URBAN UPDATE
18th September 2015
Main news
from the Urban Design Group
New Jobs: London, Manchester, Bristol, Surrey, Southampton, Oxford, Abingdon.
A specification for the ideal development guide?
National Urban Design Conference 3 weeks to go
Underground Urbanism Event Report – planning system lacks depth
Lack of garden access for young children linked to obesity
Sedentary lifestyle and overweight weaken arterial health already in childhood
Humans tune their style of walking to minimise energy use
Sub-Aqua Cities Celebrated – a list of some of the cities that risk inundation
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The National Conference on Urban Design 2015 - Bristol 8-9-10 October
Development, Design and Profit in C21
Supported by
RICS - RTPI - RIBA
RSA - LI – AoU - ULI
3 weeks to go!
50 speakers
2 book launches
2 travelling exhibitions
1 report launch
4 recent books featured
Exceptional
Networking and
Learning
Opportunity
“the most beautiful, interesting and distinguished city in England“ John Betjeman, 1961
“Best City to Live in 2014”– Sunday Times
Most Liveable City in UK - 2013
NB Bristol is a popular venue. Please book your accommodation early.
George Ferguson, Mayor of Bristol, Stephen Hodder, RIBA Immediate Past President, Noel Farrar, President
Landscape Institute
Chris Sharpe, Holistic City Software; David Swallow; Debbie Sorkin, Leadership Centre; George Grace, TownCentred;
John Buxton, Cambrian Transport Ltd; Julian Dobson, Urban Pollinators; Julian Hart, Lancefield consulting; Johnathan
Shifferes, RSA; John Worthington; Mike Roberts, HAB; Rob Cowan, Urban Design Skills; Robin Hambleton, UWE, Roger
Evans, Studio | Real; Richard Hayward & Louise Thomas; Yolande Barnes, Savills, Dan Black and many more
Sessions on Governance and Planning; Energy; Health and Design; Infrastructure; Profit and Funding, Data and Smart
Cities
Book now for the conference
http://www.udg.org.uk/events/national-urbandesign-conference-2015
Urban Design Awards
Main sponsors
Gregg Latchams Solicitors
Broadway Malyan
The ideal development design guide?
– Developer Award
– Public Sector Award
Do you know any developers or
public bodies who you think
should enter the 2016 awards?
if so
please let them know and
please encourage them to
enter!
Full details of how to apply:

Developer Award
Deadline 30 October 2015
http://www.udg.org.uk/content/urban-designdeveloper-year-award-2016-opportunity-enter

Student Award
£600 Francis Tibbalds Prize
Deadline 9 November 2015
http://www.udg.org.uk/content/national-urban-designawards-student-award
Shortlisting of practice awards is currently
underway
6 Cs workshop produces specification
The 6 C’s are six councils (Derbyshire, Derby City, Leicestershire, Leicester city, Nottinghamshire and Nottingham City
Councils) who several years ago came together to produce a residential development guide. Since first published the
world has moved on and the consortium is keen to update the document, and David Locke Associates, Integrated
Transport Planning Ltd, and Phil Jones Associates have been commissioned to undertake the work. Last week, a
workshop of experts and stakeholders was tasked with developing a consensus as to what the revised guidance should do
and what it should cover.
The discussion provided a valuable insight into how developers engineers, planners and designers view street design
guidance, and the business of steering a development through the planning and highway adoption process.
Suggestions included
 Street design guidance should sit firmly within higher level policies, including council corporate strategies, sustainable
community strategies and reflecting current concerns such as obesity, active lifestyles, and combatting loneliness
through encouraging social contact.
 Building for Life should be used to provide the framework for Street Design Guides
 Planning and highways departments should act on concert. This is a challenge where the planning authority and the
highway authority sit in different councils. Here it was suggested that a joint letter could be issued by both highway and
planning authorities at the end of pre-application discussions providing advice. It damages the reputation of local
authorities when departments are unable to “get their act together”.
