month period gain the broad support of the In April 2001 the UDG Office in Blewbury • Regional Convenors should attend at least 1 meeting per UDG and form part of a number will close and the administration will move to year although they will also be encouraged to send of changes to improve the benefits the UDG's London office in Cowcross Street. delegates to the remaining meetings through the year. to members and the effectiveness At the same time Susie Turnbull will be • The Group's officers (Chair, Treasurer and Vice-Chair) of the Group in all its activities. leaving the UDG. We will be looking for a should be elected by mandate of the full membership If you would like to contribute new Administrator to work in London • Officers can be renewed at each AGM but should not your views, please write to me from approximately 1 st April. The hours serve more than 2 consecutive years care of the UDG or by e-mail to are currently 20 hrs. per week spread over • The timetable for annual appointment of officers is based m. wi lshere@urba n i n itiatives .co.uk 3 days. All applicants must be computer around the publication dates of the Quarterly with next # literate, have some knowledge of book- years nominations needed no later than 1 st March 2001 keeping, able to use their own initiative and so that a list of nominees can be published in the Spring happy working on their own. The work is Quarterly and voted on at the next AGM in May/June varied and interesting. 2001. • In the event of a choice of candidates, voting papers and For further details ring Susie on a short statement from each candidate will be included in 01235 851415 or email the Spring Quarterly [email protected]. uk 8 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 8 1

VIEWPOINT: MATTHEW CARMONA The White Paper - A New Vision for Urban Living?

Matthew Carmona gives his reaction to the Urban White Paper

In launching the new Urban White Paper - Our Towns and New urban design related beneficial, or perhaps just a little Cities: The Future - the Deputy Prime Minister argued that: initiatives are more limited, more glue. "We want to create sustainable communities in which although a wide range of everyone, no matter where they live, can enjoy a good regenerative measures aimed at Three significant new initiatives for quality of life - communities in which economic prosperity opening up new brownfield urban design are announced. The and social justice go hand in hand'. As research shortly to be opportunities will clearly aid the first - the promotion of master plans published by CABE and DETR confirms, better urban design delivery of urban design - lacks detail, but is important in re- has potentially an important role to play on all these fronts - objectives. Most significant are: confirming the value of social, environmental and economic. • The establishment of Urban supplementary design guidance Regeneration Companies to outside of the statutory This message has been picked up and reflected in the White develop a clear vision and development plan. The term Paper which begins by presenting a 'A New Vision for strategy for their areas (12 'master plan' was adopted by the Urban Living', combining: people shaping the future of their more are proposed to add to UTF and conjures up notions of community; attractive, well kept towns and cities which use the three trial URCs already up postwar inflexible civic design. In space and buildings well; good design and planning which and running); current parlance, it should also makes it practical to live in a more sustainable way; towns • The intention to revise and encompass more flexible design and cities able to create and share prosperity; and good update Compulsory Purchase briefs, frameworks and codes. quality services that meet the needs of people. Order procedures; • A range of fiscal incentives, The second is the promotion of This powerful set of principles, if truly reflected across including reduced stamp duty regional 'Centres of Excellence' to government policy and delivered through a broad range of in deprived areas and a improve skills and training related initiatives, will raise urban design to new heights. So what public/private English Cities to the urban renaissance agenda does the White Paper actually offer to help deliver better Fund, to stimulate inner-urban (including urban design). The first urban design? development; and two, the White Paper announces, • The possibility of introducing are to be established in the North Town Improvement Schemes West and London. Delivering better urban design based on the Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) The final initiative is perhaps the Like in all such documents, much space is given to promoting model developed in the USA. most significant, a plan to revise what has already been done, rather than to advancing new PPG 1 to "put urban renaissance at initiatives. Nevertheless, for urban design, this amounts to There is much of merit in the in the the heart of the urban planning quite a range of recent initiatives, a number of which are White Paper but the lack of a system"1. The proposal suggests extended in their scope and resources by the White Paper. single comprehensive treatment of that a stronger vision for planning They include: the urban design agenda is of the type envisaged by the UTF • The revised advice on design quality and housing in the noticeable by its absence. In may yet be on the cards. Annex A new PPG 3; particular, a 'National Urban to the White Paper which • Advice on design and the planning system in 'By Design' Design Framework' as envisaged systematically relates it to the 105 and the 'Urban Design Compendium'; and recommended by the Urban recommendations of the UTF, even • The 'Planned Through Design' initiative led by The Task Force (UTF) is nowhere to be tantalisingly identifies this initiative Prince's Foundation on the design and realization of seen. as the Government's answer to the sustainable urban extensions; proposed National Urban Design • The Ministerial Working Group led by CABE on urban Framework. The White Paper design skills; Urban design - the glue! promises a consultation version of • The formation and expansion of CABE itself (now to be the revised note by the summer of jointly sponsored by the DCMS and DETR); Maybe this is as it should be if 2001 - watch this space! • The Millennium Village exemplar projects (the White urban design is to act as the glue Paper announces five more); 'joining-up' the individual initiatives. • Guidance and 'Ministerial Champions' to pursue the However, the White Paper (like - to References better design of public buildings; a lesser extent - the UTF Report • Further encouragement (although not dedicated before it) suffers from the sheer 1 Carmona M, de Magalhaes C resources) for architecture and design centres, to be scale of the task it is aiming to & Edwards M (forthcoming) pursued through the RDAs; and accomplish. In parts it reads like a The Value of Urban Design, • The possibility of including urban design in a future round tick-box exercise, rather than as a London, CABE & DETR # of 'Beacon Councils' to promote excellence in the coherent prioritised whole. A delivery of local authority services. stronger relation of the many parts to the whole would have been Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 779 1

VIEWPOINT: ALISON PETERS AND ASHLEY SCOTT The Role of Landscape Architects in Urban Design Projects

Landscape Architects must rise to the challenge and fulfil the The theory was applied to open roles, identified in the report produced by the Urban Task space thus: Force, of designing spatial masterplans and preparing Distribution. Open spaces were strategies for open space and the public realm. Spatial spaced at even distances awareness in conjunction with the design, planning, according to size of open space management and professional skills of Landscape Architects, and size or catchment of coupled with their ability to work well within multi-disciplinary population that it served . Facilities. teams, mean that they are well positioned to take on this role. The size of the open space roughly An example is exhibited in the design process of a city where related to the breadth and depth of Landscape Architects played a significant role. sport, leisure and rest facilities provided in the open space. Putrajaya, Malaysia's new city, is being designed and built as the federal government's administrative centre, housing the OPEN SPACE HIERACHY DIAGRAM Interconnections government departments and the associated populations. Legend Landscape Architects involved in the project had the initial M - Metropolitan Park A further layer of the 'Green U - Urban Park task of determining the underlying concepts for the functions P - Pocket Park Continuum' was the provision of and appearance of the open space and public realm and — Corridors/Connectors interconnections between the open determining their distribution throughout the city. The brief was spaces. Visual interconnections aim to provide a unique physical identity for the city which was to to provide a clearer image of the feel Malaysian without artifice (gimmick). • employment of the prominent city and, if visually stimulating, vistas in order to take encourage movement from one advantage of the rich visual space to another. Physical Green Continuum quality. connections between the open spaces allow pedestrian and cycle The primary concept was termed the 'Green Continuum' Respect for site context therefore movement within the city and out to which was inspired by Malaysia's rainforest heritage (refer to contributed to attaining Malaysian the areas beyond the city. This the box) and site context. In broad terms it' aimed to provide identity. pedestrian and cycle movement continuous green on various planes including an interlinked system utilising Green Corridors network of open space, forming a secondary pedestrian was intended to be dominant over network, and a near continuous cover of vegetation Greening the City the footpath at the sides of roads. throughout the city. Such legibility and permeability The effective use of large trees and ensure the full integration of the built palms whose canopies and environment of the city with the The Open Space Framework crowns, over time, join together to natural environment further provide a strong 'green' visual reinforcing the Open Space In order to distribute the open space in the city, Christaller's impact aimed to further reinforce Framework spatial structure. model of urban hierarchical order was adapted and refined. the 'Green Continuum'. Christaller (1) postulated that the more important a city's economic function, the larger the city's population. He added Retention of Existing Trees provide shade, colour and that cities were spaced to perform functions without severe Landscape Features fresh air and can provide a lasting competition from the others. This is referred to as 'distance visual impression in the memory of interval'. Unique physical identity was also residents and visitors of the city. to be achieved through respecting Therefore the visual benefits of a A similar approach was applied to the Open Space the natural setting with the existing 'continuous green' not only include Framework. If the open space was likened with a city then and proposed distinctive physical calming, on both the eye and active and passive leisure facilities could be depicted as its forms including: senses, but also a means of economic functions. The open space would be larger the • the retention of the existing providing visual delight. In addition greater it's provision of park facilities. The greater the number rolling hills terrain, there are the microclimatic benefits of facilities provided the larger the attraction and vice versa. • retention of native vegetation of tree cover in the form of cooling Therefore smaller open spaces (City Parks), with fewer and strategic plantation the air by providing shade, facilities, would serve a smaller proportion of the population vegetation to create maturity, reducing noise and improving air without competing with the larger open spaces (Metropolitan • utilisation of water catchment quality due to the effects of leaves. Parks). The diagram illustrates the application of Christaller's with the retention of existing The 'Green Continuum' in terms of model to the distribution and size of open space in a newly streams and water catchments the relationship between built form planned city (Diagram 1). and the creation, by damming, and open space, as well as the of artificial lakes, and means of 'greening' the open 10 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 7710 1

INTERNATIONAL: BRIAN EVANS Studying Urban Design in Sweden

areas of the city, were to be Chalmers University achieved in a variety of ways as illustrated in the diagram (Diagram This article reviews urban design teaching at Chalmers 2). University, which in 1995 became an independent b foundation and has since been directed increasingly to This concept was determined to be research and pedagogic excellence focused on the needs of achievable for many disciplines industry. A number of high-profile initiatives have been such as planning, in terms of land realised including the establishment of an MIT style medialab use; architecture in terms of specific within the architectural school. site planning; transport with non- vehicular movement; and Gothenburg, Sweden's second city has a population of landscape with the creation of 500,000 with a further 300,000 in the greater metropolitan three-dimensional volumes, a area. It is a cosmopolitan city with a wide range of cultural viable active public realm and an facilities and a student population of over 40,000. It lies on extensive tree planting programme. the western Scandinavian crescent extending from Oslo to Copenhagen and Malmo. It was laid out on the south bank of the River Gota by the Dutch in the first half of the 17th century. Urban Forest In common with many former industrial cities in Europe, Gothenburg has a fine, if somewhat bruised, urban form and Malaysia is covered with some of is today searching for a post-industrial identity. Following the the oldest rainforest in the world recent completion of the 0resund fixed link from Copenhagen and it is the true natural heritage of to Malmo (or Malmo to Copenhagen - or Europe to Asia - Malaysia being the original home depending on your perspective), Gothenburg is somewhat of its people. Looking to the future a preoccupied by the potential for 0resund to grow as a young tree in the present shall competitive knowledge region to challenge Gothenburg as eventually become the heritage for the preeminent industrial region in western Scandinavia. For future generations. The forest can all of these reasons, Gothenburg is an excellent cily in which therefore be a metaphor for both The role of the Landscape to study urban design in an era of urban transition. past and future as well as providing Architect, when involved in a strong sense of Malaysian designing both a new city or At Chalmers, awareness of urban design - and indeed of identity. The application of the revitalising an existing city, is very urban planning - is begun in the first year as part of students' Urban Forest to Putrajaya, in the much in the realms of urban basic education. As well as the rudiments of space, form and form of a Green Continuum, draws design. As learnt from the Putrajaya construction of buildings, students are introduced to the on the diversity and essence of the experience the world's cities relationships between buildings and space in the city. rainforest and weaves it into the tangibly benefit from Landscape fabric of the orderly and functional Architect led masterplans and Integrated studies city. urban design. Urban design study remains a fundamental and integrated In fulfilling the objectives to provide The currently reported shortage of part of students education through all the years of the course. a network of interlinked open Urban Designers and the lack of In the second and third year students undertake a half- spaces and to provide a substantial emphasis on training in urban semester course in urban design. Stad or City 1 is focused on vegetative cover the concept of the design demands that Landscape intervention at the detailed scale through the contextual study Urban Forest provides another Architects seize the opportunities of a small, and carefully selected, part of the city followed by layer in the design of the city. The for further broadening their scope. the design of a project to fit within this context such as a new concept of Urban Forest is After all, what are Landscape public space, public building or small transport interchange. expressed in an urban setting as an Architects if they are not designers Stad or City 2, in the third year, is more ambitious in its extensive tree cover utilising of spatial masterplans and educational aims and is intended to help students develop predominantly native trees. Public strategists for open space and the urban design frameworks and/or masterplans within which open spaces are the obvious public realm? more detailed projects could be developed later. setting for large scale tree planting. However private grounds and Many of these studies are located on the urban periphery. In gardens can also contribute. Also References the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Swedish Government of primary importance are street responded to economic growth, rapid urbanisation and new trees which can be planned in 1. Walter Christaller, 1966 household formation by building one million new homes in a advance to accommodate large 'Central Spaces in Southern 10 year period - mainly at the edge of Stockholm, quantities of trees. Germany # Gothenburg and Malmo. These peripheral areas now face a Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 1 1

range of problems familiar in the choice of short theoretical courses UK: economic disadvantage, and longer studio programmes social exclusion and a failing leading up to their diploma studies fabric. Many, however, were (thesis and design set piece). The constructed to relatively high Swedish professional body for standards (compared to the UK) architects (SAR) plays no role in the and present a stimulating challenge validation of courses. This means for students to design sustainable that there is less focus on technical programmes for conservation and education than in the UK, but that intervention in respect of buildings in general, a wider range of artistic and public spaces which will programmes are acceptable. In address the needs of the resident their final year, students are offered communities. a choice of studio programmes in architectural design, urban design, Both Stad 1 and Stad 2 are studio workspace design and sustainable based. Students work together in community planning. Left: Stad 2 project plan groups of around 10 with an assistant teacher. Lectures, seminars Below: Stad 2 sketch and masterclasses are designed Gothenburg around the programme to address Bottom: Waterside the generic range of issues to be In recent years, considerable Chester; Student's faced and the challenges of the attention has been given to the illustration area in question. At the end major urban challenge remaining students formulate design solutions for Gothenburg on the north bank to commonly analysed problems, of the River Gota. Whereas central opportunities and challenges which Gothenburg on the south bank has they present on their own or with seen a graceful expansion of the one or two colleagues. Dutch military town, development on the north bank has been driven The Stad 2 project challenges by a series of industrial imperatives. students to engage with urban The second half of 20th century design as means to understand saw a series of efforts by the City community aspirations, a Council to programme and particularly relevant pedagogic implement a comprehensive plan exercise in a school where artistic for Hisingen on the north bank. A self-expression is very much to the land use plan was prepared in fore. The other principal aim of 1971 with a predominant housing Stad 2 is to assist students to learn bias, seeing the development of about statutory town plans in communities such as Sweden and to consider how Biskopsgarden and Angered. In design values can be safeguarded the 1980s, the Council adopted a in the process. In Sweden, the more mixed use strategy statutory plan lies somewhere embracing housing, business and between local plans and the office use. A series of masterplans building regulations in the UK. It is were prepared including one in normally the responsibility of the 1987 by Ralph Erskine which developer (public or private) and retained a housing focus, his architectural team to produce particularly along the waterfront. the draft plan as part of the Rapidly changing economic package of information submitted circumstances have meant only the for development approval, thereby first few projects of these plans ensuring that statutory plans are have ever been built. When times kept up to date, avoiding the are hard, the Council and the perennial challenge presented by market have retreated to the old ageing local plans in the UK. City on the south bank. In the The final year offers students a 1990s, the Council established an 12 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 12 1

INTERNATIONAL: CHRISTOS DASKALAKOS Johannesburg social housing projects

urban development corporation for dispassionate desk study The MHCD Architects and Urban Designers practice has the area (Norra Alvestanden comparing and contrasting various been intimately involved in the process of social housing Otveckling AB - The North Bank theories and techniques for delivery in Johannesburg is. The partners, Christos Development Co Ltd - NAUAB) (3). understanding the city; Daskalakos and Michael Hart have also become involved in interpretation - formulation of a project management and construction of the projects as a Together with the City Council, manifesto and framework for result of their commitment to empowering and training NAUAB has produced an intervention; and, contractors from previously disadvantaged backgrounds. ambitious programme for the future intervention - design of individual regeneration and development of projects to achieve and validate The development of social housing is a relatively recent the north bank to provide 1 200 the manifesto and framework phenomenon in South Africa, with very little in the way of new homes and some 300,000 propositions local policy or experience to guide it. Once subsidies are sq.m. of office space for allocated there is hardly any design control or input from the Gothenburg's burgeoning high-tech Rather than attempting to prepare authorities often resulting in mono-functional housing estates and knowledge based industries. comprehensive master plans, or townships. These are usually located where land is The city's two universities will also concepts have evolved to implant cheapest in the outlying areas of the city leading to many of develop up to 50,000 sq.m. integrated interventions at key the problems associated with long travel distances to places of research and teaching strategic points in the city which are of employment and access to amenities. To address these accommodation in the area. designed to be robust, flexible and problems and make efficient use of available resources land NAUAB has produced indicative adaptable. These implants linked has been made available within the inner cities by local and plans for the development of by high-quality public transport and provincial authorities for social housing projects. The release infrastructure and urban form in the ICT nets, are intended to act as a of this land has usually involved a proposal call by the area. It is these plans, as much as form of urban seed crystals around relevant authority with an urban design scheme being one of the development intentions, which which to grow future development the requirements. has generated the greatest debate. in a more organic form. There is concern that further In the past four years MHCD have been involved in several comprehensive plans will run the Chalmers School of Architecture major initiatives within the city of Johannesburg. Social risk of being overtaken by rapidly has an atmosphere of creative housing institutions have undertaken most of these changing and fluctuating demands challenge. It is dedicated to developments with the authorities making land available at in the knowledge economy before formulating a Nordic perspective low cost. Both the authorities and the housing institutions have the plans can be formalised and on European developments. acknowledged that in order to create sustainable implemented. Current challenges include the developments the projects need to extend beyond the implementation of a government physical product. To meet this objective MHCD has Final year studies review (4) which proposes the formulated urban designs that inform and are integrated with extension of architectural education the architectural design of the buildings, financial Recent final year urban design to five years to bring it into line with procurement and community empowerment. studios have therefore been other European nations. Within this directed to an exploration of form, overall initiative, it is hoped to The projects are based within broader neighbourhood space and movement to examine revise and integrate the urban precincts which guide the individual developments. The and evaluate the implications for design programmes in order to following examples demonstrate that social housing delivery urban architecture arising from the offer an international urban design can make a key contribution to the process of inner city structural shift in the economy from masters degree with a Nordic rejuvenation and in particular, contribute to making it a an industrial to a knowledge base. perspective. # desirable residential environment. Studio work has examined what patterns of space and movement are necessary to facilitate growth in Jeppestown the knowledge economy. Jeppestown is an area within the inner city of Johannesburg. The studies have followed a simple Several housing initiatives have been undertaken by the local 5-stage pedagogic method as a authority together with private companies and housing means to establish where and how associations, aimed at revitalising the area which had gone to intervene: into decline resulting in vacant land and slums. These have impression - gained by a been integrated within an overall neighbourhood plan that is introductory 2 day charette; divided into a number of precincts. The main precincts are immersion - a week long the Jeppestown Oval, the Infill Housing Initiative and the programme of on-site study; Douglas Village. A committee of local councillors, investigation - a more representatives of the housing association, schools and other Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 13 1

community organisations, guides building blocks make up the the ongoing development of the different buildings. This makes precincts. repetition easy during construction whilst still allowing for variety. Each block was allocated to one Jeppestown Oval emerging contractor who would not have been able to undertake This is one of the first social housing larger buildings, and would thus schemes built for rental purposes in have been excluded from large the inner city and was developed developments such as this. The by the Johannesburg Housing contractors were overseen by a Company, a housing association. It construction manager who co- consists of 240 residential units ordinated the site. Training, and is sited on the southern integrated into the construction JEPPESTOWN boundary of the Jeppestown Oval, process, was given to contractors one of Johannesburg's oldest parks. and construction workers in the KEY 1 IB? r**. paw The National Monuments Council jtPtnvm oM«t housinc MMMMKNT adjacent recreation centre. A was determined to retain this park labour desk also ensured that especially because of its unique, workers were employed directly for Johannesburg, shape. As a from the community. result the development was guided by principles set out to conserve and reinforce the park as a focus Infill Housing Scheme for the development as well as the surrounding community facilities. This consists of two phases. The first The scheme creates a strong three- phase completed four years ago dimensional edge to the Oval, involves 20 individual sites responds positively to the and 122 residential units. These surrounding streets, and creates a were built on vacant plots within development that has no the area in order to address the backspaces. The internal dumping problems and arrangement of buildings extends surrounding decay brought about the idea of creating a hierarchy of by overgrown derelict land. open spaces off which the units gain access. The second phase is located on four larger sites and will be built This special arrangement is according to the principles set out achieved by arranging 15 three- in the Jeppestown Oval. This storey individual walk up blocks on precinct includes the School of the site. Each block has its own Philosophy that is active with local entrance/staircase that serves a community projects and forms an maximum of nine units. The blocks integral part of the planning for the have been configured in different precinct. arrangements to form the courtyards that are intended for playing and other social activities. Douglas Village Top: Jeppestown scheme The concept of individual entrances plan also circumvents the need for long This precinct adjacent to a park is bleak access corridors usually made up of a collection of Above: View of associated with high-rise buildings that have been renovated Jeppestown Oval Scheme developments. and integrated into a small village- like development which includes a Left: Dougl as Village This arrangement was developed small shop and a creche. The to support community buildings that make up this project empowerment through the were all occupied but suffered from construction process: two types of dilapidation and overcrowding. 14 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 7714 1

