Edited By Lorens Holm and Alona Martinez Perez
Preface This document is a report on the inaugural symposium of the Geddes
Institute Task Force on Cities & their Regions. The Task Force was
founded in April of this year. The Geddes Institute for Urban Research
[http://www.dundee.ac.uk/geddesinstitute/] was established by the
University of Dundee in 2006 to seek out or to create forums for
research into urbanism that bring together disciplines from across the
University with an interest in the rural and urban landscape. Past and
current projects involve coalitions of architects, fine artists and design,
and social scientists; the present project brings on board planners,
urban designers, and infrastructure engineers. In keeping with this
agenda, the Institute has three directors, drawn from Departments
of Town & Regional Planning, and Geography, and the School of
Architecture. We have also been charged with extending these links
outwith the University, and in particular to other universities, to local
authorities and professional bodies. We see ourselves as perpetuating the
programmes and agendas of Patrick Geddes, the polymathic biologist
and city planner, who taught at the University of Dundee in the early
years of the 20th Century.
In addition to this newly formed Task Force, the Geddes Institute has
organised interdisciplinary conferences, symposia, workshops, and
research projects at the University, during the past three years. Past and
current projects include:
Reflections on Creativity – international conference 2006
Exploring the Digital City: space culture politics - international symposium,
2006-07
Managing Metropolitan Regions: Geddes in the Digital Age – international
symposium, 2008
City Think Tank (CTT)- brown bag lunch research seminars. Ongoing
Landworkers Exhibition and Symposium. May 2009
Remixing the City: narratives of love and loathing - research grant
application. June 2009
There is a common thread in these initiates. There is a conviction that
our intellectual culture, our visual and verbal culture, and the culture
of everyday life is embedded in the land, inscribed on the surface of the
earth. Landworkers deals with land and the social forms of everyday
life; Remixing the City deals with the land as the primary archive of our
culture; the Task Force with the land and its sustainable development.

The Task Force on Cities & their Regions comprises participants from
universities across Scotland, and from Europe, including England,
Norway, and Spain. It comprises representatives from industry, the
professions and professional bodies, and local authorities in England
and Scotland, and from the Scottish Government. The inaugural
symposium took place Monday 06 April 2009 at the University
of Dundee, hosted by the School of Architecture, attended by 28
members [attendees list appendix 6], and included a programme of
national and international speakers [programme appendix 2] who
we invited because we felt that through their research work or their
experience in city design and planning, they would be able to shed
light on problems facing the development of Scotland today, and
develop strategies for dealing with them. The symposium was preceded
by a questionnaire (31 returns) distributed to all members which
asked: What are the issues and questions facing regional cities today?
and sought an answer under eight categories [appendix 3 ].
The symposium provided a broad base for discussion, appropriate for
a group with such a broad disciplinary base, and such varied areas of
expertise and action. The intention of the symposium was to develop
research and action strategies for dealing with questions relating to
the continued development of the built and unbuilt environment. Its
purpose was to agree a position paper – this document - addressing
the issues and problems facing Scottish cities, with a view to focusing
funded research in urbanism. Although our present focus is Scotland,
our resources (the Task Force) and frame of reference is global.
Scotland and its magnificent landscape in such close visual and
infrastructural proximity to its cities, presents incredible opportunities,
but they are by no means unique. The scope of our work will expand
outward as we develop – strategically and opportunistically – a
portfolio of funded research projects.
Given the length of this Report, we should point out that it is
primarily a record of the symposium, with critical commentary in
the following sections: Introduction, Summary of presentations
Questionnaire Summary, Conclusions, and Way Forward.
To our speakers, who worked hard to realise this document, let this
document thank you again, formally, for your generous and hard
labour. To our attendees on the day, let it welcome you.
