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6 Start with the park Introduction ‘Parks are volatile places…[they] can and do add great attraction to neighbourhoods that people find attractive for a great variety of other uses. They further depress neighbourhoods that people find unattractive for a wide variety of other uses, for they exaggerate the dullness, the emptiness.’ Jane Jacobs, The death and life of great American cities, 1961 A successful park or green space can be the making of a place. An unsuccessful one can help ruin it. Major programmes of development and regeneration are now providing greater opportunities than ever to improve the spaces we already have and to create inspiring new ones. The pace of social and economic change makes it more important than ever to learn from the experience – at home and abroad – of what works best. The government’s 2003 sustainable communities plan, launched by the deputy prime minister, provides the context for this. The plan sets out a long-term programme of action for delivering sustainable communities in both urban and rural areas. It aims to tackle housing supply problems in south-east England, low demand in other parts of the country, and the quality of public spaces. The plan makes clear that the new neighbourhoods must be of a higher quality and higher density and more sustainable than many recent housing developments. 1 The plan also tackles issues of affordable housing, homelessness, standards of social housing, liveability and countryside protection. Between 2003 and 2008 the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) will be spending £38 billion delivering the plan. Investment in housing on this scale is unprecedented since the 1960s. The achievements of that time were accompanied by some dramatic failures, where some housing layouts and urban planning approaches proved to be disastrously misconceived. Failures in the design and maintenance of green spaces were a major part of this. The experience underlines the need to learn from those mistakes and to understand what needs to be done to create green spaces that work. We must recognise that what counts is not the quantity of green space, but its quality. Creating sustainable communities depends on taking equal account of the design of buildings, their location, and the quality of the outdoor space, at strategic, local and site scales. To ensure that green spaces in these areas are successful in the longer term, it is vital to plan for that success at the very outset of the regeneration process.
The need for quality green spaces 7 What do good urban green spaces offer? ‘The measure of any great civilisation is in its cities, and a measure of a city’s greatness is to be found in the quality of its public spaces, its parks and its squares.’ John Ruskin The benefits of good urban green spaces are diverse and wide ranging. Since the improvements to Bryant Park, commercial rental values have increased by up to 220 per cent. Does money grow on trees? (CABE 2005) Successful places – where people are attracted to live, work, visit and invest – have successful green spaces. Since 2003 CABE Space has been contributing to a growing body of evidence that demonstrates how green spaces can offer lasting economic, social, cultural and environmental benefits. This work confirms the link between high-quality green spaces and increased house prices; their benefits in improving the image of an area and attracting investment; their contribution to biodiversity; their contribution to promoting exercise and the benefits to health; and the role of public space design and management in tackling social issues such as risk and anti-social behaviour. Ninety-one per cent of people say that parks and public spaces improve people’s quality of life. 2 Surveys indicate that the urban population of England makes 2.5 billion visits a year to urban green spaces. 3 And there is compelling evidence of the value of urban green spaces for quality of life. The clear conclusion is that successful green spaces can have a major positive impact on local communities. In 2005 CABE Space published Does money grow on trees?. It reported research that used property prices as an indication of the desirability of an area, and looked at whether improvements to parks and green spaces increased the economic activity in the area. It found that being directly adjacent to such parks added a 5 to 7 per cent premium to house prices, and that most properties within two blocks were priced more highly than equivalent properties that were in the same market area but further away.
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Thinking about design 59 1. Sustain
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Thinking about design 71 Focal poin
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Thinking about design 79 Diverse us
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Thinking about design 81 Design LDA
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Thinking about design 83 Thinking a
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Appendix 97 Glossary A full range o
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Appendix 99 body for protecting and
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Appendix 101 derelict land, revital
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Appendix 103 Awards BRITISH ASSOCIA
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Appendix 105 Image credits p6 Dan B
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Appendix 107 References All CABE pu
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