The process of renovation included The Newtown project draws on temporarily re-housing the the experiences gained in occupants: a committee of Jeppestown using the same representatives was set up to principles of simple building blocks facilitate public consultations. This arranged to make up complex committee was consulted on all buildings that define both the NEWTOWN aspects of the design and surrounding streets and the internal construction process, including the courtyards. Eventually the housing ongoing management of the projects under construction will development. form a corridor of housing that surrounds the Art Precinct and link through to the major public Newtown transport node to the east of the site. Across the city from Jeppestown is the inner city area of Newtown, a much more complex area bounded Conclusion by the railway line to the north and Above: Plan of Newtown the city's Arts Precinct to the east. The encouraging aspect of the Scheme This is a vibrant mixed-use area developments is that they have with residential, industrial and retail been viewed by the authorities and activities. Three projects will the housing institutions as contribute to the overall Newtown opportunities for the provision of Precinct development and reclaim sustainable high quality social derelict industrial and railway land housing. To this end MHCD has for housing. been involved with communities such as in Mamelodi - a former Left: Courtyard Space- Two of the social housing projects 'black' township near Pretoria, in a Carr Gardens, Newtown consisting of 450 residential units number of seminars where the have been built by the projects have been presented and Johannesburg Housing Company evaluated . Documents such as and COPE Housing Collective. 'Social Housing Design Brief' have The two organisations were thus been produced and circulated for able to offer tenure choice of rental discussion and comment. The small or ownership through a collective. number of organisations and The two sites are separated by professionals currently involved in Below: Newtown Urban High Street that forms a link social housing makes the Village. Outside spaces between the Oriental Plaza, an dissemination of information easy are an important Indian bazaar, and the local and has ensured that lack of past extension to living space railway station. experience is made up by a willingness to learn from one The High Street link thus forms an another. important part of the scheme and the initial mixed-use proposal The introduction of housing to the included both formal and informal inner city is an important trading. This has not been built but contribution to the re-development the land has been set aside and of the area and is seen as the housing institutions are currently something more that churning out a investigating the mixed use mass-produced commodity. potential and the opportunity of Through such developments, which locating community facilities along set within their context making the strip. The beginning of the High maximum utilisation of space and Street is marked by an old Police available resources, that social Station which has been renovated housing can be an asset to the and partly converted to a creche to inner city. # serve the development. Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 15 1

TOPIC: JUDITH RYSER Urban Design Week 20

For the third year the Urban Design Alliance (UDAL) has run its annual Urban Design Week (UDW), from 18-24 September. Contributions have broadened and widened. The next pages present a selection of papers from the conference, a summary of the annual lecture and reports on seminars and other events.

The objective of the Urban Design Week was twofold: • to make the general public more aware that well designed places - public, semi-public and private - contribute to a better urban environment, and thus to a better quality of life for all; • to bring the professions of the built environment together to work on policies and solutions of better, safer, more enjoyable urban spaces.

All seven UDAL members and other local groups organised some sixty events from Scotland to the South Coast. They included seminars, open days of on-going projects, guided walks and teach-ins. UDW was launched in London by Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London and his deputy Nicky Gavron on a bus tour through central London.

The centrepieces were the annual UDAL conference held in Manchester and the annual UDAL lecture by Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton at the RIBA in London. The conference theme was "21st Century Places". Nick Rainsford, the minister for housing and planning gave a supportive key address. He was followed by a view of Manchester, a city preparing itself very much for the 21 st century where the conference was held. Councillor Richard Leese and Tom Bloxham, a dynamic urban entrepreneur who was able to turn some of the worst run down buildings and environments into successful new places, explained how Manchester is going to maintain its premier league status by resorting to high quality urban design. Tom Higginson from Railtrack Property which sponsored Urban Design Week for the second year running, showed how existing stations were transformed into 21st century transport interchanges by regenerating areas around them often on underused railway land. Good urban design was seen as the key to their success, as well as to the urban regeneration efforts of Nottingham presented by Jane Todd. Sir Neil Cossons and Les Sparks were presenting policy perspectives of English Heritage and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment respectively. Michael Hebbert, professor of planning at Manchester University gave an international and historic comparative perspective of the fate of the street in cities.

Other UDAL initiatives comprised competitions run by local newspapers to identify the most favourite places in their region. Placechecks progress in Lincoln and Strood were presented at the conference. UDW also coincided with Car Free Day which reinforced UDAL's aims of a better urban environment. It connected with Heritage Open Days, thus contributing to a critical mass for public awareness of good urban design. Other 'regulars' of UDW were postponed to the Urban Design Group conference in November which attributed sessions to Learning from Europe and the Future Cities ThinkTank in cooperation with the Institution of Civil Engineers. #

Judith Ryser Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 7716 1

TOPIC: NICK RAYNSFORD The Government's View

Nick Raynsford MP, Minister for Housing and Planning (right) gave the government's views on the role Urban Design. The following are excerpts from his speech.

21st Century Towns and Cities must be successful places. Economically they are key to the success of wider areas than just those within their own administrative boundaries. They also serve as the service and cultural hearts for their areas... They are in a constant state of economic, social, physical and technological change.

Some towns and cities have adapted successfully to these challenges, building on their strengths and establishing a clear direction for the future. But others have not fared so well, and are only just beginning to find a new way forward. It is vitally important for us all that they do so. That is why the Government is committed to an urban renaissance. The Urban White Paper will set out this Government's vision for 21st Century Places where people will want to live, and to attract more people to them by offering the opportunities and choices they need. I don't think I'm giving too much away when I say the need for good design will be central to the Urban White Paper.

Which brings me back to Urban Design Week. I said at the launch of UDAL that I was strongly committed to promoting better urban design, and it is only right that I should outline today some of the initiatives which the Government has already taken in this respect. I also want to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to UDAL for their dedication in pursuing better urban design. In many ways the creation of UDAL was symbolic of the growing recognition of the importance of urban design. Since the launch of UDAL, the profile enjoyed by urban design has grown tremendously. There is no doubt that UDAL have played a central part in helping to make that happen.

Urban design is perhaps an unfortunate phrase, because our interest is not solely urban, nor solely design in the sense of aesthetics. This is really about people. What we said in "By Design" is that urban design is the art of making places that people like, that they find visually attractive, that work in functional terms. It can help to enhance the vitality and viability of town centres, to regenerate rundown areas and to create safe communities where people feel secure.

Good urban design rarely happens by chance. It arises from a collaborative effort involving all of the professions working in the planning and development system. Working in conjunction with and listening to their public. Well- informed and committed clients are vital to securing good design. The magnificent new Lowry Centre offers a fine local example of the benefits of paying earlier, greater and better-informed attention to urban design.

So what does this mean in practice? Urban design should be the vehicle by which professionals help to deliver society's wish for better places. Let me take an example from Manchester. The magnificent rebuilding job done in the town centre demonstrates why urban design matters so much. The urban design competition to establish a new vision for the town centre has allowed Manchester to emerge with renewed confidence. It does great credit to the vision and imagination of the leadership of Manchester that so much has been achieved in such a short time.

I have said that this Government is committed to promoting better urban design. I can only touch on some of the highlights today, but we have a track record in which I think we can take pride. The Environment, Transport and Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 17 1

Regional Affairs Select Committee report • We have taken a decisive step with the This Government's commitment to better on the Proposed Urban White Paper said establishment of the Commission for urban design is not a passing fad. On the "urban design is the area in which the Architecture and the Built Environment contrary, it is central to our crusade for Government has made most progress". under the energetic chairmanship of Sir quality, as the Deputy Prime Minister has Stuart Lipton. described it. And that commitment goes to Here are a few of the reasons for their the very heart of Government, not least the encouraging words: A key role for CABE is to bring design Prime Minister himself, who has expertise to bear at critical times in the championed the drive for quality design in • We have published the first planning and development of a project. I publicly funded building projects. A great comprehensive guidance on design in would therefore like to say a little more deal has already been achieved since UDAL the planning system for forty years. "By about skills. Improved skills are critically was first created. But we have only just Design", published in collaboration important to delivering better urban design. started. # with CABE, and with expert advice The evidence, from two research reports from a sounding board from UDAL, commissioned by my Department earlier has been widely welcomed as a high this year, suggests there is a deficit in urban quality document. We are in the process design skills, and that the training currently of drawing up a dissemination on offer is not capable of delivering programme; significant improvements. We simply cannot put off for months or years the • The "Urban Design Compendium" was urgent task of raising the quality of new published by English Partnerships, development. The solution is partly in the again with UDAL's support. Together hands of the design professions and the these two complementary documents educational institutions to radically offer sound, practical and improve the quality and extent of urban comprehensive advice about how to design training that they offer. achieve better urban design; I know that everyone will say that change • Our new PPG3 has the need for good cannot happen overnight but that is exactly urban design at its heart. It explains that what should happen. We must inject a sense good design and layout of new of urgency into the task. Developers, development can help to achieve our housebuilders, local authorities must all objectives of making the best use of play their part. We have to make a start and previously developed land and where better than with the first meeting of improving the quality and attractiveness the working party which is due to take of residential areas; place shortly. It will consider:

• We will back the advice in the PPG with • how to enable better multi-disciplinary good practice guidance on improving training both at undergraduate and the design of housing environments, continuing professional development which we will publish next year; level;

• We have helped keep open the window • whether and how to encourage change for good practice provided by RUDI in undergraduate curricula; (Resource for Urban Design Information) and their website; • whether there is scope for adopting a common set of minimum accreditation • We have brought together the main criteria in relation to urban design; professional institutions in a collaborative initiative to drive up • how to encourage local planning urban design skill levels. authorities to aspire to design • We sponsor prestigious design awards, excellence. such as the Civic Trust urban design award and the housing design award. Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 7718 1

TOPIC: SIR NEIL COSSONS Maximising opportunities

Sir Neil Cossons OBE, Chairman of English Heritage gave his view on the future of urban issues

The challenge for urban development is well expressed in the recent Urban renewable? Will ecological factors Design Compendium: outweigh 'high design'?

'Since the Second World War, this country has seen very extensive urban Planning (conservation) as enabler development and renewal. While there are exceptions, a great deal of this rather than constrainer development has been third-rate and is lacking in any 'sense of place'. At worst, the results have been downright ugly and unpleasant. Fine urban fabrics The planning system, of which listing and have been spoilt through the process of re-development. The remarkable built conservation area controls form a part, heritage flowing from the English urban tradition has yielded to banal and manages change. It is designed to be monotonous development, humdrum in design and dominated by traffic. We flexible, responsive and participatory. have repeated standard housing types and layouts, retail boxes and road layouts so many times, with little or no regard for local context, until we find Conservation commands widespread and that now almost everywhere looks like everywhere else.' growing support. It is important to preserve sensible regulations in reforming the planning system, not to throw away the The issues baby with the bath water; regulations have a purpose as we may find out if any If de- • There is now an acceptance that the whole of a local authority area regulation of the advertisement regulations deserves good design, which, in turn, entails an integrated characterisation takes place, for example, adverse across the board. consequences may appear. • Government guidance now accepts that development (ie the new) and PPG 15 provides a robust and flexible conservation (ie the old) are not mutually exclusive, and that the two can framework but in some areas, notably effectively be reconciled in most cases to add value. An understanding of Conservation Area controls. However, the resource yields opportunities for enhancement through development as aspirations are beginning to outstrip it, well as constraints. especially in the area of permitted development rights and highway • The delivery of the hoped-for urban renaissance rests fundamentally on a regulations. market-led return to urban living, to an acceptance of mixed uses and higher densities and a reinstatement of patterns of sustainable urban living. The historic environment is a valuable template for the achievement of such The role of English Heritage qualities. It is a yardstick of quality and creates the context for creating places that are attractive to live, work and play in, and to visit (ie the basis English Heritage (EH) has a central role to for an urban renaissance). play, partly because of its statutory locus, partly through its influence as the lead heritage body. Reinventing urban living Greater participation is the key to Demographic changes lead to new expectations and new lifestyle choices. unblocking logjams, removing uncertainty and reducing delays especially if pre- Government policy provides challenges for the design of high density housing. application discussions on major projects There is a danger that, despite government exhortations, the market may drive start early enough. This ranges from: towards the creation of new residential ghettos where once there was colour and diversity. 'High density' does not necessarily equal 'high rise' and historic (i) enabling people to (re)construct their towns provide many templates for high-density low-rise developments own identities and find meaning in an designed for mixed social groups. environment they may find hostile.

The implications of the electronic communication revolution for urban life are (ii) involvement of all interested parties in by no means clear. Will increased internet use encourage demands for a new the compilation of conservation plans supra-national cultural identity (thereby making rescuing/preserving and formal consultation and dialogue; local/exclusive identities more difficult) or the reverse (valuing diversity, treasuring the locally distinctive)? (iii) greater partnership with other opinion formers and leaders in the field. Many Recent opinion polls have shown that responses to the idea of the environment bodies and individuals in the urban are defensive and focused on threats. Will new developments in cities become planning field still manage not to talk to more difficult if they are seen to be non-reversible or destroy the non- each other. Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 19 1

Partnership early and effective evaluation eliminates uncertainty and creates positive EH attaches importance to its working opportunities for comprehensive design relations with other bodies such as the solutions. RICS, the RIBA and CABE. EH's influence with architects needs to increase as they still tend to concentrate on site-specific Conservation, innovation and statements with no more than a ritual nod regeneration: unlikely bedfellows? towards context. EH's record on supporting creative design The CABE/EH relationship is in historic places, reinforces the message complementary. The recent decision by EH that modernity and care for the fabric of to set up its wide-ranging but specialist old cities are not mutually exclusive. The Urban Panel with an inter-disciplinary iconic and monumental may have a role in membership and strong architectural developing the shape of cities as the current representation benefits from links with debate on high-rise in London makes clear. CABE. The joint EH/CABE publication on But only exceptionally can an historic town New Design in Historic Contexts will bear massive intrusion without losing some demonstrate how contemporary character and with it the qualities that architectural excellence is intrinsic to the make it liveable. Timely evaluation will successful development of historic towns help identify if and where those intrusions and cities. It will feature best practice in might be appropriate. It will also help jl'vnd/. new building over the last five years with characterise the grain and distinctiveness of examples drawn from all over the country. a place to guide (not prescribe) new work.

EH is anxious to become more closely EH/RICS and LSE findings show a good involved with the work of UDAL. It already performance record of listed commercial has contacts with the consultants involved buildings and a positive impact of in UDAL's Placechecks initiative - which has conservation-led regeneration on levering much in common with EH's work on in funding, creating jobs, and increasing characterisation. occupancy rates.

Urban redevelopment and individual Understanding the historic projects can have unplanned negative environment effects on their surroundings. They should be assessed holistically in relation to their EH is increasingly exploring the role of immediate surroundings and wider regional comprehensive evaluation of the historic repercussions. For example, Bilbao found built environment in urban regeneration. that the Guggenheim Museum had sucked By characterising whole areas rather than life out of some other parts of the city. In a concentrating solely on individual world of increasing mutual dependence, it components, EH can help -directly or is important to seek synergies and through the development of methodologies- complementarities, instead of identify opportunities for regeneration that competitiveness between public bodies. # build on the best understanding of the resources and character of a place. Kim Top: View along Park St. Borough Wilkie's study of Borough Market in with Southwark Cathedral in the Southwark and EH's study of the Jewellery background (Kim Wilkie Quarter in Birmingham are examples. photograph) Similar initiatives are underway in Liverpool, Sheffield, Newcastle and Above: Borough Market, Southwark Manchester. only surviving London wholesale market on its original site (Kim Wilkie The Urban Panel's message after visits to photograph) regeneration sites in Bath, Bristol, Chester, Liverpool, Manchester and Norwich is that Right: Jewellery Quarter Birmingham 20 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 7720 1

TOPIC: SIR STUART UPTON Resolving Conflicts

Les Sparks OBE delivered a version of the following paper for Sir Stuart Lipton, Chairman, Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment who was unable to attend

High quality urban design is at the very heart of a modern, efficient, vibrant Both the design review and project enabling Britain. It is about more than good looks. At the heart of "21st Century are a free service. However CABE's budget Places" is creating a just, inclusive and optimistic society. is limited, and while we aim to help wherever we can, we are forced to prioritise An integral part of this is about respecting and enhancing our heritage and I our workload. We have a particular am therefore pleased that CABE, with English Heritage is here today. CABE interest in major public buildings, town does not duplicate the work of EH, as our remit is the "new" built centres, neighbourhood masterplans and environment, but we will have a close relationship with EH on areas of other strategic projects. common interest.

Regional CABE's key messages Bridget Sawyer is CABE's programme • Value is more than pounds and pence. The social, environmental and wider officer dedicated to developing regional economic aspects must be considered. One of CABE's key achievements partnerships. We are working to bring was the specific recognition of this in the Treasury's PFI guidance. together the various regional public bodies, • Conversely more cost does not mean better quality. Innovation is co- such as the RDAs and Government Offices, ordinated design for minimum waste, avoiding over specification and in delivering quality design. meaningless clutter in the public realm. • The most important part of design is the end product. Building and spaces must be fit for the purpose they were intended for. Public and consumer Government satisfaction and approval is the real goal. The Commission has been working hard to Central to CABE's work and philosophy, like UDAL, is partnership, and we see change the policy framework to allow those this audience as key partners. in local government, central government departments and the private sector, to CABE has four main areas of work: deliver the high quality we all aspire to. • Design Review This work is managed by Stephen King at • Project Enabling CABE. • Regions • Government Government Commitment

Design Review Across government there is recognition of the need for high quality design in the built CABE's Design Review, run by Peter Stewart, is our work people are most environment. A Ministerial committee familiar with. CABE offers a review service for major strategic schemes with meets regularly to discuss how to improve the objective of providing advice on how to refine and improve projects. We design quality in all government encourage Local Authority design teams to submit schemes from the pre- departments. October will see a major planning stages to assist from the earliest stage. Where the information is in the statement from the Prime Minister on public domain, our comments are posted on the CABE website, to ensure ensuring better public buildings. fairness and transparency.

Government Procurement: best value Project Enabling is not lowest cost

Complementary to design review is CABE's project enabling programme, The Government, as the nation's biggest managed by Joanna Averley. This programme is about getting involved with construction client, with a works budget of partner organisations at an early stage of a project. We aim to help the client £24 billion, must insist on good design. The get the right result by having the right process in place and high aspirations for perception that central government sees what can be achieved. CABE's enabling work is with a range of bodies, such as best value as lowest cost has been changed the Sure Start programme and NHS Estates, as well as local authorities. We are for good by the publication of the for example working with Thanet District Council on the design requirements Treasury's PFI technical note 7. This note for a competition for a site adjacent to Ramsgate Royal Harbour. states clearly that in addition to cost a host of other factors must be considered: Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 21 1

reducing whole life costs, enhancing service provision, the social and environmental benefits and architectural quality.

The local authorities can deliver excellent design: Peckham Library is a key signature building and Victoria Square in Birmingham illustrates what a committed local authority can deliver.

Ensuring qualify design

Design has to be built into the planning as well as procurement system.

The DETR / CABE publication, By Design, provides a detailed example of how to put the framework in place for quality, from the local development plan through to the management and monitoring of projects. This "how to" guide should be read in conjunction with English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation's Urban Design Compendium. While there is no blueprint for successful design, there are a range of key principles which need to be considered, that these two guides outline.

Benchmarking

Government buildings are already benchmarked against cost. Now they need to be benchmarked against internal and external performance and what they give back to society. CABE is currently working with the Construction Industry Council and others, on a DETR sponsored research project, looking to develop Key Performance Indicators for design.

