Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
AND TOWNSCAPE
Gordon Cullen Tribute
Practice Profiles of Colin Buchanan, ECD,
PRP and WML International
Plus Design in the Countryside
UDQ Issue 52 OCTOBER 1994 ISBN 0266-6480
UDG News
another innovative landscape around the proposals in a London Borough which did
magnificent Fire Station at Vitra. Again a not happen because the two committees
structured, geometric and artificial scheme, involved failed to agree; he instanced this as
Zaha Hadid well suited to its purpose, the almost a lack of vision and compared it to Europe,
Remember those sweltering evenings in choreographed rituals of fire drill. The more specifically France, where the strong
June? It was on such an evening on June scheme also sets the pattern for future mayor system showed direct results; in the
29th that Zaha Hadid spoke to an buildings which "will grow like furniture in a USA, apart from the mayors the Chambers
undeservedly small audience about her large room". of Commerce got directly involved to make
approach to urban design on the occasion of The slides were excellent. How sad that, things happen.
the second Annual Urban Design Group as yet, there is no example of her work to The cultural aspect was also raised and
Lecture. visit in Great Britain. Since she spoke, her Andrew Warner described the sitution in
Describing her early experiences of success in the Cardiff Bay Competition has Leicester Square where Haagen Daas
London, as an architecture student, she gave been announced so that omission will soon be wanted outdoor seating and it took about a
a personal and perceptive account of the rectified. year to get approval to eight seats; there
physical changes caused by its growth from a were servicing factors to consider but it was
series of villages to a great metropolis. This Elizabeth Young the attitude that was negative. By
led her to a question "How do you create a comparison Barcelona approached the
civic and public zone to meet today's needs?" company to persuade them to put seats
outside their site. Nevertheless it can
Urban Design Tomorrow
Not, she suggested by leaving an important
space such as Trafalgar Square "like a happen here as shown by the Edinburgh
pretend Italian piazza, imprisoned by traffic The third discussion evening in the series Festival licence extensions and
and surrounded by pigeons". Her project for 'What is a City' was held in September, the Manchester's encouragement of outdoor
Grand Buildings illustrated her preoccupation first being concerned with the concept of the drinking.
with "layering and programming" public city, the second how it might evolve and this
space. Rather than accepting a single street evening devoted to ways in which urban STRATEGIC ISSUES
level she created a number of interlocking design is relevant to the future of the city. Is urban design pursuing superficial issues
levels to encourage a richness and diversity Chris Glaister continued in his role as whilst strategic issues are not being faced?
of public activities. Where traditionally there Chairman and the panel included Andrew The view was put forward that urban design
would have been solids defining the spaces Warner, a chartered surveyor dealing with should permeate the whole structure of
she created voids, new spaces, and links to planning issues, John Montgomery, a planner environmental decisions - we should not
surrounding areas. Her live projects at this and an economist, and Robert Holden, a push ourselves into a narrow area but ensure
time, both in Tokyo and Germany were on landscape architect involved in practice and that an urban design approach was involved
"weird" extremely narrow sites where all her teaching. at all scales. There were examples where
ingenuity in programming and layering were that had happened such as New York under
needed to achieve amazingly vital results. RELEVANCE Mayor Lindsay where the Urban Design
These were followed by two harbour The first question put to the panel was section sought to maximise public policy
studies in Hamburg and Cologne which led to 'how relevant is urban design, as at presently benefits from development - some decisions
her most recent project, the harbourside practised, to planning issues?' were proved wrong but it was a positive
Media Complex in Dusseldorf. Here she has Andrew Warner felt that developers were approach to the urban design process; San
created a "new urbanity, not an edge or less rapacious today and more were prepared Francisco and Portland were also examples
marginal scheme". On the street facade the to put money into design issues. Robert of this and so was Birmingham.
buildings continue the rhythm and scale of a Holden's view was that unless we get global
traditional narrow warehouse alley. On the economics and the transport situation right MECHANISMS
harbour side the scheme explodes and we are merely tinkering with the system with Could the mechanisms of the present
fragments into four dramatic glazed fingers, urban design. John Montgomery was worried system be improved? We needed to create a
four office blocks clutching a "black box", a about many approaches to urban design, feeling of ownership of the city by the public
broadcasting room, between them. The which appeared to be tidying up and seeking which meant improving the dialogue
layering of the building is continued in the to create order whereas surely the object between the public and the planners. In
surrounding landscape. But for Zaha Hadid should be to encourage people and their Spain, for example, planning proposals are
landscape is not something which "gentrifies activities - creating places where things can exhibited in three dimensional form. The
the space through shrubbery". She creates a happen; he referred to the area outside the French education system seemed to
new geology, breaking the earth's crust and Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith where introduce a better appreciation of culture.
leading pedestrians through the fissures into agreement had been reached with Training of Planning Committee members
her own geometrically structured rocky surrounding owners to recreate a proper would help and we needed to get local
water's edge. public realm but this had been stymied by authorities to work in an integrated way, not
The same concern about the treatment of local authority bureaucrats. as separate compartments of highway
spaces around her buildings has produced Robert Holden described improvement engineers and separated disciplines.
'Imagine an urban countryside, a highly traditional urban visions. In fact, the results
varied but humanised landscape. It is neither showed more consistency with developing
urban nor rural in the old sense, since houses, notions of perceptions of rural landscapes
workplaces and places of assembly are set than with those from the then well-
among trees, farms and streams.' established urban tradition.
This description was chosen - quite This is nowhere clearer than in Walter
deliberately - by Kevin Lynch to underpin his Bor's comment on changes in Milton Keynes
slightly tongue-in-cheek 'Place Utopia' which planning that had made it into (in his term)
formed the worked example chapter of Good "an enormous patchwork". He, of course,
City Form} The choice of a wider landscape followed the old urban (and intensely male)
for this Utopia was one result of his unease at tradition by assuming that a "patchwork" is
the way in which many of his ideas, from intrinsically bad. It certainly was a
those in The Image of the City2 onwards, had "patchwork", but the results showed that it
been colonialised by urban enthusiasts to give could be highly valued, and extremely
them increasing justification for arguing the effective. There were anomalies; in particular
distinctiveness and superiority of urban form. from the apparent lack of 'congruence'
Lynch was concerned that the broader between form and patterns of use and
perspective on people and places, on movement that Lynch's work argued to be so
meaning, legibility, identity and order, that he important. The Milton Keynes results
and others - notably McHarg 3 and Appleyard 4 showed highly urban patterns of movement
- had begun to develop was being weakened. co-existing quite happily with images of a
He saw assumptions being developed that mainly rural pattern of settlements.
only clearly urban form can given meaning Residents conceived the whole place as
and order, and hence that urban designers are villages set in a landscape, each with its own
the only true guardians and shapers of the by-pass and all just down the road from one
broad-scale physical fabric. He wished to of Europe's largest covered shopping centres
reassert the relevance of his approach to any (known as 'the city'!).
landscape or territory, even to 'Managing the
Sense of a Region'. 5 OLD IDEAS RESURFACING?
In this, there are parallels with my own With Kevin Lynch's sad death during an
work on Milton Keynes in the late 1970s,6 exchange of ideas about all this, and shifts in
where the results of the study of resident my work pattern, these ideas lay deep down
perceptions of the new "city" challenged in my mind for some years. They came
professional constructs. This work showed flooding back around three years ago when
clearly that it is possible to structure a large- we were approached by staff at the
scale place to give order and coherence, to Countryside Commission to discuss emerging
balance local with overall identity, and all in issues around the theme of the "Design of
a manner which does not demand recourse to Buildings and Settlements in the
Physical Influences Geology, overall form, hydrology, slope, climate, Settlement location, re: landform, water table and Materials, micro-climatic response, ground
natural and semi-natural vegetation, ecology supply, shelter/exposure, aspect, habitats conditions, habitats
Spaces and Enclosure Openness, distance or enclosure, vistas and Scale, topography, enclosure, openness, Public and private spaces, division, enclosure,
views, horizons, skylines, sub-divisions, change boundaries, sequences, consistency, connections, constriction
over seasons public and private space
Forms and Patterns Managed vegetation, effects of tress, hedges, Pattern of field and farm development, legibility, Volumes and massing, consistency and variety,
boundaries, agriculture, buildings, distinctive tree and boundary patterns orientation, number of storeys, height,
areas, legibility, impact on the landform, boundaries
proportion of cover features
Characteristics Tone, colour, light and shade, variation over Tone, colour, light and shade, variation over Tone, colour, light and shade, shelter, security,
time, seasonal change, texture, contrast, variety, time, seasonal change, texture, contrast, variety, boundaiy details, roofs, walls, openings, eaves,
consistency, management, strategic landmarks consistency, management, local landmarks verges, ridges, planting, condition, distinctive
features
Circulation Orientation, general pattern of roads, rail, paths Pattern of roads and paths through and across Circulation in and around buildings, through,
and watercourses visual effects of moving settlement, signage, lighting, verges, condition, between and across spaces, access to buildings,
through, views opened, and closed, density of surveillance, safety, density of traffic condition, surveillance, safety, public and private
traffic, permeability access
Change Deforestation, plantation, intensified agriculture, New villages, agglomeration, abandonment, Redundancy and reuse, design guidance,
minerals extraction, trunk roads, reservoirs, infilling, suburbanisation, by-passes, * extensions', coach lamps and gnomes, signage,
landfill, strategic planning infrastructure, public utilities, local plans standardisation, development control
Values Meanings, attitudes perceptions and symbols at national, regional, local and personal levels in terms of: environmental, historic, social and cultural
factors
Countryside" 8 (as the eventual work came to design - to celebrate and enhance local especially in a way which could assist
be titled). The issues emerged following distinctiveness. designers and planners.
