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DIARY OF EVENTS 

DIARY OF EVENTS 

Unless otherwise indicated all LONDON events are held at 

The Gallery, 77 Cowcross Street, London EC1 at 6.30pm. 

All tickets purchased at the door from 6.00pm. 

£5.00 non-members, £2.00 members, £1.00 students 

WEDNESDAY 13 TH OCTOBER 

HIGH – WHY? 

Speaker: George Ferguson, RIBA President and Managing Director of 

Acanthus Ferguson Mann, Bristol 

Are tall buildings entirely necessary, and do they make a positive 

contribution to the making of civilised spaces? 

THURSDAY 11 TH & FRIDAY 12 TH NOVEMBER 

ANNUAL UDG CONFERENCE IN MANCHESTER 

URBAN DESIGN: ART & SCIENCE 

Thursday 11 th at CUBE 

Walking tours, discussion and evening lecture 

Friday 12 th at Manchester Conference Centre 

Speakers include Sir Howard Bernstein and Sir Terry Farrell. 

See booking form insertion sent with this issue of UD. 

WEDNESDAY 17 TH NOVEMBER 

BARKING REACH – FROM DEGRADATION TO RIVERSIDE CITY 

Martin Brady, Team Leader on the Barking Reach Master Plan project 

together with a panel from the London Development Agency, 

English Partnerships and Greater London Authority will lead a discussion on 

the development of this key brownfield site in the Thames Gateway for over 

10,000 new homes, associated community facilities and infrastructure. 

WEDNESDAY 8 TH DECEMBER 

LESSONS FROM ABROAD AND CHRISTMAS PARTY 

There will be reports on the recent study tours to Transylvania 

and St Petersburg 

Tickets: £10 per person booked in advance, email udsl@udg.org.uk 

See booking form insertion sent with this issue of UD. 

WEDNESDAY 19 TH JANUARY 

Speaker to be announced in January UD 

STUDY TOURS 

LYON, FRANCE – APRIL 2005 

Further details in January UD 

COVER 

Perspective of Walker Riverside, Newcastle upon Tyne 

by Llewelyn Davies 

NEWS AND EVENTS 

Smashing China 3 

All Change Please 3 

RIBA Urbanism Conference 4 

Transylvania Study Tour 4 

UDG Annual General Meeting 6 

Call for HomeZone Designers 8 

UCE Launches New Course 8 

Forthcoming Publications: J Rowland and M Moor 8 

The Prince’s Foundation Page 9 

CABE Page 10 

Young Urban Designers – Market Place 1 11 

VIEWPOINTS 

Kevin Lynch Lecture 2004: Alfonso Vegara 12 

INTERNATIONAL 

Turin Up and Under, Federica Castiglioni 14 

TOPIC 

Introduction, John Billingham, topic editor 16 

CABE Enabling 17 

The Housing Market Renewal Area Pathfinder 

Programme, Martin Crookston 18 

Transforming South Yorkshire, Peter O’Brien 22 

Newcastle Gateshead Pathfinder, Michael Crilly 26 

The Landscape Contribution to the Process, 

Richard Cass 29 

The Housing Market Renewal Process, Jim Chapman 32 

Sustainable Communities and Area Development 

Frameworks, Jim Fox 34 

CASE STUDIES 

Beacon Quality in Chelmsford, Roger Estop 36 

Kings Lynn Regeneration, David Thompson 

& Steve Logan 38 

BOOK REVIEWS 

Artscapes, L Galofaro, Walkscapes, F Careri 40 

Quantum City, A Arida 40 

Designing Better Buildings, S MacMillan 41 

Cities Without Cities, T Sieverts 41 

CONTENTS 

For further details contact Susie Turnbull, 

Email udsl@udg.org.uk or Tel 01235 833797 

Urban Design Alliance (UDAL) www.udal.org.uk 

Resource for Urban Design Information (RUDI) www.rudi.org.uk 

Urban Design Group 

CHAIRMAN Barry Sellers 

PATRONS Alan Baxter, Tom Bloxham, Sir Terry Farrell, Colin Fudge, Nicky Gavron, 

Dickon Robinson, Les Sparks, John Worthington 

DIRECTOR Robert Cowan 

OFFICE 70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6DG, Tel 020 7250 0872, 

Email admin@udg.org.uk 

WEBSITE www.udg.org.uk 

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS 42 

PRACTICE INDEX 42 

CORPORATE INDEX 48 

EDUCATION INDEX 49 

ENDPIECE 49 

FUTURE ISSUES 

93 Morphology and Urban Design 

94 Urban Design in Local Authorities 

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Urban Design | Autumn 2004 | Issue 92 | 1

LEADER 

FROM URBAN DESIGN 

QUARTERLY 

TO URBAN DESIGN 

Readers may have noticed that this publication has changed its name; the decision to drop the ‘Quarterly’ was not taken 

because issues will be appearing at different intervals but as an indication of the journal’s importance and uniqueness. 

The change of title also coincides with a redesign which started with issue 91 and followed the introduction of colour a 

year ago. An article in issue 88, the first colour one, vividly reviewed the evolution of the group’s publications and told 

the history of the journal which Francis Tibbalds started as the Urban Design Group Quarterly in 1980. Today, as John 

Billingham retires as editor and becomes consultant, and Louise Thomas joins as editor, we would like to pay homage 

to John’s invaluable contribution. 

If the journal is what it is today – a professionally produced magazine which many consider as the main asset of the 

UDG, it is almost exclusively thanks to John. Yes, other people have contributed either as editors or writers, designers 

or advisors, but nobody has had a grip on the publication in all its fascinating and boring details, as John has. To 

say that it is his baby is no exaggeration and he has nurtured it and seen it grow from toddler to maturity like a good 

father, letting it gradually become an independent adult. John took over the editorship of UDQ from Mike Galloway in 

September 1987 whilst he was City Architect and Planning Officer for Oxford. Right away he introduced the idea of a 

main topic for each issue which we continue today. 

John has overseen the redesigns of the quarterly and steered it towards colour; he has guided the editorial board 

– for which he also acts as minutes secretary – in order to improve and diversify the contents; he has ensured that the 

quality of both form and content is maintained whilst adapting to new technologies of production. When I joined as 

an editor in 1996, John held my hand for the first couple of issues and even today I cannot complete an issue without 

asking for his advice. Readers are no doubt aware of the evolution of the journal although they may not know how 

closely John has been involved in its production. And of what they are certainly not aware is that he, and nobody else, 

has liaised with printers, publishers, advertisers and even more importantly has kept a tight rain on the finances of the 

journal. This has involved ensuring that the UDG allocates enough funds to it. 

All of this he has done for nothing. The editor is only reimbursed expenses and until recently received an honorarium 

of £200 per issue. Not many people would be willing to put the time, energy and effort that John has for that sort 

of reward. Fortunately, that has been the spirit that has maintained the Urban Design Group alive for all this time. 

Also fortunately, and in spite of his leading role in The Full Monty, John is not moving to Hollywood and is willing to 

continue to help us as a consultant, contribute to the editorial board, produce the next Source Book and for this issue 

is the topic editor on housing market renewal areas. 

So, thank you John, happy retirement but don’t think that you are really retired! 

SEBASTIAN LOEW AND LOUISE THOMAS 

Urban Design 

EDITORIAL BOARD Sherin Aminossehe, John Billingham, 

Matthew Carmona, Tim Catchpole, Richard Cole, Margaret 

Downing, Peter Eley, Bob Jarvis, Karl Kropf, Liezel Kruger, 

Sebastian Loew, Judith Ryser, Louise Thomas 

EDITORS Louise Thomas (this issue) and Sebastian Loew. 

louise.thomas@scottwilson.com 

sebastianloew@btinternet.com 

MATERIAL FOR PUBLICATION please send text by email 

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ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES should be directed to 

Cathedral Communications Limited 

High Street, Tisbury, Wiltshire SP3 6HA 

Tel 01747 871717, Fax 01747 871718 

Email ud@cathcomm.demon.co.uk 

PRODUCTION Cathedral Communications Limited 

DESIGN Claudia Schenk 

PRINTING Optichrome 

© Urban Design Group ISSN 0266-6480 

2 | Urban Design | Autumn 2004 | Issue 92

Smashing China, The Gallery, London, 19 May 2004 

Fred Manson’s talk was essentially an 

introduction to Chinese views on the built 

environment based on his own dealings 

with the authorities over the years. He 

commenced his talk with his own rather 

frank views on some of the British 

architecture in Hong Kong and then 

moved north to the Chinese mainland. 

Manson’s main experience, as 

offered in his talk, was as a British 

Council advisor to Chinese authorities 

on subjects ranging from an entirely new 

transport system to the more restrained 

projects, such as a public footbridge. 

His comments, therefore, were mostly 

anecdotal, frequently amusing and 

always incisive about certain aspects of 

the Chinese planning systems. 

His views seemed at times 

contradictory, as he wrestled between 

admiration of the way that Chinese 

officials just ‘managed to get things 

done’, to dismay over their way of 

approaching urban design. He felt that 

their methodology at times was too 

far removed from reality and was too 

reminiscent of a Beijing civil servant 

arbitrarily drawing straight lines from A 

to B merely because it was expedient to 

do so, instead of actually learning about 

the context of their projects and their 

design. However, those of us who work 

in this field know that it is not only the 

Chinese who suffer from these problems. 

The remainder of his talk expanded 

further on this theme with diagrams 

of the vast, sprawling proposed 

transportation system for Beijing that 

despite its scale and ambition seems to 

fail to connect half of the population to 

the central core. It was here that Manson 

had offered his advice to Chinese 

authorities by showing them successful 

projects from other countries. Whether 

or not they heeded his advice was not 

relayed, but whatever the outcome, it 

should keep the UK consultants occupied 

for many years to come. 

Sherin Aminossehe 

He wrestled between 

admiration... and dismay 

over their way of approaching 

urban design 


All Change Please, Transport Interchanges: An International View 

The Gallery, London, 7 July 2004 

Sir Peter Hall started the Urban Design 

Group Annual Lecture by suggesting that 

contrary to expectations, the increase 

in e-communications has not replaced 

or diminished personal movement. On 

the contrary, figures indicate that the 

more tele, or e-communication we 

have, the more we travel. What has 

changed are the patterns of work and 

travel, and within the European context 

a key question is whether air travel will 

compete with the High Speed Trains 

(HST) network or be complementary to it. 

Sir Peter’s favoured option is the latter 

and in the rest of his talk he considered 

different forms and scales of interchange. 

He first illustrated a number 

of examples of good practice in 

interchanges at the urban scale (intercity 

rail, suburban rail, light rail, bus) 

and the inter-urban scale (inter-city 

rail, air), emphasising the importance 

of combining both: Amsterdam, Freiburg, 

Karlsruhe, Grenoble, Zürich, Munich, 

Leipzig, and Stuttgart offered different 

ways of integrating various types of 

transport with, in some cases, additional 

services. Stockholm had managed to 

integrate transport and planning over a 

long period of time. Equally the Ile de 

France had adapted its regional transport 

strategy and infrastructure to changes in 

development, and invested accordingly. 

The creation of a European 

HST network is a relatively recent 

phenomenon and hence the need 

for interchange at the inter-urban 

scale between air travel and HST and 

integrating both with other scales of 

travel. For the time being, Schipol, 

Frankfurt and Charles de Gaulle are rare 

examples of such integration whilst Lyon- 

St Exupéry lacks the ‘joining up’ with 

more local transport. 

The second theme of Hall’s lecture 

was the role of the interchanges in 

regeneration and strategic planning, and 

he cited examples of the development 

of edge-cities (in a European version, 

distinct from the American one) as a 

result of interchanges that combined the 

intra and inter-urban modes: Amsterdam 

Zuidas was one of them. Finally, he 

brought his ideas home to look at the 

Thames Gateway, where the integration 

of national, regional, suburban and 

urban transport with the Channel Tunnel 

Link, and therefore European transport, 

could be achieved and be one of the 

motors for regeneration; the potential of 

Kings Cross, Stratford and Ebbsfleet were 

mentioned. However, Sir Peter worried 

that the lack of air-HST interchange was 

an important missing link which could 

put the region at a relative disadvantage. 

He ended by suggesting that it was 

perhaps time to rethink the long-term 

vision for the region. The debate that 

followed reflected the high intellectual 

level of Peter Hall’s stimulating lecture 

which he delivered without notes. 

Sebastian Loew 



Putting Urbanism at the Heart of the Agenda 

RIBA Conference 15 July 2004 

Over 100 people attended a by-invitation 

meeting called by the RIBA’s president 

and John Thompson, chair of the 

RIBA Urbanism and Planning Group, 

to discuss what urbanism is and what 

actions can be taken to achieve ‘good’ 

urbanism. The first hour was spent 

trying to tease out what urbanism is, 

by asking attendants to write their own 

definition on post-it notes. The core 

of the afternoon were nine parallel 

workshops on topics ranging from RIBA 

Awards for Urbanism, through Urbanism 

and Sustainability, Delivering Urbanism 

to Skills for Urbanism. The teams were 

asked to suggest actions that could be 

implemented in the immediate future 

and to identify how and by whom this 

would happen. After a couple of hours 

of debate each group reported back to 

a plenary session and a series of good 

ideas was put forward. 

Undoubtedly, the fact that the RIBA 

is taking an interest in urbanism, and 

by implication in urban design, is to 

be welcomed. As was mentioned at the 

meeting, for too long architects have 

been concerned with the site and not 

with its context. This was one of the 

reasons for the creation of the Urban 

Design Group over 25 years ago, and it is 

good to see the RIBA joining us. On the 

other hand, the fact that so many people 

in the room did not seem to know what 

UDAL was, or to realise that the issues 

on the agenda had been discussed over 

and over for years by the UDG and UDAL, 

is worrying. It felt a bit like reinventing 

the wheel without building it. There 

were not many ideas that had not been 

mentioned in this magazine or at UDG 

meetings of one kind or another. And 

why weren’t more people in the room 

members of the UDG? 

A related question is why is the 

RIBA suddenly interested in urbanism 

when it has not played a very active role 

within UDAL? Could it be that the job 

market for architects is changing and 

urban design skills are becoming more 

widely needed? Could it also be that 

the RIBA acknowledges the changes in 

the agenda and does not want to lose 

its controlling role? Perhaps it does not 

matter if more people come to realise 

the importance of urban design and are 

willing to promote higher quality places. 

The actions that the RIBA takes to follow 

this first meeting will indicate whether 

or not it is all worthwhile. We shall keep 

an eye on this. 


Study Tour of the Saxon Towns of Transylvania 

15-23 May 2004 

Above Sibiu Town Hall separates two market 

squares 

Opposite page top Sighisoara clock tower 

Opposite page bottom Fortified churches 

On the 15th May 2004, 30 UDG members, 

spouses and friends set off by air for 

Bucharest, where we were joined by 

six French colleagues. Our goal was 

Transylvania, where we were to look 

at the German heritage of town and 

village building. But first we were to 

make the acquaintance of Bucharest, 

a vast and sprawling metropolis whose 

character can only be discovered by 

peeling away the chronological layers 

of which it is made up. In this we were 

greatly assisted by Mariana Celac, former 

president of the Romanian Union of 

Architects, who gave us an illustrated 

talk and led us on a coach tour. 

Bucharest was the principal city of 

Wallachia which until 1880 was part, 

although a fairly autonomous one, of 

the Ottoman Empire. Consequently, the 

surviving historic areas are characterised 

by Orthodox churches and low-key, 

Turkish-style houses, but no mosques. 

After 1918 Romania doubled in size, 

becoming a relatively wealthy country 

with a sizeable urban middle class, 

and so the capital was replanned with 

substantial modernist and neo-classical 

buildings fronting new avenues carved 

through the older quarters. It was 

this period of expansion that inspired 

Ceausescu to leave his own grandiose 

mark and wreak destruction, though not 

on a scale as great as one had been led 

to believe. Today regeneration is taking 

place in a patchy way largely following 

commercial imperatives. Altogether a 

complex and fascinating city. 

We then set off by train for 

Transylvania, which could have been 


a world away. Whilst Bucharest is 

described as ‘at the gates of the orient’, 

Transylvania is the eastern bastion of 

Central Europe. Until 1918 it was part 

of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so one 

crosses not only the geographical divide 

of the Carpathians, but also a former 

international frontier to get there from 

the rest of Romania. Today Transylvania 

is an ethnic mix of Hungarians and 

Romanians, with a small number of 

Roma and remaining Germans. In 

fact many Germans stayed until the 

1980s when evicted by Ceausescu and 

their properties made available to 

Roma families. This contrasts with the 

originally German area of the Spiš in 

Slovakia that we visited in 1999, from 

which practically all Germans had gone 

by 1945. At the end of the 19th century 

Romanians constituted at least 60 per 

cent of the Transylvanian population, 

so the 1917 military conquest and 

its ratification at Versailles were a de 

facto recognition of Transylvania’s 

incorporation into the Romanian realm. 

The ‘Saxons’ (who were in fact 

Flemings and Luxemburgers as well as 

Germans) were invited by the Hungarian 

King Geza II to settle in Transylvania 

during the 12th century in order to help 

stabilise his eastern borders. It was 

this episode that was commemorated 

in the ‘Pied Piper of Hamelin’ legend. 

The immigrants rapidly established 

an agricultural and trading economy, 

together with a network of substantial 

towns and villages that have a typically 

Central-European look. Then in 1241 the 

Mongol hordes of Batu Khan swept across 

the country, destroying all in their path. 

When they departed, as swiftly as they 

had come, the Saxon response was not 

only to rebuild even more solidly, but to 

turn their village churches into fortified 

citadels within which the population 

and their livestock could take refuge. 

These walled and towered enclosures 

still stand today as monuments to 

communal endeavour. The Saxon villages 

themselves were laid out as regular 

plots along a main street, with each 

homestead comprising a house on the 

street frontage separated by a garden 

and entrance from its neighbour, and a 

smallholding behind. 

We visited a number of these 

villages, the best fortified churches 

being Valea Viilor, Biertan, Agnita and 

Cisnadie. The remarkable thing about 

the Transylvanian countryside is that 

it is still farmed on a peasant basis 

without mechanical help – tractors are 

a rarity, fields are unenclosed and all 

livestock are herded. Consequently the 

countryside is full of people, activity and 

horse-drawn vehicles, and the village 

streets inhabited by free-range poultry. 

This presented a unique opportunity to 

see solid, Central European buildings in 

a setting little different from when they 

were first built. 

Romanian villages in Transylvania 

present a very different aspect to Saxon 

ones. Their layout is more haphazard, 

and the older houses are less substantial 

timber structures. We saw an excellent 

collection of ‘peasant’ buildings of all 

types, including wooden churches, at the 

large open-air museum just outside Sibiu. 

Of the towns we visited, Sighisoara 

was the most dramatically situated, 

being a completely walled and practically 

traffic-free citadel perched on a rock. 

Today it is dominated by the massive and 

picturesque 14th century Clock Tower 

which is the main pedestrian entrance 

to the upper town, while at the height 

of its power Sighisoara had three curtain 

walls and 14 towers. The rural hinterland 

is currently threatened by a planned 

motorway and Dracula Theme Park. 

The small town of Medias, today an 

industrial centre, had a walled circuit 

of which little survives, but at its heart 

is a fortified church enclosure similar, 

but larger in scale, to those found in 

nearby villages. Brasov, a much larger 

city, has the advantage of its layout 

being visible at a glance from the top 

of the nearby Tâmpa Hill, accessible 

by cable car. At the heart of a regular 

grid of streets is an impressive market 

square within which sits a Renaissance 

town hall. The nearby 14th century 

gothic Black Church is massive and has 

its own close of substantial merchants’ 

houses. The remarkable 15th century 

Weavers’ Bastion is unique in that its 

courtyard resembles a tiered inn yard or 

Elizabethan theatre. 

Sibiu has the most extensive historic 

core, comprising an upper and lower 

town. It has two linked market squares 

joined by a town hall, and both squares 

and the main streets are fronted by large 

patrician houses with fine courtyards. 

Former defensive towers have been built 

into many of the houses. Ceausescu 

disliked the town’s German character, 

and it was only the intercession of his 

son Nicu, who was mayor, that prevented 

plans for destructive redevelopment. 

Instead Sibiu is today being 

sympathetically restored by a 

regeneration partnership, whose 

architect, Liviu Gligor, conducted us 

around. Interestingly, some of the money 

is coming from German organisations 

and the German government at the 

instigation of Transylvanian émigrés in 

the Federal Republic. 

The Romanian view, which we 

heard expressed a number of times, is 

that all the ethnic groups who have 

had a role in Transylvania’s history had 

contributed particular qualities, and 

that Transylvania represents a model 

of peaceful multi-ethnic collaboration 

with which the situation in the Balkans 

stands in sad contrast. The only facet of 

this sentiment about which we would be 

sceptical is the present-day treatment 

of the Roma minority by some of their 

fellow countrymen, and the deportation 

of the Jews between 1941 and 1944. 

Alan Stones 




URBAN DESIGN GROUP: Annual General Meeting 

Following two years as Chair of the UDG, 

I am now standing down, having had 

the honour of presiding over the UDG’s 

25th anniversary. The first 25 years of 

achievements and the fact that urban 

design is on the political agenda today 

is due to the tireless efforts of our 

predecessors, amongst whom the late 

Francis Tibbalds deserves special mention. 

One of our recent key aims has been 

to influence the urban design content of 

the planning system, even if with limited 

success so far. The legislation itself is 

important and a private amendment 

worked in our favour by requiring a 

design statement to accompany every 

major planning application. We have 

seized this opportunity to prepare 

guidance on the content of design 

statements, to which CABE and the ODPM 

are likely to sign up, and which will be 

published soon. 

However, it is Planning Policy 

Statements PPS1 Creating Sustainable 

Communities and PPS12 Scope 

of Development Plans, which are 

disappointing for urban design, 

concentrating on methodology rather 

than content. Nothing currently states 

that urban design has to be part of either 

development planning or control, with 

reference only to existing good practice 

guidance; so that urban design could 

be regarded non-statutory – an optional 

extra, not an integral part of ‘spatial 

planning’. We and others have jointly 

responded strongly to these drafts, 

offering to assist in re-drafting policy. 

The reaction of the ODPM is awaited. 

Also awaited was the Egan Report 

on the skills needs for the government’s 

Sustainable Communities agenda. Little 

was said about the need for urban design 

despite the significant skills gap. Our 

forthcoming Awayday will concentrate 

on how we can influence education 

over the next year or so, and we made a 

positive input to training through CABE 

contracts on training highway engineers 

and running a CABE Summer School. 

The UDG will continue to position 

itself along with CABE as a disseminator 

of good practice through forthcoming 

publications on neighbourhood spaces, 

urban design graphics and design 

statements. Our real strength lies 

in our membership of urban design 

practitioners, which over the past few 

years has remained fairly static, and 

so we need to increase these and draw 

on the abilities and energies of our 

members, especially our new affiliate 

organisation, Street, for young recently 

qualified urban designers. 

We continue to support UDAL 

and this year we are providing UDAL’s 

secretariat, and with Marcus Wilshere 

taking the chairmanship, are able to 

influence UDAL’s activities directly. 

This year has also seen the London 

Authorities Urban Design Forum (LAUDF) 

take off dramatically, as it has secured 

funding and permanent staff. We are 

represented on its committee and are 

seeking to work with LAUDF on a regular 

basis. 

Our 25th anniversary year was 

marked by the redesign of our website, 

launched in October 2003, and by the 

appearance of UDQ in colour. I would 

like to pay special tribute to John 

Billingham’s editorship (with Sebastian 

Loew). John steps down this year 

after the great achievement of making 

UDQ Britain’s most authoritative and 

respected urban design publication 

for nearly 25 years. John was also 

responsible with Richard Cole for the 

Good Place Guide (2002). 

We also value our Patrons, and this 

year invited them each to address an 

executive committee meeting, leading 

to valuable discussions and action. We 

have continued to hear excellent talks 

in London, but it is proving difficult to 

maintain this in the regions. As a result, 

committee members have been asked to 

‘shadow’ a region to foster enthusiasm 

so that more regional events are given 

similar momentum. We have also had 

successful tours to Copenhagen and 

Transylvania. 

The activity of the UDG would 

not have been possible without the 

hard work of our director Rob Cowan, 

Grace Wheatley - our administrator, 

and Amanda Claremont - our new coordinator, 

all of whom provide UDAL’s 

secretariat. Our commercial arm, 

Urban Design Services Ltd, has been 

efficiently run by Susie Turnbull as 

ever. Finally, I should like to thank my 

fellow committee members and officeholders 

for their enthusiasm, and all 

our members and event participants 

for their activity, which is increasingly 

putting urban design at the heart of 

development, planning and regeneration. 

It has been an exciting two years. 

Alan Stones 

TREASURER’S REPORT 

In the financial year 2003-04, the 

executive committee of the Urban Design 

Group introduced a number of new 

initiatives: 

• employing an additional part-time 

administrator shared with UDAL 

• placing the two administrators onto a 

formal employment basis 

• purchasing a Powerpoint projector 

• creating the new website, and 

• introducing colour printing to UDQ. 

These initiatives were funded from 

reserves, and cost £25,000. To maintain 

current reserves, the executive 

committee has authorised seeking 

sponsorship for the publication on 

Design Statements, and the website. Two 

contracts with CABE will bring further 

income, and an application will be made 

to the Inland Revenue for repayments 

under the Gift Aid scheme. 

Increased income was from: 

• a small increase in subscriptions - 

£1,000 

• donations by Urban Design Services Ltd 

- £6,000 

• providing rental and administrative 

services to UDAL - £4,300 

But there as a considerable drop in 

income from publications – previously 

coming from one-off sponsorships and 

royalties for the Urban Design Good 

Practice Guide. 

Reduced expenditure was due to: 

• the 2004 Source Book not being 

printed - £5,300, and 

Increased expenditure was due to: 

• Director’s payments being claimed 

too late to go into the previous 

year’s accounts, employing a second 

administrator and employing both 

administrators on a formal basis - 

£32,000 

• distributing the new UDG brochure to 

increase membership - £3,100 

• establishing the new website 

- £11,568, with future maintenance 

estimated at about £1,000 a year. 

With these increasing costs, the UDG 

executive committee has decided to 

increase some membership rates for 

the first time in more than four years. 

Fees for individual members will rise 

from £35 to £40 and for practices from 

£200 to £250; while fees for students, 

libraries, universities and local 

government will remain unchanged. 

These increases will help the UDG 

to maintain and improve its services, 

and also help to expand membership, 

particularly amongst younger 

professionals in urban design. 

John Peverley, Hon Treasurer 


Income and 

Expenditure account 

for year ended 

28 February 2004 

INCOME 

Subscriptions 66,146 

Donations from UDSL 7,790 

Publications 641 

Interest received 1,798 

Rental and services (UDAL) 8,091 

Miscellaneous 25 

Total income 84,491 


EXPENDITURE 

Printing UDQ 24,752 

Web site 11,568 

Admin and travel 1,940 

Part time director 17,697 

Part time administrators 26,776 

Rent, rates, light, heat 9,243 

Insurance and telephone 2,258 

Postage and stationery 4,308 

Publicity 5,229 

Accountants fee 705 

UDAL contribution 2,000 

Other expenses 2,940 

Total expenditure 109,416 

Loss for the year 24,925 

Balances brought forward 57,870 

Balances carried forward 32,945 

BALANCE SHEET AT 

28 FEBRUARY 2004 

Fixed assets: 

Computers 4,946 

Less depreciation 3,136 

Net value 1,810 

Current assets: 

Cash at bank 

Current account 2,190 

Charities official investment 

fund deposit accounts 

COIF (general) a/c 22,563 

COIF (publications) a/c 4,513 

Cash float 50 

Sundry debtors (UDAL) 1,819 

Net current assets 31,135 

Total assets £32,945 

Barry Sellers, Chair of the UDG 

Barry Sellers first joined the Urban 

Design Group in 1982 whilst studying 

for a diploma in Urban Design at Oxford 

Brookes University. The course ‘opened 

his eyes’ to urban design issues that 

his earlier town planning degree had 

not addressed - most notably realising 

physical design solutions and examining 

the needs of people in their use of 

public spaces. At this stage in his career 

two urban designers, Jan Gehl with 

his publication Life between Buildings 

and Francis Tibbalds who was Chair of 

the Urban Design Group were his first 

influences. Tibbalds’ Ten Commandments 

and his definition of the public realm 

were inspirational. 

“The public realm is, in my view, the 

most important part of our towns and 

cities. It is where the greatest amount 

of human contact and interaction takes 

place. It is all parts of the human fabric 

to which the public have physical and 

visual access. Thus it extends from the 

streets, parks and squares of a town or 

city into the buildings which enclose and 

line them” Francis Tibbalds, 1991. 

Barry went on to complete an 

honours degree in architecture in 

1990 at the University of Greenwich. 

But his passion is urban design and 

since 1988 he has worked as a senior 

planner with the London Borough of 

Wandsworth dealing with urban design 

and conservation matters. 

His early work involved projectmanaging 

a multi-professional team 

of engineers and landscape architects. 

This was a collaborative exercise 

creating a new public square, Battersea 

Square and which received a Civic 

Trust Commendation in 1991; it is also 

featured in the UDG’s Good Place Guide. 

This passion for public spaces 

continued with a masters degree 

in urban design at Oxford Brookes 

University, where his thesis examined 

the interface between public space 

and buildings. His academic work and 

practical experience in urban design and 

public spaces came together with the 

formation of a multi-disciplinary team, 

as part of an Urban Design Alliance 

initiative to undertake an enquiry 

into designing streets for people. 

This culminated in the presentation 

of evidence, in association with the 

Institution of Civil Engineers, to the 

House of Commons and the publication 

of the Designing Streets for People 

report in 2002. The report was well 

received and has helped fashion 

government thinking on dealing with 

the public realm. He has written several 

articles on urban design, the most 

recent being the ‘designing streets for 

people’ enquiry, which was published 

in Sustainable Transport (Woodhead 

Publishing Ltd, 2003). 

Barry has been involved with the 

UDG for a number of years organising 

events, most notably the 1996 

conference on public spaces and a 

seminar on tall buildings in 2001. He 

was vice-chair of the UDG from 2002 

until this year when he was elected 

chair. He still works in local government 

for the London Borough of Wandsworth, 

rated an ‘excellent’ authority by the 

Audit Commission in 2003. 



Call for Home Zone Designers 

Are you involved in the design of a 

new-build home zone for a developer or 

public sector group? 