Partnerships in education

CABE is coordinating a group, drawn from across UDAL's members, to look at how to deliver higher cross-professional urban design skills. Raising the skills and awareness of urban design is vital if we are Top: Award winning Peckham Library (Will going to move away from a view where Allsop), a new civic landmark. one-profession has a sense of sole ownership on urban design, and where Above: Victoria Square, Birmingham, a another profession is used as the perennial symbol of local authority leadership. excuse for poor design. 22 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 7722 1

The old and the new realm confers on the properties around it. In this context we need to remember the CABE is not about promoting a preferred huge economic benefits of historic architectural taste, with an anti-"heritage" environments, both in terms of tourism and bias. Our objective is quality not style. A property performance, and the role we have respect and understanding of the context of in enhancing this. In addition English new development is vital. However it is also Heritage's 1999 report "The Heritage important that local authorities are willing Dividend", looks specifically at the role of to take, what they may see as a risk, and historic properties in regeneration. understand that new development, in the words of PPG15, can also "enhance" an area. Leadership

In Birmingham the innovative design of the CABE looks to this audience, both in the planned Selfridges is being strongly private, but especially the public sector, to supported. Coventry is an excellent ensure that that leadership is in place. example of a city developing a new public Design and the public realm should not be realm to enhance its historic environment. seen as an add on, to be handled by an The EH/CABE publication New Design in officer unable to make long term strategic Historic Context, will aim to demonstrate decisions due to their lack of authority and how the new and the old can compliment unclear political leadership. While in the each other. private sector design should not be passed down the line to an individual who does not have the clout to counter short-termism The value of Quality Urban Design and views that design is an end of process add on. CABE is currently supporting research by the Bartlett School into quantifying the benefits of quality design. More to be done

Good design: The test of our work will be whether • aids urban regeneration by creating and buildings and public spaces do get better. reinforcing neighbourhoods, There is much more to be done - CABE has • counters social exclusion by creating concerns, for example about the current quality environments for all, reconnects wave of PFI hospitals, and is working with our towns and cities, NHS Estates on how to improve them. • enhances quality of life by reducing Housebuilders have yet to demonstrate crime and illness, their commitment to rethinking the design • enables high-density housing to be and construction of their product. attractive and durable, • makes people feel good about their The professional Institutions need to show public buildings and spaces, greater commitment to UDAL and ensure • promotes sustainable development, its long-term success and financial security. • improves delivery of public services Central to the Institutions' role is to Top: Innovative and controversial: through more efficient buildings, promote the public good. Like yourselves Selfridges, Birmingham. • reduces the whole-life cost of buildings. we look optimistically to the Urban White Paper for a clear support for the role of Middle: Work in progress in urban design. However what we must not Coventry: creating new spaces to Economic forget there is plenty we can, and should be enhance the historic environment. doing already. Although all is far from prefect with major Above: By Design - jointly Lottery projects there are notable cases of Finally I would also like to thank published by CABE and the high quality design having a huge impact specifically Alan Howarth and Nick DETR. on the local economy. Chartered surveyors Raynsford for their strong personal support will cite the higher rental and sales values for CABE. CABE could not have All photohgraphs by CABE that a well designed and maintained public progressed so far without their support. # Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 23 1

TOPIC: MICHAEL HEBBERT Comparative and International Perspectives

Professor Michael Hebbert suggests that urban design ideas can be drawn from other countries

Techniques and methods of urban design vary greatly from one place to another, but beyond the differences, there is a similarity of purpose. The deep currents of urbanism are international and have been throughout modern times.

Historical perspective

Visitors of Manchester one hundred years ago would have heard the businessman Thomas Cogan Horsfall argue passionately about the advantages from high-quality urban design in German cities, where the burgomaster had powers to specify wide streets and ensure provision of parks and street trees, integrated planning of public transport and an artistic grouping of building masses. In the edgy climate of Edwardian Britain his book The Example of \ Friednchstrafy Germany (1904) clinched the political argument for town planning legislation.

Twenty years later the current was running the other way, as visitors from all over the world came to admire and copy British prototypes of the garden city and garden suburbs, among them the huge Wythenhawe Estate built by Manchester city council. While it was being built, the businessman and city councillor Sir Ernest Simon was visiting Moscow to see the unimaginably wide streets laid out by Stalin's Mossoviet, and New York to follow the progress of 'Robert Moses' expressways, pure arterial highways running in from the suburbs to the heart of Manhattan. Writing his personal programme for reconstruction in 1945, he hailed them as 'one of the outstanding achievements of civic democracy'. Twenty years ago, inner Manchester was being redesigned to an international formula of free flowing highways, raised pedestrian decks, tower and podium architecture and open plan landscaping. This compelling vision of urban modernity was shared by designers and civic leaders all round Berlin Friedrichstrasse: the globe. I.M. Pei and J. Nouvel toe the line. The street re-invented

Now is a similar moment, except at the opposite point of the cycle of design Third way urbanism values. Then, the designer's task was to eliminate the conventional street, separate out traffic thoroughfares from pedestrian spaces, and rebuild the A third way has got hold of urbanism, in urban world on a basis of functional segregation. Today, the big idea is to put France according to the designer Christian everything back together again, reinvent the street, reintegrate vehicle traffic Devillers, as Ville III, not the traditional with cycles and pedestrians, and recover the idea of the public realm as an city, Ville I or the 20th century city of outdoor room, formed by building mass and animated by street frontages, functional separation, Ville II. In Germany open yet bounded, a place that offers some guarantee of security and some for Dietrich Hoffmann-Axthelm the task of prospect of conviviality where all people belong, and that belongs to all. urban design today is to build Die Dritte Stadt. Richard Rogers and his team put it in However, it is not helpful to refer to this as the 'traditional' street. 21st century terms of 'urban renaissance'. For North space will not be discovered by browsing images of Siena or Haussmann's Americans it has crystallised around the boulevard. Late 19th century precedents are especially misleading. The milieu concept of a 'new urbanism'. of the 'flaneur' was an urban world expanding with immense concentration of economic energy from a condition of dense nucleation. Most work was This trend adds up to a single wave of manual, most ownership was small scale, most of the population had no design activity, operating on three scales: • ownership stake at all and business elites, - even in such an export-based city as Repairing the walls of urban streets; Manchester- were leaders in a local home-town world. Today's urban designer Extending the collective tissue across operates in an urban context where most work and much living has shifted the voids and gaps of modern cities, and away and the economy has globalised. Nevertheless, for reasons not yet fully • Building new towns which (unlike the understood, globalisation and the information revolution are helping to turn planned new towns of the 20th century) the tide of urban decline. Cyberspace has given new life to the oldest man- possess real qualities of urbanity. made space of all, the street. Second-generation suburbanites are tired of At the smallest scale, the process of driving and urban sprawl. The cultural shift is helped along by the desire for incremental urban change in the last fifty sustainable living and the threat of ecological exhaustion. years has tended to erode the street, Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 7724 1

downgrade the pedestrian and encourage prototype of a strategy of waterfront new buildings to stand free as a collection regeneration based on a skin surgeon's of independent objects. Now cities approach to growing street tissue across everywhere are trying to harness the cycle intervening brown land. Urban fallows are of maintenance and replacement in the built adventitious windfalls that come in every environment to put the processes into shape and size, but cities can best absorb reverse, sometimes by reinstating the early them by joining them up to the street jigsaw. modern building regulations specifying alignment, cornice line and roof profile. American approach This has happened in Madrid, Barcelona, Paris and Berlin. Robust rules about the American New Urbanism first gained the street wall are also the secret of the best confidence to project streets on virgin land. American urban design. The Charter of The prototype is Seaside, the idyllic Florida New Urbanism (para 19) says 'a primary resort community built according to the task of all urban architecture and landscape design codes of Duany Plater-Zyberk and design is the physical definition of street masterplanned by Leon Krier. Another of and public spaces as places of shared use'. his exquisite pastiches is under construction at Poundbury on the edge of Dorchester. Before and after visualisations of the street Both places have a stage-set quality that environments are a favourite way of caught the attention of the Disney making people aware and supportive of the Corporation, who have become the biggest urban design effort. The city of Berlin uses corporate patron of the New Urbanism. To computer simulations to bring urban design critics like Rem Koolhas the Disney town- to life. Their paired images are worth a planning projects at Celebration and Val thousand words about grain, massing and d'Europe only prove that the whole dream legibility. The overall basis for Berlin's of reviving conventional streets is a ambitious design strategy is a figure ground pathetic, reactionary diversion. Certainly, plan of the entire inner city which shows the architecture of most new planned how urban space (Stadtraum) can be settlements under construction in North conjured out of lost space. America rings the changes on a rather timid range of pastiche, matching the preferences Fallow land of an equally restricted middle-class target population. Celebration's architecture is At the city scale the postmodern city is like a actually more diverse than most, and its moth-eaten blanket - tissue alternates with design guidelines were drawn up by Urban the voids left by technological and structural Design Associates of Pittsburgh, a practice Top: Toronto, St Lawrence change, factory sites, riots, slum clearance with a thirty year reputation of innovative Market: looks effortless, areas, docks and railway lands, water and inner city community architecture. was revolutionary. power sites, highway lines and carparks. The centre of Manchester, the first industrial However, it is important to always hang Middle: Montreal Bois city, contains much emptiness of every kind onto the distinction between urban design Franc: urbanism on a which decades of effort in urban renewal and building design. What sets these former air base. have not managed to change. What is experiments apart from most new towns 'brown land' in the UK, the French call and suburbs built anywhere in the world in Above: Markham: rural 'urban fallow land' (friches urbaines). the past fifty years is the street plan: the Ontario begins at the end Among the earliest attempts to cultivate effort to define space and create a sense of of the street. street life on fallow took place in Toronto in place. As the towns mature the buildings the 70's due to Jane Jacobs' ability to will come and go but the urban design All photographs by G. Ten encourage the city government to take a legacy is there for good. Never mind the radically unconventional approach to urban architecture! The common element of the design on derelict railway land next to the town-building in progress at Addington city centre. The 19th century street grid was Circle (North of Dallas), Markham (North quite simply extended over the area, with of Toronto) and Bussy St George (East of shops below and flats above. Barcelona and Paris) is that they each tackle a green field its reorientation towards the sea for the site in an urban spirit. That's what makes 1992 Olympics became the most famous them all 21st Century Places. # Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 25 1

TOPIC: RICHARD LEESE Maintaining Premier League Status

Councillor Richard Leese, The Leader of Manchester City Council explains how the city reached the top and intends to stay there

Cities are about people, not structures and layouts. Manchester lost some arguments, as such they change, decline and grow for example with the Manchester organically. This forms the context of Metropolitan University which designed Manchester's urban design quality policy. their halls of residence as a fortress and blocked the line of Stretford Road. The How did Manchester get to the Premier design guide contained some mistakes, such League in the past? After three decades of as lay-by parking which led to street which mediocre to awful suburban and inner city are too wide. development, and indifferent city centre development, the rebuilding of an entire Nevertheless, the Hulme development urban neighbourhood - Hulme presented generated new design and implementation itself in the nineties. tools and methodologies. The main lessons of good design practice with a good chance Manchester was determined not to repeat of implementation were: past mistakes but to apply what had • The importance of vision, backed up worked in the past in a modern context to with a spatial masterplan achieve development at a human scale and • Community ownership of the vision urban in nature. We undertook wide • Use of land ownership, planning and ranging surveys of both successful and other statutory functions to obtain failing urban developments, looked at local results embedded in the vision shopping areas and analysed why they • Use of 'gap' funding and other grant worked; and visited appalling suburban regimes cul-de-sac developments fashionable in the • Use of competitions eighties. • Partnership approach with developers, designers, innovators The city concluded that it required a • Plan for the long term. coherent framework for development. It also aimed to encourage developments Guide to Development in Manchester. which could bring innovation and quality Work on this guide started in 1995 and it to the area. It produced a guide to was published inl997. The underlying development for Hulme, with at its core the strategy of this development guide was: Design Guide. "The provision of quality buildings and quality space which will substantially reinforce the economic vitality and Hulme Development Guide sustainability of the City and contribute to the well being of its citizens." The guide follows the predetermined principles of sustainable development: It is now applied to development proposals anywhere in the City and has generally Sense of place been successful in improving the quality of • Importance of landmarks and vistas the built environment. Yet, it needs further • Mixed use rather than strict zoning refinement to overcome problems such as: • Hierarchies of streets and permeability • Its use as a manual rather than as a and legibility of the urban environment guide • Adaptable buildings, opening to the • The question of what constitutes mixed streets, squares and parks use • Density of people to sustain activity, • Failure to differentiate between inner security and amenities and outer city domestic scale buildings • Well designed public places. • The City centre Top: The new Stretford Road bridge, a • The seeds of the City centre renaissance new landmark for Hulme The guide caused arguments with the police were planted long before the bomb. over their 'secure by design' strategy, as well Major public buildings had been Middle: Zion Square, Hulme (courtesy of as with the housing association over their erected, the leisure uses were extended, Moss side and Hulme Partnership) original Hulme 2 proposals. Certain staff and more residential premises were was too preoccupied by technical issues provided in the city centre. However, Above: Exchange sp. Manchester instead of focusing on people friendly the bomb provided the opportunity to (Manchester C.C. Special Projects Office) 26 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 7726 1

TOPIC: JANE TODD

replan the very core of the City, set in a much wider context while allowing creativity to flourish rather than Nottingham's imposing monolithic conformity. Results are there to be seen on the ground. Manchester considers the new developments of New Cathedral Street, Framework M&S, Exchange Square, Hodder Bridge, the new elevations to the Arndale Centre, the partially built Jane Todd, outlined how Nottingham is turning itself into a Convention Centre and other infill European city through a integrated strategy buildings as very successful and enlivening the City centre. Further Nottingham has been involved in the development of a new vision for its 21st projects include Urbis, the city park, century future. The City draws on inputs from the government - the Integrated spin-off development in Spinningfields Transport White Paper, the Urban Task Force Report, Planning for and Piccadilly Gardens. Communities, the Urban and Rural White Papers and Agenda 21. It links them to the integrated regional strategy of the RDA encompassing economic, social, environmental and spatial dimensions. The vision is translating into an Future design strategy activities economic development strategy, a local plan review, a city centre review, a local transport plan and local agenda 21 projects. Manchester thinks that it has 'got there' and forms part of the premier league cities. Its ambition is to become European A changing city Champion. Commitment to quality in planning and design of the urban Recently, Nottingham has managed to attract more jobs than most other environment is an essential ingredient in English cities while changing from a manufacture to a service economy. achieving that. However, although it has the third highest GDP it accounts for 365 deprivations within its tight boundaries. It thus benefits from regeneration and We need to revisit the Guide to EU funding. The pro-active city council operates a participatory model Development in Manchester. A post hoc involving workers and officers across functional and physical boundaries. analysis is required to examine how the Although a historic city Nottingham has unusually all the ingredients for a guide has worked in practice to revise it successful provincial city. Its transport policy is modelled on national and accordingly. European perspectives and is strongly linked to urban design. The strategic framework is robust and leads to good projects. The lessons learnt both from Hulme and the City centre should be applied to the city Nottingham is undertaking detailed analyses and markets its policies heavily. It as a whole. A draft masterplan for East applies integrated policies to other sectors than transportation and brings Manchester including design principles is urban design into the participation process. Integration of planning and being completed and will be launched for transportation are a key issue supported by all politicians. This has resulted in public consultation. It builds on the success genuine partnerships and real projects on the ground. of the City centre and uses the Manchester Sports City development to extend the city The economic development strategy is based on 20 objectives, 5 of which are eastwards. This will be achieved by adding concerned with housing. Transportation policy plays a key role in providing Ancoats Urban Village and the newly access to training and job opportunities. The new tram system which has just announced Cardroom Millennium Village started contributes to regional growth. project, as well as continuous progression beyond the Eastlands Stadium site to less The local plan had been adopted in 1997. The review took off in 2000 with a dense residential neighbourhoods. The simple explanatory text. It focuses on links between transport and the built masterplan will integrate the built form environment and aims at better quality for both. with the need for social and economic renewal. It will allow for early interventions alongside organic change over a 15 to 20 City centre year period. # The City Centre review addresses five interdependent strategies:

Location of choice, clean and green objectives, people first, cutting edge, excellent services. Eight big projects are carried through with citizen participation and in public private partnership. There is an attractive lace market but its regeneration requires a revision of the whole area within the inner city ring. Areas of distinct character should become viable neighbourhoods in their own right. They should benefit from city squares with enhanced public spaces around leisure, tourism and cultural facilities and safe and attractive walking routes should link them together. Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 27 1

Transport and urban design

£ 220 million is being put into public transport expenditure. The investment includes travel demand management, travel education and awareness, as well as infrastructure and revenue support. A new parking system linked to public transport policy is being devised and includes a workplace parking levy. The new tram is financed by UK's largest PFI scheme of £167 million.

In the City Centre a bus quality partnership has started. A travel wise centre informs passengers of timetables and the best way to travel. Message signs are combined with information via mobile phone and off site information. A clear zone in the City Centre aims to reduce pollution and congestion. Nottingham's ambition is to become a car free city centre by 2001 under its Agenda 21 programme.

As John Rouse, the new administrator of CABE has read for a MA in urban design in Top: Clean & Green - Nottingham, he took an active part in these Integrating transport policies and their implementation. He was planning keen to integrate planning at city level with local area plans and participatory action at Left: Maid Marion Way neighbourhood level. One result is a bus improvement scheme. route between the red light district and the hospital. Below: Proposals for the station quarter. Nottingham is also experimenting with Home zones where the car comes in second place after people. They include new types of streets designed to be safer, look better and have attractive places for children to play and people to meet. Nottingham considers that its step to step changes will turn it into a truly European city. # 28 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 7728 1

TOPIC: ROBERT COWAN Testing the Placechecks

Two local authorities have applied the Placechecks Initiative. Robert Cowan reports

UDAL is testing Placechecks as a new method for communities to use in kick- starting the urban design process. The UDAL conference heard details of two of the pilot projects.

Lincoln

Rosemary Robinson and Steve Kemp presented the Lincoln Placecheck, which is focusing on the southern section of the High Street. The aim is to bring together a mixed residential and business community to review the strengths and weaknesses of the area in which it lives and works, and to develop a shared vision and realistic action plan.

Rosemary Robinson told the conference: 'The Placecheck proved to be an excellent yet simple way of involving local people in the regeneration of their area. After all, they know the area best and care most about its future.'

The Placecheck area includes about one mile of the High Street south of the city centre, and about 3,000 houses in terraces to the west and east.

The Placecheck was initiated, led and developed by the local community. Local resident Steve Kemp, who is also a town planner with Dalia and Nathaniel Lichfield Associates, first discussed the idea with a small group of local people including the vicar, a pub landlord, a local councillor, the primary school head and the chair of Lincoln Civic Trust. Steve has been the prime mover of the project, along with Rosemary Robinson, newly appointed community Top: Speakers at the development worker for Park Ward. conference: Rosemary Robertson. Keith Trotter, So far, the project has involved: Steve Kemp and Matthew Woodhead of the Lincoln • A Placecheck walkabout by primary school children. They used disposable South High Street cameras to record their walk, then took part in a word-storm on the things Placecheck and they liked and disliked about the area, and what changes they would like to Placecheck Strood with tfie see. exhibition produced by • An introductory community meeting and workshop, attended by over 40 Liverpool City Gateway local people. Placecheck. • Two open Placecheck meetings. One involved a desk-top exercise: three groups of six people answered questions on the three Placecheck topics (people, places and movement) respectively. The other involved a Above: Reviewing walkabout: again participants used cameras to record eyesores, attractive progress at the Strood buildings and opportunities for improvement. Workshop. • A further open community meeting to discuss a report that brings together all the information collected so far and starts to draw out proposals for change.

Further events/ meetings are planned: • A daytime meeting aimed at parents with young children. • A workshop session involving teenagers. • An interview with the community policeman.

The action plan will be used: • As a community consultation document to feed into the local plan process and the forthcoming neighbourhood renewal strategy. • As evidence and justification for bids for funding for the deprived wards of Park and Boultham. • As an action plan for the community itself to implement, perhaps through forming partnerships with public agencies and businesses. Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 29 1

TOPIC: SEBASTIAN LOEW London BusTour

Sebastian Loew took the doubledecker for the launch of Urban Design Week

Strood

Keith Trotter and Matthew Woodhead presented PlacecheckStrood, which is focusing on Strood town centre in Kent. Among its aims are to act as a catalyst and provide the framework for a regeneration strategy for Strood, and to help build consensus and provide a basis from which to commission urban design frameworks.

