Main news
Housing – an article from a concerned local government officer
First Driverless cars arrive in London
Where are the world's newest cities … and why do they all look the same?
New Urbanization Guidelines Set To Fix China's Cities
People who have a ‘local' pub have more close friends
Is bad street design killing people? How different design “orthodoxies” lead to different casualty rates
Scrap 80 percent of traffic lights, and replace with Poynton style junctions
Jobs – EDP, Phil Jones Associates, Design Council,ProVision, Turley, Place Services Essex County Council, Crawley Borough Council, Barton Willmore Edinburgh / from the Urban Design Group
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National Urban Design Awards 2016
Wednesday 9th March 2016
18.15-22.15
Sponsored by Marshalls
- Practice Award - Francis Tibbalds £1000 Award
- Public Sector Award
- Book Award
- Student Award – Francis Tibbalds £500 Award
- Lifetime Achievement Award
UDG, RICS, RIBA, ICE, CIHT, RTPI and other sister professions
Standard Tickets £75
Next UDG Solent Event
Thursday February 11th 2016 – 4-6.30pm
Delivering Custom and Self Build Housing
Yolande Barnes (Savills) – Research on build to own
Fabiano Lemes/ Silvio Caputo (Portsmouth University) – Custom Build and Urban Design
Ron Beattie (Beattie Passivhaus) – Building your own Passivhaus – training and delivery
All events start at 4.00pm and are located in Savills Southampton office:
Floor 8
2 Charlotte Place Southampton SO140TB
Please email Peter Frankum at Savills if you wish to attend.
UDG London Events 2016
PUBLIC SPACE or PUBLIC CORPORATE SPACE
with lessons from Kings Cross and City of London. Wed 10 February
A view of what public realm been achieved, financed and managed.
Anna Strongman, Partner at Argent, and Victor Callister, now Deputy Director at Design Council Cabe and previously Assist Director of Environmental Enhancement at the City. Chaired by Philip Cave.
6.30 – 8.45pm at Argent Offices, 4 Stable Street, London N1C4AB ( for directions).
Talk followed by complementary drinks and networking
£7 advanced booking only through Eventbrite . Numbers are restricted
PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT IS NOT BEING HELD AT THE GALLERY - BUT WITHIN THE KINGS CROSS DEVELOPMENT
Latin America
Tuesday 15 March
South West
Urban Design - From Process to Place
RTPI supported by UDG
16th March 2016 - @ Taunton
Please note this event is close to capacity. / Housing
A restless local government officer writes
“As a local government planner I have to work without favour to any political party interest, only in the public interest, so if governments go off track I have to button up or hope someone will speak up by proxy. However, legislation seems less and less to be aimed at addressing real social needs, particularly in housing, then as a public sector planner one starts to question what the work can achieve.
Starter homes and unaffordable affordable homes are just going to be the latest round of tinkering with the planning system that delays building activity (as landowners / developers work out whether to revisit existing permissions for better returns rather than implement them) and of course only undermines further provisions for those who really need low cost housing.
I am not completely depressed, partly because at a local level there is still determination (officers , members, Design Panels etc) to produce good places in spite of the Government’s impression that the one thing that isn’t needed is effective local government planning.
The housing estates initiative is clever politics given that there has already been a lot of this going on and it fits with the ideology of the current government that such estates represent the inevitable failure of state planning. However David Cameron mocked Jeremy Corbyn with an interesting line in Parliament last week which rather gave away gaps in his own knowledge of housing history
….…”stay stuck in your sink estates, have nothing better than what labour gave you after the war ” !
As housing scholars will know, there was much determination and political competition to produce large amounts of housing after the war, and the most successful government in history to produce large numbers of social housing was the Conservative government of 1951 – 1964. They boasted of it too. Credit where its due…a Conservative government built many of Mr Cameron’s hated sink estates. It won votes and got them re-elected, but given the outcomes and long term costs it shows the danger of politicians demanding numbers at the expense of everything else.
