Main news
UDG AGM – and Executive Committee Elections
Sir Terry Farrell – 8th June @ The Gallery
A city is not a tree – 50th Anniversary Edition Published
High Speed Rail Explored – Report Launch
World Towns Agreement – you should be involved
11th ITS European Congress
Is Hyperloop the future of travel?
US Federal Highways Agency clears the way for Complete Streets
Health benefits of gardens – Kings Fund
New Jobs / from the Urban Design Group
A free service for all individuals and organisations who care about life in cities towns and villages ………
planners – landscape architects – architects – conservation practitioners – engineers –surveyors – masterplanners – managers – urban designers - urbanists – health professionals - politicians – public
We are here to encourage anyone and everyone who wants to see better urban design – the design of towns and cities – streets and spaces
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Forthcoming UDG London Events
@ The Gallery, 70 Cowcross Street
London EC1M 6EJ
UDG AGM and
Kevin Lynch Memorial Lecture
Sir Terry Farrell
Wednesday 8 Jun 2016 -6:15pm-8:15pm
Free for members and Students
£7 for non-members
Other Gallery Events
Wednesday 1 June, 6.00pm
Importance of ecology in construction and dealing with Japanese knotweed
Chartered Association of Building Engineers
Friday 17 June, 6.45pm
Taming the Baronial; the Scottish Response to the Arts and Crafts Movement
Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society London and South East Events
Christopher Alexander’s - A City is Not a Tree: 50th Anniversary Edition.
Available from Levellers (print and fulfilment house - can order direct):
from Amazon:
Inequality and Lighting – LSE Report Launch
This report, released last week, asserts that public lighting improves people’s lives, but that poorer areas are often insensitively, unattractively, or harshly lit. The report recommends that people’s needs and views should be understood, and this is best done on a site by site basis. New lighting technology is becoming available which is cheaper, and could make public lighting more attractive and sensitive to users. To do this, housing associations, and local authorities need to change their approach and give lighting more financial, technical and organisational support.Mark Major of Speirs Major gave a keynote presentation, telling of how he takes people around different parts of a town or city, and asks people what they think of the lighting. Generally he finds that people over-estimate light levels. He gave the example of the paving immediately in front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, where light levels are only 5 times moonlight, and the centre of the square is darker still: people are surprised as they feel the area is adequately lit. Many people are denied the luxury of darkness.
NB the report itself is written in academic sociologist language, and will be inaccessible to people who are not used to this vocabulary. There is a need for a plain-language follow up, with specific design recommendations on lighting.
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Light doesn’t reduce crime
There is a received wisdom that “improved” lighting reduces crime. The most authoritative review of research in this area to date, is a Campbell Collaboration study “Effects of Improved Street Lighting on Crime” Brandon C. Welsh, David P. Farrington published in 2008.
One would expect that a new lighting scheme would have no effect on daytime crime, However the effect is substantial. The review found “that nighttime crimes did not decrease more than daytime crimes.” Light is not the issue.. The Campbell review goes on … “This suggests that a theory of street lighting focusing on its role in increasing community pride and informal social control may be more plausible than a theory focusing on increased surveillance and increased deterrence.” This is the general line of work that has been followed by the Prosocial Place Unit at the University of Liverpool, that improving the quality of the environment where people live, including the quality of maintenance, changes the way they view others, and the way they conduct their lives.
Have you used the
Urban Design
journal archive yet?
100+ editions now available to download free
UDG volunteers working over the holiday break have completed the digitising of all available back copies of Urban Design. Well over 100 are now available to download free.
Place Alliance Summer School
Transforming Cities and Public Spaces through Placemaking
Place Alliance is excited to invite you to its first Summer School taking place from Thursday 7 of July till Saturday 9 of July 2016.- DAY ONE: Thursday, 7 July
“Understanding Place” - – Masterclass by David Rudlin, URBED
- DAY TWO: Friday, 8 July –
- “Vision for Place”
- – Masterclass by Max Farrell, FARRELLS
- DAY THREE: Saturday, 9 July
- “Place-making through Form-based Code”, Masterclass by Roger Evans, studioREAL
Show your interest now!
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UDG AGM & Executive Committee Elections
If you care about the future of towns and cities, and the Urban Design Group, please think about standing for election to the UDG Executive Committee, please submit a completed nomination form to the UDG by 6.00pm on Wednesday 25th MayHigh Speed Rail Explored:
Report Launch
HSR and Connected Cities
The Independent Transport Commission
Leeds on Monday 16th May 2016.
Report by Laura Alvarez – UDG East Midlands
“We are one year ahead of construction. The High Speed Railway is happening…” said Patrick McLaughlin MP, Secretary of State for Transport. He added that “the UK is set to have the best High Speed Network in the world”, noting our strong engineering heritage and remembering how, when the rail network we still rely on was proposed back in the 1800s, it fell through in parliament because ‘the canal network was perfectly adequate’. We need to prepare for the future, he said. HenkBouwman reflected on how 50 years ago we could have not envisaged the internet, the use of laptops and mobile phones, and that it is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine how life will be 50 years from now.