'Placecheck has provided a unique opportunity for the people of Strood to have their say as to how they envisage their town to function,' Keith Trotter said. 'It has helped to raise the profile, not only of Strood, but of the Town Centre Forum which, along with the council, is committed Mayor Ken Livingstone and Deputy Nicky Gavron before boarding the bus to using the Placecheck findings to bid for funding to carry the proposals forward.' It sounded like a great idea: to launch Urban Design week, an invited group of UDAL supporters was to see some of London's highlights from an open-top Coordinated by Medway Council's urban double-decker bus under the scholarly guidance of various experts. design and regeneration team, the Unfortunately neither the weather nor central London's congestion helped, Placecheck project covered the whole of though it may have firmed the Mayor's conviction that congestion charges Strood. A sister project was carried out in must be imposed. Those brave enough to stay upstairs got very wet; the lower Frindsbury Extra, a neighbouring ward. deck's windows were steamed up, and what we mostly saw were traffic jams. In spite of this a good time was had by most and the tour allowed for people to meet and debate the future of Urban Design. The Placecheck initiative Brian Raggett, this year's UDAL Chairman launched the proceedings on a A Placecheck is a simple method of small public space behind Cannon St. station, a place he gave as an example of assessing: what we should aim for. The Mayor who joined the party (not the Labour one) • How people whose influence and for the beginning of the tour, made a short speech in which he admitted having actions shape a place can work together read enthusiastically Peter Hall's Cities in Civilisation from cover to cover. more effectively. Encouragingly, Livingstone stated his wish to set better standards of Urban • How the physical form of buildings and Design for the capital in order to attract and retain the population; he then left spaces can help to make a place work to deal with more pressing matters. On the bus, the first "guide" was Deputy better. Mayor Nicky Gavron who promised that the Spatial Development Strategy • How the network of streets, routes and due out by the end of the year would give a geographical framework to all the public transport can bring a place to other strategies for the capital. Improvements for the public transport system, life. reduced traffic and better designed streets were three of the objectives of the London Development Agency, as well as working in partnership with a Financial support for UDAL's Placecheck number of other agencies from all sectors. initiative is being provided by English Partnerships and the Department of the As the bus fought its way through still unimproved traffic, we saw the City, the Environment, Transport and the Regions. South Bank, the soon to be transformed Elephant and Castle area, the The initiative is also supported by the problematic Vauxhall and later a very un-pedestrianised Trafalgar Square and Commission for Architecture and the Built Nash's Regent St.and lots more. Professor Peter Hall, Terry Farrell, Peter Environment, the Local Government Bennett, Lambeth regeneration supremo Mike Hayes, Eve Fawcett, Rolando Association and One North East (the North Paoletti (the architect for the Jubilee Line extension) were our guides pointing East's Development Agency). # out highlights whch had more to do with history and architecture than urban design. The tour ended at the headquarters of the RTPI where refreshments were offered. The Institute's president, Kevin Murray welcomed the visitors and closed the proceedings by wisely suggesting that people should concentrate on the positive aspects of the Urban Design Alliance and not pick on its supposed internal rivalries. # 30 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 7730 1

TOPIC: HUGO WUYTS 'Barking & Dagenham: it's just a kiss away...'

Hugo Wuyts tells us how it is

A hotbed for good urban design? Fine architectural masterpieces? Pleasing environmental appearances? You would be forgiven for thinking it a bit of a gamble to pull Barking & Dagenham into the limelight of UDAL. Halfway between the City and the eastern section of the M25, the borough is firmly established as a part of East London, where the forces of conservatism and progress battle it out every day. Now Barking & Dagenham has found a place on the capital's urban design map. All of a sudden the ambition was fed intravenously and a list of 10 different initiatives compiled. As opposed to politics, a week in urban design terms is rather short.

Preparations

30 years of inner-city renewal in London is now rippling out into the regeneration of the urban edges. The Urban Design Week initiative helped to pave the way for people to influence some of the challenges that contemporary society poses. The appeal and involvement had to come from the translation to the locality, and speculate on emotional recognition of people, places and buildings. A link to expose the weakness of single land use and an argument for thinking structurally in sustainable terms needed to be engineered.

The underlying task of taking part in these events was to register, and nurture appreciation for the vast opportunities that exist in Barking & Dagenham. If not guided with a certain distinction and a shared vision, these prospects could evaporate or fail to benefit the area. Another important aspect was the chance to initialise partnerships and co-operation, based on mutual interests. In addition to the interdepartmental co-operations needed to successfully complete this set of events, external links were also established with the University of East London, English Heritage, the Environment Agency and Bellway Homes. This momentum is a valuable generator to further environmental improvement of places where people live, work and play.

Diary of events

The Barking Abbey River Festival: stalls and stands by community and environmental groups promoted their activities. Evidence of an archaeological dig was put on display by English Heritage. The awareness of environmental quality in an urban setting was encouraged.

'Barking & Dagenham : Images of Change' was a modest exhibition illustrating 20th century developments decade by decade. The narrative of 'constant change' then spirals into the 21st century with projects in the pipeline and the issues lining up to be addressed. The historical photographs with text helped to understand the existing environment, to see the context and to prepare for future changes.

Children were invited by way of a 'Spot the Shops'-competition to look around the town centre attentively and recognise buildings and architectural details. Top: Sir Peter Hall and Bill Bragg addressed the B & D Conference 'East London Regeneration' was the title for a walk around Barking town centre visiting sites in various states of regeneration. Middle: The Golden Carpet, public art installation for Barking Town Square A half-day conference 'Barking & Dagenham: 21st Century place' contributed to this year's theme. Personal views were aired by Professor Sir Peter Hall Above: Exhibition 'Barking & Dagenham (UCL), Geoff Wood (pArts), Ken Dytor (Urban Catalyst) and Billy Bragg Images of Change' Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 31 1

TOPIC: SAUERBRUCH AND HUTTON Urban Strategies for Berlin

(singer/songwriter) and an intense debate At the UDAL Annual Lecture Professor Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa developed afterwards. Barking and Hutton gave a personal overview of the challenges and developments of the Dagenham have been recognised as growth last 10 years in Berlin. Often opposed to Berlin's mainstream planning policy, centres before, but the benefits have yet to they illustrated solutions through their own architectural work in Berlin. materialise. The pendulum swings into a wave of opportunities while the transport network needs immediate fundamental Background thinking (and action). Urban design opportunities abound but they need to At Berlin's reunification in 1989 West-Berlin had some 2.5 million, East-Berlin serve a wider framework of regeneration, some 1.5 million inhabitants. The former capital had since 1945 developed making bold moves. Involving the local different, sometimes opposing planning strategies and planning cultures in East community will engage its pride and and West. The first challenge for politicians and professionals was to reunite confidence. Reinforced links with the past two independent heterogeneous halves into a single city. This included the are essential for recognition and continuity. regeneration and completion of almost all urban infrastructure, ranging from Care and investment will then follow. transportation to telecommunications. Filling the gap left by the wall through the historic centre meant redevelopment of very large sites. Thus a second A coach tour, 'Barking Reach: a new challenge was to redefine the city as a whole. Both East and West-Berlin had beginning', took people to the initial phases been the showpieces of their respective systems and had been relying heavily on of a new community being built on subsidies. Thus, the third challenge was to provide a single vision for the future brownfield land. of Berlin and create a viable economic base. Moving the government from Bonn to Berlin alleviated this problem but Berlin needs to be converted into a The artist Shelagh Wakely and a handful of service metropolis, rather like London, while attracting modern industrial volunteers painted the town square gold on activities such as biochemical, IT, optoelectronic, environmental and other Saturday. The idea of this 'Golden Carpet' advanced technologies. helped people to contemplate the use and design of public spaces. Current situation 'Goresbrook / Chequers Corner action planning day': a public workshop in Statistics of the New Berlin are impressive. Completed transport infrastructure Goresbrook Parade, a local shopping area comprises the renovation of the complete inner railway ring, a rail/road tunnel desperately seeking recovery. Issues of under the central Tiergarten park, a new central railway station with 75 crime, image and condition were discussed million sq.m. of office space while a further 1.3 million sq.m. are under at length. construction. With its 570,000 workplaces, the service sector is the largest job provider in Berlin. 1.5 million sq.m. retail space have been realised, averaging The 'London Open House' initiative Germany's retail space per inhabitant. Some 145.000 new flats have been built provided free public access to many in the city and a further 100.000 in the immediate surroundings. The total buildings. Two coach tours were organised. investment into construction of the last ten years amounts to 250-300 billion DM (£ 80-100 billion or £ 8-10 billion a year/every year).

Conclusion The first administration of 'Greater Berlin' created the "Stadtforum' for public discussion, albeit with insufficient legal powers, to handle its enormous Barking &c Dagenham's first contribution planning task. The then Senator Volker Hassemer called on the professionals to UDW launched it into an orbit where and intellectuals of the city to discuss all urban questions raised by the progress is expected and measured. A gentle reunification, and especially public transport and the use of Potsdamer Platz introduction has been made into the scope which had given rise to conflict between Daimler/Chrysler - Richard Rogers and possibilities of urban design. The and the Senate - Hillmer & Sattler. The Forum was a surprising success and led gauntlet is now thrown down to fabricate rapidly to the 1994 Land Use Plan (Flachennutzungsplan) which constitutes a follow-up that fires local people's the legal basis for all development. Since then, the Forum has lost some of its enthusiasm and helps to communicate their importance, partially due to the fact that is has been used by the aspirations for the public spaces they use. 'senatsbaudirektor's' (city architect) office as a PR-medium for its own policies. The public debate has started. Shall we Berlin's City Architect is in charge of the quality of the city's architectural make a new appointment for next year? output and the numerous international competitions. His powerful position Same time, same place? Just remember this, enables him to intervene in the planning process. Hans Stimman, a very a kiss is just a kiss. # ambitious politician was appointed City Architect in 1991 and kept the post to the present day with three years interruption. His architectural guidelines have practically taken over traditional planning tasks, due to the weakness of 32 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 7732 1

planning in the 70s and 80s. However, these prescriptive architectural rules may well strangle the city's cultural development.

Contradiction between ideas and rules

Sauerbruch and Hutton won the competition for the headquarter building for Berlin's largest housing association in 1991. However, their urban design concept was contradicted by new design guidelines issued subsequently by the City Architect. His vision of Berlin was based on the reconstrution of the 19th century pattern of blocks and streets and an fictitious 'Berlin architecture' in a city with no real traditions. His aesthetics of stone facades, punched windows, and a rational quasi- classicism led to the abortion of many projects, among them Richard Rogers' scheme for Bahnhof Zoo. It also led to the travesty of some others, most notably Grimshaw's stock exchange or the Embassy building by Michael Wilford or Frank Gehry DG Bank which both developed their most interesting spaces inside their buildings. His design guidance also adversely affected existing structures in East Berlin. His bitter campaign against modernism and his argument that the planners of the sixties and seventies have done more damage to the city than the war, form the core thesis of this year's exhibition at the German pavilion of the Biennale.

This too literal reading of Rossi's architettura della citta leads the idea of the city as a sediment of history ad absurdum. Conversely, Sauerbruch sought to integrate existing heterogeneities into new - hitherto Top: A view of Potsdamer unknown solutions. Platz in July 1999

Above: N. Grimshaw's Stock Exchange Building Sustainable Urbanism

The question of ideologically selective acceptance of the built inheritance is also a question of sustainability. The idea of including the existing 1950's high-rise of the GSW headquarters into a new design composition was an attempt to work with literal and cultural energy embodied in this building in a positive way. This was combined with an overall concept of low Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 33 1

energy consumption, aimed at the wellbeing of the occupants and reduction of fuel consumption and C02 emission.

Subsequently, even Stimman, then relegated to the Senate for Environment and Urban Planning adopted the principles of energy efficiency, expressed in the publication "Planwerk Innenstadt" which promoted the densification of the still fairly fragmented fabric of Berlin's inner city. While filling gaps in existing block structures it also proposed to close the spaces of the wide traffic corridors and other open spaces between relatively loosely arranged 60's and 70's architecture.

The environmental argument was that a dense city is ecologically better -not just because of shorter connections and hence less need for traffic but also because of the reduced envelope of the built volume. The underlying objective however is to stick to the previous ideology which tries to reverse modern architecture into the framework of the 19th century city rather than to expand it into a new architecture of the 21st century. Above: Views and sketch of the GSW headquarters building. Cultural criteria Below: GSW building, Why is Berlin so keen on 19th century ground floor plan. urbanism? The answer may be psychological. It may be a way to eliminate the last traces of the war and Berlin's embarrassment with its history of the 1930's (which had resulted in the construction of a record number of memorials). It may have to do with a deeply ingrained longing for normality and historic continuity, expressed particularly by the 68 generation.

Compared with the 50s, Berlin's urbanity at the turn of the 20th century is synonymous with the extermination of indeterminacy. Whereas 50's architecture conceived the open ground floor as a generous space where the free citizen could socialise, today's ground floors are defined down to the last square inch. Thus, the main argument against Richard Rogers' Zoofenster high rise project was that its 3- dimensional treatment of the ground level was not conducive to the city. 34 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 34 1

The GSW project addresses this question by The whole Potsdamer Platz intervention skins separate close coexistence of very differentiating the ground floor space. It represents a very marked variation from the different spheres. Sauerbruch's recently constitutes a boundary of the street but adjacent cultural acropolis which was won competition for an 'edutainment' park open space behind can be occupied freely. meant to crown the reunited city. The in Hamburg illustrates this view. Given the numerous failures of 1960's Kulturforum with the concert halls and experiments with three dimensional ground museums are dwarfed by the new The competition brief asked for the zones, pedestrian decks, etc. scepticism is developments and no attempts have yet integration of an 'edutainment' park, akin understandable. However, as Berlin has been made to connect the "high" with the to the Universal Studio tour in Hollywood, been loosing some 130.000 inhabitants in "low" cultures. Which of these urban with some studio extensions and a leisure the last ten years who preferred to live in propositions will survive and how they will pool on a 33 ha site in a Hamburg suburb. the rural belt around the city, the ecological change over time will be a very interesting The events in the park range from halls for argument about density will not succeed case study to follow over the years. TV-game shows, rides with TV or movie- unless architects are able to provide themes to simulated urban experiences, attractive living environments within the Apart from the obviously theatrical such as the Hamburg harbour (which city. Purely commercial motivation cannot qualities of Potsdamer Platz, there are signs visitors could go and see in reality, only a achieve this. On the contrary, there has to of a paradigmatic shift within the reading few miles away). be a measure of spatial generosity. Similarly, of the city. As the economic system is architecture itself and urban design will changing from a locally anchored Sauerbruch's proposal for this park was not have to be able to generate sufficient hierarchical structure to highly mobile to design the events but to design the space sensual enjoyment to substitute for rural networks of exchange of goods and in-between. A typology of sets make up this life without being suburban. information, the city becomes just a 'stage tv-world. They are surrounded by a vegetal set' for a range of experiences accessible at wall. Inside these walls one disappears into a price. The emerging spaces and typologies the simulated world of the respective event; The "city experience" are only indirectly reflecting economic and in-between them one finds a garden space cultural forces at work. Today's 'designed' which is neutral and mostly defined by the The main urban attraction of new Berlin is city consists increasingly of mediated vegetal enclosure of its characteristic space. Potsdamer Platz. To date two major experiences for tourists and locals alike. As this intermittent space is meant to act as developments have been realised: The Sony Small symptoms underpin this new reading. a experiential buffer for those who are tired Centre and the Daimler Chrysler quarter. In London the Millennium Wheel suddenly of zapping from one set to the next, it very turns the whole of Parliament Square into a deliberately employs a different vocabulary. The buildings of the Daimler quarter have theme park; in Berlin, a tourist balloon While everything on the set is made to be been designed by a number of different offers a high-level view of the inner city. seen with illusions which are almost architects under the guidance of Renzo Similarly, a scale model of an American entirely visual, the in-between spaces are Piano's masterplan which uses the army hut with sandbags and all enables intended to be naturalistic. typological vocabulary of the 19th century tourists to take photographs where ten European city with (pedestrianised) streets years ago Checkpoint Charlie caused real For urban designers and architects, the and squares. Considering that the whole fear and pain. Peter Eisenman monumental increasing artificiality of the urban site has on average four underground levels Holocaust memorial, once built next to the environment is the material with which for housing car parking and is one of the Brandenburg Gate will be in danger to fall they have to work. While accepting this major traffic hubs of the city this seems a prey to the same phenomenon. superficiality, it is still worth trying to fairly absurd idea. Further, the claim for challenge the sensory and perceptive traditional (southern) European street-life is intelligence of people by inventing a difficult to substantiate with the existing 'Edutainment park' concrete architecture which surprises them range of fairly trivial retailing, Imax and and is capable of making transparent one of multiplex cinemas, a musical theatre and a Sauerbruch's exhibition at the AA earlier the major urban conditions of the 21st casino. this year showed that the mediated quality century. # of the city is an inevitable development. The Sony, by contrast, makes no claims of any city will become only one of several urban tradition and goes for stunning possible spatial experiences from which effects. A Vast atrium space and a spectators can choose. 3-D architecture will somewhat over-engineered but nevertheless increasingly be seen as image and judged by daring roof-structure are baffling the casual its surface. However, the physicality of this visitor. surface itself is fascinating, as such thin Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 35 1

RESEARCH: TIM HEATH AND TANNER OC Sustainability Through Converting Buildings To Residential Use

The project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council investigated the barriers and drivers to the process of converting buildings to residential use with particular reference to three cities: Birmingham, Leicester and Nottingham. A variety of quantitative and qualitative research methods were used in order to examine both supply-side issues and the demand for the product of conversion activity.

Supply of residential conversions

A site audit of vacant and under-used buildings undertaken in 1998 identified 310 buildings in Birmingham's city centre, 370 in Nottingham and 330 in Leicester. A range of original uses, periods and sizes were at least partially vacant, however, the largest group of under-used buildings were those originally designed for industrial use and built prior to 1945. A significant number of office buildings and spaces above retail units were also found to be suffering vacancy problems. Perhaps the most significant finding of the audit was the high proportion of buildings in partial use.

A number of factors encourage / discourage the conversion process. There is a difference between potential capacity (i.e. dwellings created if all vacant floor space were to be converted) and probable capacity (i.e. units judged likely to be created, after a range of explicit or implicit factors are taken into consideration). Explicit factors recurred in interviews with developers and Lace Market, vacant were predominantly associated with physical attributes and location. Implicit industrial properties with factors more concerned with the financial and policy environment within potential for conversion to which developers operate, were not overtly mentioned, but are nonetheless residential use. crucial in determining whether or not a building conversion will take place.

Of primary importance in determining a building's viability for conversion is Demand-side considerations its location. By contrast, the physical form is of more minor importance; given enough money, effort and interest, any physical shortcomings can be Group interviews illuminated a number of overcome. While broad generalisations can be made as to the physical issues that were explored further in a attributes sought, it is apparent that different developers seek different. There questionnaire survey to 4,500 residents: is an assumption among many developers that public funding will not be • People see city living in terms of its available for their projects and the research highlighted confusion about the convenience, especially in relation to sources and availability of funding. Public finance need not be a prerequisite of amenities; a successful conversion, but appears to be required and more readily available • City centre living is not seen in terms of for larger projects and those associated with social rented accommodation. the environmental benefits to the user; it is more likely to be seen in negative At present, the dwellings created through the conversion process are terms because of noise and pollution; predominantly flats or student accommodation. A recurring theme to emerge • Other discouraging factors include the was the importance of maintaining a degree of flexibility within the conversion lack of basic amenities; while shops may process. This is true both in terms of policy implementation, and in the manner be plentiful, the lack of supermarkets is in which the building is physically converted. Indeed, many developers appear seen as an inconvenience; and to appreciate the retention of flexibility within the design, allowing for the • City centres and peripheral areas are possibility of another phase of adaptation/re-use at a later date. Such flexibility seen as child-unfriendly environments. presupposes the long-term control over the building by the developer/another investor, therefore, implying rented rather than for-sale accommodation. Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 7736 1

Questionnaire

People's experiences of living in city centres have generally been positive with 81 per cent of respondents expressing that they would like to continue to do so. In addition, 26 per cent of non-city centre residents expressed a desire to move into such areas. Under 29s were found to be most receptive to the idea of city living with the number of respondents from this age group expressing a wish to live in central areas exceeding the number who wished to live elsewhere. Nonetheless, there were a number of people across all ages for whom the idea of city living held some appeal. This suggests that there is scope for developers to exploit hitherto largely untapped niche markets. Marital status is also an important factor with the strongest support coming from those who have never been married.

The survey indicated that those who Conversion of vacant expressed an aversion to city living attached space over shops into 42 most importance to factors that impact in a flats at Derby Rd. negative manner upon the environment: Nottingham. crime levels, limited traffic noise, congestion and air pollution, and litter and graffiti. These factors (especially crime) were of concern to the majority of Families are most certainly not catered for • Increasing the supply of buildings; respondents who expressed an interest in in conversions. They may be dissuaded by • Assessing affordability of buildings; city living as well but they were outweighed the perception that the dwellings created • Improving the quality of buildings / by convenience factors (e.g. proximity to are inappropriate for family use both in facilities offered, both in terms of the shops, good public transport, etc). The terms of their type and their location, whilst facilities located within the buildings, importance attached to good schools was, in extreme cases prohibited through the and within the neighbourhood; not surprisingly, greatest among those terms of leases or tenancy agreements. As • Questions of spaciousness of dwellings respondents with children whilst, factors those people who currently live in the city created would need to be addressed, as closely associated with city living (e.g. lively centre generally expressed a wish to well as ways to make buildings and and exciting environments and proximity continue to do so, it would seem desirable their local environment more child- to pubs) were of lesser importance amongst to find some way to accommodate them as friendly; and this group. they pass through different phases of family • The facilities offered within the life cycle. Until families can be attracted neighbourhood must reflect the wide into city centre environments the range of needs and aspirations of the Matching supply and demand communities created will be reliant upon a community. Quiet locations would regular influx of people to replace those need to be created for those who do not At present, there is little indication that who move out to the suburbs. For wish to live close to pubs and clubs. developers, other than housing communities in the city to be socially Schools and other community facilities associations, do much in the way of market sustainable, methods must be found to would also have to be provided or research. Although developers have persuade current residents to stay for a improved. # identified two niche markets - students and greater proportion of their life span. In professionals - little attempt is made to addition, if more conversions are to be exploit other non-family groupings. This encouraged, it seems likely that the calls into question the extent to which it following changes can be used to encourage isrealised that such demand exists. the reuse of buildings: Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 37 1

CASE STUDY: ANDREW GIBBINS AND MICHAEL RAWLINSON Bristol Legible City

City ID outline an innovative approach to communicating cities

" For cities to appear on the map of the 21st Century, they will need to focus on how they communicate, and in particular, how they can trade on their differences. Successful cities will be those that efficiently connect people, movement and places; those that are engaging and empowering and those that are welcoming, accessible and easily understood " Andrew Kelly, Head of Bristol Cultural Development Partnership

A Central Organising Idea

Bristol Legible City is one of the main priorities of Bristol City Council and its partners over the next ten years. It seeks to integrate a comprehensive programme of transportation, information, identity and arts projects to improve people's understanding, experience and enjoyment of the city. It is a unique connecting concept that takes into account the needs of the user at every step - a tourist trying to find a hotel, someone with a business appointment, a film-goer on their way to the cinema, a cyclist going to the shops, or an occasional harbour ferry user.

