The Scottish Government

Case Study 1
The Drum, Bo'ness

A greenfield development which makes use of a master plan with innovatory solutions for road layout and parking.

Drum Farm is a 90 acre development site on the edge of Bo'ness, Falkirk. The development process started with preparation of a strategic master plan, which identified development phases, constraints and broad design principles. This was followed by an Urban Design Framework prepared in order to secure a high level of design quality. From the very beginning, the landowner was committed to design quality and has subsequently remained true to the aspirations of the framework documents.

The site is being developed in six phases. Phases 1, 2 and 3 are complete. Phases are released to developers following design and bid competitions. Each phase to date has been completed by a different team.

The road layout is innovative in that it is permeable, has frontage access and is without culs-de-sac. The design of parking is approached differently within each phase.

The aim was to achieve a car-free appearance to the streetscape with linked frontages. Within Phase 1, the highest density area, parking is mainly located within large rear central courtyards.

At Phase 2, much of the housing is designed as small groups of four houses around a shared courtyard. This removes most parking from the public realm creating narrow streets and intimate communal living spaces behind. Phase 2 also contains shared surfaces, as well as the use of full and partial enclosure to define space and ensure a perception of security. The street is animated by well controlled narrowing and widening of the building frontage lines. In one area, two 'culs-de-sac' are joined to form a continuous road surface with a linking turning circle absorbed into a large triangular space arranged around a village green. One of the major attributes of the Drum layout is that houses are brought to the back of the footpath making the street spaces more intimate and human in scale.

Case Study 2
Ardler Village, Dundee

A regeneration scheme where SuDS plays a key role.

Ardler was previously a housing estate entirely within council ownership and in a state of decline, including high levels of unemployment.

It was identified as a priority area for regeneration in the early 1990s following creation of the Priority Partnership Area initiative. The regeneration process is now well underway. The local authority housing stock was transferred to Sanctuary Scotland Housing Association in 2000 and the project is run as a joint initiative between Sanctuary, Communities Scotland, Wimpey Homes and Dundee City Council.

The local community have been involved since the outset with a high amount of public consultation being undertaken. The Ardler Steering Group (now the Ardler Village Trust) consists of representatives from the local community and they are included within the decision making process.

The key themes in developing the regeneration strategy have included permeability and sustainability. 'Permeability' in order to link Ardler back into the city that surrounds it as well as the creation of a clearer and legible internal movement pattern. 'Sustainability' has been fostered in order to promote a community that cares for its area and maximises existing, renewable and scarce resources.

This has involved a complete remodelling of the area with the exception of one small section where the existing road pattern has remained. There has been a complete reworking of the drainage arrangements using swales throughout (as part of the SuDS), and new infrastructure arrangements to accommodate the new development pattern.

Access, safety and identity are addressed through a combination of landscape and the use of speed reducing measures such as narrower road widths, reduced visibility bends and minimal signage.

The Council remains committed to monitoring all aspects of the design and adopting modifications as necessary on future phases of the village regeneration project.

Case Study 3
Home zones

The home zone concept

The home zone concept is fundamental to the pilot regeneration project within the Raploch area in Stirling. A significant amount of consultation has been undertaken with the community to identify people's aspirations for the residential streets in their neighbourhood. This involved the use of newsletters, a 'Home Zone Cabin', a bus touring the local area, and by taking community representatives on a study tour to England to see home zones in Manchester and Leeds. The process has led to the drawing up of a range of street designs, that will create individuality and a variety of spaces.

Four pilot developments, supported by the Scottish Executive, are underway elsewhere in Scotland. These include the only Scottish new-build home zone development in Dundee, part of the redevelopment of Dundee Royal Infirmary.

Conventional culs-de-sac, which are often favoured by new home owners, can offer the benefits of the home zone philosophy. For example, their design creates an open area that children can play in and without through traffic residents are more likely to use their front garden space. The success, however, by which this can be achieved is largely dependant on the size and layout of the cul-de-sac, the detailing of road carriageways, boundary treatments (or lack of them), how parking is addressed holistically throughout the development and the attitudes of local residents. Consequently, conventional cul-de-sac layouts without inter-connection are not encouraged within current good practice as set out in this PAN. The preference is networked routes and spaces which connect new residential areas together and link with existing development forms.

Case Study 4
Dorset County Council 'Highway Guidance for Estate Roads'

Carrying innovative policy through to implementation

The Dorset County Council Highway Guidance for Estate Roads was published in 2002. It arose from concern that new residential areas were frequently places which were indistinguishable from each other and often related badly to their locale. In other words, 'anywhere development'.

Dorset County Council has recognised that in order to create new residential areas which reflect their context and which have a high quality of urban design:

"..well designed housing layout requires that all aspects of the design be considered at the same time. In this respect the highway layout should not be considered in isolation since it is an integral part of the residential environment."

One of the characteristics that marks this document out from design guidance issued elsewhere, is the support for speed restraint that is designed into the development from the beginning and not 'bolted-on' as an afterthought. The guidance is categorical that speed humps or chicanes will not be acceptable but that traffic speed will be kept low through the positioning of key buildings and spaces, and by reducing the effective length of road sections to 60m. Accordingly, speeds can be kept below 20mph.

This is further encouraged by other measures. These include the promotion of junctions with reduced radii (which encourages drivers to slow down), the provision of speed restraining bends (which reduce forward visibility), and by varying the width of the horizontal alignment. On-street parking is also allowed.

Many of these design features are aimed at driver perception. The driver feels less confident when travelling through the streets and drops his or her speed accordingly.

Whilst the guidelines are applied to any new residential development throughout Dorset, they are most famously embodied within the urban landscape of Poundbury, an extension to the County town of Dorchester. Phase 1 of the 25 year programme is complete and has an urban form specifically designed to limit the speed and visual effect of vehicles. Pedestrians take priority over vehicles with parking and servicing facilities being located on streets and within rear courtyards where possible. Sightlines are limited at junctions and there are no clear priorities. Only a single street sign exists within the development area, yet records for the past three years show that there have been no accidents.

Case study 5
The Gorbals, Glasgow

Re-inventing the tenement design in a contemporary style

The Gorbals was previously renowned as being one of the worst housing areas in Europe. In the 1950s, experimental flatted development replaced crowded tenements but proved socially and physically disastrous. These blocks were demolished in the 1980s leaving 13 hectares of brownfield land close to Glasgow City Centre available for redevelopment.

The Crown Street Regeneration Project was launched
in 1990, to rebuild and revitalise this highly stigmatised area, with the aim of changing perceptions completely to make the Gorbals an attractive place to live and work, and to attract investment.

A master plan was prepared which sought to integrate new with existing development. The core of the master plan was the restoration of Crown Street as the central north-south axis through the Gorbals. The design philosophy has been to re-invent tenemental design
in a contemporary style. This has allowed a flexible grid system that connects through the existing street pattern.

The resultant streets, now clearly emerging after this first decade of design and construction, are essentially traditional in that there is clear delineation between carriageway and footway and crossroads are a pervasive part of the grid system. They have, however, in the 'feel' of the place that has been created, gone well beyond the traditional notions of the street and
built in many contemporary ideas. The streets are well articulated in terms of bold, robust and contemporary detailing and speeds are slowed through sensitive material change and extensive use of on-street parking within clearly defined bays at right angles to the carriageway. The definition is reinforced through use
of high quality and mature landscape elements, which also adds considerably to the quality of the overall street scene.