The importance of good design
 

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This advice is aimed at improving what is often a difficult area of planning control, to the benefit of those making development proposals, planning authorities and the public. Developers and planning authorities need to recognize the importance of engaging good design skills and striving for high standards of design.

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Good design is not just socially responsible. It also adds value to development, for example, by commanding good rents, by maintaining enhanced capital growth and by requiring less maintenance. Well-designed development need not be costly - imagination, creativity and sensitivity can create high quality at low or modest cost. Simply cladding a poor design in expensive materials will not achieve this.

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Good design must be the aim of everyone involved in the development process. The products should be buildings which are well designed for their purpose and their surroundings, and a public environment (the spaces between buildings) which is attractive to use, visually stimulating and easy to manage and maintain.

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The planning process should seek to encourage and facilitate excellence, innovation and creativity in design while discouraging and preventing poor and mediocre proposals. Design should be a material consideration in the determination of all applications for development.

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Good design should essentially be the responsibility of the client - as developer, owner, financier or builder - and the designer - as architect, artist or craftsman. This responsibility is not always met - for example, where economic viability obscures most, if not all, design considerations. Nor is it axiomatic that all designers are good designers. It is therefore important that the public, usually through the medium of the planning authority, should develop helpful means of encouraging better design in their areas.

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Good design is not easy to define, because it is subjective and it depends whose value systems are being applied. It should, however, be possible to reach widespread agreement that the basic aim is to create buildings and spaces which combine to form an attractive public realm - that is, places which can be seen and enjoyed by the public.

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What is of particular importance is the recognition that good design is not just a matter of attention to elevational design.

Development control
 

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Planning authorities should, therefore, consider the design aspect of development proposals in relation both to their intrinsic qualities and to their setting. Such consideration should include:
...the nature of the uses proposed and their impact on their surroundings. Uses at ground level should be appropriate to a pedestrian environment and mixed uses should be encouraged on urban sites wherever practicable.
...the scale, height, bulk and density of the proposed development. These should be appropriate to the specific context. Since buildings are perceived at different distances - on the skyline, down a street or across a square, or close to eye level and people walking about - their visual impact needs to be considered at each of these scales. Roofscape - as an important fifth elevation - should not be neglected.
...the layout of buildings, space about buildings and landscape treatment. Left-over tracts of land should be avoided and generally layouts should aim to produce attractive, intricate places related to the scale of people walking. It will be important to exploit the individuality, uniqueness and differences between places and to encourage freedom of access and movement, particularly for pedestrians. The needs of the disabled must also be positively taken into account. Good landscaping, whether hard or soft, formal or informal, is important - its mellowing and softening effect helps to knit development together to form an attractive, coherent whole.
...access, roads and parking areas. Access arrangements need to be clear, safe and efficient and designed to minimize harmful impacts by motor vehicles - such as noise, pollution, visual intrusion, severance and danger - upon the local environment.
...the character and quality of the local environment, including the relationship to any adjoining buildings. New development should relate to its physical context in appropriate ways - for example, in scale, use, colour, materials and so on. This does not imply copying of existing styles or pastiche. It should be possible for new buildings to have the same richness, individuality, intricacy and user-friendly qualities as traditional, well-loved development. Planning control should not stifle experiment, originality or initiative.

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Planning authorities should make clear their reasons for preferences regarding materials, colours, elevational design and detail and should avoid unnecessary interference in detail design and insistence on trivial alterations. If the overall design concept is well conceived, this will be unnecessary. If it is not, it is unlikely materially to be improved by minor adjustments.

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Planning permission should be withheld when development proposals have insufficient regard for their impact on neighbouring property or on the local environment, or to the needs of access or represent an over-development of the site. In the circumstances of such clear-cut grounds for the refusal of permission, the applicant should at once be invited to submit revised proposals, without having to wait for formal determination.

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Drawings should illustrate the proposals in their context, using perspectives, photo-montages or other three-dimensional presentation techniques whenever appropriate. Applicants must demonstrate that they have properly addressed the five sets of design considerations set out above, in the context of any additional specific guidance for the area or site issued by the planning authority. Provided this has satisfactorily been done and there are no other planning objections, permission should always be forthcoming.

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Many planning applications are for relatively small-scale proposals such as extensions, conversions and minor buildings - often, though not always, submitted by applicants other than architects - which do little to enhance the local environment and whose cumulative effect can be very detrimental to local amenity. In these cases planning authorities should have a positive role in fostering better standards and awareness of the benefits of good design to the owner or developer.

Heritage areas
 

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Many planning regimes provide for additional control in historic or conservation areas. These powers are aimed at the need to preserve and enhance the character or appearance of an area. This should not preclude the possibility of new development taking place in such areas, provided that it is designed in a sensitive manner, having regard to the special character of the area in question.

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In historic or conservation areas, in addition to the considerations set out above, it is particularly important that new development should harmonize with the existing townscape, materials, historical features and local vernacular style. Innovative, sensitive design will usually be preferred to a pastiche replication of historical styles, providing it is sympathetic and appropriate to its surroundings.

Statutory plans
 

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Planning authorities should give clearly expressed, objective design advice which is appropriate to their area. General principles should be contained, as far as practicable, in adopted statutory plans. These might, for example, include:
...the definition of areas in which mixed uses will be encouraged to create variety and a lively, safe environment;
...general height guidelines for development (either as figured dimensions or numbers of storeys) - with exceptions for buildings which, by virtue of their use or form, make a positive contribution to the skyline as landmarks;
...the encouragement of good craftsmanship, landscaping and the integration of pieces of art to enrich the public environment;
...the need to make development permeable (easy to move through and around) and legible (easy to understand and recognize where you are);
...the desirability for buildings, where appropriate, to be robust (able to adapt over time to changing opportunities and needs);
...the desirability of choosing materials for their permanence, durability, mellowing and enduring qualities, and for ease of maintenance;
...the desirability of avoiding wholesale rapid change, by encouraging the development of smaller sites, setting limits on the extent of site assembly or breaking up larger sites into more easily managed components of incremental development;
...the encouragement of more sensitive, friendly development in which colour, pattern, decoration, texture and materials - as well as technical excellence and innovation - combine to create enjoyable buildings and development; and
...the need for people to have a say in the design of the physical environment in which they live, work, shop and play.

Site briefs
 

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In addition, planning authorities should prepare planning briefs or design briefs for sites which are important, environmentally sensitive or difficult to develop. These can be used not only to summarize the relevant policies in local plans, but also to provide essential information and design objectives related to the specific site, such as height guidance, views or view corridors to be maintained, uses, materials, roof profile or skyline, grain of development, pedestrian routes and so on.

Consultation
 

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Applicants should always consult the planning authority before formulating a development proposal to ensure that they have a clear understanding of the authority's objectives and the policies and principles against which the development proposal will subsequently be judged.