general reaction to a Commission policy Though we still hesitate about its use in As a matter of principle, we were keen to
paper on "Planning for a Greener practice, we developed a "Local Diversity avoid what we have always considered to be
Countryside". 9 Matrix" - shown above - which enabled us to the trap of design guides. From experience
This latter paper attracted almost as many give coherent attention to the many aspects of working with development control
comments on the design of buildings and which shape local diversity and planners, with designers and with developers,
settlements as on all other issues put distinctiveness. In this matrix, we linked we have become convinced that any design
together. This was encouraging (and had to together the different physical scales of guide is only as good as the weakest link in
be acted upon), yet the topic of design, landscape, settlements and buildings to a the chain - and this is just as likely to be an
architecture, even aesthetics caused worrying range of factors covering the original, architect as a plansmith or a developer's
ripples in an organisation with no background underlying shaping forces of geology and technician. Moving forward from narrow
in this area and a fear of the secret garden climate, through the resulting patterns of prescription - especially in the context of
which we professionals have constructed for 'figure' and 'ground' in how we read places, celebrating diversity - demanded an approach
our territory. So far has this construct of a to local idiosyncratic features, and on to the which would place the onus firmly on
secret garden imbued even other influence of movement and change over time. designers to put in the work to demonstrate in
professionals that the best the Commission Finally we added one further, indispensable their designs a full understanding and
hoped for, at that stage, was some sort of factor - values. This covers the established, appreciation of the nature of specific sites
(and changing), meanings and values given to and their context.
generic design guide. They had no idea that
engaging with design would overlap the area and its settlements and buildings by This general approach places our work
remarkably with almost all their other policy local communities. firmly in the territory explored by John
areas; in particular with developing research, However, our work with the Countryside Punter in his study for the Department of the
policy and practice on landscape appraisal Commission was not intended to be Environment on design policies in local
and assessment. We took it further with theoretical. The aim was to provide the plans. 10 The (hopefully) forthcoming guide to
them; into aspects of links between design Commission with modes of intervention in good practice will argue the centrality of
and access, recreation, countryside planning, development and design processes appraisal-based policies, setting a descriptive
management and community participation. which would help to deliver a higher quality and analytical framework against which
They became especially excited by two of building design in rural areas, and hence future design proposals can be tested. Our
emerging themes, both of which are also reinforce their remit for a beautiful and own developing methods introduce appraisal
central (if in varying form) to urban design. accessible countryside. Having developed, at two levels, and also introduce some
The first theme was the need to look beyond through the matrix, what we considered to be innovative and already fairly controversial
a good working basis whereby one could ways of generating and using that appraisal.
individual buildings and design detail to the
nature and form of settlements and their assess the contribution that any new building
relationship with their landscape. The might make to reinforcing local EMERGING METHODS
second theme was the need to hunt out, distinctiveness, it was then essential to We have recently tested the two main
critically describe and then - through new describe how this could be achieved - and methods for the Countryside Commission,
working with another consultancy (SGS Interestingly, much of the field work testing urban neighbourhoods. It would be great pity
Environment, their landscape group in the matrix and the overall approaches in real- for the overall advancement of urban design
particular) and Cotswold District Council. life situations led us to tackle issues which, in as a key, but currently undervalued, process
The results have recently been presented to another setting, would be regarded as classic were we to gain some interest from the dyed-
the Commissioners, where they were urban design. In one village, the issues of in-the-wool-urbanists only after the methods
received extremely positively - as they were permeability and the privatisation of public found their way into urban practice.
in a series of regional seminars for the space were central. In another, the district- Our recent work suggests that UK urban
majority of local planning authorities across wide appraisal paid particular attention to design urgently needs to consider its
England. (They are not yet, however, public, legibility. In one of the Cotswold studies, the relevance to all parts of the country; we
so all comments which follow are mine local authority found itself getting close to believe the principle for doing so is clearly
alone.) The methods are: "understanding and manipulating the established. Our 'nose' tells us that urban
developer's goals through the planning design practice - in general - would be
COUNTRYSIDE DESIGN SUMMARIES machinery to achieve quality in the public enhanced by this move, and that rural areas
Produced mainly at district level and by realm" (a minimally adapted UDG Agenda would benefit from it. We feel that there is
planning authorities, these are area-wide principle). also much to learn about the balance between
appraisals of landscape, settlements and There can be no doubt that we were (UDG the general advancement or urban design
buildings in different zones of the district, Agenda again) addressing questions of practice (part of that being empowerment and
offering broad guidance not on how to helping users to achieve their aspirations, and capacity-building) and the actual doing of
respond (as per a design guide) but on what a operating as promoters and enablers. In fact, urban design projects. Finally, we have a
design should respond to. the latter techniques were probably more fear that urban design will become beached if
critical, and raise questions about the balance it fails to look more broadly, in particular
VILLAGE DESIGN STATEMENTS between drawing-based work in urban design when facing the growing momentum of
Produced mainly by village communities, and that of process management, facilitation, sustainable developments arguments.
in association with planning authorities, as a and consensus-building. The work drew us Hopefully, the pages of the next UDQ or two
more specific appraisal in terms of the into appraisals of relationships, balance and could contain some responses to, perhaps
generic framework, these offer very explicit structure at a level well beyond that of even elaboration of, these arguments.
guidance about the setting to which any individual buildings, while also alerting us to
design must respond - but still stay clear of aspects of landscape structure and character. REFERENCES
prescribing what the response might be. If anything, the latter has implications beyond 1. Lynch, K (1981), Good City Form
We can now be much clearer about the urban design and into landscape assessment, (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press).
eventual status of these outputs. The suggesting that this rapidly growing area of 2. Lynch, K (1960), The Image of the City
Countryside Design Summaries will be professional expertise urgently needs some (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press).
incorporated into district-wide local plans in input from more instrumental, designerly 3. McHarg, I (1969), Design with Nature
all three of the areas used for testing. The thinking. (New York, Doubleday).
four Village Design Statements will all be When looking back, we find parallels 4. Appleyard, D (1976), Planning a
securing status as Supplementary Planning between our approaches and those outlined in Pluralist City (Cambridge, MA, MIT
Guidance. In fact, the VDS for Cottenham UDQ by John Punter in his paper on research Press).
(in South Cambridgeshire) has already been in the USA." In that paper he suggested that 5. Lynch, K (1976), Managing the Sense of
approved - the first time ever that an entirely "very few cities consider the ecological, a Region (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press).
community-written document has been natural resource and conservation aspects of 6. Bishop, J (1986), Milton Keynes: Best of
incorporated fully into the planning system. landscape and build it in as a crucial Both Worlds? (SAUS, University of
In all four villages, the community groups are contextual factor in design", and also Bristol).
continuing their work and are now moving on highlighted the lack of attention in UK 7. Bor, W (1981), Reported in Architects
to consider appropriate development briefs. practice to sustainable development and Journal, 15 April.
In one of the four, this has led to an increased social equity. Our work reinforces this. 8. Countryside Commission (1993), Design
housing allocation, increased land values and in the Countryside (Cheltenham, Coun-
potentially better layout and design. WHERE NOW? tryside Commission).
All this leads us, inevitably, to the 9. Countryside Commission (1989),
IMPLICATIONS conclusion that the time is long overdue Planning for a Greener Countryside
Each method is rooted in a desire to bring (even if the substitute words fail us) to put (Cheltenham Countryside Commission).
often conflicting parties together to link aside redundant distinctions between urban 10. Punter, J, (forthcoming), Guide to Good
general policy to detailed local practice, to design and rural design - at least in the way Practice for Design Policies in Local
provide a 'common language' for all, to the latter has been construed in our own work Plans (London, HMSO, Department of
create a shared awareness of value, and to for the Countryside Commission. We are the Environment).
widen the decision-making base. In general, now actively exploring (with clear support 11. Punter, J, (1992), Design Control in the
the matrix described above provides the from 'high places') the applications of the United States (Urban Design Quarterly,
'common language'. approaches both to Conservation Areas and to Issue 44, pp. 5-10).
The seminars - supported by Glasgow their own sake but in reaction to a very wide
District Council, Glasgow Development set of social, economic, environmental and
Hildebrand Frey, Director of the Urban Agency, Strathclyde Regional Council, functional issues and criteria.
Studies Unit at the University of Scottish Homes, The Glasgow Institute of Thirdly, many here in Glasgow disapprove
Strathclyde, summarises the major issues Architects, and the Department of of urban design because it has frequently
and conclusions reached at a series of Architecture and Building Science - came been in the past, and is still perceived today,
seminars held in Glasgow this year. about as the result of the perceived lack of to be rigid and all-prescribing
Between the end of February and mid development strategies and specifically urban masterplanning, hindering if not strangling
March 1994 the Urban Design Studies Unit design in Glasgow's regeneration process. rather than enhancing urban development; the
at the University of Strathclyde organised Support was considerable, perhaps depressing results of comprehensive
four seminars about the role of urban indicative of the importance attributed to the development in the 50s and 60s are an
design in the regeneration of Glasgow. discussions. Next to local speakers - Frank eloquent reminder. The seminars argued and
The seminars did not, and were not Walker, Thomas Markus, John Punter and demonstrated that good urban design
intended to, break new ground; but there myself from the University of Strathclyde and frameworks are primarily concerned with the
was discussion with a little difference. Mark Baines from the Mackintosh School of 'hard' areas of the city, the long-lasting and
First, the seminars were not events at Art - interesting speakers could thus be image-giving public spaces, buildings and
which the 'converted' talk to each other invited: David Mackay (MBM, Barcelona); monuments. Grey or 'soft' areas of the
but meetings at which sceptical but open- Giinter Schlusche (Berlin/IBA); Ulrich private realm have to be flexible, adaptable
minded professionals of all the city's Loening (University of Edinburgh, Centre for to changing socio-economic conditions and
agencies, departments, associations and Human Ecology); Richard MacCormac needs, and should remain largely unregulated
groups actively involved in the (MacCormac Jamieson & Prichard, London); except for the overall massing and height of
regeneration of the city came together to Anthony Costello (Ball State University development in order to prevent any
listen to arguments and comparisons and Muncie, USA); Paul Stouten (RIW-Housing interference with the public realm's structure,
discuss issues and problems of their Research Institute at the Delft University of form and image.
concern. Technology); Lucien Kroll (Atelier A fourth important objective of the
What is also remarkable is that the series d'Urbanisme, d'Architecture et seminars was to show how urban design 'fits
was initiated not by the University but the d'lnformatique, Brussels). But major in' and why the spatial structure and physical
City of Glasgow's Town Clerks Office in contributions were also made by many form of the city is so important. Examples
collaboration with planners and architects delegates in form of questions, comments or demonstrated that an improved image of a
involved in the regeneration of the even short papers. city or urban area generates not only directly
Gorbals. a social, spatial and formal gain but also
MAJOR ISSUES indirectly an economic benefit, though the
But what was it all about? First, there are latter cannot be predicted with any accuracy.
many here in Glasgow who believe that they It was furthermore shown how social,
actually do design the city and have economic, environmental and functional
strategies. In response to their claim it was needs, demands and problems perceived by
relatively easy to demonstrate that in the citizens lead, ideally and necessarily in a
Glasgow we design individual parts of the participatory process, to the generation of
city but, with a few notable exceptions, action programmes. They in turn result in the
ignore the need to generate a design physical changes of the city. The impact of
framework for the integration of all these these changes must be realistically predicted
parts into good towns and a good city. before they are carried out and requires to be
Secondly, many still believe that urban monitored after changes have taken places.
design is primarily and solely concerned with Examples of urban regeneration projects in
formal and aesthetic issues, the cosmetic Glasgow clearly illustrated the lack of impact
treatment of preconceived projects in the city, analysis which causes many if not all of their
and therefore largely irrelevant in the process benefits to be lost again in a very short time.
of tackling the city's 'real' social, economic
and structural problems. The seminars THE LESSONS FOR GLASGOW
demonstrated with the help of examples At the end of the seminars some very clear
particularly from Barcelona and Berlin that recommendations emerged with direct
Above: City Structure. Hatched section good urban design, rather than following relevance for urban regeneration in Glasgow.
shows central and southern areas with development projects as an after-thought, sets As the discussion embraced the city at large
coherent urban structure. Dotted section the rules for the physical as well as rather than specific parts, details or issues,
shows areas of comprehensive programmatic integration of development these recommendations are fairly general and
redevelopment during 1950s and 1960s. projects, influences the city's 'performance' need to be worked out in detail at seminars
and shapes its very form and structure not for and workshops to follow, but a first small
level but vitally important to the more controlled; and to provide a link
implementation of physical planning ideas is between a series of new urban projects.