The current partnership, facilitated by the City Council, encompasses Bristol Cultural Development Partnership, Bristol Harbourside Sponsors Group, Public Arts South West, Bristol Chamber of Commerce and Initiative, the Broadmead Board Ltd, South West Regional Development Agency and Bristol Tourism and Conference Bureau.

As a creative and innovative city, Bristol is changing. Major regeneration schemes -Harbourside, Broadmead and Temple Quay - and high profile city Top: Bristol is undergoing centre spaces projects -College Green, Bristol and Queen Square - are a transformation of its city encouraging both inward investment and a thriving visitor and leisure industry. centre Bristol Legible City is to capitalise on Bristol's potential for the benefit of business, transport, culture, tourism and, most importantly, its people. Above: Detail of direction signing system

Competitive advantage through local distinctiveness

The initiative seeks to establish a long-term competitive advantage through design identity rooted at one level in the aspirations for a safer, more convenient, accessible and cohesive city centre, and at another, in the desire to promote Bristol as a multi-faceted, dynamic city. The approach rejects branding the city on the basis of a particular theme in favour of promoting unique place specific design within the public realm. It builds on the differences that characterise Bristol including the diversity of the city centre, by developing the following themes:

Cohesion and integration • To improve linkages by undertaking selected environmental improvements and providing signing and information • To facilitate and add value to joint initiatives between sectors through targeted action that promotes integrated urban regeneration, community participation and empowerment.

Identity • To promote Bristol as a major visitor destination and assist its market positioning within a regional, national and international context. • To promote a diverse city centre with a unique physical identity made up of distinctive parts offering consumer choice and vitality. Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 7738 1

Collective promotion • To enable the various interests within Bristol to utilise Bristol Legible City initiative as a component of their visitor Main pedestrian route Broadmead management and marketing strategies. • To facilitate collective, reciprocal marketing to cross sell different, attractions, places and modes of public Clifton West End The centre transport.

Image and identity Harbourside Temple

Bristol currently lacks a strong visual identity to bind its disparate parts together and distinguish it from competing Floating Harbour

destinations. Post war development has Avon Cut broken up traditional neighbourhoods and eroded the legibility of the city.. Low levels of information mean that visitors find the central area difficult to navigate, offering them little in the way of welcome when they arrive at the bus or train station or at one of the city's car parks. The current situation fails to give people comfort or guide them to the wealth of attractions the city has to offer- to the detriment of local retailers, leisure facilities, restaurants and arts venues.

The first phase has been developed to link together the diverse parts of the city with a flow of consistently designed information; to provide the city with a clear and positive identity; and to encourage a shift towards public transport. It doesn't mean more signs but less muddle, and the removal of much of the clutter. Components include the most comprehensive pedestrian sign system in the UK including visitor panels and maps, an integrated identity for transport information all linked to a major arts programme. Top: Defining a key pedestrian network as a Developing a distinctive Bristol voice focus for access improvements and public The first phase of the Legible City has been art designed by City ID, Icon Media Lab, PSD Associates and the City Council's Visual Above: Panel at College Technology team to provide a simple yet Green 'head up mapping' distinctive voice for Bristol. The typeface - Bristol Transit is designed to look modern Right: Walkie talkie and confident. The number of words and pavement test linking icons on each sign is kept to a minimum to different parts of the city avoid information overload and visual Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 39 1

clutter. Area information is provided by specially developed 'head up' maps which use three-dimensional images.

By looking at varying scenarios, the design team was able to imagine who the city's users are, how they navigate, what systems they understand, and what constraints exist. This user-centred technique kept solutions rooted in reality.. Field testing and surveys were used to refine and develop ideas. Funded through an innovative public/private sector partnership the system will be on the streets from January 2001.

Identity for integrated transport

Like many other major cities, Bristol is beset by problems of traffic and pollution, cited as two of the worst aspects of life in the city.. A scoping study is being undertaken by the Legible City design team. Its aims are to:

• promote an approach to building an integrated transport system based upon an empathetic understanding of the journey experience • promote connectivity across all modes of transport through product and graphic design; • provide legible and easily understood information The study recommends the development of a Strategic Identity Framework to shape the future face of integrated transport in the city and to guide the next generation of projects.

Projects are being developed within the Legible City framework or influenced by it: on street digital touch screen information units;, a transport information channel, incorporating a journey planner; a new user "O interface for the 'Visit Bristol' web site; a co-ordinated set of fold out walking and o bus route maps; a street based information service, and measures to enhance Showcase CO Bus Routes, Park and Ride services and Light Rapid Transit. 40 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 7740 1

An Integrated Arts Programme

People often navigate their way around a city by landmarks, pubs, roundabouts and petrol stations as well as official sites, or sometimes just by the 'feel' of a neighbourhood. Bristol Legible City is starting to integrate artists' and designers' work. The arts programme will facilitate a variety of interventions and collaborative approaches to reveal the often hidden wealth and different interpretations of Bristol's built environment.

The project is being interpreted, amplified and critically layered by a range of artists. Fashion Architecture and Taste (FAT) have been commissioned as lead artist with a largely open brief to explore, challenge, question and bring forward ideas for interventions. This collaboration, investigating identity for integrated transport, has involved information and identity designers, product designers, planners, urban designers, transport planners and engineers.

Artists Colin Pearce and Ralf Hoyte are collaborating on a launch project for the pedestrian signing system. Based upon lines of pavement text this work promotes a dialogue with the city. Light artist Phil Power has been commissioned to develop Bristol Beacons as a precursor to a lighting strategy. Workplace, a multi-disciplinary arts event showcasing over 100 local artists has received support from the initiative. The integration of public art is helping to create a unique framework for a vibrant and exciting environment.

Building creatively for the long term

The Legible City is adopted corporately and is becoming a catalyst for change in the way services are delivered by the City Council and its partners. The next steps are to build on the foundations laid in the City Centre Top: The project team is Strategy, the Bristol Local Transport Plan investigating law to mix and the Bristol Local Plan. It requires from the identiy of partnership working, innovative funding transports systems mechanisms, political vision and commitment, and creative project Above: The At Bristol management. Underground car park Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 41

BOOK REVIEWS

Tourists in Historic Towns Archi-tetes, Louis Hellman Aylin Orbasli Wiley-Academy, 2000 E & F Spon £35.00 £15.99

During the last three decades the Hellman s cartoons have been inexorable growth of global tourism staple fare of the AJ and many has dramatically threatened the other publications on architecture character and survival or historic and design for many years now. towns. Ever larger planes, Archi-tetes updates and puts into mammoth cruise ships and almost book form what began as a series universal car ownership have all of postcards springing from a contributed to this disturbing cartoon competition in the scenario. Therefore Orbasli's Architectural Review in 1984. deeply researched and firmly structured book is timely and The root of the idea is that hidden apposite. in every architects building is a great big ego, bursting to get In the Introduction, conservation is recognised. Hellman performs the criticised for ignoring the depth and analysis in a deft series of cartoons dynamism of the urban environment making the architects' faces visible in favour or the recreation of sterile in their famous projects, a witty and and 'experienceable' settings. angered residents who feel that in Nepal are charged an entry fee debunking approach derived in Chapters 1 to 3 look at the they have been obliged to sacrifice and it works well. In Venice, when part from the Mannerist painter conservation of historic towns and their privacy and tranquillity without 100,000 visitors have arrived the Archimboldo. So the rather the role tourism is playing in the any compensation. police close the bridge to avoid pompous introduction claims. urban conservation process. total saturation. In conclusion the Chapters 4 to 6 evaluate existing Chapter 4 compares the situation author sees the historic town not as Bringing it up to date with such decision making structures in order in Western Europe where there is a a visitor attraction but as a place contemporary figures as Phillipe to discuss approaches to tourism strong network of conservation that may be attractive to visitors. Starck, Daniel liebeskind and planning and visitor management. bodies and advisory groups, with Zaha Hadid, a range of early 20th Case studies illustrate the issues developing countries where The text could have been enlivened Century architects and a few raised. amenily societies are still in the with a few maps, plans or political figures, is an irrelevant pioneering stage. At times citizens freehand sketches. Despite diversion which weakens the Not surprisingly Orbasli, a Turkish who have fought for the considerable repetition, the book is central idea of the book. Each architect, writes positively about conservation of their towns, have a useful contribution to the literature cartoon is padded out with some Islamic architecture; "unlike become alienated as the towns are on tourism and conservation in history, a note explaining the origin European historic towns with transformed into tourist attractions. historic towns, a topic which the of the cartoon and an unfunny little buildings spanning several In York and Canterbury commercial author has so thoroughly verse, all in a half-hearted attempt centuries, Islamic towns often interests have almost taken over the researched. # to add status and value. present stylistic homogeneity" After historic centres, despite having praising the creative conservation been saved in the 1960s by active Derek Abbott Like any attempt to explain a joke in Bruges and Bologna, the first campaigners. The case study is all this literary and historical case study examines the Albaicin , Antalya where sadly, the character apparatus serves to deaden and a poor quarter of Granada. has been lost: "The area has been weaken the effect. The original Andalucia is the only part of transformed beyond recognition". book of postcards was so much Western Europe to have been ruled Lack of any positive planning is to better because there was was by Asia for over 600 years up to blame and the example is not an none of this pomposity. And you the 15th Century and remains a isolated one. could send them to people as well. mixture of East and West. Is tourism What is a joke if it can't be going to save the Albaicin? Chapter 5 is somewhat more shared? # optimistic. The case study chosen is Chapters 2 and 3 examine the Quedlingburg, formerly in East Bob Jarvis market potential of historic towns. Germany. Visited in 1994, it was Despite economic benefits, mass then a fascinating unspoilt palce, tourism has contributed to the loss having escaped bombing during of cultural and historic character in WW2 and the worst of 60s many historic towns and to the loss planning. Although relatively poor of privacy in residential is has been saved from rampant neighbourhoods. The author rightly commercialism and tourist trivia. It condemns the stage-set townscape is now a World Heritage site. and adds that in certain cases, excessive preservation can destroy The book concludes with a chapter the historic environment it is meant on Heritage Management. An to safeguard. The two cases are entrance fee to visit historic towns York and Mdina a walled town in seems a reasonable idea, though Malta which has become a a time and ticketed entry may be commercial museum. This has going too far. Visitors to Bhaktapur 42 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 42

BOOK REVIEWS

defended by CIAM through most Conservation Plans in Action building policy), rather than merely of its history. The dominance of Le English Heritage recording, legislating, and Corbusier (sometimes but not (free) policing. always deserved) and the antagonism that this dominance Those in London may have noticed At the end the useful methodology provoked during most of the history at Hyde Park Corner, a large is also relevant for urban designers, of the movement comes clearly plastic encased time machine with concerning the early analytical through, often resulting in petty an English Heritage (EH) emblem stages, and later management conflicts such as the ones regarding on the side, embracing the central stages of a project, when the official language of the ceremonial arch, captioned "No preparing a master plan or for debates. one does more for conservation larger sites in cities. There is a clear than English Heritage". Well yes, a model brief, which covers: Another element that pervades the good advert. Hyde Park Corner is background information, whole development is functionalism the 'Cyclist's Waterloo', not the objectives, content of the plan, which appears in the first most lovely of spaces, with cultural identity, statements of declaration of 1928. Housing for gyrating motorists. But it is graced significance, (setting out the key workers was a constant by the fagade of Wilkin's 1828 St values of the place, and vision for The CIAM Discourse on preoccupation starting with the George's Hospital, now a hotel (at the site), and then the management Urbanism, 1928-1960 "minimum subsistence dwelling" of least parts of it was saved). The and consultation aspects, and Eric Mumford,. The MIT the Frankfurt meeting (1929), as arch is part of the place, a procurement, and further sector Press, £29.95 was the high rise - low rise remaining fragment of an unfulfilled specific requirements together with debate. After the war, the split grander Regency scheme, and the useful check lists, and a speakers Three quarters of the 20th Century's between various approaches latest building to be restored here, bibliography. Nothing debates on planning and became more significant as the part of the ongoing process of a fundamentally new, but helpful to architecture were dominated by the influence of the AAARS group conservation plan for a better have it set down for the work of the Congres International increased particularly in Britain. It is London, but Hyde Park Corner will understanding of all parties d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) significant that as early as 1940 not necessarily be next in line for involved. Of course every site is a and in particular by the Athens J.M. Richards, editor of the reduced traffic, unlike Horse one off. Charter, the manifesto document Architectural Review was Guards parade or Trafalgar attributed to it. And yet not many concerned by the "modern Square. One of the contributors was James people - not even professionals - architectures lack of appeal to the Semple Kerr, a conservation are aware of what CIAM was of "Man in the Street"" (p. 163). Thus This book is the result of an EH consultant from Australia, where his what the Charter contained in 1947 CIAM redefined its aims conference, held in 1998. It sets countrymen are concerned with beyond the division of the city into as "to work for the creation of a out what the participants knew, many more 'modern' buildings and four functions. Even fewer know physical environment that will and what their philosophy was. It is places of the built heritage, that the Charter was mostly the satisfy man's emotional and not a 'how to' manual, but it because of the age and relative work of Le Corbusier who material need and stimulate his records the current state of the art scarcity in that part of the world, published it nearly 10 years after spiritual growth". Dissent continued on the theory and practice of such as prisons asylums and the famous 1933 CIAM 4. To fill nevertheless and though there were conservation. This is valuable for fortifications. He wrote one of the this gap, Eric Mumford has written a few more meetings, in 1959 the urban designers and conservation first guides to the subject, ("The an exhaustive history of CIAM movement was dissolved. practitioners: I found it useful Conservation Plan" 1982), which which should be received with having served as an EH committee has served as a model for enthusiasm by those wanting to Since then CIAM has been member (London Advisory), as a practitioners and academics 'down better understand the development criticised, not always fairly, for all current consultant to them on under'. of the modern movement. the ills of modern architecture and outside Heritage Lottery Regrettably this book has more planning, and its legacy and assessments and as a The Conservation Plan is a information than most readers will continuing influence often ignored. 'conservation' architect, "process that seeks to guide the want, and the real relevant The last chapter briefly discusses negotiating interventions and future development of a place elements of the history have to be the debate around CIAM that has improvements for my clients' listed through an understanding of its discovered amidst what reads like taken place since its demise. It project schemes. significance" and to unpick and the minutes of endless meetings, could have been the most make recommendations for the including lists of all those who interesting part of the book but It covers guidance and attendant whole story of a place. We are attended. perhaps because documentation is practitioners experience, in 4 warned that it needs to be a team less easily available, Mumford is sessions over 2 days, summarises effort from many of the specialists in For those readers who persevere, a far less expansive. Thus the end and covers the issues and the environmental investigation and number of significant facts emerge: result is more frustrating than debate on preparing management care; there is a danger that the politics both with p and with P, enlightening, a large amount of and conservation plans. Many different heritage professions are played an important role in both facts and relatively little analysis or owners and authorities are now still isolated from each other. the thinking and the procedures of in depth discussion. For devotees preparing these for Heritage sites, However, I am encouraged from the movement. But these politics only. # spurred on by the need to produce reviewing this book that there is a were not always clear and shifted information and a robust business greater possibility of their from left to right within a Utopian Sebastian ioew plan for all kinds of funding and for convergence. # framework, alternatively applications for Lottery money. EH collaborating and breaking with is becoming much more proactive, Peter Eley the various regimes of the interwar anticipating, feeding back, and period. Centralised planning, also moving more into the urban collective land ownership, design field, (eg a London High betterment were some of the ideas Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 43

BOOK REVIEWS

51 61 71 81 91 10| 111 3] 4| 5| 6| 7| 8| 91101 111 112

I ^ ^ I 70 80 90 1900 10 20 30 <0 50 60 70 80 90 2000 10 70 80 SO 1900 10 20 30 40 50 6ilriJ0 70 80 50 i2000 10

Paris London

Editorial Note: High buildings are on the agenda again. Two rise building in 20th century history City of Westminster High publications have recently come to the UDQ, the first a macro-level book as a contest between private Buildings Study about the historical development of high buildings worldwide, the second capital and the state, comparing EDAW in association with a relatively micro-level study of high buildings policy in the City of capitalism and communism - Buro Happold Urban Westminster. The first is a glossy coffee table book produced by Dr Bruno Moscow vs. Paris and London - or Projects £50. Flierl who addressed the UDG on the subject in 1988 (the text is in 'regulated' and 'de-regulated' German but the illustrations effectively tell the story for those unfamiliar with capitalism - Paris vs. London or This is a neat A4 landscape the lingo). The second is a consultants' study undertaken for the Singapore vs. Kuala-Lumpur. The document with a good flow of Westminster Cily Council earlier this year. social dimension is only marginally prose and attractive illustrations. addressed, but it opens up striking perspectives. If Flierl s statement is The study defines its context as Hundert Jahre Hochhauser spanning the 20th century with the correct that high-rise building is being first the Urban Renaissance (One Hundred Years of High centre of gravity shifting from North associated with the polarisation report which states that cities Buildings) America to South-East Asia, between rich and poor, in other should be more compact, secondly Bruno Flierl Huss-Medien spreading to Western Europe only / words an expression of extreme the spatial development strategy for Berlin 2000. 148 DM. at a considerably lower scale, is levels of exploitation of labour, this London currently being drawn up outlined in an introduction. A graph would provide a key to analysing by the new GLA, and thirdly the The Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala- illustrates how the continents score the global geography of high-rise LPAC Advice (Robin Clement Lumpur, "452 m high at the end of in height from 1970 to 2000. building: height of skyscrapers = Memorial Advice, 1999) which the 20th century, the highest towers level of exploitation. In the micro- recommends that London boroughs in the world" viewed from a The body of the book is in three geography of London, for instance, should identify and illustrate areas pedestrian perspective on the front sections covering America, Europe high-rise building coincided with appropriate for high buildings, cover epitomise the contents of this and Asia, each of which begins rising income differentials under the where relevant, and metropolitan book: the capitalist race viewed with silhouettes of the prominent regime of de-regulation in Britain. views and panoramas. through the medium of urban skyscrapers of the main cities Conversely, it would be difficult to development a global race carried arranged on a time axis according prove that the price of land dictates There is another element to the out simultaneously in numerous to year of completion. Each city the height of buildings. context, namely that the City of arenas. has an individual biography in Westminster is currently holding terms of vertical growth financed The aesthetic dimension is not discussions with promoters about Bruno Flierl has singled out: New by developers and designed by overtly emphasised, but it is always proposals for high buildings, York and Chicago in North architects. It is a breathtaking show present, at least on the notably in the Paddington Basin. America; Paris, London, Frankfurt at a pace accelerating towards the photographs. The author has fallen However, the authors point out that am Main, Moscow, and Berlin in beginning of the new century with for Paris: "In terms of urban "this study is independent of those Europe; and Singapore, Kuala- no end in sight. The historical development and architecture La discussions and an evaluation of Lumpur, Hongkong, and Shanghai observation point at the end of the Defense is a stroke of luck for Paris" those proposals did not form part in South-East Asia. In this collection 20th century is located in South- and he mocks at Shanghai: "... a of this work". This seems a little ex-communist Moscow serves East Asia. One may well question world of built stolen copies." strange. rather as a contrast. Its whether Europe, in particular a achievements in terms of height town like Berlin, plays any role in This book should have been written For many years now the City and numbers are poor but the dynamic. The evidence in English in the first place as the Council's approach to high represent the state in an orderly unequivocally relegates the USA, indigenous - or at least business - buildings policy has always been urban deployment as opposed to into second place. This change in language in almost all the cities one of resistance. There may be a the battlefield of capitalist the geography of urban presented. It needs to be case for adding to a cluster or even competition in New York. development is the intrinsic reason translated. # allowing an individual 'iconic' for a new book on skyscraper building but the protection of the Despite the 164 photographs, this cities. Jorn Janssen Westminster heritage must be book is not about a beauty contest: paramount. The study notes 51 "Distinct from previous publications, On the surface Bruno Flierl may conservation areas, 1 1,000 listed this book is ... about a coherent appear like a sports reporter, buildings, a World Heritage site picture ... showing the recording the race of building and several Royal Parks. Views development from the high-rise towards the sky. His focus is, extend across the borough building in the city towards the however, in political economy in including several strategic views, high-rise city." This development, that he interprets the form of high- already protected by the Secretary 44 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 44

