Summary

Creating successful and sustainable places willdepend on a shift in attitudes, expectations andpractices about the design of cities, towns, villages and the countryside. We need:

Decision makers who understand the role of design in delivering sustainable development (page 9).

Developers, landowners, investors and public bodies who recognise the commercial and economic value of good design (page 18).

Effective collaboration between disciplines, professionals,local communities and others in the planning and urbandesign process (page 27).

Development plans with effective design policies, andurban design frameworks, development briefs and masterplans to provide planning and design guidance (page 34).

Developers submitting design statements with planningapplications that explain the design principles on whichthe development proposal is based (page 41).

A high level of awareness and urban design skills in localauthorities, including planners and councillors who arecommitted to raising design standards and understandthe impact of their decisions (page 47).

A stronger design element in built environmentprofessional education (page 48).

Better design education in continuous professional development programmes (page 49).

Greater commitment to higher standards of design among public bodies (page 49).

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designing

city town

A Policy Statement for Scotland

urban design the collaborative process of shaping thesetting for life in cities, towns, villages and rural areas

village rural

Making it work together

places

Contents

Introduction

Social, economic and environmental goals

Scotland’s urban and rural traditions

The qualities of successful places

Design in the landscape

Forgotten places

The fourth dimension

The value of good design

The price of poor design

Setting a framework for design

Collaboration

Opportunities for achieving urban design qualities

Planning for good design

The development plan

Planning and design guidance

Using the toolkit

Development control

Design skills

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

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confident,competitive compassionate Scotland

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© Crown Copyright 2001ISBN: 0 7559 0037 5

Foreword

NPPG1 (Revised 2000) The PlanningSystem emphasises the importance of design considerations in reachingplanning decisions. We have publishedPlanning Advice Notes on subjects suchas the Siting and Design of Housing inthe Countryside, Small Towns and TownCentre Improvement. But what we didnot have until now was a generalstatement setting out the Executive’saspirations for design and the role ofthe planning system in delivering these.

This document fills that gap. It waswritten by Robert Cowan, an urbandesigner and author. A Steering Groupincluding Scottish Executive officials andoutside interests steered the work.Represented on the Group were theUrban Design Alliance (which embracesthe Royal Town Planning Institute inScotland, the Royal Institution ofChartered Surveyors in Scotland andthe Royal Incorporation of Architects in

Scotland), planning and architectureschools, local authority officials,architects, landscape architects andtransport planners. The aim of thedocument is to demystify urban designand to demonstrate how the value of design can contribute to the quality of our lives. Good design is an integralpart of a confident, competitive andcompassionate Scotland.

This statement sits alongside the policy on architecture, which waslaunched in October 2001, and it is a material consideration in decisions in planning applications and appeals. It will also provide the basis for a seriesof Planning Advice Notes dealing withmore detailed aspects of design.

Together I hope that thesewill provide the foundations fortomorrow’s conservation areas.

Lewis Macdonald, MSPDeputy Minister for Transport and Planning

The Point Conference Centre, Edinburgh

In November 2000 my predecessor asPlanning Minister, Sam Galbraith, asked the question “Where are the conservationareas of tomorrow?” There are no singleor simple solutions to raising the standardof development in urban and ruralScotland – but we have to make a start.

firstThe first policy statement on designing places in Scotland

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This, the first policy statement on designing places in Scotland, marks the Scottish Executive’sdetermination to raise standards of urban and rural development.

Introduction

Designing Places sets out the policy context for important areas ofplanning policy, design guidance, professional practice, and educationand training. It is aimed at everyone who plays a part in shaping the builtenvironment, whether as politicians, developers, planners, designers,opinion-formers or anyone else whose attitudes have a direct or indirectinfluence on what gets built. The statement’s themes will be developedin further documents with more detailed operational guidance.

city town

village rural

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1: Science Centre, Glasgow 2: Scottish Parliament Development Site, Edinburgh

Good design has always been valuedby those who appreciate architecture.Today its value is recognised also as a practical means of achieving a widerange of social, economic andenvironmental goals, making places that will be successful and sustainable.

At one end of the scale, sensitive sitingand design of single houses in thecountryside can help support andrevitalise rural communities withoutundermining the area’s distinctivequalities. At the other end, Scotland’scities challenge us to find forms ofsustainable development that will renew urban life.

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Social, economic and environmental goals

Every day countless decisions are madethat have the potential to make a pieceof a city, town or village a little morelively, welcoming and pleasant, or a littlemore hostile, unpleasant or unsafe; orto enhance or erode the character ofsome corner of rural Scotland. Theseare design decisions, even though theymay well not be taken by designers.

