TOPIC: MILTON KEYNES 104 AT 40 E U SS FRANCIS TIBBALDS AWARD PROJECTS SHORTLIST: 2007 I HOLT TOWN MN GRAHAME PARK U T U A PRICE £5.00 ISSN 1750 712X UDG UPDATE Ben van Bruggen, the UDG’s Chair reflects on its role 30 years on As Milton Keynes is forty years of age, voice for urban design in this country, ways of being professional in urban we are able to view it with a degree of for professionalism in urban design design. objectivity. The Urban Design Group and for raising standards. Our current I’m not sure what the UDG will is approaching a more youthful thirty Executive – a mix of enthusiastic look like in ten years’ time when it too years, and while it may not be the time educators, architects, urban designers, hits forty, but I believe that it will still to settle down just yet, we can think of town planners, both retired and be growing and prospering, enticing ourselves as grown-up and mature. It practising – and the broad range of a younger generation to participate seems legitimate to ask too whether the interests that make up the membership through its membership, and promoting UDG is still as relevant today as it was are well equipped to provide this. debate about good urban design and thirty years ago. Do we still need it? One outcome of the recent Executive quality of life - much like Milton Keynes. My view is yes. Simply put, if the Awayday was not that we need to invent UDG did not exist today we would want a new profession (a new town, if you Ben van Bruggen to invent it. We still need a collective will), but that we need to invent new UDG Executive Awayday The UDG’s recent Executive Awayday be today? The Awayday considered all expect to develop new skills and areas was something of a surprise. Instead of the possibilities before reaffirming of expertise throughout their career. focusing on how the organisation would the determination to build on The We want to persuade them to think of organise itself to achieve its agreed UDG’s single greatest strength - its themselves as part of the urban design programme (developed following an membership. The Executive is determined movement and to practice accordingly, Awayday two years ago), the Executive to develop its proposal for Recognised but there is no need to insist that they went back to basics to ask what the Practitioner status (see www.udg.org. don a new professional hat. organisation should stand for. Clearly uk for details), with the aim of providing The UDG’s original mission was it felt a need to take stock before the natural home for professionals to put urban design on political and embarking on the next, decisive step in working in urban design. professional agendas. It succeeded the UDG’s development. I say ‘professionals working in completely in this. Its new mission is to There are a number of potential roles urban design’ because I do not think make urban design effective. That will for a national urban design organisation. that we should be trying to create involve ensuring that everyone who plays In its early days when it stood alone another more distinct profession. Of a part in planning, design, development, in the urban design field, the UDG course, there are professional urban construction or maintenance plays fulfilled many roles as best it could: designers, but many of them are also their part to the full. The UDG sees lobbying, disseminating information and architects, building conservationists, its Recognised Practitioner proposal promoting debate. Today, thankfully, engineers, landscape architects, planners as an important part of a strategy for there is a wide range of urban design or surveyors. Many more of the new achieving that. organisations sharing the load. So, generation of professionals have at least what should the UDG’s particular focus one professional affiliation, and they Rob Cowan, Director The UDG welcomes its new administrator Louise Ingledow I originally come from Carlisle in Cumbria Martin’s College in Carlisle, where I I am very excited about the Urban but I moved to London as a student six helped run courses for foreign teachers; Design Group and I look forward to years ago after falling in love with the The Royal College of Psychiatrists the new challenges that this post will city as a child. I attended University where I managed the administration bring. Initially, I will be dealing with College London for four years, studying and marketing of mental health public day-to-day administration, membership for a BA history degree followed by a education materials, as well as working enquiries, and organising events. masters’ degree in Russian Studies. My in the College library; I then worked in However, in the future I hope to be main area of academic interest was the bids office at Bonhams auctioneers. involved in initiating new projects to Russian Art of the late nineteenth and Being at the hub of a busy auction help the UDG to expand, develop and early twentieth centuries - a topic about house, ensuring the smooth running of make more of the great potential within which I remain passionate. sales of stamps and old master paintings its membership. Since leaving university I have made it a hectic, highly pressured and worked for three organisations - St enjoyable job. Louise Ingledow THIS ISSUE HAS BEEN GENEROUSLY S DIARY OF EVENTS SPONSORED BY DAVID LOCK ASSOciateS T Unless otherwise indicated, all LONDON events are held at The Gallery, 77 Cowcross N Street, London EC1M 6EJ at 6.30 pm. All tickets can be purchased at the door from COVER TE 6.00pm: £5.00 non-members, £2.00 members, £1.00 students Dangerous Liaisons, Milton Keynes Theatre District, photograph Louise Thomas ON C WEDNESDAY 17TH OCTOBER 2007 AFFOrdable HOUSING LEADER 2 John Thompson and Partners will lead a discussion of best practice affordable housing design in the UK. NEWS AND EVENTS Sustainable Transport Solutions 3 WEDNESDAY 14TH NOVEMBER 2007 The Olympic Parklands 3 KeVIN LYNCH MEMORIAL LECTURE Urban Design Group’s AGM 4 Can we reconfigure a whole city centre? CABE Page 6 Philip Singleton, acting assistant director (city centre development and Young Urban Designer 7 design) at Birmingham City Council, will discuss the background to the recently commissioned city centre masterplan. He will introduce Kelvin Campbell of INTERNatiONAL Urban Initiatives, who leads the consortium that will prepare the masterplan New Zealand’s Latest New Town, Claire Freeman 8 over the next year, concluding with the 20-year plan for Birmingham. TOPIC: MiltON KEYNES at 40 WEDNESDAY 5TH DECEMBER 2007 Introduction, David Lock and Liezel Kruger 10 UDG CHRISTMAS PARTY Milton Keynes The Next 40 Years, Mike Macrae 12 The UDG’s celebration of the festive season also celebrates four people whose The Formative Years, Derek Walker 14 100th anniversary was celebrated (or forgotten) in 2007. Colin Buchanan The Grid And How It Made A Plan, Andrew Mahaddie 17 was the last famous town planner; MRG Conzen pioneered urban morphology; Don’t Look Back, Mike Synnott 19 Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, highlighted our misuse of the planet The Landscape, Neil Higson and Andrew Mahaddie 22 long before ‘sustainability’ became a mantra; and Lord Holford was the first Adapting And Embracing Change, Jane Hamilton 24 architect or planner to be made a life peer. All four were born one hundred A City of Rapid Change, John Best 25 years ago, and all of them influenced how we think about urban design. MK Transport, Kevin Whiteside 27 Renewing thecentre:mk, Miles Leigh 29 WEDNESDAY 16TH JANUARY Designing in Culture?, Paquita Lamacraft 31 Speaker and topic to be announced. Public Art in Milton Keynes, Edna Read 33 New Architecture, New Milton Keynes?, Bill Sung 36 Central Milton Keynes Revisited, Richard Cole 38 URBAN DESIGN SERVICES LTD MK - A Resource for the New Eco-Towns, David Lock 41 This service is now run from the office at Cowcross Street so all communication FRANCIS TibbaldS UrbaN DESIGN PROJECTS AWARDS concerning recruitment of urban designers, study tours, conference details and the Holt Town Waterfront, Manchester, EDAW 44 diary of events should be sent to Cowcross Street. Email [email protected] Grahame Park Regeneration, PTEa and LBA 46 RECRUITING UrbaN DESIGNERS BOOK REVIEWS There are two services to local authorities and practices to assist them in Art and Architecture: A Place Between, Jane Rendell 48 recruiting urban designers: Planning on The Edge, Andersson And Bianconi 48 Urban Structure Matters, Petter Naess 48 LABEL SERVICE Artists and Public Spaces, Artpoint 49 900 self addressed labels of Urban Design Group individual members. Arcade: Artists and Place-Making 49 Jigsaw Cities: Big Places, Small Places, A Power UDG WEBSITE ADVERTISING and J Houghton 49 Appearing under ‘Job Opportunities’ in the News and Events section of the very popular UDG website. Practice INDEX 50 CORPOrate INDEX 56 The cost for either of these services is £400 for practice or local authority EducatiON INDEX 57 members of the UDG and £600 for non-members, or for both services at the ENDPIECE Joe Holyoak 57 same time the cost is £600 (£800 to non-members). 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