BOOK REVIEWS of State, and other 'metropolitan Streets for All building, which might meet up with frees :mjst 'jc related to ihe wider rownscape coi views' including Thames-side and A guide to the Management the neighbouring fagade. This local views, notably within the of London Streets thinking has changed, now streets Royal Parks and London squares. English Heritage and places should be designed (free) conceptually in their own right. The The study plots these heritage areas whole book was "Arts and Crafts" and viewing cones onto a series of This book is for all those in feel, "traditional: with architects sieve maps which define the left- responsible for streets appearance, noted who write on "Little things over areas where high buildings to show "them" how to do it. that matter for those that build", like may be appropriate. The Streets are places in their own a dreamland. Simply produced accessibility sieve maps narrow the right, not just a route from one with intelligent details, before the left-over areas even further on the destination to another. This is a plastic and metal cladding age, principle that high density practical set of how to do it she certainly didn't have to deal development should be close to recommendations which come with greater numbers and different public transport stations. The during and at the end of an urban types of vehicle, space for cycles, resultant left-over areas comprise area conservation plan. The streets disabled, the increase of electronic just the Paddington Basin, of London and beyond are under devices, and the sheer range of Westway, part of the Edgware siege. The pressure for poor design choice of materials and amenities Road and Marylebone. Ensuing and haste is in full flood. that now besiege our towns. How chapters give advice on design much simpler and less dense and panelled environment is the most criteria and the content of planning Streets for All is a well illustrated demanding it was, with more unyielding, because of the applications for high buildings. research study, with physical space: but the message difficulties of replacement, change recommendations of preferred was the same as that of the current of technology, and the liability to The study concludes that a "radical solutions, building on "Towards an guide. take a line of least resistance. overhaul of adopted policy is not Urban Renaissance", the 1999 necessary... however, there are Urban Task Force report and the Nobody minds the traditional Though not mentioned in the guide, weaknesses within the current 1994 PPG 15. In two parts, the pillarbox, (even better in a wall, or there is a distant hope for less policy and it is considered first provides design guidelines for is this a dodo?) but when multiplied clutter, with more electronic and necessary to strengthen and focus management to raise the quality of and combined with numerous other invisible devices, (as long as they policy with regard to views, design the public realm, invoking that tin and plastic graffited boxes, we don't go wrong). The device in and functional considerations". It is forbidding phrase of "integrated protest.Of all the street's common front of the rear view mirror which heartening to know that the policy townscape management" directed problems, the worst is probably bills you at the end of the month, for work undertaken by the LCC and at the streets of London. The clutter: entering congested areas and for GLC and adopted by the London second, provides fairly elemental • Too many agencies the privilege of driving down the boroughs still holds true to this day. construction details. The guide administering the cumulative key trunk routes, or even the valued marshals the public realm in four effect of Cable TV and environmental avenue of the future, Let me conclude by putting my ways: street furniture, paving, traffic telephone boxes, recycling instead of more barriers, head on the chopping block. calming, traffic management. bins, advertisement panels, supervising people and cash While urban design has become CCTV cameras, traffic lights, deposits. very much the province of the The book is well produced and control boxes, and other pedestrian I am still a great should be required reading for equipment. Poor cleansing. For intervening in and maintaining believer, as was Kevin Lynch, that some engineers and laymen who • Recent paving slab schemes the best places, intelligent part of urban design is geared to find "design matters" difficult. For destroying established technology, conceptual thinking, the windscreen view of the urban designers, a must know character and downgrading of craftsmanship, high quality motorist. One of my favourite applicable in all towns and quality by discordant patterns, materials, and a dose of windscreen experiences is driving metropolitan areas, world wide. In colours and arbitrary rhythms. minimalism, are all needed in along Westway, the deck-level the present political climate with • Intense competition for road design matters. motorway that extends for 3 miles City Mayors and the new GLA space. Poorly integrated traffic above rooftops with sweeping there could be an opportunity for calming measures, which their Peter Eley curves that open up vistas with high action, and a new golden age. cumulative clutter of signs, road buildings punctuated along the There is a list of references, and humps, kerb build outs, radii, and culminating with the Government guidance documents, generating a confusion of signs gateway into central London, the but not mentioned is the pioneer and other devices. cluster of high buildings on "Design for the Space between the Edgware Road. Paddington is an buildings", by Elizabeth Beazley The design guide's text is broken up important element in this serial about good practice in these with good coloured photographs, vision. Alas, the study doesn't matters. This Architectural Press some old 'townscape' black and mention this (maybe it is just as book was published in the sixties white photos of the (good?) 'old' well). # from that well mannered street, days, diagrams, working details Queen Anne's Gate, with its pub in and specifications etc, peppered Tim Catchpole the basement and its York stone with 'general principle' small paving slabs and lampposts, (go panels. Street 'cabinets' and and look at it now, changed for the recycling facilities are the hardest better or worse?) to absorb. A brick environment may be the easiest in which to Beazley provided details of parts of integrate them. A concrete, external spaces out from a fibreglass, metal, and shiny glass Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 45 1

Directory of practices, Austin-Smith:Lord Barton Willmore Partnership Blampied & Partners Ltd. Architects Designers Planners Beansheaf Farmhouse, Bourne Close, Areen House 282 King Street, corporate organisations Landscape Architects Calcot, Reading, Berks RG31 7BW London W6 OSJ 5-6 Bowood Court Calver Road Tel: 0118 9430000 Contact: Clive Naylor and urban design courses Warrington Cheshire WA2 8QZ Fax: 0118 9430001 Tel: 020 8563 9175 subscribing to this index Tel: 01925 654441 Email: Fax: 020 8563 9176 Fax: 01925 414814 [email protected] Email: [email protected] The following pages provide Also in London Cardiff & Glasgow Contact: David Richards Dip Arch Dip TP Contact: Andy Smith RIBAMTPI Specialisms: Architects and a service to potential clients Masterplanners. Members of the Areen Specialisms: Multi-disciplinary national Specialisms: Town Planning, Architectural Group, active in Hotel, leisure, residential when they are looking for practice with a specialist urban design and Environmental Consultancy, and education work. Current projects in unit backed by tne landscape and core Masterplanning, Development Briefs, London, Oxford, Lebanon and specialist professional architectural units. Working with public Design Statements, Landscape Caribbean. advice on projects involving and private clients on a wide range and Appraisals, Environmental Assessments, scale of projects providing briefing, Promotion of land through the Carlisle Davies & North urban design and related concept development, masterplanning, development plan process, Urban 77 Herbert Street, design guidance, implementation and Regeneration. Pontardawe, Swansea SA8 4ED matters and to those management. Tel: 01792 839238 The Beckett Company Fax: 01792 863895 considering taking an urban Babtie Group Architecture and Urban Design [email protected] design course School Green, Shinfield, Beauchamp Lodge Contact: Kedrick Davies DipTP Reading, Berks. RG2 9XG 73 Coten End, Warwick CV34 4NU DipUD(Dist) MRTPI Tel: 0118 975 8844 Tel: 01926 490220 Those wishing to be Fax: 0118 931 0268 Fax: 01926 400978 Specialisms: Urban design, planning and Email: [email protected] Email: development. Integration of land-use included in future issues Contact: Bettina Kirkham Dip TP BLD MLI [email protected] planning and urban design. Paul Townsend BSc (Hons) Contact: Roger Beckett D.Arch, Dip TP, Collaborative and community working to should contact the CEng MICE MCIT MIHT Dip Urban Design or Sarah Grierson BA enhance the environment. Feasibility UDG office Hons, Dip LA studies and design. Specialisms: A truly 'one-stop' 6 Ashbrook Courtyard, consultancy of landscape architects, Specialisms: Waterside Regeneration Chris Blandford Associates architects, urban designers and planners and Community Collaboration - our Lafone House Westbrook Street, Blewbury, specialising in town and landscape partner led approach to the creation and 11-13 Leathermarket St, London SE1 3HN Oxon OX11 9QH assessment, urban design frameworks, repair of places turns the vision into a Tel: 020 7403 2211 regeneration visions and strategies, coherent reality. Fax: 0207403 7333 Tel: 01235 851415 quality public space design, integrated Contact: Chris Blandford strategies of public consultation. The Bell Cornwell Partnership Also at Cardiff, Chester and Fax: 01235 851410 Oakview House, Station Road Middlesborough James Barr Chartered Surveyors Hook, Hampshire RG27 9TP & Planning Consultants Tel: 01256 766673 Specialisms: The skills of CBA's multi- Cinnamon House, Crab Lane, Fearnhead, Fax: 01256 768490 disciplinary team embrace the core W S Atkins Planning Consultants Warrington WA2 0XP Email: [email protected] disciplines associated with development Woodcote Grove, Ashley Road Tel: 01925 661713 Contact: Simon Avery planning, urban design, landscape Epsom, Surrey KT18 5BW Fax: 01925 661836 architecture, environmental assessment Tel: 01372 726140 Email: [email protected] Specialisms: Specialists in urban and and management. Particular strengths Fax: 01372 743006 Contact: Alan Mitchell master planning and the coordination of include urban regeneration and Email: [email protected] Also in Glasgow Tel: 0141 300 800 major development proposals. Advisors enhancement, master planning, Contact: Joanna Chambers contact Graeme Hill and London on development plan representations, environmental strategies and BABTPMRTPI Tel: 0207 388 8179 contact: Jane Rowell planning applications and appeals. implementation. Professional witnesses at Public Inquiries. Specialisms: Multi-disciplinary practice of Specialisms: Planning consultancy; Trevor Bridge Associates urban planners, landscape designers, economic development and regeneration Bell Fischer 7-9 St Michaels Square transport planners, urban designers, strategies. Provision of funding advice Landscape Architects Ashton-under-Lyne, Lanes OL6 6LF architects and environmental planners, and application to a range of sources; 160 Chiltern Drive Tel: 0161 308 3765 specialising in Master Plans, environmental consultancy and advice Surbiton, Surrey KT5 8LS Fax: 0161 343 3513 Development Frameworks and Concepts, including EIA. Tel: 020 8390 6477 Email: [email protected] Development Briefs, Environmental Fax: 020 8399 7903 Contact: Trevor Bridge Dip LA Assessment, Environmental Alan Baxter & Associates Email: [email protected] DAFFB Ml HortALI Improvements, Town Centre renewal, Consulting Engineers Contact: Gordon Bell DipLA ALI Traffic Management and Contaminated 75 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EL Specialisms: Landscape Architecture, land. Tel: 020 7250 1555 Specialisms: Landscape architects with Urban Design, Environmental Planning, Fax: 020 7250 3022 specialisms including urban design, Ecology, expert witness. From inception Michael Aukett Architects Contact: Alan Baxter FIStructE urban regeneration and environmental to completion the practice is committed to Atlantic Court MICE MConsE planning throughout the UK and maintaining high standards and meeting 77 Kings Road, London SW3 4NX overseas. Quality assured to BS EN ISO the needs of the client. Tel: 020 7376 7525 Specialisms: An engineering and urban 9001. Fax: 020 7376 5773 design practice with wide experience of Colin Buchanan & Partners Email: [email protected] new and existing buildings and complex Biscoe & Stanton Architects Newcombe House, www.michaelaukett.com urban issues. Particularly concerned with Studio 2 10 Bowling Green Lane 45 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3 PB Contact: David Roden RIBA the thoughtful integration of buildings, London EC1R OBQ Tel: 020 7309 7000 infrastructure and movement, and the Tel: 020 7490 7919 Fax: 020 73090906 Specialisms: Architectural, urban design creation of places which are capable of Fax: 0207490 7929 Email: [email protected] and masterplanning services. simple and flexible renewal. Email: [email protected] Contact: Kevin McGovern BA (Hons) Dip Regeneration and development Contact: Henry Shepherd TP MRTPI AMTS frameworks for mixed use, commercial, Aukett Associates retail, residential, leisure, cultural, 2 Great Eastern Wharf, Specialisms: As commercial and Specialisms: Planning, regeneration, transport and business park Parkgate Road, London SW11 4NT residential architects, we are especially urban design, transport and traffic developments. Tel: 020 7924 4949 interested in meeting the challenges of management and market research from Fax: 020 7978 6720 designing on urban sites, with mixed uses offices in London, Edinburgh, Bristol and Email: [email protected] and higher densities; we are experienced Manchester. Specialism in area based Contact: Nicholas Sweet in altering and renovating existing regeneration, town centres and public buildings, often listed, as well as with new realm design. Specialisms: We are a multi disciplinary construction. design group offering architecture, urban design, engineering,landscape architecture and interiors. We operate through 14 European offices and specialise in large scale commercial, mixed use masterplanning. 46 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 7746 1

Building Design Partnership Philip Cave Associates Conservation Architecture EDAW Planning PO Box 4WD 5 Dryden Street Covent Garden & Planning 1 Lindsey Street London EC1A 9HP 16 Gresse Street London WC2E 9NW Wey House, Standford Lane also at Glasgow and Colmar, France London W1A 4WD Tel: 020 7829 8340 Headley, Hants GU35 8RH Tel: 020 7674 0700 Tel: 020 7462 8000 Fax: 020 7240 5800 Tel: 01420 472830 Fax: 020 7674 0799 Fax: 0207462 6342 Contact: Philip Cave BSc Hons Fax: 01420 477346 Contact: Bill Hanway BA M Arch AIA or Email: [email protected] MA (LD) MLI Email: [email protected] Jason Prior BA Dip LA ALI Contact: Richard Saxon BArch (Hons) Contact: Jack Warshaw, BArch Dip TP (L'pool)MCDMBIM RIBA Specialisms: Design led practice with AADipCons ARB RIBA RTPIIHBC Specialisms: Part of the EDAW Group innovative yet practical solutions to providing urban design, land use Specialisms: Planning policy and area environmental opportunities in urban Specialisms: CAP connect urban design planning, environmental planning and regeneration studies. Development regeneration, town centre projects, urban and conservation of good places. CAP landscape architecture services frameworks for mixed-use, commercial, parks, community art, public participation. are government approved. CAP's clients throughout the UK and Europe. Particular residential, sports, leisure, educational Large scale site/master planning through cover all sectors nationwide. CAP accept expertise in market driven development and industrial development. Transport and to small scale detailed design, from historic areas, regeneration, topic studies, frameworks, urban regeneration, public realm design. International practice studies to constructed projects. Specialist buildings, settings, new design, masterplanning and implementation. with offices in London, Manchester, expertise in landscape architecture. conservation solutions and expert witness Sheffield, Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin, commissions. ENTEC UK Ltd Grenoble, Berlin, Frankfurt, Madrid. Civic Design Partnership Gables House Kenilworth Road 22 Sussex Street DNA Consultancy Ltd Leamington Spa Warwicks CV32 6JX B3 Burgess Partnership Limited London SW1V4RW 121 Newton Road Tel: 01926 439 000 Castle Buildings, Womanby Street Tel: 020 7233 7419 Great Malvern Worcs. WR14 1PE Fax: 01926 439 010 Cardiff CF10 1RG Fax: 020 7931 8431 Tel: 01684 566 525 Email: [email protected] Tel: 029 20 342688 Contact: Peter J. Heath Architect Fax: 01684 566 525 www.entecuk.co.uk Fax: 029 20 384683 and Town Planner Email: [email protected] Contact: Nick Brant or Roger Mayblin Email: [email protected] Contact: Mark Newey Contact: Paul Vanner Specialisms: Led since 1990 by architect Specialisms: Urban design, landscape and town planner Peter Heath, the Specialisms: Small urban design practice architecture and development planning Specialisms: Architecture, planning, practice undertakes all aspects of public providing a responsive and professional combined with broad based multi- urban design, environmental and realm projects throughout the UK for service from qualified urban designers, disciplinary environmental and economic regeneration; site appraisals, public and private sectors. Recent London from both landscape and architectural engineering consultancy. Related master plans, context studies, urban projects include proposals for the setting backgrounds. A full range of UD services expertise in sustainable development, frameworks, development briefs and of Parliament, regeneration in Fulham provided. ecology, archaeology, urban capacity implementation strategies. Offices in and pedestrianisation, plans for Trafalgar studies, transportation, risk assessment, Cardiff, Basingstoke, Newtown and and Parliament Squares. In addition to DPDS Consulting Group Ltd contaminated land remediation, air and Newcastle upon Tyne. the integrated services of planning and Old Bank House, 5 Devizes Road, noise quality assessment. design, specialisms include lighting Old Town, Swindon, Wilts SN1 4BJ Burns + Nice strategies, product design, street furniture Tel: 01793 610222 Roger Evans Associates 15 Greenham Road manuals and design guides. Fax: 01793 512436 59-63 High Street London N101LN Email: [email protected] Kidlington Oxford OX5 2DN Tel: 020 8883 9908 CIVIX Contact: Les Durrant Tel: 01865 377030 Fax: 020 8374 9301 Exton Street Fax: 01865 377050 Contact: Marie Burns BA (Hons) MAUD London SE1 8UE Specialisms: Provide expertise in town Email: [email protected] DipLA MLI FRSA or Stephen Nice BA Tel: 020 7620 1589 planning, environmental assessments, Contact: Roger Evans MA (UD) RIBA (Hons) MAUD Dip LD MLI Fax: 020 76201592 architecture, landscape architecture and MRTPI Email: [email protected] urban design: innovative solutions in Chris Odgers BA Hons DipUD DipUP Specialisms: Urban design, Contact: Daniel Bone MA DipArch RIBA masterplanning, design guidance and MRTPI environmental planning and landscape MRTPI MAPM development frameworks. architecture. Masterplanning, design and Specialisms: A specialist urban design public consultation for town centres, Specialisms: Multi-disciplinary Edward Cullinan Architects practice providing services throughout public open spaces, education, residential consultancy in urban design, 1 Baldwin Terrace, London N1 7RU the UK and abroad. Expertise in urban and retail schemes, commercial, development planning and project Tel: 020 7704 1975 regeneration, quarter frameworks and industrial and tourism developments and management devising town centre Fax: 020 7354 2739 design briefs, town centre strategies, infrastructure projects. Experience of appraisals, urban design frameworks, Email: [email protected] movement in towns, master planning and public and private sectors in the UK, site development briefs, design guide- Contact: Peter Inglis development economics. Europe, Middle East and Far East. lines, masterplans and management strategies for implementation. Specialisms: Designing buildings and Farmingham McCreadie Burrell Foley Fischer groups of buildings within urban or rural Partnership York Central, 70-78 York Way Clarke Klein & Chaudhuri contexts. The relationship to existing 65 York Place, Edinburgh EH1 3JD London N1 9AG Architects buildings and the making of spaces Tel: 0131 525 8400 Tel: 020 7713 5333 5 Dryden Street, London WC2E 9NW between buildings is of particular Fax: 0131 525 8484 Fax: 020 7713 5444 Contact: Wendy Clarke importance to us, in the struggle to re- Email: [email protected] Contact: John Burrell MA AADip Tel: 020 7829 8460 establish the civic place. Contact: Donald McCreadie RIBA FRSA Fax: 0207829 8352 Email: [email protected] DEGW pic Architects & Specialisms: Fully integrated multi- Specialisms: Urban regeneration and Consultants disciplinary practice which specialises in Arts and Cultural buildings - Museums, Specialisms: Architecture, planning and 8 Crinan St., London N1 9SQ delivering a nigh quality service in Galleries, Theatres, Cinemas. urban design analysis, framework Tel: 020 7239 7777 Masterplanning, Urban Design, Redevelopment of Redundant Estate proposals. Fax: 020 7278 3613 Landscape Design, Development Land, Urban housing. New settlements. Contact: Lora Nicolaou Planning, Architecture, Sustainable New design in Historic Contexts. Richard Coleman Consultancy Design and Energy Efficient Buildings Waterfront buildings and strategies. Bridge House 181 Queen Victoria St Specialisms: Development planning and and transportation - from site assessment Innovative Urban Design and Planning London EC4V4DD briefing. Masterplanning and urban and inception through to implementation approaches. Tel: 020 7329 6622 design. Strategic briefing and space and management. Fax: 020 73296633 planning. Architecture and interiors. Business Location Services Ltd Email: [email protected] Terry Farrell and Partners 2 Riverside House, Heron Way Contact: Lewis Eldridge Eardley Landscape Associates 7 Hatton Street London NW8 8PL Newham, Truro, Cornwall TR1 2XN 25 Achilles Rd London NW6 1DZ Tel: 020 7258 3433 Tel: 01872 222777 Specialisms: Independent advice on Tel/Fax: 020 7794 9047 Fax: 0207723 7059 Fax: 01872 222700 architecture, urban design, conservation, Email: Contact: Julian Tollast/Eugene Dreyer Email: [email protected] historic buildings, design assessments, [email protected] Contact: Russell Dodge BSc(Hons) MRTPI commissioning of architects, planning Contact: Jim Eardley BA BLA FU Specialisms: Architectural, urban design issues and how most effectively to and planning services. New buildings, Specialisms: Business Location Services approach the local and national bodies Specialisms: A landscape design practice refurbishment, restoration and Ltd was formed in 1987 and provides a involved in these fields. with particular interest in the use and interiors,masterplanning and town multi-disciplinary approach to town design of urban spaces. Specialisms planning schemes. Retail, Conference planning, urban regeneration, grant include visual impact assessments, tree Centres, Exhibition Halls, Offices, funding and viability appraisals, building surveys, and expert witness. Railway infrastructure and Railway design, project management, economic Development, Art Galleries, Museums. development and property consultancy. Cultural and Tourist buildings, Television Studios, Theatres, Housing, Industry. Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 47 1