A group of designers and 

campaigners is currently setting up a 

website with the support of the IHIE 

(Institute of Highway Incorporated 

Engineers) to show good practice and new 

design ideas for new build home zones, 

and would be interested in your work. 

Following the production of Mike 

Biddulph’s HomeZones - A Planning 

and Design Handbook (JRF 2001) and 

the IHIE Home Zone Design Guidelines 

(2002), many designers and clients 

identified a need for a showcase of best 

practice new build home zones, and 

so want to hear about proposals and 

ideas that have helped to overcome 

typical problems and concerns raised 

in designing home zones. The group 

meets bi-monthly with the next 

meeting in November, but contributions 

and material can also be submitted 

electronically. Please contact louise. 

thomas@scottwilson.com if you would 

like to get involved. 

Louise Thomas 

UCE Launches new Urban Design Masters Course 

The School of Architecture and Landscape 

Architecture at the University of Central 

England in Birmingham has launched 

a new masters programme in urban 

design. It is unique in the West Midlands 

and draws upon the area’s dynamic and 

award-winning regeneration schemes 

for its programme. The course has been 

designed to tackle cultural heterogeneity 

and the complexity of our cities, as well 

as the diverse urban fabric of our cities, 

towns, suburbs, villages and urban 

fringe. The core issues are sustainable 

development, heritage management, 

multi-cultural urbanism, and urban 

regeneration and governance. The course 

also provides opportunities for student 

placements, visiting professionals to 

work with students and a one week study 

visit to a European city. 

The course structure allows for one 

year full-time study, two years part-time 

study, or modules taken as short courses 

as part of a continuing professional 

development (CPD) credit scheme, to 

give a certificate, diploma or masters 

degree in urban design. 

For further information contact 

noha.nasser@uce.ac.uk. 

Noha Nasser, Course Director, Birmingham 

School of Architecture and Landscape, 

University of Central England 

Forthcoming Publications: Urban Design Futures 

The past ten years in this country has 

seen the rise of urban design. From 

a peripheral activity of questionable 

relevance to the quality of the 

environment that was being delivered 

by government, local authorities and 

the private sector, it has taken a central 

position in the new agendas for urban 

regeneration and renaissance. New 

legislation and guidance is reinforcing 

this importance. The Urban Task Force 

with its emphasis on an integrated 

approach to development, and its 

aspiration for an urban renaissance has 

helped consolidate this central role. 

Urban capacity studies, exploration into 

sustainable urban quality, guidance from 

government bodies reshaping the design 

agenda have started to provide new 

urban design tools to enable public and 

private sectors to improve the quality 

of the built environment. The advent of 

CABE has reinforced this. The different 

regions of the country are preparing new 

strategies for architecture and the built 

environment. Urban design has moved 

from marginality to mainstream. The 

principles espoused by urban designers 

over the past 20 to 30 years are now 

accepted as key to a better urban 

environment. For many urban designers 

much of that time has been spent 

proselytising, promoting the benefits of 

urban design. 

Now that the urban design messages 

are being accepted, an intellectual gap 

has emerged. Many of the ideas and 

principles that have become the coda of 

urban design are beginning to take on a 

patina of age. Key urban design models, 

such as ‘responsive environments’, 

have stood the test of time. Its core 

values have been accepted. But as we 

move towards greater sustainability, 

different ideas are emerging that are 

challenging some of the accepted urban 

design norms. Much of this is occurring 

outside the UK in countries such as 

Holland, Denmark, and the USA. Urban 

design is at a watershed. The time has 

come to review progress and to explore 

these and other emerging ideas. Should 

urban design reflect the future rather 

than recreate the past? What are the 

new driving forces that will shape urban 

living and hence urban design in the 

future? Are these global issues? Will they 

reflect issues of gender and plurality? 

A new book to be published by Routledge 

in 2005 will be based around a number 

of themes. These will include: 

• uncertainty, addressing surrounding 

the blurring of edges, and transience 

• movement, designing for movement 

through cities 

• experience, a retailing approach to the 

urban environment 

• control, the embedding of urban 

design as a legislative tool 

• sustainability and townscape. 

The purpose of this book is to explore 

new concepts, to set out the intellectual 

frameworks behind these ideas through 

a series of ‘think-pieces’ and perhaps 

to point the way towards a series of 

urban design paradigms for the 21st 

century. A range of contributors, some 

of whom will be practitioners, others 

new ‘conceptualisers’ and academics 

will explore each of these themes. They 

include Adriaan Gueze, Lucien Kroll, 

Thom Mayne, Ken Worpole, Ken Yeang, 

John Punter, Tim Stonor, Jan Gehl. 

Jon Rowland and Malcolm Moor 

Editors and contributors 


Joined-up Thinking on Challenges and Skills 

The Prince’s Foundation for the Built 

Environment has joined with key UK 

strategic partners to tackle today’s urban 

agenda. A series of conferences and 

intensive short courses brings together 

government, academic and research 

organisations to develop a response to 

the most pressing challenges of the built 

environment today. Topics addressed 

include sustainable communities, 

collaborative planning, urban coding, 

heritage regeneration, housing 

production, urban design skills and more. 

Strategic partners in the programme 

are the RIBA, ODPM, NHS Estates, 

CABE, English Partnerships, Forum for 

the Future, TCPA, and the Council for 

European Urbanism, among others. 

Academic and research partners include 

BRE, the University of Greenwich, 

the College of Estate Management, 

the University of Plymouth, and the 

Healthcare Design Unit at King’s College. 

In the wake of the Barker and Egan 

Reports, the conference and short course 

series deals with these challenges and 

addresses the skills needed. National and 

international experts join leading agencies 

for the conferences, and teach intensive 

‘master classes’ to practitioners. The 

proceedings of the conferences are recorded 

and transcribed, and will be published at 

a later date. The programme will build its 

course curriculum over the next five years. 

URBAN CODING PIONEERS 

The Foundation’s projects team is working 

on major new projects in Cornwall, 

Devon, Wales, Essex, Wiltshire and 

Northamptonshire, where it is using new 

urban design methods. 

The Foundation is pioneering urban 

coding on several projects, including a 

large urban extension at Harlow. Paul 

Murrain, Senior Design Director, pointed 

out that the purpose of codes is to ensure 

that new communities have a coherent 

civic realm. “That’s key to their being 

truly sustainable,” he says. “The creativity 

of architects is all well and good, but 

it means nothing if it’s just a basket of 

disconnected icons. That’s not urbanism.” 

The Foundation is also lead 

consultant for a major extension to 

Newquay, where pattern books are 

being used as a tool to ensure coherent 

housebuilder design. “Many of the bestloved 

communities around the world 

have used design tools very similar to 

pattern books,” said Ben Bolgar, Director 

of Design. “Architects who object to 

them are forgetting that they’re aimed 

at a certain kind of project,” ... “in 

most cases the builders who do these 

projects currently don’t even use 

architects, so this is an opportunity for 

architects to get back in the game and 

play a leadership role in such projects. 

They can help to create the necessary 

design vocabulary to ensure the urban 

coherence and regional uniqueness of 

the result.” 

FAST-TRACK PRODUCTION AND 

LOCAL IDENTITY 

Our conference in November will focus 

upon the red-hot issue of housing 

affordability and fast-track production. 

With the crisis in housing affordability, 

many government and industry leaders 

have called for a new generation of 

offsite production - a kind of ‘Ikea flat 

pack’ solution to housing affordability. 

But can this be made into a sustainable 

strategy? How durable and adaptable 

would such structures be? What would be 

the resulting loss of local building skills 

and the decline in local building trade? 

What collateral effects would result upon 

heritage regeneration skills and the like? 

At a deeper level, in an increasingly 

homogenised and globalised world, 

what are the consequences for local 

identity and pride of place from massproduction? 

What of the loss of regional 

character and its impact upon tourism 

and economic development? 

The conference will explore 

promising new technologies and 

techniques to adapt to local conditions 

and local identity. What is the right 

balance between offsite production 

and local crafts and skills? How can 

offsite production adapt to unique local 

conditions? What of a new generation 

of tools such as urban codes, dynamic 

codes, pattern books and pattern 

languages? 

More information about the series is 

on our website at 

www.princes-foundation.org. 

Mike Mehaffy, Director of Education 

Andres Duany speaking at a recent conference 

PRINCE’S FOUNDATION 

Review: Enquiring by Design: 

The New Tools for Collaborative Planning 19 – 20 May 2004 

The aim of this two day workshop was 

to explain the Enquiry by Design (EbD) 

process - an intensive engagement and 

consultation tool, where all stakeholders 

in the design process are brought 

together at one time. Central to the EbD 

process is a structured five day design 

enquiry to build consensus, work through 

issues, test and, most importantly, draw 

up solutions. The importance of both 

‘designing before participant’s eyes’ and 

‘talking with the pen’ was emphasised. 

Day 1 featured speakers Paul 

Murrain and Victor Dover of the National 

Charrette Institute, who put the 

enquiry event in its wider context, and 

demonstrated the need for good leadin 

preparation, organisation and post 

event write-up and plan implementation. 

Regular feedback, drawing reviews, as 

well as was allowing time for the ‘train 

wreck’ (where everything seems to be in 

the air and a concerted effort is required 

to push on) are essential, as is time 

to draw-up and present the outcomes: 

vivid drawings help to demonstrate great 

ideas. Ben Bolgar and Richard Hayward 

of the University of Greenwich then 

described, respectively, how pattern 

books and tissue analysis can be used to 

help participants to be better aware of 

their surroundings. A walking tour then 

reinforced the importance of looking at 

the built environment in a critical way. 

Day 2 of the workshop focussed 

on case studies from Florida, Colorado, 

Hawaii, and Harlow to Cherry Knowle, 

a hospital site near Sunderland. The 

speakers drew out advice from their 

own experience and the success of the 

process was clear in these case studies. 

The event was intensive and provided 

a good introduction to EbD. Practical 

advice was illustrated with good examples, 

and while the group workshop event on Day 

1 was rather confused it still highlighted 

a number of important points, making it a 

very worthwhile event. 

Matt Lappin, principal planner and urban 

designer, David Lock Associates 


PAGE 

Royston Robinson Reviews the Recent CABE Urban Design Summer School 

and its Focus on Cross-professional Learning 

Photos: Rene Bach 

WHAT IS URBAN DESIGN? 

Urban design has often fallen between 

two professions – architecture and 

planning. This lack of definition has 

undoubtedly affected the profession 

and currently we are witnessing a 

skills crisis: we do not have enough 

professionals with the right skills to do 

the job. The results are witnessed in the 

poor public realm that blights towns 

and cities across the UK. We need urban 

design professionals to develop the skills 

they need to create the sustainable 

communities of the future. 

CABE, along with key bodies like 

the Urban Design Group and Urban 

Design Alliance, has made great strides 

in putting high quality urban design 

at the heart of physical regeneration 

in England. Yet, the built environment 

sector is still suffering from a lack of 

accessible lateral learning; silo-busting 

design study forums that unite those 

who play key roles in how our towns and 

cities are built. 

With this in mind CABE developed 

a partnership with the University of 

Westminster in January 2004 to create 

and deliver a three and a half day Urban 

Design Summer School with the aim 

of gathering professionals from across 

the sector to tackle jointly the key 

challenges in making successful places. 

Richard Simmons, CABE’s recently 

appointed chief executive said: “No 

profession has a monopoly on wisdom 

when it comes to designing attractive 

and successful places. We have to 

deliver a massive programme of public 

and private investment to transform 

neighbourhoods and build new ones 

Work together and 

we can create a 

heritage future 

generations will 

look back on with 

pride 

over the next ten years. Those of us 

who have had the privilege to work in 

teams which blend the skills of different 

professions know they design better 

environments. If we don’t learn from 

this we will repeat the worst mistakes of 

the past. Collaboration doesn’t always 

come naturally, so developing the skills 

and competencies to break through 

boundaries is critical. Get it wrong and 

we will build neighbourhoods nobody 

wants to live in. Work together and we 

can create a heritage future generations 

will look back on with pride.” 

The school took place from June 

13th to the 16th following a flurry of 

booking activity and substantial oversubscription. 

Set in the designated 

housing growth area of Ashford, Kent 

– a rich source of case studies – the 

programme centred on four design 

workshop groups, or charrettes. These 

tackled: 

• estate renewal 

• green and brownfield development 

• town centre regeneration 

• housing intensification. 

Delegates were able to choose from two 

of the four charrettes, allowing them to 

select the sites and issues most relevant 

to their own work. From collating site 

analyses to producing development 

frameworks, the varied backgrounds 

and skills sets of the students provided 

interesting and lively group debate. 

Supplementing the charrettes were 

an array of skills seminars, keynote 

speakers and best practice sessions that 

drew on the talents of some of our most 

innovative and engaging practitioners, 

including: 

• Cllr Daniel Moylan, RB Kensington 

& Chelsea, tackling street clutter in 

Kensington 

• Dickon Robinson, Peabody Trust, 

explaining the why and how of the 

client’s role in design excellence 

• David Partridge, Argent St George, 

describing the masterplanning of Kings 

Cross 

• Richard Alderton, Ashford Borough 

Council, putting Ashford’s opportunities 

in context. 

Bill Erickson and Sebastian Loew, the 

University of Westminster ‘ringmasters’ 

for the school, provided seamless 

continuity to the proceedings, 

successfully guiding 72 delegates 

on multiple site visits and providing 

thought-provoking sessions and 

charrette guidance. Plaudits must also 

go to Ashford Borough Council and the 

planning team who provided peerless 

support throughout the programme. From 

delivering plenary sessions on Ashford’s 

planning strategy, to providing Planning 

Member panels in charrette crits, the 

borough proved an invaluable ally. 

Overall, the event’s greatest success 

stems from the delegates’ own energetic, 

unflagging participation. The exercise 

of planners, engineers, councillors, 

architects and others working together, 

provoked challenges in professional 

pre-conceptions and misconceptions. 

On top of learning about the issues of 

contemporary urban design, delegates 

learned about the different approaches 

and priorities of their peers. 

Email addresses were swapped and 

local reunions planned. Needless to say, 

we are already looking forward to next 

year. 

For more detailed information about 

the summer school visit www.udss.org. 

uk. To get ahead of the game and join 

next year’s waiting list, contact Royston 

Robinson 020 7960 4890. 


Market Place One, Thursday 1 July 2004 

Would towns and cities be worse off 

without the urban designers gathered 

for the first Market Place event? This 

was the provocative question posed by 

Rob Cowan, director of the Urban Design 

Group, in his opening speech for the 

urban design event aimed at bringing 

together today’s finest young talent in 

urban design and displaying best urban 

design practice in the UK. 

SHOWCASE OF URBAN DESIGN 

TALENT 

Market Place One was organised by 

the Urban Design Group and Street, 

the young urban designers group, to 

give urban designers the opportunity 

to set out their stalls. Whilst raising 

awareness of who’s doing what in the 

world of urban design, Market Place gave 

young urban designers – particularly 

graduates – the opportunity to discuss 

future opportunities with those currently 

practising. 

The event was designed literally 

to be a market place with each urban 

design practice manning a market stall 

to showcase their projects, and to 

discuss their practice’s view of urban 

design. The crowds moved from stall to 

stall between presentations compered by 

Rob Cowan and Emma Appleton. 

HEALTHY COMPETITION 

Short verbal presentations stimulated 

great debate amongst the large audience 

as each practice in turn passionately 

voiced their views on urban design. With 

a dozen rival urban design practices 

presenting, there was a tangible air of 

healthy competition. 

Space Syntax and Alan Baxter 

Associates drew the crowd to their 

respective stalls to set the tone for 

the presentations by commenting 

on urban design today and potential 

future directions. A presentation from 

Conservation and Design at the Royal 

Borough of Kingston upon Thames 

gave a welcome insight into urban 

design in the public sector. Roger Evans 

presented ten points which represented 

his practice’s view of urban design with 

particularly effective large text boards, 

reminiscent of a doorstep declaration of 

love from the film Love Actually. Roger 

Evans’ statement that: “urban design is 

not big architecture, architecture is in 

fact small urban design” generated the 

loudest audience cheer of the evening. 

This led seamlessly into the next 

presentation by Alsop BIG director David 

West, who gave a passionate defence 

of ‘big architecture’ and the need for 

extraordinary urban design. The call for 

passionate urban design became a theme 

of the event. 

After a break for market stall 

mingling the second round of 

presentations commenced with the 

Matrix Partnership and Tibbalds 

Planning & Urban Design reminding the 

audience of the importance of always 

remembering people in urban design. 

The public sector was again represented 

by Ludo Reid, about to commence a two 

year secondment to the Local Authorities 

Urban Design Forum (LAUDF) from 

Tower Hamlets Borough Council. Cathryn 

Chatburn of Llewelyn Davies summarised 

the issues discussed and ended with 

a quote from Terry Pratchet declaring 

“You should never design a dungeon you 

wouldn’t want to sleep in yourself”. The 

quote from the popular author appealed 

to the young audience and if all urban 

designers followed this principle the 

world could be a much better place. 

A BRIGHT FUTURE FOR URBAN 

DESIGN 

Attendance of the event was dominated 

by a young generation of urban 

designers, which is a great sign of 

the new wave of enthusiasm for the 

discipline. The event was organised by 

young urban designers for young urban 

designers. Future events aim to involve 

even more urban designers from the 

North of England, Scotland, Wales and 

Northern Ireland. Market Place Two is 

pencilled in for Urban Design week in 

September 2004. 

On the evidence of the energy, 

enthusiasm and passion for good urban 

design displayed at Market Place One, 

the answer to Cowan’s opening question 

is a resounding yes; towns and cities 

would be worse off without the urban 

design talent present at the first Market 

Place event. Another encouraging sign 

for urban design is that Market Place 

drew the biggest audience for an urban 

design event of its ilk for 25 years. 

Market Place has proved the potential 

energy of urban design. 

Keith Brown, a post-graduate studying on 

the Urban Design Masters course at Oxford 

Brookes University 

This report was first published on RUDI; 

www.rudi.net. 

Urban design is not 

big architecture, 

architecture is 

in fact small urban 

design 

YOUNG URBAN DESIGNERS 


VIEWPOINT 

Sustainable Urbanism for the 21st Century 

Kevin Lynch Lecture 2004 by Dr Alfonso Vegara, Madrid 

Alfonso Vegara is president of Fundacion Metropoli, Taller de Ideas 

and the International Society of City and Regional Planners; he is an 

architect-planner from Madrid with degrees in economics and political 

sociology. Inspired by Kevin Lynch whose ideas still influence his 

teaching, he has ambitious visions for a better urban future. Guiding 

the ProyectoCities Initiative started in 1997 to understand how cities 

can make urbanisation in a globalised world work to their advantage, 

Vegara and his partners are developing a methodology to identify these 

advantages, using cities whose economic, social and environmental 

strengths are increasing as a result of globalisation. 

Twenty cities from five continents have chosen to explore what 

constitutes a ‘cluster of excellence’ -required to achieve a successful 

position. This is often despite limited human and economic resources, 

short term electoral cycles and daunting inequalities, and in a world 

where the estimated urban population may grow from 50 per cent now 

to 70 per cent in 2025. Considering the complexity of cities, it might 

also have been wise to compare the selected cities with ‘unsuccessful’ 

ones to challenge the criteria of urban success. 

Vegara presented the eight characteristics believed to be the key for 

cities and city regions – called ‘smartlands’ – to survive, compete and 

flourish. They are discussed below. 

Perhaps the most questionable assumption presented is that 

successful cities or ‘smartlands are designed by the community (1)’. 

Leaving aside the difficulty of defining communities in multicultural 

cities, the idea of leadership, civic participation and innovation that 

Vegara attributes to successful community intervention can come 

in many contradictory guises. The top down ‘community’ cohesion 

of Singapore differs from cities struggling with the transition from 

industrial to cultural centres, such as Bilbao, but with Singapore 

proving more successful on a per capita income basis. 

The team is probably right in affirming that size is not everything. 

However, economic cohesion and social inclusion becomes more 

difficult the bigger the city’s size, population or diversity. The national 

dimension is omitted in the criterion of ‘strong relationship with the 

surroundings (2)’ which deals with the global scale of inter-urban 

relations (eg Singapore’s vantage position in the global economy as a 

nodal port and airport), complementary functions in a city system at 

the regional level (eg Bilbao, Victoria, San Sebastian in the Basque 

country) and intra-urban cooperation within a polycentric city-region 

(eg Shanghai Fengxian Fengcheng eco-linear city). 

Being ‘environmentally sensitive and responsive (3)’ is another 

problematic characteristic of cities. Where antagonists agree is that 

within capitalist globalisation the environment has to be measured 

in economic terms to stand a chance of preservation. Be it urban 

regeneration (in one of the ProyectoCities hub Dublin, the Celtic tiger 

which thrives on high tech industries), the recovery of the natural 

eco-system (successfully undertaken in Brazil’s Curitiba) or active 

environmental protection (attempted in Windhoek, Namibia) – the 

cost-benefit analysis is dominating political decisions. 

In the search for new climate change solutions, even Action for a 

Global Climate Community has to admit that to achieve ‘contraction 

and conversion’ (curbing energy consumption in the rich nations and 

offering parity of use throughout the world) requires economic growth 

and better living standards before protecting the environment. 

The same forces favour economic growth over simultaneous 

‘commitment to social cohesion and development (4)’. Instead of 

creating an ‘inclusive city’, we induce gentrification. By pushing 

property prices up, these forces displace weaker businesses and 

residents, and break the very dynamism of self-reliant and mutually 

supporting local communities. In such cities, the physical reality 

of multiculturalism can become a patchwork of gated smart 

communities, ghettoes and no-go areas in a shrinking public realm 

under surveillance. The expected sense of belonging and physical signs 

of identity include only parts of the population. In certain American 

cities such as Cleveland, spatial segregation occurs vertically with 

those left behind living on and under the ground in poverty, while the 

regenerated city emerges above without internal connections. Clearly, 

‘smartlands’ are not homogeneous and globalisation affects them unless 

the state intervenes. 

This requires ‘effective structures of governance (5)’ relying on 

electronic interactive communication, as well as coherent agreements 

for inter-institutional collaboration. Which politician in power has 

not advocated reducing bureaucracy and greater public participation 

in the shaping of the urban fabric? But these old structures are 


Understand how cities can make 

urbanisation in a globalised world 

work to their advantage 

VIEWPOINT 

Opposite page City of Knowledge: Hypothesis of Physical Form 

Above left Creative City in South of Europe: Madrid as a hinge point in the South of 

Europe 

Above right Olympic Ring: The ‘Madrid of Boulevards’ and the Olympic Opportunity 

replaced by equally centralised new ones with little power devolved to 

even the most vocal citizens. Strategic projects able to trigger urban 

regeneration of citywide importance depend on outside resources, such 

as hosting the Olympic Games which gave Sydney the opportunity to 

turn its polluted industrial waterfront into a leisure park accessible by 

public transport. 

Probably the ‘commitment to innovation (6)’ is a prerequisite of 

the ability to ‘create competitive advantages (7)’. What matters to 

ProyectoCities is that in identifying their strengths and weaknesses, 

these cities are capable of building on their characteristics to generate 

competitive advantages. This strategy gives them a better chance of 

success than to follow the crowd in establishing predictable science and 

technology parks, regardless of their intellectual resources. 

Nevertheless, they must include ‘brainpower’ development and urban 

policies to create the right environment to attract, train and retain 

the ‘movers and shakers’ of the knowledge society and its creative 

industries. However, the latter are hard to define as a debate on the 

risks and rewards of creative industries as regenerators revealed during 

the recent London Architecture Biennale in Clerkenwell - an area 

undergoing rapid transformation. Those who considered themselves 

key actors in the creative industries ranged from artists to curators, 

designers to public relations agents, providers of seedcorn premises to 

high tech entrepreneurs, in fact from facilitators to innovators. 

In a more rapidly and widely connected world, cities have to 

establish ‘connections to city-networks (8)’ if they wish to improve 

their chances of prosperity. They cannot rely on competition alone and 

need to learn from each other. They can position themselves favourably 

by developing complementary functions and cooperating across shared 

cultures or geographic proximity, while taking advantage of these eight 

characteristics to make up their specific cluster of excellence. Yet none 

can prosper without a clear vision of their future. 

In conclusion, the current debate on urban dynamics confirms that 

the ProyectoCities Initiative is timely. Research so far shows that the 

methodology of identifying the ‘cluster of excellence’ from eight key 

characteristics enables cities to strengthen their competitive advantage. 

Together with an awareness of the dynamics of their ‘cluster of 

excellence’, a clear vision for their future matters more than city size, 

level of economic development or urban profile. 

When facing the challenge of sustainable development in the age of 

globalisation, cities should build on their specific ‘cluster of excellence’. 

Their success depends on a clear idea of their identity and the global 

connections they have selected to enhance their own characteristics. 

On that basis they can devise strategic urban projects which seek a 

viable balance between economic development, social cohesion and 

environmental quality to realise their vision for the future. Only then 

can they identify actions capable of steering their urban development 

towards sustainable success. 

After a rather abstract presentation about this huge and complex 

research undertaking, Vegara gave an illustration of how the ProyectoCity 

methodology can be applied to a daring urban design project. His team 

proposes to transform the innermost urban motorway which cuts Madrid 

city centre from its surroundings into a 74km long boulevard. 

Akin to Terry Farrell’s urban design project for London’s Park Lane, 

pedestrians and urban activities would take over the street level. An 

express underground circle line would link up the radial metro system 

while above an aerial monorail would provide public transport with 

frequent stops. Current activities on either side of the ring road, such 

as Madrid’s major university campus, would expand onto the reclaimed 

land and open up to the public realm. The Olympic village for the 2012 

bid could form a new destination on this boulevard ring and become 

the core of much needed urban sports facilities. A long stretch of 

the current ring road runs along the culverted river which would be 

uncovered and transformed into a river walk. In the north and the 

south the new high speed train stations could develop into multipurpose 

hubs. 

With increasing prosperity, car ownership and use rising rapidly 

in Madrid and a bold project to return urbanity to the city and 

subordinate the car would be indeed a brilliant vision turned into a 

sustainable strategic urban project. It would enhance Madrid’s ambition 

to become the hub between the EU and Latin America, but above all, it 

would require exceptional creative action to change the attitudes of the 

Spanish people to the car as a symbol of individual freedom. 

Judith Ryser 


INTERNATIONAL 

Turin Up and Under 

Federica Castiglioni explains how Turin is tackling the regeneration of 

its former industrial areas 

The urban landscape that crosses the vast central section of Turin 

from north to south is changing: Turin is busy redefining its image by 

transforming and reorganising existing industrial areas that shaped 

the map and economy of Turin from the end of the 19th century to the 

start of the 21st century. 

These industrial areas were developed along the railway lines that 

fed and linked factories mainly involved in the metallurgy and steel 

industries, initially creating a split in the city’s urban fabric, but which 

are now firmly embedded into the city’s fabric. 

In the 1980s the need to improve the railway as a means of urban, 

metropolitan, regional and national public transport was combined 

with the decision to lower railway tracks in the central areas. This 

meant that the severance caused by the railway would vanish and 

street level development opportunities would open up. In the same 

period, Turin’s vast factories in the city were closing leaving huge 

industrial buildings sitting in the middle of urban areas, and which had 

great conversion potential. 

Given this development potential and the new transport network, a 

masterplan was commissioned and drawn up by designers Gregotti and 

Cagnardi in 1995 to create a common framework for regeneration. 

The masterplan identifies the Central Backbone as the regeneration 

axis of the abandoned industrial areas, and the Railway Junction as the 

railway infrastructure that integrates the regional and metropolitan 

traffic with the European high speed transport network. 

In partnership with Turin City Council, Italian State Railways 

initiated the important project to bury the railway tracks underground, 

enabling them to quadruple the capacity of the lines, and therefore 

improve the railway service, as well as create new urban stations and a 

new urban avenue to cover the cuttings left by the railway. 

The treatment of the Railway Junction led to the creation of the 

new Central Backbone Avenue, which links the areas undergoing 

transformation from north to south and creates, in addition to new 

roads, the creation of pedestrian areas, cycle paths and green open 

spaces. This avenue is brought to life by 11 public artwork installations 

by leading contemporary artists: Michelangelo Pistoletto, Jannis 

Kounellis, Giuseppe Penone, Mario Merz, Per Kirkeby, Gilberto Zorio, 

Ulrich Rückriem, Giulio Paolini, Luigi Mainolfi, Giovanni Anselmo and 

Walter Pichler. The first two works were the fountain by Mario Merz and 

the garden by Giuseppe Penone, opened in November 2003. 

The Railway Junction scheme is 12km long and stops at seven 

stations. In the reorganisation of the railway system, three new 

stations will be built – Stura, Rebaudengo and Zappata; others will be 

modernised – Dora, Porta Susa, Lingotto. 

Rebaudengo will be the station that creates a direct link with 

the international airport of Turin. Porta Nuova will no longer be the 

city’s main station, passing this title to the future Porta Susa, which 

will become an important interchange between local and high-speed 

railways, Metro lines, public and also private modes of transport. The 

station will look like a long, glazed tunnel, measuring about 400m 

length and will be designed by the winner of the international design 

competition Ove Arup. 

The Railway Junction scheme crosses the city from north to south 

and serves the six industrial areas delineated by the masterplan - Spine 

1, 2, 3, 4, the railways nodes Stura (north) and Lingotto (south) – each 

of which will have a station. 

The Central Backbone project covers an area of over 350ha. Every 

area defined by the masterplan has a different role, establishing a new 

sense of focus in the city’s urban structure. 

Spina 1 is mainly aimed at hosting public bodies and institutes, 

with the new regional council building, built following an international 

architectural competition won by Massimiliano Fuksas. The large new 

square, designed by Jean Nouvel, located south of the building, is 

surrounded by residential and office space. 

Spina 2, in the central part of town in Corso Vittorio and the new 

Porta Susa station, houses the most important urban functions: 

• the new court building opposite the historical Lamarmora Gardens 

• the central reading and media library with the large annexed theatre 

designed by the architect Mario Bellini 

• the doubling in size of the polytechnic - a scheme by Studio Gregotti 

Associati 

• the university accommodation and backup services, which will be 

used as the media village during the Olympic games 


INTERNATIONAL 

Opposite page Turin’s Porta Susa high speed railway station by AREP, for Rete 

Ferroviaria Italiana 

Above Lingotto – Mercati Generali: The Olympic Village area by Studio Camerana 

for Agenzia Torino 2006 

Above right The new landscape and Dora Park of Spina 3, by Studio DNA for Citta 

di Torino 

Right Central Axis of Transformation, by Danilo Moretti, OfficinaCittaTorino 

• the conversion of the extraordinary late 19th century ‘Officina Grandi 

Riparazioni’ railway service workshop into a large exhibition space for 

the GAM (Modern Art Gallery) and home of the Urban Centre 

• the re-use of the historical mid 19th century prison for future legal 

functions and, 

• the new San Paolo IMI office tower and that of the State Railways. 

