_^PLACES

^{Connecting the city's fabric}

B 1. Lay out buildings so as to create continuous frontages around the perimeter of a block, wherever appropriate. This makes a clear distinction between private space on the one hand, and streets and public spaces on the other, avoiding dead areas of land which no one uses or cares for.

B 2. Make sure that every unbuilt space has a specific function, rather than being left useless and neglected.

B 3. Replace street clutter with well designed signage and street furniture to give a clear identity to public places.

B 4. HeIp to make public spaces distinctive with works of public art.

B 5. Publish design guides on residential layout. Use them as the basis for discussing with developers and house-builders how to create housing that makes publicly accessible space rather than exclusive enclaves.

PLACES
Connecting the city's fabric

B 6. Discourage the building of cul-de-sacs, except where there is no practical alternative. Investigate ways of creating access through existing cul-de-sacs.

B 7. Make streets, footpaths and public spaces safer by laying them out so that they are overlooked by passers-by and people in nearby buildings.

B 8. Encourage the occupation of ground floors by uses which relate directly to pedestrians.

B 9. Create buildings and places capable of being used for a range of activities at different times of the day.

B 10. Attract people to live, work and place in the same area through a mix of uses and tenures.

B 11. Make buildings and spaces adaptable to future alternative uses, by both their design and their connection to public transport and the street network.

B 12. Support home-working based on information technology as a way of bringing a different kind of activity to residential areas.

B 13. Create units which combine living and working space, to accommodate a variety of working activities compatible with a residential area.

B 14. Locate buildings suitable for conversion, as a means of creating a mix of uses: for example, vacant offices, redundant factories and warehouses in town or city centres suitable for conversion into housing, or redundant churches and other buildings in residential areas which could be converted into workplaces. Adopt planning policies to make converting them easier.

B 15. Create variety and flexibility by developing large sites in small steps.

B 16. Concentrate live shopping frontages at busy pedestrian intersections to encourage street activity. Provide sufficient space to allow people to meet and talk.

B 17. Introduce flexible licensing regulations to encourage street cafes, outdoor performances and other street life by day and night.

B 18. Launch a legible city or legible neighbourhood initiative, helping to create a clear image of the place by means of signage; interpretation of buildings and spaces; routes; the creation of distinct quarters; street furniture design; public art; publicity; and marketing.

B 19. Draw up a lighting strategy to help the city or neighbourhood to live at night. Use light to guide and orient people, and to exalt or conceal buildings and structures.

B 20. Encourage shops, banks, building societies, estate agents and betting shops to present a lively or interesting front to the street, in and out of business hours. In particular, avoid the sort of security shutters that prevent passers-by seeing into a shop when it is closed, creating a forbidding and lifeless facade.

B 21. Create imaginatively designed and well maintained public parks as an expression of civic life.

Bristol is pioneering the concept of a 'legible city'