Dr. Lorens Holm, Director Ms. Alona Martinez-Perez
Geddes Institute (Architecture) Researcher and Project Manager
Geddes Institute (Architecture)
and Regional Convenor
Urban Design Group Scotland
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction (Lorens Holm) 2
Cases studies
1. Urban Planning in Catalunya, by Ariadna Perich Capdeferro 4
2. Liverpool - designed to be different, by Rob Burns 7
3. The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment and Sustainable
Urbanism, by Lita Khazaka 9
4. Placeplanning: setting the gold standard for the planning and design
process, by Rob Cowan 13
5.  rban Design Policy-Strategies for success in Scotland, by Robert
U
Huxford 16
6.  earning from other examples: Bilbao, Sheffield, and Belfast,
L
by Alona Martinez-Perez 20

Summary of presentations (AMP) 25

Three questionnaires from overseas 26
Questionnaire selection (LH & AMP) 30
Questionnaire summary and discussion (LH) 34
Group workshop (AMP) 35
Conclusions (LH & AMP) 36
Way forward (LH) 39
Acknowledgements (LH & AMP) 42
Appendixes 43


Introduction Although we do not think of the
contemporary as archaeological, our
collective culture is inscribed in the surface
of the earth. If this seems to invoke the
tribal, the aerial, the chthonic; it is simply,
for a moment, to remind us of something
more primitive than us, that is always
with us even if never acknowledged.
Walter Benjamin said we receive the built
environment in a state of distraction. Most
of what motivates us is not present to us.
The surface of the earth is the repository
and archive of our collective culture. How
we build upon it invests the diffused field
with focal points of value, what in social
and psychoanalytic theory are called objects.
We mean this in the most literal most
prosaic way. This collective realm is as real
and tangible as tarmac. If we do not know
this surface and know what we are doing
to it, then we do not know ourselves. We
are still in search of a cartography adequate

to the task. This search led Geddes to
propose that as a matter of national policy,
every city should have a Cities Exhibition
as a permanent institution within its civic
centre, that explained to its inhabitants
about the place they lived and its relation to
the its region, its country, the world.
Our culture – by which we mean everything
held between us collectively, including our
knowledge, identities, and memories - is
inscribed in the land by stone walls, and
field furrows, disused quarries, streets and
lane markers, manhole covers, lamp posts,
post boxes, public toilets, bus shelters, bus
routes, taxi ranks, newspaper distribution
patterns, forgotten watercourses; the hidden
networks, tax districts, postcodes, postcode
lotteries, National Trust boundaries,…
landlines and satellite dishes, advertising
bill boards, graffiti, scuff and skid marks,
car parks, entries, decoys, detritus, steps,
terraces, office blocks, skylines and laylines,
views from hills, from bedrooms; light
falling across doorsills; shadow on footpaths,
streets that channel the prevailing winds
and the prevailing views..., ring tones, the
continually surprising contiguities of public
and private spaces.
Everything we do, from rearranging granny’s
geranium boxes to traffic engineering,
alters this surface. Every utterance, every
folk song, every novel, film, advertisement,
lifts this culture off the surface of the earth
and puts it in circulation. It is critical how
this archive is owned by title, regulated by
law, and how changes to it are imagined
by policy, shaped by design, and ghost-
written by financial practice. This raises
questions across a spectrum that includes
everything from how we represent the city
to ourselves and thereby capture it for our
collective consciousness, to how we regulate
it by planning policy and planning law, to
different specific strategies for occupying it
and building on it.
In choosing to name this group The Task
Force on Cities & their Regions, we insist
that although there are critical differences
between the urban and the rural, we
encompass both within our remit. This
is the remit of the Geddes Institute. Our
scope is the total landscape that has been
circumnavigated or bisected by human
beings and subjected to their livelihoods
and imaginations.
Scotland poses interesting questions. One
observation to emerge from the discussion
was that the whole of Scotland could be
imagined as a single small to mid-sized city
peopled by parklands and flows of resources
and people, and needs to be planned as such
[see the Barcelona example]. That Scotland
would become a single conurbation, or
at least that its two largest cities would,
was predicted by Patrick Geddes in 1912.
Glasgow and Edinburgh have been growing
together for more than a century, and the
word on the street is that developers are
quietly buying up areas of Perthshire in
anticipation that this urban corridor will
grow northeast into the scenic lowlands
and foothills. It may be that strategic
thinking needs to move beyond cities and
regions; something initiated by the recently
formed Strategic Development Planning
Authorities, and contemplates the six
cities and their regions as one network.