 Provide developers with certainty by raising highway adoption issues early on. (such as commuted sums required for
street trees. (£1500 is standard in some areas))
 Make buildability, serviceability, maintainability key objectives
One area continues to cause difficulties: the vexed question of bin lorries. The tendency in past has been to treat the
swept path of the bin lorry as the overriding design imperative Obviously refuse needs to be collected, however this can
translate into access by the bin lorry being the main design consideration: above the interests of disabled people,
pedestrians, children and cyclists. The waste collection side of the local authority must sit within the overall corporate plan
and with regard to duties such as public health and the public sector equality duty. Those authorities that specify bin lorries
that are so big or unwieldy that it leads to streets that are unsuited to human need, run the risk of legal challenge.
Underground Urbanism event shows up planning system’s lack
of depth
What happens below ground may not be everyone’s favourite topic, but Wednesday night’s UDG event showed that it is
one that needs to be addressed by all urban design practitioners. Liz Reynolds of URBEN provided an overview of the
many different functions the underworld performs, from the obvious such as Boston’s Big Dig; Crossrail, and mega
basements; to the more subtle, such as underground parks (New York’s Low Line), underground agriculture, and the
repurposing of underground spaces to create restraints, bike stores and even fountains.
Stephanie Bricker of the British Geological Society reminded the audience of the importance of the geology, providing a
platform to build on (not always solid rock, but sometimes shrinkable clay, running sands, or soluble rocks prone to
alarming sinkholes); the provision of water supplies and handling of waste water, heat, and building stone. The BGS has a
number of initiatives in hand to support the mapping of underground assets, such as in Glasgow where the sewer and
water supply pipe network is being mapped to identify areas where leaks might lead to a risk of contamination.
Jerry Tate, of Harmer provided a case study of the Thames Tunnel Sinking shaft, and the challenges of inclusive, and
obtaining official consents from 11 different department in various agencies and authorities. The plans are to create a
usable space that will accommodate over 100 people theatre style, giving this ground-breaking (in both senses of the
word) piece of civil engineering a dignified and visible future.
Underground waste management facilities were discussed in comparison with the medieval practices of dumping domestic
and commercial waste in the street where creates an eyesore, obstructs the footway and creates hazards for blind and
partially sighted people. We were fortunate to have David Bonnett, one of the UK’s leading experts on inclusive design, in
the audience.
Urban Design Current Edition
The City as Master Developer
We use the underground world for all manner of functions that are essential for the successful operation of an urban area.
Even though the technology exists to precisely map and record underground assets, including GPS, BIM, laser
measurement and ground penetrating radar, there is very little organisation or coordination in how underground
development proceeds. The time may come when a new metro project is blocked by someone’s mega basement. The
planning system produces reams of or ambiguous text and relatively imprecise two dimensional plans, it reaches a frenzy
when it comes to following procedure, and yet abandons to anarchy and chaos the essential subject of the planning of the
underworld. It is surely a situation that needs to change. Planning and design should be firmly 3 dimensional, and both
surface and subsurface.
Available to UDG Members by Subscription
Other events
Latest Lectures
on UrbanNous
The number of events is on the wane as we
approach the holiday period, but there are still
events to go to for those that seek them…
New
Weather in the City – How Design Shapes the Urban
Climate
Sanda Lenzholzer
PROJECT OF THE WEEK
http://www.urbannous.org.uk/climate-and-city-design.htm
Academy of Urbanism
http://www.academyofurbanism.org.uk/events/
18 September
Event / East England – a regional urbanism
September 24 @ 3:30 pm - 6:30 pm
http://www.academyofurbanism.org.uk/events/event-east-england-a-regionalurbanism/
Learning from Europe
All urban designers, architects planners, and highway
engineers should have a knowledge of this subject.
Serp and Molot
Urbanism: Improving quality and value
The importance of product, land and money
Yolande Barnes - Savills
LDA Design
http://www.urbannous.org.uk/urbanism-quality-and-value.htm
Garden Cities Past and Present.
November 5
6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
The Urbanism Awards Ceremony
November 6 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm
BOBMK Events
Potential morphologies explored.
