Ten years ago I wrote a piece about Digbeth for the March 2011 issue of Context, the journal of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. I had just moved my office from one listed building in the conservation area to another, the Custard Factory.
Articles
Climate Change Global Digest
This edition highlights work that will be emerging at COP26 in November, and new research and guidance.
UDG Event Review
This packed event was attended by urban designers from around the world.
ideasSPACE
Despite having one of the world’s most extensive cycling networks, car ownership in Copenhagen has increased by some 30% in the past 20 years. Should this trend be reversed? Join a journey through backcasting, prototyping and other city planning techniques to find out.
UDG Event Review
Run in partnership with London Living Streets and chaired by the UDG’s Katja Stille, this event explored walkability, from strategic planning to the nitty-gritty of design measures.
UDG Event Review
Concerns about the depletion of urban design skills in local authorities are not new. Chairing this well-attended online meeting, Laura Alvarez (Nottingham City Council) said the subject cropped up at almost every professional event.
UDG Event Review
In 2018 the Place Alliance, supported by funds from the UDG, conducted a survey of Design Skills in local authorities, finding a serious design skills shortage.
“Almost half of local planning authorities had no dedicated in-house design capacity at all.”
Behind the Image
A strip of land along the former Eastern Curve railway line was transformed into a much-needed public green open space for Dalston by local residents together with muf architect/art and J&L Gibbons Landscape.
Climate Change Global Digest
The Government has adopted the Climate Change Committee’s Sixth Carbon Budget in full. The Budget charts a course to net-zero emissions via a target in 2035 for reducing emissions by 80 per cent compared to 1990 levels. This decision will require significant follow-up changes in policies and guidance affecting the built environment.
My Favourite Plan
The County of London Plan 1943, coloured plate 1, Social and Functional Analysis
Endpiece
When I worked in Birmingham City Council’s Architect’s Department in 1969, much of the huge council housing production was being done in peripheral places not previously built upon.
ideasSPACE
Professor Nick Tyler is the Director of the UCL Centre for Transport Studies where he has established the Accessibility Research Group which aims to identify projects that make the world more sympathetic to people's needs through his work at the new UCL research facility, PEARL
UDG Event Review
More than 100 people joined this webinar on logistics; its objective was to explore the implications of accommodating contemporary logistics facilities in new design guidance.
UDG Event Review
Chaired by Scott Elliott Adams, three speakers from different backgrounds expressed their views on what makes the character and local distinctiveness of a place, to guide better design.
Climate Change Global Digest
This year will see a wealth of research and new ideas emerging, as we head towards the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow on 1–12 November 2021. In this article, we highlight the latest work of the UK’s Climate Change Committee and flag the opportunities to engage with research feeding into COP26.
Endpiece
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That wants it down.
Lines from Mending Wall by Robert Frost
My Favourite Plan
Isola Bella site plan by Georges Gromort, The Landscape of Man by Geoffrey and Susan Jellicoe
Behind the Image
The former Adnams brewery distribution depot in Southwold has been transformed by Ash Sakula Architects into a convivial, mixed use development traversed by intimate streets and a pocket space
UDG Event Review
Jointly hosted by the UDG and the Landscape Institute (London Branch) and chaired by Paul Reynolds, this event explored how to deal with the climate emergency by making schemes sustainable and resilient for the long term.
UDG Event Review
Chairing this event, Paul Reynolds asked the panellists ‘where will we be working?’ His introduction suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic will have lasting effects on the world of work. It will change how people work in homes, offices, factories, shops and distribution warehouses.
