GHA Knowledge Base
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.
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
Further information: http://distinctively-local.co.uk/
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
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:
Publication date: March 2017
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
Further information: www.alteredestates.co.uk
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
Further information: www.superdensity.co.uk
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
This report was produced in the hope of influencing
the Mayor’s Housing Strategy. It is the work of four of
London’s major consultants specialising in residential
development – HTA, Levitt Bernstein, PRP and Pollard
Thomas Edwards architects. Normally rivals, they are
collaborating because they are all seeking answers to
the same question – how to design for the opportunities
and risks posed by the shift towards much higher
density housing.
The practices have compared notes on their work in
progress, first to propose and define a new ‘superdensity’
threshold of 150 homes to the hectare. They have also
pooled knowledge to assess how this threshold is being
crossed with schemes of even higher density: these
schemes reach levels of density which, despite 120 years’
experience in housing.
A follow-up report, Superdensity: the Sequel, was launched in 2015.
Author: HTA, Levitt Bernstein, PRP, Pollard Thomas Edwards
Publication date: July 2007
Further information: www.superdensity.co.uk