This is not to deny their similarities and
differences but to plan and design for us. Elsewhere he states that urban space is Architecture of the City was to
them comprehensively. All but Stirling are shaped by the flow of capital, a statement recuperate other forms of value
waterfronts. They are unique in that unlike impossible to make without the materialist for the city based on differences
bigger cities or cities in other countries, they critique of capitalism and psychoanalysis in topography, climate, history,
are in close proximity to their regions, and by Deleuze and Guattari, for whom social habit, dreams (a project shared
these regions are spectacularly beautiful. and urban formations are defined by the by the Prince’s Trust). When
Nowhere in a Scottish city are you out of flow of energy (psychical and physical and Rossi developed his theory of
sight of mountains, and the predominance financial). The power of the market is that types, he shifted the agenda
of outdoor recreation is immediately it is capable of commodifying anything and from form (he says type is not
apparent to incomers. is impervious to incredulity. Even things form) to meaning. For Rossi,
that we did not know were objects, can be the city is haunted by meaning
As Nick Barley points out in the
formed into objects and sold. Now you can embedded in its built forms and
introduction to Shifts, this proximity to
buy debt, which used to be regarded as less their relationships and functions,
beauty is an impetus for research into forms
than nothing. The solution to pollution by which are recovered the only way meaning
of development. Scotland is growing and
exhaust-producing industries is to create a is ever recovered, by a kind of linguistic
there is a problem about how to organise
carbon market and sell it. The market has exercise he calls analogic thinking, but to
this development. The picture postcard of
invaded areas usually regarded as resistant which we could add metaphor, metonymy,
the mountains is nothing like the view that
to it (including university research). All free association, mistakes. He looks at how
greets the commuter along the Glasgow-
homes are now second homes. Land is meaning coagulates around objects when
Edinburgh corridor. If this leftover nowhere
now simply an investment opportunity for we assign words to them; and how words
sub-urban car-park industro-scrubland
investors who have no interest in, let alone become tangible when assigned to objects.
is becoming the default condition, there
love of, the places they are making, than its He occupies the city by tarrying with the
is no reason to believe that the extension
investment value. The difference between labyrinthine structure of narrative, and
of this corridor into Stirling-Perth will be
the upland farm and the waterfront mill asks, not how much it is worth, but what
any different, unless the many and varied
is its return on investment. Against this it communicates.
conditions that shape the way we occupy
monoculture, Aldo Rossi’s project in the
the land are defined, examined, and
changed.
The question of development defines
opposite positions in architectural theories
of the city, between those that focus on the
flattening effects of the market, for which
there is only one value, the value of money;
and those that seek to resist the market and
create meaning by articulating differences.
According to Rem Koolhaas, industro-
scrubanity is intelligible: it is the market
forces made visible on the surface of the
earth and if we knew how to read it the way
the developer does, it would make sense to

Presentation of The Task Force meeting involved a series of
presentations with a group of International
cases studies speakers in Dundee on the 6 of April 2009.
The aim was to look at different approaches
and examples to urbanism in cities and
regions, and general policy. These have
developed into a series of cases studies listed
below. What we found interesting about all
these approaches is their variety in applying
successful solutions to specific problems
while dealing with cities and regions.
Ms. Ariadna Perich Capdeferro is a Lecturer in the Barcelona School of Architecture
(ETSAB) and Architect. She studied architecture and urbanism at the School of
Architecture of Barcelona and at Edinburgh College of Art.
Contact details: ariadnaperich@coac.net, ariadna.perich@upc.edu, www.etsab.upc.edu/

Case Study 1 – ‘Urban Planning in Catalunya’
The presentation intended to generate a
framework of understanding of the actual
urban and regional planning instruments
and policies in Catalunya. It is based
on the belief that there is an interesting
space for comparison between Scotland
and Catalunya beyond their differences.
This exercise should provoke a new way
of looking at both territorial realities and
potentialities.
First of all and to give a general overview,
it is necessary to enumerate the Catalan
administrative subdivisions, which
respond to historical and physical
boundaries. We have 946 Municipis
(Municipalities). They are the smallest
local governmental entity with urban
planning competences (*nearly 51% are
under 1000 inhabitants which means
councils without enough resources
to promote/execute their own urban
planning).
Presentation Summary
(written by Ariadna Perich Capdeferro)
Above that there are 41 Comarques
(groups of several Municipis) with political
administrations called Consells Comarcals.
Finally, there are 4 Provincies (groups
of Comarques) with 4 capitals (Girona,
Tarragona, Lleida and Barcelona) that will
disappear soon in front of the restoration
of 7 or 9 Vegueries (an historical
subdivision abolished in the past). These
new delimitated “regions” become the
government functional areas of planning
and they give a more accurate answer
to the diversity and functionality of the
territory as well as more power to promote
and develop their inner potentialities.