Dominic Papa S333 Architecture and Urbanism
http://www.urbannous.org.uk/garden-city-morphologies.htm
Garden Cities: Is there a Business Case?
Jim Coleman, Buro Happold
http://www.urbannous.org.uk/garden-city-economics.htm
http://bobmk.org.uk/our-programme/
Next events autumn
Health and Urban Design
Lucy Saunders, GLA, TFL
Landscape Institute
http://www.urbannous.org.uk/health-and-urban-design.htm
Rethinking the Urban Landscape Exhibition
At the National Urban Design Conference
8-10 October
http://www.landscapeinstitute.co.uk/events/
UrbanNous Catalogue available on-line
Highlights include Christopher Alexander, George
Ferguson, Hans Monderman and scores of others.
www.urbannous.org.uk
MADE
http://made.org.uk/events
Rights of Light and Party Walls 1/10
Masterplans Frameworks and Briefs 6/10
Museum of Walking
Thursday 24 September 6.00pm - 8.00pm
Aldwych Lost with Tom Bolton,
author of Vanished City and Lost Rivers of
London
Jobs
Urban Designer - West Waddy
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
http://www.udg.org.uk/jobs/london-and-south-east/urban-designer-west-waddy
Funded PhD - Bioregional and University of
Westminster
http://www.museumofwalking.org.uk/events/
http://www.udg.org.uk/jobs/funded-phd-bioregional-and-university-westminster
PTRC
Director/Associate Director, Urban Design or Landscape
Architecture - WYG – Manchester
https://www.ptrc-training.co.uk/Training/UpcomingCourses.aspx
An Introduction to Highway Design &
Construction
The Principles of Traffic and Transport 20-Week
Evening Lecture Series, London and Bristol
Urban Design London
Events coming up – extensive programme
some free, some charged/ £175+VAT (Free for
subscribers)
Cycling Infrastructure Skills: Visiting and
Learning from Proposed and Completed
Schemes - 2nd October
Challenging Practice: Evolving Suburbs
http://www.udg.org.uk/jobs/north-west/directorassociate-director-urban-design-or-landscape-architecture-wyg-manchester
Associate Director -WYG - London
Many cities, like Moscow, have contaminated and degraded
urban land and the masterplan’s concept aims for a simple
but adventurous outcome – how to turn grim industrial
wastelands into beautiful new city places.
http://www.udg.org.uk/jobs/london-and-south-east/associate-director-wyg-london
Urban Design Graduate - Hamilton-Baillie Associates Bristol
http://www.udg.org.uk/jobs/urban-design-graduate-hamilton-baillie-associates-bristol
VIA Consultant/ Senior Consultant, Turley - London
http://www.udg.org.uk/jobs/london-and-south-east/consultant-senior-consultant-turley
Urban Design and Conservation Officer (Job No.
000712) Oxford City Council
http://www.udg.org.uk/jobs/london-and-south-east/urban-design-and-conservation-officer-job-no-000712-oxford-city-council
Opportunities for creative Urban Designers - Savills
Serp and Molot (Hammer and Sickle) is once of central
Moscow’s best known sites - it contains a former iron and
steel fabrication plant. The 58Ha (143 acre) site is now
largely derelict and abandoned, and it was announced at
the end of 2013 that it would be the subject of an
international design competition run jointly run by Moscow
City Government and by Donstroy Invest, the developers
and owners of the site.
The masterplan, due for completion by 2021, will create
over 1.8 million square metres of prime mixed-use space
with an estimated investment of 180 billion Roubles (over
6th October
Urban Design - Southampton - Oxford
http://www.udg.org.uk/jobs/opportunities-creative-urban-designers-savills-urban-design-southampton-oxford
Design South East / Kent
Design
Urban Designer - SLR Consulting - Bristol
http://www.udg.org.uk/jobs/south-west/urban-designer-slr-consulting-bristol
http://www.kentdesign.org/events/
Event Calendar
http://www.kentdesign.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Event-Calendar-2015-16-edited-14.4.15.pdf
Garden City II Eastgate,
Springhead Park
28 October
Designing Kent's Infrastructure
Maidstone
19 November
Other
Silk Cities Exchange Workshop
Free one day event
29/10 UCL
http://www.udg.org.uk/events/silk-cities%E2%80%99-exchange-workshop
The importance of the Linear Forest
A day devoted to the possibility of creating a
tree-lined roadscape against the conservatism
of highway design and road safety audit.