Spina 3 covers over 100ha and is characterised by an important 

environmental feature - a large 45ha post-industrial park. The area 

closest to the Railway Junction and the Dora station will house 

environmental and telecommunications technology innovation 

centres, as well as residential and office space in an extraordinary 

environmental setting. A new religious centre for the Archdiocese of 

Turin is also envisaged, the design of which has been assigned to the 

architect Mario Botta from Lugano. 

Spina 4 is the northern entrance to the Central Backbone, around 

Rebaudengo station. It is set on the edge of an urban park for sporting 

facilities. It already houses a series of innovative companies and trendsetters 

which have revamped the old industrial units, making this area 

ideal to consolidate and strengthen its residential and hi-tech service 

role. It is important to note that all of these proposals have been 

planned and financed with public-private partnerships. 

The inspiration for the urban and architectural transformation of 

the city has been largely derived from Turin’s successful bid to host the 

2006 Winter Olympic Games. The structures required for the games have 

been planned within the framework of the Central Backbone project and 

in areas or buildings which were due for modernisation or regeneration. 

The conversion of the industrial buildings has began in the Lingotto 

- Mercati Generali area, the area considered to be the strategic hub of 

the Olympic district, and which lies within an area about 2km from 

the sports venues and main areas reserved for ice sports. This area will 

house the Olympic Village for the athletes, the Oval and the main press 

centre, which will use the Lingotto exhibition structures. 

In total, within the metropolitan area of Turin, an Olympic 

Village will be created for 2,500 athletes, along with seven villages to 

accommodate official members of the press, five competition venues for 

ice disciplines and a main press centre. 

All the organisations involved in the Olympics have worked so that 

the overall masterplan has considered the post-Olympic uses of the 

individual buildings and venues, capitalising on the benefits that come 

from hosting such an event. At the end of the games, the venues will 

be used to create European level sporting facilities and to improve the 

city’s university and educational facilities. The media villages have 

been generally located near the main university and higher education 

campuses. 

The programme of large-scale infrastructure and regeneration works 

underway in Turin coincides with many other initiatives, for example 

the plan for Line 1 of the Underground, the sites for which opened in 

December 2000. The line runs 13.5km from Lingotto to Fermi, through 

Porta Nuova, and a total of 21 stations are planned, with extensions to 

the west and south. The construction of the tunnel between Fermi and 

Porta Susa has just been completed and the 12 stations on this stretch 

of line will ready in time for the Olympics. 

All of these proposals highlight how a re-evaluation of the 

industrial areas in Turin have been given a real impetus with the 

coming of the 2006 Olympics, and resources focussed upon delivering 

the infrastructure required to support this successful city once again, 

when the Olympics are over. 

Federica Castiglioni, Citta di Torino Urban Centre 

The inspiration for the 

transformation has been Turin’s 

successful bid to host the 2006 

Winter Olympics 


TOPIC 

HOUSING MARKET RENEWAL AREAS 

The UDG has rightly been concerned whether urban design was being involved 

enough within the nine Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder areas, at a time 

when a lot of attention seemed to be given to growth areas. The topic for this issue 

provides a snapshot of the objectives of the programme, progress in two of the areas, 

examples of two consultancies’ work, comments about the need for a landscape 

strategy and the work of a Design Task Group. 

Martin Crookston emphasises the problem of low demand in the pathfinder areas 

and this reflects the interdependency of economic regeneration, housing and 

sustainable communities defined in the objectives adopted by Transform South 

Yorkshire. There are imaginative ways forward shown in ideas being developed 

in Newcastle/Gateshead and in Urban Splash’s proposal for Langworthy, Salford, 

illustrated above, which indicates the potential to transform traditional layouts 

lacking internal and external space. EDAW’s work seeks to identify hidden assets in 

areas and to avoid an ad hoc approach by preparing overarching strategies. Taylor 

Young feels that it is critical that quality, consensus and sustainability are kept in the 

forefront to provide change that achieves the long term transformation of an area. 

Richard Cass highlights the concern about the need for a landscape strategy but 

believes that the demand for quick results may stymie a proper long term approach 

to an environmental solution. 

The pathfinder programme is a massive undertaking with different factors at work 

in the nine areas and the Design Task Group stimulated by CABE and others will 

help oil the wheels. It will not be easy for local councils to deal with the scale and 

implications of the programme but there are indications that considered strategies 

are emerging. It is important that urban design remains close to the top of the 

agenda in taking proposals forward. 

JOHN BILLINGHAM 


PROMOTING DESIGN QUALITY 

Paul Lavelle of CABE outlines the work of the Design Task Group 

TOPIC 

The focus of the housing market 

renewal programme (HMR) up to this 

point has been on the preparation of 

strategies to address the principal socioeconomic 

and spatial issues. From the 

beginning, CABE has been concerned to 

ensure that design quality is kept high 

on the agenda in this process. From 

our experience, quality of design is an 

essential attribute of those physical 

interventions that occur as part of 

a regeneration process. Schools and 

hospitals that are better designed to 

meet the needs of their users are able 

to offer a better overall service; this has 

beneficial effects for health, wellbeing 

and educational attainment. Residential 

neighbourhoods and local services 

that are well planned (in accordance 

with basic urban design principles) and 

designed with community needs in mind 

will contribute to a better environment 

and help provide a basis for greater social 

cohesion. In such a way, HMR can help 

to build local confidence and aspirations, 

thus providing a base for addressing those 

factors that, in areas of market failure, 

add up to a perception of deprivation and 

decline. 

Following the launch of the 

Sustainable Communities Plan in 

February 2003, we developed (in 

conjunction with the Environment 

Agency, the Commission for Integrated 

Transport, English Heritage and the 

Sustainable Development Commission) 

an agenda containing a list of seven key 

Actions for Housing Market Renewal 

that would help to frame our strategic 

approach: 

1. Realise the scale of opportunity and the 

task 

2. Positively address heritage as an asset 

3. Create places of distinction 

4. Recognise the value of design and its 

role in renewal 

5. Adopt policies and tools to deliver high 

quality urban neighbourhoods 

6. Place sustainable development at the 

heart of thinking and action 

7. Get ready for the challenge. 

Accordingly, we have endeavoured 

over the past year to develop working 

relationships with the pathfinders and 

local authorities in HMR areas to support 

those who share such aspirations. Our 

principal point of contact in this respect 

has been the Design Task Group, a forum 

run by CABE’s Enabling programme, 

which meets every two months in one 

of the pathfinder areas for a day-long 

programme of presentations, seminarbased 

discussion and site visits. The 

meetings play an important role in 

getting to grips with the character of 

individual pathfinders, in facilitating 

discourse around topics of common 

concern and in framing how we interact 

with other organisations. Importantly, 

they are a rare opportunity for officers 

from different parts of the country to 

meet and compare notes. 

The development of the group since 

that first meeting has evolved into 

something much more worthwhile than 

could have been expected at the outset. 

The value of attendees engaging with 

their colleagues from other pathfinder 

areas and other local authorities cannot 

be underestimated. While the Design 

Task Group is, in many ways, a ‘day out’ 

for those involved, it plays a vital role 

in providing direct experience of what 

is happening on the ground in other 

pathfinder areas. More importantly, it 

contributes to fulfilling the need for 

common effort and collaboration across 

the housing market renewal programme. 

Although each locality has its own 

unique issues, there are many themes of 

mutual interest and processes that would 

benefit from an inclusive and concerted 

approach. 

For CABE, the pivotal contribution 

of the Design Task Group has been 

the way it has facilitated meaningful 

contact and further engagement with the 

pathfinders in a field that appeared, back 

in October 2003, to involve a daunting 

array of organisations and individuals. 

In a number of cases, we have provided 

enabling support to particular projects; 

in others, we have delivered workshops 

on topics relating to procurement and 

master planning. And, as is detailed 

elsewhere in this issue, CABE has 

contributed to several of the pathfinders 

taking steps towards establishing their 

own mechanisms to deliver design 

quality. 

Given these developments, it is 

encouraging to note how the group 

has allowed us to make a great deal 

of progress towards disseminating, 

illustrating and realising the aims set out 

in Actions for Housing Market Renewal. 

The scale of opportunity is being 

tackled through the area development 

frameworks being prepared across the 

pathfinder areas (a number of which have 

been reviewed by CABE). Some of the 

place-marketing strategies being pursued 

by the pathfinders, together with frank 

discussion of the issues surrounding 

clearance and retention, have made 

heritage a key point of discussion at the 

Design Task Group and have helped to 

demonstrate how one might go about 

creating places of distinction. The lesson 

about concentrating on a manageable 

number of excellent early projects in 

order to get ready for the challenge also 

appears to have been taken on board in 

a number of instances. And, through 

examining how green space strategies 

can contribute to creating better quality 

neighbourhoods, the group has engaged 

in using positively the policies and tools 

at its disposal. 

In spite of the other demands they 

are striving to accommodate in the 

HMR programme, the core attendees 

have shown an enormous willingness 

and enthusiasm to engage with the 

issues put to them by CABE and other 

organisations. As hosts, the respective 

pathfinders and local authorities have 

been only too keen to come forward 

to present their latest work and to act 

as local guides. Happily, the flow of 

information and learning has been in 

both directions. From the perspective of 

the CABE staff involved, the engagement 

with the HMR pathfinders has so far 

been eye-opening, challenging and 

rewarding. Collectively, we are dealing 

with many of the most deprived and 

rundown areas of the country but the 

opportunities represented by the housing 

market renewal programme, and the 

commitment of those working in it, offer 

a great deal of hope for the future. 

Paul Lavelle, CABE Enabling staff programme 

REFERENCES 

1. Building Sustainable Communities: Actions for 

Housing Market Renewal is freely downloadable 

from our website: www.cabe.org.uk/pdf/Housing 

Market Renewal.pdf 

2. A further forum for discussion and presentation 

of best practice is available through the Office 

of the Deputy Prime Minister’s e-Communities 

website at www.ecommunities.odpm.gov.uk. 

Reports from past Design Task Group events 

are downloadable from this website (under the 

Design section). 


TOPIC 

THE HOUSING MARKET RENEWAL AREA PATHFINDER 

PROGRAMME 

Martin Crookston reviews its origins, objectives and the role 

of urban design 

East Lancashire; Merseyside 

• two in the West Midlands: Birmingham/ 

Sandwell; North Staffordshire 

• one in the North East: Newcastle/ 

Gateshead 

• two in Yorkshire & Humberside: South 

Yorkshire, and Hull/East Riding. 

Notable absentees are, perhaps, Teesside 

and West Yorkshire. Other declarations 

may be made, and other variants of the 

approach are being considered. Even 

so, this does represent a massive spread 

of interest, and allocation of resources, 

across a large swath of urban England. 

The Housing Market Renewal Area (HMRA) pathfinders have 

been described as ‘the biggest urban renewal project for a 

generation’. Certainly, they are on a par with the inner city 

renewal efforts of the 1970s Labour governments, and different in 

their scale and focus from the ‘targeted’ regeneration initiatives 

of the 80s and 90s. Their origins lie in a seminal series of reports 

prepared by the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at 

Birmingham University (CURS), led by Brendan Nevin, which 

unpicked the ‘low demand’ areas of the North and Midlands 

– starting with Merseyside and working on through the M62 

corridor, Yorkshire, the North East and the Potteries. At the 

same time Max Steinberg, North West Regional Director for the 

Housing Corporation, was getting increasingly concerned about 

the long-term and strategic background to the investments 

the corporation was being asked to make in his region: and 

made those concerns clear to – amongst others – the Social 

Exclusion Unit and the Urban Task Force, in the late 90s. Nevin 

and Steinberg then (November 2001) put a key paper to the 

government, on behalf of the National Housing Federation, 

arguing that the next Comprehensive Spending Review must 

include a special programme to deal with this unforeseen and 

rapidly-emerging problem in the northern half of the country: 

the melting away of demand for housing, and particularly social 

housing, in many areas, and the social problems that this created 

or presaged. 

Government responded extraordinarily rapidly. In mid-2002, 

a £25 million start-up fund was allocated; in mid-2003 this 

was expanded to £500 million over the years to 2006; by early 

2004, the Manchester-Salford pathfinder had been awarded 

£150 million, Newcastle-Gateshead £69 million, and further 

announcements are now coming through. 

The programme, although not comprehensive (in the sense 

that it does not explicitly seek to tackle every area where low 

demand is an issue), is nonetheless much more broadly-targeted 

and ambitious than the area-based initiatives of the past two 

decades. There are nine pathfinders: 

• four in the North West: Manchester/Salford; Oldham/Rochdale; 

SCALE OF PROBLEM 

Just to give a flavour of what is being 

considered: the North Staffordshire (ie 

Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme, 

the Potteries) pathfinder put in a bid for 

its first three years for £30 million of 

HMR money, to be supplemented by £30 

million of other public-sector support 

(EP, Housing Corporation, housing 

associations); and with a 15-year estimate 

of £2.3 billion investment in the area, of 

which £860 million would be HMR, £568 

million other public sector, and £879 

million private investment. The initial 

award, from ODPM, is for the full £30 

million bid. 

These are big numbers. But so is 

the scale of the emerging problem. 

North Staffs has 67,000 dwellings in the 

pathfinder area (mainly, the old industrial 

core of the Potteries, plus some of the 

peripheral miners’ estates). Up to 14,500 

could be cleared; 12,500 new build is 

envisaged (so a net fall); and 36,000 would 

be refurbished. Even bigger is South 

Yorkshire – there, the pathfinder has 

150,000 dwellings in its Housing Market 

Renewal Area – essentially, the areas 

defined as ‘at risk’ of accelerating low 

demand in the CURS studies. 

THE CORE PURPOSES 

There is no doubt that this government 

is taking the issue really seriously. As 

Secretary of State, Stephen Byers said: “we 

are committed to turning round housing 

low demand and abandonment by 2016”. 

The ODPM has stated that “pathfinder 

strategic plans will entail radical and 

sustained action to replace obsolete housing 

with modern sustainable accommodation… 

[and to] …ensure… all the other 

essential requirements of sustainable 

communities”. The ODPM also makes 


clear its expectation: the pathfinders will be “…restructuring the 

housing markets across the sub-regional areas that they cover, to 

ensure a more sustainable balance between housing supply and 

demand.” 

What are the problems that have provoked this scale of 

response? Four main headings perhaps summarise the main 

issues, but they do not of themselves give a complete picture of 

the steepness of the tailspin into which some of these areas have 

dived: 

• Vacancy, and even abandonment: the average, in Liverpool’s 

inner core, is about 10 per cent vacant; some streets are 

practically abandoned, and this phenomenon is now 

apparent across the North, from Merseyside to Salford, and 

on to Newcastle’s West End and the East Durham coalfield in 

Easington. 

• House values: in many pathfinder areas, houses average £20- 

35,000 per unit, falling to and below £10,000 in places. Even 

where, here and there, recent speculation has pushed prices up 

(for buy-to-let, or because of the very presence of a pathfinder 

programme) real prices compared with 10 years ago are very low 

indeed. So people’s equity in their homes is worth less and less, 

and the ability of an area to tow itself out of decline is reducing 

not increasing. 

• Unfitness and disrepair: again taking the Liverpool case: one in 

three of houses in the inner core is regarded as unfit or in serious 

disrepair. 

• Social and economic indicators track these patterns: 

disadvantage follows the house-price graph in many of these 

areas, and so pathfinders have to be a ‘housing-plus’ agenda. 

CRITIQUES OF THE PATHFINDER INITIATIVE 

At the same time, the success in persuading the Government to 

take low demand seriously, and to adopt the sort of approach 

evolving in the pathfinder programmes, has led to a lively 

critique by concerned – and expert – commentators. Suspicion of 

programmes which imply a lot of demolition rings alarm bells in 

many quarters. The sense that we have been here before is echoed 

in a Society Guardian piece: “renewed debate about the future of 

older neighbourhoods and their meticulously planned Victorian 

terraces has an eerily familiar ring”. Anne Power and Katherine 

Mumford, of LSE, are even more explicit: “knocking down and 

rebuilding sometimes seems like playing Legoland... with poor 

communities, since it is often the same places and even the 

same people who are repeatedly having their lives disrupted…” 

Anne Power makes the ‘social capital’ point that “there is a huge 

value in these areas even where the market is weak and where 

properties are being abandoned”; to which English Heritage 

adds, in terms of the built heritage, that “a pre-1919 house is 

worth more than an equivalent property from a more recent 

era… older houses are more often built to better standards and 

with better quality materials than modern houses.” This is an 

exceptionally difficult topic: both on the physical side – where 

for example demolition in Newcastle’s Elswick and Benwell 

has taken out property that would have fetched half a million 

two miles away in Jesmond; yet where one also sees streets of 

mediocre and poorly-built terraces in the Potteries that are on the 

bottom of everyone’s shopping list; and on the social side, where 

some communities will resist the bulldozers to the last council 

meeting, whilst others will sigh with relief and say “about 

time…”. 

THE ELEMENTS OF THE EQUATION 

What are the elements that we are dealing with in the HMRA 

pathfinders? We can look at six main groupings: the stock 

itself; the effect of housing tenure; place quality; the nature 

of demand for housing in the urban areas of the North and 

Midlands; competing supply of housing; and the issue of people’s 

aspirations. 

Housing stock - Council estates are liable to become low demand areas 

THE STOCK 

It is important not to see the ‘low 

demand’ problem as being just about the 

Victorian terraces. The type of house, and 

its condition, is undoubtedly a crucial 

variable – in the Potteries, for example, 

there is a fairly simple hierarchy from 

‘back-of-pavement’ two-bedroom terrace 

up through bigger dwellings and more 

frontage space – but even here, a little 

house in a good location will sell, so 

the stock per se is not always the issue. 

The effect of stock type varies with 

location everywhere. And some of the 

worst problems are not in the inner core 

terraces – they are in the outer estates 

– often where less popular stock types 

(walk-up blocks, maisonettes, one-bed 

old people’s units, high rise) interact 

with weak locations – but including in 

some areas (Newcastle, Gateshead, Hull) 

council semis-with-gardens of the sort of 

‘Garden City’ estates that would have had 

Lutyens or Howard at least nodding in 

recognition. 

TENURE 

An underlying fact for many of the lowdemand 

areas is that renting from the 

council is no longer a tenure of choice. 

A generation or more ago, it was: there 

was no stigma for a skilled working-class 

family in a tenancy in a good modern 

house on a leafy outer estate. Now, it 

is increasingly the default tenure for 

those who have less choice; and it is 

liable to be stigmatised too, after 20 

years of determined policy towards 

home ownership. Renting from housing 

associations (registered social landlords 

- RSLs) is less so, but still not generally 

for the aspirant households; and private 

renting is often at the rock-bottom of 

local markets, and may be catering from 

those who cannot even get a council 

tenancy despite the general ease of access 

TOPIC 


TOPIC 

We have to remember that, 

whatever we do on the supply 

side – what lies behind this is a 

low demand problem 

to this stock nowadays. It is worth noting 

in passing how different this makes us 

from our European neighbours; and 

how difficult it now makes it for us to 

evolve a ‘rational’ housing policy which 

is even-handed as between tenures. What 

it means for the pathfinder areas is that, 

other things being equal, council estates 

will be liable to be (or to become soon) 

low demand areas. And low demand 

equals lots of choice for prospective 

tenants, and can lead to acceleration of 

bad-neighbour problems, and a spiral 

of decline on estates. The position of 

private rented is even more complex: it 

has a multiplicity of roles in all the areas 

– sometimes rock-bottom, sometimes 

a healthy mixture of student lets and 

unstigmatised short lettings, sometimes 

a stable but fragile use by transitional 

populations for whom the flexibility is 

an asset. Both social and private rental 

tenure clearly still have a role in future: 

but they are also often a marker for many 

problems in the pathfinder areas. 

PLACE 

Paragraphs above have remarked on the 

interaction of stock and tenure with 

place or location. Much is made in the 

ODPM’s current publications of the idea 

of ‘sustainable communities’, which 

seems to mean a lot of different things at 

any one time. What it means for the lowdemand 

areas is locations that can look after themselves, and 

won’t need endless repeated help year after year – or until, as in 

the case of Newcastle’s West End, they cannot sustain anyway 

despite the resources directed at them. 

Our experience on this issue of place has stressed how finegrained 

the analysis needs to be. Stability, and the sense of 

stability, varies almost street by street, and certainly estate by 

estate. The interaction of stock type and location produces a very 

complex pattern – which the Pathfinders have to understand 

if they are to work with the grain of community confidence, 

market value, and neighbourhood sustainability. Many of the 

analyses so far have been quite top-down and quantitative; but 

the responses will need to be very localised, and build on how it 

feels (and can be improved / stabilised) at hyper-local level. 

THE NATURE OF DEMAND 

Underlying the local analyses, of course, are the ‘big numbers’ of 

long-term trends in population, household choice and the areas’ 

economies. The inner core of the Potteries has not collapsed 

just because it has older terraced stock in tight little streets – so 

does Chelsea, so does Durham City. The ceramics industry has 

shed half its jobs in a decade; coalmining has ended; so has steel; 

and tyre making is more or less over. For many of these places, 

their original raison d’etre now barely exists; the jobs that are 

there are as likely to be on business parks on the outskirts as 

within walking distance; and the house price maps show this 

very cruelly. It is essential that the pathfinders situate their 

local remedies within a realistic assessment of sub-regional 

prospects: or else each local area will be chasing targets which 

are impossible to achieve in a broader demand context. 

COMPETING SUPPLY 

This is particularly true, of course, where the old inner cores 

are competing with a flood of new-build competition on the 

outskirts. This is unfortunately pretty much the case everywhere 

in the North and Midlands, since until recently planners saw 

no contradiction between large new greenfield allocations and 

their own worthy aspirations for inner-city regeneration. But in 

some of the regions, and notably the North East, it is a zero-sum 

game: you can more or less say that for every new-build consent 

you give, you are deciding to pull a house down. Stoke has an 


eight year pipeline of new build approvals and allocations, 

which makes encouraging rebuilding or refurbishment on 

difficult inner sites that much harder; Newcastle is still releasing 

land on the greenfield ‘Great Park’ suburb despite the scale 

of demolitions that have devastated the West End; Burnley’s 

residents can choose new cheap housing on the outskirts which 

is bound to make central area terraces look a very poor deal. 

People are making rational choices, in terms of the stock, the 

places and the tenures on offer – but the planning system has 

done very little to restrain the eminently foreseeable effects of 

simply responding to expressed market demand without any 

attempt to balance the other consequences. 

TOPIC 

ASPIRATIONS 

This brings us to the knotty issue of household aspirations. A 

simple view of the choices would say that - especially in England, 

dominated as it is by the idyll of the rose-covered country cottage 

- these old places, these old houses are simply not what people 

want. Household surveys (in North Staffs, for example) give a 

more nuanced picture. Even there, not everyone has given up on 

the Burslem, Tunstall, or Longton – not everyone is dying to live 

in Cheadle or Alsager or Uttoxeter. There is a role for the older, 

inner places and their housing, for some people, at some stages 

in their lives at least, meeting particular needs (convenience, 

community, liveliness, variety of house sizes, etc). But they now 

have to earn that role: not default into it as they did when the mill 

was in the next street and nobody had a car. So the pathfinders’ 

job is partly to define what the new roles are, what the quality of 

place is to be, and what and how much of each stock type is likely 

to be needed. 

THE ROLE OF URBAN DESIGN 

What then is the role of urban design in this complex of issues? 

The CURS studies and the NHF bid to the Government both 

stressed the need for good urban design as part of the response 

needed. The ‘Urban Renaissance’ agenda since the Rogers’ Task 

Force has meant that this is much more widely accepted, and not 

just by built-environment professionals; and the guidance on, 

and briefs for, the pathfinder consultancies required responses 

to include ‘light touch master planning’ – not just housing and 

financial programming. The urban design output in North 

Staffs (by Llewelyn Davies) was commended in the Audit 

Commission’s recent report on the pathfinder Prospectus; the 

Edaw work for West Hull is a model of good quality urban design 

analysis at the ‘Area Development Framework’ level – the work is 

being done, and it is deploying the strengths and skills of urban 

design practice to understand context, identify how a sense of 

place can be engendered, and provide physical/design guidance 

for the housing-led interventions that will follow. 

An important role for the urban designers, working with the 

other disciplines engaged, is in identifying each area’s assets; 

reinforcing and using them in the planning effort; identifying 

the ‘case for change’; and accepting/explaining that some areas 

will not actually make it – or certainly not in anything like their 

historic form. 

The strengths will be as much in the ability to pull the 

choices together intelligently, as in the expression of highlydetailed 

housing design expectations or codes. A sharp example 

of this came in North Staffs: resources allocated for a possible 

Design Guide were to support what might be called strategic 

urban design – in order to give a policy context for all the local 

planning work – major issues of choice on hierarchy of centres, 

green space strategy, relationship of transport and economic 

development, had to be given physical expression before more 

detailed area and neighbourhood studies could proceed with 

confidence. 

AND FINALLY 

The pathfinders are now moving into a 

new phase which mixes more detailed 

planning with securing some visible ‘early 

wins’ to demonstrate that the programmes 

are visibly under way. The role of and need 

for urban design skills will remain a high 

priority. But there is a real question about 

how that is to be secured and deployed. 

Local planning departments are stretched 

to the limits; the main consultancy effort 

is seen as being over; the temptation (ever 

seductive, particularly in low-demand 

areas) to accept any development, is always 

lurking ready to re-emerge and drive out 

the stated aspirations for new quality and 

neighbourhood sustainability; there is a long 

haul ahead for these 15-year programmes, 

and the ODPM has not necessarily thought 

its way into all the implications of the 

challenges that it has set. 

HMRA pathfinder is undoubtedly one 

of the great national initiatives, with 

ambitious goals and genuine social 

objectives. It needs sustained effort to 

maintain the drive, the quality and the 

distinctiveness that characterised its 

creation and initial phase. 

For urban designers, and all of us who 

work primarily on the physical and built 

environment, one final word of caution. 

We have to remember that, whatever we 

do on the supply side – in creating new 

and modernised products and places 

– what lies behind this is a low demand 

problem: supply-side answers will only 

take us so far, if we cannot get people to 

want to re-inhabit the places and spaces 

that pathfinder seeks to tackle. 

Martin Crookston, urban economist and planner and 

director of Llewelyn-Davies 

Above North Staffs - Diagram of average house prices 

early 2002. Pathfinder boundary dark line. Dark red 

highest value up to £170,000. Dark blue lowest from 

about £25,000. 

Opposite page Perspective of Community focus sketch 

for Walker Riverside, Newcastle upon Tyne by 

Llewelyn Davies for Places for People Group 


TOPIC 

TRANSFORMING SOUTH YORKSHIRE 

Peter O’Brien highlights the issues arising in this pathfinder area 

To many, the image of the nine housing 

market renewal pathfinders is one 

characterised by streets of abandoned 

terraces and an air of dereliction and 

decay. During the past 18 months, 

Transform South Yorkshire (TSY), 

the South Yorkshire pathfinder, has 

welcomed a multitude of government 

officials, ministers and representatives 

from regeneration organisations. The first 

part of the tour has occasionally been 

accompanied by puzzled looks, as the 

streets of abandoned, boarded up houses, 

characteristic of many of the other 

pathfinders, fail to appear. 

South Yorkshire does not conform 

to the stereotypical view of the 

HMR pathfinders. The area has not 

experienced the type of market collapse 

evident in other parts of the north and 

Midlands; it is characterised by a large 

number of pockets of low demand, 

especially for social housing, and many 

neighbourhoods are at risk of major 

decline if action is not taken urgently. 

So, as the largest pathfinder, 

embracing almost 140,000 homes, a 

population of over 306,000 and covering 

parts of the Barnsley, Doncaster, 

Rotherham and Sheffield local authority 

areas, what does low demand and market 

failure mean in South Yorkshire, and how 

are the issues being addressed? 

The headline statistics show 86 per cent of the housing stock 

‘at risk’, 43 per cent socially rented, and a mere nine per cent 

detached houses. Values averaged less than £46,000 in 2002, 

compared with over £80,000 in the remainder of South Yorkshire 

– itself hardly a high value area. And the disparity is increasing: 

price rises between 1996 and 2002 lagged 13 per cent between 

those in the sub-region. Yet paradoxically, overall less than five 

per cent of dwellings are vacant, contrasting starkly with the 10 

to 15 per cent void rates experienced elsewhere in the northern 

cities. The housing market in South Yorkshire is failing, but 

crisis point has yet to be reached. This context has provided 

the pathfinder with the opportunity to demonstrate that 

preventative intervention can be successful, and that a thriving 

housing market is an essential ingredient to successful economic 

regeneration. 

To understand the dynamics of the housing market, an 

appreciation of the changing economic and demographic 

fortunes of South Yorkshire is essential. In the mid 1980s, the 

Dearne Valley had 12 collieries, employing over 11,000 people; 

it now has none. A quarter of all jobs in Sheffield were lost. By 

1998, GDP in South Yorkshire was only 74 per cent of the UK 

average, with levels of economic inactivity reaching 42 per cent 

in the pathfinder. In the 10 years after 1991, the population of the 

pathfinder fell by 4.4 per cent (and up to 35 per cent in parts of 

Doncaster) - with the highest rate of loss amongst the 25-44 age 

group. 

Yet since those dismal days, a growing range of imaginative 

regeneration initiatives, supported by government and by the 

European Union has seen over 2,000 net new jobs being created 

each year in Sheffield, with unemployment now less than one 

per cent above the national rate, and GDP increasing faster 


TOPIC 

than in almost any other regional city. Significantly however, 

the pathfinder has largely missed out on the benefits of this 

economic resurgence. Its neighbourhoods and housing remain 

intractably wedded to history and geology, proving stubbornly 

resistant to change, becoming a symbol of economic exclusion. 

The pathfinder is constituted as a voluntary partnership, with 

governance exercised through a board with representatives from 

the private sector housbuilders, the local strategic partnerships, 

mortgage lenders, housing associations, the Government Office 

for Yorkshire and the Humber, Yorkshire Forward (the RDA), 

English Partnerships and the four local authorities. There is a 

small central executive team responsible for the co-ordination 

of strategy and delivery, whilst the local authorities have each 

established HMR teams – using pathfinder funding. 

