URBAN UPDATE
19th June 2015
Main news
from the Urban Design Group
Jobs – WYG Richard Coleman CityDesigner + PhD opportunities
Business Rates – a tax on the sustainability of towns and cities?
Urban Design Photo Competition
World water resources running dry
Flooding and Water Management
Greenspace boosts children’s memory and thinking skills
6 tips on encouraging cycling
Sea Level Rise forecast for Europe
New techniques to model networks – computers and slime mould
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National Urban Design
Awards 2016
Entries Invited for
Practice Awards
http://www.udg.org.uk/content/udg-practice-award
Francis Tibbalds Prize worth £1000
Deadline 26 June – 1 week to go!
Don’t miss the limelight!
Don’t miss the deadline
Check out the details and deadlines for entering the
other awards
http://www.udg.org.uk/awards
http://www.udg.org.uk/udupdate/news/urban-update-19-June-2015
Have you had your say on
what events you would like
to see in 2016?
The National Conference
on Urban Design 2015
Bristol 8-9-10 October
and what videos you would
like to see on Urban.nous?
This year’s conference is takes place in Bristol, one of the
UK’s most vibrant and successful cities. It is also one of
the UK’s leading experiments in civic leadership and
governance, with George Ferguson as mayor.
Please let us have your views by 5th July on the link
below!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VZ3JLYM
The conference theme looks at town, cities and
development in the 21st century and how better design
quality can achieve health, wellbeing and prosperity while
reducing costs to the public purse; and yet still make a
profit.
We hope to see you in Bristol!
Forthcoming UDG Events
The City as Developer
Joint with the AoU
Wednesday 8th July 6.20
The Gallery, Cowcross Street, London
Featuring contributors to the forthcoming edition of
urban design
Peter Bishop,
Peter Studdert,
Lawrence Barth,
Henk Bouwman,
Dick Gleeson (tbc)
Led by John Worthington
Academician and UDG Patron
Weather in the City - How design shapes
the Urban Climate
Monday 20 July – The Gallery, Cowcross Street
London 6.20
The launch of a book by Sanda Lenzholzer which
brings an understanding of wind, sun, heat and air
movements within the reach of any built environment
professional. Introduced by Professor Michael Hebbert
Underground Urbanism
Wednesday 16 September – London
Join the StreetNW mailing list on
mailto:street-north-west@urban-design-group.org.uk
Other events
Business rates … a tax on the sustainability of towns and
cities?
The purpose of a tax is first and foremost to raise
revenue. A second purpose can be to influence
behaviour by taxing goods or services that society
wants people to use less. A third purpose is where the
tax is used to pay for the costs the consumption of the
goods or services impose on society. An example is
the tax levied on alcohol, where there is both a health
impact and costs imposed on society through
increased road deaths, violence, family break-up, and
costs on the National Health Services. Business rates
are, however, an exception. They disadvantage a
social good – local shops, in favour of a form of retail
with significant environmental impact and negligible
social benefit – internet retail.
Local shops bring many benefits, not just in supplying
a range of goods, but by providing the basis of a local
community around which other activities and
friendships can form. Local shops also provide the
destinations that encouraging walking and cycling.
Internet retail on the other hand brings substantial
environmental and social costs. Operating from out of
town distribution centres, it is totally dependent on
vehicle use, and supports very little by way of
community. The business rates regime charges out of
town warehouses at a fraction of town centre or
neighbourhood shops, enabling internet retailers to
undercut traditional place-based shops and drive them
out of business. The British Retail Consortium has
warned that business rates could lead to closure of
80,000 shops by 2017 http://m.retailweek.com/5075975.article . It would be a devastating
blow to our towns and cities.
New on UrbanNous
Health and Urban Design
Some of the large internet retailers have been able to
avoid paying corporation tax. Amazon for example paid
just £4.2 million in 2013 against UK sales of £4.3 billion.
The situation is made worse by the fact that road
transport costs do not reflect the full social and
environmental costs imposed on society.
There is a strong case for reforming the Business Rates
system to stop the environmental, economic and social
damage to towns and villages.