Chris Couch, Professor of Urban Planning the preparation of the Plan d'Occupation des Urbanising the first stretch of the road is
at Liverpool John Moores University, Sols (POS): the legally binding land use and currently at the design stage but three
describes measures being taken in Nimes development plan. Preparation has been projects have been built. In the west lies the
to exploit its artistic and cultural heritage. divided into three phases. Phase One, 'ville active' project: a retail and business
completed in July 1991, dealt with La Plaine zone that tries to cater for the spatial
According to Jean Bousquet, Mayor of Sud de Nimes to try to bring some order and requirements of edge-of-town commerce
Nimes, architecture and urban design are protection to the rural area of development while providing a strong design framework
important to him because they provide the pressure between the motorway and the and integration with housing and social
physical framework for living: "we are airport. The second phase covered the city facilities. Nearby is the Stade des Costieres:
surrounded by architecture, it's like a second centre and the Garrigues (the area of low, dry a new indoor sports hall and 20,000 seat
set of clothes for everyone... the quality of hills and small-holdings to the north) and was outdoor stadium for football, rugby, etc.
our architecture is indicative of the strength the subject of a public inquiry in April 1993.
of our culture". Within the context of this plan virtually all THE AXE NIMES-CAMPAGNE NORD-SUD
Of Roman origin with a well preserved the medieval core has become a pedestrian This was the concept of the Norman Foster
medieval centre, Nimes is a city of around zone and a secteur sauvegarde (conservation team. To the west of the medieval city centre
150,000 people in western Provence. While area). The final phase will deal with the the 19th century inhabitants had built a great
known for its strong artistic heritage the city suburban area south of the city centre and formal boulevard running south from the
had, until recently, a slightly depressed air, north of the motorway: the development zone. Jardin de la Fontaine for over two kilometres
overshadowed economically and culturally by The process of preparation and the content through the city. Foster's idea was to provide
its neighbours, Montpellier to the west and of the POS are only remarkable because they a symbolic link between the gardens (the
Avignon to the east. are informed by the second, higher level of heart of the city) and the southern horizon.
Such is the power of French local planning. This plan, known as the Plan Thus he proposed extending the axis through
authorities and the office of the mayor in d'Ordonnancement (literally, a plan for the 8 kilometres gradually transforming its
particular, that Nimes has become in the general arrangement of buildings) has no function and character from urban street to
early 1990s, one of the main focusses of legal status but for the planners of Nimes it suburban avenue and finally to country road.
attention in French urban design and provides the strategic framework for physical
planning. Driven by the enthusiasm of Jean planning. What the plan does is to establish DIAGONALE VERTE
Bousquet and his belief in cultural and the key physical characteristics, constraints Perhaps the most immediately appreciated
design led regeneration, the town has become and opportunities within the agglomeration by the people of Nimes will be the Diagonale
very 'a la mode'. It has been transformed, at and to set out a small number of critical Verte. This series of public open spaces, both
least temporarily, into a mecca for visiting urban design proposals for specific parts of hard paved areas and soft green areas, is to
planners and architects and is enjoying the city. This is not a set of criteria but a run north-west to south-east through the city
something of an economic renaissance. This series of proposals. It is not comprehensive. linking the Garrigues in the north with the
has been achieved, or at least strongly If fully implemented, the proposals represent agricultural plain to the south. Beginning at
influenced, by a combination of coordinated major changes to the physical environment of the Jardin de la Fontaine it too has been the
environmental planning policies and the the city with improvements to both visual location for a series of urban projects.
development of a series of high quality appearance and legibility.
'flagship' building projects. The Plan d'Ordonnancement has three
Local government in France is very main proposals. They relate to:
fragmented, with many urban areas divided - the boulevard peripherique sud;
between a number of communes, each with - the axe Nimes-Campagne nord-sud;
its own planning powers. Thus, historically, - the Diagonale Verte
the planning of Nimes had fallen between the
Departement de Gard, the Ville de Nimes THE BOULEVARD PERIPHERIQUE SUD
and a number of surrounding communes. Built as a ring road in the post-war period
One of the first steps towards good planning the peripherique sud cuts an ugly swathe
was to bring the whole urban area within the through the southern suburbs of the city. The
jurisdiction of one planning authority and in concept is to 'urbanise' this whole suburban The Canal de la Fontaine (shown above)
1988 the local authorities agreed to set up the zone through increasing densities and links the gardens with the city centre. In a
Agence d'Urbanisme et de Developpement 'civilizing' environmental works. The most recent project the city have cleaned up the
de la Region Nimoise with the task of important proposal is to change the character canal, rebuilt and widened the pedestrian
preparing and implementing a coordinated of the ring road to create an urban boulevard promenade alongside, planted semi-mature
plan for the whole agglomeration. where buildings are to be brought closer to trees and replaced the old street furniture.
The 'new' planning of Nimes has the road to enclose the environment; where Traffic movement has been restricted and
proceeded on two levels. The more prosaic traffic speeds are to be reduced and its flow adjoining buildings, which were run down,
are beginning to be renovated. Just to the Measures introduced include: quality, as evidenced by the poverty of
south lies the Place d'Assas. Dug up to retaining a building mass and density in thinking behind the British Enterprise Zones
construct an underground car park in the late keeping with the rest of the city centre; for example, in Nimes well considered
1980s, it was rebuilt in 1993 to provide a retaining the domestic urban scale and physical improvements are leading to
home for a number of large outdoor character of the streets and facades; economic benefits. The Carre d'Art and the
sculptures. Unusually and successfully, the refurbishing those buildings of architec- refurbishment of its surroundings have
artists were involved in the design of the tural merit or which form key elements in brought more tourists and more spending to
square from the beginning allowing the the townscape, while permitting the the area; pedestrianisation and environmental
artifacts to be shown to best advantage while demolition and replacement of others; improvements in the medieval city have
being integrated into the fabric of the city. removing the 'parasitic' constructions encouraged a return of people and economic
Around the corner from the Place d'Assas (e.g. workshops) that have appeared in activities; the whole exercise of the Plan
is Foster's new Carre d'Art. Opened in 1993 the inner courtyards of blocks and d'Ordonnancement and the architectural
it is the most important centre for refurbishing as semi-private spaces, projects has had a powerfully beneficial but
contemporary art in France after the repaving and refurnishing the streets. unquantifiable effect on the image of Nimes
Pompidou Centre in Paris. Not only is it a and its ability to 'sell itself in the
superb example of modern architecture investment markets of the world.
successfully inserted into the fabric of an old To be useful, strategies to enhance the
city but its construction has provided an townscape of a city need not be
opportunity to rebuild the adjoining Place de comprehensive criteria-type policies, along
la Comedie so as to calm traffic and improve the lines of the fatuous 'good design will be
the pedestrian environment around the art encouraged' so often found in British Local
gallery and the adjacent Roman Maison Plans but can take the form of specific
Carre, where the number of visitors has more proposals for sections of the city in order to
than quadrupled since completion of the provide a clear physical framework and
works. It is a classic example of how structure, i.e. to improve the legibility of the
investment in one building can provide a The 'diagonal' runs through the Esplanade city; and to offer examples of good urban
catalyst for the regeneration of a whole area Charles de Gaulle: again combining the need design that others may follow.
(shown above). to provide underground car parking with the In Nimes not only are good modern
To the south the 'diagonal' route continues opportunity to refurbish the surface area. buildings inserted into historic areas without
along the tree-lined Boulevard Victor Hugo to The policy of the city is not simply to limit visual detriment, but they enhance the
the Arenes where the city have roofed over the use of the car in the city centre but to townscape and economy. Indeed, one of the
the roman arena to provide a summer and encourage the use of bus services with more general points about French urban design is
winter venue for concerts and cultural events frequent services on realigned routes. the willingness of architects to propose and
of all kinds. This is a bold example of Passing along the Avenue Feucheres and planners and local authorities to accept bold,
conservation combined with economic use under the main railway station the final innovative and visually exciting solutions to
and provision of a new facility. There is stretch of the diagonal verte follows the line design problems in historic areas. There
nothing precious about building preservation of a small stream, le Petit Vistre, out into the seems to be a confidence about urban design
here. The attitude appears to be: it is part of countryside. in France, both on the side of designers and
our heritage, we respect it but we will use it, on the side of the commissioners and
not just look at it. CONCLUSIONS controllers of development that is generally
To the east of the Carre d'Art lies the In Nimes it is possible to observe a number lacking in this country.
medieval core of the city centre. Formerly of features of interest to British planners and The final point is that few British local
run down with many vacant buildings, the urban designers. It demonstrates the ability authorities have attempted to produce
city has taken a powerful stand, effectively of the French local authority, with its anything like the Plan d'Ordonnancement.
banning cars from the centre for most of the decentralised planning powers, local identity Few British Development Plans can offer any
day, repaving the entire area to indicate the and civic pride, to develop its own solutions strategic urban design concepts to guide and
pedestrian's dominance, replacing street to planning problems. In the case of Nimes, lead the future development of their towns
furniture and signage. Combined with steady the city has chosen a strategy for economic and cities, let alone using design strategies to
investment in building refurbishment and development based around exploitation of its being economic and social benefits. Urban
conversion the effect has been to upgrade the artistic and cultural heritage and design in Britain has become too detached
urban fabric and bring inhabitants and environmental improvement. At the same from the planning process for this to happen.
economic life back to the inner city (as shown time, high standards of architecture and Yet in Nimes, as in many other continental
in the next column). The objectives have urban design are being pursued for their own cities, plans have been prepared that indicate
been to retain or recapture the best parts of sake: because the physical fabric of the city is what the city will look like in the future, why
its historic identity while making the area the people's second set of clothes. it will look like that and what the benefits
functionally more useful in the context of the Far from there being a choice between will be: a rationally argued urban design
late 20th century city. economic development and environmental strategy leading the planning process.
inspires Jencks to further abandonment of his 2010) we find that the avant-garde rich inhabit
usual divisive "isms" approach. I certainly exaggerated and distorted houses made of
hope so. This is a good book for anyone who brightly coloured plywood and chainlink
has ever held a view about Los Angeles. fencing, eat out in sophisticated themed
restaurants, go shopping in scaled down
Francesca Morrison fantasy malls, and work either in anonymous
multinational downtown skyscrapers or in
deconstructed designer studio offices.