The Central government actual planning
policy is based on 3 main principles:
In front of the growing urban sprawl
dynamics: compacting. Instead of the
functional specializations, the trivialization
of the landscape and the degradation
of the public space: complexity. And
in front of the social segregation and
the generation of ghettos according to
their economical capacities: cohesion.
Catalunya then, is seen as a territory with
potentialities and challenges that need 1/a
new urbanization model, 2/an integrated
urban grid and 3/a definitive push in
urban/territorial planning.
Our instruments of planning are based on
a hierarchy of plans and maps documents
where each of them has to follow the ones
above in order to be approved. They go
from the large scale of the territory to
the small scale of local entities. They can
be divided in 3 main areas: 1.European
territorial strategies: promoted by the
UE. 2.Territorial planning: promoted,
executed and approved by the central
government. This is an important piece
of the territorial policy. The main figures
are the General Territorial Plan (all
Catalunya), the Partial Territorial Plans
(the areas of the 7 Vegueries) and the
Territorial and Urban Director Plans (the
areas are delimitated depending on the
subject, for example the 12 Urban Plans
for the Strategic Residential Areas, an
urgent law from 2007 that identifies the
need for social housing and promotes
93 new settlements around Catalunya
to generate 90,097 new flats with 50%
of social housing). 3.Urban planning:
promoted, executed and approved mainly
by local governments with some approvals
from the different governmental territory
urban commissions.
All of them are being developed under 15
criterions that the government formulated
on the basis of the ideological framework
of a 1983 law, and observation and
evaluation of what has happened in the
Catalan territory during the last decade.
These points of support are:
1.To help the diversity in the territory
and maintain the reference of its
biophysical matrix.
2. To protect the natural, agricultural
and non urban spaces as a components of
order for the territory.
3.Topreserve the landscape as a social
value and economical stimulation of the
territory.
4.Moderate the use of land.
5.To help the social cohesion of the
territory and prevent the spatial
segregation in urban areas.
6.To protect and promote the urban
heritage that vertebrates the territory.
7.To promote an efficient and integrated
residential policy.
8.To promote the coexistence of activities
and housing in urban areas and have a
rational implementation of industrial and
commercial areas.
9.To bring measures of regulation and
spatial orientation of second residences.
10.To ensure the compact and continuous were the increasing movement of people
character of the settlements.
Metropolitan region of Barcelona: Built areas at year 2000, the explosion of the
city
11.To reinforce the nodal structure of
urban growth within the territory.
12.Make mobility a right, not an
obligation.
13.To introduce public transport
within/between polarized and compact
settlements.
14.To have special care of the road system
that structures, at the territorial scale, the
systems of settlements.
15.To integrate Catalunya in the system of Territorial Plan of Catalunya (1995): The structure of the proposal
European urban grids and transport with
infrastructures according to the territorial
matrix.
One of the questions the “Territorial
Plan of Catalunya” diagnosed in 1995
was that Catalunya works as a functional
unit and the central region of Barcelona
becomes the place where the capitals
and centralities of the Catalan territory
converge. Other problematic issues found
from the rural areas towards cities (70%
of the population lives in towns of more
than 20,000 inhabitants),
the accumulation of them in
the Metropolitan Region of
Barcelona (two thirds of the
population, one of the biggest
Metropolitan Regions of Location plan of the Strategic Residential Areas (ARES): a
measure of urgency
Europe), and the high tendency
for sprawl in the territory,
sometimes in areas without
adequate public transport and
urban dimension.


“Annex Instrumental per a la redacció dels Plans Directors i les
Àrees Residencials Estratègiques”: a framework for the ARES design
approach

The Plan then, decided to promote a
territorial equilibrium in the distribution
of population and activities, based on the
idea of the grid (polinuclear reticular) or
nodal structure with several main centres,
medium centres, and others with a certain
minimum dimension, all connected as
much as possible, as well as concentrating
the urban growth, to promote the rational
use of the land. The document was not
very specific, but it started the territorial
discussion and established some urban
systems of proposal.
