Celebrating 10 years of Urban Design Awards: a retrospective

Images selected from 2019 shortlist

When the National Urban Design Awards were first conceived in 2009, the Urban Design Group, supported by the Francis Tibbalds Trust, wanted to recognise the best of the profession and inspire others – while also generating captivating content for the URBAN DESIGN Journal. If we are to make better places, we need to raise the profile of urban design. What better way than awards to celebrate the best ideas and achievements delivered over the course of a year. Representing the breadth of urban design practice, the awards have celebrated projects and initiatives not just across all parts of the UK, but also in China, Germany, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Nigeria and Qatar.

After 10 years of celebrating excellence in urban design practice, who could have guessed that we would be looking back at 88 finalists in the project practice and public sector awards? A decade is a good time to reflect on the value of the awards, their successes, and what we can learn from them. This retrospective highlights the excellent array of finalists selected by the judges, all of which showcase exemplary urban design: it is also telling that many finalists have gone on to win other awards.

The need for good urban design is as important as ever, especially with the current focus on house building, a simplified planning system, and higher urban densities (or lower depending on where Covid-19 takes us). Best practice needs to be recognised in urban design as the positive effects are far-reaching, affecting not just those that live and work in our built environments today, but also impacting all future generations.

The retrospective focuses on a number of key themes, and ends with some lessons learnt.

 

PUBLIC REALM

The public realm schemes have demonstrated the value in investing in high-quality places, and have all resulted in transformations for people, reducing the dominance of cars, and improving air quality. They often change perception of the whole city or borough in the process.

Of the most significant, both Belfast Streets Ahead (Atkins, 2013) and Connected Croydon (Croydon Borough Council, 2017) have resulted in major renewal, completely transforming the experience of the places themselves. The City of London’s People, Places Project (2016) has delivered over 150 projects, covering 20% of its public realm. Its Aldgate Square (2018) removed a dreary gyratory, while Riverside Walk Enhancement Strategy (2011) created a continuous stretch of pedestrian-only walkway along the banks of the Thames. In Barking and Dagenham, Barking Town Square (2011) offers a dramatic new civic space, while Short Blue Place (2014) improves links in the town centre.

Enhancing the setting of historic structures has had major benefits: Bradford’s City Park (City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, 2013) embellishes the setting of the city hall with a superb public space. In the City of Westminster, the Leicester Square Redesign (Burns and Nice, 2011) now features a 200-metre long curved white granite bench, The Ribbon, which snakes around its perimeter. The Castle Street Public Realm Scheme (Carlisle City Council, 2012), West Street Cultural Quarter (South Derbyshire District Council, 2011), Castle Square (Taylor Young, 2011) in Caernafon, and Stockton High Street Regeneration (Stockton Borough Council, 2016) renewed the public realm and removed clutter, and in the process enhanced the setting of their historic environment.

Schemes that seek to overcome traffic barriers include Mitcham’s Corner Development Framework (Cambridge City Council, 2019), which identifies improvements to the gyratory system by creating better connections for people. Oxford Circus Improvements (Atkins, 2011) turned a notorious pedestrian bottleneck into a safer, diagonal pedestrian crossing, resulting in dramatic reduction in pedestrian congestion. The Bourg Walk Bridge (Buckingham Borough Council, 2011) to connect Southcourt to Aylesbury town centre overcame major physical barriers, although has recently experienced maintenance and security issues.

The design for a new commercial quarter at St Petersfield in Ashton under Lyne (Planit IE, 2009) involved the delivery of a network of squares and spaces whose urban morphology, scale and proportions suggest a distinctive European quality.

​An underutilised space was transformed into a communal pocket park and front garden for the King’s Crescent Community Orchard Pocket Park (London Borough of Hackney, 2015) in advance of the implementation of extensive regeneration proposals, highlighting community spirit and increasing trust in the Council to deliver high quality regeneration.

 

BROWNFIELD

While the majority of brownfield sites are town centre or central urban sites, they all provide a genuine mix of uses. Another key trend is pedestrian-priority neighbourhoods, removing, or at the very least, reducing the dominance of cars. A recurring theme is taking full advantage of waterside settings.