Outside the compact downtown area - chosen
LOS ANGELES: WORLD CITIES inexplicably for the dust jacket (it could be
Series Editor Maggie Toy almost any major city in the State) - there is
Academy Editions 69.95 an inventive and witty group of young
architects, or school as Charles Jencks has
A sybaritic sun-drenched city sitting, elsewhere referred to them, with a lightness of
Pompeii-like, astride a potential natural touch and formal dexterity, and enough clients
disaster, a place where fantasy and reality to indulge their design skills.
embrace, where - if the luscious photographs A quick glance at the location map
in this book are to be believed - the sky is helpfully provided at the end of the book
always deep blue, except for when it is tinged shows that the projects are almost exclusively
with a scenographic purple hue as the street located in a narrow band stretching from
lights twinkle against the setting s u n - downtown to Santa Monica and Venice
Los Angeles is the second of the projected Beach, some fifteen miles away, the area of
series on world cities. Like London, its greatest personal wealth in the county. Given
predecessor (reviewed in the April 94 issue the emphasis in the text on social and ethnic
of Urban Design Quarterly), it is - as one issues it's disappointing that there are no
would expect with a price tag of nearly 70 - projects from the districts whose populations
a heavy and lavishly produced volume. In are predominantly Hispanic, black or Asian,
two parts, it kicks off with a series of essays or those areas of greatest poverty where we
under the general heading Social and read of "the recent discovery of thousands of
Planning History. Apart from rehearsing a homeless living under a freeway that had
tendency to see things in either/or terms."
lot of well established LA folklore of the "no been enclosed by side walls". Perhaps there
According to Jencks it is the architects'
there there" variety - freeways, earthquakes, is no public housing worthy of illustration?
role to create the framework for this synthesis
by representing all the various cultural bush fires, mud slides, riots, smog, ethnic Despite the rather facile graphic
discourses without judgement. He believes diversity and so on - the five essays end with presentation many of the projects show a
architecture can cast a new light on the multi- the transcript of a forum "Learning from Los preoccupation with the art of place making, a
cultural debate and in several chapters Angeles" held at the Royal Academy in 1993 recurring theme through the work of Charles
devoted to describing this architecture of "en- whose participants, including Ed Soja, Eric Moore and Frank Gehry, the elder statesmen
formality", he presents convincing arguments Owen Moss, Conrad Jameson, Charles of the period, as well as in the projects of
to prove his hypothesis. Jencks and Ralph Erskine, aired many of the younger practices like Morphosis, Eric Owen
The LA architecture of en-formality social and planning issues currently facing Moss and Frank Israel. While Gehry's
redefines public space in a way that allows the conurbation. Loyola Law School is a dignified new
different groups of people to enter into a fluid The second part of the book is a tripartite pedestrian plaza not far from downtown, the
social situation. It suggests new ways of overview of recent architectural projects, Jerde Partnership's shopping malls have all
making creative responses to situations which undated, though starting probably with the the razzmatazz of Disneyland. The private
locus classicus of the current phase of LA residences illustrated - large enough
are at an impasse. Los Angeles, Jencks says,
design, the controversial house extension that sometimes to be like small villages - must be
may not survive if it does not deepen
Frank Gehry built for himself in Santa among the most inventive spatially anywhere.
commitment to the two contradictory
philosophies - it is a city "on the verge of Monica in 1977-8. This section is presented This book brings together a number of
either splitting up or making something under three headings, Los Angeles as it might serious essays covering a wide range of
strange and exciting that no-one has seen have been,... as it is, and... as it will be, each contemporary urban issues facing the city
before". introduced by a short perceptive essay by with a selection of thrilling new-wave
This is Charles Jencks at his most spirited Maggie Toy, the series editor. architectural projects, both of which show
and evangelical. He comes as a prophet, So what impression does this catalogue of that the legendary diversity and exuberance
warning of doom, but at the same time projects give of life in Los Angeles today? In of LA is flourishing; enjoy!
revealing LA's great gifts and unfolding the a city - or rather, county, since that is what
potential it has to become a model world city. LA is - with a population of 13.4 million Peter Howard and Helena Webster
It will be interesting to see if any other polis (expected to grow to 18.1 million by the year
notion of empties or void and Nitschke cites its origin goes back to the dawn of man.
the Ryoanji rock garden with its fifteen rocks However, the skyscraper is a 20th century
FROM SHINTO TO ANDO in a sea of gravel as being a fine expression of invention and the application to it of
Studies in Architectural Anthropology in this. 'Beyond Fence and Focus, Beyond bioclimatic principles seems to have been
Japan. Gunter Nitschke. Academy Sacred and Profane' is the next essay that noticeably lacking.
Editions 1993, 27.50 begins with the Ise Shrine, passes through the Ken Yeang was a student at the AA in the
This is a collection of essays about Fushin-on tea house and ends with the Lotus 1960s when skyscrapers in his part of the
Nitschke's interest in the 'Anthology of Pond Hall of Honpukuji Temple by Ando. world (South East Asia) were in their infancy.
Architectural and Urban Form in East Asia', The participant actually enters the pond by He did a PhD at Cambridge on eco-
which concentrates on the symbolic. Contrast descending the staircase in the centre in order architecture and today runs a successful and
this with the socio-economic on which he to gain access to the sanctuary - pure poetry. influential practice in Kuala Lumpur.
says traditional architectural history and The reader is left with a colourful picture According to Ken Yeang high-rise
theory is based, revolving around the of ritual fans used in a fire festival, but buildings are sustainable in as much as their
disciplines of archaeology and artistry. He probably the best epilogue is to start at the concentration of activities enables a reduction
emphasises throughout the importance of the beginning again and grapple with those of energy in transportation; but in design
unconscious mind towards common and concepts that passed over your head on the terms they have generally been wasteful of
unchanging threads that explain and direct first reading. A longer and more detailed energy. The incorporation of climatically
our built forms. introduction would have helped in responsive design features would add to the
The essays vary in their intensity and understanding, or perhaps some sort of construction costs but would create
profundity, but all are for the serious scholar summing up at the end. Overall it is an significant savings in operational costs.
to ponder over and definitely not for the exploration without any definitive Such design features include recesses and
casual reader. There are informative plans conclusions which is perhaps why Nitschke balconies on solar-facing facades in order to
and diagrams, many small black and white avoids any drawing together of the ideas at introduce shade, ventilation and space for
photos and larger expansive full colour plates the end. planting (curtain-walling being sustainable
that we have come to expect in books on the only for non-solar facing facades); wind
Japanese arts. Philip Cave scoops on facades to allow natural instead of
In the first essay, the renewal of time, artificial cross-ventilation within the
space and man is explored by reference to buildings; and planting boxes and trellises to
both the Ise Shrine, the most sacred of BIOCLIMATIC SKYSCRAPERS allow vegetation to reduce heat and improve
shrines in Japan that is rebuilt every twenty Ken Yeang. Artemis 24.95 the climatic, as well as ecological and
years, and the celebration of Daijosai, the aesthetic, environment.
first fruit tasting rite. The continuing theme The product of these design principles is a
of time and space is explained in the second sort of 35-storey Hanging Gardens of
essay using Ando's Christian Wedding Babylon. Examples of Ken Yeang's work are
Chapel at Mount Rokko, Kobe, and the old illustrated in his book and can be seen in
hermitage of Shisendo near Kyoto. The Malaysia and elsewhere in South East Asia.
designer of Shisendo, the mystic Ishikawa I f C*tT*1
H U There are, I suppose, three generations of
Jozan, apparently knew that 'what is to be high-rise: the pre-war buildings of New York,
empty must first be filled' - the principle on Chicago and Moscow which are stately and in
which all meditation techniques are based. some cases ornate; the post-war curtain-
Ando is compared with Sen Rikkyo, the great walled boxes; and now the bioclimatic.
16th century tea master, in the design of the fWXTtrttt, VHG Because Malaysia has skipped the first two
7" 9r Fi uet> P
Chapel. The entrance path leads up to the F n Rme* generations, the buildings of the third have
Church, but before entry, Ando created a Fxa-TK/wJ
given the country a distinctive cultural
ninety degree turn to the right with a vertical identity.
slit in the wall that allows a view of the sea -
This is an interesting book but the reader
or infinite space. You then enter a dark
gets the impression that all bioclimatic
passage before seeing a view of the well lit
skyscrapers are (a) Malaysian and (b)
interior of the church - the destination. All
designed by Ken Yeang. Maybe this is true.
this is a preparation for that final goal in a
The last issue of the U D Q featured an The reader is also tempted to ask whether a
similar way to the tea master preparing his
article on Singapore which included vignettes bioclimatic Malaysian skyscraper would look
guests before arriving at the tea house.
of bioclimatic skyscrapers drawn by Ken visually acceptable in London where most
There follows a treatise on the Japanese Yeang. In the wake of this article comes a high-rise buildings belong to the curtain-wall
and Chinese Character ' M a ' , translated by review of Ken Yeang's book. generation. The answer must be a qualified
Nitschke as 'place', where he presents a The concept of the 'bioclimatic' building, yes.
number of uses of the character. Ma was ie one that responds to climatic conditions
adopted by Japanese Buddhists to express the and is energy efficient, is nothing new; indeed Tim Catchpole
The Oxford English Dictionary cites 1880 Review which, by 1960, were formalised
for the first use of the word 'townscape', and into a regular monthly townscape feature.