The real trail of responsibility may leadback to people who write policy, setstandards, draft briefs, selectconsultants, issue design guidance and decide whether to give a proposalplanning permission. Alternatively thetrail may begin with a developer or clientwho places little value on good design.

The design of places plays a large partin determining what impact we have onthe land and other scarce resources.Decisions about design determine howmuch energy we will use, how efficienttransport systems will be, and whatpeople and economic activities willflourish in a particular place.

In recent years we have learned a greatdeal, often through painful experience,about design principles and how toapply them. Opportunities for design tomake successful places are taken, ormissed, every day.

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opportunitiesfor design to make successful places are taken, or missed, every day

town village

1: Gaelic College, Skye, Highland 2: Festival Square, Edinburgh

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Scotland’s enormously rich tradition of urban design goes back to themedieval period, for example at St Andrews. Many of Scotland’s smaller towns and villages were built as new towns or extended in plannedsettlements. Landowners created many planned rural settlements in adrive for improvement. The New Townof Edinburgh is probably Europe’s bestexample of neoclassical town planning.Scotland’s tenement tradition is provingunexpectedly robust and today’sdesigners are finding new ways ofinterpreting it. The best of thesepatterns of development are seen today as models of successful design for the 21st century.

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Scotland’s urban and rural traditions

rural city

In the development of 20th centurytown and regional planning, no one was more influential than PatrickGeddes. Scotland pioneered regionalplanning with the 1946 Clyde Valleyplan, setting out a new strategy fortackling the appalling legacy of Victorianslums. The programme of new townswas one result.

Scotland’s confidence in making its urban future has been shaken, as elsewhere, by instances where some of the hopes of 20th centuryplanning and architecture turned out to have been misplaced. We havelearned by bitter experience the financial and human cost of buildingagainst the grain of the naturallandscape and the patterns of human life.

After three difficult decades, we arebecoming more confident that weunderstand what makes successfulplaces. The conservation of historicbuildings was the starting point. It isnow accepted that the best of what has been handed down to us should be protected. The rise of theconservation movement has involved arediscovery of what makes places work.

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1: St Andrew Square, Edinburgh2: Marchmont, Edinburgh3: Sundrum, South Ayrshire

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The most successful places, the ones that flourish socially andeconomically, tend to have certain qualities in common. First, they have a distinct identity. Second, their spaces are safe and pleasant.Third, they are easy to move around, especially on foot. Fourth, visitorsfeel a sense of welcome.

Places that have been successful for a long time, or that are likely to continue to be successful, may well have another quality, which may not be immediately apparent – they adapt easily to changingcircumstances. Finally, places that are successful in the long term, and which contribute to the wider quality of life, will prove to makegood use of scarce resources. They are sustainable.

Sustainability – the measure of the likely impact of development on the social, economic and environmental conditions of people in thefuture and in other places – must run as a common thread through all our thinking about design. Thinking about sustainability focuses in particular on promoting greener lifestyles, energy efficiency, mixeduses, biodiversity, transport and water quality.

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The qualities of successful places

town village

1 & 2: Edinburgh Park, Edinburgh

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sustainabilityThe measure of the likely impact of development on the social, economic and environmental conditions of people in the future and in other places

Those six qualities – identity, safe andpleasant spaces, ease of movement, a sense of welcome, adaptability andgood use of resources – are at the heart of good design for urban and rural development.

There is one other quality that manysuccessful places have. Beauty, like the other six, should also be one of the objectives of urban design. It is less easy to plan for directly, but wemay not need to. In a place that has the six qualities, beauty may well be the natural product of the patterns of human life and the skills of talented designers.

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city town

Throughout Scotland there are beautifulcities, towns and villages that werecreated with the help of civic leaderswith vision, landowners with a stake in the long term future, and developers,architects and designers of talent andgenius. Today their legacy is beingeroded and too little of value is being put in their place.

Circumstances are more difficult than ever.Globalisation stamps its undifferentiatedimage on the world. Traditional townbased industries have largelydisappeared as technology increasinglyfrees us from ties of place. The individualfreedoms of the private car have notbeen won without a cost to the qualityof the places where we live.

