Main news
New Jobs – CSA environmental, Define, Broadway Malyan and others…
Driving should be illegal
Fix infrastructure for walkers and cyclists to help tackle obesity
Housing Bill Published – condemned by architects as dangerous
Making the Case for Symmetrical Cities
World ‘overshot’ natural resources for the year in August, Abu Dhabi conference hears
City sprawl or skyscraper tall: why can't Melbourne do urban design better? / from the Urban Design Group
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Comparing House Builders’ approaches to Urban Design
A pilot study to understand its roleand value to the industry
Major Research report produced for the UDG by Richard Hayward, Ivor Samuels, Louise Thomas launched at the National Urban Design Conference.
The first decade of the new millennium saw a relative boom for UK volume house builders, although primarily in turnover rather than in volume of output. This was temporarily dramatically reduced in terms of both turnover and output by the crash of 2008.
A combination of government interventions during the period of Labour Government prior to the economic crash, together with more choice generated by developers competing in similar prime locations, arguably resulted in a concern by house builders to focus more on the marketable aspects of the quality of their offer in areas of relative affluence, rather than simply competing on the basis of dwelling mix and price.
This study for the Urban Design Group has used a limited series of structured interviews to explore the approaches and attitudes of house builders to urban design as an identifiable component of their product development.
The six house builders who agreed to take part in the study put forward senior representatives for interview. In most cases at least two respondents from each organisation were directly involved in the discussions. The organisational sample included two small to medium developers, and four large or very large national firms. Half were quoted companies and half privately owned.
The accounts of the interviews were returned to the interviewees to be agreed in terms of accuracy. The six responses were then analysed to create a summary of key common areas of concern or contention across the sample. From these a series of statements or propositions were formed, which was sent to the interviewees, but also to eight further house builders. This anonymous ‘Delphi’ exercise enabled the research team to compare the views of one expert group by reference to a further group of their expert peers.
This exercise demonstrated a significant level of unanimity of views across the key summarised areas of concern arising from the in-depth interviews, but also some lesser areas of disagreement, all of which are discussed in the body of the report.
The key areas of concern which are relevant to the delivery of better urban design outcomes in the realisation of new housing developments, include the:
- comparative difficulties experienced by smaller developers;
- resources available to local government and the availability of urban design related skills in the public sector to respond effectively to development pressures;
- need for a review of all aspects of design guidance and potential industry norms;
- need for more extensive mapping of appropriate morphological and typological design precedents, both past and contemporary;
- relevance of urban design to home buyer satisfaction;
- challenges and rewards of community engagement for developers and local government.
Download the full report
National Urban Design Conference reports start next week
Urban Design Awards
– Developer Award
– Public Sector Award
Do you know any developers or public bodies who you think should enter the 2016 awards?
if so
pleaselet them know and please encourage them to enter!
Full details of how to apply:
Developer Award
- Deadline 30 October 2015
Student Award
£600 Francis Tibbalds Prize
Deadline 9 November 2015
Shortlisting of practice awards is currently underway
Urban Design 136
Designing Housing
Available to UDG Members by Subscription / Reconnections – Liverpool 19 20th October
Free conference
convened by Rob Burns Liverpool’s Urban Design and Heritage Manager
The programme and booking information can be found at-
Bookings close this afternoon – positively the last chance !!!
The Intelligent City Mobility Event 2015,
12th November - KIA Oval, London
Discounted places for UDG members, up to 30 per cent off
A major one-day event including three conferences
Pick and mix the best sessions for your needs
- The Car & the City
- Parking World
- Space & Place
Book online at quote Promocode CAC2015
Discover the implications for city authorities
Intelligent connectivity is changing when, how and why we use cars
Politics is changing
Car journeys which have historically topped the modal split are being challenged as unacceptably noisy, polluting, space-grabbing and potentially dangerous
Plan now for the future
The automobile is a highly adaptive technology. In the very near future the car become a sustainable, efficient and acceptable element of integrated urban mobility?
The Intelligent City Mobility event 2015 will answer key questions:
- What are the possible futures for improved car-based urban mobility?
- Can we liberate the vast spaces required to move and to park cars?
- What needs to change to ensure that smart, connected and shared cars provide real civic benefit?
- How can city leadership positively shape future mobility for work, living and leisure?
- How should we plan as the model mix on our roads changes?
- Should changes be market or policy driven?