William M Whistler and David Reed wrote 1889 for its specific use in the current sense. Typical design issues dealt with in this
the text of this paper in the 1970s for the '... Some of the quaint townscapes (to invent series were the effects of a motorway
Council of Planning Libraries Exchange another word) of our romantic, unspoilt plan on the physical fabric of a town, the
Bibliography no. 1342. It was felt this English towns...'. 1 Clues to the present visual effect of modern large scale
gave a useful background to the ways in meanings of townscape can be found in the development, and the general tidying-up
which Cullen's views contributed to using use of the word by Thomas Sharp in 1948 of pre-industrial towns whose character
townscape as an approach to an urban where he attempts to give a name to the act was deteriorating. 4
design philosophy. of improving cities: '... by an analogy with an The high point of the Architectural
equivalent art practised by the eighteenth- Review's series was the application of the
The word townscape has become century improver of land, it might be visual art of townscape to a theoretical
associated with a variety of concerns in christened Townscape...'. 2 new town, called Civilia. 5 This proposal,
environmental design ranging from the This civic design orientation was given a planned on townscape principles of
conservation of pre-industrial towns to the further refinement by Ivor De Wolfe who inducing drama into the environment and
development of design guides for labels townscape as a visual art of town of providing significant differentiation,
residential areas. The idea of townscape planning that is a contemporary extension of was illustrated through a series of
has been praised as the saviour for our the English picturesque school of landscape photographic collages of modern architec-
urban environment and has been attacked design. 3 De Wolfe sees the emergence of ture. Its popular rejection began to show
as being only concerned with the townscape as a new radical tradition in that the appeal of townscape was more
superficial visual aspects. The purpose of architecture in that it breaks with the modern than the visual art of the ensemble.
this short paper is to present an outline of movement by emphasizing "character" and Concurrent with The Architectural
what townscape is, how it has developed significant differentiation. Also important to Review's emphasis on genius loci came
and what its contribution is as a early development of townscape is Gordon the development of a negative reaction to
philosophy of environmental and urban Cullen's Townscape Casebook which suburban sprawl, which was concisely
design. accompanies De Wolfe's article. Through a articulated by Ian Nairn in an article
series of descriptive headings including "The entitled Outrage.6 In this searing attack
Eye as Fan dancer" and "The Eye as on those who record suburbia as Utopia,
Articulator", Cullen illustrates how the eye Nairn shows how mindless repetition of
might be used by this new visual planner in speculative housing standards is re-
seeing the physical environment as an "art of making Britain into an un-differentiated
the Ensemble". Thus, by the early 1950s visual blur. Outrage became a classic in
townscape has come to mean a theme of this field although its basic message has
urban design which emphasizes the visual remained unheeded as Nairn shows in his
perception of the environment. The Outrage 20 Years After.1
assumption that is made at this time (similar A third theme that became associated with
to the contemporary assumptions about townscape in the early 1960s was the
planning) is that this visual perception and gradual enlargement of the meaning of
consequent "improving" can be accomplished conservation from the preservation of
in an objective manner through an buildings of architectural merit to include
understanding of the emotional effects the preservation of certain building
created by the juxtaposition of physical groups or spaces as important elements in
elements of the environment. the physical setting of the town. A good
early example of this theme is found in
THEMES Tenterden Explored.8 The present
Within this general theoretical framework acceptance of the validity of the
of assessing the physical environment in townscape conservation argument
visual terms, several loosely defined but however is due primarily to the publica-
generally complementary themes in urban tion of The Character of Towns9 which
design became associated with townscape: illustrates concisely what the principles
One major development was an emphasis of townscape conservation are and how
on designing to reinforce the uniqueness they might be achieved.
of place, being sensitive to the genius loci One popular but mistaken idea that has
or the significant differences between one developed as a theme is that good
area and another. This became the cause townscape is only the result of higgledy-
of a series of design studies, usually at piggledy individual additions to the
the village scale, in The Architectural physical environment. This illusion is
. *
which cause us to interact either emotion-
ally or actively with the environment. As
well as having developed a significant
proportion of the visual analysis methods
used in The Architectural Review's
>y
townscape articles, Cullen produced The
Scanner,14 a check list of human and building forms and elements such as arches, SCANNER AND NOTATION
physical criteria necessary for creating an cobbles and local vernacular which carry with In the 1960s Alcan sponsored a series:
urban environment capable of satisfying them the message of stability and acquired A Town called Alcan with four circuit
the range of human needs from physi- strength through aging and familiarity. San linear towns (1964):
ological safety to individual self- Grimaud is the height of townscape as a stage The Scanner (1966), where human and
fulfilment, and Notation,15 a shorthand set. The image is of a quiet provencal village physical factors were set out and
system for evaluating the physical but the reality is a very expensive holiday interrelated:
environment. Cullen's works can be seen resort. Civilia on the other hand is planned Notation (1968) 'the observant layman's
as a formative basis for townscape as a on similar concepts but is built of concrete code for the environment'.
philosophy of urban design. and glass, and the effect of the cultural Right: 'Physical Factors' from The
message is made clear. Scanner
TOWNSCAPE AS A PHILOSOPHY As mentioned, the misunderstanding that Below: 'Indicators' from Notation
Because townscape is lacking a the effect of visual perception is the only
methodology and relies on journalistic theme in townscape, and the belief that CONHCCIOOS SEItuU. VISION SCOUCNCZ .
< im.M ^ <J>* !
flowery language it is sometimes dismissed townscape is actually an intuitive designer's n*7r C O
as not a serious contribution. However, contribution to providing a more satisfying
A l e k s b
townscape is a philosophy of urban design in environment is borne out by recent works of m n f f w a a a ^K
much the same way as le Corbusier's Ville environmental psychologists and writers on CWOUP3 ^
ways to facilitate car travel between points. Rapoport and Kantor put forward the
Cullen talks about the possession of space hypothesis that there is a human need for vistas >* o
p JV
accommodating the range of human needs complexity in the visual environment and that -*. ISO
and emotions, and also about traffic and one of the most satisfactory ways to provide rACM MCCTON
movement serving to vitalise areas of the city. this complexity is through ambiguity or the
These are abstract ideas by themselves and it creation of '... visual nuance, however slight,
is the resultant physical form and the visual which gives alternative reactions to the same sense of well being and control of the
perception of the form which can given these building or urban group.' 15 After environment. In transferring this symbolic
terms meaning. substantiating this belief with a sampling of code to analysis of architecture and urban
The significant contribution of townscape empirical research findings, the paper goes design he refers to Cullen's description of
is that it is a design philosophy based upon on to refer to five of Cullen's descriptive enclaves. "... The enclave or the interior
satisfying a fuller range of human needs headings (Combination, Multiple Use, Here open to the exterior and having direct access
including those which are at least partially & There, Projection and Recession) as to both... has the advantage of commanding
met by the visual environment. intuitive interpretations of their more the scene from a position of safety and
The emphasis on visual perception, thoroughly researched hypothesis of strength...". 18
however, has allowed the idea of townscape, complexity. More recently, Eduardo Lozano This, contends Appleton, is the essence of
as advocated by The Architectural Review, to cites Cullen's call for visual variety within a the prospect refuge complement.
make the mistaken presumption that apparent pattern as "... substantially the essence of his Certainly Jane Jacobs' call for diversity in
form can be divorced from content. Two hypothesis that there is a need for a cities is similar to Cullen's ideas about multi-
implications of this incorrect idea are that the combination of plurality of visual inputs..." to use and precincts in the city, while Cullen's
visual message can be abstracted from the provide orientation and variety in the ideas about possession of public space and
cultural message and that the creation of a environment. 17 occupied territory are really the same thing
strong image can be a substitute for content. Research only partially related to that Oscar Newman is describing as creating
Both of these fallacies are summed up in the environment psychology has also mentioned zones of influence and defining public from
visual message of Port Grimaud, the modern the significance of Cullen. The main tenet of private space as the principal argument of his
resort village designed according to Jay Appleton's Prospect Refuge theory is that defensible space ideas.
townscape principles in 1965 and built in a our physiological need for safety in its most
counterfeit pre-industrial vernacular style. basic sense can be expressed as the ability to CONCLUSIONS
The illusion of Grimaud is in believing that see without being seen, and this primordial Thus, summarising townscape as a philosophy
the quaint effect of the various juxtaposed instinct has been sublimated to an aesthetic of urban design, the following points can be
buildings and spaces can be created in a response. Appleton develops from this a made:
totally modern form and imagining that symbolic language in which the presence of Townscape in terms of its visual image owes
townscape appeal has nothing in particular to distant prospects and hiding places in a much of its success and/or failure to the
do with the implications of using certain I landscape scene or painting signals in us a cultural baggage of older environments.
capacity
Reproducing the image is a hollow success REFERENCES 9. Worskett, Roy, The Character of Towns,
when it is not an accurate reflection of the 1. Hissey, J J, A Tour in a Phaeton through London: Architectural Press, 1969.
social and economic conditions which create the Eastern Counties, London: R Bentley 10. Essex County Council, Design Guide for
it. & Son, 1889, p. 263. Residential Areas, Chelmsford: Essex
Townscape as a method of creating a 2. Sharp, Thomas, Oxford Replanned, County Council, 1973.
stimulating physical environment is significant London: Architectural Press, 1948. 11. Rock Townsend, Gordon Cullen, Arthur
when it is seen as one aspect, perhaps through 3. De Wolfe, Ivor, 'Townscape', Architec- Henderson, consultants, Vivat Ware, East
the production of a townscape plan, of tural Review, Vol. 106, December 1949, Hertfordshire District Council, 1974.
providing a more accommodating pp. 355-362. 12. Gosling, David, Gordon Cullen and
environment. 4. Browne, Kenneth, 'High London', The Kenneth Browne, Maryculter: Final
The real value to be gained from reading The Architectural Review, Vol. 127, J-J 1960, Report, Kincardine C.C., 1974.