There is even a case for questioning whether it would
simply be better to scrap the tax altogether and raise the
funds through a cost and price neutral increase in VAT.
Business rates bring in just over £20 billion to the UK
Treasury each year, compared with over £100 billion
raised through VAT. Dispensing with business rates
would also save money in the bureaucracy and costs
involved in operating the system.
The Business rate system has not kept pace with the
changes in technology and trading patterns. It has failed
to reflect the growing understanding of environmental,
social and health impact from the decline of traditional
town and neighbourhood centres.
As it stands the Business Rate system is a tax on the
sustainability of local communities. It is in urgent need of
reform.
Where do you read Urban
Design? Prize competition
CycleCity Active
Major 2 day conference
25-26 June
Newcastle
http://www.landor.co.uk/cycleactivecity/programme.php
Academy of Urbanism
Event / Mid-Year Review and Reception
22nd July – London
http://www.academyofurbanism.org.uk/events/mid-year-review-and-reception/
BOBMK Events
http://www.urbannous.org.uk/health-and-urban-design.htm
http://bobmk.org.uk/our-programme/
Next events autumn
MADE
Greening the city:
Urban streets and verges
Ian Hingley. Landscape architect, Urban Movement
This picture was taken in Jalisco, Mexico.
Can you beat it!!
http://www.made.org.uk/events/calendar/
Introduction to Design Codes
23 June
Museum of Walking
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27 June Saturday 10.30am-1.30pm
Ruskin Walk in Shoreditch: Home Fronts
with artist and creator of the Ruskin Walk: Martin Fidler
to complement the Geffrye Museum’s “Homes for the
homeless” exhibition

Read more

Book here
http://www.urbannous.org.uk/greening-the-city-streets.htm
http://www.museumofwalking.org.uk/events/ruskin-walks/
http://home-fronts-ruskin-walk.eventbrite.co.uk
UrbanNous Catalogue available on-line
PTRC
Go to the home page and move your cursor to where it
says “Hover here to bring ideas to life”
Annual Transport Practitioners Meeting
1st – 2nd -3rd July - London
https://www.ptrc-training.co.uk/Portals/1/Documents/TPM/TPM15Leaflet.pdf
Urban Design London
Events coming up – extensive programme some free,
some charged/£175+VAT (Free for subscribers)
http://www.urbandesignlondon.com/?page_id=3251
Highlights include Christopher Alexander, George
Ferguson, Hans Monderman and scores of
others.
www.urbannous.org.uk
The Urban Design Group will award two prizes to the best
photographs taken during this Summer and submitted
before 5th September 2015. The idea is to show
interesting or original places in which members have read
the journal. The competition is open to individual UDG
members and the photograph (only one per member)
should be submitted as a jpg at 300dpi for a minimum
size of 190mm width, with your name, and the location of
the photograph . The author of the best photograph, to be
chosen by the Editors, will be given a year's free
subscription to the journal; the runner-up will be sent a
recent book about urban design and invited to review it
for the journal. Both photographs will be published in the
journal and online on the UDG website.
URBAN DESIGN Edition 134:
UDL HOUSING SPECIAL
Density Debate
30 June
Housing Policies
1st July
Viewing and Assessing Schemes, a Built for Life
update
2nd July
Design South East / Kent Design
Event Calendar
http://www.kentdesign.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Event-Calendar-2015-16-edited-14.4.15.pdf
Jobs
.
Graduate Urban Designer - WYG
London - St John's Street
Competitive Salary + Excellent Benefits
http://www.udg.org.uk/jobs/london-and-south-east/graduate-urban-designer-wyg
PhD Opportunities in Healthy planning – Welcome
Trust
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Sustaining-health/index.htm
Urban Design Assistant - Richard Coleman
CityDesigner
London – Salary c £22,000
Introduction to Building for Life 12
Sevenoaks 24 June
Architecture and Design Scotland
http://www.ads.org.uk/events
The Grass is Always Greener
4 July 2015
http://www.ads.org.uk/events/decade-the-grass-is-always-greene
http://www.udg.org.uk/jobs/london-and-south-east/richardcoleman-citydesigner-urban-designer-%E2%80%93-assistant-1
Current edition sent to UDG members
Past editions can be downloaded on the UDG website
Urban Design around the World
Latest Research, Policy and Practice
Australia
Built Environment
Designing for high density living
Stirling Prize shortlist
http://theconversation.com/speaking-with-hazel-easthope-on-designing-for-high-density-living-37631
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-33185650
Canada
Controversial waterfront tower back at Vancouver’s urban design panel
The claim that “The revamped front-of-house at the National Theatre has "radically
transformed" London's South Bank” may come as news to many, not least those who
regularly use the South Bank. A triumph in architecture or a triumph in exaggeration
and hubris – you decide!