- What does the roadmap for change look like, and who is making key decisions?
UDG London Events
28th October event cancelled
11 October – Housing
Other events
The number of events is on the wane as we approach the holiday period, but there are still events to go to for those that seek them…
Academy of Urbanism
Learning from Europe
November 5 6:30 pm-9:00 pm
The Urbanism Awards Ceremony
November 6 12:00 pm-5:00 pm
Booking now open!
BOBMK Events
Future of Transport and Innovation
November/ December 2015
@ Milton Keynes
Landscape Institute
Rethinking the Urban Landscape Exhibition
Leeds, Sheffield – see website for dates
MADE
Healthy Lives, Healthy Cities – NMM Birmingham
20th October
Retail Assessments - guidance, good practice, and key considerations
22nd October pm
Planning Law Update
10th November
Neighbourhood Planning
26th November
Architecture for an Ageing Population
26th November
West Midlands Urban Design Forum
Engage Liverpool
Liveable Liverpool Seminar 28th OctoberMuseum of Walking
Norton Folgate Lost with Tom BoltonWednesday 11 November 6.00pm – 8.00pm
PTRC
An Introduction to Highway Design & Construction
The Principles of Traffic and Transport 20-Week Evening Lecture Series, London and Bristol
Urban Design London
Events coming up – extensive programme some free, some charged/£175+VAT (Free for subscribers)Heritage Skills: Collaborating on Heritage Strategies
28th October
Cycling Infrastructure Skills: London Cycle Design Standards – Two Day Course
29th October & 5th November
Design South East / Kent Design
Event Calendar
Garden City II Eastgate,
Springhead Park
28 October
Designing Kent's Infrastructure
Maidstone
19 November / LatestLectures
on UrbanNous
New
Weather in the City – How Design Shapes the Urban Climate
SandaLenzholzer
All urban designers, architects planners, and highway engineers should have a knowledge of this subject.
Urbanism: Improving quality and value
The importance of product, land and money
Yolande Barnes - Savills
Garden Cities Past and Present.
Potential morphologies explored.
Dominic Papa S333 Architecture and Urbanism
Garden Cities: Is there a Business Case?
Jim Coleman, BuroHappold
Health and Urban Design
Lucy Saunders, GLA, TFL
UrbanNous Catalogue available on-line
Highlights include Christopher Alexander, George Ferguson, Hans Monderman and scores of others.
Jobs
Urban Designer, CSA Environmental - Hertfordshire
Architectural/Urban Design Assistant - Define - Birmingham
Senior Architect/Urban Designer - Define - Birmingham
Masterplanners & Urban Designers Broadway Malyan Southwark/Weybridge
Business Development Manager - Urban Planning - PLACE LOGIC
Urban Designer - JTP London Studio
Senior Urban Designer - Barton Willmore
Opportunities for creative Urban Designers - Savills Urban Design - Southampton - Oxford
Tender Alerts
Bolsover District Regeneration Frameworks Shirebrook and South Normanton
Bolsover District Regeneration Frameworks Bolsover and Clowne
Architecture and Design Scotland
Glass-House Community Led Design Debate Series 2015/16 - Place: designed for sharing?
21st October Edinburgh
PLACE CHALLENGE 2015: TOWN CENTRE LIVING EVENT 28-29 October 2015
IHBC
Housing in Scotland: Learning from the Past, Building for the Future
Civic Voice
Annual Convention and AGM – Bristol
22 23 October
Landor
Parking World – Car in the City - Space and Place
11 November
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PROJECT OF THE WEEK
An Camas Mòr 2011
AREA Urban Design & Architecture
Bringing together the aspirations of Cairngorms National Park Authority, Rothiemurchus Estate and Aviemore Community Council An Camas Mòr will be the first new community planned for a National Park in the UK. The aspiration is for a self-sustaining extension to Aviemore, allowing the growing population to live and work locally. Once complete, the settlement will consist of 1500 homes, business, retail, leisure, community facilities and a country park.
The masterplan, design code and phase 1 proposals establish a framework for incremental growth over a period of 20-30 years. The aim is to do this with minimal land take and on land of lower ecological value.
The masterplan records a brief around the themes of community, landscape and local character:
Community
- A distinct identity through new typologies of living and working amongst forest industries, with space for active outdoor lifestyles.
- Capacity for home working integral with space for enterprise and local employment.
- Growing facilities reciprocally with Aviemore.