At an early stage in its life, the pathfinder recognised that 

the nature of housing market failure in South Yorkshire, and 

the issues that underlie this, were as much to do with planning 

and urban design as they were to do with housing per se. The 

appointment of a planning and design advisor to the executive 

team has ensured that the links between the two disciplines – so 

often referred to but rarely made in practice – are effectively 

achieved. 

OBJECTIVES 

Determined to make to make explicit the link between the subregional 

economy and a successful housing market, TSY adopted 

a single aim, ‘to build and support sustainable communities 

and successful neighbourhoods where the quality and choice of 

housing underpins a buoyant economy and an improved quality 

of life’. Drawing on the evidence base, and particularly the 

‘drivers of housing market change’, resulted in the adoption of 

three strategic objectives: 

• a radical improvement in the character 

and diversity of neighbourhoods, helping 

to secure a more sustainable settlement 

pattern 

• an expansion of the range of housing in 

the pathfinder, and increasing housing 

choice to meet the needs of existing, 

emerging and incoming households 

• an improvement in housing quality, 

ensuring that all tenures capitalise 

on the opportunities created through 

innovations in design standards and 

efficiency. 

To ensure that the pathfinder’s 

investment is channelled coherently 

and in a focussed way, and to drive 

forward each of the strategic objectives, 

interventions were further grouped 

together under six key themes. 

Interpreting the strategic objectives 

and key themes at a local (neighbourhood 

and community) level was achieved 

through the preparation of 10 area 

development frameworks. These 

ranged in size from Mexborough/ 

Conisborough/Denaby/Edlington in 

the Dearne Valley with a population 

of 87,000, to Rotherham town centre 

with a population of only 800. A further 

strategic development framework was 

also prepared, to take forward the ‘design 

agenda’ across the pathfinder as a whole. 

Above Mexborough 

masterplan and 

consultation area 

pilot projects 

1 Remodelling 

2 Masterplanning 

3 Security/ 

environmental work 

4 & 5 Demolition 

‘Early wins’ projects 

6 Renewal 

masterplanning 

7 Town centre action 

plan 

Opposite page New 

development in 

Norfolk Park, 

Sheffield - a 

well thought out 

framework can lead 

to excellence in 

design quality 


TOPIC 

The issue of the balance between 

housing supply and demand has never 

been far from the surface, and certainly 

featured prominently in the ODPM 

and Audit Commission’s scrutiny of 

the prospectus. Despite a declining 

population, the period 1991 – 2001 saw 

a net increase in dwellings in South 

Yorkshire of 22,000, whilst the number 

of households rose by only 11,000. This 

disparity appears to have been fuelled by 

housebuilding completion rates, which 

have been exceeding the RPG indicative 

target by an average of 27 per cent over 

the past five years. Here there was clear 

evidence of planning policies appearing 

to directly contribute to housing market 

weakness. 

Above Spatial strategy diagram: Urban service centres 

shown in red, Market towns shown in green, linear links 

indicated, black circles subject to neighbourhood review 

Responsibility for the ADFs was delegated to each of the four 

local authorities, although a common template was used to try 

to ensure consistency. As a result however, the content and level 

of detail varied considerably, reflecting both different approaches 

and philosophies; separate consultancy support was engaged 

by Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham whilst Sheffield used inhouse 

resources. 

During the development of TSY’s scheme prospectus, a 

number of issues came to the fore, emphasising the links 

between housing and planning policy, and the critical roles of 

spatial planning and of urban design. 

SCOPING STUDY 

Conscious of the fact that the pathfinder straddles four 

metropolitan planning authorities, TSY commissioned a scoping 

study of planning issues in the pathfinder. This highlighted the 

different approaches and policies pursued in relation to planning 

for housing; these included different local interpretations of 

PPG 3, the lack of a common methodology for urban capacity 

studies, different policies and formulae for the use of Section 

106 contributions and widely differing philosophies towards 

the provision of affordable housing. The study subsequently 

made 23 specific recommendations, both to address the issues 

of inconsistency and to give guidance to the pathfinder and its 

partner authorities as to how to most effectively harness the 

planning process to support housing market renewal. 

A second issue which was recognised early in the life of the 

pathfinder, was the inability of the regional planning guidance 

or the four unitary development plans to provide an adequate 

answer to the key question posed by TSY, namely ‘what will be 

the role and function of each settlement or neighbourhood in 

2016?’ To respond to this, the scheme prospectus incorporates 

a spatial strategy for the pathfinder. This recognises the clear 

link between successful housing markets and vibrant service 

centres. It defines a typology of such centres linked to future 

roles and functions, and the development principles that would 

be supported to achieve these roles. 

FRAMEWORKS 

Armed with this evidence base, and 

its spatial strategy, the pathfinder has 

been able to engage effectively with 

the preparation of the regional spatial 

strategy, and has been a leading partner 

in the development by the four local 

authorities of a clear and agreed spatial 

strategy vision for the South Yorkshire 

sub-region which looks forward to 

2021. Crucially too, it has been able to 

engage in the preparation of the new 

local development frameworks, assisted 

by its sponsorship of an assessment of 

the sustainability credentials of all the 

settlements in the sub-region. The early 

indications are encouraging. Low demand 

is at the top of the regional agenda 

(Yorkshire and the Humber also includes 

the Hull and East Riding pathfinder) 

and the local planning authorities are 

developing policy tools, including a 

new sequential test, to ensure that new 

housing development can be targeted 

into the pathfinder. 

The process of preparing the 10 

ADFs also revealed the way in which 

many planning policies and strategies 

in South Yorkshire were in danger of 

becoming detached from the sustainable 

communities agenda. The existing 

unitary development plans were fine in 

terms of over-arching policy statements, 

but lacked any sense of a ‘route map’ for 

change – essential if the HMR investment 

was to be effective and successful. 

Despite this, an innovative urban design 

framework has led the way to the highly 

successful redevelopment of Norfolk 

Park in Sheffield. Similarly, the series 

of neighbourhoods in Southey Green 

and Owlerton have been the subject of 

a long-term community led and design 

focussed regeneration initiative, inspired 

by a unique partnership between TSY, 

the Commission for Architecture and 

the Built Environment (CABE), and the 

community. 

In recognition of the success of this 


approach, TSY is currently sponsoring 

some 15 masterplanning projects in the 

pathfinder, all of which are anticipated 

to be completed by June 2005, so as to 

inform the bid for resources from 2006 

onwards. Targets for transformational 

change are incorporated into the briefs, 

focussing on the pathfinders strategic 

objectives. These will translate into 

hard outputs such as demolitions, 

neighbourhood remodelling, the 

diversification of housing type and 

tenure, new aspirational housing 

and investment in environmental 

infrastructure. A key outcome of this 

process is to give the settlements in 

the pathfinder a ‘competitive edge’ in 

terms of choice of location for existing, 

and more importantly, prospective 

future residents. When completed, they 

will sit alongside and complement the 

supporting planning policy frameworks. 

A final issue which the pathfinder 

has addressed head-on is that of design 

quality. A key challenge for local 

authorities is how to ensure that the 

principles of good design increasingly 

evident in their main urban centres 

are carried through to outlying 

suburbs. More importantly however, 

housebuilders have to be convinced 

that excellence in design is crucial if 

neighbourhoods are to be successfully 

transformed into attractive, vibrant 

places in which people really want to 

live. 

With the active support of the House 

Builders Federation nationally and 

CABE, the pathfinder is developing an 

ambitious and innovative programme 

which will replace the rhetoric of design 

quality by reality. Using the Building 

for Life standard as a benchmark, 

funding is proposed to support regional 

housebuilders to enhance their in-house 

technical and design capacity. Further, 

TSY has acknowledged that meeting 

the standard may incur additional costs 

which the market in the pathfinder 

cannot bear in the short term, and it 

plans to help to cover these. Further 

themes within the Design Quality 

Project, which has a budget of around 

£4 million for its initial two year life, 

include an education programme for 

prospective purchasers, an award scheme 

for local developers, an extension 

of the successful Southey/Owlerton 

neighbourhood design panel to other 

areas of the pathfinder and sponsorship 

of the design code pilot initiative in 

Rotherham town centre. 

In March of this year, TSY was 

successful in securing £71 million from 

the ODPM to support its programme 

through to March 2006. However, as 

the ODPM continually makes clear, 

renewing housing markets and achieving 

Radical action requires clear 

political and professional 

leadership – and the support of 

the communities themselves 

sustainable communities in the North and Midlands requires a 

long-term commitment. South Yorkshire is no exception, and 

current estimates are that funding in excess of £800 million will 

be required over the full 15-year programme. 

KEY LESSONS 

Just over 18 months into the life of the pathfinder, what key 

lessons and messages are beginning to emerge? 

Crucial is an appreciation that housing markets do 

not operate in a vacuum, and the link to the regional and 

sub-regional economies cannot be over-emphasised. And 

they certainly do not respect local authority or any other 

administrative boundaries. Ultimately markets respond to 

external economic factors and unless neighbourhoods can reposition 

themselves to take advantage of new opportunities, 

failure will set in to the point where one has to question the 

value for money of remedial action. Fortunately in South 

Yorkshire, failure is not yet endemic. 

Transform South Yorkshire has benefited from an excellent 

diagnosis of the issues that the pathfinder faces. Its challenge 

now is to address the very real and radical changes in policy 

that will be required to achieve the scale of transformation 

needed in the pathfinder area. The four South Yorkshire local 

authorities have a history of successful collaborative working, 

and have responded enthusiastically to the challenges that HMR 

brings. Bringing regional partners on board has been worth 

the effort, as they now understand how interdependent are 

successful economic regeneration, thriving housing markets 

and sustainable communities. Housing and planning in South 

Yorkshire are increasingly integrated, and in an area with 

such a dispersed settlement pattern, so necessarily are the 

transportation professionals. And design quality, from the use 

of urban design frameworks to innovations in individual house 

design, has become the common currency for the pathfinder. 

Gaps and problems of course remain. Key skills are in very 

short supply, in both the public and private sectors. Despite the 

pressures of delivery, the temptation to pull previously failed 

schemes out of the bottom drawer has to be resisted. Radical 

action requires clear political and professional leadership – and 

the support of the communities themselves. One important 

challenge that still remains for TSY is to engage effectively with 

the private sector, which has a crucial role to play in the longterm 

success of housing market renewal. Stimulating, harnessing 

and disseminating innovation are keys to achieving the prize 

of transforming and reinvigorating South Yorkshire’s housing 

markets. 

Peter O’Brien, Planning and Design Advisor, Transform South Yorkshire 

TOPIC 


TOPIC 

NEWCASTLE GATESHEAD PATHFINDER 

Michael Crilly outlines ongoing initiatives on Tyneside 

The test will be if the 

measures of success 

of the programme are 

qualitative, not 

simply empirically 

driven outputs 

Above Vernon Gracie, project architect on the 

redevelopment of the Byker estate 1969-1982, 

providing a guided tour of contemporary housing 

schemes in Stockholm (Bo02 Housing Expo, 

Hammarby Sjöstad, and Järla Sjö, Nacka) for a group 

of current Byker residents and ward councillors. 

Opposite page Walker Riverside is an ODPM pilot area 

for design coding. Diagram shows the aspects of the 

public and private realm to be coded. 

The establishment of a pathfinder 

programme in Newcastle and Gateshead 

can be misleading for those who don’t 

understand some of the peculiarities and 

complexities of the housing market in 

the north east of England. The core of the 

Tyneside conurbation, in common with 

most of the ‘core cities’, is a successful 

and growing housing market. Both 

municipalities have benefited from the 

attractions of the historic neo-classical 

city centre centred on Grainger Town and 

the qualities of ‘bluefield’ development 

sites on Newcastle’s East Quayside and 

south of the river at Gateshead’s Baltic 

Quays. This urban core is encircled by 

high value, middle class, liberal voting 

areas packed full of well maintained, 

high quality, high density Edwardian 

terraces and populated by established 

communities, families and graduates 

working in the growing sectors of the 

creative industries. 

Yet, similar housing in some areas to 

the west, east and south of the city centre 

have very different social characteristics 

that demonstrate the underlying features 

of the pathfinder area on Tyneside and 

the historical associations with working 

class housing. The geographical core 

of the pathfinder is centred along the 

riverside in areas close to the city centre 

that have traditionally been dominated 

by heavy industry and now contain 

large areas of homogenous low-cost and 

social housing. The private housing 

market in the area has been influenced 

by the stigma attached to the area, and 

particularly to the housing tenure, as 

much as the physical characteristics of 

the location or the housing types. Yet 

in contrast, the north east of England as 

a region is stabilising and, dependent 

upon the statistical evidence you refer 

to, actually growing in population and 

housing demand. In this context, there 

are growth areas and ‘hotspots’ in many 

of the peripheral market towns and 

suburbs. 

It is this regional urban context, one 

where the attraction of residential areas is 

heavily dependent upon socio-economic 

factors and typically complex and 

unpredictable, where the discipline of 

urban design is becoming one of the key 

regeneration professions. 

In an area where the underlying 

social factors and perceptions of the 

area are the primary causes of housing 

market decline, the challenge is to adopt 

a design-led approach to addressing 

location and tenure based stigma. As 

such, the Newcastle Gateshead pathfinder 

is not simply a physical programme of 

regeneration but one that has to be based 

on the identification and promotion of 

new housing markets. It is this thematic 

area of work where urban planning and 

design has begun exploring different 

approaches to identifying, testing and 

promoting new housing choices. Often 

these areas are deliberately not trying 

to compete with suburban forms of 

development but to establish or reevaluate 

complementary forms of urban 

development that help to restructure the 

social and tenure mix within many of 

the existing inner city communities and 

avoid potential residential displacement 

within the conurbation. 

The overall scale of change anticipated 

on Tyneside within the four different area 

frameworks is ambitious. While there 

are inevitable variations in emphasis 

between areas, the approach and value 

of urban design is gradually becoming 

evident through a variety of different 

projects. These are unfashionable in 

focusing upon different design and 

procurement processes, highlighting 


Walker Riverside is an ODPM pilot area for design coding. Diagram shows the aspects of the public and private realm to be coded. 

how the pathfinder approach is becoming based on a qualitative 

evidence base of market views and consumer preferences. 

Four distinctive examples of urban design as a process are 

outlined below. 

BYKER URBAN DESIGN COMPETITION 

The area framework plan for the East End of Newcastle has the 

strategic challenge to provide a more sustainable housing mix by 

introducing more owner occupation through a combination of 

new development and stock transfer. In the heart of this area is 

the Byker estate. The redevelopment of Byker, from 1969 to 1982, 

has an international reputation for innovative and sustainable 

design principles. It pioneered district heating, car free layouts, 

resilient and flexible design, community architecture and 

sustainable construction techniques. The national significance 

of the estate has led to a recent consultation around the proposed 

listing of the area. Yet, this is in an area subject to many social 

tensions and changes, where the level of local appreciation 

of the design and innovation of the estate is mixed. There are 

specific problem locations and buildings within the estate 

where demolition has been discussed and as a result provoking 

a level of debate with many opposing views between residents, 

local members, and professionals on the difficulties of urban 

regeneration in a stigmatised and soon to be listed housing 

estate. 

An international design competition has been launched to 

address the challenges for the regeneration of the estate with 

all of the restrictions and opportunities associated with the 

listing of the area. This competition is not architectural as most 

professionals would recognise a design competition, but a hybrid 

between sustainable design and a development competition. 

The judging panel for the competition draws together the 

same opposing views from professionals, local politicians and 

residents. However, this time, there is a level of commonality 

surrounding the desired approach to regeneration (carbon 

neutral development that is largely high density family housing). 

As members and residents have become involved from the 

outset of the competition, many have given their time to visit 

comparative schemes, in the UK and Sweden, which illustrate 

some of the potentially transferable aspects of sustainable design, 

family housing, tenure mix and management. 

The urban design process is learning from the innovations 

in community architecture and capacity building. It is also 

explicitly linking environmental performance and design in a 

hybrid competitive process (with a mix of social, qualitative and 

technical requirements as part of the assessment criteria), all of 

this testing municipal procurement and asset management. 

WALKER RIVERSIDE URBAN DESIGN CODE 

The largest regeneration programme in the East End of the 

City is at Walker Riverside. This is a partnership; between the 

City Council, the Community, the Places for People Group 

and Bellway Homes; this is likely to deliver 2,500 new homes, 

community facilities and significant investment in the public 

realm. The area is currently dominated by homogeneous 

inter-war social housing loosely based on garden suburb 

aesthetics. The area is one of the ODPM’s national pilot areas for 

the testing of urban design codes. 

The master plan for this regeneration area (soon to become 

public) is atypical of strategic plans as it has a higher level of 

uncertainty over individual development sites, clearance areas 

and phasing. This is very deliberate, as it sets out a process (rather 

than a prescriptive spatial plan) of incremental change, tenure 

diversification and intensification throughout the area. This 

incremental change will be based on core development and 

design principles. In this context, the role of an urban design 

code is partly to provide a level of certainty and commercial 

confidence in the quality and sustainability of the development, 

height of side 

buildings [m] 

first / second 

floor use [description] 

ground level use 

[description] 

height of first floor above 

grade [ground floor to 

ceiling height m] 

height of principal 

building [m] 

street furniture 

[description] 

tree type 

[description] 

front encroachment [m] 

footways 

[number / width m] 

planting pattern 

[description / seperation m] 

width of 

planting [m] 

total width of 

carriageway [m] 

kerb type 

[description / radius m] 

cycle lanes 


road speed 

[listed / design mph] 

moving lanes 


parking lanes 


front set back [m] 

total width of public 

area [m] 

side set back [m] 

if not site specific details. 

The fact that the area was initially 

built to a design code, albeit in a 

bastardised garden suburban form, 

has been partly responsible for the 

decision to develop a design code for 

the area. The use of a design code is also 

considered appropriate as the future of 

the area will largely remain dominated 

by this characteristic form of suburban 

development and one of the challenges is 

to achieve integration with the existing 

area. The design code is intended to 

be mandatory on several levels; as it 

becomes adopted as a Development Plan 

Document, as part of the legal contract 

between regeneration partners and as 

a condition of securing pathfinder and 

other public sector funding. 

The substantive aspects of the code 

are to establish acceptable design and 

environmental standards for new 

buildings, refurbishments and specifically 

the treatment of the public realm. There 

are also challenges in the development 

and appropriateness of a design code 

around the integration of sustainable 

principles (the minimum will be an ‘Ecohomes’ 

standard) and how this is likely to 

impact on both physical appearance and 

the level of affordability. There is an aim 

to ‘pepper-pot’ social/affordable housing 

throughout the area and to make them 

physically indistinguishable, something 

that will be achieved by the eventual 

tenure of individual housing only being 

determined after construction. 

INTERNATIONAL HOUSING EXPO 

The scale of the urban restructuring 

proposed in the West End of Newcastle 

is equally ambitious. Following on from 

a business plan, the area is currently 

subject to a large scale master planning 

exercise. All of the work to date suggests 

that the initial phases of the regeneration 

plan are potentially subject to the greatest 

risks, as they will be expected to establish 

a paradigm shift in sustainable and design 

standards within the city and the region. 

The long-term aim is to establish a 

mixed use, mixed tenure community 

that creates the ‘critical mass’ to support 

street lighting 

[description] 

boundary treatment 

[description] 

private area use 

[description] 

frontage coverage 

[% building frontage / plot width] 

average plot size [plot depth x frontage m] 

side encroachment [m] 

building type 

[description] 

depth of rear 

outbuilding [m] 

average plot coverage 

[% building footprint / plot 

size] 

rear set back [m] 

TOPIC 


TOPIC 

Above ‘Expo’ figure ground plan Kronsberg, Hannover 

essential services and facilities at a neighbourhood scale – the 

delivery of a sustainable community. The first phase will be 

concerned with addressing the level of area based stigma. 

Initial market research on housing in the West End of the city, 

quickly realised that any development would have to become 

‘world class’ in order to address the reputation of the area. The 

definition of what the over-used phrase of ‘world class’ actually 

means in practice has led to a broad benchmarking exercise in 

international housing expos and the production of a business 

case for a NExpo (a North East expo based on the postcodes from 

the pathfinder area). 

The idea of a housing expo operates on several levels. It is to 

provide a physical legacy of a range of examples of sustainable 

urban development, both refurbishment and new build, that 

are relevant to many of the northern cities; and to develop a 

marketing and promotion strategy (that includes short-term 

exhibition and promotional material) to address some of the 

social attitudes to living in the inner-city area and perhaps of 

particular sustainable housing types. 

SUSTAINABLE HOUSING PROJECT 

There are many smaller sites throughout the pathfinder area 

that are more typically urban ‘brownfield’ infill, where there are 

challenges to provide a locally complementary housing mix and 

additional choice, specifically a market for sustainable housing 

options. 

The city council is incorporating and encouraging sustainable 

design principles into a series of statutory planning briefs 

that are being applied to several of these public sector owned 

brownfield sites throughout key regeneration sites in the city’s 

pathfinder area. As there are limitations to what the planning 

system can provide on its own, these same principles are being 

used, this time on a mandatory basis, for the land owner’s brief 

within Newcastle City adopting principles for carbon neutral 

development. Each of the sites will be testing different tenure 

mix and a variety of housing types. All of these will aim to be 

constructed to ‘Passive House’ standards and using existing BRE 

sustainability standards. In changing the type of housing, it is 

inevitable that there will be a different approach required from 

developers that will influence and guide any approach to site 

marketing. Thus, the corporate approach to the commercial 

marketing of the development sites will be based upon a detailed 

analysis of the views of sustainable housing options by consumer 

focus groups of house buyers within the sub region and through 

testing with a variety of ‘bespoke’ and volume house builders. 

SUMMARY 

In the processes outlined above, there is a growing link between 

urban design and environmental sustainability that is explicit 

and directly derived from national urban and planning policies. 

The prevalent political confidence, 

that urban forms of development are 

inherently more sustainable and that 

they will become a marketing attraction 

for the regional housing market, is 

still to be proven. In a similar way, the 

assumption that design quality and 

innovation, even supported by the right 

type of marketing, can address locational 

stigma and compensate for higher 

density living in neighbourhoods with 

social problems and comparatively poor 

educational attainment levels may be 

slightly naive. 

The projects show how Tyneside is 

exploring sustainable housing options 

at a variety of different scales, aiming to 

generate a regional market for sustainable 

housing. In doing so, and attempting 

to mainstream existing sustainable 

technical and construction methods 

through a variety of delivery processes, 

there is a growing awareness of the 

importance and impact of political and 

socio-economic systems in the delivery 

of sustainable development. Often to 

achieve the sustainable urban option, 

there is the need to innovate and take 

risks in procurement and delivery process 

and not simply leave urban design 

as a physical discipline. Ultimately, 

the various processes are testing the 

policy tensions between community 

involvement, with all of the challenges 

around capacity building and devolving 

decision-making, and environmental 

sustainability. Urban designers need to 

be aware and responsive to these broader 

social and political concerns. 

Yet there is a danger that rather than 

aiming for the type of urban restructuring 

set out in the sustainable communities 

plan, where social mix is achieved 

through a variety of housing types, sizes 

and tenures that commercially safer 

options are pursued. 

If the pathfinder programme is 

unwilling to take risks and test the market 

potential for different forms of urban 

living, it may simply become another 

regeneration funding stream supported by 

sub-regional quangos. The test will be if 

the measures of success of the programme 

on Tyneside are qualitative, not simply 

empirically driven outputs based on 

the number of housing demolitions, 

completions and the audited approach to 

the use of public finances. At the moment 

the rhetoric and principles are sound, and 

there are several examples of innovation 

in design processes, but the priorities 

have yet to become consistently evident 

through the use of the extensive public 

resources available to the programme. 

Michael Crilly is Senior Urban Designer with 

Newcastle City Council. The views expressed in this 

article do not necessarily reflect those of Newcastle 

City Council. 


TOPIC 

THE LANDSCAPE CONTRIBUTION TO THE HOUSING 

MARKET RENEWAL PROCESS 

Richard Cass stresses the importance of developing a landscape strategy 

HMRAs present a range of tough, long-term problems. 

A real concern is that because of the political pressures to see 

progress and spend money, good long-term planning and a more 

enlightened, ‘holistic’ approach to land management and forms 

of development will not be possible. A key component in this is 

the time, commitment and money for good design and effective 

community involvement. 

The HMRA programme is based on a great deal of oftendetailed 

work going back a number of years, and they have long 

been recognised as presenting a particularly difficult range of 

problems. These vary with specific circumstances, but there are 

probably a number of common themes running through them, 

such as: poor housing condition; ownership and acquisition 

difficulties; poor environmental, social and economic conditions 

and performance; educational and health problems; crime and 

vandalism; low values and weak demand, resulting in lack 

of investment and a continuing spiral of decline; population 

loss and increased vacancy rates; decline and breakdown of 

public and community services and facilities; concentration of 

disadvantaged, underperforming communities, often involving 

ethnic minorities. 

LANDSCAPE STRATEGIES 

So far as HMRAs are concerned, a number of starting points can 

be identified: 

• They cover a large amount of land, often with an absolute 

shortage of open space, or with poor quality open space. 

• In restructuring these large urban areas, there is an opportunity 

for greenspace to be included as an important component in the 

new or re-modelled urban fabric. 

• There is an opportunity to consider comprehensively and 

creatively the role that open space plays, and how it can 

contribute to the regeneration. (Remember that the 19th century 

urban parks movement was based on two basic objectives 

– increasing land values and improving 

health – ‘plus ça change’). 

• In restructuring areas there may be 

opportunities to create open spaces which 

play a wider role than just within the 

HMRA. (Everton Park in Liverpool is a 

good example – see below). 

• There are big questions in relation to 

the design, use and management of open 

space. For example, private gardens, 

housing type and density, population mix, 

allotments, public or communal space 

and play areas. We should be ambitious 

in our goals of demonstrating the 

importance of good quality open space. 

• There are likely to be existing parks, 

river and canal corridors and other 

potential open space assets. They are 

often ignored or undervalued in priority, 

whereas they could provide a powerful 

stimulus for positive change if they are 

properly identified and resourced. 

Housing market renewal is about 

creating a viable, effective market, not 

propping up failing ones. Open space has 

a key role in removing environmental 

liabilities and creating a high quality 

context within which market confidence 

can be established. 

GREEN SPACE STRATEGIES 

CABE Space has been promoting the 

importance of open space to successful 

urban communities, and has recently 


TOPIC 

A commitment to, and 

understanding of, the 

importance of open space 

to the success of the 

HMRAs is essential 

• Support national, regional and local policy objectives. 

• Assist councils in using their powers to promote the economic, 

social and environmental well-being of the area. 

• Contribute to wider objectives of the council including 

improvements to the economy, housing, welfare, education, 

health, culture, planning, transport, regeneration, biodiversity, 

the environment and the public realm. 

• Be based on a robust assessment of needs and opportunities 

of the existing and future local community and current design, 

management and maintenance processes. 

• Support preparation of the Local Development Framework by 

identifying the spatial location and characteristics of existing 

parks and green space, addressing any deficiencies and making 

strategic linkages between networks of spaces. 

• Establish an action plan and implementation programme along 

with monitoring and review procedures. 

• Identify agreed design, management and maintenance 

principles and standards. 

• Define investment priorities to ensure that adequate capital 

and revenue funds are allocated to meet performance standards. 

• Provide the basis for the formation of collaborative 

partnerships both during the preparation of the strategy and as 

part of the long term management and maintenance of the parks 

and green spaces, recognising that there can be no ‘one size fits 

all’ policy. 

produced a good practice guide on the 

preparation of Green Space Strategies 1 . 

The author has been working for over 30 

years on the regeneration of traditional 

urban areas, and in most cases his 

approach is underpinned by a robust 

and strategic approach to promoting 

landscape as an essential component in 

the regeneration process. This experience 

has been used in work as a CABE Space 

Advisor helping local authorities 

preparing Green Space Strategies. 

A successful green space strategy 

should have a number of components: 

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF A GREEN SPACE STRATEGY 

The broad aims and objectives of the strategy are to: 

• Establish political and inter-departmental officer support for 

parks and green spaces and clear lines of responsibility. 

• Develop a clear and shared vision between politicians, officers, 

key partners, stakeholders and communities. 

• Understand the value of parks and green spaces in achieving 

corporate, strategic and community objectives. 

• Develop a cross-cutting policy framework for the protection, 

enhancement, accessibility and use of parks and green spaces, 

and their provision, design, management and maintenance. 

• Ensure that existing and future green spaces enhance the 

quality of life of local communities and the environment and 

promote greater civic pride and social inclusion. 

• Make sure that the green space network meets the needs of 

local people (both existing and future communities). 

• Maximise resources to support park improvements through 

external funding opportunities and allocation of revenue 

budgets. 

• Provide a clear framework for voluntary and community 

groups to contribute to ongoing management of green spaces. 

ESTABLISHING A SHARED VISION 

For local authorities, communities and organisations responsible 

for large land holdings, there are clear political and corporate 

advantages in preparing green space strategies. With the benefit 

of strong leadership, strategies can significantly contribute to the 

delivery of community strategies and they can enhance civic and 

social pride. 

To establish a shared vision that is central to any green space 

strategy it is important to: 

• Secure senior political support, with a political champion at 

cabinet, and chief officer level. 

• Form a cross departmental partnership team charged with the 

responsibility to both prepare and then deliver the strategy. 

• Establish wide stakeholder engagement during the 

development of the strategy and ownership at the stage of its 

approval. 

• Integrate with other corporate strategies, including health, 

education, culture, housing and social inclusion. 

• Appreciate the cross cutting advantages that green spaces offer 


in meeting other strategic objectives. 

• Involve the community at each stage 

of strategic preparation and afterwards 

as part of the monitoring and review 

process. 

Opposite page Aerial view before park created, 

compared with current situation 

Left and below Blackpool Health Village 

Urban context of area and perspective of proposal 

TOPIC 

APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES 

To demonstrate how a strategic approach 

to open space can be effective in bringing 

about a change in market perception 

and community health, two contrasting 

examples are briefly described from Cass 

Associates’ work. 

NORTH LIVERPOOL AND EVERTON PARK 

Liverpool has lost almost half of its 

population over the past half century. Not 

surprisingly, it now has large number of 

houses and large areas of land for which 

there is little demand. This is classic 

HMRA territory, and four have been 

declared within the city. 

