Designing the Urban Renaissance

Francesco Vescovi

Designing the Urban Renaissance

Sustainable and Competitive Place Making in England

Francesco Vescovi Dipartimento di Progettazione

dell’Architettura Politecnico di Milano Milano, Italy

This Work was fi rst published in 2011 by Maggioli Editore with the following title: Il rinascimento urbano in Inghilterra - Lezioni di strategia progettuale tra sostenibilità e sviluppo economico.

ISBN 978-94-007-5630-4 ISBN 978-94-007-5631-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-5631-1 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012955029

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, speci fi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on micro fi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied speci fi cally for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a speci fi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.

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ai miei tre angeli

vii

Acknowledgements

In writing the present research, I have run into a lot of debts with many people, as usual.

Thanks go to Professor Corinna Morandi from Polytechnic of Milan, who gave me the opportunity, as an Erasmus student, to approach and appreciate the English planning system and also understand the fascinating usefulness of comparative planning practices.

Although he has never been directly involved in this work, Professor Giancarlo Consonni from Polytechnic of Milan is creditor, in different ways, to the best ideas that I could express, and for that I thank him very much.

My gratitude goes to all my family, of course, that helped me and sustained me with the typical unusual patience during the long period of preparation.

A very special thanks for their invaluable help in translating the original Italian text goes to Alessia Amoni and especially to Brian Ashby ( www.fuzzymemes.com ).

Thanks also to Dr. Elodie J. Tronche from Springer Science + Business Media B.V. for her very kind advice and constant help.

My gratitude for the incredible and useful tools that have made available free to users of the Internet also goes to Google Maps, Flickr, Yell.com, Microsoft Bing, Wikipedia and all those organisations who have made public access to the vast documentation which I could use: a very valuable aid for anyone involved in this discipline.

Many thanks also to all the very kind photographers from Flickr, who gave permission to publish their photos, making this book a sort of collective work: Stuart Reeves, Patrick Linsley, Dave Riseborough, Ken Hawley, Martin Pearce, Sophie Penney, Ben Abel, Clifford Stead, Jim Brodie, Michael Perregaard, John Lord (yellow book ltd.), David Merrett, David Jones, Elliot Brown, Gene Hunt, Glen Bowman, Luke Butcher, Marilyn Peddle, Matt Buck, James Lumb, Richard Holden, Sean Robertson, Tony Hisgett, Craig Spivey and Campbell Mitchell.

Finally, I would like to thank the following people (for reasons of space I must unfortunately omit their position and title) and the organisations or fi rms they represent who contributed to varying extents to my work, mostly consenting to the publication of images:

viii Acknowledgements

Paula Aucott (Great Britain Historical GIS Project Team, University of Portsmouth); Tamara Goodwin (CABE); Catherine Tranmer (Information for the Built Environment); Susie Bell (Barratt Homes); Sarah Goodrum (Leeds City Council); Clare Milcoy (Panter Hudspith Architects); Alice Jenkins (University of York); Daniel Hartley (Shef fi eld City Council); Kay Brown (Southampton City Council); Paul Shirley Smith (Camlins); Colin Smith (Birmingham City Council); Eunice Kirk (Nottingham City Council); Manuel (AZPA); Joe Berridge (Urban Strategies Inc.); Brendan Moffett (Creative Shef fi eld); Tony ( www.exhulme.co.uk ); Kath Lawless (Newcastle City Council); Anthony Brand (HCA); Ema Melanaphy (Manchester City Council); Jeni Quirke (NEM Ltd); Sanna Fisher-Payne (BDP); Jenny Sturt (House of Commons); Matilda Crisp (Tovatt Architects & Planners AB); Phil Bonds (BroadwayMalyan); Machteld Schoep (Mecanoo Architecten); Matthew Heller (Jerde Partnership); Elena Rustici (Temple Bar Cultural Trust); Jenny Douglas and Rosemary Kent (Liverpool Vision); Michael Wilberforce (Bristol City Council); Juliet Leng (Gillespies Llp); Carol Ramm (Morston Assets); Lucy Whitworth (LSI Architects); Joe D. Miles (ImageCapture); Robert Fiehn (Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners); Sarah Carter and Jim Wensley (Salford City Council); Jonathan Ellis (Urban Vision); Jolene Libretto, Ellie Moser, Stella Bland and Daniel Elsea (Aecom); Vicki McGrath M (Glenn Howells Architects Ltd); Andy Avery (MBLA Architects + Urbanists); Sarah Noble (Rivington Street Studio); Louise McKenzie (York St. John University); Pauline Williams (Studio Egret West); Emily Crompton (Urbed); Stephen MacKenna (Mott MacDonald); Gemma Harris (Whitehill & Bordon Eco-town team); Phil Smith (Swindon City Council).