What we build can be important to oursense of identity at all scales, from localto regional and national. In the words ofthe Scottish Executive’s frameworkdocument on The Development of aPolicy on Architecture for Scotland: ‘The architecture and buildings of ourtowns, cities and rural settlements are a repository of our common culture andheritage, they provide continuity and aunique sense of history and tradition…The challenge for our architecture todayis to fuse what is still vital in localtradition with the best in our increasinglyglobal civilisation, to marry them in newways that meet our modern needs andaspirations.’

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1: City Centre, Dundee2: Inveraray, Argyll and Bute3: Irvine, North Ayrshire4: Scottish Executive Architectural Policy Documents

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Much successful development is rooted in the landscape: in theshape of the land, its materials, its character, its appearance andits ecologies. All these are the result of natural and culturalprocesses. Traditionally the landscape and the materials that canbe won from it have shaped the patterns of building, helping tomake places locally or regionally distinctive.

Design in the landscape

1: Isle of Barra, Western Isles2: Ben Nevis, Highland3: Peebles, Scottish Borders4: Townscape, Edinburgh

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Development designed to make themost of its setting in the landscape islikely to avoid today’s common failing of looking and feeling as though it could be anywhere. Understandingthe landscape is the basis for knowingsuch essentials as what plant specieswill flourish, how drainage systems canwork successfully and how buildingscan best be sited. Places that aredistinctive and designed with a realunderstanding of the natural world are likely to be enjoyed, cared for and valued.

Scotland’s well loved places show how the landscape can inspire in verydifferent ways in different settings: fromcities whose grandeur is enhanced bydramatic natural settings to the smallestvillage nestling in a hillside.

Landscape design can create places in harmony with natural processes ofchange. Landscape architects areparticularly conscious that design is a matter of directing a process ofcontinuous change and that successdepends on carefully managing whathas been created.

In the countryside, inappropriatedevelopments, however small, can havelarge impacts. Sensitive location anddesign is needed to avoid urban sprawl,ribbon development, new buildings onobtrusive sites, incongruous materialsand house styles more characteristic of suburban than rural areas. To protectthe countryside we need to findopportunities for infill development, forconverting and rehabilitating existingbuildings, and for planning buildings ingroups rather than on their own.

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The physical form of a development canenhance or detract from the qualities ofa place, and support or undermine theintended uses. In every part of a city,town or village where there is scope forchange – and that is almost everywhere– there will be a wealth of opportunitiesfor achieving good design.

Too often, though, the opportunities are wasted. Sometimes the necessaryframework of planning and design policyand guidance is missing. Sometimes thedesigner may not be up to the job. Too many buildings and spaces aredesigned by someone with no designtraining.

Often opportunities are wasted becauseno one had any expectation that herewas a place where any qualities mightbe achieved. It was written off as just a mass market housing development,an industrial estate, a leisure park, a corner of suburbia, a supermarket’sdelivery yard, a gyratory road round the shopping centre, or the scrubby bit of land where the town peters out.Significant parts of our cities, towns and villages consist of just those sortsof forgotten places.

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Forgotten places

rural city

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1: Dalry, Edinburgh2: Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire

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frameworkSometimes the necessary framework of planning and design policy and guidance is missing

Urban design is often said to be amatter of working in three dimensions,compared to the two dimensions ofland use or policy planning. In facturban design should be fourdimensional, the fourth dimension being time. Master plans generally showan end state, even when continuouschange is much more likely.

We need to design and plan in theexpectation that social, economic andtechnological conditions will change. A development brief, for example,should be a basis for dialogue between planners and developers rather than a prescriptive substitute for it. Arrangements for long termmanagement and maintenance is as important as the actual design.

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The fourth dimension

town

1: Culross, Fife2: Falkland, Fife3: Willowbrae, Edinburgh4: Central Edinburgh

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There should be scope for reviewingdevelopments to assess how well theplanning process worked. Councillorsshould visit representative examples sothat they understand the consequencesof the council’s policies and their owndecisions. Planning and designguidance should itself be reviewedperiodically to ensure that it remainseffective.

Much of what makes or mars cities,towns, villages and the countrysidedoes not just consist of buildings, but is the consequence of thecontinuous application of, for example,highway standards (specifying thedetails of road design, signage, safetymeasures and traffic calming) andplanning standards (specifying suchmatters as parking and the distancebetween buildings). Usually these areimposed for reasons far removed fromany considerations of design. Often,without anyone noticing, places areshaped by the innumerable decisionsthat together can create theoverwhelming impression that no one cares.