Concise Townscape or The Scanner is in being pp. 175-179. 13. Cullen, Gordon, The Concise Townscape,
presented with good physical design Nairn, Ian, Derby Market Place. London: Architectural Press, 1971.
applications of some aspects of human needs Architectural Review, Vol. 130, J-D 1961, Townscape Architectural Press, 1961.
in the visual environment which are being pp. 429-431. 14. Cullen, Gordon, The Scanner, London:
identified by more scientific research in 'Manchester Re-United', Architectural Alcan Industries Ltd, 1966.
environmental psychology. Review, Vol. 132, J-D 1962, pp. 116-120. 15. Cullen, Gordon, Notation: The Observant
Townscape as a philosophy of urban design 5. De Wolfe, Ivor, Civilia, London: Archi- Layman's Guide to His Environment,
takes its examples of physical design from an tectural Press, 1971. London: Alcan Industries Ltd, 1968.
era when time and motion scale was 6. Nairn, Ian, 'Outrage', Architectural 16. Rapoport, Amos and Robert Kantor,
pedestrian and the majority of human contacts Review, Vol. 117, J-J 1955, pp. 364-460. 'Complexity and Ambiguity in Environ-
were face to face. It can be used an important Re-printed by Architectural Press, 1955. mental Design', American Institute of
counter-argument to advocates of an aesthetic 7. Nairn, Ian, 'Outrage 20 Years After', The Planners Journal, July 1965.
based on a higher-speed, less-direct contact Architectural Review, Vol. 158, J-D 1975, 17. Lozano, Eduardo, F, 'Visual Needs in the
society. pp. 328-337. Urban Environment', Town Planning
8. MacManus, Fred and Partners, and Review, Vol. 45, No. 4, 1974.
Gordon Cullen, Tentenden Explored, Kent 18. Appleton, Jay, The Experience of
County Council, 1967. Landscape, London: John Wiley, 1975.
There are only three urban design tests still The Major difference between Townscape
in print after thirty three years. Jane Jacobs' and everything that came before it is the
Bob Jarvis re-reads 'Townscape' as a Death and Life of Great American Cities1 and authorial tone. Townscape is written from the
book and explores the devices of word Kevin Lynch's Image of the City2 are two; the heart, not the lectern. Though Sitte 10 and
and image and its language and third, and the one I want to "re-read" here is (Jnwin11 had allowed glimpses of their
construction. Townscape begins with a Gordon Cullen's Townscape3 now truncated personality and instinct - Sitte perhaps in his
casebook in which 'serial vision', shown and published on plan paper in soft wrappers opening chapter, Unwin where in'Of the City
below, are the rewards of the moving eye, as The Concise Townscape4. Survey' he writes of the designer walking the
but an eye which is open and not lazy'. The other contributors to this tribute have ground to be planned, 12 Giedion 13 no sooner
written about Gordon Cullen's professional, offers glimpses of an irrational creative spirit
practical and theoretical importance to urban than it is absorbed into a broader cultural
design. My task is rather different. I want to Zietgiest that sweeps along everyone from
examine why a book I bought as a first year Michelangelo to Jorn Utzon. The rest - even
student (admittedly - although perhaps Thomas Sharp - are sets of lectures,
significantly) alongside Tom Wolfe's Kandy- instructions on what parts aspiring planners
Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby5 and designers should shape and place to
and a primer on optical illusions in the create desired effects in villages, residential
visual 6 is still in demand when the others on areas, towns and city centres. 14 Only Thomas
those yellowed reading lists have either Sharp's The Anatomy of the Village, popularly
disappeared (Chapin, Keeble, Abercrombie) rather than professionally published, written
or are now collectors items (Thomas Sharp's as a part of the Penguin populist wave of
The English Village, Design in Town and rebuilding Britain after the war
Village). communicates a sense of love of place. 15
I want to examine Townscape above all as By contrast, all three of those books from
a book, as a piece of literature, and briefly that annus mirabilis, 1961, are centred in the
explore the devices of word and image, the individual, personal response, Kevin Lynch
language and construction of the work itself. turns it into an area of scientific inquiry, Jane
This approach is quite different from the Jacobs stands as the street corner social
way Cullen's work is usually placed in the observer. In Townscape we see the world
context of urban design. Two substantial though Cullen's eyes (mainly, it underplays
reviews of the subject emphasise Cullen's the other senses). Only after those exercises
other work - either his practice and the for the senses, after those critical reflections
reports associated with it7 or the ephemera and sketches are there any proposals.
(un-catalogued, unpriced and unobtainable) Maybe it wasn't entirely chance that I
published by Alcan in the mid 1960s.8 This bought it alongside Kandy-Kolored... like
is understandable: David Gosling is a long Wolfe, Cullen's work had matured out of
time collaborator with Cullen as his piece journalism, albeit the Architectural Review
here and his forthcoming edition of Cullen's rather than the New York Herald Tribune.
work records; Broadbent's wider concern is Townscape in this analysis, stands like
to establish a theoretical perspective that is Wolfe's New Journalism16 against the
essentially picturesque and pluralist: so it's diversion of 'objective' modernism and
hardly surprising Broadbent concludes "that reasserts the reporting of experience.
in comparison the Rationalists look more
rigorous" rather than to point to the METHOD AND APPROACH
profundity of Cullen's Message. 9 Townscape is an important book not
because of its content, still less because of its
LITERATURE REFERENCES influence (which Cullen himself dismissed in
But whatever the theoretical strengths of the Introduction to the 1971 Edition) but
The Scanner et al and the practical precisely because of its method and its
demonstrations of A Town Called Alcan and approach. Broadbent emphasises the overt
Maryculter (The Concise) Townscape is all rational charting of The Scanner and
that most readers will ever have seen. What Notation}1
did its 9 pages of introduction, 185 pages of The structure of Townscape is suppressed.
glossy photographs case studies, and (deleted There are no obvious divisions: there are no
from the Concise Townscape...) 117 pages of chapter numbers, the headings to the parts are
Bob Jarvis is a Senior Lecturer in Town Studies and proposals, offer for the identified only by capital headings in slightly
Planning at South Bank University 56s. (2.16s.od) I paid? larger typeface within the flow of short
POST MODERN
It is precisely this transparency and yet
withdrawal that makes Townscape not a
reactionary book but a truly port-modern one;
so called architectural part-moderns are still
writing as author-dictacts, strutting and
instructing, pointing to their projects, their
rules, in just the same manner as Palladio or
Pugin. Townscape has survived because it is
an open work. 19 The leader not only has to
make the work with the author but there is no
fixed order or combination of the parts and
devices. Doubly so, as there is no single
order in which the places created might
themselves be experienced.
The closest parallel to Townscape lies not
in the literature of urban design (though de
Wolfe's Italian Townscape reinstated it20) but
in literacy theory. Not only does Roland
Barthes The Pleasure of the Text use a similar
fragmented sequence but Barthes, like Cullen
before him, champions the senses.
'(Pleasure)... does not depend on a logic of
understanding... it is something both
After my return from the United States in magical combination and everybody truly
1959, I joined the Manchester City Architects believed at the time that the outcome would
Department and in 1962 was given the task be the first major built work in Cullen's
of preparing the urban design plan for part of career. Geoffrey Broadbent, writing in his
the City Centre (the so-called Processional "Emerging Concepts in Urban Space Design"
Way). The scheme was sent to Kenneth (Van Nostrand Reinhold 1990, pp. 223-225),
Browne, who had succeeded Cullen as said that "... Cullen is perfectly clear that any
Townscape Editor at the Architectural design study should start with a proper
Review, and he decided to publish it in scientific survey and the Maryculter study
August 1962. This led to my was a model of its kind, taking into account
acquaintanceship with Ian Nairn, who as it did, location, land ownership,
together with Cullen had produced the topography, landscape, existing development,
seminal "Outrage" issue in June 1955. services, geology and subsoil. David
It was perhaps ironical that I should finally Gosling's team then worked out on that basis
meet Gordon Cullen when times had become their proposals for the village's overall form,
very bad for him, both in medical and circulation, population, employment,
employment terms, and at the time when I density... (and so forth). It was within this
Illustration shows overall layout proposed was leaving my professional career as chief framework that Cullen then presented his
for Maryculter. architect of Irvine New Town to start an concept. He saw this in terms of a Habitat
"A sense of Identity can also be generated academic career at Sheffield University. for Houses, a Townscape plan followed by
by the use of landmarks or recognition the detailed treatment of four neighborhoods:
points: a church steeple, a single tree at MARYCULTER East Park, Kaleyards, the Wynds and
the end of a street, a flagpole or a red In 1973, Christian Salvesen Ltd., the house Burnside... more than any other scheme
building in a white street. If these are builders, through its managing director Tom (Broadbent continued) Maryculter shows that
linked together in a network then people Baron, commissioned a masterplan for a far from being a product only of time,
quietly understand where they are in the privately financed new town outside picturesque effect can be generated from
general context. Ambiguity concedes to Aberdeen, and Salvesen agreed to the response to a particular situation; a certain
clarity." appointment of Gordon Cullen and Kenneth site with its contours, its climate and other
Browne as consultants. Ian Nairn acted as local conditions; views out, views in and
David Gosling is Professor of Urban self-appointed critic and Guinness drinker. other visual clues; above all, a desire on the
Design and Director of the Urban design The team, which included Salvesen's young part of the designers to respond to a place
Centre at the University of Cincinnati chief architect, the late Dan Donohue, was a rather than imposing sterile geometry."