Prof Hans de Jonge explained another issue is the management of scales and a good way to overcome this in the Netherlands was integrating local and corporate business through design and events programming.
The dialogue must start with a blank piece of paper, stressed Prof Peter Bishop, with true bottom-up processes where the design process is collaborative from day one at a local level. Bridget Rosewell agreed, adding that modelling analysis is not the way forward because places are made by people and variables cannot predict human attitudes and behaviours, adding “People have to make the place, not be told how to make it”.
Making place is key to success, working closely with Community Interest Companies, Universities and local groups is essential, stressed strongly Prof John Worthington, author of the report.
The event ended with a note from each main regional city highlighting their assets and key opportunities they see emerging from the scheme. The strategy from Central England will be based on identifying key industrial, manufacturing and energy assets, and ensuring all cities have something to offer, complementing each other. The challenge remains to guarantee strong connectivity between main cities and smaller economies, to ensure these do not suffer economic loss. A strategy to supply all necessary skills (from planning to engineering) also needs to be put in place.
The Rt Hon Patrick McLoughlin MP – Secretary of State for Transport
John Worthington MBE – Project Chairman, Independent Transport Commission
Bridget Rosewell OBE – Commissioner, National Infrastructure Commission; Non-Executive Director, Network Rail.
HenkBouwman – Director, The Academy of Urbanism; Director, Urban impulse; Secretary-General, METREX; Lead Consultant, ITC HSR Review
Hans de Jonge – Professor in Real Estate and Development Tu Delft, Chairman Rotterdam Central Station District Public Private Partnership, Founder Master City Development post graduate degree (Erasmus University and City of Rotterdam)
Prof Peter Bishop – Professor in Urban Design, The Bartlett, UCL; Previously Director of Environmental Services LB Camden, Design for London, Deputy CEO London Development Agency
More on…
Full report…
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HS2 may not even reach Manchester as Department for Transport faces having project taken out of its control
World Towns Agreement – your opportunity to get involved
Diarmaid Lawlor issues an invitation to practitioners
The World Town Leaders Summit will take place in Edinburgh, June 15-16. [ A key part of the conference will be the signing of a World Towns Agreement, building on the Habitat 3 new urban agenda. The Agreement is being crowdsourced. We welcome your input and opinion
- Have a look at the draft
- The document is open, and editable. There is no registration necessary. You can contribute by typing into the document:
- If you see something you disagree with, either change it or add a note
- If you would like to add something, add it in by typing your thought or add a note
- You can also contribute by e-mailing , or following @wtls_16
new edition
sponsorship opportunity
The first edition of Graphics for Urban Design and Planning inspired a generation of computer graphics and influenced the way we tell the story of physical transformation. It has sold over 2,500 copies in the UK alone.
A new edition is being proposed to bring readers up-to-date with current tools, techniques and processes, expanding significantly on the first edition.
If your organisation is interested in co-sponsoring this second edition, which is to be published by ICE publishing, please contact
Bally Meeda on 01234 353870 or email
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PRACTICE OF THE WEEK
Eastern Leighton Linslade Urban Extension
Built Form Resource
Staff within the practice have been involved with the project from its inception as a proposal for strategic growth in 2003 through to the recent approval of outline planning applications. The extension accommodates 2,600 dwellings with mixed use centres, extensive areas of formal open space and country parks. Most recently, Built Form Resource has been involved in detailed negotiations on street design, parking strategies and inclusive mobility, crucial to the approval of the scheme.
Initial work involved an assessment of the whole town within its landscape setting, the form and structure of the town and the facilities and services it contains. The aim of the assessments was to identify the directions for growth that minimise impacts on landscape and make the most of the assets within the town. The range of work included:
- Sustainable town study
- Green Belt study
- Detailed study of the town centre
- Master plan
- Framework Plan adopted by the local authority
- Public consultations
- Outline applications
- Landscape and heritage assessments for EIA
Jobs
Urban Designer / Master Planner - Terence O'Rourke
Principal Urban Design Officer, Guildford Borough Council
Seven Dials Trust – temporary help - Student - 2-3 days work
Assistant Urban Designer - PRP - London
Urban Designer - PRP - London
1 x Principal & 1 x Consultant Masterplanner/Urban Designer - EDP - Gloucestershire
Community Planning Assistant – JTP
2 x Career Grade Officer (Design & Conservation) - Islington Council
Job at Design South East, expected soon – check the UDG website for details.
To advertise jobs in Urban Update – please email
Place Alliance urges minister to heed recommendations of Select Committee on National Policy for the Built Environment.
The UDG, and other professional institutions are co-signatories of the letter coordinated by the Place Alliance which urges DCLG Secretary of State Greg Clarke to take the give due consideration to the recommendations of the report, and in particular:
- Give further encouragement to joint spatial frameworks and cross-boundary cooperation on ‘larger than local’ planning.