The town centre residential-led mixed-use scheme for Firepool Taunton (NEW Masterplanning, 2011) has opened up access to the waterfront, with a new boulevard connecting to the rail station, and a landmark hotel. In Lowestoft, a new marina was central to the Brooke Peninsula & Jeld Wen (Assael Architecture, 2016) mixed-use scheme, which contains a walkable network of streets among retained industrial heritage. There are similar stories for the 500-home Brentford Lock West (Urbed, 2012), Trent Basin (Urbed, 2015) on the River Trent, less than two miles from Nottingham City Centre, the emerging 3,750-home Southall Waterside (JTP, 2018) beside the Grand Union Canal, and the 1,000-home Icknield Port Loop (Urbed, 2014). 

Reuse of historic properties is a key feature of Sunderland’s Vaux Brewery (Urbed, 2017) which now links the town centre with the new Keel Square, taking full advantage of views to the river gorge and out to sea. Regenerating the Greyfriars Gloucester (NEW Masterplanning, 2012) site led to the creation of a mixed-use scheme set within an historic context. For the Heart of Doha Masterplan (AECOM, 2011), the existing historic street pattern has been retained and is supported with a new urban grid that seeks to convert hot winds in the region into cooler breezes. Building on its distinctive industrial heritage and character, Hackney Wick Central (London Legacy Development Corporation, 2018) focused on retaining over 600 businesses and the highest concentration of artists’ studios in Europe while delivering 1,500 new homes, 75,000 sqm of arts and business space and improved public spaces. In Bradford, a rundown and disused estate has been transformed into new homes, which has followed the Chain Street Goitside Urban Design Framework (City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, 2013). For the former workhouse infirmary St Clement’s Hospital in Bow (JTP, 2015), the residential-led scheme refurbished and retained listed buildings while opening up the site. Meanwhile, the Rush 2020 Strategic View (NJBA+U 2012) envisaged densification and increased permeability, while holding onto the town’s specific grain and character.

A couple of projects were conceived to regenerate established neighbourhoods, such as the Filwood Park (NEW Masterplanning, 2013) project to add 150 new homes, bringing in more footfall to support shops and businesses in the neglected high street. Although not yet completed, Middlesbrough’s 32ha Middlehaven Development Framework (Urban Initiatives Studio, 2014) aims to re-establish the area as a town centre extension with a mix of institutional, office and residential uses, mainly led by small-scale investors through self-build and co-housing projects.

Some brownfield sites of course start from a flat site. In the case of the Stratford City/ 2012 Athletes Village (Fletcher Priest Architects, 2013), a key principle was to create connections with Stratford’s existing town centre and the Lea Valley Park, the ultimate aim being to blend into the newly emerging context of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The yet to emerge Freight Depot Visioning Document (Gateshead Council, 2012) offers a framework for a new sustainable pedestrian-driven residential community, while District S (Allies & Morrison 2013) aims to become a jewel of a city within the city, reflecting the dense urban context of Beirut.

 

GREENFIELD

Many projects promote their sustainability credentials, which are often used by their developers for marketing. Bristol’s 186-home Carbon Zero Hanham Hall (HTA, 2011) has been a resounding success with residents who enjoy the high quality homes set within an attractive landscape, while the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust Derwenthorpe (Studio Partington, 2013) provides affordable, eco-friendly homes heated by low carbon, with a digitally inclusive, mixed-tenure, self-governing community. Similarly, Marmalade Lane’s energy-efficient homes (South Cambridgeshire District Council, 2019), developed for cohousing, have been designed with streets that promote interaction, shared facilities and a large shared garden.

Greenfield developments frequently demonstrate simple but great placemaking, reflected in their popularity, such as the 6,000-home Chilmington Green (JTP, 2014) in Kent which provides all social infrastructure on-site, or the Northstowe Phase 2 Design Code (2018) which provides the means to embed principles of healthy neighbourhoods. Although still to be developed, Manydown Main Street’s (Tibbalds, 2019) aim is to provide a new high street to give a focus to Basingstoke’s western urban extension. Set in the Cotswold Water Park, Clearwater and Howell’s Mere phases of Lower Mill Estate (Richard Reid and Associates, 2009) is a community of second homes set in an informal open landscape where everything has been done to maximise views across a landscape of lakes, meadows, canals and streams, with no fences between properties.