25th November Kew
http://treeworks-seminars.co.uk/seminar/tree-lined-routes-the-linear-forest/
Architecture and Design Scotland
http://www.ads.org.uk/category/news/
ESpace to Succeed – 24th
Landor
Parking World – Car in the City - Space and Place
11 November
http://landor.co.uk/parkingworld/programme.php
€3.76 billion). The design competition attracted 52
applications made up of 157 companies from 17 countries.
Our masterplan gives a new urban vision for Moscow where
the city is looking to redirect attention and investment to a
number of large former industrial sites located within the
city boundary, switching from a concentric pattern of growth
to a polycentric model that makes greater use of brownfield
land and places greater emphasis on the existing public
transport network.
Ricardo Mateu, Director of UHA LONDON, said:
“Serp and Molot continues UHA LONDON’s track record of
successful collaborations with LDA Design – marrying a
strong masterplan and landscape design narrative with
innovative and futuristic architecture – Serp and Molot will
be a game changer for the Moscow real estate market and
become a lifestyle choice for Muscovites.”
Read more
http://www.urbandesigndirectory.com/projects/serp-and-molot
Place Alliance
The Big Meet
27 October
CIRIA
Valuing urban ecology and city resilience
3 November 2015, London
https://www.ciria.org/CIRIA/Navigation/Events/Event_Display.aspx?EventKey=E15232
Urban Design around the World
Latest Research, Policy and Practice
China
Built Environment
One Chinese City's Struggle With Water Scarcity
Only bottom up development can end the housing crisis and regenerate our cities
http://thediplomat.com/2015/09/one-chinese-citys-struggle-with-water-scarcity/
http://www.citymetric.com/skylines/only-bottom-development-can-end-housing-crisis-and-regenerate-our-cities-1398
A Before-and-After Photo Archive of the World's Best Street Designs
Italy
Excavations reveal a bigger 6th Century Rome
http://phys.org/news/2015-09-excavation-rome-home-city-bigger.html
http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2015/09/a-before-and-after-photo-archive-of-the-worlds-best-street-designs/405424/
New towns and garden cities lessons for tomorrow
Stage 2: Lessons for Delivering a New Generation of Garden Cities
TCPA
http://www.tcpa.org.uk/data/files/NTGC-2.pdf
New Zealand
New design for Freyberg Place misses the mark
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11512951
Environment
USA
Let’s build a neighbourhood among downtown condo towers
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/09/17/lets-build-a-neighbourhood-among-downtown-condo-towers.html
As wildland-urban interface grows, so does risk to people and habitats
http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/news/release/wui-map-book
Small rural owl fearlessly colonizes the city
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150917110108.htm
Urban Design Critic John King on the Structures That Define San Francisco
http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201509141000
Closer look reveals true cost of coal
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/aaft-clr091415.php
UK
Keeping monster homes in check in London
http://www.lfpress.com/2015/09/15/keeping-monster-homes-in-check
London is sleepwalking towards ‘incipient urban disaster’
Ban on microbeads offers best chance to protect oceans, aquatic species
http://phys.org/news/2015-09-microbeads-chance-oceans-aquatic-species.html
World loses trillions of dollars worth of nature's benefits each year due to land
degradation
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150915090404.htm
http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/weiss-london-is-sleepwalking-towards-incipient-urban-disaster/8689037.article
Robots help to map England's only deep-water Marine Conservation Zone
Campaigners hit out at council "lack of transparency" over development of
one of Glasgow's most prestigious addresses
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/homenews/13717599.Campaigners_hit_out_at_council__lack_of_transparency__over_development_of_one_of_Glasgow_s_most_prestigious_addresses/
http://phys.org/news/2015-09-robots-england-deep-water-marine-zone.html
Translating research into action
http://architecturenow.co.nz/articles/kate-orff-translating-research-into-action/#img=1
Sunday Times - British Home Awards
http://britishhomesawards.co.uk/
http://britishhomesawards.co.uk/shortlist/
Data driven green design
http://phys.org/news/2015-09-driven-green.html
London’s Tube Map – geographically correct
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/224813/response/560395/attach/3/London%20Connections%20Map.pdf
Humans Health Society
Best and worst office views in the UK
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/11869185/Are-these-the-best-and-worst-office-views-in-the-UK.html
Energy and Climate Change
World’s largest artificial wave tank created in Netherlands to research coastal
defences against rising sea levels
The Grandmother Hypothesis – population modelling points to role of
grandmothers in evolution of increased lifespan
Grandmothers so the modelling suggests have played a vital role in helping to feed their
daughter’s children. A shift to grandmothering was the foundation for several important
steps in human evolution, including longer adult life spans, increased brain size, empathy,
cooperation and pair bonding.