Seven areas of study were defined by the
PTGC as “Partial Territorial Plans”. Two
of them have been recently approved and
the rest, like the Metropolitan Region
of Barcelona are on the way. We could
understand them as the revision of the
General Plan that meant to be done after
10 years (2005). These plans don’t draw
lines of qualification or classification, even
though their level of definition is extremely
accurate and at large scale. They only give
determinations and propose: 1.System of
open spaces (levels of protection: special,
territorial, and preventive); 2.System of
infrastructure of mobility and transport
(roads, trains, airports, ports, and logistics);
3.System of settlements and development
strategies: high growth (double the
population), medium growth (<60% of
actual), moderate growth (<30% of actual),
strategies of improvement and completion
(regularization of perimeters) and strategies
of maintenance of the dispersed rural
character (growth forbidden).
At this point, it is worth mentioning that the plan of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona
has not been revised since 1976, which is a tremendous delay to territorial planning that
missed the latest explosion in growth and the current recession. As well, in 1987, the
Central government abolished an important organization called “Entitat Metropolitana
de Barcelona” (EMB), a socio-economical unity of 27 municipalities with important
economic resources and competences in
urban planning, regulated by the General
Metropolitan Plan (PGM-76) and
approved by the Comisión Provincial de
Urbanismo of Barcelona on 1976. This
organization was an example of regional
government with a capacity for execution
that has been missing since then. We can
not forget that the ones who execute the
plans are the local governments, and their
interests sometimes seem to be against a
bigger scale understanding. That is why,
to develop and promote entities like the
old EMB, with power to administrate at
this middle level of structure, is a more
certain way to accomplish the territorial
Map of the 7 Partial Territorial Plans of Catalunya: a work in
planning guides. progress
References
1. ÀREA METROPOLITANA DE BARCELONA=Mancomunitat de Municipis+Entitat del Medi Ambient –
EMSHTR+Entitat del Transport, http://www.amb.cat/web/directorio/inici
2. web DEPARTAMENT DE POLÍTICA TERRITORIAL I OBRES PÚBLIQUES (Generalitat de Catalunya –
www.gencat.cat), http://www10.gencat.net/ptop/AppJava/cat/
3. web INCASÒL (Institut Català del Sòl) – Sectors d’Activitat Econòmica – “Llibre d’estil”, http://www.incasol.info/sae/
4. web Sistematització de planejament urbanístic (DPTOP-Direcció General d’Urbanisme-COAC)
http://www.coac.net/Girona/urbanisme/sistematitzacio/
5. ANNEX INSTRUMENTAL per a la redacció dels Plans Directors i les Àrees Residencials Estratègiques (Jornet-Llop-
Pastor arquitectes, 30 d’abril de 2009)
6. Antonio Font Arellano, Sílvia Mas Artigas, Lorena Maristany Jackson, Josep Ma. Carreras Quilis i Jordi Valls Alseda.
(2005). TRANSFORMACIONS URBANITZADORES 1977-2000- ÀREA METROPOLITANA I REGIÓ URBANA
DE BARCELONA. Barcelona: Mancomunitat de Municipis de l’Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona. 164 p. ISBN: 84-
930080-8-7
7. Escola Sert (Col.legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya) PROGRAMA D’INTENSIFICACIÓ EN LA PRÀCTICA DEL
PLANEJAMENT URBANÍSTIC – documentos del curso, http://escolasert.coac.net/campus/
 Case Study 2 – ‘Liverpool- designed to be different’
Presentation Summary
(written by Rob Burns)

Liverpool is a city in transition- from being
Britain’s most successful port city in the
19th century and being described as the
centre of the creative universe in the 1960’s
through political,  economic and social melt
down in the 1970’s and 1980’s, the city is
now experiencing swift regeneration.
Design, and architectural opprobrium,
has always been part of the city. The Liver
Building, St Georges Hall and Oriel
Chambers for example, have all been
heavily criticized at the time of completion,
yet now are recognized as iconic Liverpool
structures. This interest in architecture and
design, and mixed reviews, remains part of
Mr Rob Burns (Urban Design Manager,
the city’s defining character.
Liverpool City Council)
Liverpool also has a wealth of historic
Rob has lived in Merseyside for 20 years,
buildings- a mix consisting of dock related
and has worked on numerous major
structures, warehouses and commercial
projects within the Liverpool city region and
buildings. Many of these have suffered
in the north west of England during that
from decades of redundancy and decay, yet
time. With qualifications in archaeology,
remain important elements in the fabric
architectural history and urban design, Rob
and collective memory of the city that
is particularly interested in a contextual
helps define character. Many of these date
approach to the evolution of cities, and
from the late 19th century, a time when
how new development can add to local
distinctiveness, based on understanding
their history and sound local analysis.