I apologize to readers for any omissions or inaccuracies in the text, which I am ready to correct once reported. I am also at disposal of anyone – institutions, municipalities, companies, design studios and photographers – who has been possibly subject to some error or misunderstanding, in particular with respect to the copyright of the images used.

This book is a tribute to all those who in recent years have contributed through their efforts to the exemplary work of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, making it one of the major international references in the fi eld of urban design.

ix

Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................... xv

1 The Recent Reform of the English Planning System ............................ 1 1.1 The Planning System up to 2004 ....................................................... 1 1.2 New Issues and Tools Introduced by the Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 ............................................. 5 References .................................................................................................. 10

2 New Strategic Drivers for the Regeneration of Cities........................... 13 2.1 The Evolution of the National Legislation: Sustainability and Competitiveness in Urban Planning............................................ 13 2.2 The Proactive Approach: CABE, Training, Government Publications .................................................................. 20 2.3 Administrative Tools for Controlling the Quality of Urban Design ................................................................................ 29 References .................................................................................................. 41

3 Stakeholders, Programmes and Strategies ............................................ 43 3.1 English Partnerships, the Homes and Communities Agency and the Housing Question .................................................... 43 3.2 The Urban Regeneration Companies and the Local Partnerships ................................................................. 55 3.3 Strategic Plans for the Urban Renaissance: Objectives and Constraints ................................................................ 60 References .................................................................................................. 70

4 Elements of Design Strategy ................................................................... 73 4.1 The ‘Quarterisation’ of the City ........................................................ 73 4.2 The Industrial Legacy: Urban Villages and Waterfronts ................... 83 4.3 The Knowledge Clusters ................................................................... 97 4.4 The Role of Housing: City Living, Communities and Places ........... 117

x Contents

4.5 New Characters of the Urban Fabric ................................................. 128 4.6 Urbanity of Places and Public Realm ................................................ 139 References .................................................................................................. 158

5 Conclusions: Short Notes on the English Lesson .................................. 163 References .................................................................................................. 167

Index ................................................................................................................ 169

xi

Abbreviations

AAP Area Action Plan ABEC Architecture and Built Environment Centre ABI Area Based Initiatives ACN Architecture Centre Network AMR Annual Monitoring Report ATLAS Advisory Team for Large Applications BID Business Improvement District BIS Department for Business, Innovation and Skills BREEAM Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method BURA British Urban Regeneration Association CABE Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment CDC Economic City Company CIHT Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation CIQ Creative Industries Quarter Shef fi eld CLG Department for Communities and Local Government CPO Compulsory Purchase Order CSR Comprehensive Spending Review DCMS Department for Culture, Media and Sport DEFRA Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs DETR Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions DfT Department for Transport DoE Department of Environment DPD Development Plan Documents DTLR Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions EDC Economic Development Company EMDA East Midlands Development Agency EP English Partnerships GLA Greater London Authority GO Government Of fi ce HCA Homes and Communities Agency HHSRS Housing Health and Safety Rating System