- A lacework of habitats and landscape corridors.
- Existing pine and birch woods retained.
- Landforms, glacial kettleholes, and the existing forest determining the street layout.
- A wooded setting for new homes.
- A mix of street types from winding high street through closes and lanes to woodland and burns.
- A priority on walking and cycling in shared space streets.
- An upper Speyside palette of materials.
Read more
Silk Cities
Silk Cities Exchange Workshop
Free one day event
29/10 UCL
CIRIA
Valuing urban ecology and city resilience
3 November 2015, London
Place Alliance
The Big Meet
27 October
The importance of the Linear Forest
A day devoted to the possibility of creating a tree-lined roadscape against the conservatism of highway design and road safety audit.
25th November Kew
Urban Design around the World
Australia
City sprawl or skyscraper tall: why can't Melbourne do urban design better?India
City can’t be smart without basic infrastructureUK
London needs to cater for 24-hour party people to rival Barcelona and BerlinArchitects condemn 'dangerous' Housing Bill
Court orders issued to remove 'human shield' home owners threatening Red Road demolition
Sterling Prize – Burntwood School by Allford Monaghan Morris, for Wandsworth Borough Council
Scheme cost: £40,900,000
Cost per square metre of internal space: £1910
Great architecture? or great descriptions – you decide!
England
Housing and Planning Bill Published- General duty on local authorities to promote supply of starter homes
- Extension of the right-to-buy to Housing Associations
- A public law duty on councils to help allocate land to people who want to build their own home.
- Requirement for local authorities to keep registers of brownfield land (and presumably on the basis of past experience that includes greenfield airfields – or even possibly a remote field where a biplane made an emergency landing in 1911)
- Rogue landlords
- Recovering abandoned sites
- Vacant high value local authority housing – a duty to dispose
- Compulsory Purchase
USA
Kamin: Tear down lakefront McCormick PlaceOn Top of the World: New Landscaped Roof Spaces That Encourage Residents to Stay Awhile
Design forum asks: Which neighbourhood would you rather walk in?
Environment
World ‘overshot’ natural resources for the year in August, Abu Dhabi conference hearsDeal on Swansea £1bn tidal lagoon 'desperately needed'
Hampstead Garden Suburb gardeners will get football-style red cards for using leaf blowers and lawnmowers in attempt to cut noise – Owners of barking dogs to be tackled
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Latest Research, Policy and Practice
Built Environment
Making the Case for Symmetrical CitiesFort Worthology: About Urbanism
Interactive Map of how rises in sea levels would affect US Cities
Politics, Philosophy, Economics
Tesco: Houses are more lucrative than shopsTesco is selling off more than a dozen sites that it no longer wants to develop to a property company in a £250m deal that could lead to the construction of 10,000 homes
There comes a point when the price of housing land is inflated to such a degree that it outprices all other types of land use including leisure, and retail. There is an urgent debate to be had as to whether there is market failure, with the prospect of grossly unbalanced development.
Humans, Health Society
Four in 10 older adults burdened by demands of health-care systemWelfare cuts will have negative impact on poor children's health
Fix infrastructure for walkers and cyclists to help tackle obesity
How Oklahoma Declared War on Obesity—and What's Happened Since
Hunter Gatherers rest for 6.9 to 8.5 hours a night, with actual sleep durations of 5.7 to 7.2 hours a night
Most fall asleep 2.5 to 4.4 hours after sunset, tending to sleep when temperatures fall. They do not wake in the night (as reported in some pre industrial societies – including Elizabethan England
The advice is to get better sleep, turn down the thermostat or open the window at night. Except there’s no chance of the latter if you live on a main road as around 10 percent of the urban population do.
Transport
“Should we scrap every traffic light in Britain?” asks the Daily MailThis article is likely to add growing pressure on the Department for Transport to support more human oriented street design, including the approach developed by Ben Hamilton-Baillie at Poynton
What a city would like if it was designed for only bikes no cars allowed
It's time to stop blaming cyclists; instead make our roads work for everyone
Driving should be illegal
An article that looks at how we would react if it we were to objectively and rationally assess automatic driving versus human driving – which kills millions of people each year.
Drivers show racial bias when giving way to pedestrians
University of Arizona study shows that black pedestrians have to wait about 32 percent longer than white pedestrians at crosswalks before passing drivers slow down to a stop and let them cross.
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