Urban Design 114 – Spring 2010

Publication date: 01 April 2010

The main topic of this issue of Urban Design is Scotland and our contributors, assembled by Alona Martinez-Perez, explore how they define and are working to improve Scottish place-making, through policies and projects.

These include Riccardo Marini, City Design Leader for Edinburgh City Council challenging thinking about place-making for a more ambitious, spatially-led planning system; Diarmaid Lawlor of Architecture and Design Scotland introduces the policy contexts and the influences that this brings to design. Francis Newton and Alona Martinez-Perez look at the growth of UDG activities in the region. Cristina Gonzalez-Longo examines the Scottish Parliament as a framework for contemporary Scottish urban places. Eugene Mullan and Alistair Scott of Smith Scott Mullan argue for more positive engagement with the Scottish landscape to achieve more liveable urban places. Ewan Anderson of 7N Architects describes the innovative urban framework for Spiers Lock in Glasgow. The proposed Waverley train line connecting the Borders to Edinburgh is explored by Oliver Chapman Architects, and Duncan Whatmore looks at place-making in projects that combine engineering and design. Visionary plans need ambitious leaders and John Deffenbaugh explores the influence of political leadership in Chicago and Glasgow. Finally Dr. Lorens Holm and Paul Guzzardo of the Geddes Institute (Dundee University) link the place teaching of Patrick Geddes to Dundee’s creative capital, exploring a framework for place-based talent and technology.

There is also a collection of viewpoints reporting on aspects of shared public spaces: Mike Biddulph reviews thirteen completed home zones for their safety and accident records; Tim Long explains the work of the Clear Zone Partnership in London creating exemplary shared spaces through re-thinking street spaces. Ye Zhang and Alastair Donald challenge ideas about risk in public space, and whether ideas have moved on since CABE’s 2005 publication. On the regular CABE page, Stella Manning describes recent research cataloguing the nation’s urban green spaces and their use by local people.

There are reports of UDG talks, and the first two shortlisted Francis Tibbalds Award projects from the new year’s selection are featured – AECOM’s Heart of Doha Masterplan, and Tibbalds Enham Alamein village housing, plus four new book reviews.