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village

managementArrangements for management, aftercare and maintenance may be as important as the actual design

A well thought out design process, for example, with urban designframeworks and development briefs, canprovide a clear basis for communicationand negotiation. Developers benefit from a good degree of certainty aboutwhat is expected, avoiding delay andsaving abortive work and unnecessaryexpense. The design process canresolve conflicts that might otherwiseemerge, messily and expensively, at a later stage.

Good design adds value to theinvestment that any developmentscheme represents.

Good design creates places that work.People will use and value such places,supporting regeneration and bringinglong term economic benefits. Welldesigned places attract customers and their workplaces keep their staff.

Good design can reduce the longterm costs of energy, maintenance,management and security.

Well designed places establish andmaintain a distinct identity, to the benefit of users and investors.

Well designed places are easy to get to and move around. The thought put into connecting them into theirsurroundings pays off.

Good design is a key to achievingsocial, economic and environmentalgoals of public policy, as laid down by central and local government. It can bridge the gap betweenaspirations and reality.

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The value of good design

Good design is a means of achievingaims and adding value:

1 & 2: George Street, Edinburgh3: Hunter Square, Edinburgh

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poorly designedOften development is poorly designed because those who commissioned or built it failed to see how design could serve their own best interests

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Ineptly designed development continuesto be built. Sometimes the reason isthat the costs of a poorly designeddevelopment falls on people other than those who commissioned,designed or built it.

The price of poor design is paid bypeople who find their familiar routesblocked, who walk in the shadows ofblank walls, whose choices are limitedby spaces that make them feel unsafeand unwelcome, and whose enjoymentof the countryside is spoiled. The priceis paid by people who find themselvesliving in newly built suburban housingwhose designers gave no thought to the quality and distinctiveness of the

place they were making. It is paid by people whose surroundings aredegraded by the consequences ofunsustainable building practices, and by those who will end up paying a building’s long term energy,maintenance and management costs. It is paid by those who live in a place whose decline has beenmade more painful by its buildings and spaces proving hard to adapt.

Often, though, development is poorly designed because those whocommissioned or built it failed to seehow design could serve their own bestinterests.

The price of poor design

1: Whitfield, Dundee2: Sighthill, Edinburgh3: Scottish Borders

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A framework for design can work at any scale – from a small building, atone end of the scale, to preparing an urban design framework or masterplan for an entire area, at the other. There are a number of distinctstages: 1. appraise the local context; 2. review whatever policy, guidanceand regulations apply; 3. conceive a vision for the place; 4. find out whatis likely to be feasible; 5. draw up a set of planning and design principles;and 6. agree on the development process.

Those six stages might be anything from the paragraph headings for asimple design statement to the chapter headings of a major planningand design guidance document. How fully the relevant questions will beanswered will depend on the scale and sensitivity of the site or area.

Setting a framework for design

visionA framework for design can work at any scale

1: Homes for the Future 1, Glasgow 2: Homes for the Future 2, Glasgow3: Back Wynd, Aberdeen

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1. Context appraisalWhat do we understand about the place and its setting?

Context appraisal is at the heart ofdesigning places. A successful balancebetween the inevitably conflictinginterests of various uses and users canbe achieved only through understandingthe place and its people. Local contextcan be appraised in terms of the sixdesign qualities – identity, safe andpleasant spaces, ease of movement, a sense of welcome, adaptability andgood use of resources.

2. Policy reviewWhat policies, guidance andregulations apply to this area or site?

The policy question cannot be ignored,if only because a development proposalcontrary to policy is likely to be refusedplanning permission. Exploring howpolicy can be interpreted in relation toa specific site or area should be acollaboration between applicants,planners and others, each of whomhave an interest in understanding eachother, reaching agreement, and avoidingunnecessarily entrenched attitudesand delay.

3. Vision statementWhat sort of place do we want this tobecome?

The vision question is too often ignored,sometimes because the designers arethinking about buildings rather thanplaces, sometimes because no one has thought that there is any alternativethan to respond blindly to the pressureof events.

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Design framework

4. Feasibility appraisalWhat use or uses are realistic andachievable in view of legal, economicand market conditions?

This question does not imply that themarket will support only more of thesame sort of development as has beenbuilt in the past. Good design shouldhave a positive effect on what ispossible to achieve.

5. Planning and design principlesOn what planning and designprinciples should development bebased?

Planning and design principles are ameans of thinking about and discussingthe basic ideas on which a design is orwill be based, without getting involvedunnecessarily in the detail of the design.