Some of these take on a gradual and purposely incremental approach, such as Enham Alamein (Tibbalds, 2011) which has followed supported sustained growth for over 100 years. The charity owns and manages most of the village for its disabled clients and wants to extend its capacity to offer support, while increasing its mix of housing types, tenures and facilities.

Some schemes have yet to really get underway despite being in the pipeline for many years: An Camas Mòr (AREA, 2014) in Scotland was designed to create a good habitat for both people and nature, envisioned as a Nordic-style woodland community. Similar to this is the 630-home Howden Urban Extension (Studio Partington, 2012), designed to ensure that the fastest mode of transport to the existing town centre is walking and cycling. Dunsfold Park (Edward Pollard Thomas, 2009), which will redevelop an aerodrome, only obtained planning consent in March 2018, and was awarded Garden Village status in June 2019. Further afield, the slowly emerging Suzhou Eco-Town in China (JTP, 2012) is designed as low carbon, bioclimatic, and with a slow movement strategy: 48% of the town will be green space.

 

PUBLIC HOUSING

Genuine engagement with the established community is a key factor in successful outcomes, as in the Ocean Estate Regeneration (Levitt Bernstein, 2015) in Tower Hamlets, once one of the UK’s most deprived neighbourhoods, the South Acton Masterplan (HTA Design, 2016), Winstanley and York Road Estates Regeneration in Wandsworth (Levitt Bernstein, 2016), Somers Town (London Borough of Camden, 2019) and the Regents Park Estate (Tibbalds, 2017). For the Andover Estate (Studio Partington, 2019) in Islington, this engagement even involved co-designing with the local community. Each scheme has emerged as an exemplar development, with careful consideration of the public realm, often creating a legible environment in former monolithic housing blocks.

Regeneration of the Aylesbury Estate (HTA Design, 2016) in South London proved to be more controversial. One of the most significant urban renewal projects in London, the plans for the phased demolition and redevelopment of 4,000 new homes (50% more than on the original estate) – starting entirely from scratch – received major pushback from the residents. This has led to broader arguments over today’s regeneration process.

For Portobello Square (PRP, 2018), a complete rebuild of the estate resulted in the creation of a series of traditional mews houses, mansion blocks and terraced housing, carefully incorporating the character of the neighbouring conservation area. Nestled in the semi-rural village setting of Combe Down, the 700-home Mulberry Park and Foxhill Estate Regeneration (HTA, 2017) brought greater suburban development density to the edge of Bath.

Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust (Birmingham City Council, 2015), established when the council was faced with increased demand for social housing but with a reduced housing stock, innovated its approach to housing delivery and is now the largest local authority builder of housing in the country, has successfully delivered over 3,000 affordable properties.

 

ENGAGEMENT

Some truly innovative approaches to stakeholder engagement were displayed in many projects, although some of these no longer appear to be operational. The Urban Design Academy (North East Derbyshire District Council, 2012) formed a partnership between the council and Chesterfield College, with support from the Homes and Communities Academy, OPUN, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), Derbyshire Economic Partnership (DEP) and East Midlands Development Agency (emda). Its aim was to act as a champion of good urban design in Derbyshire, working with stakeholders to guarantee good design in the development proposals. It also helped to disseminate knowledge and training on urban design matters for councillors, local authority staff and other stakeholders. Its success led to it becoming a social enterprise.

The Quality Places Charter (Partnership for Urban South Hampshire, 2012), a spatial strategy intended to influence decision-making, was conceived to cut across local authority boundaries and address issues requiring a strategic approach: economic development, skills and housing. Know your Place: a participatory approach to place-making (Bristol City Council, 2014) is a website for learning about and sharing information about Bristol via historic maps, images and linked information.

SPUD (Space, Place-making and Urban Design) is an organisation committed to promoting quality design in the public realm and increasing the engagement and understanding of people of all ages to influence the nature and quality of the places they live in. SPUD 5x5: Youth Voices in South Hampshire (Partnership for Urban South Hampshire, 2013) worked with schools and young people to give them a voice to influence the development of their towns that are currently undergoing development, although the initiative no longer appears active. Meeting the same fate, the Tactile City Model (Planning Aid for London and Knott Architects, 2012) was a resource designed for blind and partially sighted people to help them understand town planning, communicated through sight or touch with over 250 magnetised pieces that could be arranged in any format on magnetic base-boards, enabling the generation of diagrammatic cityscapes.

