successful design for the public realm: a new professional certificate
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Successful design for the public realm
Overview of a new professional certificate covering the primary delivery systems, policies, techniques and design skills needed for successful interventions in public realm design
The first training course to integrate all the disciplines involved in creating and managing the public realm has been enthusiastically received by the first cohort of students. The delegates' comments show that there is a groundswell of interest across local authorities and design practices in adopting more creative, collaborative approaches to public realm design.
The comments also show clearly that there is a definite need for public realm designers from all disciplines – transport and civil engineers, landscapers, urban design, highways, lighting, public art – to gain a much better understanding of the statutory regulation that applies in this sector, and the roles that supporting long-established practice, design guidance and best practice can play in supporting regulatory interventions.
RUDI is a supporter of this training and provides access to RUDI resources for delegates wishing to continue their learning.
The Design and Management of the Public Realm Professional Certificate was organised and run by PRIAN (Public Realm Information & Advice Network). This Professional Certificate is the first course that deals with all the primary delivery systems, policies, techniques and design skills to enable someone to successfully prepare practical designs for small-scale public realm interventions. The course integrates the urban design perspective with the engineering perspective and shows how to combine these disciplines to produce outstanding public realm solutions.
PRIAN is a not for profit network of professionals from the fields of engineering, planning and urban design who are committed to enhancing the quality of the public realm and the urban experience in the UK.
Between them PRIAN members have a wealth of experience of public realm interventions, ranging from small scale streetscape and traffic measures through to high profile, big budget projects such as London’s World Squares.
The Design and Management of the Public Realm Professional Certificate is an intensive residential course with CPD accreditation from the IHIE (Institute of Highway Incorporated Engineers) and the Urban Design Group.
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The residential course is held near | Presentations are combined with group working, site visits and project work to ensure that delegates get to grips with the complex issues involved |
The inaugural event, which consisted of two three-day sessions, was fully booked with representation from a wide cross section of professionals, including engineers, urban designers, landscape architects and planners, recognition of the value of a course which places inter-disciplinary knowledge and understanding at its core.
Says course founder, experienced planner Colin J Davis: ‘I think we can say we are the only accredited short course that combines traffic and highway engineering with urban design, thus we address all the constituent parts involved in the design of the public realm.
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| Small group working | Project-based discussion |
‘We hope to encourage practitioners to break out of their silos. The strength of the course, has been, as we expected, that practitioners from every aspect of the design process have come together on an equal footing and gained additional skills and confidence by working and living together for two sessions each of three days each.’
Apart from the specific subject covered in the traditional lectures, says Colin, we have been able to draw upon the considerable skills of the supporters and mentors of PRIAN, who mostly practise at the head of nationally recognised professional consultancies.
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| A site visit takes in junction design | Partners present their work |
Thus they are able to bring a lifetime of experience, together with the most up to date hands-on practice from across the country, to the discussions with delegates. In addition there are plenty of opportunities for delegates to take part in forward thinking, yet practical, design exercises.
- The group used the hotel car park to stage a real life experiment to test the strength of frequently encountered paving materials. The demonstration will be remembered by the delegates as undisputed proof of some engineering principles. We were able to use the nearby town centre of Bedford to carry out surveys and on which, through teamwork, to base designs and case studies.
- The skills of the delegates were varied and considerable. In the first group were architects, civil engineers, landscape architects, traffic engineers, planners, designers, project managers, horticulturists and artists. At the course’s end they were certainly able to understand the objectives of fellow professional colleagues, as well as having a firm grasp of all the aspects of design required to create public realm of true quality.
- The newly published Manual for Streets was used as a text book. Among our mentors and supporters are some of the key authors of MfS. The new attitudes advocated in Manual for Streets are becoming apparent to practitioners across the country and so delegates on the course have a head start in understanding the concepts as well as putting them into practice. Following the formal learning sessions, each delegate now feels sufficiently confident to carry out his or her own design studies to producing sustainable public realm of quality and then test the result through the process of a quality audit.
- Finally, the delegates will present their individual studies to a multidisciplinary panel of experts representing the IHIE and English Heritage, during an interview session.
Comments from delegates
 | Dale, Peter Brett Associates 'We know the theory, but this course helps to get people on board: I find that many established experts and planners on local councils are difficult to bring on board with innovative ideas, but there are increasingly more that are into different ideas. The course’s mix of site visits and theory is a good balance.’ |
 | Leo, Camden Council I’m an urban design officer and also work part time at University College London as a researcher. It’s hard to implement this co-ordinated working across the built environment sector, but it is possible. Often it comes down to personalities and putting forward a good argument. In Camden we usually do compromise. In the UK it can be difficult to get more progressive design ideas through, and I think in this respect we have a lot to learn from the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. 'This course has brought together transport theory with urban design and engineering ideas. I’ve leaned a lot about engineering, and how to understand why my colleagues look at certain challenges in the ways they do. I am sure that this will help me to get my points across to them.’ | |
 | Robert, Whitelaw Turkington 'I’ve seen projects where we’re moving away from strict adherence to guidance and bringing in a subtler, more contextual approach. We also try to take a more creative approach. What we’re learning here gives us more confidence to put these schemes into practice in this way.' |
 | Alan, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council 'A more collaborative approach to working is exposing the old standby myths that each group of professionals cling to. It’s now more about designing a workable solution for the users, understanding the place and designing for context, not just about applying the rule book or ticking boxes.' |