6. The development processWhat processes should be followed in developing the place?

The issues covered and the level of detail will depend on the particularkind of planning tool: for example,whether it is an initial development brief or a master plan. The processes of public participation and stakeholdercollaboration must be carefully planned.Other possible issues include sitedisposal, development phasing andmanagement.

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1: Buchanan Street, Glasgow

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The planning process will support good design only if the issues are made comprehensible to a range ofpeople with little or no design training.That includes many of the councillorsand council officers who operate theplanning system locally, the people they deal with, such as developers and their agents, people who make their living drawing plans, communityorganisations, interest groups and many more.

Planners and urban designers havedeveloped a specialised language fordiscussing their subject. They talk aboutnodes, permeability, imageability, naturalsurveillance and hierarchies of spaces.This language excludes many of thepeople who should be involved in theprocess of planning for design.

Local authorities, partnerships anddevelopers too often provide anopportunity for the public to becomeinvolved at too late a stage, in a waythat makes little sense in relation to thetiming and substance of thedevelopment process. The result is likelyto be unnecessary frustration and delayfor everyone.

The process of preparing planning and design guidance can provide an effective means of involving peopleearlier and in a meaningful way. A programme of public participation and collaboration needs to be carefullyplanned, ensuring that the timing is right and that the necessary skills and resources are made available.

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Collaboration

supportThe planning process will support good design

1: The Hays, Craigmillar, Edinburgh

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There is a potential for promoting good design every time anyone does anythingthat will, in some way, shape the physical form of development: setting a budget,laying down standards, writing a policy or a brief, drawing up a plan, instructing a designer or builder, or designing a building or a space. Appropriate physical form goes hand-in-hand with an appropriate use. In every local context the potential for good design will be different.

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Opportunities for achieving design quality

1: Coalhill, Leith, Edinburgh2: Spectrum Building, Glasgow

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Opportunities for creating a sense of identityDistinctive landscapes, natural features,buildings, streets, street patterns,spaces, skylines, building forms,practices and materials that shouldinspire patterns of new building.

Opportunities for creating safe and pleasant spacesPlaces where a street would be livelierand feel safer if a building had windows,doors or active uses on to the street,rather than presenting a blank façade;places where footpaths and openspaces would feel safer if buildingsoverlooked them; places with potentialfor living over shops to provide inhabitedrooms overlooking streets and toencourage evening activity; placeswhere the distinction between public or private space can be made clearer;places where a gap in an otherwisecontinuous line of building frontagesalong a street detracts from the street’squality, and could be either filled ormade into a usable, attractive space for pedestrians; and opportunitiesto create a sense of enclosure byenclosing streets, squares, parks andother spaces by buildings and or treesof a scale that feels right.

Opportunities for creating easier movementOpportunities to ensure that the densityof development is highest where accessto public transport is best; opportunitiesto site bus stops more conveniently and to make them safer and better lit;opportunities to make railway stationsaccessible by foot from all directions;roads or footpaths that need to bebetter connected into well used routes,so that the presence of more peoplemakes them feel safer; public spacesthat need to be better linked into a routethat is well used by people on foot;opportunities to encourage cycling; andplaces that pedestrians go to and fromwhich need to be connected by moredirect routes.

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Opportunities for creating a sense of welcomePlaces where new landmarks couldcreate or improve views and help people find their way around; placeswhere views need to be opened up;opportunities to mark places that act as gateways to particular areas; places where better lighting is needed to improve safety, help people find theirway around, highlight landmarks, show off attractive buildings or disguiseeyesores; opportunities for creatingdistinctive works or art and craft; andplaces where better signs are needed.

Opportunities for making a place adaptableOpportunities to ensure that newdevelopment or other improvementssupport a mix of compatible uses andtenures, helping to make the place onewhere people live, work and play, ratherthan having a single use and being deadafter hours; and opportunities to makebuildings and areas adaptable to avariety of future uses, by ensuring thatthey are not tightly designed to aparticular use.

Opportunities for making good use of resourcesOpportunities for new and existingbuildings to minimise their use of energythrough the way they face the sun, howthey are sheltered from the wind by theslope of the land, trees and otherbuildings, and how they are constructed;buildings, sites or areas that areunderused; building materials that areavailable from local and or sustainablesources; natural features that areimportant to conserve and emphasise;places where a park or green spaceneeds to be created or improved; andopportunities to improve habitats andsupport wildlife, attracting and protectingliving things.