 

CLIMATE CHANGE

In Colwyn Bay, the Porth Eirias water sports hub and new 50m dry sandy beach (Conwy County Borough Council, 2014) were built as part of a programme to strengthen its sea defences that are increasingly exposed to storm impacts. A new island has been created between a new relief channel next to the river Waal at Eiland veur Lent (Baca Architects, 2016) to provide the River Waal with space to expand as the Netherlands adapts to the impact of Climate Change.

 

TOWN CENTRES

Reusing and adapting historic properties often incorporating new uses such as homes or offices, to strengthen and diversify town centres is a recurring theme. For many projects, engaging with established communities and businesses has been a key factor to ensure they respond well to needs.

The first project to begin the transformation of Kings Cross, the Regent Quarter (Urban Initiatives, 2009/10) retained the site’s unique historic character, turning it into a successful, dense yet low-rise development. Working closely with English Heritage, the scheme for Waterfront Wakefield (FaulknerBrown Architects, 2011) kept as much of the built heritage as possible, while overcoming significant challenges linked to highways, flooding and fragmented ownership patterns. Towcester’s Moat Lane (Studio Real, 2012) renovated distinctive listed ironstone buildings, adding homes and shops, sensitively built around the Bury Mount scheduled ancient monument. The Birmingham Knowledge Hub (NODE, 2017) masterplan creates a unified campus that brings together some of the city’s top educational establishments, designed to favour pedestrian and cycle-friendly public spaces while reusing historic buildings, including the Typhoo Wharf building.

Some of these ambitious projects focus on complete city-centre-wide strategies. The Plymouth City Centre and Waterfront Masterplan (Plymouth City Council/ WSP/ LDA, 2017) will completely overhaul the centre, with a focus on adding new uses to increase vibrancy, regenerating it and linking it to the waterfront. A comprehensive public realm transformation was undertaken to prepare for Hull’s year as UK City of Culture (Re-form Landscape Architecture, 2019), with 14 streets and 4 public squares redesigned, increasing footfall and new businesses while improving visitor perceptions and local pride in the city. For Barnsley Town Centre (IBI Group, 2016), the strategy focused on removing and breaking down large masses in order to create a more permeable urban structure. Reviving the Town’s Market Place (Kettering Borough Council, 2013) rejuvenated the heart of Kettering, and in turn transformed the use of its public open space, which now hosts regular events.

A unique entry was the Ibadan City Masterplan (Dar, 2019). The historic core of Nigeria’s third largest city was rundown with the characteristics of slum environments, yet contained a vast network of historic properties. The plan, developed in close collaboration with the local community, boosted the city’s regeneration by retaining and restoring these buildings while creating new paved routes and planting trees to enhance the pedestrian experience.

Many projects have breathed new life into once rundown or underused parts of our town centres. The now largely completed and successful Temple Quay in Bristol (Urbed with John Rowland, 2009/10) provided much needed links between the town centre and the Floating Harbour. A key lesson from the Kettering Town Centre Area Action Plan (Savills, 2011) was the successful relationship between the Client and Consultant. With similar ambitions, but yet to complete, Farnham’s mixed-use residential-led East Street (Scott BrownRigg, 2009/10), now renamed Brightwells Yard, promotes the development of a pedestrian-priority environment. And in the context of Aachen’s medieval town centre World Heritage Site, the Altstadtquartier Buchel (Chapman Taylor, 2018) will replace a multi-storey car park with a thriving new district that reconfigures the existing historic setting while introducing new streets, squares, housing, office, retail and a kindergarten.

Reflecting diversity in our town centres, the Southwater Development – Regeneration of Town Centre (Telford and Wrekin Council, 2015) replaced out-of-town retail sheds with 330 homes, hotels, a lake, public spaces, cinema, bars and restaurants, while creating new links between Telford Shopping Centre and the International Centre conference venue. In the case of the Brierley Hill Town Centre SPD (Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, 2016), the strategy was considered controversial as it sought to change combine expand Brierley Hill’s town centre designated to include the neighbouring Merry Hill shopping centre – although little seems to have been achieved to date in achieving the vision of providing better links between the two centres.