A similar situation was faced in 1984, 

when the city council identified a series 

of regeneration priority areas, aimed 

primarily at dealing with substandard 

council housing stock. Cass Associates 

was commissioned to work on the largest 

of these, in an area in which physical 

regeneration was focussed on the creation 

of a new park – Everton Park. 

The project was carried out through 

a politically turbulent period, but it 

did succeed in replacing a large area of 

severely substandard housing, and put 

in its place a robust new landscape. It 

now provides a large new area of urban 

greenspace, which is well used and 

fiercely defended by the local community 

from what they see as insensitive and 

inappropriate development. 

The park was always intended as a 

catalyst for change, and a setting and 

‘container’ for new development. It was 

also designed to improve the connectivity 

and integration of what had been a 

severely dysfunctional part of the city. 

Entrances, routes and spaces are clearly 

defined and strong connections made to 

the surrounding urban areas. 

It has made a major contribution to 

reducing blight, transforming the 

environment and increasing property 

values over a wide area. It acts as a large 

new ‘green lung’ in a part of the city with a 

poor health record. It provides what must 

be amongst the most spectacular public 

views of any city anywhere, and in the 

Nature Garden, has the most heavily used 

area of greenspace anywhere in the city. 

HEALTH VILLAGE, BLACKPOOL 

At a much smaller scale, Cass Associates 

was recently invited to put proposals 

to Blackpool Council for a new Health 

Village, as the centre piece of the 

Talbot and Brunswick Integrated 

Neighbourhood Improvement project. 

Although not an HMRA, the area 

possesses many of the typical problems 

associated with them. This included a 

high density, grid-iron street pattern with 

no public open space. The Health Village 

involves the removal of a whole block 

of the grid, and then developing the site 

as a new area of community facilities, 

including a Tabini Sure Start with 

medical centre, pre-school and nursery, a 

community centre and a range of sporting 

and play facilities. 

Traditionally, security concerns mean 

that such uses are placed in strongly 

defended enclosures, with little real 

contact with their surroundings, and 

certainly no integration into the adjacent 

streets and spaces. Cass Associates’ 

approach has been to produce a design 

which meets the security concerns, 

but which reaches out and embraces 

the surrounding streets and spaces. All 

external spaces are strongly connected 

to the surrounding buildings, with clear, 

welcoming and easily supervised routes 

and access points. 

The master plan created a series of 

outdoor ‘rooms’, which provide for 

different members of the community. 

These include a range of play spaces and 

garden areas, an events area, and homezone 

style pedestrian priority streets. 

CONCLUSIONS 

These two projects, at very different 

scales, share some common themes. 

Both are in areas which had a range of 

complex and often severe problems. Both 

required major intervention, led by the 

local authority, into virtually all aspects 

of how they and their communities 

functioned. Both required an integrated 

approach to both planning and delivering 

the regeneration process, involving 

not just the local authorities, but other 

public sector providers and, of course, 

local people. And both required a strong 

commitment to radical change, and a 

belief that high quality open space is 

an essential pre-requisite for effective 

regeneration. 

A commitment to, and understanding 

of, the importance of open space to the 

success of the HMRAs is essential. This 

takes times, skill and money. It is time for 

those with skills to be making their voices 

heard more clearly amongst those of the 

politicians, housing experts, developers, 

planners, architects, surveyors, 

economists and highway engineers. 

HMRAs present a range of tough, longterm 

problems. A real concern is that 

because of the political pressures to see 

progress and spend money, good longterm 

planning and a more enlightened, 

‘holistic’ approach to land management 

and forms of development will not be 

possible. A key component in this is 

the time, commitment and money for 

good design and effective community 

involvement. 

Richard Cass, Principal of Cass Associates, Liverpool 

REFERENCES 

1. Green Space Strategies. A Good Practice Guide. 

CABE space 2004 


TOPIC 

THE HOUSING MARKET RENEWAL PROCESS 

Jim Chapman draws some conclusions from EDAW’s experience 

the ‘sharing philosophy’, being promoted 

by CABE and EP. 

There is a need for Local Strategic 

Partnerships to take ownership and 

commit to delivering programmes on 

a whole range of issues - not just the 

physical components. The partnerships 

must not become talking shops. 

Consultation to be effective must result 

in action. 

The importance of place can not 

be over emphasised. Which cities and 

towns should grow and which should 

shrink? It is important to stress identity 

and offer the individual choice. There 

is significant experience of the impact 

of major regeneration on re-structuring 

communities and decanting people 

within individual neighbourhoods. 

This information must be used with 

great care to consider migration and 

modes of travel. The debate in the House 

of Commons recently on a ten year 

transport strategy raised the importance 

and the sensitivity of these issues, and 

focuses on the need for long term robust 

planning approaches. 

The nine Housing Pathfinders announced in April 2002 were 

established to tackle identified areas of low demand covering 

some 700,000 homes. EDAW has been closely involved with the 

development of proposals for five of the nine pathfinder areas 

in Birmingham Sandwell, Manchester Salford, Merseyside, East 

Lancashire, Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire. 

SHARING EXPERIENCES 

Because of a lack of joined up policy within central, regional 

and local government, some authorities have made significant 

changes to their management structures integrating departments 

to form motivated and knowledgeable regeneration teams to 

respond to the programme and implement the new planning 

procedures. 

Who is the driving force for physical regeneration? Is it 

Government Offices, the Regional Development Agencies, 

English Partnerships, or CABE? All these organisations provide 

a plethora of well thought out strategies and design guidance. 

Teams are inundated daily with advice on all aspects of good 

practice. How do teams assimilate, respond and use this 

information. How do we ensure feedback not only for ourselves 

but into the ongoing pathfinder programmes? In our work in 

the Wirral, Sandwell and Sefton areas we have worked closely 

with the planners and urban designers to develop and establish 

quality standards, preparing frameworks to enable the ongoing 

developments. This work continues and is a fundamental part of 

MAJOR ISSUES 

The major problems we face in this 

massive and important programme 

include: 

• macro economic factors 

• backlog of terrace clearance from 1970s 

• concentration of low income and social 

problems 

• housing management issues and surplus 

council stock 

• sub-urbanisation of the city, fracturing 

effects and failure to address social 

problems, 

• loss of identity and lack of investment 

in quality of environment in 

neighbourhoods 

• in some areas planning policies still 

favouring flight to the suburbs. 

A range of measures from clearance 

to environmental improvements, 

refurbishment, and new development 

has been proposed for many areas. 

The objective for all the proposals is 

to firstly understand and establish the 

particular issues for the area concerned 

and endeavour to direct the market in 

these areas to a more sustainable position, 

removing their reliance upon public 

funding for survival and encouraging a 

situation in which private investment 

and maintenance is the norm. 

Despite an initial perception from 

most parties involved that ‘more radical’ 


proposals involving clearance of historic 

terraced stock was the only answer, a 

more mixed picture is emerging. Regional 

planning guidance must examine 

housing need at a local level. Our work 

on the East Lancashire towns strategy 

and our work with the CABE housing 

task force acknowledges the importance 

of different housing density targets 

and that no one solution will satisfy all 

conditions. An element of site clearance 

is needed to allow site assembly and to 

tackle significant local problems but low 

demand issues were often not related to 

building stock. In Sefton we presented 

a range of options, enabling officers and 

the community to debate the issues. 

Density has to be considered as part of 

the total mix and will include design, 

management, cost and sustainability. 

The presence of gap sites, poor levels 

of maintenance and an overall image 

of neglect are just as significant, with 

the access to jobs, open spaces, quality 

facilities and public transport being 

prime areas of concern. 

Our experience has been that in most 

of the pathfinder areas there are major 

hidden assets such as parks, waterways 

and public transport links which could be 

used to generate demand. A key element 

of the Area Development Frameworks is 

to identify these assets and build on their 

potential. Most of the examples shown 

have drawn on the natural assets of the 

sites which have been lost over time. 

We believe that it is essential to avoid 

an ad-hoc approach to intervention 

by preparing over-arching physical 

strategies and promoting interventions 

which establish quality standards and 

choice, and allow future adaptability. 

The plans prepared for North Manchester 

considered all aspects of the regeneration 

agenda and have evolved through the 

consultation programme focusing on the 

schemes to be implemented in the early 

phases. 

Consider the area as a whole focusing 

on the quality of the environment. Early 

investment may be necessary in the 

public realm to emphasise change and 

generate confidence for both residents 

and investors. There are many examples 

where this approach by the public sector 

has generated inward investment from 

the private sector. Generating community 

pride in an area is a vital factor in 

successful programmes. 

NEW PLANNING ACT 

Much of our work has focused on 

implementation related to the new 

Planning Act and the importance of 

integrating the consultation processes 

into the regeneration activity. We 

are required to prepare a hierarchy 

of development briefs based on 

Strategic Frameworks, through to area 

development frameworks, down to 

specific development sites. The strategic 

framework development brief, by its 

nature, will be a high level and flexible 

allowing it to evolve overtime within 

determined quality standards; it will 

contain design proposals and concepts. 

The neighbourhood briefs will be 

more specific and where appropriate 

have their own SPG. All of the projects 

illustrated have involved this approach 

and have developed as we and the officers 

involved have become more aware of 

the importance of raising design quality 

and the aspirations of the residents have 

become better informed through the 

consultation process. 

These plans will re-structure land 

use patterns and densities, utilise nonhousing 

land to consolidate potential 

sites and relate density and form. We have 

found that there is a desire to broaden 

housing choice in type, style and scale of 

dwellings. 

The recent work by CABE and 

publication of Design Reviewed projects 

describes the lessons learnt by those 

panels over the past three years on 

high density housing schemes, and 

confirms the importance that we share 

information in order to raise design 

quality. The report points out that design 

is one of many items in a complex mix of 

urban planning, architecture, finance and 

creativity, yet states that ‘good design is 

an essential ingredient of any successful 

housing scheme.’ 

Jim Chapman, EDAW 

There is a need 

for local strategic 

partnerships to take 

ownership and 

commit to delivering 

programmes on a 

whole range of issues 

- not just the 

physical components 

Above West Hull - Area Development Framework. 

Vision Plan identifying improved links and landscape 

opportunities with enhancement of arrival points 

shown in circles 

Opposite page North Manchester Framework Plan 

identifying open space links, employment and 

housing locations 

TOPIC 


TOPIC 

SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES AND AREA 

DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORKS 

Jim Cox describes Taylor Young’s experience in Birmingham, 

Sandwell and Hull 

aspirational and ‘self build’ properties, 

and a high build rate of new properties in 

recent years compared with the rest of the 

pathfinder area. 

Limited housing choice and changing 

aspirations mean that residents are 

increasingly migrating and this 

is constraining social diversity in 

Smethwick, increasing the rate of decline 

in existing properties and undermining 

the sustainability of communities. 

The concept of ‘low demand’ for housing has been around 

since the 1970s, but did not gain widespread recognition until 

the 1990s, culminating in Brendan Nevin’s ‘Changing Housing 

Markets and Urban Regeneration in the M62 Corridor’ (2001) 

and the Government’s ’Communities Plan’ (2003), which 

announced the creation of nine Housing Market Renewal (HMR) 

Pathfinders. Nevin’s report concluded that deprivation is not 

the driving factor that leads to area abandonment. Instead key 

drivers are based on monolithic provision or concentrations of 

neighbourhood characteristics: property tenure – for example on 

peripheral estates; particular dwelling types – including back of 

pavement pre 1919 terraces; elderly people dependent on benefit; 

and economic inactivity and unemployment. 

The HMR Pathfinders, and their constituent Area 

Development Framework (ADF) sub areas, vary from 

neighbourhoods scarred by housing market failure and 

abandonment to those with housing markets at risk which 

are vulnerable to the spreading cancer of abandonment. 

Taylor Young has worked with two of the HMR Pathfinders, in 

Birmingham Sandwell and Hull, preparing ADFs for Smethwick 

and East Hull – both areas ‘at risk’. The Birmingham Sandwell 

prospectus has now been approved along with £50 million. 

THE LOCAL HOUSING MARKET 

The housing market in Smethwick suffers from many of the 

monolithic provision issues highlighted by Nevin. These include 

a housing market dominated by pre 1919 terraced properties, 

making up to 52 per cent of the stock; 20 per cent fewer semidetached 

properties than the Birmingham and Sandwell average; 

and an oversupply of social housing and properties not meeting 

people’s requirements. The local housing market also presents 

a number of positives including the growth of the black and 

minority ethnic community and their requirements for larger, 

NEIGHBOURHOODS AS BUILDING 

BLOCKS 

The Smethwick area is diverse with six 

distinct communities providing the 

building blocks for the HMR strategy: 

• Cape Hill / ‘Windmill Eye’ – this gateway 

neighbourhood including a large swathe 

of social housing provides a significant 

opportunity to change the image of the 

whole of Smethwick. 

• Bearwood – located to the south of the 

area this part is already benefiting from 

the strong housing market in nearby 

Hagley Road; the potential exists to spread 

the benefits further into Smethwick. 

• Rood End – situated on the edge of 

the study area this neighbourhood is 

going through a significant period of 

demographic change and this provides 

the opportunity to target key problem 

areas and selectively restructure land use. 

• Smethwick – historically the heart of the 

area but isolated by road, rail, canal and a 

swathe of terraced housing; the potential 

exists to link the High Street more 

effectively with its catchment. 

• Brasshouse/Rolfe Street – a significant 

number of new houses are being built and 

proposed in this area; it is important that 

the infrastructure is planned to support 

an emerging balanced community. 

• Soho/Grove Lane – this area is a 

significant location for local employment, 

whilst also containing tracts of 

underused land on the Birmingham 

border; the potential exists to consolidate 

employment balanced with the 

opportunity to create new residential 

locations in conjunction with HMR 

proposals in Birmingham. 

FLAGSHIP PROJECTS, TRANSFORMATION 

AND DELIVERY 

The neighbourhood approach provides 

a strong framework for addressing the 

issues of sustainable communities. It 

is also important that key projects are 


identified and delivered to act as catalysts 

for change – change that achieves the 

long term transformation of areas where 

short term ad-hoc interventions have 

previously failed. 

In Smethwick, the Windmill Eye 

provides an opportunity to radically change 

the image and fortunes of the area. The area 

is dominated by post war social housing 

and significant Estate Action funding has 

been pumped into the area. However, 

the fundamental inward looking layout, 

a negative image and an oversupply of 

unpopular property types has meant that 

more radical intervention is required. 

The ADF proposes significant 

restructuring of the area including a 

reorientation towards more traditional 

streets. A key new route will provide a 

reinforced east-west link between a new 

heart for the area and the established 

Smethwick High Street. Pedestrian 

links to an enhanced Cape Hill local 

centre anchored by the new Asda based 

development will be improved. Over 

1,200 new properties are proposed to 

enable a balanced community to be 

developed. The eastern corner of the 

Windmill Eye, and the adjacent Cape Hill 

Brewery redevelopment, will provide a 

prominent positive gateway to the area 

entered from Birmingham, 15 minutes 

away. Initial clearance is underway and 

further preparatory work is required to 

engage with local people and develop 

more detailed proposals in the context of 

local planning policy. 

Balancing transformation and 

delivery is a common objective in 

many regeneration briefs. In areas 

such as Windmill Eye where previous 

interventions have failed, more radical 

intervention is needed. However, 

it is important to start with a clear 

understanding of the area’s assets, 

to take stakeholders along with the 

transformational agenda and to ensure 

that proposals have the potential 

to generate sustained interest from 

developers and funders. 

WHERE WILL THE PEOPLE WORK? 

The vast majority of HMR funds will need 

to be spent on housing projects. This 

targeting is supported by HMR research. 

However, although deprivation may not 

be the key driver in area abandonment, 

jobs, schools and quality of life issues are 

an important part of the bigger picture 

for sustaining successful communities. 

In Birmingham Sandwell great care 

has been taken in the prospectus 

preparation process to ensure that related 

regeneration initiatives and main stream 

activities are ‘lined up’ in support of 

housing market renewal. 

The HMR process has been running 

alongside the Unitary Development Plan 

(UDP) and local Town Plan timetables, 

and set within the context of regional and 

sub-regional studies. This has allowed a 

review of fundamental land use issues; 

increasing attractive areas of land 

available for residential development 

as part of a long term growth strategy, 

whilst ensuring that appropriate sites 

are available for employment uses and 

avoiding the emergence of dormitory 

areas. RegenCo Sandwell, the recently 

formed Urban Regeneration Company 

(URC), which overlaps the HMR area, is 

focusing on employment and physical 

regeneration issues with a similar 

transformational agenda. 

MOVING FORWARD 

The Housing Market Renewal (HMR) 

prospectus and Area Development 

Frameworks (ADF) provide a robust 

evidence base for intervention in the 

housing market and a broad spatial 

framework. The status of ADFs vary, 

many are not adopted by the host local 

authority and there is an issue here 

as to how they fit within the policy 

framework which is itself being reworked 

following the 2004 Planning Act. With 

significant initial funding approvals now 

in place progress will need to be made 

on development frameworks and briefs, 

design guidance, land assembly and 

ongoing engagement with communities 

and other stakeholders. HMR presents 

a once in a lifetime opportunity for 

areas that have suffered from long term 

decline and population loss. Despite the 

funding timetable pressures it is critical 

that quality, consensus and sustainability 

remain at the fore. 

Jim Fox, Associate Director at Taylor Young 

HMR presents a 

once in a lifetime 

opportunity for areas 

that have suffered 

from long term decline 

and population loss 

Above Hull & East Riding HMR Pathfinder 

Draft approach to mending certain layouts 

Opposite page Smethwick Area Framework 

Identifying neighbourhoods as building blocks and 

showing possible new connections 

TOPIC 


CASE STUDY 

Beacon Quality in Chelmsford 

Roger Estop describes the approach to obtain higher standards 

of development 

Chelmsford used its Beacon year to highlight what urban design 

means in a local planning authority in day-to-day practice. We 

concentrated on two themes: firstly getting better quality housing 

development and secondly, generating good public realm experiences in 

streets, parks, waterways and public buildings. 

The responsibility for achieving well-located, well-designed places 

falls to the local planning authority working with developers. It is 

a multiple challenge – rapid delivery of housing, more affordable 

homes, good design, higher densities and new ways of building. Urban 

designers in a local authority have a distinctive role – anticipating 

sites, setting the place-making objectives and guiding development 

forward via briefs, negotiation and enabling action. 

Chelmsford lies just outside the major growth areas proposed by the 

sustainable communities plan, but nevertheless faces a growth target of 

about 700 dwellings per year for the next 15 years. The borough council 

has embraced the dual challenge of higher densities and better quality 

and embedded urban design in its working practices. It has secured 

better quality housing on green field and brownfield sites, in numerous 

schemes of between 30-500 dwellings. 

Awarded Beacon Council status for quality of the built environment, 

Chelmsford has spent a year disseminating good practice to other 

councils - hosting conferences and visits, building a website and 

mentoring. The calendar kicked off with four urban space tours in last 

year’s urban design week and culminates in this year’s week with a 

study school with Anglia Polytechnic University. The council shared 

this privilege with the other two Beacon Councils for quality of the 

built environment, Cambridge and West Dorset. 

SUBURBAN EXPANSION 

Chelmsford’s suburban expansion was undistinguished until the 

1980s when influenced by the Essex Design Guide. Chelmsford built 

up its confidence in design and established a proactive approach 

to development. This was possible, firstly, through the eventual 

recognition by councillors that urban intensification goes hand in 

hand with design, a commitment expressed by a design champion at 

member level; secondly, through investing in a team of people with 

urban design skills and dedication to the area, including a public realm 

planner and graphic designer; and thirdly, cross-service team working 

between planning, highway adoption, housing and parks professionals. 

This makes all the difference to achieving better results in major 

developments. It helps that Chelmsford is prepared to adopt new green 

spaces and that the highway engineer is a creative member of the 

team. 

A major step change was putting in place the procedures for 

producing, approving and following-up supplementary planning 

guidance. The planning brief is the key urban design tool for 

influencing development proposals early. Where development is 

anticipated, planning briefs set principles and help unlock complex 

urban sites. We found that if a brief is well tuned to the site 

circumstances, context and concept-led, in time, succinct and graphic, 


Opposite page top left Continuous frontage: Housebuilders were persuaded to change 

their approach to green field development by designing buildings around spaces 

and creating areas of different character. Continuous frontage and hidden parking 

has become a standard expectation. This is Bellway Homes. 

Opposite page top right Lockside Marina and Springfield Basin: Residential 

development on neglected land next to the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation was 

built on earlier confidence in the waterside areas, with Higgins Homes. 

Opposite page bottom The Village: A high density development of houses and flats 

tested the perimeter block approach and revealed the necessity for mainstream 

developers to use architects, in this case PRP Architects working for Fairview New 

Homes. 

Left Plan of West Hanningfield Road: Redevelopment of a factory car park in Great 

Baddow. The layout followed a planning brief and extensive negotiation with the 

architect Reeves Bailey generating a highly satisfying scheme from Bryant Homes. 

Below Beaulieu Park: Areas like this ‘village street’ by Countryside define the 

character of major development at Beaulieu Park. 

CASE STUDY 

it will influence value, increase certainty and establish a design 

approach before negotiation. 

As well as area-wide frameworks, site briefs and masterplans for 

large development areas, Chelmsford has developed concept statements 

comprising a clear design approach and supporting principles to lead 

site layout. They are intended to be effective as soon as they are 

drafted, and gain increased status through the SPG approval process. 

In major developments, the council and developers are 

simultaneously both partners and opponents: councils on the one 

hand promoting and enabling development while at the same time 

challenging and negotiating form and content. Yet this tension is an 

essential part of achieving better quality, and local authorities need 

to make the most of this relationship. Establishing good working 

relationships with the major developers has been beneficial in making 

them familiar with how the council operates and for them to feel able 

to have a dialogue at any time. A working ethos of pre-application 

discussion is key to this, as well as post-permission monitoring during 

construction, on site, with the developer. 

We have seen how councils can change developer practices. 

In Chelmsford we have got volume housebuilders to appoint good 

architects, to modify or drop standard house types, and to design 

new house types and one-off buildings. Through negotiation, we 

have achieved neighbourhoods designed around public spaces, with 

continuous frontage, buildings turning corners and hiding car parking. 

On brownfield sites in ordinary awkward places it is the council’s 

job to insist on including non-residential uses and prompting scheme 

designers towards more efficient and ingenious layouts. Developers 

all know we are after high density but the council needs to make sure 

that it is workable and right for the site, using location and context 

to determine the limits on density. Chelmsford, like other councils, is 

establishing this tricky, qualitative, design-led approach in policy. 

vehicle paths hidden within good shared surfaces, and adopted areas 

hidden in blurred public/private demarcations in the surface treatment. 

For council urban designers, making better places in practice 

means always starting from scratch and tirelessly negotiating to make 

routes, spaces and blocks work; ensuring connectivity, continuity, 

containment of space, separation between public and private; making 

places safe and walkable. By working alongside development control, 

including a weekly design surgery, a positive approach can be nurtured, 

possibilities revealed and council influence increased. 

Chelmsford has paid great attention to the public dimension of 

new development by promoting good public spaces, public art, and 

public buildings. The council has worked with the university and 

the hospital on masterplans for long term programmes of change. 

Chelmsford has transformed its rivers and canal within the town 

from redundant waterways flanked by backs of development and 

car parks into successful public areas giving new vibrancy to the 

waterways themselves and the town centre generally. By means of 

restoration action followed by an area planning strategy, site briefs and 

negotiation, public access has increased and development opportunities 

exploited. Tentative initial investment led to developer enthusiasm. 

Waterway-related development has given a coherent character to the 

heart of the town and created new thriving residential, retail and 

leisure areas. 

The year of Beacon Council events is over but the lessons that 

Chelmsford shared with other councils can be found on its Beacon 

website www.chelmsfordbc.gov.uk/~beaconc/Beacon/B_home.htm. 

The website is being developed into a continuing resource for council 

urban designers and built environment staff. RUDI also has a useful 

resource, in a feature about Chelmsford www.rudi.net. 

Roger Estop, urban designer, Chelmsford Borough Council 

PUBLIC REALM 

Notable progress has been made with the design of public realm spaces. 

Highways have been treated as part of the landscape architecture; 


CASE STUDY 

Kings Lynn Regeneration 

David Thompson and Steve Logan describe proposals for the Nar Ouse area 

The Nar Ouse Regeneration Area, as it is properly called, became 

the fourth Millennium Community with the commitment of English 

Partnerships in 2001. It is, however, unusual among the so-called 

‘millennium’ regeneration projects, in that it is being brought forward 

in large measure by the private sector. The aim of this article is to 

identify the focus, which the private sector partner is bringing to the 

project in the mid-stage of its evolution. 

BACKGROUND 

The site is complex, traversed as it is from south to north by the 

formerly navigable River Nar, from SE in a north-westerly direction by a 

fenland drainage ditch, the Puny Drain, from NW to SE by a redundant 

branch railway line, and a new road, the NORR (Nar Ouse Regeneration 

Route) which meanders through the centre of the area from the 

junction with the bypass in the SW to an important traffic node in 

the NW, the Southgates roundabout. The original masterplan by David 

Lock Associates identified plots for development, within a strongly 

landscape-oriented concept, in which a swathe of fenland landscape 

was brought town-side of the bypass and the river, and drainage ditches 

were exploited to provide a landscape ‘signature’ to this new gateway 

into Kings Lynn. The masterplan proposed the siting of new community 

amenities on the east side of Saddlebow Road, at the interface between 

new and existing housing areas. 

Morston Assets, the new owner of the central portion covered by 

the masterplan, appointed its own design team and began the process 

of working with the development partners. Within a year, a revised 

masterplan had been prepared for public consultation by a steering 

group, covering the 70 acres south of Southgates Island, land either in 

the ownership of the developer or the borough council. 

The principal directions in which the developer’s team steered the 

vision were: 

• a more ‘urban’ scheme, particularly for the housing, and a higher 

overall density 

• the removal of topographic and landscaping elements which would 

result in severance, discontinuity, and lack of visibility 

• the adoption of home zones throughout the residential area, and 

• the introduction of community stewardship. 

DENSITY AND URBANITY 

The riverside provides a naturally desirable residential location, and the 

revised masterplan exploits this to the full, with three to five-storey 

elevations, punctuated at intervals in a manner reflecting the grain 

of historic King’s Lynn. The possible inclusion of a primary school and 

other community facilities within the ‘millennium’ housing was rejected 

to avoid further fragmentation of the residential area. Behind the river 

frontage residential densities rise to 70 dwellings/hectare, and provide 

for a mix of houses and flats, and up to 30 per cent affordable homes 

.The local authority has stipulated a parking ratio of 130 per cent, 

although the market is suggesting a higher ratio of 150 per cent. The 

developer has now appointed Ian Darby Partnership to prepare detailed 

plans for the housing. 

The developer argued strongly for complementary action to be taken 

within the existing residential areas to avoid ‘ghettoisation’. Finding 

the right site for the community facilities was proving problematic, and 

the right location for retail units was thought to be where they would 

be visible to the A47 and the NORR. Parallel investigations into the 

drainage network revealed the potential for infilling the Puny Drain, 

by means of up-stream measures. Land thus reclaimed would form a 

700 metres long, 50 metres wide, east-west spine straddling the two 

communities, and provide an ideal location for the school and a ‘linear 

local centre’. This will contain a food store. smaller A1 and A3 units, a 

healthy living centre, local professional services, and a new community 

hall on a site next to the proposed school. 

Revised masterplan proposals show a central park more defined in 

shape, and smaller, than in the original version, with good access to the 


CASE STUDY 

Opposite page far left Masterplan showing land use 

Opposite page left Masterplan site design structure showing community facilities on 

reclaimed land and revised landscape treatment 

Above left Computer generated image of riverside housing 

Above right Sketches of proposed home zones 

Right Landscape of the central park 

water’s edge. Water levels cannot be raised without creating headroom 

problems at existing bridges, so the banks have been modified. The 

developer team has also successfully argued for the removal of a 

redundant branch railway line and its embankment to improve the 

visibility from the new road of frontages in the employment park. 

The introduction of home zones throughout the new housing has 

been supported at county and borough levels for what will be the first 

application of home zones in Norfolk, and one of the largest in the 

country. Phil Jones Associates has provided the expert guidance on 

the home zone principle, and argued in favour of making the whole 

housing area (of up to 700 units) a nexus of connected home zones, 

accessed from four points. Maximum travel distances within the home 

zone comply with the IHIE guideline of 400 metres. 

COMMUNITY STEWARDSHIP 

Local community engagement has been central from the outset, and 

three of the local representatives are part of the active consultative 

group that sits on the steering group. The developer is also seeking to 

encourage local ‘ownership’ of, and responsibility for the environment 

and community facilities, and believes that an emphasis on private 

garden space would be inappropriate. The proposed housing layouts 

contain clusters of dwellings with back gardens, or ‘backs’ opening 

directly on to communal gardens. 

The masterplan envisages that the communal gardens, public open 

space, home zones, footpath and cycle routes and community facilities 

will be owned and managed by the community through a community 

management company in which each resident holds a share. It is 

envisaged that funding will be made up of a combination of commuted 

sums derived from development parcels, an annual contribution 

from the borough representing the saving derived from not having 

to maintain facilities, and commercial rents derived from selected 

community facilities, such as the community hall and football pitch. 

PURSUING THE VISION 

The developing masterplan is still subject to complex technical 

decisions such as decontamination, drainage, navigability of, and access 

to the river for maintenance, so the precise extent of gap-funding 

required is difficult to determine. Another challenge relates to the 

millennium housing standards, which have been found to add about 

five per cent to the cost of construction. It is not certain that this extra 

cost can be reflected in higher sales or rental prices in Kings Lynn, and 

how this should be dealt with is also the subject of continuing dialogue. 

EP is considering contributing to these extra costs. 

One of the 12 key requirements identified in the benchmark 

document Sustainable Communities: building for the future is ‘strong 

leadership to respond positively to change.’ The NORA Design Code also 

required developers to take a ‘fresh and innovative approach within 

the context of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk identity’. It is for others to 

evaluate with the benefit of hindsight whether the process of realising 

exemplar regeneration projects will have been facilitated by the 

particular procurement path being pursued at NORA. 

David Thompson and Steve Logan of LSI Architects with acknowledgments to David 

Dodge of Morston Assets, John Norton of the Borough Council, Eoghan Sheils of 

Sheils Flynn Ltd, and Phil Jones of Phil Jones Associates. 