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1: Irvine, North Ayrshire2: Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh3: City Centre, Dundee4: Falkland, Fife5: Grassmarket, Edinburgh6: Ecohouse, Ullapool, Highland

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

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

Making the most of the opportunities isnot a simple matter of checking them offa list, although that can be a good wayto start and a Placecheck is a usefulway of asking the first questions.

There are always conflicting interestsand limited resources. Liveliness andtranquillity, for example, can both bevalued qualities, but a choice may needto be made about which to aim for in aspecific place. Teenagers and elderlypeople are likely to have different viewson the matter. Successful design is amatter of balancing interests andopportunities in the way that is right forthe particular place.

What is a good solution for one personmay be less good for another. That iswhy the process of setting the contextfor design should be shaped by publicpriorities, and be open and democratic.At its best, the planning system canhelp to make this possible.

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Planning for good design

placecheck

1: Loudoun Hall, South Ayrshire

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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.com

A development plan sets out thepolicies and proposals against whichplanning applications will be assessed.The plan should be a powerful meansfor promoting development thatachieves the local council’s agreedobjectives and of preventingdevelopment likely to frustrate those objectives.

Some aspects of a plan may becontroversial. They will have implicationsfor how people live, how the localeconomy performs, how theenvironment changes, and how much land and property are worth.

In particular a plan must set out thecouncil’s policies on design and thephysical form of development. The planwill not go into great detail, but it shouldexplain how its priorities are distinctlydifferent from those of other places.Saying that the council is committed to good design, or that developmentshould respect its context, is notenough. Many local authorities have said just that for years, without significant results.

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The development plan

Development plans should contain a positive andsustainable vision of an area’s

based on a thorough understanding of how the area functions, thechallenges it is expected to face and community requirements

futurepriorities

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The plan must set out the council’sdistinctive vision for how its areawill develop. It should summarise its appraisals of the most importantfeatures of the area’s character andidentity.

The plan should also set out key design policies relating to issuesthat are particularly important locally,and to specific areas and sites wherechange is expected. It should explainhow the planning process should dealwith design, such as by specifyingwhere urban design frameworks areneeded and in what circumstances adevelopment brief should be prepared.

The plan should specify what degree of detail will be expected in planningand design guidance; in what degree of detail proposals should be presentedat different stages in the planningapplication process; and in whatcircumstances planning applicationdesign statements will be needed, for example, in relation to particulartypes of development of more than a specified size. It should also specifywhich areas or sites need guidance with the status of supplementaryplanning guidance and how guidance should be prepared.

An effective plan will set out conciselythe local authority’s priorities in relationto design, leaving the detail to beprovided in guidance documents.

development

The aim is to provide a land use framework within which

can take place with confidence

investment&

An important function of the plan is to provide the basis for more detailedguidance on how its policies should be implemented in specific areas andsites. Unless the plan is supported by well conceived supplementary planningguidance (SPG), it is likely to have little effect on what is actually built.

SPG is additional advice provided by the local authority on a particular topic,explaining policies in a development plan. SPG includes urban designframeworks, development briefs, master plans and design guides. It must beconsistent with the plan, prepared in consultation with the public and formallyapproved by the council. SPG status gives guidance considerable weight as a material consideration in the planning process.

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Planning and design guidance

Such guidance can be prepared by localauthorities, landowners, developers,regeneration partnerships, developmentagencies, and business and communityorganisations, individually or jointly. Its clarity should benefit all of them. The best guidance will involve allrelevant parties, whoever is formallyresponsible for it.

The choice of the appropriate type of guidance will depend on its purpose;on the stage of the planning anddevelopment process in relation tothat particular site or area; and on the resources and skills available forpreparing it. Those criteria will helpdetermine who will prepare theguidance; who else needs to beinvolved; by what processes it will be prepared; and what formal status it will have.

The best of Scotland’s tradition ofmaking successful places was the result of a variety of designers orbuilders working with a degree offreedom within a framework of rules.These rules governed such matters asthe layout of an area, the size of plots,the height of buildings, buildingmaterials and the line of buildingfrontages. Sometimes the controls wereset out by a landowner wanting toensure that the value of the estate wasnot compromised by messy, thoughtlessor substandard development. In othercases they were embodied in municipalbuilding regulations motivated byrequirements of public health, byarchitectural vision and by civic pride.

Those traditional controls may no longeroperate, having been replaced by theplanning system. Their legacy, however,convinces us that shaping the setting for life in cities, towns and villages in the modern age depends on us devisingframeworks of our own. A range ofpossibilities exists. We must tailor themto whatever is appropriate in thecircumstances and at the particularstage in the design, planning anddevelopment process.

