Tag: Urban Design

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Report

New Neighbourhoods in Cambridge

This report evaluates housing schemes in Cambridge and the role of the Cambridgeshire Quality Panel in maintaining quality. It aims to determine if the high standards seen in Cambridge can be replicated elsewhere in the UK.

The report highlights the success of Cambridgeshire in delivering high-quality new neighbourhoods through strategic planning, innovative design, and collaborative efforts. Given the support of the local community, the lessons learned from Cambridge can be applied to other areas in the UK to improve housing quality and meet growth targets. The involvement of the Quality Panel, adherence to the Quality Charter, and early planning are critical components for replicating Cambridgeshire’s achievements.

Author: Stephen Platt

Publication date: June 2024

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Article Guidance Report

Building Social Cities: Learning From What Works

It is fifteen years since Professor Sir Peter Hall and Dr Nicholas Falk drew on study tours run by the Town & Country Planning Association (TCPA) to Dutch and German urban extensions to recommend what needed to change in the UK. David Rudlin and Nicholas went on to apply lessons from cities such as Amersfoort and Freiburg to win the 2014 Wolfson Economics Prize. They showed how a city like Oxford could double its population by applying garden city principles without depending on government subsidy. With a Labour Government committed to boosting economic growth and building affordable and sustainable homes, the URBED Trust has compiled articles from Town and Country Planning on practical solutions. Please read and ask yourself and your colleagues Why not now?

This document is a compilation of nine papers orginally published by the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) and reproduced in this report with their permission. Each article has links to other relevant material.

The new introduction provides a valuable summary and the final article, written by Richard Simmons in 2024, looks at how lessons from these articles could be combined with other opportunities to deliver growth and new homes faster.

Contents:

  • Funding large-scale new settlements
  • Urban policy and new economic powerhouses
  • Achieving smarter growth in London and the South East
  • Planning for posterity
  • Location, location, location – funding investment in local infrastructure
  • Sharing the uplift in land values (executive summary)
  • Planning rapid transit for urban recovery
  • Harnessing towns and cities for better growth
  • Why not here?
  • Six steps for accelerating delivery by Dr Richard Simmons

 

Authors: Nicholas Falk, Richard Simmons.

Publication date: July 2024

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Further information: https://urbedtrust.com/

 

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Report

Tackling Inequality in Housing Design Quality

While disadvantaged communities routinely put up with poorly designed housing development, it is not a given. Through presenting twenty stories which illustrate ten routes to success from across England, this study demonstrates that if the will is there, we can routinely deliver well designed new housing developments in even the most challenging locations. The economic, social, environmental and health benefits that flow from this will be substantial.

In too many disadvantaged areas, poor quality housing development is the norm.  The private market works less well in such places, with lower land prices leading, proportionally, to lower investment in all aspects of the design and delivery of new homes and neighbourhoods.  This happens to the point where all quality is squeezed out of private and associated affordable housing or housebuilding simply becomes unviable.  Too often it is perpetuated by the disengagement of the public sector from housebuilding and from the governance of design quality.

Authors: Matthew Carmona, Jingyi Zhu and Wendy Clarke, UCL & Place Alliance.

Publication date: February 2025

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Further information: https://placealliance.org.uk/from-inequality-to-quality/

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Presentation

Urban Design Group and the world of urbanism

The UrbanNous website contains a wide selection of video recordings from Urban Design Group events across the country. If you missed out on a lecture, or would like to see one again, take a look through UrbanNous’ video archive to find what you are looking for.

Find out more and download presentations at: www.urbannous.org.uk.

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Report

Distinctively Local

This report focuses on new suburban and rural housing, including urban extensions, suburban infill and completely new settlements. It aims to inform and inspire those who may be planning, designing, delivering or hoping to inhabit new developments, including the latest generation of garden towns and villages. It includes guidance and case studies showing how to create genuinely distinctive and popular places. In doing so we hope it will help foster a positive perception of new development that can in turn help smooth the path for boosting housing supply.

This report is the product of collaboration between four architectural practices, specialising in the design and delivery of residential and mixed-use neighbourhoods:

Author: HTA Design, Pollard Thomas Edwards (PTE), PRP, Proctor & Matthews Architects.

Publication date: May 2019

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Further information: http://distinctively-local.co.uk/

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Guidance

Thinking Ahead

Local authority estates have been a vital part of the UK’s housing provision for over 50 years, and although many face social, economic, placemaking and physical stock issues, the advantages of estate regeneration are plentiful. More recently, policy and funding initiatives have created a fresh impetus for renewing the nation’s estates – putting it firmly on the political, as well as the housing, agenda.

In collaboration with GVA, Levitt Bernstein have produced this best practice guide to help Local Authorities and Housing Associations through the three key stages of the estate regeneration process: preparation, strategy and delivery. Taking each in turn, this guide sets out the questions that need to be answered in order to design and deliver successful renewal projects.

Author: Levitt Bernstein, GVA

Publication date: February 2019

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Guidance

Manchester Residential Quality Guidance

An outline to the considerations, qualities, and opportunities that will help to deliver high quality residential development as part of successful and sustainable neighbourhoods across Manchester.

Author: Manchester City Council (MCC) by:

  • Deloitte Real Estate: John Cooper/Ed Britton
  • Planit-IE: Peter Swift/Robert Thompson/Alexandra Chairetaki/Chris Hall/Abi Allen
  • CallisonRTKL: John Badman/Michael Dillon

Publication date: March 2017

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Report

Altered Estates

London’s failure to keep up with the demand for additional homes has renewed interest in regenerating existing housing estates – to not only increase the quantity of homes but also improve the quality.

The issue is increasingly politicised and polarised, with those on one hand who think the wishes of existing residents are of the utmost priority and those on the other who believe public land should be used to create more homes to widen access to homeownership. The authors of this report believe that regeneration can and should satisfy both camps.

Levitt Bernstein created this report in collaboration with three other architectural practices (HTA, PRP and PTE) to offer recommendations on how to reconcile competing interests in estate regeneration.

Author: HTA, Levitt Bernstein, PRP, Pollard Thomas Edwards

Publication date: May 2016

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Further information: www.alteredestates.co.uk

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Report

Superdensity: the Sequel

This new report, Superdensity: the Sequel, consists of a series of short essays and case studies which show how patterns of development in London have evolved since the first report was published and offers some ideas about the way forward. It does not revisit the design guidance in the original, which we think still holds good and is now widely accepted and practised. The new report does not try to be comprehensive. For example, it does not deal with the hugely important subjects of utilities, transport and community infrastructure. Rather, it aims to provide some fresh perspectives on how to create successful homes and places at high densities up to around 350 homes per hectare. 

Although London is the focus of this report, the observations are relevant to other UK cities, and hopefully will become increasingly applicable as and when economic growth starts to exert development pressure more evenly across the country.

Author: HTA, Levitt Bernstein, PRP, Pollard Thomas Edwards

Publication date: May 2015

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Further information: www.superdensity.co.uk

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Article

New communities – Looking and learning from dutch experience

To help councillors leading local authorities with proposals for eco-towns, the TCPA and URBED (Urban and Economic Development) were commissioned by the Department for Communities and Local Government to organise a two-day study tour to leading Dutch examples of new settlements.

The tour aimed to show the councillors the Dutch approach to planning and to draw out lessons that could be applied in the UK.

Author: Nicholas Falk (URBED) for Town & Country Planning Association

Publication date: December 2008

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