Does the Prime Minister blame Labour for the estates because he can only believe dogmatically that they were the inevitable failure of State Planning? Who knows. That period showed at least that with political will a lot of houses can be built…however it was reduced to a numbers game, and Conservatives and Labour were in competition as to who would see the most homes built, which lead to compromises on quality and cost cutting. There were other factors too such as architectural modernism, unfamiliar technologies, lack of public engagement etc . The planning profession in a way has never fully recovered its own or public confidence. It remains a soft target and punch bag for ministers, the “enemies of enterprise” have their uses.
The fact that a lot of the 1950’s building was so poor in the long run was conveniently blamed on the architects and planners caught up in this, but their political masters were absolved. The fear is that a distorted focus on numbers (which is mainly what we are getting from political parties now) will lead to similar costly mistakes and poor quality environments that won’t endure…. also that it takes more than current market mechanisms to get building.
Is it too late to influence the Housing and Planning Bill ? I hope it gets all the scrutiny and dissection it deserves in the Lords because there was precious little in the Commons. Is this the reality of EVEL(English votes for English Laws)? I hope we stop rubbishing the role of local government (predominantly Conservative run in any event) and allow it to lead actively in the building of low cost housing, by acquiring land, cleaning it up, establishing a public conversation , creating high quality planning / urban design strategies and then overseeing the build out of partnership schemes. Locally, I witness many schemes taking a decade to build out from first permission …..the poorly housed and the really poor can’t wait that long. With financial uncertainty ahead the housebuilding industry may soon have to shut up shop again for a while anyway.”
7 C’s Design Guidance
Trees and Design Alliance workshop
Roads to places - Integrating green and grey infrastructure for highways design
Nottingham 17th February
Sue James has arranged this by-invitation only event to support the development of the 7C’s design guide, and to ensure that it is at the cutting edge of tree practice. If you feel you have something to contribute, and would like to attend, please contact
“Trees in Hard Landscapes” is currently the leading guidance on the subject and can be freely downloaded on:
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PRACTICE OF THE WEEK
Hogwood Garden Village Wokingham, UK
Wei Yang & Partners
Hogwood Garden Village forms the southern part of the Arborfield Garrison Strategic Development Location, identified in the Wokingham Borough Core Strategy as having the potential to accommodate 3,500 dwellings. Hogwood Garden Village would accommodate 1,500 of these.
The principle of development at Hogwood Farm is already well established. The site is allocated in the Council’s approved development plan and more detailed guidance, relating to the layout and design of the site, is given in the Arborfield Garrison Supplementary Planning Document.
Acting on behalf of the landowner, Wei Yang & Partners were appointed to prepare a ‘hybrid’ planning application for the development which comprises 1,500 dwellings (including affordable), up to 10,500 sq. m of employment floorspace; a neighbourhood centre with up to 1,500 sq. m for local services; a primary school, parks and gardens, children’s play areas, allotments, sports pitches, other formal and informal open spaces.
The proposals for the site are based on Garden City principles which include generous green spaces, walkable neighbourhoods, a strong local centre providing for the day-to-day needs of the new community and local employment opportunities. The spine for the whole development is provided by a wide generous green space, acting as a ‘village green’ and the focus for the development. Arrangements will be put in place for the long term management and maintenance of the assets and for local community involvement in the development as it proceeds.
Read more
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.
Jobs
Urban Designer Phil Jones Associates
Advisors: Design Review/Planning – CABE
Urban Design Consultant, Place Services - Essex County Council
Masterplanner - EDP - Cirencester
Urban Designer – Edinburgh - Barton Willmore
Senior Urban Designer – Provision – nr Winchester
Associate Director, Urban Design, Turley - Bristol
Design Director, Turley
To advertise jobs in Urban Update – please email
20s Plenty for Us Conference
Friday 26 February 2016 – The Guildhall, London
Includes launch of provisional review findings on 20mph limits.
