New housing and public space design guide published by Elevate

Elevate has launched a design handbook, 'Raising Design Quality in Pennine Lancashire’. Produced with the support of RENEW Northwest, it encourages better designed housing and public spaces and provides guidance and best practice for regeneration professionals.

The handbook was unveiled to an audience of design and regeneration experts at a national Housing Market Renewal Design Task Group meeting in Nelson, Lancashire, organised by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE).

Elevate is bringing in private sector housebuilders to improve quality and choice in the housing market. Good housing design can help change the image of Pennine Lancashire and encourage residents to stay and new people to move there.  

Elevate Chief Executive Max Steinberg said: ‘The design handbook will help to raise the quality of development across Pennine Lancashire by ensuring excellent design is intrinsic to every stage of the development process.

‘Elevate is working to secure good design quality through a number of other initiatives including design and sustainability training sessions, study tours, design demonstration projects and the establishment of the Pennine Lancashire Design Network. We are also exploring with our partner, Lancashire County Council, the feasibility of setting up a design academy to provide training and help communities to better inform and affect development proposals in their area.

‘I am grateful to RENEW Northwest, CABE, English Partnerships, The Housing Corporation and Urban Inspiration for assisting in the development of the design handbook.’

Hazel Catt, Head of Operations and Skills for RENEW Northwest, said: 'RENEW Northwest is committed to driving up the quality of the built environment throughout the region, and recognises that well-designed places help raise the quality of life for people in our communities. This publication both compliments our Places Matter! programme of activities centred around the built environment and reflects our aim to drive up skills through activities such as the Fusion Learning Lab, a skills development programme intended to strengthen the capacity of individuals, organisations and partnerships involved in the regeneration of England's Northwest.’

Jonathan Davis, Director of Knowledge and Skills at CABE said: ‘We are very pleased that Elevate has produced this publication and encourage all partnerships and local authorities to consider how they can embed processes for the procurement of excellent design and signposts for practitioners to best practice examples of both processes and built outcomes in their working practices.

‘We are delighted to be able to continue to work with Elevate and English Heritage through our special programme Design and Heritage Pennine Lancashire (DHPL) and look forward to assisting Elevate this summer by facilitating a joint workshop with those charged with transforming places and spaces in Pennine Lancashire. This workshop will explore the application of various techniques for achieving the objectives set out in Elevate’s handbook.’