http://phys.org/news/2015-09-grandmas-people-pair-human-longevity.html
And it is notable that architecture and design pays very little heed to anything other than
nuclear families.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34225733
Sedentary lifestyle and overweight weaken arterial health already in childhood
Sub-Aqua Cities Celebrated – a list of some of the cities that risk inundation
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/london-new-york-hong-kong-and-tokyo-among-cities-that-will-be-submerged-under-water-if-we-burn-all-fossil-fuel-reservessays-report-10497390.html
https://www.uef.fi/en/-/liikkumattomuus-ja-liikapaino-heikentavat-valtimoterveytta-jo-lapsilla
Fruit and vegetables aren't only good for a healthy body -- they protect your mind
too
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150916215535.htm
Movement
George Ferguson defies 9000 signature petition to scrap 20mph limits in
Bristol
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/George-Ferguson-willing-budge-20mph-zones-despite/story-27808518-detail/story.html
Study from England shows no garden access for young children linked to
childhood obesity later in childhood
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-09-england-garden-access-young-children.html
This is a significant number of signatures, but against this the population of Bristol
is 450,000.
'Our chairs are killing us,' say researchers
The newspaper discussion misquotes a study on air pollution – which actually hints
at reductions in air pollution from the introduction of 20 mph limits.
Additional time spent outdoors by children results in decreased rate of
nearsightedness
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/business/environmental-health/environmental-protection/air-quality/Documents/speed-restriction-air-quality-report-2013-for-web.pdf
http://www.elsevier.com/about/press-releases/research-and-journals/our-chairs-are-killing-us,-say-researchers
http://media.jamanetwork.com/news-item/additional-time-spent-outdoors-by-children-results-in-decreased-rate-of-developing-nearsightedness/
Killing Us Softly with Bike Lanes
High consumption of sugar sweetened beverages linked to overall poor diet
“A plan by CDOT to eliminate 54 parking spaces along Highway 160,
between 6th Street and 3rd Street — precisely within the commercial
core — with no plan to replace that lost parking.”
http://www.webmd.com/diet/20150916/sugary-drinks-often-part-of-overall-poor-diet
Surgeon General's prescription for health: walkable communities
http://www.treehugger.com/urban-design/surgeon-generals-prescription-health-walkable-communities.html
http://pagosadailypost.com/2015/09/17/editorial-killing-us-softly-with-bike-lanes-part-three/
The author clearly does not realise that lost parking is being replaced by bike lanes
that are expected to be used by people who currently use their cars.
Variation in life expectancy across the UK compared with other countries – South
East England heads the list.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/the-northsouth-health-divide-englands-richest-people-live-eight-years-longer-than-poorest-10500905.html
Humans tune their style of walking to minimise energy use
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28155-exoskeleton-reveals-the-lengths-we-go-to-save-energy-when-walking/
Self-driving cars: from 2020 you will become a permanent backseat driver
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/13/self-driving-cars-bmw-google-2020-driving
Politics Philosophy Economics
Margins Matter – can performance be transformed by making many small
improvements?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34247629
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