- Promote the health and well-being impacts of the built environment in a more integrated way across local authorities.
- The new process of permission in principle should give due regard to design quality and the key components of place making.
- The National Infrastructure Commission should publicise its approach to local design impacts and local engagement.
- Incentivise decision makers to more systematically use Design Review for major developments.
- Encourage the adoption of Manual Streets by highways authorities.
- Appoint a chief built environment advisor within government to help co-ordinate policy, to act as a champion for design and to promote good practice beyond government.
- Establish a high level architecture and place policy for England
Events and Webinars
LONDON
Urban Design London
Events coming up – extensive programme some free, some charged/ £175+VAT(Free for UDL subscribers)Understanding Streets for Life
24th May 2016 (Full Day)
Building Relationships
26th May 2016 (09:45 – 16:00)
Academy of Urbanism
AoU Congress XI: The Future of Urbanism
9th June London
Future of London
Good Homes Alliance
The future for Sustainable Housing Debate & GHA AGM
UBM, 240 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8BF
Museum of Walking
First ThursdayHaiku on Foot
Thursday 2 June6.30pm-8.00pm
Place Alliance
EAST MIDLANDS
Delivering Successful Places - From Concept to Reality21 April
NORTHERN
Essentials of Urban Design in Planning
NORTH WEST
Manchester 4x4
Engage Liverpool
Designing with Nature
22nd June
SOUTH EAST
Trees and Planning - RIBA
14 June - Maidstone
Design South East / Kent Design
Event Calendar
THAMES VALLEY
Rural and Self-Build Development – RIBA
25th May - Oxford
Essentials of Urban Design in Planning - RIBA
15 June - Reading
BOBMK Events
YORKSHIRE
Nothing listed at the moment
WEST MIDLANDS
West Midlands Urban Design Forum
MADECity Builder Academy
July 2016
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SCOTLAND
11th ITS European Congress – Delivering Future Cities NowGCHT - Walking Tour:
The Medieval City - from Glasgow Cross to the Cathedral
31st May6pm – 8pm£10 per person
Start point: GCHT Offices, 54 Bell Street
To book a place on the tour, please email or call 0141 552 1331.
Architecture and Design Scotland
Say Hello to architecture
PROFESSIONS….
CIHTSociety of Road Safety Auditors Conference
21 June 2016
IHBC
IHBC Annual School: Worcester 2016 – People Power – Catalyst for Change
Thursday 23rd – Saturday 25th June 2016
Day School on Friday 24th June 2016
Understanding the Significance & Character of Place
24 & 25 May
Current Approaches to Landscape Archaeology
8 June
Landscape Institute
Trees in Hard Landscapes - London
Seminar 1: 15 June 2016, 2:00pm - 5:15pm
Seminar 2: 22 June 2016, 2:00pm - 5:15pm
Book here
PTRC
Transport Practitioners Meeting 2016 – Nottingham29-30 June 2016 | Nottingham
Call for papers open.
RICS
Placemaking and viability: delivering more and better quality developments.
30 June - London
RIBA
A shared utopia? The truth about co-housing
28 June @ RIBA Portland Place
RTPI
Design in the Planning System
12 May - London
Transport Planning Society
“Future of Transport” Workshop, Milton KeynesThursday 26th May 2016 14:30 - 17:00
Research Events
Feeling good in public spaces – Dialogue series
Multisensory neighbourhood walk in summer 2016
Conference in autumn 2016
Dates tbc
Centre for Cities
Throughout June – Regional Events on Newly Elected Mayors
International Conference on Cities in Transformation
14 July 2016| St. Catharine's College, University of Cambridge
/ Latest Lectures
on UrbanNous
New
Governance, housing policy and the consequences.
With particular reference to London.
Improving the quality of new housing: Negotiating improvements in delivery and design
Amy Burbidge is Design Action Manager atNorth Northamptonshire Joint Planning Unit.
Improving the quality of new housing: New issues for affordable housing.
Andy von Bradsky is former Chairman of PRP, Chair of the RIBA Housing Group, Board Member of the Housing Forum and recent chair of the Governmentappointed Challenge Panel for the HousingStandards Review that advised on UK standards for housing of all tenures.
A better future for high streets and town centres.
Julian Dobson, Urban Pollinators
Towns and cities: Function in form
Julian Hart, Lancefield Consulting
Designing the business model: Sharing land uplift and unlocking long term value.
Yolande Barnes, Director of the World Research team at Savills
Weather in the City – How Design Shapes the Urban Climate
Sanda Lenzholzer
All urban designers, architects, planners, and highway engineers should have a knowledge of this subject.
UrbanNous Catalogue available on-line
Highlights include Christopher Alexander, George Ferguson, Hans Monderman and scores of others.
Urban Nous is produced and operated by Fergus Carnegie for the benefit of practitioners worldwide.
Urban Design around the World