xii Abbreviations

HMR Housing Market Renewal HUV Holbeck Urban Village ICEC International Conference and Exhibition Centre Gateshead IMD Index of Multiple Deprivation LDD Local Development Documents LDF Local Development Framework LDS Local Development Scheme LEP Local Employment Partnership LNRS Local Neighbourhood Renewal Strategies LOTS Living Over The Shop LSOA Lower Layer Super Output Area LSP Local Strategic Partnership LSVT Large Scale Voluntary Transfer LTP Local Transport Plan MMC Modern Methods of Construction MPG Mineral Policy Guidance notes NEM New East Manchester NIS National Indicator Set NRF Neighbourhood Renewal Fund NRPF National Retail Planning Forum NWDA Northwest Regional Development Agency ODPM Of fi ce of the Deputy Prime Minister PACA Public Art Commission Agency PFI Private Finance Initiative PPA Planning Performance Agreement PPG Planning Policy Guidance notes PPP Public Private Partnership PPS Planning Policy Statements PUSH Partnership for Urban South Hampshire RCTP Renaissance Towns and Cities Programme RDA Regional Development Agency RES Regional Economic Strategies RFAC Royal Fine Art Commission RIBA Royal Institute of British Architects RPG Regional Planning Guidance notes RSP Regional Skills Partnership RSS Regional Spatial Strategies RTPI Royal Town Planning Institute RTS Regional Transport Strategy RUDI Resource for Urban Design Information SCI Statement of Community Involvement SDS Spatial Development Strategy SEU Social Exclusion Unit SPD Supplementary Plan Documents SPG Supplementary Planning Guidance

xiiiAbbreviations

SRB Single Regeneration Budget SSP Subregional Strategic Partnership SUDS Sustainable Urban Drainage System TCM Town Centre Management TCPA Town and Country Planning Association THI Townscape Heritage Initiative TPP Transport Policies and Programmes UDC Urban Development Companies UDP Unitary Development Plan WRC Walsall Regeneration Company

xv

Introduction

A wind of change has been blowing through England and the whole United Kingdom for more than a decade, bringing radical reforms in architecture, urban design and planning. Several ministerial surveys and reports, especially the renowned 1999 extensive document published by the Urban Task Force, have underlined the fundamental and inescapable driving role of cities and metropolis for the economy and society in the post-Fordist era. The new challenges of inter-metropolitan competition caused by economic globalisation had by then begun to be considered by the English government from a sustainable development perspec-tive. The centrifugal trends of the sprawling neighbourhoods developed during the post-war period had been completely revised, together with that particular kind of suburban lifestyle – scattered, car-dependent and rather peripheral – that was both the cause and effect of those planning models. After experiencing a progressive physical and social decline caused by decades of uncontrollable sprawl, the English cities have been appointed again to preserve the local identities and spread wellbe-ing fairly among their citizens, becoming places with renovated vitality, attractive to workers, investors and tourists.

Even if many local and cultural characters are so speci fi c that they cannot be eas-ily translated into other contexts, the English example still remains a notable case study for several reasons.

First of all, competitiveness and (social and environmental) sustainability, which are the two main objectives of the new English urban renaissance, have also been put at the heart of the political agenda of the European Union. They are the key drivers of both the 2000 Lisbon Strategy to support the knowledge economy – a policy that has actually been scarcely implemented – and the 2007 Leipzig Charter to promote a sustainable urban development. These two topics have been engaged in England extensively by a large number of policies and initiatives delivered by an equally wide range of institutions.

Moreover, many European countries share the similarly neo-liberal approach that characterises the English urban regeneration policy. This sets a further methodological

xvi Introduction

benchmark especially for managing and coordinating both private and public sec-tors in contributing to the quality of life and of the built environment.

One of the strongest points of this country, in this as in other fi elds, is its ability to move promptly and rather clearly towards its goals, basing habitually its action on the results of experimentations derived from previous policies and academic research. Further studies are also frequently promoted by the govern-ment together with informative campaigns and pilot projects. Sometimes such a pragmatic attitude may produce too mechanistic or simplistic interventions. Even if sometimes it hinders the scope and rich potential of some policies, this defect can be probably considered, however, as a lesser evil which, while show-ing the limits of some approaches, often highlights also their more fruitful aspects.

The English case study is particularly notable also for the paradigmatic evolution of its urban policies. From the New Towns programme onwards, throughout the second half of the twentieth century, the English approach, besides showing an extraordinary organisational capability at all levels of government, has been tradi-tionally marked by the striking radicalism of some of the measures taken. The demolition works carried out in the historic centres of many cities to make way for highways and urban areas planned according to rigid zoning schemes, as well as the adoption, on a vast scale, of large complexes of system-built tower blocks and ‘streets in the sky’, are just some of the policies that have been implemented nation-ally during the 1960s and 1970s which, in full compliance with the functionalist and engineering orthodoxy of that time, have transformed profoundly – and very badly, according to the current opinion – the landscape and degree of urbanity of the English cities. Its outcome – considered today the heavy legacy of a short-sighted technical euphoria and thus rejected almost everywhere in England – allows us to measure, as if in a laboratory, all of the weaknesses and mistakes of this disastrous planning culture, whose unhappy principles unfortunately have not yet been eradi-cated from many political and academic contexts, especially in those countries where less effective or, quite seldom, more far-seeing planning and economic poli-cies have luckily avoided similar results. The scienti fi c and planning commitment to a radical improvement, as shown by the English authorities at each level, are impor-tant points of reference for those who consider following the same revolutionary path, especially when they can bene fi t, as in many European cities, from a far less affected urban condition.