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Among the most effective tools forplanning and urban design guidance are urban design frameworks (for areasof change), development briefs (forsignificant sites), master plans (for siteswhere a degree of certainty is possible),design guides (for sensitive areas or onspecific topics) and design codes(where a degree of prescription isappropriate). As people use a variety ofdifferent and inconsistent terms for suchdocuments, it is wise always to explainwhat is intended in a particular case.

Different types of guidance are oftenclosely linked. An urban designframework for an area may beelaborated by development briefs ormaster plans for several specific sites. A development brief may be expandedinto a master plan by an organisation,such as a developer or partnership,

that owns the site or controls thedevelopment process. A design code is likely to be part of, or associated with,a development brief or a master planwhich sets out the design principles that the code elaborates.

Urban design frameworksDetailed thinking about urban designbegins with areas where there is aparticular need to control, guide andpromote change. Documents calledurban design frameworks show howplanning and design policies shouldbe implemented, and what principlesshould be followed by developers and their designers.

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Using the toolkit

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Development briefs Guidance on how planning and design policies should be implementedon a specific site of significant size orsensitivity is set out in a developmentbrief (combining what used to bedescribed as design briefs and planningbriefs). Development briefs should bewidely used, with as much or little detailas is appropriate in view of the nature of the site and the likely uses. Everydevelopment brief will set out the mainplanning and design principles on whichdevelopment of the site will be based.In some cases it will be appropriate togo into more detail.

Master plansA master plan is a document thatusually comes later in the developmentprocess than either an urban designframework or development brief. A master plan explains how a site or a series of sites will be developed,describing and illustrating the proposedurban form in three dimensions. It should explain how that form willachieve the intended vision for theplace, describing how the proposal will be implemented, and setting out the costs, phasing and timing ofdevelopment. A master plan will usuallybe prepared by or on behalf of anorganisation that owns the site orcontrols the development process.

Design guidesA design guide provides guidance onhow development can be carried out in accordance with the developmentplan, or sometimes with the planningand design policies of some otherorganisation. A local authority designguide will often relate to a specific topicsuch as conservation areas, shopfrontsor house extensions.

master planMaster plan is the most commonly used

term for design and planning guidance.

Master plans can give coherence and a

strong sense of place to an unpromising

brownfield site

1: Granton, Edinburgh2: Granton Master Plan, Edinburgh

1

2

NPPG 1 (Revised 2000) makes it clear that design is a materialconsideration in determining planning applications. A council may refuse an application, and defend the refusal at appeal, solely on design grounds.

Planning authorities should provide guidance on the circumstances inwhich design statements must be submitted with planning applications.These will explain the design principles on which the developmentproposal is based, and how the proposal meets the requirements ofplanning policy and guidance.

A landowner or developer intending to apply for planning permissionmay also submit a design statement to the council at an earlier stage inthe planning process. This gives the council a chance to respond to thedesign principles, and either endorse them (giving the developer theassurance that those principles will not be rejected when the planningapplication is finally submitted) or reject them (saving the developer thetime and cost of abortive design work).

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Development control

designDesign is a material consideration indetermining planning applications

village city

1 & 2: Graham Square, Glasgow

1

2

In the development control process a local authority decides, on aconsistent basis, whether and with whatconditions, a proposal for developmentshould be granted planning permission.Development control is a key to acouncil’s ability to guide and control the quality of what gets built.

Too often planning is reactive andnegative, merely telling prospectivedevelopers what they cannot do. It isaccused of imposing unnecessary costsand delays on applicants. At its best it is positive, taking the initiative in helpingdevelopers to draw up proposals thatwill meet the requirements of policy,respond to the local context and proveto be economically feasible. Developersunderstand that they must work withinthe constraints of public policy. Whatthey want is help in finding their waythrough the planning process. They are looking for as much certainty aspossible about what will be asked ofthem, as early as possible in the process.

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town

The best way of creating theseconditions is through a developmentplan with well conceived design policies,through supplementary planningguidance and through a developmentcontrol service run by people committedto good design.

Planning authorities have a key role to play in establishing standards andraising aspirations. They must haveaccess to the necessary skills of theurban designer, architect, landscapearchitect, conservation officer andengineer, all of whom can have a role in shaping development for the better.

External reviewStandards of design can be raised by providing opportunities fordevelopment proposals and designguidance to be discussed or assessedby people beyond the immediateplanning process. These may includemembers of the public, local amenity oraction groups, national amenity groupsand national review bodies. In particularlocal authorities should seek advice fromthe Royal Fine Arts Commission forScotland.

