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Designing Places

Loudoun Hall, South Ayrshire

Planning for good design

Sometimes opportunities for achieving good design are missed with dramatic results. Dull, big-box buildings turn their backs on their surroundings. Lifeless streets and spaces cast each passer-by in the role of intruder. Over-engineered roads proclaim the car as king. Rural and urban sites alike are transformed into shapeless and unsustainable suburbia and land is needlessly wasted.

In other cases the missed opportunity is just one barely noticeable episode in the gradual erosion of the qualities that once made a place good to live in, work or visit.

Making the most of the opportunities is not a simple matter of checking them off a list, although that can be a good way to start and a Placecheck is a useful way of asking the first questions.

There are always conflicting interests and limited resources. Liveliness and tranquillity, for example, can both be valued qualities, but a choice may need to be made about which to aim for in a specific place. Teenagers and elderly people are likely to have different views on the matter. Successful design is a matter of balancing interests and opportunities in the way that is right for the particular place.

What is a good solution for one person may be less good for another. That is why the process of setting the context for design should be shaped by public priorities, and be open and democratic. At its best, the planning system can help to make this possible.

placecheck

Placecheck is a method, developed by the Urban Design Alliance, of assessing the qualities of a place, showing what improvements are needed, and focusing people on working together to achieve them. Locally based collaborations use a checklist which avoids abstractions that are difficult to assess and jargon that excludes non-specialists. The Placecheck can become an agenda for local action, or the first step in preparing design guidance such as urban design frameworks and development briefs. If necessary, a Placecheck can start small: with half a dozen people around a table or a small group meeting on a street corner. A Placecheck can cover a street or part of one, a neighbourhood, a town centre, district or a city. The setting might be urban, suburban or a village. The initiative can come from anyone, in any organisation or sector. A guide to carry out Placechecks is available on www.placecheck.info

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