 

DESIGN GUIDANCE

Well thought-out design guidance has a positive impact on the quality of development. When adopted as an SPD, it gives significant weight to the decision-making process and prompts positive outcomes for projects taken to appeal. A number of guides have been produced by in-house urban design teams, highlighting the importance and weight of local knowledge and accountability. The trend is towards increasingly concise guides supported by graphics, making them far more accessible and readable, and encouraging the general public to engage in the process and have a say in emerging developments, with consultation reinforcing the value and strength of the guidance.

The Exeter Residential Design Supplementary Planning Document (SPD), adopted in 2010 to promote high quality and locally distinctive development, was produced with the RSPB and Devon Wildlife Trust to incorporate biodiversity enhancement in external spaces, and has resulted in a majority of compliant developments, despite some challenges from uncooperative developers. Both the South Oxfordshire Design Guide (South Oxfordshire District Council, 2017) and Swindon Residential Design Guide (Swindon Borough Council, 2017) provide concise, visually attractive and innovative sets of principles and guidelines to ensure high quality design.

In-house urban design teams produce a number of documents, often with limited resources. These include ambitious plans for the regeneration of Stockton town centre, underpinned by the Town Centre Urban Design Guide (Stockton on Tees Borough Council, 2013), a catalyst for a £38m investment plan – although the document is no longer available on the council website. Mitcham’s Corner Development Framework (Cambridge City Council, 2019) aims to reaffirm the place of a mixed-use high street and provide better public spaces by removing the dominance of the gyratory system. The South Norfolk Place-Making Guide (2013) defines the special character of different parts of the district, promotes and secures high-quality design, and clarifies how the Council will assess planning applications. A truly innovative partnership emerged across the four Councils to achieve the Joint Approach to Residential Design Guidelines (Chesterfield Borough Council, Bolsover District Council, North East Derbyshire District Council and Bassetlaw District Council, 2014) SPD.

Brierley Hill Town Centre SPD (David Lock Associates, 2016) outlines how locally specific principles can be implemented. These are intended as a flexible framework for what should happen, encouraging perimeter block development that reinstates street frontages and respects the best of the past, although the document is very wordy and not really for the general public. Sharing Bolsover (Bolsover District Council, 2018) is a regeneration framework for Shirecliffe, Clowne, Bolsover and South Normanton to enhance connectivity between the four towns with the Spaceshaper process event, drawing together stakeholders from all sectors including community groups.

 

LESSONS LEARNT

The 88 entries can proudly claim to represent best urban design practice, and are great models for the promotion of high quality urban design. A number of key lessons can be learnt from them.

One recurring theme has been award entry projects that have engaged meaningfully with local communities and undertaken in-depth stakeholders engagement, and where the quality of outcomes is clearly proven. More recent trends have been co-design.

Many engagement events have been directly managed and organised by the project design teams, which can be challenging and difficult, but have yielded proven results. Establishing close working relationships is often a major issue, but is worth it: good design guidance that is developed collaboratively can be more easily implemented by investors and developers. As the role of design codes become increasingly important in the emerging planning system, getting this right from the start will be even more critical to securing quality places.

Another major theme is the focus on people and pedestrians, with shared surfaces a common component, but very often schemes take something away from car-dominant environments and give back to people – a trend that is rapidly appearing across the world in our Covid-proof environment – at least in temporary measures, but hopefully here to stay. These schemes focus on creating pleasant places to live, work in, visit, and enjoy quality urban environments. Interestingly, water is a frequent feature – as we regenerate our cities in post-industrial places, they increasingly reuse their setting overlooking rivers, canals, lakes and basins.

There has also been a shift in urban design presentation towards simpler graphics with attractive colours to convey the message clearly, reducing the volumes of text and making the overall message easier to grasp.

Despite London’s often dominant position in the awards, there has often been good distribution of projects across the country and even further afield. Its dominance may simply be a reflection of London as a centre of creativity in which urban design is a central focus. As a World City and a constantly changing place, it is inevitable that so much is invested in London. But it is certain that the GLA as the regional authority for London has had a positive effect on ensuring quality in the capital.

The Urban Design Group’s request to submit a video in support of the awards ceremony has also created a fantastic tool for discovering projects on YouTube and is a great marketing tool for the projects themselves. In the world of Tik Tok, Instagram Stories and Facebook Live, video is definitely here to stay. It is an increasingly accessible and important tool in the urban designer’s toolbox for illustrating the best of the best.