Events and Webinars
Academy of Urbanism
Pub Quiz – with Rob Cowan
1 Feb 7-10pm
Landscape Institute
Rethinking the Urban Landscape Exhibition
Leeds, Sheffield – see website for dates
MADE
Trees: Legal and Planning Update
9th February
City Builder Academy
July 2016
West Midlands Urban Design Forum
Designing the Midlands Engine’16 March – details soon
Yorkshire
Regional Urbanism in the Era of Globalisation
3-5 Feb – University of Huddersfield
Engage Liverpool
The Creative Process - Film31st January
Luminous Landscapes
18th Feb
Urban Design London
Events coming up – extensive programme some free, some charged/ £175+VAT(Free for UDLsubscribers)Urban Design Skills: Landscaping Open Space and the Building Space Interface
4thFebruary 2016
Planning Skills: Understanding Microclimate: daylight, sunlight, noise & wind calculations
9thFebruary 2016
Design South East / Kent Design
Event Calendar
Designing our Highways
10 February Canterbury
Booking…
Place Alliance – Big Meet 5
Friday 29th April / Architecture and Design Scotland
Several workshops on the use of traditional materials coming up. No one should attempt architecture or urban design in Scotland without a knowledge of Ballachulish slate!
IHBC
Culture. Capital. Cities. UK City of Culture 2021 / European Capital of Culture 2023
11 February 2016 - Manchester
Museum of Walking
Dash or Dawdle – Clerkenwell PubsAny day until the 22March 2016
Out and About in Shoreditch–Journal making and walkshop
Saturday 13 February10.45am-1.45pm
Geffrye Museum, London E2
Centre for Cities
City Horizons: the future of urban policy in the UK
18 April - Manchester
BOBMK Events
Delivering Design Excellence
ThursdayFebruary25th 2016
Future of Transport and Innovation
Thursday March 10th 2016 Milton Keynes
PTRC
Transport Practitioners Meeting 2016 – Nottingham29-30 June 2016 | Nottingham
Call for papers open.
Transport Planning Society
4th Annual Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects Forum 2016
9th February
Smarter Travel LIVE! 2016
17-18 March 2016 – Milton Keynes
RTPI
/ Latest Lectures
on UrbanNous
New
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
SandaLenzholzer
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.
Walter Segal Housing Exhibition to March AA London
Urban Design around the World
Global
Where are the world's newest cities … and why do they all look the same?Canada
Ottawa facing biggest urban overhaul in a half centuryChile
Focus on Poverty: Half-built homes can ease slumsChina
Hong Kong’s cold spell highlights shortcomings in responsesNew Urbanization Guidelines Set To Fix China's Cities
USA
How not to handle edge conditions: the case of the Nucleus parking garageContainer house stirs debate in Covington
Movement
Institute for Economic Affairs makes economic case to scrap 80 percent of traffic lights, and replace with Poynton style junctionsIs bad street design killing people? How different design “orthodoxies” lead to different casualty rates
How we made the Eurostar – a case study in the differences in Anglo-French working practices
London's first driverless cars revealed In Greenwich
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Latest Research, Policy and Practice
Environment
EARTH: How to feed 11 billion peopleUniversity of Leicester researchers lead Anthropocene study into lasting effects of plastic on land and oceans
Capitalize on 'life transitions' to instil better environmental behaviors
Humans, Health, Society
Urban sprawl stunts upward mobility, University of Utah study findsBuilt Environment
Going to the pub is good for you critical role in creating communityResearch by Professor Robin Dunbar
People who have a ‘local' or community-type pub have more close friends on whom they can call for support, and are happier and more trusting of others than those who do not have a local. They also feel more engaged with their wider community. While people who frequent city centre bars may be in larger social groups than those in more community-oriented pubs, but they are less engaged with those with whom they are associating and have significantly shorter conversations. Professor Robin Dunbar, Oxford University, says: "Friendship and community are probably the two most important factors influencing our health and wellbeing. Making and maintaining friendships, however, is something that has to be done face-to-face: the digital world is simply no substitute. Given the increasing tendency for our social life to be online rather than face-to-face, having relaxed accessible venues where people can meet old friends and make new ones becomes ever more necessary.
Concerted effort needed to tackle loneliness, says LGA
Rotterdam is City of the future say architects
The illustrations of a treeless grey landscape will not be to everyone’s taste.
Home builders say bungalows have now fallen out of favour with buyer HBF
Bungalows no account for only one in 50 new dwellings. According to the HBF, families want houses while older people opt for retirement flats.
Fewer homes being built in London as UK house building falls 25pc short of target
Number of new homes being registered to build is the highest since the crash, but building figures in London are stuttering
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