Rob has previously worked with multi-disciplinary teams in North Africa and the Middle
East. Closer to home, he has also worked with English Heritage at regional level in north
west and north east England, and has also been involved in national policy on issues such
as tall buildings.
Liverpool was the second city of Empire, and from where almost 5 million Europeans left
the continent to seek new lives in the new world. City as entrepot is a defining feature
of Liverpool, and has given it its contemporary, ‘edgy’ feel, and has also led to the city’s
inscription as a world heritage site.
The regeneration of the city centre over the past decade has been based on a loose strategic
framework, coupled with more detailed frameworks for specific sites. These include
the Liverpool 1 mixed use scheme in the heart of the city centre, and the waterfront
development. The strategic framework, adopted in 2000, has been delivered by the City
Council and Liverpool Vision with other
public and private sector partners, and has
majored in re-connecting the city with the
River Mersey.
There have been some false dawns and
controversial decisions in the process. The
Fourth Grace project, an iconoclastic design
by Will Alsop, was cancelled after it won an
international design competition for a new
museum on the waterfront. This design was
replaced not by another building, but by
a family of four new buildings, providing
museum, residential and leisure uses. These
have been delivered by a framework, based
on a solid understanding of context and
a historical analysis of site and city. Their
location, form and relationship are based
on a design solution that seeks to represent
the site itself, as a pivot and unique location
on Liverpool’s waterfront, as well as the less
physical feel of place based on movement,
The new museum and the canal in the foreground, Liverpool

 activity, animation and change. Design quality based on place-making and
Panoramic views have in part been context is not a luxury but an imperative and
replaced by kinetic or glimpsed views. should be used as the major instrument of the
At the same time, the new buildings and regeneration tool-kit.
the re-designed Pier Head have also been
5. Work hard to understand the local and
linked by a new canal that will bring
contextual. Assessment and analysis are
more visitors and animation to this key
essential mechanisms that can unlock quality
public space.
and the bespoke rather than the formulaic.
The Liverpool 1 mixed-use scheme is Don’t be afraid of using historic precedents as
a major new infrastructure for the city. inspiration, or trying to capture spirit of place
Whilst it is largely based on retail, it is or narrative.
deliberately not a mall, but works with
6. Assessment must also include the wider
the existing grain of the city to marry up
city area- how does the city work as an
different street radii and the waterfront.
integrated whole? What are the opportunities
Again, it has a strategic role and has
for enhanced connectivity or for repairing
been delivered via a more developed and
fractured townscapes?
detailed framework. Some 27 different
architects have been involved with 7. Be flexible- development frameworks
individual buildings to bring an evolved and masterplans are great for guidance, but
and organic feel to the development, with can stifle creativity if applied too rigorously.
a hierarchy of streets to provide different Others may have better ideas!
Liverpool, showing seating steps and new route to the
character areas. 8. If it aint broke, don’t fix it. The do nothing Albert Dock
Lessons to be learned from Liverpool are: option is always worth considering rather
than development for development’s sake.
1. Work with what you have- in this case
a fantastic river frontage, first class legacy
of historic buildings, a simple topography
and morphology that allows for areas of
distinctive character.
2. A vision needs to be clearly expressed
and communicated.
Ropewalks, Liverpool
3. Look after heritage- but not as an end in itself heritage must
work for its living. As a nation, we are deeply conservative and
this can be used to our advantage. Heritage is not a constraint,
but an opportunity.
4. Link regeneration with issues of design quality- we are all
competing globally and trying to attract the same investors.
Liverpool


 Case Study 3 – “The Prince’s Foundation for the
Built Environment, and Sustainable Urbanism”
Presentation Summary
Ms. Lita Khazaka is a Senior Urban
Designer and Architect working in
the Projects Team. She joined the
Foundation in 2006. Prior to this she
worked in private practice on a variety of
architectural and urban design projects.
She was commissioned to establish
scottisharchitecture.com by the Lighthouse,
Glasgow and to facilitate a number of
public architectural and built environment
workshops in Scotland. She was also a part
time studio tutor in Strathclyde University.