DESIGN APPROACH
Perhaps Cullen's greatest contribution to
scheme was completed by the mid-70s and it provided an important key to the possible
though the celebrated Brazilian landscape visual structure and could act as an urban
designer, Roberto Burle Marx, produced a generator. The Greenwich axis almost takes
successful landscape scheme, the brutal on the mystical form of a ley-line with a
design of the bank building itself by the local significance beyond the linking of two major
architect Mervyn Awon attracted much public monuments but provides a series of reference
criticism and bore little resemblance to the points which enhance the visual structure.
sensitive images of Cullen, but rather a At first Gordon Cullen embraced the idea
regurgitation of the excesses of the Japanese with enthusiasm. He wrote, "In this way we
Metabolists of the early 60s. Gordon construct the internal water world of fantasy,
oodeJftferqallfiV Cullen's drawings were displayed at the scale, and amazement. It is the greatest soul
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1979. - axis in London." But later in 1982, he
The Community Circuit reversed his position and produced his own
LONDON DOCKLANDS visual appraisal and networks. It related
In 1981, a study was commissioned by the studies of key areas of existing development
London Docklands Development Corporation around the perimeter of the peninsula to
and I was invited as consultant to form a suggestions for environmental improvements
Cofnfrtttiar) small in-house design team to work with the and a study of the inner core for new
chief planner, Edward Hollamby, in the development. Beautifully drawn, it
Ftdkr-
preparation of a comprehensive urban design nevertheless failed to provide a strong enough
firiyafvt linV
study for the Isle of Dogs, which included the framework for developers. Now that the
Fllfct (CMtvph B r )
Atmospheric reltoa* Enterprise Zone. The team was established team had split into two factions, the
in mid-1981 and towards the end of the year I corporation permanent team headed by
persuaded the corporation to also appoint Hollamby rejected both sets of proposals and
Cullen as consultant. The final report was produced its own pragmatic plan largely
published in 1982. The execution of the based on current ideas of all the developers
Water. The Central Identity study created unforeseen difficulties. involved as an amalgam of ideas. Basically,
Working with John Ferguson from the corporation rejected the Cullen proposals
Sheffield, we produced alternative planning and the Gosling alternatives as being too
options to indicate a variety of design prescriptive and certainly did not follow the
JsockSate. enfny political ideology of the day. The irony was
opportunities. The proposals were seen as an
amalgam of the public and private realms. that when Olympia and York finally decided
The public realm concerned the public spaces to develop Canary Wharf, they demanded an
formed by new and existing buildings, public urban design framework to protect their own
movement systems, including pedestrian financial interests.
- V " Bengali Bridge routes and rapid transit systems and the The outcome of the fragmentation of the
squares, streets, arcades, parks, and open team is interesting. Most of the original team
spaces which form the urban morphology or were Sheffield graduates and one of them,
physical shape of the plan. The argument David Price, joined Gordon Cullen as his
was that if the skeletal structure of the city - partner in a new practice. It was perhaps the
Pier
the public realm - is sufficiently strong in very best thing that happened to Cullen
M a i n Discovery Lines because it seemed that it gave him a new
terms of visual identity and navigation - then
greater freedom of architectural expression lease on life at the end of his career and for
can be afforded in the private realm. Of the the next seven or eight years he produced
Isle of Dogs three options produced, option three some of his most beautiful work. Though I
Above: Cullen's principles for structuring (illustrated to the right) came closest to an did not work with Price and Cullen apart
development. authentic urban design plan. form the Water Square Proposal for Canary
Right: David Gosling Associates proposed In the whole of the peninsula, Island Wharf in 1988 with Skidmore Owings &
Urban Design Plan (Option Three) and Gardens at the southern tip is the only major Merrill as master planners, I did work on
above this Cullen's aerial view of his own public area giving a dramatic view out subsequent projects in Docklands and
proposals. towards Greenwich. The vista is followed their work with great interest.
breathtaking. The significance of this view is Brian Edwards in his seminal study
that there is a direct axis towards St. Anne's ("London Docklands: urban design in an age
Church, Limehouse, designed by Nicholas of deregulation", Oxford, Butterworth
Hawksmoor in 1714 on the northwest Architecture, 1992, p. 42, p. 48) of
boundary of the Isle of Dogs. Because this Docklands said, "The framework for the Isle
axis crosses key points within the peninsula, of Dogs conceived in the first instance by
CONCLUSIONS
If all this sounds a little cynical, then
perhaps it is intended to be. Gordon
Cullen was perhaps one of the greatest
and most misunderstood urban designers
of this century. He never really got to
build anything. He has been a charming
and humorous friend, with a wonderful
family, an irascible and stubborn old man
and a man who shared with me a passion
for pubs in Wraysbury and northwards. It
is for these reasons that David Price and I
want to prepare a sixty year anthology of
his work from the 1930s onwards.
REFERENCES
Gosling D, Cullen, G and Donohue D,
Development Plan for Maryculter New Town
Aberdeen, 1974, Christian Salvesen.
Hollamby E, Gosling D and Cullen G, Isle of
Dogs: A Guide to Design and Development
Opportunities, 1982, LDDC.
1947 LEGISLATION
By the 1947 Town Planning Act, the major
Sir Peter Shepheard, partner of Shepheard features of the new system - the provisions
Epstein Hunter architects and erstwhile for Green Belts, New Towns and the
Dean of the Graduate School of Fine Arts nationalisation of development rights - were
at the University of Pennsylvania, in place.
presented an anecdotal and entertaining Of these, the advent of comprehensive
review of British post-war urban planning development control was perhaps the most
in his 1994 Kevin Lynch Memorial Lecture important measure. Prior to 1947, the
given in July. It is perhaps true to say that preservation of green space relied on the
few if any "golden ages" withstand close limited potential of public purchase and low
scrutiny, even in the nostalgic hindsight of density zoning was the mechanism for
one so closely involved. But, at a time attempting to control development.
when physical planning at the According to Shepheard, even private
metropolitan scale is showing signs of developers found that the new system worked
returning to the urban design and to their advantage, giving great definition to with low rise offices offering greater potential
planning agenda, it is timely to share in opportunities and ensuring that development for social contact in administrative functions.
the memories of the last real attempt to areas were properly serviced by The "world's most comprehensive planning
determine the overall form of our cities. infrastructure. The Golden Age, such as it legislation" produced disappointing results
was, however, was short-lived. The that were a "tragedy". On the one hand the
At the age of thirty, Shepheard had joined
subsequent failures appear to Shepheard to system was less effective in practice than in
the team of his godfather, Patrick
have involved a combination of causes theory. There was, for example the failure to
Abercrombie, working on his plan for
including the undermining of some of its stem the intrusion of high rise buildings on
London. A good part of the talk focused on
main provisions by politicians and mistakes London's skyline, due in part to the
this pivotal figure in the post-war town
in vision by the planners themselves. One of interference of the Government of the day, as
planning movement. According to
the keystones of the 1947 Act, the in the approval of the Hyde Park Hilton.
Shepheard, Abercrombie had a real genius
for simplifying complex problems so that Compensation and Betterment provision On the other hand, as argued by Walter Bor
they could be easily explained and addressed. offering the possibility of taxing and others in the discussion that followed,
In this he was able to draw on the development, was rapidly knocked out by the the British planning system has been perhaps
considerable talents of the architects and Churchill government and the development of far too comprehensive, aiming at
planners in his team, developing various new towns and communities was slowed "scrutinising everything". The British system
inventive techniques of "presentation for down by the new government. was contrasted with that in the USA and
persuasion". Arthus Ling's depiction of there was some difference of view as to
whether a system that relies almost totally on
London's living communities as organic PLANNING VISION
"blobs" was a good example. the effectiveness of public demand and
In terms of vision, many of the ideas of the
participation and, by implication, the
In the use of simple, but comprehensive architect-planners of the time, as exemplified
effectiveness of lawyers, is any better.
analytical methods, the influence of Geddes in Abercrombie's Plan for London, were
never embodied in legislation but, in some For Shepheard, "seat of the pants"
was to the fore. Simple practical survey
planning could only be effective with
methods were used, including pacing out the respects, as Peter Shepheard admitted,
planners of stature, as seat of the pants flying
physical edge of Greater London in a three nevertheless had major negative
in the Second World War was the preserve of
week slog that left its imprint in the inner consequences for the urban environment.
ace pilots. This raised the question: where
boundary of the subsequent Green Belt. Proposals for the transport system, for
are the modern equivalents of Abercrombie
The post-war planning movement was example, relied too heavily on ring roads,
and Williams-Ellis? By implication, the
portrayed in the historical context of a presaging the M25, but failing to address the
answer seems to be that there is no place for
philosophical lineage from Geddes, through importance of the larger network and of
this type of integrated approach to planning
Unwin and Parker to Clough Williams-Ellis public transport provision. The plan was
in the emaciated "must-do" local government
and Abercrombie, and in contrast to the low based on forecasts that failed to predict both
of today. As Jon Rowland pointed out, by
density zoning and relative "laissez faire" of the post-war population boom and the vast
comparison to the depth and scope of
the inter-war period. The resulting urban increase in road traffic.
Abercrombie's plan for London, today's local
sprawl was the enemy of the new generation For Shepheard, the major new public
authority UDPs are sad, two dimensional
of planners, and the shift of perception that housing schemes brought good space and
shadows. The Golden Age of British Town
came with the Second World War, ensured open space standards but the use of high rise Planning may be largely a myth but in Sir
that their time had come. The war shook up for family accommodation was a "grotesque Peter's words, "local government decline in
British social life, and profoundly changed mistake" (for which architects like Gropius planning is sinful".
attitudes towards social issues and towards and Maxwell Fry bore a large share of the
the land, including inducing a strong responsibility). High rise, in Shepheard's
awareness of the importance of agriculture. view, is good for neither families or offices Tony Lloyd-Jones
THE PRACTICE
Colin Buchanan and Partners is a leading
multi-disciplinary planning and transport
consultancy with more than twenty five
years' experience in the UK and overseas.
The practice was founded in 1964 by the
team that produced the 'Traffic in Towns'
study - still regarded as the fundamental
work on the effects of the private car on our
urban fabric and the need for improved public
transport. Today the consultancy employs
some seventy professional staff including
town planners, urban designers, architects,
market researchers and economists, as well
as traffic and transport specialists.
Operating from UK offices in London,
Stratford above and below Edinburgh, Bristol and Manchester as well as
overseas, the consultancy offers
comprehensive analysis and specialist
services on all aspects of master planning
from initial assessments to policy
implementation. Our wide range of in-house
skills ensures an innovative approach to all
aspects of the development process.
STRATFORD
This commission by the London Borough
of Newham explored regeneration options for
the Town Centre and adjacent railway lands
associated with the potential siting of the
Second Channel Tunnel Terminal at
Stratford. Alternative scenarios were
prepared to demonstrate the development
potential of the Terminal hinterland with the
aim of stimulating increased economic
activity and associated social benefits.
OXFORD
As part of a comprehensive Transport
Feasibility Study for the City of Oxford, the
urban design team worked closely with in-
house traffic engineers to develop a series of
proposals for permanent improvements in the
pedestrian environment in the City Centre.
MIDDLESBOROUGH
A detailed regeneration strategy for East
Middlesborough was prepared following the
Borough Council's successful bid for City
Challenge funds. Based on local public
consultation undertaken by the consultants, a
series of physical upgrading packages was
prepared and costed, leading to an
implementation strategy which is now
underway on site.