FaulknerBrowns Random Greenway Architects Hankinson Duckett Associates Hyder Consulting Ltd Dobson House Northumbrian Way 3a Godstone Road, Landscape Studio, Reading Road 29 Bressenden Place Newcastle upon Tyne NE12 OQW Caterham, Surrey CR3 6RE Lower Basildon. Reading RG8 9NE Victoria London SW1E 5DZ Tel: 0191 268 3007 Tel: 01883 346 441 Tel: 01491 872185 Tel: 020 7316 6000 Fax: 0191 268 5227 Fax: 01883 346936 Fax: 01491 874109 Fax: 020 7316 6138 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Contact: Ian Hankinson Dip Arch Contact: Phil Bonds BA Dip MA (UD) MLI Contact: Andrew Macdonald BA(Hons) Contact: Mr R L Greenway Moira Hankinson B Sc(Hons) DipLD FLI Dip Arch (Dist) RIBA Brian Duckett B Sc(Hons) M Phil MLI Specialisms: Urban design and Specialisms: Urban design; regeneration expertise within a multi- Specialisms: Architectural design services environmental assessment; architecture; Specialisms: An environmental planning disciplinary infrastructure engineering from inception to completion: Stages A-M town planning, master planning; consultancy consisting of landscape consultancy. Specialists in strategic plans, RIBA Plan of Work. Expertise in transport, regeneration studies; development architects, architects and ecologists, streetscape and public open space urban design, masterplanning, frameworks; balancing the relationships providing a comprehensive approach to design and implementation, impact commercial and leisure projects. Interior between buildings, the spaces between project work which adds value through assessments, consultation and action and furniture design. CDM-planning infrastructure and movement. innovative and appropriate solutions. planning, introducing legibility, supervisors. Development planning, new settlements, connectivity and sustainability. Related GMW Partnership environmental assessment, re-use of services include landscape architecture, Ferguson Mann Architects PO Box 1613, 239 Kensington High redundant buildings. ecology, transport and economic Royal Colonnade, 18 St George Street, Street, London W8 6SL planning, highway, structural and traffic Bristol BS1 5RH Tel: 020 7937 8020 GL Hearn Planning engineering. 80 offices in 23 countries. Contact: George Ferguson Fax: 020 79375815 Leonard House, 5-7 Marshalsea Road, Tel: 0117 929 9293 Email: [email protected] London SE1 1EP Hyland Edgar Driver Fax: 0117 929 9295 Contact: Terry Brown Tel: 020 7450 4000 Furzehall Farm, Wickham Road, Fax: 020 7450 4010 Fareham, Hants, P016 7JH Specialisms: Design led masterplanning, Specialisms: Land development Email: [email protected] The Timberyard, Arley Hall, Northwich, design of public spaces, urban design, appraisals. Urban planning and Contact: David Beardmore Cheshire, CW9 6LZ architecture, historic buildings, regeneration strategies. Formulation of Tel: 01329 826616 conservation, regeneration. development and design briefs including Specialisms: Masterplans and 01565 777424 (Cheshire office) packaging to suit appropriate funding development briefs for new communities Fax: 01329 826138 Fitzroy Robinson Ltd strategies. Master plan design studies. and brownfield sites; urban design 01565 777478 (Cheshire office) 46 Portland Place, London W1N 3DG Architecture, the ability to follow through framework studies for the creation and Email: [email protected] Tel: 020 7636 8033 to construction including the design of linkage of new buildings and spaces; fine [email protected](Cheshire office) Fax: 020 7580 3996 commercial elements to institutional grain studies addressing public realm Contact: J Hyland Email: [email protected] standards. Design management skills design and improvement. Specialists in Contact: Alison Roennfeldt relevant to project partnering, framework retail and economic regeneration. Specialisms: Hyland Edgar Driver offers agreements and multi-discipTinary innovative landscape design where Specialism: Fitzroy Robinson is an teamwork. Holmes Partnership innovation implies value-engineered internationally established firm of 89 Minerva Street, Glasgow G3 8LE creativity combined with an idea edge as architects who work primarily, though not Greater London Consultants Tel: 0141 204 2080 seen in our work at Heathrow Airport. exclusively, in the workplace, retail, 127 Beulah Road, Fax: 0141 204 2082 hospitality, residential and Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 8JJ Email: [email protected] Mary Kerrigan & Frank Harkin masterplanning sectors. Tel: 020 87681417 Contact: Harry Phillips 18a Queen Street, Derry BT48 7EF Fax: 020 8771 9384 N. Ireland Wilson Havenhand Fox Architects Email: [email protected] Specialisms: Urban design, planning, Tel: 02871 261510 140 Burton Road Contact: Dr John Parker Dip Arch ARIBA renewal, development and feasibility Fax: 02871 279613 Lincoln LN1 3LW DipTP FRTPI FRSA studies. Sustainability and energy Email: [email protected] Tel: 01522 535383 efficiency. Commercial, industrial, Fax: 01522 535363 Specialisms: Town planning, architecture, residential, health care, education, Specialisms: Architecture, project Email: [email protected] urban design and conservation related leisure, conservation and restoration. management, conservation, visioning Contact: Gregg Wilson to: traffic schemes, pedestrians, processes through cross-sectoral townscape, security, town centres, master Huntingdon Associates Ltd participation - identifying imaginative Specialisms: Architecture and urban plans, marina development and 50 Huntingdon Road, London N2 9DU concepts for the repair of towns/cities design. The fundamental approach of the environmental impact assessment. Tel: 020 8444 8925 and creation of habitable public spaces. practice is charactised by its commitment Fax: 020 8444 9610 to the broader built environment. Work is Hale row Fox Contact: Neil Parkyn MA Dip Arch RIBA Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates born out of an interest in the particular 44 Brook Green Dip TP (Dist) MRTPI FRSA (London) dynamic of a place and the design Hammersmith, London W6 7BY 13 Langley Street, London WC2H 9JG opportunities presented. Tel: 020 7603 1618 Specialisms: Civic Design, public realm Tel: 020 7836 6668 Fax: 020 7603 5783 lanning, feasibility studies, development Fax: 020 7497 1175 4D Landscape Design Email: [email protected] riefs, masterplanning, site assessment Email: [email protected] PO Box 554, Bristol, BS99 2AX Website: http://www.halcrow.com/ and presentation, technical reports and Contact: Marjorie Rooney, Duncan Contact: Michelle Lavelle Contact: Asad A Shaheed BA Arch design journalism, backed by 30 years of Bainbridge Tel: Oil 7 942 7943 MArch consultancy experience in 15 countries. Fax: 0117 914 6038 Specialisms: Architecture, urban Email: [email protected] Specialisms: Urban design, development David Huskisson Associates planning, space planning, programming, planning, masterplans, town centre 17 Upper Grosvenor Road building analysis, interior design, graphic Specialisms: Our design decisions are renewal, waterfront regeneration, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TNI 2DU design. not based on any systematised approach, transport and traffic planning, economic Tel: 01892 527828 rather a considered response to me client, appraisal and environmental impact Fax: 01892 510619 Landscape Design Associates brief, site and budget. We endeavour to assessment. Email: [email protected] 17 Minster Precincts create spaces that make people feel Contact: Rupert Lovell Peterborough PE1 1XX special. Halpern Partnership Tel: 01733 310471 Leonard House, 9-15 Leonard Street, Specialisms: A Quality Assured to BS EN Fax: 01733 53661 Gillespies London EC2A4HP ISO 9001:1994 landscape consultancy Oxford: Tel: 01865 887050 Environment by Design Tel: 020 7251 0781 offering master planning, streetscape and Fax: 01865 887055 GLASGOW Tel: 0141 332 6742 Fax: 020 7251 9204 urban park design, landscape design Email: Fax: 0141 332 3538 Email: and implementation, estate restoration, [email protected] MANCHESTER Tel: 0161 928 7715 [email protected] environmental impact assessments and [email protected] Fax: 0161 927 7680 Contact: Greg Cooper expert witness. Contact: Roger Greenwood OXFORD Tel: 01865 326789 Dip LA ALI MILAM Fax: 01865 327070 Specialisms: Architecture, planning and Robert Tregay BSc (Hons) Dip LD FLI Email: urban design. [email protected] Specialisms: Environmental investment Contact: Brian M Evans strategies, urban design, landscape architecture, development planning, Specialisms: Urban design, landscape urban regeneration, town centres and architecture, architecture, chartered traffic calming. planners, environmental assessment, planning supervisors and project management. 48 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 7748 1

Latham Architects Livingston Eyre Associates MacCormac Jamieson Prichard Willie Miller Urban Design St. Michael's Queen St 35-42 Charlotte Road, 9 Heneage Street, & Planning Derby DEI 3SU London EC2A 3PD Spitalfielas, London El 5U 20 Victoria Crescent Road Tel: 01332 365777 Tel: 020 7739 1445 Tel: 020 7377 9262 Glasgow G12 9DD Fax: 01332 290314 Fax: 02077729 2986 Fax: 020 72477854 Tel: 0141 339 5228 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Fax: 0141 3574642 Contact: Derek Latham Dip Arch RIBA Contact: Georgina Livingston Contact: David Prichard DipArch (Lond) Email: [email protected] Dip TP MRTPI Dip LD MUIHBCIHIFRSA RIBA Contact: Willie Miller Dip TP Dip UD Specialisms: The design of space MRTPI Specialisms: The creative reuse of land between buildings in urban or rural Specialisms: Master-planning, and buildings. Planning, landscape and contexts; master planning and feasibility development briefs, urban regeneration Specialisms: Conceptual, strategic and architectural expertise. Town and city studies and regeneration studies, land use studies, rural development work in urban design, centres, national parks, conservation settlements. Planning in historic and masterplanning, urban regeneration, areas, listed buildings, combining the Llewelyn-Davies sensitive sites. environmental strategies, design and new with the old. Master planning, Brook House 2 Torrington Place development briefs, townscape audits development proposals, ElAs. London WC1E7HN Andrew Martin Associates and public realm studies. Tel: 020 7637 0181 Croxton's Mill Little Waltham LEITHGOE Landscape Architects Fax: 0207637 8740 Chelmsford Essex CM3 3PJ NJBA Architects & Urban and Environmental Planners Email: [email protected] Tel: 01245 361611 Designers 6 Southernhay West Contact: David Walton BA Fax: 01245 362423 4 Molesworth Place, Dublin 2 Exeter EX 1 1JG MRTPI FIHT Email: [email protected] Tel: 00 353 1 678 8068/678 8066 Tel: 01392 210428 Contact: Andrew Martin Fax: 00 353 1 678 8066 Fax: 01392 413290 Specialisms: Architecture, planning, Richard Marr Richard Hall Email: [email protected] Also in London tel: 0171 229 6469 urban design, development and Contact: Noel J Brady Dip Arch Email: [email protected] masterplanning; urban regeneration, Specialisms: Inter-disciplinary practice of SMArchS MRIAI Contact: Andrew Leithgoe DipLA FLI town centre and conservation studies; urban designers, planners, urban design briefs, landscape and environmental planners. Masterplanning, Specialisms: Design guidelines, Specialisms: Landscape Assessment, public realm strategies. development briefs, extensive experience environmental urban design, integrated Planning, Design and Maintenance. of institutional land redevelopment (eg landscapes, masterplans and strategic Hard and soft Landscape solutions. David Lock Associates Ltd Health, MoD), comprehensive and urban design. Experienced in working with Architects 50 North Thirteenth Street Central Milton integrated planning of new and and Engineers. Clients include PSA/DoE, Keynes Milton Keynes MK9 3BP expanded communities (eg Great Notley NOVO Architects Local Authorities, Property Institutions, Tel: 01908 666276 Garden Village). 2 Meard St., London WIV 3HR Universities, Private clients. Fax: 01908 605747 Tel: 020 7734 5558 Email: [email protected] Mason Richards Planning Fax: 020 7734 8889 Land Use Consultants Contact: Will Cousins DipArch 155 Aztec West Almondsbury Contact: Tim Poulson 43 Chalton Street, London NW1 1JD DipUD RIBA Bristol BS32 4NG Tel: 020 7383 5784 Tel: 01454 853000 Specialisms: Urban design and Fax: 020 8383 4798 Specialisms: Planning, urban design, Fax: 01454 858029 masterplanning, creative and innovative Contact: Simon Michaels (Bristol office) architecture, land use and transportation Email: [email protected] design solutions for brownfield and other Tel: 01179 291 997 planning. Urban regeneration, urban Contact: Roger Ayton complex sites to realise single or mixed Fax: 01179 291 998 and suburban mixed use projects use development opportunities. including town and city centres, urban Specialisms: Sustainable strategies for Specialisms: A multi-disciplinary expansion areas, new settlements and residential and commercial development: PTP Landscape & Urban Design environmental planning and design historic districts. Strategic planning brownfield regeneration, site promotion, Ltd. practice, based in London, Bristol and studies, area development frameworks, development frameworks: detail design Jewellery Business Centre, Glasgow. Work on sustainable cities, development briefs, design guidelines, and implementation: development 95 Spencer Street, Birmingham B18 6DA environmental improvement projects, masterplanning, implementation guides, design statement and plan Tel: 0121 533 1033 urban regeneration for English Heritage, strategies, environmental statements and enquiries. Fax: 0121 5231034 urban capacity studies ana design projects public inquiries. Email: [email protected] for town squares, parks and cycleways. Tony Meadows Associates Contact: Sue Radley Derek Lovejoy Partnership 40-42 Newman Street London W1P 3PA Nathaniel Lichfield 8-11 Denbigh Mews, London SW1V2HQ Tel: 020 7436 0361 Specialisms: The practice, formed in & Partners Ltd Tel: 020 7828 6392 Fax: 020 74360261 1976, has a tradition of quality and 14 Regent's Wharf, All Saints St Fax: 020 7630 6958 Email: tma@tmal .demon.co.uk excellence. Specialisations include urban London N1 9RL Also in Edinburgh Tel: 0131 226 3939 Contact: Tony Meadows design and townscape improvements, Tel: 020 7837 4477 and Leicester Tel: 0116 255 7414 healthcare projects including landscape Fax: 020 7837 2277 Email: [email protected] Specialisms: TMA specialise in resolving therapy, major office headquarters and (also in Newcastle upon Tyne) Contact: Martin Kelly Dip LA Dip UD the urban design implications of transport light rail transportation. Contact: Nicholas Thompson BA BPI AAA MAUD FU FIHT/Jessica Beattie BA Dip LA infrastructure projects, enhancing the (UrbDes) MRTPI and lain Rhind BA MPhil MU/Matt Quayle BA (Hons) Dip IA MLA existing and integrating the new in an Oldfield King DipUD (Dist) MRTPI appropriate and contemporary way. Lone Barn Studios, Stanbridge Lane, Specialisms: Specialist international Romsey, Hants S051 OHE Specialisms: Independent planning, masterplanning, planning, landscape Miller Hughes Associates Ltd Tel: 01794 517333 urban design and economics architecture and urban design practice, Old Post Office Mews, South Pallant, Fax: 01794 515517 consultancy, combining analysis with creating value by offering a Chichester, West Sussex POl 9 1XP Email: creativity. Masterplans: all sites, all uses. comprehensive, imaginative and Tel: 01243 774748 [email protected] Residential schemes. Urban regeneration. sustainable approach to public and Fax: 01243 532214 Contact: Melvyn King MA (Urban Town centres. Visual appraisal. private urban regeneration projects. Email: [email protected] Design) MSAI MCIOB FRSA Conservation. Lyons + Sleeman + Hoare Specialisms: Globalisation within a Specialisms: Multi disciplinary practice Arnold Linden: Chartered Nero Brewery, Cricket Green context of cross-border cultural incorporating urban design, architecture, Architect Hartley Wintney, Hook, Hampshire differences presents urban designers and town planning and landscape. 54 Upper Montagu St, London W1H 1FP RG27 8QA master planners with new and exciting Specialising in urban design strategies in Tel: 020 7723 7772 Tel: 01252 844144 challenges. Miller Hughes are immersed Master Planning and Development Fax: 0207723 7774 Fax: 01252 844800 in the delivery of urban solutions which Frameworks for both new development Contact: Arnold Linden RIBA Contact: Andrew J Aldridge BA Dip Arch recognise cultural diversity and maximise areas and urban regeneration. Dip Arch Dip TP RIBA or Colin Darby BSc DipTP social and economic benefits of the Dip Urban Design MRTPI connected community. Specialisms: Integrated regeneration, through the participation in the creative Specialisms: Architecture, planning, process of the community and the public master planing, urban design - at large, of streets, buildings and places. commercial practice covering broad spectrum of work - particularly design of buildings and spaces in urban and historic contexts. Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 49 1

Terence O'Rourke pic Randall Thorp Landscape Scott Brownrigg & Turner Taylor Young Urban Design Everdene House Architects Langton Priory Portsmouth Road The Studio, 51 Brookfield Wessex Fields Deansleigh Road 105/7 Princess St. Manchester Ml 6DD Guildford Surrey GU2 5WA Cheadle Cheshire SK8 1DQ Bournemouth BH7 7DU Tel: 0161 228 7721 Tel: 01483 568686 Tel: 0161 491 4530 Tel: 01202 421142 Fax: 0161 236 9839 Fax: 01483 575830 Fax: 0161 491 0972 Fax: 01202 430055 Contact: Edward Thorp Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] BArch DipLDFU Contact: Stephen Marriott Contact: Stephen Gleave MA DipTP (Dist) Contact: Terence O'Rourke DipUD MRTPI DipArch DipTP RIBA MRTPI Specialisms: Masterplanning for new and Specialisms: Value added and design led existing settlements, infrastructure design, approach to architecture, planning, Specialisms: Urban Design, Planning and Specialisms: Town planning, design guides and design briefing. Public urban design and interior architecture. Development. PublicanaPrivateSectors. masterplanning, urban design, participation and public inquiries. Experienced in large scale commercial Town studies, housing, commercial, architecture, landscape architecture, mixed use masterplans and with the distribution, health and transportation ecology, environmental assessment. Anthony Reddy Associates resources and ability to realise our are current projects. Specialist in Urban Specialising in landscape planning, new The Malt House, Grand Canal Quay concepts. Design Training. settlements, urban regeneration, town Dublin 2 centre studies, airports and individual Tel: 00 3531 6704800 Shepheard Epstein and Hunter John Thompson and Partners developments. Fax: 00 3531 6704801 Phoenix Yard 65 King's Road 77 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6BP Contact: Anthony Reddy BArch FRIAI London WC1X9LN Tel: 020 7251 5135 Ove Arup & Partners Scotland RIBA DipPM MAPM / Paul Duignan Tel: 020 7841 7500 Fax: 020 7251 5136 Scotstoun House, South Queensferry, BArch FRIAI Fax: 020 7841 7575 Email: [email protected] Edinburgh EH304SE Email: [email protected] Contact: John Thompson Contact: Gavin Dunnett Specialisms: Architecture, planning, Contact: George Georgiou MA DipArch RIBA Tel: 0131 331 1999 urban design, project management. Fax: 0131 331 3730 Masterplanning, Development Specialisms: The provision of services Specialisms: Multidisciplinary practice, Email: [email protected] Frameworks, Urban Regeneration, Town related to architecture, planning, working throughout the UK and Europe, Centre Renewal, Residential, Business landscape architecture and the CDM specialising in architecture, urban design Specialisms: Multidisciplinary consulting Parks. regulations. and masterplanning, urban engineering practice with offices in regeneration, new settlements and Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and RMJM Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Inc. community consultation; addressing the Glasgow, providing services in Transport 83 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NQ 30 Millbank problems of physical, social and and Environmental Planning, Tel: 020 7251 5588 London SW1P 3SD economic regeneration through Infrastructure Planning and Design, Civil Fax: 020 7250 3131 Tel: 020 7798 1000 collaborative interdisciplinary community and Building Engineering Email: bgrimwade@rmjm.co.uk Fax: 020 77981100 based planning. Contact: Bill Grimwade Email: [email protected] PMP Also Chicago, New York, Washington, Tibbalds TM2 Wellington House, 8 Upper St. Martins Specialisms: International architects and San Francisco, LA, Hong Kong 31 Earl Street, London EC2A 2HR Lane, London WC2H 9DL engineers with a strong track record in Contact: Roger Kallman Tel: 020 7377 6688 Tel: 020 7836 9932 the masterplanning, design and Fax: 020 7247 9377 Fax: 020 7497 5689 implementation of major developments Specialisms: International multi- Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] and individual buildings, especially disciplinary practice. Master Planning, Contact: Andrew Karski BA (Hons) MSc Contact: Tessa O'Neill academic facilities. Landscape Architecture, Civil (Econ) FRTPI Engineering and Urban Design. Urban Specialisms: Medium sixed practice Rothermel Thomas regeneration schemes, business park Specialisms: Multi-disciplinary practice of specialising in retail and urban 14-16 Cowcross St., London EC 1M 6DR master plans, university campus, architects, planners, urban designers, architecture, interior design and project Tel: 020 7490 4255 transportation planning. Associated landscape designers, tourism specialists management. Fax: 020 7490 1251 services: environmental impact and interior architects. The firm provides Contact: James Thomas BA (Arch) DipTP assessments, design guidelines, consultancy services to institutional, Pringle Brandon FRIBA FRTPI FRSA FIMgt infrastructure strategies. public sector and corporate clients. 10 Bonhill Street, London EC2A 4QJ Tel: 020 7466 1000 Specialisms: Urban design, conservation, Sheppard Robson Todd Architects & Planners Fax: 020 7466 1050 historic buildings, planning, architecture. 77 Parkway 41-43 Hill Street, Belfast BT1 2PB Email: [email protected] Expert witness at planning inquiries. Camden Town, London NW1 7PU Tel: 028 9024 5587 Contact: Alison Anslow Tel: 020 7485 4161 Fax: 028 9023 3363 Jon Rowland Urban Design Fax: 020 7267 3861 Email: [email protected] Specialisms: Offices, hotels, workplace 65 Hurst Rise Road, Oxford OX2 9HE e:mail: Contact: Mrs Paula Gibson design. Tel: 01865 863642 [email protected] Fax: 01865 863502 Contact: Peter Verity Specialisms: Architecture, urban design, PRP Architects Email: [email protected] project management, interior design, Ferry Works Summer Rd Contact: Jon Rowland AADipl AAA RIBA Specialisms: Multi-disciplinary design planning supervision Thames Ditton Surrey KT7 OQJ Visit our website at: practice of planners, urban designers Tel: 020 8339 3600 http://www.jrud.co.uk and architects. Strategic planning, urban TPK Consulting Fax: 020 8339 3636 regeneration, development planning, 3 London Road, Newbury, Berks Email: [email protected] Specialisms: Urban design, urban town centre renewal, public realm RG14 1JL Contact: Peter Phippen regeneration, development frameworks, planning, new settlement planning, Tel: 01635 279000 site appraisals, town centre studies, development impact assessments, tourism Fax: 01635 279050 Specialisms: Multi-disciplinary practice of design guidance, public participation development. International practice with Email: [email protected] architects, planners, urban designers and and master planning. associated offices across USA. Contact: Bruce Bamber landscape architects, specialising in housing, urban regeneration, health, RPS Consultants Space Syntax Specialisms: Effective urban design special needs, education and leisure The Old Barn, Deanes Close, Steventon, 1-19 Torrington Place solutions based on the practical projects. Oxon OX13 6SY London WC13 7HB integration of development, land use and Tel: 01235 832242 Tel: 020 7813 4364 transport planning. Our clients include Quartet Design Fax: 01235 832228 Fax: 020 7813 4363 English Heritage, BT, Thames Water and The Old Village School Email: [email protected] Contact: Tim Stonor MSc DipArch RIBA Crown Estates. We are working on a Lillingstone Dayrell Bucks MK18 5AP Contact: Jonathan Dixon/Andrew Raven wide variety of urban sites where Tel: 01280 860 500 Specialisms: Spatial masterplanning and interaction with the surrounding fabric is Fax: 01280 860468 Specialisms: Part of the RPS Group research-based design; movement, the key to accomplishing successful Email: [email protected] providing urban design, masterplanning, connectivity, integration, regeneration, regeneration and development. Contact: David Newman land-use and environmental planning, safety and interaction. Strategic design landscape and environmental statement and option appraisal to detailed design Specialisms: Landscape Architects, services throughout the UK. and in-use audits. architects and urban designers with wide experience of masterplanning, hard landscape projects in urban areas and achieving environmental sustainability objectives. 50 Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 7750 1