She graduated with a PgDip and MA in
Architecture from Strathclyde University
and with a diploma in Architecture and the
Building Arts from The Prince of Wale’s
Institute of Architecture.
http://www.princes-foundation.org/
(written by Lita Khazaka)
The Prince’s Foundation for the Built
Environment (PFBE) is an educational
charity which exists to improve the quality
of people’s lives by teaching and practising
timeless and ecological ways of planning,
designing and building.
PFBE believe that if we can understand
and apply time-tested principles, building
once more in a sustainable way, we will reap
improvements in public health, in livelier
and safer streets and in a more affordable
lifestyle for families and individuals. PFBE
also believe that neighbourhoods exhibiting
these sustainable characteristics will accrue
higher value over time.
PFBE has four core areas of activity. Our
Education Programme teaches skills in
successful place-making through seminars
and workshops. The Projects & Practice
department is engaged on a series of
live developments in partnership with
the private sector and public agencies.
The Chief Executive Team runs strategic
initiatives with several major policy
partners. The Design Theory & Networks
department develops and disseminates new
examples of practice by our global network
that evidences innovation and tested tools
for building successful communities.
Projects & Practice
The Projects and Practice Department is
the consultancy arm of PFBE, a multi-
disciplinary team of architects, urban
designers and urban planners which
operates as a social enterprise by engaging
in fee earning urban design and master
planning projects.
The department has been involved in
projects throughout the UK and abroad,
ranging from sustainable urban extensions
to Town wide regeneration strategies and
following the design principles and vision of
The Foundation and its President.
One of the main aims of the Projects & Walkable Neigbourhood Diagram
Practice Department is to develop a number
of exemplar projects. These will vary in
range of scales and settings and should
reveal that an attention to timeless and
ecological ways of planning, designing and
building can improve the quality of people’s
lives.
In creating these exemplars, PFBE will
demonstrate in practice a set of tools and
techniques, including Enquiry by Design
and urban codes and pattern books, that
build upon traditional urbanism and that
can be adopted as templates to inform the
education programme of PFBE.
Design Theory & Networks
The Design Theory & Networks Poundbury Town Square
department engages in activities with an
extended network of design professionals
and Foundation members. It is responsible
for advancing and disseminating the
organisation’s underlying design theory
- originating from HRH’s principles in

 the built environment - enriched by 10 Senior Fellows who
contribute to different fields of expertise.
The department advises on network referrals to charities
of whom HRH is Patron, and is developing a broad base
of scrutinised network practitioners to carry out PFBE’s
mission.
Additionally, the team develops and maintains a Membership
Programme of events, contributes to Duchy of Cornwall
built environment initiatives, manages a health portfolio of
education and practice, runs seminars and think-tanks, as
well as undertaking speaking engagements
and other outreach work.
Education
PFBE’s diverse education programme
addresses the challenge of planning,
designing and building cities, towns
and neighbourhoods, evoking timeless
principles to meet the immediate call for
environmental responsibility.
The Education team offer a series of
Poundbury Café and Public House
RIBA-accredited conference and short courses in the built
environment, drawing on the experience and knowledge of a
host of education partners and specialist speakers. It teaches
the fundamentals of town-making based on principles of
traditional urbanism, historic context, residential design and
design coding. All events are conducted in a highly inclusive,
interdisciplinary manner, and frequently involve our eminent
Senior Fellows, who are drawn from design practice,
development and academia.
Policy and Research
PFBE has active working partnerships with many of the
leading stakeholders in urban design and architecture.
10
These include government departments
and their agencies – the Department for
Communities and Local Government,
the Regional Development Agencies, the
Secretary of State for Health, English
Partnerships and Commission for
Architecture and the Built Environment. It
is also allied to the Congress for the New
Urbanism in the USA and to the emerging
Council for European Urbanism. PFBE
works in partnership with The Prince’s
Regeneration Trust on heritage-based
regeneration projects, and much of the
work it supports overseas is performed
through an international network of
practitioners via sister organisation the
International Network for Traditional
Building, Architecture and Urbanism
(INTBAU). A global network of friends,
supporters and professional bodies includes
the major participants in the traditional
architecture and urbanism movement.
All partnerships share the common goal
of delivering sustainable urbanism. Each
is constituted of specific initiatives which
meet strategic goals for the partners
while delivering educational benefits and
developing best practice.