There are currently many essays and publications relating to urban regeneration schemes undertaken by major British cities while many individual achievements and experiences have become by now notable examples or case studies. The present work, which focuses more broadly on the role and on the contribution of urban design in the processes taking place in the last two decades, seeks to differentiate itself from other monographic works on individual cities or on works relating to particular aspects of current policies and attempts to give an extensive overview of a situation that is usually described only partially and in a fragmented manner. It tries to highlight the complexity of the phenomenon and the mutual relationship of

xviiIntroduction

the different components that help to de fi ne it. 1 The recent work edited by John Punter (2010b) on this subject has been an especially valuable aid for a fi rst orienta-tion in the recent large developments that have occurred in the major cities of the United Kingdom.

The textbook, in an attempt to provide a suf fi ciently comprehensive but concise exposition of the English urban renaissance according to an extensive rather than a rigidly fi eld-speci fi c approach, has opted for a more descriptive than critical approach, drawing as soon as possible directly from the substantial documentation produced by the multiple agencies involved rather than from the rich analytical elaboration which has fl ourished in academia. Many of the questions and critical issues that emerge from the research of scholars have thus been omitted or only mentioned both because they threatened to complicate the discussion taking it away from its main informative purpose and because in many cases are so culturally speci fi c as to be of less interest than the exemplary nature of the central topic. An in-depth discussion and an exhaustive anthology of these issues can be found in the work of Phil Jones and James Evans (2009) and especially in the excellent textbook by Andrew Tallon (2010): all of them, however, treat this topic mainly from an urban policy perspective.

The focus of this work, as mentioned, has therefore been directed primarily to the processes and results of the physical transformations in progress or already car-ried out in England, paying particular attention to those management and design aspects having direct effects on the quality of places. For this reason, the description of the examples also makes use, where possible, of a quite rich iconography, look-ing in part to propose a sort of small urban design compendium.

The treatment consists of three main sections: the fi rst fi ve chapters describe the English planning system analysing its administrative structure and policies, empha-sising above all the instruments for controlling the quality of built environment, their purpose and how they are managed. Then follows a transitional middle section made up of three chapters, in which the framework is extended to illustrate ongoing regeneration projects, conducted in an integrated way, within the institutional frame-work and regulations previously described. The third section, quantitatively domi-nant, focuses on the architectural and urban design elements and the planning criteria adopted from different regeneration strategies. It illustrates both achieved and expected results and describes how they contribute to shape the new urban land-scape whose characters and recurrent themes are also investigated.

The different examples analysed by the book are drawn primarily from eight metropolitan English cities – the so-called Core Cities – several Urban Regeneration

1 The present research derives from the revision and especially the development of two previous articles: Vescovi F., «Nuove politiche residenziali inglesi: case, comunità, luoghi» in QA Quaderni del Dipartimento di Progettazione dell’Architettura del Politecnico di Milano , n. 24, giugno 2009: pp. 46–49; Vescovi F., «Il nuovo rinascimento urbano inglese: la qualità dell’urban design tra sostenibilità e sviluppo economico» in Complessità e sostenibilità: il territorio e l’architettura , n. 3–4, settembre-dicembre 2007 (CD ROM).

xviii Introduction

Companies, the Millennium Community pilot projects and some additional cases of particular interest, often derived from CABE’s case studies. Attention has been focused mainly on typical situations, easily documented, and those experiences which can be more easily replicated in other contexts. The particular case of London, on account of the history, size, issues and resources involved, often differs so much from the more usual regeneration processes of the other cities that it can rarely be considered as a generalisable or meaningful example and has therefore been almost completely omitted.