http://metronews.ca/news/vancouver/1397764/controversial-waterfront-tower-back-at-vancouvers-urban-design-panel/
China
Learn Urban Design at “Hogwarts”… Hebei Academy of Fine Arts
Mapela - urban site that flourished in Zimbabwe between 800 and 1800
currently being excavated
Evidence of exists of international trade
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/06/2015/mapela-archaeologists-re-visit-a-forgotten-urban-site-in-zimbabwe
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3127692/China-Hogwarts-students-embrace-ancient-tradition-graduation.html
Politics, Economics, Philosophy
Hong Kong
Public Engagement for Urban Design Study for the Wan Chai North and North
Point Harbour-front Areas launched
http://7thspace.com/headlines/510837/stage_1_public_engagement_for_urban_design_study_for_the_wan_chai_north_and_north_point_harbourfront_areas_launched.html
Our future is urban. Why don’t we talk more about our cities?
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jun/14/city-london-mayor-paris
Sharing economy compromised by culture and advertising which leads people
to crave their own material goods
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/sharing-economy-wont-become-widespread-because-people-crave-their-own-material-goods-says-study-10317074.html
India
Charles Correa – “India’s greatest architect” - Co founder of 1984 Urban Design
Research Institute- obituary
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/column-he-thought-outside-the-confines-of-architecture-always-kept-urban-poor-in-mind-2096606
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/FOUNDATION-FOR-CHANGE/articleshow/47711950.cms
… The man who swore never to design a glass building
http://www.nyoooz.com/mumbai/130211/charles-correa-the-man-who-swore-never-to-design-a-glass-building
Urban design being used to re-imagine public spaces
Active Cities Boost Bottom Lines
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33065010
Hidden secrets of 1491 world map revealed via multispectral imaging
http://phys.org/news/2015-06-hidden-secrets-world-revealed-multispectral.html
This is an intriguing insight into the emerging perspective of the world at the very start
of what historians call the early modern period. It was a time when populations had
recovered to the levels prior to the bubonic plague in the 1380s, and when science,
arts and economies were beginning to flourish.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Tiruchirapalli/development-has-not-gone-out-of-hand-in-tiruchi/article7317220.ece
Trade Routes that supplied Rome revealed through huge waste pile
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/11650703/Roman-rubbish-dump-reveals-secrets-of-ancient-trading-networks.html
New Zealand
Auckland port extension consents invalid
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/69557486/auckland-port-extension-consents-invalid.html
Flooding and Water Management
The media has been busy this week with coverage of the flash flooding in Tbilisi which
destroyed a zoo and left hippos, tigers and bears roaming the streets. However there
Russia
Things have started to improve': Moscow residents share thoughts on the
city's changes
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/guardianwitness-blog/2015/jun/13/urban-improvement-moscow-residents-thoughts-changes-regeneration
Singapore
Living in the skies of Singapore – high rise hotel set within a vertically stacked
garden
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/15/travel/living-in-the-skies-of-singapore/
were several other news and research items this week which show at a global scale
the gravity of the situation the world faces, and the attempts that some cities are
taking to address the challenge.