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standardsPlanning authorities have a key role to play in establishing standards and raising aspirations

rural city

village

1 & 2: Crichton, Dumfries and Galloway

1

2

Local design awardsLocal design awards for buildings and places can help to raise awareness and expectations.

Design competitionsA design competition can sometimes be a good way of finding the designeror the design for an important site.Competitions work well only if they are carefully conceived and managed. A competition is only as good as thebrief that competitors are given andcompetitors must know the exact terms on which they are competing.

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awards

city

Local design awards for buildings and places can help to raise awareness

1: Planning Design Awards 2000, Argyll and Bute2: Scottish Awards for Quality and Planning3: Poetry Library, Edinburgh4: Ramsay Gardens, Edinburgh

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4

skillsMore intensive effort needs to be made to raisestandards of urban design skills

Higher standards of design depend on the attitudes, knowledge and skills ofeveryone involved in the development process. The necessary knowledge and skillsinclude those associated with the built environment professions such as planning,architecture, landscape design, surveying and engineering. They also extend toproject management, community development, development finance, transportplanning and much more.

Preparing an urban design framework, a development brief or a master plan, is likelyto require creative collaboration from a wide range of people. These will includethose who interpret policy; assess the local economy and property market; appraisea site or area in terms of land use, ecology, landscape, ground conditions, socialfactors, history, archaeology, urban form and transport; manage and facilitate aparticipative process; draft and illustrate design principles; and programme thedevelopment process. Those who take the lead in this work should be those whoare skilled in promoting collaboration among professionals and everyone who has ahand in shaping our cities, towns and villages.

More intensive effort needs to be made to raise standards of urban design skills.

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Design skills

towncity village

1: Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh

1

Professional trainingThere is scope for the quality ofgeneralist and specialist professionaltraining to be improved. Planners,architects, landscape architects,engineers and surveyors should beencouraged to study urban design atpostgraduate level. Some will becomeprofessional urban designers. Others willgain a new perspective on how topractise their own specialisms.

Future generations of built environmentprofessionals will need different ways ofworking to those of the past. They musthave a deep understanding of howtowns and cities work and how urbandesign can cope with complexity.Working collaboratively must becomesecond nature to them. Some of themwill come from other backgrounds andilluminate the subject with their owndistinctive outlook and experience.

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It is essential that urban design isincluded in the education and trainingcurriculum for all the built environmentprofessions. Continuous professionaldevelopment should introduce a widerange of professionals to the essentialsof urban design and should provideothers with a high level of skills.Awareness raising and skills trainingshould not be confused – a one daycourse cannot make a planner, anengineer or an architect into an urbandesigner.

Improving skills and raising awarenessof the value of good design is asimportant in the private sector as it is in the public sector.

Local authoritiesLocal authority officers need to becomemore skilled and more aware of howdesign can help fulfil their corporateaims. A number of councils alreadysupport their staff in taking designcourses. Every planning authority needs, ideally, to have an urban designteam with a range of skills, includinglandscape architecture. At the least, it should have one member of staff with an urban design qualification orskills. Training should also be provided for councillors to help them becomeaware of the importance of design and the impact of their decisions.

Public bodiesEvery public body commissioning a new development or otherwiseinfluencing the design of places will be expected to demonstrate how it has raised standards. It should alsoconsider nominating a design champion to focus these efforts.

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trainingIt is essential that urban design is included in the education andtraining curriculum for all the built environment professions

1: Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow

1

We need to see a different worldemerging, one in which: a sense ofquality design is part of children’seducation; professionals are trained to appreciate the complexity of places;the planning system is used creatively to set frameworks for development;developers know that the effort they put into coming up with a good design

will be appreciated; and where bad design is no longer acceptable.

This policy statement has outlined a shift in attitudes, expectations andpractices that is already under way.Everyone involved in development can play a part in designing places.

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Much development results in placesof which no one can be proud.

Conclusion

good designwill be appreciated

1: New Parliament Building VisitorCentre, Edinburgh

1

Acknowledgements

• Argyll and Bute Council• Benjamin Tindall Architects• Crichton Development Company Ltd• Gaia Architects• Gillespies• Gordon Murray and Alan Dunlop Architects• Highland Council• Keith Hunter Photography• Llewelyn-Davies• New Parliament Building Visitor Centre, Edinburgh• Reiach and Hall Chartered Architects• RMJM Scotland Ltd• Stirling Council