Pedestrian
entry points
DUBAI
In association with consulting engineers
Maunsell, a Master Plan was prepared for
700 hectares of undeveloped land on the
eastern boundary of Dubai Emirate around Yanbar below Al Mamzar above
the newly-dredged A1 Mamzar Lagoon. The
project began with a series of broad
development options testing different
densities and land uses and led to detailed
urban design guidelines, landscape proposals
for the regional-scale Lagoon Park and
financial feasibility assessments.
KENSINGTON
Another recent example of ECD's work in
the fields of urban regeneration is the
Wornington Green Estate within the North New N u r i c r y
BREEAM
In collaboration with the building Research
Establishment ECD have developed
BREEAM, the Building Research
Establishment Environmental Assessment
Method. The original version, designed for
new office developments has been immensely
successful with over 200 assessments now
completed. Subsequent versions now cover
existing occupied offices, retail superstores,
industrial buildings and new housing. The
BALDERTON VILLAGE, NEWARK BREEAM system assesses the environmental
The 230 acre site, shown above, consists impact of a building at three levels - Global,
of predominantly mature parkland into Local and Internal. Credits are awarded for
which the new development has been measures which are better than normal
sensitively inserted. In addition to the practice and an overall rating is then given;
proposed 1150 new homes, some existing Fair, Good, Very Good or Excellent.
buildings are retained and re-used to The BREEAM method provides a valuable
provide business and retail space in the yardstick against which developers and
high density 'urban core'. A new primary occupiers can measure that performance in
school is also planned together with this area, as well as giving design
community and leisure facilities. The professionals a specific environmental agenda
development preserves the natural to work with.
amenity value of the site and provides a ECD actively promotes the concept of
system of pedestrian and cycle routes sustainable development and advises a large
connecting all residential areas with the number of clients on the energy and
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efficiency are anticipated in all new
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community. Tel: 071 405 3121
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Contact: David Turrent BArch RIBA
AMMANFORD
In West Wales WML International worked
with Coopers & Lybrand to prepare a
regeneration strategy for Ammanford. This
was followed by a commission to prepare
action plans setting out the priorities for
development in the first five years. In
addition, studies were carried out on the
central area identifying how the new
pedestrianised High Street could be linked to
the Market and Car Park via a new Public
Square with a reorganized road system. A
New Market Hall building was created as a
focal point at the end of the High Street next
to the main retail stores. The Square is
defined along two sides by the existing
buildings and on the third and fourth edges
by an archway and planted screen on the edge
of the car park. The screen is planned to be
replaced by new retail development forming a
public square around the market hall,
creating a meeting place for the town and a
major entrance into the area from adjacent
riverside land.
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The ASH Partnership Building Design Partnership Edward Cullinan Architects Ltd Roger Evans Associates
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DipUD MRTPI Planning)
Planning and Design Consultancy Multi-disciplinary practice of architects,
specialising in land use planning, Urban Design, Planning and Architecture, master-planning, landscape, planners, urban designers, landscape
landscape architecture, ecology, Development. Public and Private Sectors. urban design, computer modelling, designers, tourism specialists and interior
environmental assessment and urban Town studies, housing, commercial, environmental statements, planning-for- architects. The firm provides consultancy
design. Development Briefs, Master distribution, health and transportation real, public consultation, development services to institutional, public sector and
Plans, Urban Regeneration, Town represent current live' projects. Specialist consultancy. corporate clients.
Studies, Conservation and Public Realm in Urban Design Training.
Strategies.
PRP Architects Rothermel Thomas Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Inc. Travers Morgan Environment
82 Bridge Road 14-16 Cowcross Street 46 Berkeley Street, London W1X 5FP 2 Killick Street
Hampton Court London EC1M 6DR Tel: 071 930 9711 London N1 9JJ
East Molesey Tel: 071 490 4255 Fax: 071 930 9108 Tel: 071 278 7373
Surrey KT8 9HF Fax: 071 490 1251 (also Chicago, New York, Washington, Fax: 071 278 3476
Tel: 081 941 0606 Contact: James Thomas BA (Arch) DipTP San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hong Contact: Marie Burns BA (hons) MAUD
Fax: 081 783 1671 FRIBA FRTPI FRSA FIMgt Kong) Dipl. LA ALI
Contact: Peter Phippen Contact: Roger Kallman
OBE DipArch (RWA) RIBA Urban design, conservation, historic International multi-disciplinary practice. Multidisciplinary Practice of urban
buildings, planning, architecture. Expert Master Planning, Landscape Architecture, designers, landscape architects, planners,
Social and private housing development, witness at planning inquiries. Civil Engineering and Urban Design. ecologists, noise and air pollution
special needs housing, including housing Project types: urban regeneration expertise - undertaking environmental and
for elderly people, mentally handicapped schemes, business park master plans, visual impact assessments, traffic calming
and single people, healthcare, urban university campus design, transportation studies; town centre and waterfront
redevelopment. planning. Associated services: regeneration schemes, contamination
environmental impact assessments, remediation, new build housing and estate
design guidelines, infrastructure refurbishment.
strategies.
EDUCATION INDEX
DIRECTORY OF COURSES PROVIDING URBAN DESIGN EDUCATION AND SUBSCRIBING TO THIS INDEX
University of the West of England, University of Greenwich School of the Built Environment University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Bristol School of Architecture and Landscape Liverpool John Moores University Department of Town and Country
Faculty of the Built Environment Oakfield Lane 98 Mount Pleasant Planning, Claremont Tower
Frenchay Campus Dartford DA1 2SZ Liverpool L3 5UZ University of Newcastle
Coldharbour Lane Tel: 081 316 9100 Tel: 051 231 3209 Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU
Bristol BS161QY Fax: 081 316 9105 Fax: 051 709 4957 Tel: 091 222 7802 Fax: 091 222 8811
Tel: 0272 656261 Contact: Philip Stringer Contact: Professor Chris Couch Contact: Dr Ali Madani-Pour (Town &
Fax: 0272 763895 MA in Urban Design for postgraduate MSc/Diploma in Urban Renewal (Urban Country Planning) or Bill Tavernor
Contact: Richard Guise architecture and landscape students, full Regeneration & Urban Design) 1 year full- (Architecture)
MA/Postgraduate Diploma course in time and part time with credit time or 2 years part-time. MA/Diploma in Urban Design. Joint
Urban Design. Part time 2 days per accumulation transfer system. programme by Dept of Town and Country
fortnight for 2 years, or individual Planning and Dept. of Architecture, on full
programme of study. Project based time, part time, or certificate accumulation
course addressing urban design issues, bases. Integrating knowledge and skills
abilities and environments. from town planning, architecture, and
landscape design.
Edinburgh College of Art/Heriot Watt University of Liverpool University of Westminster Oxford Brookes University (formerly
University Dept of Civic Design School of Urban Development and Oxford Polytechnic)
School of Architecture Abercromby Square Planning Joint Centre for Urban Design
Lauriston Place PO Box 147 35 Marylebone Road Headington, Oxford OX3 0BP
Edinburgh EH3 9DF Liverpool L69 3BX London NW1 5LS Tel: 0865 819403
Tel: 031 221 6071/6072 Tel: 051 794 3119 Tel: 071 911 5000 Fax: 0865 483298
Fax: 031 221 6606/6157 Fax: 051 794 3125 Fax: 071 911 5171 Contact: Dr Georgia Butina or Ian Bentley
Contact: Robert Smart Contact: Michael Biddulph Contact: David Seex Diploma in Urban Design 6 months full
Diploma in Urban Design: 1 year full time Diploma in Civic Design.: 21 months full MA or Diploma Course in Urban Design time or 18 months part time. MA in Urban
or 3 years part time. MSc in Urban time or 33 months part time. Master in for postgraduate architects, town Design 1 year full time or 3 years part
Design: 1 year full time or 3 years part Civic Design: 2 years full-time / 3 years planners, landscape architects and related time. MPhil/PhD by research (full time and
time plus 1 year part time. Recognised by part time. disciplines. One year full time or two part time).
the RIBA for the RIBA Urban Design years part time attendance of two
Diploma. evenings a week plus an additional five to
eight days each year.
The Urban Design Group, founded sixteen years ago, has to raise the profile of urban design. It has reciprocal
been established to provide high standards of performance membership with a number of complementary
and inter-professional cooperation in planning, organisations including Vision for London, and the British
architecture, urban design, and other related disciplines; Urban Regeneration Association (B.U.R.A.). The U.D.G.
and to educate the relevant professions and the public in has set out an agenda aimed at explaining urban design
matters relating to urban design. Membership is made up and how, using urban design principles, the quality of the
of architects, planners, landscape architects, engineers, environment can be raised. These principles are
surveyors, historians, lawyers, photographers, in fact encapsulated in the U.D.G.s "The Good City". The Urban
anyone interested in the quality of our built environment. Design Group continues to grow. Membership is national,
Local authorities, practices, and universities are also and each region has its own convenor, who organises local
members. The U.D.G. runs a series of public lectures, events. The subscription is 25 per year with a
workshops and other events which are valid for C.P.D. concessionary rate for students of 14. If you would like
The Kevin Lynch Memorial Lecture has attracted such more information on the U.D.G. please contact:
speakers as Leon Krier, Peter Hall, Sir Roy Strong, and Sir
Philip Dowson. Annual study tours are also organised.
The U.D.G. publishes a quarterly magazine dealing with Susie Turnbull, Administrator: tel. 0235 815907
urban design issues and an Urban Design Source Book fax. 0235 819606
which identifies urban design practices, courses and Roger Evans, Regional coordinator: tel. 0869 350096
members. The U.D.G. is working closely with the R.T.P.I. Jon Rowland, Chairman: tel. 071 637 0181
SPIRIT OF ABERCROMBIE
London in the 1990s & Beyond - Planning and Design
A o n e d a y c o n f e r e n c e will be h e l d o n T h u r s d a y 17 N o v e m b e r f r o m 9 . 3 0 a . m at t h e R I B A 6 6 P o r t l a n d Place, L o n d o n
W 1 N 4 A D . T h i s y e a r ' s joint R T P I / R I B A c o n f e r e n c e , s u p p o r t e d by t h e U D G , will f o c u s o n critical p l a n n i n g a n d d e s i g n
i s s u e s in t h e capital, c a r r y i n g f o r w a r d P r o f e s s o r A b e r c r o m b i e ' s v i s i o n a s t h e i n s p i r a t i o n for L o n d o n in t h e next fifty
years.
F u r t h e r details: c o n t a c t M e t a v a n d e r S t e e g e on 0 7 1 5 8 0 5 5 3 3 .