At the root of building accessible, enjoyable, and democratic cities is planning for places that support us in our development from childhood to adulthood. Eliminating the crisis of childhood obesity is a cornerstone of this work.
Articles
ideasSPACE
Places shape our behaviour, and behaviour over time is culture. Art and culture is what defines places, defines societies and what makes us human. How do we embed a wry smile in urban design, and how can we drop some optimism bombs to spread some joy and laugher? Because after this year we sure need it.
ideasSPACE
Urban design is as much the design of places as it is working with human behaviour - so why don’t we consider psychology alongside architecture, engineering, and urban design? We say we need to, let’s find out how.
UDG Event Review
Design Codes are a key component of the planning system proposed in the White Paper and argues that development that conforms to code will fast track through the planning process...
UDG Event Review
The Government’s Planning White Paper on the future of planning Delivering Quality Towns and Cities has provoked numerous reactions, both positive and negative.
Climate Change Global Digest
The implications of the current pandemic on the climate crisis continue to dominate debate and research, in particular, the degree to which the pandemic might allow more significant gains to be made with respect to climate change mitigation and adaptation. This article highlights some of the most interesting early findings and the projects leading the way.
My Favourite Plan
Lucio Costa’s 1957 master plan for Brasilia, the new capital of Brazil.
Endpiece
As many others have observed, even the appalling event of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed over 40,000 people in the UK and inflicted huge damage on the economy, has brought about some beneficial consequences. With a big reduction in vehicular traffic, towns and cities are quieter, birdsong can be heard, and the air is cleaner. While other retail businesses are suffering, bike shops have never been busier.
UDG Event Review
More design goes into a pizza than a local plan? Nearly 200 people from engineering through to planning attended this event, the first of four lunchtime events addressing the Planning White Paper.
UDG Event Review
The COVID-19 pandemic has had all kinds of effects and one of them has been for the Academy of Urbanism (AoU) and the Urban Design Group to collaborate in a seminal event.
ideasSPACE
Change in any form requires political bravery. And shaping our cities as healthy and democratic places is no exception. Birmingham has been on an extraordinary journey - a place where car was king to a city that is set to become net zero carbon by 2030.
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. 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.
UDG Event Review
During the lockdown and social distancing, the Urban Design Group (UDG) has not stood still.
Climate Change Global Digest
The Coronavirus has had big effects on movement and lifestyles, and therefore on our energy consumption and carbon emissions. There has been a lot of coverage of air pollution drops across countries during the pandemic. Here we provide some useful links on this topic as well as other aspects, highlighting the opportunities for urban designers to help take the good from this crisis.
Endpiece
At last year’s UDG annual conference I ran a quiz on Great Streets, asking participants to identify pictures of European streets in Allan Jacobs’ book of the same name. I did consider putting in a rogue picture in order to confuse. The one I had in mind was High Street Deritend in Birmingham, which I rate as the most unpleasant street in the city centre. It is a mediaeval street, which originally connected the small town of Birmingham around the marketplace of the Bull Ring to the village of Deritend, on the other side of the river Rea.
The pandemic provides us with time to reflect on the kind of world we have been building. Do we continue to treat the planet and its resources as commodities to be traded for our own benefit or do we re-emerge after the crisis with a different set of priorities?
Covid 19 has changed the world in an unbelievably short period of time, and we will not be able to go back to our old ways anytime soon, or arguably ever. People will need to adapt to new ways of life for the foreseeable future, whilst our towns and cities will need to change to reflect new norms. With this, our streets offer an attractive and flexible solution to help us do so - protecting people from COVID19 and any future crisis we might face.