Nasa data shows the world is running out of water
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nasa-data-shows-the-world-is-running-out-of-water-10325188.html
Indian City Overhaul Could Usher Future Of Water Sustainability
Parks, act as "urban sponge," that will help capture the monsoon rains and replenish
the city's underground aquifers.
http://www.wateronline.com/doc/indian-city-overhaul-could-usher-future-water-sustainability-0001
China bets on 'sponge cities' to cope with flooding and drought
Solution in permeable pavements, gardens,
http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060020275
UK
Radical redesigns proposed for Aldwych, the Strand, and the Victoria
Embankment, London, by North Bank BID and Publica
Mycoremediation, the use of fungi to treat water and soil, could be the
stormwater filter of the present and future
http://greenbuildingelements.com/2015/06/19/mushrooms-hold-key-to-stormwater-treatment/
http://www.cityam.com/218177/strand-about-get-radical-makeover
Backing for bars, restaurants and offices over houses and industry in East
Cowes
http://www.iwcp.co.uk/news/news/backing-for-bars-restaurants-and-offices-over-houses-and-industry-in-east-cowes-84207.aspx
Technology and Modelling
USA
Design centre creates free software tool to analyze cities as spatial networks
The Urban Network Analysis software plugin for Rhinoceros 3-D modelling software
from the MIT-Singapore International Design Center, enables the description of
spatial patterns of cities using mathematical network analysis methods
Boston complex slammed by design panel
http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/blog/real-estate/2015/06/plans-for-merritt-complex-in-canton-slammed-by.html
How New York Plans to Elevate the Spaces Under Freeways, Subway Platforms
http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/new-yorks-design-ideas-space-freeways-under-subway-platforms
Humans, Health and Society
A Beautiful City Creates Beautiful Residents
http://hetq.am/eng/news/60956/a-beautiful-city-creates-beautiful-residents.html
Three year olds have sense of justice
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-06/m-thv061815.php
Do you really need to take 10,000 steps per day?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33154510
http://phys.org/news/2015-06-center-free-software-tool-cities.html
Slime mold used to compute Roman road network in the Balkans
Researchers placed a physarum polycephalum in a petri dish containing 17 little bits
of food representing 17 urban centres in the Balkans from the Roman imperial period.
The slime mold “imitated rather spectacularly the two main military roads of the area,
the Via Egnatia [across Macedonia] and the Via Diagonalis [from central Europe to
Constantinople]
http://www.archaeology.org/issues/182-1507/trenches/3365-trenches-roman-roads-slime-mold
The quicker members of the design community will realise that this slime-mold could
be used to generate an optimal street network connecting urban centres.
You can create your own Physarum computer to identify the optimal routes for
a new development
Buy a kit for under £50
http://www.blades-bio.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CBK031
Growing up near parks and woodland 'boosts a child's memory and thinking
skills', study reveals
A book on creating a physarum computer
http://www.amazon.co.uk/PHYSARUM-MACHINES-COMPUTERS-Scientific-Nonlinear/dp/9814327581
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3126418/Growing-near-parks-woodland-boosts-child-s-memory-thinking-skills-study-reveals.html
Important that this should have appeared in the Daily Mail
Top growing tips..
http://slimoco.ning.com/forum/topics/top-tips-for-growing-physarum
Movement
Copenhagenize - Urban design company proposes cycle-desire paths
http://arstechnica.co.uk/science/2015/06/urban-design-company-proposes-bicycle-desire-paths-helmets-for-car-drivers/
How to get people cycling
 Stop building cul-de-sacs and bring back the grid
 Make development mixed-use
 Eliminate minimum parking requirements
 Make carriageways narrower
 Build protected bike lanes
 Connect bike lanes to create usable routes
Energy and Climate Change
Study shows global warming is unlikely to reduce winter deaths
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-06/cums-ssg061815.php
Risk of Major Sea Level Rise in Northern Europe
For London, the calculated best estimate is that sea level will rise by 0.8 meters.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-06/uoc--rom061815.php
http://www.vox.com/2015/5/29/8682707/walking-biking-cities-transportation/in/8277740
How flu viruses use the transportation system in the USA
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150618145758.htm
Hyperloop Proposal
http://www.chron.com/news/transportation/article/New-Hyperloop-proposal-shows-how-futuristic-6323707.php
full paper
http://www.aud.ucla.edu/pdfs/ucla_a.ud_hyperloop_suprastudio_2014-15_fall_research_electronic.pdf
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