BOOK REVIEWS 

ARTSCAPES - ART AS AN APPROACH TO CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPE 

LUCA GALOFARO 

WALKSCAPES - WALKING AS AN AESTHETIC PRACTICE 

FRANCESCO CARERI, EDITORIAL GUSTAV0 GILI BARCELONA 2002/3 C. £20 EACH 

ISBN 84-252-1841-1 

These two books form part of a new 

Land&Scape series presenting issues 

involving landscape in the widest 

sense of the word, narrated as a rich 

and complex theory rather than merely 

the physical entity. The text is in both 

Spanish and English interspersed with 

pages devoted to specific theories or 

projects and using a single colour in 

a positive and imaginative way. Both 

books are on the edge of what would 

be defined as urban design and I found 

Artscapes to be the more satisfying as 

it covered aspects that more directly 

related to public space. 

Artscape is defined as “intervention 

in the landscape based on an artistic 

approach” and the six chapters refer to 

examples including the work of Koolhaas, 

Whiteread, Christo, Eisenman, MVRDV 

and West 8. The chapters examine 

different approaches such as ‘A space 

to be discovered’, ‘Art and architecture 

as context’ and ‘Programming the land 

surface’. The book provides a vivid 

illustration of different approaches to 

the landscape and seems to suggest that 

architecture and an artistic approach 

can be brought back together; in this 

comment the term architecture would be 

better replaced by urban design. 

Walkscapes starts from a more 

theoretical base examining the nomadic 

background to settlement and seeing 

walking as an aesthetic tool “capable 

of modifying metropolitan spaces to be 

filled with meanings rather than things”. 

It looks at artistic movements such as 

Dada, Surrealism, Minimal art, Land 

Art and the Stalker Group. It suggests 

that “architecture can transform the 

path from anti-architecture into a 

resource... taking a step in the direction 

of the path”. The chapter on Land Walk 

demonstrates the ideas of Richard Long 

and Robert Smithson but the chapter on 

Transurbance describing the development 

of the modern city failed to register with 

me how the theories could be applied. 

John Billingham 

QUANTUM CITY 

AYSSAR ARIDA, ARCHITECTURAL PRESS 2002, PP 257, £20.99 

Ayssar Arida has clearly spent a lot of 

time coming to grips with quantum 

theory. Yet, like any other scientific 

analogy applied to the built environment 

and its evolution - it may be overambitious 

to apply complex quantum 

theory to urban design. 

One wonders if his definition of 

urban design is as complex and far 

reaching as quantum laws. He conceives 

it as ‘a multidimensional interdisciplinary 

interface, with the responsibility to 

manage and transform the interactions 

of the different aspects of urban life 

into a physical form; to provide society 

and the individual with the settings 

relevant to its current worldview, and to 

be positively active in its dissemination 

and adoption’. In a graph he opposes 

the linear design and planning process 

practised by modernists who can only 

deal with the past and the present with 

a fluid strategy to keep options open for 

future change at any point in time and 

space. Unfortunately, he quotes Shell 

as a successful scenario builder able to 

adjust to OPEC’s surprise strategies in 

the 1970s -although quantum theory 

seems to have led it astray more 

recently. It is questionable, therefore, 

whether laws which apply at subatomic 

scale are still relevant to the urban scale 

and its material objects. 

He dismisses mechanistic, 

reductionist scenario elimination or 

‘funnelling’ in favour of an iterative 

process between scenarios and 

strategies informed by ‘regret analysis’. 

Curiously he reverts to indicators (ie 

static predetermined quantities of 

measurement) to identify which scenario 

is being enacted. He concedes that this 

is not practised by the private sector, 

but could be applied to the public realm 

by engaging designers, builders and 

users (the latter unknown by definition 

in quantum terms?) throughout the 

process of implementation. Strangely, 

he approves of the ‘charrette’ approach 

to produce inspired proposals ‘far from 

equilibrium’ by bringing together a 

‘quantum’ team of specialists without 

specifying the make-up of its members. 

In his chapter on the quantum 

analysis of the urban realm, he resorts 

to Hillier’s arguably deterministic space 

syntax and equally mechanistic systems 

theory. He opposes duality with dualism; 

the latter a set of opposites and the 

former a continuum of complementary 

descriptions ranging from urban to rural, 

and from urban design to ‘quantum city’ 

and ‘res publica’ city. 

The book comes over as an earnest 

effort of a good student with a lot 

of time on his hands and a perhaps 

immature appetite. Who else would 

attempt to race through worldviews of 

cities and science, summarise quantum 

physics, link mathematical chaos to 

urban complexity, with some social 

sciences thrown in and, for good 

measure, branch out into feng shui, 

Tao, the cinema and the Cold War, and 

then try to link all these strands of 

philosophy, science, ideology and simple 

empirical and anecdotal observations to 

the built environment and its design? As 

usual for such all embracing attempts, 

their weakest part is the production of 

new recipes. In this case they resemble 

a mechanistic application of elements of 

quantum theory taken out of context and 

applied to the built form and its design. 

He proposes Legoland composition rules, 

albeit of the quantum variety for public 

space or public realm, without really 

clarifying the distinction between them. 

As the author says himself, his mindset 

is permeated by all these ideas. The 

problem is how to make some order at 

some time in some space – or in simple 

terms a realisable urban design – out of 

so much chaos? 

Judith Ryser 


DESIGNING BETTER BUILDINGS 

SEBASTIAN MACMILLAN (ED), SPON PRESS, £32.00 

ISBN 0-415-27260-2 

Contrary to the impression given by the 

title, this is not a technical handbook 

addressed at the construction industry. 

It deals with the role of the client, 

the effect of design on the end users, 

the value added by quality, and it 

attempts both to give advice and find 

objective (and quantifiable) criteria for 

the evaluation of design. It is strongly 

influenced by the ‘first’ Egan report, 

Rethinking Construction (1998). 

The book is a collection of papers by 

researchers and practitioners assembled 

in four parts with sometimes overlapping 

themes. The first deals with the clients 

and their role in achieving quality. Two 

chapters are particularly relevant: Bill 

Bordass’ discussion on how much can be 

learnt from Post Occupancy Evaluation 

(POE); and Dickon Robinson’s promotion 

of quality at every level and for all. 

Part 2 reports on case studies from 

the commercial/private world and the 

public sector, including education and 

health. John Rouse’s paper highlights 

the problems with current valuation 

methods and emphasises the need 

to find new ways of accounting for 

value. Matthew Carmona’s is the only 

chapter that deals with the value 

added specifically by urban design; 

he summarises the work that he did 

for CABE on the subject (see review in 

UDQ79, p43) and suggests that more 

research is needed on the subject. 

Part 3 deals with delivering better 

buildings and returns to the issue of 

analysing them after they have been 

used for a while, and from the point of 

view of the occupant. The feedback from 

this analysis should be used not only to 

improve later designs but to rethink the 

brief as well. Recommendations are also 

addressed to the construction industry. 

Part 4 deals with the difficulties in 

measuring design quality in economic 

terms: costs can be calculated but value 

is more elusive. Attempts have been 

made with Design Quality Indicators and 

these are discussed, most interestingly 

in Sunand Prasad’s wide ranging 

discussion. 

This book deals with very important 

issues and comes out at the right time, 

when spending needs to be justified and 

best value is measured in increasingly 

sophisticated ways. If good quality 

design is to be achieved more widely, 

the benefits need to be measurable 

in convincing ways, and the various 

contributors show how to achieve this. 

It can only be regretted that they mostly 

concentrate on the building itself rather 

than the place in which the building 

is located. The fact that they do not is 

probably an indication of the dearth of 

research in the field; almost the same 

questions asked about buildings need 

to be addressed for the public realm. 

Another task for CABE perhaps. 


BOOK REVIEWS 

CITIES WITHOUT CITIES: AN INTERPRETATION OF THE ZWISCHENSTADT 

THOMAS SIEVERTS, ROUTLEDGE SPON PRESS 2003, £22.50 

Architects, engineers and planners spent 

most of the 20th century grappling with 

the implications and effects of our use 

of private motor vehicles. Think of Otto 

Wagner’s proposals for Vienna’s Ring 

Strasse, the Futurists, Le Corbusier’s 

Plan Voisin, Soria y Matta’s Linear City, 

A E Smailes theory of the urban field, 

Kevin Lynch and Donald Appleyard’s 

The view from the road, Joel Garreau’s 

Edge City. All these directly or indirectly 

sought to make sense of, or reconcile, 

the city and the motor car. At best this 

history might be described as a kind of 

agonising punctuated by brief moments of 

ecstasy followed by remorse and a return to 

agonising. 

Even if we celebrate the speed and 

liberation the car brings, as the mist clears 

we begin to realise what we have done. The 

fun did not stop before we had a chance 

to do things that now cause us pain and 

regret. It is not just the immediate evils of 

the car - road deaths, noise and pollution 

- but what the car - and the HGV - have 

facilitated: sprawl, creeping suburbia, 

diffuse, extensive urbanism, megalopolitan 

city regions. Neither is the evil just the 

physical results but the patterns of social 

and economic interrelations that are both 

its cause and effect, which neatly rounds 

the sequence into a circular, self-reinforcing 

co-dependency typical of addiction. 

In Cities without Cities, Thomas 

Sieverts suggests our failure to come 

to terms with what we have done and, 

like good addicts, continue to do, is 

fundamentally rooted in an obstinate 

attachment to a conception of the city that 

has been overtaken by events. Sieverts calls 

on us to take a simple but difficult cure: to 

acknowledge and take responsibility for our 

habit and let go of the idealised conception 

of the compact city, essentially based on 

the fortified town. 

He lays out the reality of contemporary 

urban life: the constant travel for work, 

social interaction and recreation; the 

creeping social insularity; the strange 

political inversion of left and right 

around issues of globalisation and local 

distinctiveness. He also argues forcefully 

that the first step in the cure is to find 

the order within the apparent chaos and 

formulate a coherent mental image of 

contemporary urban form. The book is, in 

a sense, Sieverts’ attempt to do just that 

by elaborating a term that has become 

common in Germany, the Zwischenstadt 

(inadequately translated as something like 

‘in-between town’). To an extent the book 

is a definition of the term. His own point 

of reference and subject for examples is the 

Rhine-Main region around Stuttgart but 

he suggests the phenomenon is common 

globally including the Ruhr, the Randstad 

Tokyo/Osaka, Boston/Washington DC to 

name a few. 

While some points Sieverts makes 

are less convincing than others, 

his arguments are compelling. Most 

persuasive - and positive - is the 

conviction that the Zwischenstadt is 

not irretrievably awful but presents 

enormous potential in both social and 

design terms. In the end, the book 

challenges the reader to either realise 

that potential or remain a dependent and 

agonised addict. 

Karl Kropf 


INDEX 

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS 

John Billingham, architect and 

planner, formerly Director of Design 

and Development at Milton Keynes 

Development Corporation 

Sebastian Loew, architect and 

planner, writer and consultant, 

teaching at University of 

Westminster and in Paris 

Sherin Aminossehe, urban 

designer with Terry Farrell and 

Partners 

Louise Thomas, architect and 

urban designer, Technical Director 

with Scott Wilson 

Judith Ryser, researcher,journalist 

and writer on environmental and 

design issues 

Karl Kropf, head of spatial 

planning and research with Roger 

Evans Associates Ltd 

Alan Stones, architect, planner 

and urban designer 

Directory of practices, corporate 

organisations and urban design 

courses subscribing to this index. 

The following pages provide a service 

to potential clients when they are 

looking for specialist urban design 

advice, and to those considering 

taking an urban design course 

Those wishing to be included in 

future issues should 

contact the UDG, 70 Cowcross Street, 

London EC1M 6DG 

Tel 020 7250 0892 

Fax 020 7250 0872 

Email admin@udg.org.uk 

PRACTICE INDEX 

ACANTHUS FERGUSON MANN 

Royal Colonnade, 18 Great George Street, 

Bristol BS1 5RH 

Tel 0117 929 9293 

Fax 0117 929 9295 

Email admin@acanthusfm.co.uk 

Website www.acanthusfm.co.uk 

Contact George Ferguson 

Registered architects and urban 

designers. Masterplanning, new 

buildings, historic buildings, urban 

renewal, feasibility studies, exhibition 

design and inspiration. 

ALAN BAXTER & ASSOCIATES 

Consulting Engineers, 

70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ 

Tel 020 7250 1555 

Fax 020 7250 3022 

Email abaxter@alanbaxter.co.uk 

Website www.alanbaxter.co.uk 

Contact Alan Baxter FIStructE MICE MConsE 

An engineering and urban design 

practice with wide experience of new 

and existing buildings and complex 

urban issues. Particularly concerned 

with the thoughtful integration of 

buildings, infrastructure and movement, 

and the creation of places which are 

capable of simple and flexible renewal. 

ALLEN PYKE ASSOCIATES 

Urban Design, Landscape Architecture, 

Environmental Consultancy 

The Factory, 2 Acre Road, Kingston upon 

Thames, Surrey KT2 6EF 

Tel 020 8549 3434 

Fax 020 8547 1075 

Email info@allenpyke.co.uk 

Contact Duncan Ecob 

Innovative, responsive, committed, 

competitive. Process: Strategy, 

framework, masterplan, implement. 

Priorities: People, spaces, movement, 

culture. Places: regenerate, infill, 

extend, create. 

ANDREW MARTIN ASSOCIATES 

Croxton’s Mill, Little Waltham, Chelmsford, 

Essex CM3 3PJ 

Tel 01245 361611 

Fax 01245 362423 

Email ama@amaplanning.com 

Website www.amaplanning.com 

Contacts Andrew Martin / Richard Hall 

Strategic, local and masterplanning, 

urban design, project coordination and 

implementation, development briefs 

and detailed studies, historic buildings, 

conservation and urban regeneration 

and all forms of environmental impact 

assessment. 

ANTHONY REDDY ASSOCIATES 

Horton House, 46 Terenure Road, West 

Dublin 6W 

Tel 00 353 1 498 7000 

Fax 00 353 1 498 7001 

Email info@anthonyreddy.com 

Website www.anthonyreddy.com 

Contacts Tony Reddy / Brian O’Neill 

Architecture, planning, urban design, 

project management. Masterplanning, 

development frameworks, urban 

regeneration, town centre renewal, 

residential, and mixed-use development. 

ARNOLD LINDEN 

Chartered Architect, 

54 Upper Montagu Street, London W1H 1FP 

Tel 020 7723 7772 

Fax 020 7723 7774 

Contact Arnold Linden RIBA 

Dip Arch Dip TP 

Integrated regeneration through the 

participation in the creative process of 

the community and the public at large, 

of streets, buildings and places. 

ARUP SCOTLAND 

Scotstoun House, South Queensferry, 

Edinburgh EH30 4SE 

Tel 0131 331 1999 

Fax 0131 331 3730 

Email arup.edinburgh@arup.com 

Website www.arup.com 

Contact David Anderson 

Multidisciplinary consulting engineering 

practice in Aberdeen, Dundee, 

Edinburgh and Glasgow. Transport and 

environmental planning, infrastructure 

planning and design, civil and building 

engineering. 

ATKINS PLC 

Woodcote Grove, Ashley Road, Epsom, Surrey 

KT18 5BW 

Tel 01372 726140 

Fax 01372 740055 

Email atkinsinfo@atkinsglobal.com 

Contact Nicola Hamill (BA Hons) MAUD MLI 

Multi-disciplinary practice of urban 

planners, landscape designers, 

transport planners, urban designers, 

architects and environmental 

planners, specialising in masterplans, 

development frameworks and concepts, 

development briefs, environmental 

assessment, environmental 

improvements, town centre renewal, 

traffic management and contaminated 

land. See outside back cover. 

AUKETT ASSOCIATES 

2 Great Eastern Wharf, Parkgate Road, 

London SW11 4NT 

Tel 020 7924 4949 

Fax 020 7978 6720 

Email email@aukett.com 

Contact Nicholas Sweet 

We are a multi-disciplinary 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. 

AUSTIN-SMITH:LORD 

Architects Designers Planners Landscape 

Architects 

5–6 Bowood Court, Calver Road, Warrington, 

Cheshire WA2 8QZ 

Tel 01925 654441 

Fax 01925 414814 

Email aslwarrington@dial.pipex.com 

Contact Andy Smith 

Also in London, Cardiff and Glasgow 

Multi-disciplinary national practice with 

a specialist urban design unit backed 

by the landscape and core architectural 

units. Wide range and scale of projects 

providing briefing, concept development, 

masterplanning, design guidance, 

implementation and management. 

BABTIE GROUP 

School Green, Shinfield, Reading, Berks 

RG2 9XG 

Tel 0118 988 1555 

Fax 0118 988 1666 

Email urban.design@babtie.com 

Contacts Bettina Kirkham Dip TP BLD MLI 

Paul Townsend BSc (Hons) CEng 

MICE MCIT MIHT 

A truly ‘one-stop’ consultancy of 

landscape architects, architects, urban 

designers and planners specialising in 

town and landscape assessment, urban 

design frameworks, regeneration visions 

and strategies, quality public space 

design, integrated strategies of public 

consultation. 

BARTON WILLMORE PARTNERSHIP 

Beansheaf Farmhouse, Bourne Close, Calcot, 

Reading, Berks RG31 7BW 

Tel 0118 943 0000 

Fax 0118 943 0001 

Email 

masterplanning@bartonwillmore.co.uk 

Contact Clive Rand DipTP DipLA MRTPL MLI 

Urban design from concept through to 

implementation. Complex and sensitive 

sites, comprehensive and innovative 

design guides, urban regeneration, 

brownfield sites, and major urban 

expansions. 

THE BECKETT COMPANY 

Architecture and Urban Design 

Beauchamp Lodge, 73 Coten End, Warwick 

CV34 4NU 

Tel 01926 490220 

Fax 01926 490660 

Email 

beckett.architecture@btinternet.com 

Contacts Roger Beckett DArch, Dip TP, Dip 

Urban Design or Sarah Grierson BA 

Hons, Dip LA 

Waterside regeneration and community 

collaboration – our partnerled approach 

to the creation and repair of places turns 

the vision into a coherent reality. 

THE BELL CORNWELL PARTNERSHIP 

Oakview House, Station Road, Hook, 

Hampshire RG27 9TP 

Tel 01256 766673 

Fax 01256 768490 

Email savery@bell-cornwell.co.uk 

Website www.bell-cornwell.co.uk 

Contact Simon Avery 

Specialists in urban and masterplanning 

and the coordination of major 

development proposals. Advisors on 

development plan representations, 

planning applications and appeals. 

Professional witnesses at public 

inquiries. 

BELL FISCHER LANDSCAPE 

ARCHITECTS 

160 Chiltern Drive, Surbiton, Surrey KT5 8LS 

Tel 020 8390 6477 

Fax 020 8399 7903 

Email landscape@bellfischer.co.uk 

Contact Gordon Bell DipLA ALI 

Landscape architects with specialisms 

including urban design, urban 

regeneration and environmental 

planning throughout the UK and 

overseas. Quality assured practice. 

BENNETT URBAN PLANNING 

One America Street, London SE1 0NE 

Tel 020 7208 2082 

Fax 020 7208 2023 

Email mlowndes@tpbennett.co.uk 

Contact Mike Lowndes 

Development planning, urban design, 

conservation and masterplanning – 

making places and adding value through 

creative, intelligent, progressive, 

dynamic and joyful exploration. 


BISCOE & STANTON ARCHITECTS 

Studio 2 10 Bowling Green Lane, London 

EC1R 0BQ 

Tel 020 7490 7919 

Fax 020 7490 7929 

Email mail@biscoestanton.co.uk 

Contact Henry Shepherd 

As commercial and residential 

architects, we are especially interested 

in meeting the challenges of designing 

on urban sites, with mixed uses and 

higher densities; experienced in existing 

buildings and new construction. 

CHRIS BLANDFORD ASSOCIATES 

1 La Gare, 51 Surrey Row, London SE1 0BZ 

Tel 020 7928 8611 

Fax 020 7928 1181 

Email pbonds@cba.uk.net 

Website www.chris-blandford-assoc.com 

Contacts Chris Blandford and Philip Bonds 

Also at Uckfield 

Landscape architecture, environmental 

assessment, ecology, urban renewal, 

development economics, town planning, 

historic landscapes, conservation of 

cultural heritage. 

BLAMPIED & PARTNERS LTD 

Areen House 282 King Street, London 

W6 0SJ 

Tel 020 8563 9175 

Fax 020 8563 9176 

Email yvette.newton@blampied.co.uk 

Website www.blampied.co.uk 

Contact Clive Naylor 

Architectural masterplanning, urban 

design, tourism, education, commercial 

expertise United Kingdom and overseas. 

BROADWAY MALYAN ARCHITECTS 

3 Weybridge Business Park, Weybridge, 

Surrey KT15 2BW 

Tel 01932 845599 

Fax 01932 856206 

Email d.moore@broadwaymalyan.com 

Website www.broadwaymalyan.com 

Contact David Moore 

A multi-disciplinary practice providing 

the highest quality services in 

masterplanning, urban regeneration 

and funding. Planning, architecture, 

landscaping, interior design and 

sustainable energy efficient design. We 

also have offices in London, Reading, 

Southampton, Manchester, Lisbon, 

Madrid and Warsaw. 

BROCK CARMICHAEL ARCHITECTS 

19 Old Hall Street, Liverpool L3 9JQ 

Tel 0151 242 6222 

Fax 0151 326 4467 

Email office@brockcarmichael.co.uk 

Contact Michael Cosser 

Masterplans and development briefs. 

Mixed-use and brownfield regeneration 

projects. Design in historic and sensitive 

settings. Integrated environmental 

and landscape design skills via BCA 

Landscape. 

BUILDING DESIGN PARTNERSHIP 

16 Brewhouse Yard, Clerkenwell, London 

EC1V 4LJ 

Tel 020 7812 8000 

Fax 020 7812 8399 

Email aj-tindsley@bdp.com 

Website www.bdp.co.uk 

Contact Andrew Tindsley 

BDP offers town planning, 

masterplanning, urban design, 

landscape, regeneration and 

sustainability studies, and has teams 

based in London, Manchester and 

Belfast. 

B3 BURGESS LIMITED 

Castle Buildings, Womanby Street, Cardiff 

CF10 1RG 

Tel 029 20 342688 

Fax 029 20 384683 

Email paulvanner@b3.co.uk 

Website www.b3.co.uk 

Contact Paul Vanner 


site appraisals, masterplans, context 

studies, urban frameworks, development 

briefs and implementation strategies. 

Offices in Cardiff, Basingstoke, Newtown 

and Newcastle upon Tyne. 

BURNS + NICE 


Tel 020 7253 0808 

Fax 020 7253 0909 

Email bn@burnsnice.com 

Website www.burnsnice.com 

Contacts Marie Burns BA (Hons) MAUD 

DipLA MLI MIHT FRSA or 

Stephen Nice BA (Hons) MAUD 

Dip LD MLI MIHT 

Urban design, landscape architecture, 

environmental and transport planning. 

Masterplanning, design and public 

consultation for community-led 

regeneration including town centres, 

public open space, transport, 

infrastructure and commercial 

development projects. 

BURRELL FOLEY FISCHER 

York Central, 70–78 York Way, London 

N1 9AG 

Tel 020 7713 5333 

Fax 020 7713 5444 

Email mail@bff-architects.co.uk 

Website www.bff-architects.co.uk 

Contact John Burrell MA AADip RIBA FRSA 

Urban regeneration and arts and 

cultural buildings – museums, galleries, 

theatres, cinemas. Redevelopment of 

redundant estate land, urban housing. 

New settlements. New design in historic 

contexts. Waterfront buildings and 

strategies. 

BUSINESS LOCATION SERVICES LTD 

Innovative Urban Design and Planning 

2 Riverside House, Heron Way, Newham, 

Truro, Cornwall TR1 2XN 

Tel 01872 222777 

Fax 01872 222700 

Email blsltd@globalnet.co.uk 

Website www.bls.co.uk 

Contact Russell Dodge BSc(Hons) MRTPI 

BLS provides a multi-disciplinary 

approach to town planning, urban 

regeneration, grant funding, economic 

development and property consultancy. 

CAREY JONES ARCHITECTS 

Rose Wharf, 78 East Street, Leeds LS9 8EE 

Tel 0113 224 5000 

Fax 0113 224 5001 

Email chris.bailey@careyjones.com 

Contact Chris Bailey 

CDN PLANNING LTD 

77 Herbert Street, Pontardawe, Swansea 

SA8 4ED 

Tel 01792 830238 

Fax 01792 863895 

Email cdnplanning@btopenworld.com 

Website www.cdnplanning.com 

Contact Kedrick Davies DipTP DipUD(Dist) 

MRTPI 

Urban design, planning and 

development. Integration of landuse 

planning and urban design. 

Collaborative and community working 

to enhance the environment. Feasibility 

studies and design. 

CHAPMAN TAYLOR 

96 Kensington High Street, London 

W8 4SG 

Tel 020 7371 3000 

Fax 020 7371 1949 

Email ctlondon@chapmantaylor.com 

Website www.chapmantaylor.com 

Contact Adrian Griffiths and Paul Truman 

Chapman Taylor is an international 

firm of architects and urban designers 

specialising in mixed-use city centre 

regeneration projects throughout 

Europe. 

CHARTER CONSULTANTS 

ARCHITECTS 

2 St Stephen’s Court, 15-17 St Stephen Road, 

Bournemouth, Dorset BH2 6LA 

Tel 01202 554625 

Fax 01202 294007 

Email 

bournemouth@charter-architects.com 

Contact Martin Dobbs 

Architecture, urban design, 

masterplanning across numerous 

sectors; mixed use, residential, 

commercial, retail, education, health 

and government facilities. Based in four 

national offices with approximately 100 

staff. 

CIVIC DESIGN PARTNERSHIP 

22 Sussex Street, London SW1V 4RW 

Tel 020 7233 7419 

Fax 020 7931 8431 

Contact Peter J Heath 

Led since 1990 by architect and town 

planner Peter Heath, the practice 

undertakes all aspects of public realm 

projects throughout the UK for public 

and private sectors. Recent London 

projects include proposals for the 

setting of Parliament, regeneration in 

Fulham and pedestrianisation plans 

for Trafalgar and Parliament Squares. 

Specialisms also include lighting 

strategies, product design, street 

furniture manuals and design guides. 

CIVIX 

Exton Street, London SE1 8UE 

Tel 020 7620 1589 

Fax 020 7620 1592 

Email mail@civix.demon.co.uk 

Website www.civix.co.uk 

Contact Daniel Bone MA DipArch RIBA 

MRTPI MAPM 

Urban design, development planning 

and project management devising 

town centre appraisals, urban design 

frameworks, site development briefs, 

design guidelines, masterplans 

and management strategies for 

implementation. 

CLARKE KLEIN & CHAUDHURI 

ARCHITECTS 

5 Dryden Street, London WC2E 9NW 

Tel 020 7829 8460 

Fax 020 7240 5600 

Email info@ckcarchitects.com 

Contact Wendy Clarke 

Small design-led practice focusing on 

custom solutions for architectural, 

planning or urban design projects. 

Emphasis on research and detailed 

briefings to explore the potential for 

appropriate and innovative urban design 

proposals. 

COLIN BUCHANAN & PARTNERS 

Newcombe House, 45 Notting Hill Gate, 

London W11 3PB 

Tel 020 7309 7000 

Fax 020 7309 0906 

Email cbp@cbuchanan.co.uk 

Contact Michael Wrigley MSc, MRTPI, MCIT 

Planning, regeneration, urban design, 

transport and traffic management and 

market research from offices in London, 

Edinburgh, Bristol and Manchester. 

Specialism in area based regeneration, 

town centres and public realm design. 

COLOUR: URBAN DESIGN LIMITED 

Milburn House, Deans Street, 

Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1LE 

Tel 0191 242 4224 

Fax 0191 242 2442 

Email colour@colourudl.com 

Website www.colourudl.com 

Contact Peter Owens 

Concept to completion on site. Delivery 

of design oriented projects with full 

client participation. Contemporary 

public spaces, regeneration, 

development, masterplanning, 

residential, education and healthcare. 

COLVIN & MOGGRIDGE 

6 Seymour Place, London W1H 6BU 

Tel 020 7724 2417 

Fax 020 7724 2757 

Email london@colmog.co.uk 

Contacts Martin Bhatia (London) / Michael 

Ibbotson (Glos) 01367 860225 

Long established practice of landscape 

architects with expertise in the full 

range and complexity of projects 

including planning and design of public 

and private space in towns and cities. 

CONROY CROWE KELLY ARCHITECTS 

65 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, Ireland 

Tel 00 353 1 661 3990 

Fax 00 353 1 676 5715 

Email info@cck.ie 

Website www.cck.ie 

Contacts Clare Burke B Arch MSc UD MRIAI 

David Wright Dip Arch (Hons) Dip 

UD MRIAI 

Architecture, urban design, 

masterplanning, town village studies, 

urban frameworks. The practice 

advocates the design of mixed used 

residential developments with a strong 

identity and sense of place 

CONSERVATION ARCHITECTURE & 

PLANNING 

Wey House, Standford Lane, Headley, 

Hants GU35 8RH 

Tel 01420 472830 

Fax 01420 477346 

Email cap@capstudios.co.uk 

Contact Jack Warshaw, BArch Dip TP 

AADipCons ARB RIBA RTPI IHBC 

CAP connects urban design and 

conservation of good places. CAP is 

government approved. CAP’s clients 

cover all sectors nationwide. CAP 

accepts historic areas, regeneration, 

topic studies, buildings, settings, new 

design, conservation solutions and 

expert witness commissions. 

COOPER CROMAR 

Newton House, 457 Sauchiehall Street, 

Glasgow G2 3LG 

Tel 0141 332 2570 

Fax 0141 332 2580 

Email info@coopercromar.com 

Website www.coopercromar.com 

Architecture and urban design for inner 

city commercial, residential and offices. 

Masterplanning and feasibility studies 

for business and industrial parks. 

INDEX 


INDEX 

DAVID HUSKISSON ASSOCIATES 

17 Upper Grosvenor Road, Tunbridge Wells, 

Kent TN1 2DU 

Tel 01892 527828 

Fax 01892 510619 

Email dha@dha-landscape.co.uk 

Contact Rupert Lovell 

Landscape consultancy offering 

masterplanning, streetscape and urban 

park design, landscape design and 

implementation, estate restoration, 

environmental impact assessments and 

expert witness. Quality assured practice. 