Turnbull Jeffrey Partnership URBED (The Urban and White Consultants Broxap & Corby Sandeman House 55 High Street Economic Development Group) 35 Severn Grove Rowhurst Industrial Estate Chesterton Edinburgh EH 1 1SR 41 Old Birley Street Hulme Cardiff CF11 9EN Newcastle-under-Lyme Staffs ST5 6BD Tel: 0131 557 5050 Manchester Ml 5 5RF Tel: 029 2064 0971 Tel: 01782 564411 Fax: 0131557 5064 Tel: 0161 226 5078 Fax: 029 20664362 Fax: 01783 565357 Email: [email protected] Fax: 0161 226 7307 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Contact: Geoff Whitten BA(Hons) MLI, Email: [email protected] Contact: Simon White MAUD Dip UD Contact: Mr R Lee Karen Esslemont BA(Hons) MLI Dip UD Contact: David Rudlin BA MTP (Dist) (Oxford Brookes) Dip LA MLI Specialisms: Extensive range of quality Specialisms: Award winning design led Specialisms: Sustainable urban Specialisms: A qualified urban design cast iron, concrete, timber and plastic Landscape Architect practice. Expertise: development, housing, urban practice offering a holistic approach to street furniture. Landscape architecture, urban design, regeneration and town centres. Offices in urban regeneration, design guidance, masterplanning. Landscape design and London and Manchester. public realm and open space strategies Cardiff Bay Arts Trust implementation; environmental/visual and town centre studies for the public, 123 Bute Street Cardiff CF10 5AE impact assessment; urban regeneration; Urban Initiatives private and community sectors. Tel: 029 2048 8772 environmental strategies 35 Heddon Street London W1R 7LL Fax: 029 2047 2439 Tel: 020 7287 3644 Whitelaw Turkington Landscape Email: [email protected] Stuart Turner Associates Fax: 020 72879489 Architects Contact: Wiard Sterk 12 Ledbury Great Linford Email: 354 Kennington Road London SE11 4LD Milton Keynes MK14 5DS [email protected] Tel: 020 7820 0388 Specialisms: Integration and inclusion of Tel: 01908 607480 Contact: Kelvin Campbell BArch Fax: 020 7587 3839 professional artists in urban regeneration Fax: 01908 678672 RIBA MRTPI MCIT FRSA Email: [email protected] and development throughout the UK. Contact: Stuart Turner Dip Arch (Oxford) Contact: Ms LOliver-Whitelaw Dip UD (PCL) RIBA Urban design, transport planning, Countryside Residential (SW) Ltd. infrastructure and development planning Specialisms: Award winning, design led West Point, Great Park Road Specialisms: Architecture, urban design to include master planning, town centre practice specialising in urban Almondsbury Park Bristol BS 32 4QG and environmental planning, with studies, conservation, environmental regeneration, streetscape design, public Tel: 01454 202208 specialist skills in the design of new improvements, traffic calming and design space, high quality residential and Fax: 01454 202209 settlements, urban regeneration and site guidelines. corporate landscapes. Facilitators in Email: [email protected] development studies for commercial and public participation and community Contact: James Davis housing uses. Vincent and Gorbing Ltd action planning events. Sterling Court Norton Road Specialisms: Leading property developer Tweed Nuttall Warburton Stevenage Hertfordshire SGI 2JY Denis Wilson Partnership with a strong interest in sustainable Chapel House City Road Tel: 01438 316331 88-90 Guildford Street development, urban design, architecture Chester CHI 3AE Fax: 01438 722035 Chertsey Surrey KT16 9AD & Urban Regeneration. Tel: 01244 310388 Email: [email protected] Tel: 01932 569566 Fax: 01244 325643 Contact: Richard Lewis BA MRTPI Fax: 01932 569531 Edinburgh World Heritage Trust Contact: John Tweed B Arch RIBA FRSA Email: [email protected] 343 High Street Edinburgh EH 1 1PW Specialisms: Multi-disciplinary practice of Contact: Mike Savage Tel: 0131 225 8818 Specialisms: Architecture and Urban architects and town planners and interior Fax: 0131 225 8636 Design, Masterplanning. Urban design working throughout UK and Specialisms: DWP provides a Contact: Linda Cairns waterside environments. Community overseas for private and public sector comprehensive transport and teamwork enablers. Design guidance clients. Specialisms include master infrastructure consultancy service through Specialisms: The Trust administers grants and support for rural village appraisals. planning, urban design, feasibility all stages of development progression, for the external repair of buildings within Visual impact assessments and design studies, development studies and from project conception, through the world heritage site. solutions within delicate conservation statutory planning studies. planning, to implementation and environments. operation. Transport solutions for Island Development Committee Weintraub DeStefano + Partners development. PO Box 43 St. Peter Port Guernsey Urban Design Futures 33/34 Alfred Place GY1 1FH Channel Islands 97c West Bow London WC1E7DP WynThomasGordonLewis Tel: 01481 717000 Edinburgh EH1 ZIP Tel: 020 7637 1125 21 Park Place Fax: 01481 717099 Tel: 0131 226 4505 Fax: 020 76371126 Cardiff CF10 3DQ Email: [email protected] Fax: 0131 2264515 Email: [email protected] Tel: 029 2039 8681 Contact: W Lockwood Contact: Selby Richardson DipArch Contact: Mark J Weintraub M Arch Fax: 029 2039 5965 DipTPMSc ARIAS MRTPI Urban Design, B Arch, AIA Contact: Gordon Lewis/Jonathan Vining Specialisms: The Island Development Committee plays a similar role to a local Specialisms: Innovative urban design, Specialisms: WD+P is an international Specialisms: Urban design, town authority planning department in the UK. planning and landscape practice practice with offices in London, Chicago, planning, economic development, specialising in masterplanning, new New York & Naples Florida, providing architecture and landscape architecture St George North London Ltd settlements, urban regeneration, town Architecture, Urban Design, Planning for public and private sector clients. 81 High Street and village studies, public space design, and Interior Design services to a variety Specialisms include regeneration and Potters Bar Hertfordshire EN6 5AS environmental improvements, design of public and private sector clients. The development strategies, public realm Tel: 01707 664000 guidelines, community involvement, firm has a particular focus on sustainable studies, economic development planning, Fax: 01707 660006 landscape design and management. urban regeneration, master planning, master planning for urban and rural Contact: Stephen Wood and complex large-scale mixed-use locations and brownfield land Urban Splash Projects Ltd initiatives. redevelopment. Specialisms: London's leading residential 56 Wood Street Liverpool LI 4AQ developer. Tel: 0151 707 1493 West & Partners, Fax: 0151 798 0479 Isambard House 60 Weston Street, NEP Lighting Consultancy CORPORATE INDEX Email: [email protected] London SE1 3QJ 6 Leopold Buildings Contact: Jonathan Falkingham Tel: 020 7403 1726 Upper Hedgemead Road Batri BA1 5NY Bill Maynard Fax: 0207 403 6279 Allen Pyke Associates Tel: 01225 338 937 Email: [email protected] The Factory 2 Acre Road, Fax: 01225 338 937 Specialisms: Property development and Contact: Michael West Kingston upon Thames Surrey KT2 6EF Email: [email protected] investment. Project management, Tel: 020 8549 3434 Contact: Nigel Pollard implementation and construction. Specialisms: Masterplanning for Fax: 020 85471075 achievable development witnin (and Architecture, interior design and graphic Email: [email protected] sometimes beyond) the creative Specialisms: Lighting strategies and design. Multi-discipline uroan Contact: Duncan Ecob regeneration specialists concentrating on interpretation of socio-economic, detailed designs which co-ordinate street physical and political urban parameters: and architectural lighting to achieve brownfield regeneration projects. Specialisms: Projects from £250m to retail, leisure, commercial, residential, cohesive urban nigntscapes. 'NEP7 brings £100k: Mixed use, greenfield, listed buildings, expert witness evidence, together the art and science of lighting. masterplanning to high density, statutory development plan advice. brownfield, live-work: Respecting context to create identity: Community development in sustainable settlements. Team players and group facilitators. Urban Design / Winter 2001 / Issue 77 51 1

University of Newcastle upon Tyne EDUCATION INDEX ENDPIECE Department of Architecture University of the West of England, Claremont Tower, University of Newcastle Bristol Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU Faculty of the Built Environment Tel: 0191 222 6024 Who wants yesterday's Frenchay Campus Fax: 0191 222 6008 Coldharbour Lane Bristol BS16 1QY Contact: Dr Peter Kellett or Tel: 0117 965 6261 Dr Ali Madani-Pour Fax: 0117 976 3895 papers? Contact: Richard Guise MA/Diploma in Urban Design. Joint programme in Dept of Architecture and AAA/Postgraduate Diploma course in Deptof Town and Country Planning. Full The publication of the translation of Walter Benjamin's unfinished Urban Design. Part time 2 days per time or part time, integrating knowledge fortnight for 2years, or individual and skills from town planning, "Arcades Project" at the end of last year, though widely reviewed programme or study. Project based architecture, landscape. seems not to have percolated through to urban design. Benjamin's course addressing urban design issues, abilities and environments. Oxford Brookes University analysis of the emergence of modern culture and society has had a Joint Centre for Urban Design huge influence on social critiques of urbanism. Though The Edinburgh College of Art/Heriot Headington Oxford OX3 0BP Watt University Tel: 01865 483403 Arcades Project itself was not published until 1982 even in the School of Architecture Fax: 01865 483298 Lauriston Place Edinburgh EH3 9DF Contact: Dr Georgia Butina original German, this huge collection of notes and observations, Tel: 0131 221 6175/6072 or Ian Bentley cuttings and quotations springing from Benjamin's research into the Fax: 0131 221 6157/6006 Contact: Leslie Forsyth Diploma in Urban Design 6 months full early 19th century passages in Paris as the symbolic springboard time or 18 months part time. MA in of modernism served as a quarry for many of Benjamin's other Diploma in Architecture and Urban Urban Design 1 year full time or 3 years Design 9 months full-time. Diploma in part time. MPhil/PhD by research (full writing before he took his own life fleeing Nazi occupied France in Urban Design 9 months full time or 21 time and part time). 1940. months part-time. MSc in Urban Design 12 months full-time or 36 months part- Sheffield Hallam University time. MPhil and PhD by research full and School of Environment and Development Some of the importance for urban design of The Arcades Project is part-time on and off-campus. City Campus Howard St. Sheffield SI 1WB spelt out by Susan Buck-Morss. Above all she points to the University of Greenwich Tel: 0114 225 3558 development of Benjamin's method of materialist pedagogy, of School of Architecture and Landscape Fax: 0114 225 3553 Oakfield Lane Dartford DAI 2SZ Contact: David Crosby using the rigorous analysis of the material objects of a society- Tel: 020 8316 9100 including its buildings-to reveal its meanings and values. But this Fax: 020 8316 9105 MA/PGD/PGC Urban Design Contact: Philip Stringer Full and Part-time. A professional and can reveal a bitter futility in the role of design. Buck-Morss notes, academic programme to improve the MA in Urban Design for postgraduate commenting on the juxtapositions Benjamin found of the passages built environment, enabling a higher architecture and landscape students, full quality of life and economic growth by surviving from the 1 840's with the newest of modern arcades off time and part time with credit sustainable development. accumulation transfer system. the Champs-Elysees: "Such juxtapositions of the past and the

Leeds Metropolitan University South Bank University present undercut the present phantasmagoria, bringing into London School of Art, Architecture and Design consciousness the rapid half life of the Utopian element in Brunswick Terrace Leeds LS2 8BU Faculty of the Built Environment School of Tel: 0113 283 2600 Urban Development & Policy commodities and the relentless repetition of their form of betrayal : Wandsworth Road London SW8 2JZ Fax: 0113 283 3190 the same promise, the same disappointment The temporal Contact: Edwin Knighton Tel: 020 7815 7330 Fax: 020 7815 7398 dialectic of the new as the always-the-same is the secret of the Master of Arts in Urban Design consists Contact: Sue Percy, Course Director of 1 year full time or 2 years part time or modern experience of history newness repeats itself South Bank University's MA in Town individual programme of study. Shorter mythically The past haunts the present, but the latter denies it programmes lead to Post Graduate Planning is a RTPI accredited course in Diploma/Certificate. Project based Town Planning and is open to graduates with good reason. For on the surface nothing remains the same" course focusing on the creation of with an Honours degree who wish to take the professionally recognised qualification. sustainable environments through Urban design is no different from any other form of "design" in its interdisciplinary design. University of Strathdyde continual and repetitious search for and admiration of the new and Dept of Architecture and Building Science University College London emergent. Our attention is always drawn to the just built and the Development Planning Unit Urban Design Studies Unit The Bartlett 9 Endsleigh Gardens, 131 Rotten row Glasgow G4 0NG unbuilt and even the never built. Such mundane matters as getting London WC1 HOED Tel: 0141 552 4400 ext 3011 Tel: 020 7388 7581 Fax: 0141 552 3997 planning permission, funding and occupiers are all too often left Fax: 020 7387 4541 Contact: Dr Hildebrand W Frey out of the stories we tell each other. Our analytical sketches render Contact: Babar Mumtaz Urban Design Studies Unit offers its the past and the present in the same visual language. Eventually, M Sc in Building and Urban Design in Postgraduate Course in Urban Design in sooner rather than later these days, some will be celebrated as Development. Innovative, participatory CPD, Diploma and MSc modes. Topics and responsive development and range from the influence of the city's form suitable cases for conservation their oldness held and regarded upgrading of urban areas through and structure to the design of public spaces. socially and culturally acceptable, with the same specialness as the new. economically viable and environmentally University of Westminster sustainable interventions. 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS And the rest you just have to learn to live with and in, collecting Tel: 020 7911 5000 London School of Economics Fax: 020 7911 5171 dust and changes of use and extensions and shopfronts until their Cities Programme, Houghton Street, Contact: Tony Lloyd-Jones or Bill Erickson space is called for making new again, to be "designed", to be London WC2A 2AE Tel: 0207 955 6828 MA or Diploma Course in Urban Design "regenerated", to be retrofitted into the future. History is a pile of Fax: 0207 955 7697 for postgraduate architects, town planners, debris. Yesterday's projects are such bad news. Contact: Michelle Langan landscape architects and related disciplines. 1 year full time or 2 years part We run a MSc in City Design and Social time. Bob Jarvis Science which can be studied full time over a 1 year period or part-time over 2 Walter Benjamin (translated by Howard Eiland and Kevin years. The course is designed for social scientists, engineers and architects. McLoughlin) The Arcades Project, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1999. Urban Design / January 2001 / Issue 77 DIARY OF EVENTS Urban ENVIRONMENT TODAY January & February Events will be held in the Basement of 14-16 Cowcross Street, London EC1 (opp. The Gallery) @ 6.30 pm. Free sample issues offer All tickets purchased at the door from 6.00 pm.

Wednesday 17 January 6.30 pm rban Design is now at the heart of policies to Urban Regeneration Tom Bloxham will give overview of Urban Splash's growth regenerate towns and cities in a bid to ensure from small beginnings to award winning developers that they meet the aspirations of those who live, Venue: The Basement U Tickets: £4.00 non-members/£2.00 members/ work and visit them. But to achieve a high quality £1.00 students urban environment requires a multi-disciplinary approach and an understanding of the needs of the Wednesday 14 February Urban Design Compendium stakeholders which is shared by the local community, A presentation on this recent publication by David Walton businesses and property owners. from Llewelyn Davies and David Taylor from Alan Baxter & Associates Urban Environment Today is the leading magazine for Venue: The Basement Tickets: £4.00 non-members/£2.00 members/ professionals working in urban design, regeneration, £1.00 students planning and surveying and the needs of urban areas.

Wednesday 7 March 6.30 pm Transport Strategy for London (for details of speakers etc. please check Now in its fourth year, our extensive readership www.udg.org.uk at the beginning of March) Joint event with the London Forum of Amenities and consists of: Civic Societies Venue: Romney House, 43 Marsham St. London SW1 Urban Design and Tickets: All £2.00 (No refreshments available) architectural practices

N.B. No event at Cowcross Street in March ^ Property developers Jj Town Centre Managers REGIONAL EVENTS February ^BS^^W^ and regeneration UDG North West Event in February - lll'SSfi. JflM"** To be held in Liverpool supported by the RTPI and AME (NW) H pP ^ |j§Ltical authority officers in Liverpool Vision - Urban Design Framework for Regeneration? fJI&Beneration, urban Details: [email protected] *ngn and community Cost: £35.00 non-members/£30.00 members ilopment

Wednesday 28 February UDG SW Forum 12 Friends Meeting House, York Street, Bath A regular subscription to Urban Environment Today The Urban White Paper: - On Reflection will bring you up to the minute news of the latest A Panel discussion with Rob Cowan, Director of the Urban Design Group projects for regenerating town centres and Richard Guise, Faculty of the Built Environment, UWE developing brownfield land; help you keep track of Prof. John Punter, Dept of City and Regional Planning, Univ. of Wales 1.30pm-5.30pm. the latest government policy announcement on urban Followed by a meeting of SW Group issues and the response to them and ensure you hear Booking: £10.00 (inc tea/coffee and biscuits) through Susie Turnbull at UDG. Tel: 01235 851415 about all the new appointments and job opportunities Email: [email protected] within the field through our four pages of quality Further information from John Biggs T 01202 633331 vacancies every fortnight. [email protected]

Study Tour to Strasbourg To see how Urban Environment Today can 26th May - 3rd June or 1 st June - 4th June deliver for you, contact Louise Edwards See page 2 for further details by phone on 020 7582 3872 or fax on 020 7735 1299 and request your three Updates and further events can be found on sample issues of the magazine completely www.udg.org.uk or http://www.rudi.net free of charge.