UDG Update
Chairman’s Remarks
In August 2006, the Government had high aspirations for raising the design standard of what is built when the Planning Minister Baroness Andrews announced that ‘the Government is putting high quality design at the heart of the planning process’. This saw the introduction of a statement about design to accompany, but not be part of, almost all planning applications. This has quickly become part of the common language of applications alongside planning statements, application forms and transport assessments. However, the Design and Access Statement has become the most prominent of all the application documents – it is the most commonly and often the only report read.
Despite this, it is clear to us at the UDG that authors and audiences alike, including local authority planners, are getting statements very wrong.
There are still many miles between a statement that informs the reader, explains the scheme, sets the aspiration and delivers a narrative about the design process and one that makes vague assertions dressing up the scheme as innovative, well-designed, of high quality and the best thing to happen in the area.
In response, the UDG has produced a new publication focused on writing good statements about design and it recognises that the starting point is the Government Circular (and CABE’s Design and Access Statements: How to write, read and use them, June 2006). However it goes further in explaining that access issues are part of good urban design and that by using the tools of urban design it is far harder to hide poor design, and far, far easier to promote good, sound design. Equally, we hope that it will give much needed guidance to local authority planners assessing schemes and help them to realise that good design exists in all schemes and that design is rarely a linear process - it is about making the right decisions at the right time.
My hope is that this publication will make it easier for promoters of good design to prevent the erosion of their schemes by the ill-informed or poorly-trained who misguidedly argue personal preference over good design. A well thought-out Design and Access Statement can make a clear case for high quality design, regardless of style, and help prevent the slide towards mediocrity in design that is prevalent in what is being built today.
The UDG’s publication is available from Thomas Telford from March 2008.
Ben van Bruggen
The UDG’s Director Robert Huxford announces new initiatives
We are all supposed to be in the age of information. The knowledge economy is all the rage. But in this sea of information where is knowledge to be found? The answer is in the Urban Design Group’s e-mail newsletter! Each week we trawl for useful information in the government and websites covering other countries looking for new legislation, guidance, policy and technological developments. There is information about jobs and events too. If you are not receiving the newsletter and would like to, please contact admin@udg.org.uk.
Urban Design Week 2008 is scheduled to take place between 15-22 September, and is an opportunity for us all to raise the profile of urban design. Please think about getting involved, possibly by running an event locally where you live or work. Extra help on this is being provided by UDG past Chairman Barry Sellers who is producing an e-booklet full of ideas and suggestions for activities and how they can be undertaken. We will send this by e-mail nearer the time.
The Urban Design Group is setting up its own free-to-join e-mail discussion forum using a first-rate service provided by the UK universities JISCmail system. If you would like to join in, either go to www.jiscmail.ac.uk and search for ‘URBANDESIGN’ or follow the links that are being sent out in the UDG e-mail newsletter.
What is urban design? The essay that explores this question on the Urban Design Group website, introduces urban design as the collaborative and multi-disciplinary process of shaping the physical setting for life in cities, towns and villages. It is a definition that is capable of embracing many different people, professions and activity. However many of us instinctively like to refine definitions to make them more precise. The philosopher Karl Popper cautions us against sterile debates on definition, while the world around moves on. But it seems that a valuable step forward is being made. For the past 18 months, Rob Cowan has been working on Capacitycheck, a tool that can be used to assess the skills of an individual, the design capacity of an organisation, or the input required for a project. It has necessarily involved providing a more precise listing of the activities in urban design, but rather than excluding individuals, Capacitycheck potentially makes urban design more inclusive than ever before by defining urban design as a method of working: something to which we all can aspire. Capacitycheck is due to be published later in the year by the Urban Design Alliance, and will mark an important step forward for urban design.
Robert Huxford