DAVID LOCK ASSOCIATES LTD 

50 North Thirteenth Street, Central Milton 

Keynes, Milton Keynes MK9 3BP 

Tel 01908 666276 

Fax 01908 605747 

Email dla@dlamk.co.uk 

Contact Will Cousins DipArch DipUD RIBA 

Planning, urban design, architecture, 

land use and transportation planning. 

Urban regeneration, mixed use projects 

including town and city centres, urban 

expansion areas, new settlements and 

historic districts. Strategic planning 

studies, area development frameworks, 

development briefs, design guidelines, 

masterplanning, implementation 

strategies, environmental statements 

and public inquiries. 

DEGW PLC ARCHITECTS & 

CONSULTANTS 

8 Crinan Street, London N1 9SQ 

Tel 020 7239 7777 

Fax 020 7278 3613 

Email lnicolaou@degw.co.uk 

Website www.degw.co.uk 

Contact Lora Nicolaou 

Development planning and briefing. 

Masterplanning and urban design. 

Strategic briefing and space planning. 

Architecture and interiors. 

DENIS WILSON PARTNERSHIP 

Windsor House, 37 Windsor Street, Chertsey, 

Surrey KT16 8AT 

Tel 01932 569566 

Fax 01932 569531 

Email leslie.rivers@deniswilson.co.uk 

Contact Les Rivers 

A comprehensive transport and 

infrastructure consultancy service 

through all stages of development 

progression, from project conception, 

through planning, to implementation 

and operation. Transport solutions for 

development. 

DLA LANDSCAPE AND URBAN 

DESIGN 

6 Saw Mill Yard, Round Foundry, Holbeck, 

Leeds LS11 5DW 

Tel 0113 297 8400 

Fax 0113 297 8401 

Email info@dla-landscape.co.uk 

Website www.dla-landscape.co.uk 

Contact Chris Dykes 

Site evaluation, landscape and visual 

impact assessments, 3d modelling, 

urban design studies, development 

frameworks, site planning, landscape 

design, public consultation, contract 

documentation, cost advice and 

landscape management strategies. 

DPDS CONSULTING GROUP 

Old Bank House, 5 Devizes Road, Old Town, 

Swindon, Wilts SN1 4BJ 

Tel 01793 610222 

Fax 01793 512436 

Email dpds.swindon@dpds.co.uk 

Website www.dpds.co.uk 

Contact Les Durrant 

Town planning, environmental 

assessments, architecture, landscape 

architecture and urban design: 

innovative solutions in masterplanning, 

design guidance and development 

frameworks. 

DNA CONSULTANCY LTD 

Dulwich House, 24 North Malvern Road, 

Malvern, Worcestershire WR14 4LT 

Tel 01684 899061 

Email info@dnaconsultancy.com 

Website www.dnaconsultancy.com 

Contact Mark Newey 

Urban design practice providing a 

responsive and professional service 

by experienced urban designers from 

both landscape and architectural 

backgrounds. 

EATON WAYGOOD ASSOCIATES 

8 High Street, Stockport, Cheshire SK1 1EG 

Tel 0161 476 1060 

Fax 0161 476 1120 

Email 

terry@eatonwaygoodassociates.co.uk 

Contact Terry Eaton BA (Hons) Dip LD 

Environmental artists concerned with 

the fusion of art and public space in 

urban regeneration including sculpture, 

lighting and landscape architecture. 

EC HARRIS LLP 

The Royal Exchange, Manchester M2 7EH 

Tel 0161 214 0214 

Fax 0161 214 0215 

Email chris.standish@echarris.com 

Website www.echarris.com 

Contact Chris Standish 

Specialist in understanding the process 

of urban design. Engagement and 

empowerment of local stakeholders. 

Project management from a regeneration 

perspective. Early win projects. 

Community involvement strategies. 

Linking stakeholder needs in major 

mixed used projects. The value (£) of 

people to places. 

EDAW LTD 

ExpressNetworks Phase 2, 

3 George Leigh St Manchester M4 5DL 

Tel 0161 200 1860 

Fax 0161 236 3191 

Email chapmanj@edaw.co.uk 

Involved in the regeneration of 

Manchester, acting as design team 

leader for a multi-discipline team 

implementing the public realm, and 

advising the City of Liverpool on urban 

design. The practice specialises in 

urban design and regeneration projects, 

alongside the conventional architectural 

services. 

EDAW PLANNING 

1 Lindsey Street, London EC1A 9HP 

also at Glasgow and Colmar, France 

Tel 020 7700 9500 

Fax 020 770 9599 

Email edaweurope@edaw.com 

Contacts Bill Hanway BA M Arch AIA or 

Jason Prior BA Dip LA ALI 

Part of the EDAW Group providing 

urban design, land use planning, 

environmental planning and landscape 

architecture services throughout the 

UK and Europe. Particular expertise in 

market driven development frameworks, 

urban regeneration, masterplanning and 

implementation. 

ENTEC UK LTD 

Gables House Kenilworth Road, Leamington 

Spa, Warwicks CV32 6JX 

Tel 01926 439 000 

Fax 01926 439 010 

Email marketing@entecuk.co.uk 

Website www.entecuk.co.uk 

Contacts Nick Brant or Roger Mayblin 

Urban design, landscape architecture 

and development planning combined 

with broad based multidisciplinary 

environmental and engineering 

consultancy. Related expertise in 

sustainable development, ecology, 

archaeology, urban capacity studies, 

transportation, risk assessment, 

contaminated land remediation, air and 

noise quality assessment. 

FARMINGHAM MCCREADIE 

PARTNERSHIP 

4 Chester Street, Edinburgh EH3 7RA 

Tel 0131 625 5050 

Fax 0131 625 5051 

Email mail@tfmp.co.uk 

Contact Donald McCreadie 

Fully integrated multidisciplinary 

practice which specialises in delivering 

a high quality service in masterplanning, 

urban design, landscape design, 

development planning, architecture, 

sustainable design and energy efficient 

buildings and transportation – from 

inception through to implementation 

and management. 

FAULKNERBROWNS 

Dobson House, Northumbrian Way, Newcastle 

upon Tyne NE12 0QW 

Tel 0191 268 3007 

Fax 0191 268 5227 

Email info@faulknerbrowns.co.uk 

Contact Andrew Macdonald BA(Hons) 

Dip Arch (Dist) RIBA 

Architectural design services from 

inception to completion: Stages 

A–M RIBA plan of work. Expertise 

in transport, urban design, 

masterplanning, commercial and leisure 

projects. Interior and furniture design. 

CDM-planning supervisors. 

FAULKS PERRY CULLEY AND RECH 

Lockington Hall, Lockington, Derby DE74 

2RH 

Tel 01509 672772 

Fax 01509 674565 

Email tim.jackson@fpcr.co.uk 

Website www.fpcr.co.uk 

Contact Tim Jackson 

Integrated design and environmental 

practice of architects, landscape 

architects, urban designers 

and ecologists. Specialists in 

masterplanning, urban and mixed use 

regeneration, development frameworks, 

EIAs and public inquiries. 45 years 

experience of working extensively 

throughout the UK and overseas. 

FEILDEN CLEGG BRADLEY 

ARCHITECTS LLP 

Circus House, 21 Great Titchfield Street, 

London W1W 8BA 

Tel 020 7323 5737 

Fax 020 7323 5720 

Email pg@feildenclegg.com 

Website www.feildencleg.com 

Contacts Keith Bradley and Penny Garrett 

An architectural and urban design 

practice with particular expertise in 

education, housing, cultural projects, 

work places and urban regeneration. 

FITZROY ROBINSON LTD 

14 Devonshire Place, London W1G 7AE 

Tel 020 7636 8033 

Fax 020 7580 3996 

Email london@fitzroyrobinson.com 

Contact Alison Roennfeldt 

Fitzroy Robinson is an internationally 

established firm of architects who work 

primarily, although not exclusively, 

in the workplace, retail, hospitality, 

residential and masterplanning sectors. 

4D LANDSCAPE DESIGN 

PO Box 554, Bristol BS99 2AX 

Tel 0117 942 7943 

Fax 0117 914 6038 

Email 4DLD@4DLD.com 

Contact Michelle Lavelle 

Our design decisions are not based on 

any systematised approach, rather a 

considered response to the client, brief, 

site and budget. We endeavour to create 

spaces that make people feel special. 

FRAMEWORK ARCHITECTURE AND 

URBAN DESIGN 

140 Burton Road, Lincoln LN1 3LW 

Tel 01522 535383 

Fax 01522 535363 

Email fworkarch@yahoo.co.uk 

Contact Gregg Wilson 

Architecture and urban design. The 

fundamental approach of the practice 

is characterised by its commitment to 

the broader built environment. Work is 

born out of an interest in the particular 

dynamic of a place and the design 

opportunities presented. 

GILLESPIES 

Environment by Design 

GLASGOW 

21 Carlton Court, Glasgow G5 9JP 

Tel 0141 420 8200 

Fax 0141 429 8796 

Email admin.glasgow@gillespies.co.uk 

Contact Brian M Evans 

MANCHESTER 

Tel 0161 928 7715 

Fax 0161 927 7680 

Email 

admin.manchester@gillespies.co.uk 

Contact Fraser Teal 

OXFORD 

Tel 01865 326789 

Fax 01865 327070 

Email admin.oxford@gillespies.co.uk 

Contact Paul F Taylor 

Urban design, landscape architecture, 

architecture, planning, environmental 

assessment, planning supervisors and 

project management. 

GL HEARN PLANNING 

Leonard House, 5–7 Marshalsea Road, 

London SE1 1EP 

Tel 020 7450 4000 

Fax 020 7450 4010 

Email david_beardmore@glhearn.com 

Contact David Beardmore 

Masterplans and development briefs for 

new communities and brownfield sites; 

urban design framework studies; fine 

grain studies addressing public realm 

design and improvement. Specialists in 

retail and economic regeneration. 


GMW ARCHITECTS 

PO Box 1613, 239 Kensington High Street, 

London W8 6SL 

Tel 020 7937 8020 

Fax 020 7937 5815 

Email info@gmwp.co.uk 

Website www.gmw-architects.com 

Contact Terry Brown 

Land development appraisals. Urban 

planning and regeneration strategies. 

Formulation of development and 

design briefs including packaging to 

suit appropriate funding strategies. 

Masterplan design studies. Architecture 

and design management skills relevant 

to project partnering, framework 

agreements and multi-disciplinary 

teamwork. 

GOLDCREST HOMES PLC 

3 Hurlingham Business Park, Sullivan Road 

London SW6 3DU 

Tel 020 77317111 

Fax 020 7381 7782 

Email adams@goldcresthomes.co.uk 

Contact Alan Roake 

GREATER LONDON CONSULTANTS 

127 Beulah Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey 

CR7 8JJ 

Tel 020 8768 1417 

Fax 020 8771 9384 

Email jpa@btinternet.com 

Contact Dr John Parker Dip Arch ARIBA 

DipTP FRTPI FRSA 

Town planning, architecture, urban 

design and conservation related to: 

traffic schemes, pedestrians, townscape, 

security, town centres, masterplans, 

marina development and environmental 

impact assessment. 

HALCROW GROUP LTD 

44 Brook Green, Hammersmith, London 

W6 7BY 

Tel 020 7603 1618 

Fax 020 7603 5783 

Email shaheed@halcrow.com 

Website www.halcrow.com 

Contact Asad A Shaheed BA Arch MArch 

Award winning urban design 

consultancy, integrating planning, 

transport and environment. Full 

development cycle covering feasibility, 

concept, design and implementation. 

HALPERN PARTNERSHIP LTD 

The Royle Studios, 41 Wenlock Road, London 

N1 7SG 

Tel 020 7251 0781 

Fax 020 7251 9204 

Email info@halpern.uk.com 

Website www.halpern.uk.com 

Contact Greg Cooper DipTP DipUD MRTPI 

Metropolitan urban design solutions 

drawn from a multi-disciplinary studio 

of urban designers, architects, planners, 

and heritage architects. Full range of 

projects undertaken for public and 

private sector clients. 

HANKINSON DUCKETT ASSOCIATES 

Landscape Studio, Reading Road, Lower 

Basildon, Reading RG8 9NE 

Tel 01491 872185 

Fax 01491 874109 

Email consult@hda-enviro.co.uk 

Contacts Ian Hankinson Dip Arch, Moira 

Hankinson B Sc(Hons) DipLD FLI, 

Brian Duckett B Sc(Hons) M Phil 

MLI 

An environmental planning 

consultancy with landscape architects, 

architects and ecologists, providing 

a comprehensive approach which 

adds value through innovative 

solutions. Development planning, new 

settlements, environmental assessment, 

re-use of redundant buildings. 

HEPHER DIXON 

100 Temple Chambers, Temple Avenue, 

London EC4Y 0HP 

Tel 020 7353 0202 

Fax 020 7353 1818 

Email david.maddox@hepherdixon.co.uk 

Website www.hepherdixon.co.uk 

Hepher Dixon offers a full range of town 

planning and urban design services. 

These include housing capacity studies, 

masterplan work and development 

briefs. 

HOLMES PARTNERSHIP 

89 Minerva Street, Glasgow G3 8LE 

Tel 0141 204 2080 

Fax 0141 204 2082 

Email glasgow@holmespartnership.com 

Contact Harry Phillips 

Urban design, planning, renewal, 

development and feasibility studies. 

Sustainability and energy efficiency. 

Commercial, industrial, residential, 

health care, education, leisure, 

conservation and restoration. 

HYLAND EDGAR DRIVER 

One Wessex Way, Colden Common, 

Winchester, Hants SO21 1WG 

Tel 01962 711 600 

Fax 01962 713 945 

Email hed@heduk.com 

Website www.heduk.com 

Contact John Hyland 

Hyland Edgar Driver offers innovative 

problem solving, driven by cost 

efficiency and sustainability, combined 

with imagination and coherent aesthetic 

of the highest quality. 

INDIGO PLANNING LTD 

Queens House, Holly Road, Twickenham 

TW1 4EG 

Tel 0208 607 9511 

Fax 0208 607 6512 

Email info@indigoplanning.com 

Website www.indigoplanning.com 

INTELLIGENT SPACE 

81 Rivington Street, London EC2A 3AY 

Tel 020 7739 9729 

Fax 020 7739 9547 

Email eduxbury@intelligentspace.com 

Website www.intelligentspace.com 

Contact Elspeth Duxbury 

Planning analysis and support, 

pedestrian modelling, GIS and 

specialists in retail and urban 


JOHN ROSE ASSOCIATES 

The Old Pump House, Middlewood Road, 

Poynton, Cheshire SK12 1SH 

Tel 01625 873356 

Fax 01625 859459 

Email admin@johnroseassociates.co.uk 

Contact Colin Parry 

We have an enviable record of success 

including: development appraisals 

and strategies. Development plan 

representation and review. Planning 

appeals, enforcement and negotiation. 

Urban design, masterplanning and 

conservation. Urban capacity studies. 

JOHN THOMPSON AND PARTNERS 

Wren House, 43 Hatton Gardens, London 

EC1N 6EL 

Tel 020 7405 1211 

Fax 020 7405 1221 

Email jtplon@jtp.co.uk 

Contact John Thompson MA DipArch RIBA 

Multidisciplinary practice, working 

throughout the UK and Europe, 

specialising in architecture, urban 

design and masterplanning, urban 

regeneration, new settlements and 

community consultation; addressing 

the problems of physical, social and 

economic regeneration through 

collaborative interdisciplinary 

community based planning. 

JON ROWLAND URBAN DESIGN 

65 Hurst Rise Road, Oxford OX2 9HE 

Tel 01865 863642 

Fax 01865 863502 

Email jonrowland@jrud.demon.co.uk 

Website www.jrud.co.uk 

Contact Jon Rowland AADipl MA RIBA 

Urban design, urban regeneration, 

development frameworks, site 

appraisals, town centre studies, design 

guidance, public participation and 


KOETTER, KIM & ASSOCIATES (UK) 

LTD 

71 Kingsway, London WC2B 6ST 

Tel 020 7404 3377 

Fax 020 7404 3388 

Email office@kka.co.uk 

Website www.koetterkim.com 

KKA is pre-eminent in the planning 

movement of new urbanism, which seeks 

to enhance the sense of place, historical 

context and cultural continuity in the 

city. 

KPF 

13 Langley Street, London WC2H 9JG 

Tel 020 7836 6668 

Fax 020 7497 1175 

Email info@kpf.co.uk 

Website www.kpf.co.uk 

Contact Marjorie Rodney 

Architecture, urban planning, space 

planning, programming, building 

analysis, interior design, graphic design. 

LANDSCAPE DESIGN ASSOCIATES 

17 Minster Precincts, Peterborough PE1 1XX 

Tel 01733 310471 

Fax 01733 53661 

Email info@lda-peterborough.co.uk 

Contact Robert Tregay 

OXFORD 

Tel 01865 887050 

Fax 01865 887055 

Email 

Contact Roger Greenwood 

EXETER 

Tel 01392 411 300 

Fax 01392 411 308 

info@lda-oxford.co.uk 

Email mail@lda-exeter.co.uk 

Urban design, urban regeneration, 

development masterplanning, public 

realm strategies and town centre 

appraisals. development briefing, 

design guidance, design enabling and 

community initiatives. 

LAND USE CONSULTANTS 

43 Chalton Street, London NW1 1JD 

Tel 020 7383 5784 

Fax 020 7383 4798 

Email Luc@London.landuse.co.uk 

Website www.landuse.co.uk 

Contact Mark Lintell 

Urban regeneration, landscape 

design, masterplanning, sustainable 

development, land use planning, EIA, 

SEA in UK and overseas. Offices in 

London, Glasgow, Bristol. 

LATHAM ARCHITECTS 

St Michael’s, Queen Street, Derby DE1 3SU 

Tel 01332 365777 

Fax 01332 290314 

Email enquiries@lathamarchitects.co.uk 

Contact Derek Latham Dip Arch RIBA Dip TP 

MRTPI Dip LD MLI IHBC IHI FRSA 

The creative reuse of land and 

buildings. Planning, landscape and 

architectural expertise. Town and city 

centres, national parks, conservation 

areas, listed buildings, combining the 

new with the old. Masterplanning, 

development proposals, EIAs. 

LDA URBAN DESIGN 

15 Little Portland Street, London W1W 8BW 

Tel 020 7323 9523 

Fax 020 7637 9671 

Email info@lda-urbandesign.co.uk 

Contact John Phillips, Nick Shute 

EXETER 

Tel 01392 411300 

Fax 01392 411308 

Email info@lda-exeter.co.uk 

Contact Bernie Foulkes 

Other offices in Oxford and Peterborough 

Specialist urban design team of 

Landscape Design Associates. Urban 

regeneration, masterplanning, 

development briefs, public realm 

strategies, design guidance and 

community participation as well as 

landscape design and ecology. 

LEVITT BERNSTEIN ASSOCIATES LTD 

1 Kingsland Passage, London E8 2BB 

Tel 020 7275 7676 

Fax 020 7275 9348 

Email post@levittbernstein.co.uk 

Website www.levittbernstein.co.uk 

Contact Patrick Hammill 

Levitt Bernstein are acknowledged 

leaders in the fields of urban renewal, 

housing and buildings for the arts and 

winners of many awards. Services offered 

include urban design, masterplanning, 

full architectural service, lottery grant 

bid advice, interior design, urban 

renewal consultancy and landscape 

design. 

LHC URBAN DESIGN 

Design Studio, Emperor Way, Exeter Business 

Park, Exeter, Devon EX1 3QS 

Tel 01392 444334 

Fax 01392 445080 

Email jbaulch@ex.lhc.net 

Contact John Baulch 

Urban design analysis and frameworks. 

Masterplanning of greenfield and 

brownfield regeneration sites. Home 

zones: new build and retrofit. Visual 

impact studies. 

LIZ LAKE ASSOCIATES 

William Robinson Buildings, Woodfield 

Terrace, Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex 

CM24 8AJ 

Tel 01279 647044 

Fax 01279 813566 

Email office@lizlake.com 

Website www.lizlake.com 

Contact Matt Lee 

Urban fringe/brownfield sites where 

we can provide an holistic approach to 

urban design, landscape, and ecological 

issues to provide robust design 

solutions. 

LIVINGSTON EYRE ASSOCIATES 

35–42 Charlotte Road, London EC2A 3PD 

Tel 020 7739 1445 

Fax 020 7729 2986 

Email lea@livingstoneyre.co.uk 

Contact Laura Stone 

Landscape architecture, urban design, 

public housing, health, education, 

heritage, sports. 

LLEWELYN-DAVIES 

Brook House, 2 Torrington Place, London 

WC1E 7HN 

Tel 020 7637 0181 

Fax 020 7637 8740 

Email info@llewelyn-davies-ltd.com 

Contact Simon Gray 


development and masterplanning; 

urban regeneration, town centre and 

conservation studies; urban design 

briefs, landscape and public realm 

strategies. 

INDEX 


INDEX 

LOVEJOY 

Level Seven, 52 Grosvenor Gardens, 

Belgravia, London SW1W 0AU 

Also in Birmingham 

Tel 020 7901 9911 

Tel 0121 329 7976 

Fax 020 7901 9901 

Email enquiries@lovejoylondon.uk.com 

Contact David Blackwood Murray, 

Martin Kelly 

Land planners specialising in 

environmental planning, urban design 

and landscape architecture in the UK 

and overseas. 

LSI ARCHITECTS LLP 

The Old Drill Hall, 23 A Cattle Market Street, 

Norwich NR1 3DY 

Tel 01603 660711 

Fax 01603 623213 

Email 

david.Thompson@lsiarchitects.co.uk 

Contact David Thompson 

Large scale masterplanning and 

visualisation demonstrated in specific 

sectors such as health, education and 

business, and in detailed proposals 

for new sustainable settlements on 

brownfield sites, such as the 4th 

millennium village in King’s Lynn. 

LYONS + SLEEMAN + HOARE 

Nero Brewery, Cricket Green, Hartley 

Wintney, Hook, Hampshire RG27 8QA 

Tel 01252 844144 

Fax 01252 844800 

Email colindarby@lsharch.co.uk 

Contact Colin Darby BSc DipTP Dip Urban 

Design MRTPI 

Architecture, planning, masterplanning, 

urban design – commercial practice 

covering a broad spectrum of work 

– particularly design of buildings and 

spaces in urban and historic contexts. 

MACCORMAC JAMIESON PRICHARD 

9 Heneage Street, London E1 5LJ 

Tel 020 7377 9262 

Fax 020 7247 7854 

Email mjp@mjparchitects.co.uk 

Website www.mjparchitects.co.uk 

Contact David Prichard DipArch (Lond) 

RIBA 

Range from major masterplans to small, 

bespoke buildings. We have designed 

acclaimed contemporary buildings for 

historic centres of London, Cambridge, 

Oxford, Bristol and Durham. In Dublin, 

our Ballymun Regeneration masterplan 

won the Irish Planning Institute’s 

Planning Achievement Award. 

MCGREGOR SMITH LTD 

Christopher House, 11–12 High Street, Bath 

BA1 5AQ 

Tel 01225 464690 

Fax 01225 429962 

Email jan@macgregorsmith.co.uk 

Contact Jan Webb, Practice Manager 

A broad based landscape/urban design 

practice with considerable experience 

of masterplanning, detail design for 

construction, EIA work and urban 

regeneration studies, with particular 

emphasis on high quality prestige 

landscape schemes. 

MASON RICHARDS PLANNING 

155 Aztec, West Almondsbury, Bristol 

BS32 4NG 

Tel 01454 853000 

Fax 01454 858029 

Email planning@bristol.mrp.co.uk 

Website www.masonrichardsplanning.co.uk 

Contact Roger Ayton 

Sustainable strategies for residential 

and commercial development: 

brownfield regeneration, site promotion, 

development frameworks: detail design 

and implementation: development 

guides, design statements and planning 

enquiries for public and private sector. 

MATRIX PARTNERSHIP 


Tel 020 7250 3945 

Fax 020 7336 0467 

Email m.lally@matrixpartnership.co.uk 

Contact Matt Lally 

Matrix Partnership provides a fully 

integrated approach to urban design 

– combining planning, architecture 

and landscape. Work is focused on 

masterplans, regeneration strategies, 

development briefs, site appraisals, 

urban capacity studies, design 

guides, building codes and concept 

visualisations. 

MELVILLE DUNBAR ASSOCIATES 

The Mill House, Kings Acre, Coggeshall, Essex 

CO6 1NN 

Tel 01376 562828 

Email cad@mda-arch.demon.co.uk 

Contact Melville Dunbar 

Architecture, urban design, planning, 

masterplanning, new towns, new 

neighbourhoods, neighbourhood 

centres, urban regeneration, 

conservation studies, design guides, 

townscape studies, design briefs. 

MICHAEL AUKETT ARCHITECTS 

Atlantic Court, 77 Kings Road, London 

SW3 4NX 

Tel 020 7376 7525 

Fax 020 7376 5773 

Email mail@michaelaukett.com 

Website www.michaelaukett.com 

Contact David Roden RIBA 

Architectural, urban design and 

masterplanning services. Regeneration 

and development frameworks for mixed 

use, commercial, retail, residential, 

leisure, cultural, transport and business 

park developments. 

MILLER HUGHES ASSOCIATES LTD 

Old Post Office Mews, South Pallant, 

Chichester, West Sussex PO19 1XP 

Tel 01243 774748 

Fax 01243 532214 

Email mha@miller-hughes.co.uk 

Website www.miller-hughes.co.uk 

Contact David Aplin 

We are committed to the delivery of 

urban solutions which recognise cultural 

diversity and maximise social and 

economic benefits within a connected 

community. 

MONO CONSULTANTS 

32–34 Gt Titchfield St, London W1W 8BG 

Tel 020 7462 6940 

Fax 020 7462 6941 

Contact Simon Chapman 

Email 

simon.chapman@monoconsultants.com 

Planning consultancy; economic 

development and regeneration 

strategies. Provision of funding advice 

and application to a range of sources; 

environmental consultancy and advice 

including EIA. 

MOORE PIET + BROOKES 

33 Warple Mews, Warple Way, London 

W3 0RX 

Tel 020 8735 2990 

Fax 020 8735 2991 

Email mpb@moorepietandbrookes.co.uk 

Contact Colin Moore 

Regenerating the public realm 

environment to enhance the quality of 

people’s lives: strategies, masterplans, 

community participation, design guides, 

imaging and legibility. Implementation 

of town centre, streetscape, park, 

waterway, environmental and business 

area improvements. 

MURRAY O’LAOIRE ARCHITECTS 

Fumbally Court, Fumbally Lane, Dublin 8 

Tel 00 353 1 453 7300 

Fax 00 353 1 453 4062 

Email mail@dublin.murrayolaoire.com 

Website www.murrayolaoire.com 

Contact Sean O’Laoire 

TRANSFORM is Murray O’Laoire 

Architects’ urban design and planning 

unit. This multi-disciplinary unit 

synthesises planning, urban design, 

architecture and graphic design 

to produce innovative solutions in 

comprehensive masterplanning, urban 

regeneration, strategic planning and 

sustainable development. 

MWA PARTNERSHIP 

Tweskard Mews, 313 Belmont Road, Belfast 

BT4 2NE 

Tel 028 9076 8827 

Fax 028 9076 8400 

Email post@mwapartnership.co.uk 

Contact John Eggleston 

The planning and design of 

the external environment from 

feasibility stage through to detail 

design, implementation and future 

management. 

NATHANIEL LICHFIELD & 

PARTNERS LTD 

14 Regent’s Wharf, All Saints Street, London 

N1 9RL 

Tel 020 7837 4477 

Fax 020 7837 2277 

Email nthompson@lichfields.co.uk 

Website www.nlpplanning.com 

(also Newcastle upon Tyne and Cardiff) 

Contact Nick Thompson BA BPI MA 

(UrbDes) MRTPI 

Independent planning consultancy: 

analytical and creative. Urban design, 

masterplanning, heritage/conservation, 

visual appraisal, regeneration, daylight/ 

sunlight assessments, public realm 

strategies 

NJBA ARCHITECTS & URBAN 

DESIGNERS 

4 Molesworth Place, Dublin 2 

Tel 00 353 1 678 8068 

Fax 00 353 1 678 8066 

Email njbarchitects@eircom.net 

Website homepage.eircom.net/~njbrady1 

Contact Noel J Brady Dip Arch SMArchS 

MRIAI 

Integrated landscapes, urban design, 

town centres and squares, strategic 

design and planning. 

NOVO ARCHITECTS 

2 Meard Street, London WIV 3HR 

Tel 020 7734 5558 

Fax 020 7734 8889 

Contact Tim Poulson 

Urban design and masterplanning, 

creative and innovative design solutions 

for brownfield and other complex 

sites to realise single or mixed use 

development opportunities. 

OCA 

5 Manchester Square, London W1A 1AV 

Tel 0870 240 6775 

Fax 020 7486 9917 

Email london@OCArchitecture.com 

Contact Peter Ching or Peter Verity 

A significant design practice covering: 

planning, development planning, 

urban design, new community design, 

regeneration, tourism, architecture, 

landscaping. 

PARKMAN LIMITED 

Mountbarrow House, 6–20 Elizabeth Street, 

London SW1W 9RB 

Tel 020 7761 1400 

Fax 020 7761 1410 

Email pjlindroos@parkman.co.uk 

Website www.parkman.co.uk 

Contact Peter Lindroos, MSc MSA 

An interdisciplinary approach to urban 

design and regeneration projects: public 

realm and infrastructure, cities and 

streetscapes, estates, estates and open 

spaces, highways and transportation, 

traffic and safety. 

PHILIP CAVE ASSOCIATES 

5 Dryden Street, London WC2E 9NW 

Tel 020 7829 8340 

Fax 020 7240 5800 

Email principal@philipcave.com 

Website www.philipcave.com 

Contact Philip Cave BSc Hons MA (LD) MLI 

Design-led practice with innovative yet 

practical solutions to environmental 

opportunities in urban regeneration, 

town centre projects, urban parks, 

community art, public participation. 

Large-scale site/masterplanning 

through to small scale detailed design, 

from studies to constructed projects. 

Specialist expertise in landscape 

architecture. 

PLANIT EDC LTD 

David House, Cecil Road, Hale WA15 9PA 

Tel 0161 928 9281 

Fax 0161 928 9284 

Email mail@planitEDC.com 

Contact Peter Swift 

PMP 

Wellington House, 8 Upper St Martins Lane, 

London WC2H 9DL 

Tel 020 7836 9932 

Fax 020 7497 5689 

Email mail@pmp-arch.co.uk 

Contact Tessa O’Neill 

Medium sized practice specialising in 

retail and urban architecture, interior 

design and project management. 

POLLARD THOMAS & EDWARDS 

ARCHITECTS 

Diespeker Wharf 38, Graham Street, London 

N1 8JX 

Tel 020 7336 7777 

Fax 020 7336 0770 

Email stephen.chance@ptea.co.uk 

Website www.ptea.co.uk 

Contact Stephen Chance 

Masterplanners, urban designers, 

developers, architects, listed building 

and conservation area designers; 

specialising in inner city mixed-use high 

density regeneration. 

PRINGLE BRANDON 

10 Bonhill Street, London EC2A 4QJ 

Tel 020 7466 1000 

Fax 020 7466 1050 

Email post@pringle-brandon.co.uk 

Contact Alison Anslow 

Offices, hotels, workplace design. 

PROJECT CENTRE 

Saffron Court, 14b St Cross Street, London 

EC1N 8XA 

Tel 020 7421 8222 

Fax 020 7421 8199 

Email info@projectcentre.co.uk 

Website www.projectcentre.co.uk 

Contact Mark Templeton 

Multi-disciplinary consultancy 

providing quality services including 

landscape architecture, urban design, 

urban regeneration, street lighting 

design, planning supervision, traffic 

and transportation, parking, highway 

design, traffic signal design and road 

safety audits. 


PRP ARCHITECTS 

1 Lindsay Street, Smithfield, London 

EC1A 9BP 

Tel 020 7653 1200 

Fax 020 7248 3315 

Email lon.prp@prparchitects.co.uk 

Email prp@prparchitects.co.uk 

Contact Barry Munday, Dip Arch, PNL, RIBA, 

FFB 

Multi-disciplinary practice of architects, 

planners, urban designers and landscape 

architects, specialising in housing, 

urban regeneration, health, special 

needs, education and leisure projects. 

QUARTET DESIGN 

The Exchange, Lillingstone Dayrell, Bucks 

MK18 5AP 

Tel 01280 860500 

Fax 01280 860468 

Email quartet@qdl.co.uk 

Contact David Newman 

Landscape architects, architects and 

urban designers with wide experience 

of masterplanning, hard landscape 

projects in urban areas and achieving 

environmental sustainability objectives. 

QuBE 

Building 7, Michael Young Centre, Purbeck 

Road, Cambridge CB2 2QL 

Tel 01223 271 850 

Fax 01223 271 851 

Email enquiries@qube.org.uk 

Contacts Andy Thompson and Jon Burgess 

Integrated urban design, planning 

and conservation practice specialising 

in developing site specific design 

solutions related to urban design and 

masterplanning; site development 

briefs; public realm design; historic 

building and environments as well 

as conservation appraisals and 

management plans for buildings, spaces 

and places; community consultation. 

RANDALL THORP 

Canada House, 3 Chepstow Street, 

Manchester M1 5FW 

Tel 0161 228 7721 

Fax 0161 236 9839 

Email rt@rt-landscape.co.uk 

Contact Pauline Randall 

Masterplanning for new developments 

and settlements, infrastructure design 

for new developments and urban 

renewal, design guides and design 

briefing, public participation and public 

inquiries. 

RANDOM GREENWAY ARCHITECTS 

3a Godstone Road, Caterham, Surrey CR3 6RE 

Tel 01883 346 441 

Fax 01883 346 936 

Email 

rg@randomgreenwayarchitects.co.uk 

Contact R Greenway 

Architecture, planning and urban 

design. New build, regeneration, 

refurbishment and restoration. 

RICHARD COLEMAN CONSULTANCY 

Bridge House, 181 Queen Victoria Street, 

London EC4V 4DD 

Tel 020 7329 6622 

Fax 020 7329 6633 

Email r.coleman@citydesigner.com 

Contact Lewis Eldridge 

Advice on written assessment of 

architectural quality, urban design, 

and conversation, historic buildings 

and townscape. Negotiation with and 

production of supporting documents for 

the local and national bodies involved 

in these fields, including environmental 

statements, listed buildings/area 

consent applications. 

RMJM 

83 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NQ 

Tel 020 7549 8900 

Fax 020 7250 3131 

Email london@rmjm.com 

Website www.rmjm.com 

Contact Lis Kennish, Business 

Development Manager 

Email l.kennish@rmjm.com 

International architects and urban 

designers with a strong track record 

in the masterplanning, design and 

implementation of major developments 

and individual buildings. 

ROGER EVANS ASSOCIATES 

59–63 High Street, Kidlington, Oxford 

OX5 2DN 

Tel 01865 377 030 

Fax 01865 377 050 

Email design@rogerevans.com 

Website www.rogerevans.com 

Contact Roger Evans MA (UD) RIBA MRTPI 

A specialist urban design practice 

providing services throughout the 

UK and abroad. Expertise in urban 

regeneration, quarter frameworks and 

design briefs, town centre strategies, 

movement in towns, masterplanning and 

development economics. 

RPS 

at London, Birmingham, Bristol, Swindon, 

Oxford, Durham 

Tel 0800 587 9939 

Email rpspte@rpsplc.co.uk 

Website www.rpsplc.co.uk 

Part of the RPS Group providing a wide 

range of urban design services including 

masterplanning and development 

frameworks, design guides and 

statements, regeneration strategies, 

detailed architectural design and 

implementation, and environmental 

planning throughout the UK. 

RTKL-UK LTD 

22 Torrington Place, London WC1E 7HP 

Tel 020 7306 0404 

Fax 020 7306 0405 

Email gyager@rtkl.com 

Website www.rtkl.com 

Contact Gregory A Yager 

Multidisciplinary practice of urban 

designers, planners, architects and 

environmental designers with expertise 

in urban regeneration, mixed use 

development, urban residential design, 

master and corporate masterplanning. 

SCOTT BROWNRIGG LTD 

St Catherine’s Court, 46–48 Portsmouth 

Road, Guildford GU2 4DU 

Tel 01483 568686 

Fax 01483 575830 

Email info@scottbrownrigg.com 

Website www.scottbrownrigg.com 

Contact Stephen Marriott 

Providing an integrated service of 

architecture, urban design, planning, 

masterplanning, interior architecture 

and technical services, involved in 

several major mixed-use schemes 

regenerating inner city and brownfield 

sites. 

SHEILS FLYNN LTD 

Bank House High Street, Docking, Kings Lynn 

PE31 8NH 

Tel 01485 518304 

Fax 01485 518303 

Email uk@sheilsflynn.com 

Contact Eoghan Sheils 

Creative urban design taken from 

conception to implementation. Award 

winning town centre regeneration 

schemes, urban strategies and design 

guidance. Specialists in community 

consultation and team facilitation. 

SHEPHEARD EPSTEIN AND HUNTER 

Phoenix Yard, 65 King’s Road, London 

WC1X 9LN 

Tel 020 7841 7500 

Fax 020 7841 7575 

Email stevenpidwell@seh.co.uk 

Contact Steven Pidwill 

The provision of services related to 

architecture, planning, landscape 

architecture and the CDM regulations. 

SHEPPARD ROBSON 

77 Parkway, Camden Town, London NW1 7PU 

Tel 020 7504 1700 

Fax 020 7504 1701 

Email sally.upton@sheppardrobson.com 

Website www.sheppardrobson.com 

Contact Nick Spall 

Manchester office 

113-115 Portland Street, Manchester M1 

6DW 

Contact Phil Doyle 

Planners, urban designers and 

architects. Strategic planning, urban 

regeneration, development planning, 

town centre renewal, public realm 

planning, new settlement planning, 

tourism development. Associated offices 

across USA. 

SKIDMORE, OWINGS & MERRILL INC 

30 Millbank, London SW1P 3SD 

Tel 020 7798 1000 

Fax 020 7798 1100 

Email somlondon@som.com 

Contact Roger Kallman 

Also Chicago, New York, Washington, 

San Francisco, LA, Hong Kong 

International multi-disciplinary 

practice. Masterplanning, landscape 

architecture, civil engineering and urban 

design. Urban regeneration schemes, 

business park masterplans, university 

campus, transportation planning. 

Associated services: environmental 

impact assessments, design guidelines, 

infrastructure strategies. 

SMEEDEN FOREMAN PARTNERSHIP 

8 East Parade, Harrogate HG1 JLT 

Tel 01423 520 222 

Fax 01423 565 515 

Email trevor@smeeden.foreman.co.uk 

Contact T A Foreman 

Ecology, landscape architecture 

and urban design. Environmental 

assessment, detailed design, contract 

packages and site supervision. 

SMITH SCOTT MULLAN ASSOCIATES 

378 Leith Walk, Edinburgh EH7 4PF 

Tel 0131 555 1414 

Fax 0131 555 1448 

Email 

e.mullan@smith-scott-mullan.co.uk 

Contact Eugene Mullan BSc Hons Dip Arch 

ARIAS RIBA MSc UD 

Architects and urban designers 

dedicated to producing high quality 

design solutions for our clients. 

Particular experience of working with 

communities in the analysis, design 

and improvement of their urban 

environment. 

SOLTYS: BREWSTER CONSULTING 

87 Glebe Street, Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan 

CF64 1EF 

Tel 029 2040 8476 

Fax 029 2040 8482 

Email enquiry@soltysbrewster.co.uk 

Website www.soltysbrewster.co.uk 

Contact Simon Brewster 

Assessment, design, planning in UK and 

Ireland. Expertise includes urban design, 

masterplans, design strategies, visual 

impact, environmental assessment, 

regeneration of urban space, landscape 

design and project management. Award 

winning design and innovation. 

SPACE SYNTAX 

11 Riverside Studios, 28 Park Street, London 

SE1 9EQ 

Tel 020 7940 0000 

Fax 020 7940 0005 

Email t.stonor@spacesyntax.com 

Contact Tim Stonor MSc DipArch RIBA 

Spatial masterplanning and researchbased 

design; movement, connectivity, 

integration, regeneration, safety and 

interaction. Strategic design and option 

appraisal to detailed design and in-use 

audits. 

STUART TURNER ASSOCIATES 

12 Ledbury, Great Linford, Milton Keynes 

MK14 5DS 

Tel 01908 678672 

Fax 01908 678715 

Email st@studiost.demon.co.uk 

Website www.studiost.demon.co.uk 

Contact Stuart Turner Dip Arch (Oxford) 

Dip UD (PCL) RIBA 

Architecture, urban design and 

environmental planning, the design of 

new settlements, urban regeneration 

and site development studies for 

commercial and housing uses. 

TAYLOR YOUNG URBAN DESIGN 

Chadsworth House, Wilmslow Road, 

Handforth, Cheshire SK9 3HP 

Tel 01625 542200 

Fax 01625 542250 

Email stephengleave@tayloryoung.co.uk 

Contact Stephen Gleave MA DipTP (Dist) 

DipUD MRTPI 

Liverpool Office 

Tel 0151 702 6500 

Urban design, planning and 

development. Public and private sectors. 

Town studies, housing, commercial, 

distribution, health and transportation 

are current projects. Specialist in urban 

design training. 

TEP 

Genesis Centre, Birchwood Science Park, 

Warrington, Cheshire WA3 7BH 

Tel 01925 844 004 

Fax 01925 844 002 

Email tep@tep.uk.com 

Website www.tep.uk.com 

Contact David Scott 

Multi-disciplinary consultancy 

in environmental planning and 

regeneration masterplanning, landscape 

and urban design, ecology, urban 

forestry, arboriculture, land stewardship, 

community consultation and graphics. 

TERENCE O’ROURKE 

Everdene House, Deansleigh Road, 

Bournemouth BH7 7DU 

Tel 01202 421142 

Fax 01202 430055 

Email maildesk@torltd.co.uk 

Website www.torltd.co.uk 

Contact Terence O’Rourke MBE DipArch 

DipTP RIBA MRTPI FRSA 

Town planning, masterplanning, 

urban design, architecture, landscape 

architecture, environmental 

consultancy, graphic design. Urban 

regeneration, town centre studies, new 

settlements and complex urban design 

problems. 

INDEX 


INDEX 

TERRA FIRMA CONSULTANCY 

28 The Spain, Petersfield, Hants GU32 3LA 

Tel 01730 262040 

Fax 01730 262050 

Email contact@terrafirmaconsultancy.com 

Contact Lionel Fanshawe 

Independent landscape architectural 

practice with considerable urban design 

experience at all scales from EIA to 

project delivery throughout UK and 

overseas. 2004 LGN Street Design Award 

winners for best home zones and runners 

up in waterside category for recently 

completed projects in Portsmouth and 

Paddington. 

TERRY FARRELL AND PARTNERS 

7 Hatton Street, London NW8 8PL 

Tel 020 7258 3433 

Fax 020 7723 7059 

Email tfarrell@terryfarrell.co.uk 

Website www.terryfarrell.com 

Contact Maggie Jones 

Architectural, urban design, planning 

and masterplanning services. New 

buildings, refurbishment, conference/ 

exhibition centres, art galleries, 

museums, studios, theatres and visitor 

attractions, offices, retail, housing, 

industry, railway infrastructure and 

development. 

TETLOW KING GROUP 

Lone Barn Studios, Stanbridge Lane, Romsey, 

Hants SO51 0HE 

Tel 01794 517333 

Fax 01794 515517 

Email melvyn@tetlowking.co.uk 

Contact Melvyn King MA (Urban Design) 

MSAI MCIOB FRSA 

Multi disciplinary practice incorporating 

urban design, architecture, town 

planning and landscape. Specialising 

in urban design strategies in 

masterplanning and development 

frameworks for both new development 

areas and urban regeneration. 

TIBBALDS PLANNING & URBAN 

DESIGN 

Long Lane Studios, 142-152 Long Lane, 

London SE1 4BS 

Tel 020 7407 5544 

Fax 020 7407 8822 

Email mail@tibbalds.co.uk 

Website www.tibbalds.co.uk 

Contact Andrew Karski BA (Hons) MSc 

(Econ) FRTPI 

A multi disciplinary urban design and 

planning practice, with a team of 

architects, planners, urban designers, 

landscape designers and tourism 

specialists. Expertise in masterplanning 

and urban design, sustainable 

regeneration, development frameworks 

and design guidance, design advice, 

town planning and consultation. 

TREVOR BRIDGE ASSOCIATES 

7–9 St Michael’s Square, Ashton-under-Lyne, 

Lancs OL6 6LF 

Tel 0161 308 3765 

Fax 0161 343 3513 

Email info@tbridgea.co.uk 

Contact Trevor Bridge Dip LA DA FFB MI 

Hort MLI 


environmental planning, ecology, 

expert witness. Landscape for housing, 

industry, urban renewal, environmental 

improvement, visual impact assessment, 

masterplanning and implementation. 

TURNBULL JEFFREY PARTNERSHIP 

Sandeman House, 55 High Street, Edinburgh 

EH1 1SR 

Tel 0131 557 5050 

Fax 0131 557 5064 

Email tjp@tjp.co.uk 

Contacts Geoff Whitten BA(Hons) MLI, 

Karen Esslemont BA(Hons) MLI Dip 

UD 

Award winning design-led landscape 

architect practice. Expertise: 


masterplanning, landscape design and 

implementation, environmental/visual 

impact assessment, urban regeneration, 

environmental strategies. 

TWEED NUTTALL WARBURTON 

Chapel House, City Road, Chester CH1 3AE 

Tel 01244 310388 

Fax 01244 325643 

Email entasis@tnw-architecture.co.uk 

Contact John Tweed B Arch RIBA FRSA 

Architecture and urban design, 

masterplanning. Urban waterside 

environments. Community teamwork 

enablers. Design guidance and support 

for rural village appraisals. Visual impact 

assessments and design solutions within 

delicate conservation environments. 

URBAN DESIGN FUTURES 

97c West Bow, Edinburgh EH1 2JP 

Tel 0131 226 4505 

Fax 0131 226 4515 

Email info@urbandesignfutures.co.uk 

Website www.urbandesignfutures.co.uk 

Contact Selby Richardson DipArch DipTP 

MSc ARIAS MRTPI 

Innovative urban design, planning 

and landscape practice specialising in 

masterplanning, new settlements, urban 

regeneration, town and village studies, 

public space design, environmental 

improvements, design guidelines, 

community involvement, landscape 

design and management. 

URBAN INITIATIVES 

35 Heddon Street, London W1B 4BP 

Tel 020 7287 3644 

Fax 020 7287 9489 

Email m.adran@urbaninitiatives.co.uk 

Website www.urbaninitiatives.co.uk 

Contact Kelvin Campbell BArch RIBA MRTPI 

MCIT FRSA 

Urban design, transportation, 

regeneration, development planning. 

URBAN INNOVATIONS 

1st Floor, Wellington Buildings, 2 Wellington 

Street, Belfast BT16HT 

Tel 028 9043 5060 

Fax 028 9032 1980 

Email ui@urbaninnovations.co.uk 

Contacts Tony Stevens and Agnes Brown 

The partnership provides not only 

feasibility studies and assists in site 

assembly for complex projects but also 

provides full architectural services for 

major projects. The breadth of service 

provided includes keen commercial 

awareness, which is essential to 

achieving creative solutions and for 

balancing design quality with market 

requirements. 

URBAN PRACTITIONERS 


Tel 020 7253 2223 

Fax 020 7253 2227 

Email antony.rifkin@towncentres.ltd.uk 

Contact Antony Rifkin 

Specialist competition winning urban 

regeneration practice combining 

economic and urban design skills. 

Projects include West Ealing 

Neighbourhood Regeneration Strategy, 

Plymouth East End Renewal Masterplan, 

Walthamstow Urban Design Strategy. 

URBAN SPLASH 

Timber Wharf, 16-22 Worsley Street, 

Castlefield, Manchester M15 4LD 

Tel 0161 839 2999 

Fax 0161 839 8999 

Email design@urbansplash.co.uk 

Contact Jonathan Falkingham / Bill 

Maynard 

Property development and investment. 

Project management, implementation 

and construction. Architecture, 

interior design and graphic design. 

Multi-disciplinary urban regeneration 

specialists concentrating on brownfield 

regeneration projects. 

URBED (The Urban and Economic 

Development Group) 

10 Little Lever Street, Manchester M1 1HR 

Tel 0161 200 5500 

Email urbed@urbed.co.uk 

Contact David Rudlin BA MSc 

Website www.urbed.com 

Also 19 Store Street, London WC1E 7DH 

Tel 020 7436 8050 

Urban design and guidance, 

masterplanning, sustainability, 

consultation and capacity building, 

housing, town centres and urban 

regeneration. 

VINCENT AND GORBING LTD 

Sterling Court, Norton Road, Stevenage, 

Hertfordshire SG1 2JY 

Tel 01438 316331 

Fax 01438 722035 

Email 

urban.designers@vincent-gorbing.co.uk 

Website www.vincent-gorbing.co.uk 

Contact Richard Lewis BA MRTPI MA Urban 

Design 

Multi-disciplinary practice offering 

architecture, town planning and urban 

design services for private and public 

sector clients. Masterplanning, design 

statements, character assessments, 

development briefs, residential layouts 

and urban capacity exercises. 

WEST & PARTNERS 

Isambard House, 60 Weston Street, London 

SE1 3QJ 

Tel 020 7403 1726 

Fax 020 7403 6279 

Email wp@westandpartners.com 

Contact Michael West 

Masterplanning for achievable 

development within (and sometimes 

beyond) the creative interpretation of 

socio-economic, physical and political 

urban parameters: retail, leisure, 

commercial, residential, listed buildings, 

expert witness evidence, statutory 

development plan advice. 

WHITE CONSULTANTS 

18–19 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3DQ 

Tel 029 2064 0971 

Fax 029 2064 0973 

Email 

sw@whiteconsultants.prestel.co.uk 

Contact Simon White MAUD Dip UD (Dist) 

(Oxford Brookes) Dip LA MLI 

A qualified urban design practice 

offering a holistic approach to urban 

regeneration, design guidance, public 

realm and open space strategies and 

town centre studies for the public, 

private and community sectors. 

WHITELAW TURKINGTON 

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS 

354 Kennington Road, London SE11 4LD 

Tel 020 7820 0388 

Fax 020 7587 3839 

Email post@wtlondon.com 

Contact Ms L Oliver-Whitelaw 

Award winning, design-led practice 

specialising in urban regeneration, 

streetscape design, public space, 

high quality residential and corporate 

landscapes. Facilitators in public 

participation and community action 

planning events. 

WILLIE MILLER URBAN DESIGN & 

PLANNING 

20 Victoria Crescent Road, Glasgow G12 9DD 

Tel 0141 339 5228 

Fax 0141 357 4642 

Email mail@williemiller.com 

Contact Willie Miller Dip TP Dip UD MRTPI 

Conceptual, strategic and development 

work in urban design, masterplanning, 

urban regeneration, environmental 

strategies, design and development 

briefs, townscape audits and public 

realm studies. 

WYNTHOMASGORDONLEWIS LTD 

21 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3DQ 

Tel 029 2039 8681 

Fax 029 2039 5965 

Email glewis@wtgl.co.uk 

Contact Gordon Lewis 

Urban design, town planning, economic 

development, architecture and landscape 

architecture for public and private sector 

clients. Regeneration and development 

strategies, public realm studies, 

economic development planning, 

masterplanning for urban, rural and 

brownfield land redevelopment. 

YELLOW BOOK LTD 

Studio 1010, Mile End, Abbey Mill Business 

Centre, Paisley PA1 1JS 

Tel 0141 561 2325 

Fax 0141 561 2328 

Email john.lord@yellowbookltd.com 

Contact John Lord 

CORPORATE INDEX 

BROXAP LIMITED 

Rowhurst Industrial Estate, Chesterton, 

Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs ST5 6BD 

Tel 01782 564411 

Fax 01782 565357 

Email sales@broxap.com 

Contact Robert Lee 

The design and manufacture of street 

furniture, cycle and motorcycle storage 

solutions and decorative architectural 

metalwork in cast iron, mild steel, 

stainless steel, concrete, timber, 

Duracast polyurethane, plastic and 

recycled plastic. 

ISLAND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE 

PO Box 43, St Peter Port, Guernsey GY1 1FH, 

Channel Islands 

Tel 01481 717000 

Fax 01481 717099 

Email idc@gov.gg 

Contact W Lockwood 

The Island Development Committee 

plays a similar role to a local authority 

planning department in the UK. 

ST GEORGE NORTH LONDON LTD 

81 High Street, Potters Bar, 

Hertfordshire EN6 5AS 

Tel 01707 664000 

Fax 01707 660006 

Contact Stephen Wood 

London’s leading residential developer. 


EDUCATION INDEX 

EDINBURGH COLLEGE OF ART/ 

HERIOT WATT UNIVERSITY SCHOOL 

OF ARCHITECTURE 

Lauriston Place, Edinburgh EH3 9DF 

Tel 0131 221 6175/6072 

Fax 0131 221 6154/6006 

Contact Leslie Forsyth 

Diploma in Architecture and Urban 

Design, nine months full-time. Diploma 

in Urban Design, nine months full time 

or 21 months part-time. MSc in Urban 

Design, 12 months full-time or 36 months 

parttime. MPhil and PhD, by research full 

and part-time on and off-campus. 

LEEDS METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY 

SCHOOL OF ART, ARCHITECTURE 

AND DESIGN 

Brunswick Terrace, Leeds LS2 8BU 

Tel 0113 283 2600 

Fax 0113 283 3190 

Contact Edwin Knighton 

Master of Arts in Urban Design consists of 

one year full time or two years part time 

or individual programme of study. Shorter 

programmes lead to Post Graduate 

Diploma/Certificate. Project based course 

focussing on the creation of sustainable 

environments through interdisciplinary 

design. 

LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS 

Cities Programme, Houghton Street, London 

WC2A 2AE 

Tel 020 7955 6828 

Fax 020 7955 7697 

Contact Katy Johnson 

We run a MSc in City Design and Social 

Science which can be studied full time 

over a one year period or part-time 

over two years. The course is designed 

for social scientists, engineers and 

architects. 

LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY 

Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences, 

103 Borough Road, London SE1 0AA 

Tel 020 7815 7353 

Fax 020 7815 5799 

Contact Dr Bob Jarvis 

MA Urban Design (one year full time/two 

years part time) or PG Cert Planning 

based course including units on place 

and performance, sustainable cities as 

well as project based work and EU study 

visit. Part of RTPI accredited programme. 

OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY 

Joint Centre for Urban Design, Headington, 

Oxford OX3 0BP 

Tel 01865 483403 

Fax 01865 483298 

Contact Jon Cooper 

Diploma in Urban Design, six months full 

time or 18 months part time. MA 

SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY 

School of Environment and Development, 

City Campus, Howard Street, Sheffield S1 1WB 

Tel 0114 225 2837 

Fax 0114 225 3179 

Contact Debbie French 

MA/PGD/PGC Urban Design full and 

part-time. A professional and academic 

programme to improve the built 

environment, enabling a higher quality of 

life and economic growth by sustainable 

development. 

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON 

Development Planning Unit, The Bartlett, 9 

Endsleigh Gardens, London WC1H 0ED 

Tel 020 7388 7581 

Fax 020 7387 4541 

Contact Babar Mumtaz 

MSc in Building and Urban Design in 

Development. Innovative, participatory 

and responsive design in development 

and upgrading of urban areas through 

socially and culturally acceptable, 

economically viable and environmentally 

sustainable interventions. 

UNIVERSITY OF GREENWICH 

School of Architecture and Landscape, 

Oakfield Lane, Dartford DA1 2SZ 

Tel 020 8316 9100 

Fax 020 8316 9105 

Contact Richard Hayward 

MA in Urban Design for postgraduate 

architecture and landscape students, 

full time and part time with credit 

accumulation transfer system. 

UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE UPON 

TYNE 

Department of Architecture, Claremont Tower, 

University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne 

NE1 7RU 

Tel 0191 222 7802 

Fax 0191 222 8811 

Contact Tim Townshend 

MA/Diploma in Urban Design. Joint 

programme in Dept of Architecture and 

Dept of Town and Country Planning. 

Full time or part time, integrating 

knowledge and skills from town planning, 

architecture, landscape. 

UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE 

Dept of Architecture and Building Science, 

Urban Design Studies Unit, 

131 Rottenrow, Glasgow G4 0NG 

Tel 0141 552 4400 ext 3011 

Fax 0141 552 3997 

Contact Hildebrand W Frey 

Urban Design Studies Unit offers its 

Postgraduate Course in Urban Design 

in CPD, Diploma and MSc modes. Topics 

range from the influence of the city’s 

form and structure to the design of public 

spaces. 

UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST OF 

ENGLAND, BRISTOL 

Faculty of the Built Environment, Frenchay 

Campus, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol BS16 1QY 

Tel 0117 965 6261 x3206 

Fax 0117 976 3895 

Contact Richard Guise 

MA/Postgraduate Diploma course in 

Urban Design. Part time two days per 

fortnight for two years, or individual 

programme of study. Project-based course 

addressing urban design issues, abilities 

and environments. 

UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER 

35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS 

Tel 020 7911 5000 x3106 

Fax 020 7911 5171 

Contact Marion Roberts 

MA or Diploma Course in Urban Design for 

postgraduate architects, town planners, 

landscape architects and related 

disciplines. One year full time or two 

years part time. 

ANY STYLE YOU LIKE AS 

LONG AS ITS MODERN 

I think the conventional wisdom among urban designers is that 

architectural style doesn’t matter much. Other things being equal, a 

beautiful building is preferable to an ugly building. But this issue, and 

the matter of whether the architecture is late modern or neo-classical, 

high tech or regional vernacular, tutti-frutti or plain vanilla, are 

unimportant compared to its response to urban design issues such as 

massing, site planning, building lines, space enclosure, ground floor 

uses. Get those things right, I think most urban designers would say, 

and you can design it in any style you like. This is the typical response 

to criticism of the sentimental architecture of Poundbury, for instance. 

Designing in the correct style is, however, an important matter for 

architects. It is after all an area over which they claim to exercise sole 

professional authority. This difference in the valuation given to style 

can make it difficult for an urban designer teaching in an architecture 

studio. I’m frequently criticising students’ dramatic object-building 

schemes from an urban design point of view, and it often feels as if 

we are speaking different languages. 

The Architects’ Journal is claiming victory in its campaign to retain 

a clause in the Government’s new Planning Policy Statement No 7 

(PPS7) which allows the normal ban on new residential development 

in the countryside to be circumvented in the case of large new one-off 

‘country houses’. Viewed in terms of the responsibility of the planning 

system to contribute towards social equity, this is bad enough. That 

a Labour government should give a loophole to a rich elite, to enable 

them to occupy hundreds of acres of rural land, that is denied to the 

other 99 per cent of us, is reactionary enough to make one send back 

one’s party membership card, if one hadn’t already done so. 

But another extraordinary aspect of the new PPS7 clause is that 

it is reworded so as to restrict new ‘country houses’ to those built in 

a modernist style. No more neo-Palladian or neo-Grecian monuments, 

only modern ones. At least, that is the interpretation widely put upon 

the ODPM’s criteria of ‘outstanding and ground-breaking’ and ‘highest 

standards in contemporary architecture’, and it was certainly the AJ’s 

overt wish. 

There is of course a wonderful irony here. As Tom Wolfe 1 and many 

others have observed, modern architecture, which was created by 

European socialists as a revolutionary ethical tool for social reform, 

long ago become an aesthetic, which while by no means restricted to 

the rich, has certainly acquired a capacity to signify wealth, privilege 

and exclusiveness. 

Government planning policy increasingly recognises the 

importance of good design, and increasingly tries, with some success, 

to specify in words what that actually is. But this appears to be the 

first time that policy has defined good design in a way that prescribes 

certain styles and excludes others. I look forward to this principle of 

modernist taste being tested in a planning appeal. 

But surely these rural goings-on, while entertaining, are nothing 

to do with us urban designers? We continue to talk about the real 

urban issues - mixed uses, density, urban form - and let the style 

ideologues argue it out among themselves. Except that a worrying 

precedent was set by last year’s inquiry decision on London Bridge 

Tower, Renzo Piano’s ‘Shard’. Here the inspector decided that the 

outstanding architectural quality of the proposal was sufficient for it 

to override valid objections to it on urban design grounds by English 

Heritage and others. Architectural style is not always a peripheral 

issue; sometimes it can be counted as more important than good 

planning. 

ENDPIECE 

Joe Holyoak 

1. Tom Wolfe, From Bauhaus to Our House, London; Jonathan Cape, 1982

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