PFBE design principles
The Brundtland Commission produced
a report called “Our Common Future”
in 1987, which defined sustainable
development as:
“development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their own
needs.”
PFBE believe in this definition and work
towards achieving sustainable development
by applying their design principles, as set
out below, to their projects.
PFBE design principles can be summarized
as follows:
Engender Social Interaction
Design which involves the carefully
facilitated, early involvement of the local
community in order to generate places
which meet people’s needs, desires and
aspirations, and also encourage civic
pride. The design needs to create a clear
distinction between town and country and
public and private space, consequently
encouraging the appropriate activities
within each, with acknowledgment that
the design of public areas is as important as
the design of private spaces and should be
designed as part of a harmonious whole.
Make Places
Design that respects the complex character
of a place and takes into consideration its
history, geology, transportation links and
its natural landscape. Design that employs
and connects a variety of enclosure and
openness to make people always aware of
being in a place.
Allow Movement Logically & Legibly
Design that promotes blocks of
buildings that are fully permeated by an
interconnected street network, which
encompasses a clear and legible ordering
system. This system must recognises a
hierarchy between urban spatial and
building types and their individual parts
in relation to the whole.
Sustain Land Value
Design that creates streets and buildings
that will cope with a variety of uses
during their lifetime and that constructs
a valuable asset in economic, social and
environmental terms. A final mechanism
that encourages long term investments
and land stewardship.
Design Using Natural Harmonics
Design which relates to its surroundings,
blending into the local and natural
environment, adaptive to climatic
conditions and minimizing energy
consumption. Design that has languages
based on harmonics and relates to human
scale.
Build Beautifully
Design which has been created using
care and attention, rewarding the maker
and users, making it likely to last and be
valued by future generations. Timeless
design whose decoration enhances the
quality and beauty of a building helping The vehicle is secondary. Sustainable urbanism employs a permeable street
provoke an emotional value along with a network, and ensures that the existing local identity of a place is reflected in the
personal and a cultural relevance. Use of design and materials of any new form.
indigenous materials which have a natural
harmony and which are selected with
care to ensure they improve with age and
weathering.
The walkable neighbourhood diagram
(page 9) illustrates two types of urbanism.
The top half of the diagram illustrates
a built environment that is founded on
modernist design principles, and the
bottom half of the diagram illustrates
a built environment that is founded
on sustainable urban design principles.
Urbanism based on modernist ideals
encourages the separation of uses
into mono-functional zones, which
are connected by a series of vehicular
prioritised routes, rather than human
scale spaces and places. These routes
are designed to facilitate car use and
discourage pedestrians. Accidental
meetings between people rarely occur
and a sense of community is difficult to
cultivate. People feel increasingly isolated,
especially those who do not own a car.
Sustainable urbanism ensures that places
comprise a mix of uses and tenures, and
the spaces and streets are designed around Proposed design for a Wynd; PFBE
the pedestrian and cyclist, so that cycling,
walking and meandering are the chosen
forms of movement, and that daily needs
can be met within a five minute walk.
11
 Regional scale to neighbourhood scale
Sustainable urbanism should be considered
at a regional scale as at well as a local
level. Regional strategies, which consider
networks such as transport, employment,
economy, education and health can be
developed so that towns and settlements
within a region work harmoniously.
Peter Calthorpe summarises this notion in
his book, “The Regional City”:
“the regional city must be viewed as a
cohesive unit – economically, ecologically,
and socially – made up of coherent
neighbourhoods and communities, all
of which play a vital role in creating a
metropolitan region as a whole.”
These coherent towns and settlements
within the regional context can then work
at a local level, to form a series of places that
relate to people.
Sustainable Urbanism, Poundbury Street
12
New tools for planning, building and
design
The Foundation has been developing a
series of tools to help produce sustainable
places. These include the Enquiry by Design
Process, in which the masterplan process
commences, pattern books and design
codes.
The Enquiry by Design (EbD) process is
a planning tool that brings together key
stakeholders to collaborate on a vision
for a new or revived community. This is
developed through a series of workshops
facilitated by PFBE. The EbD process
brings key stakeholders together, to assess a
complex range of design requirements for
the development site, with every issue tested
by being drawn.
Enquiry by Design is an important process
in developing sustainable communities;
delivering masterplans and initiating the
masterplanning process based on enduring
design principles, and developing the
place-making skills of all participants in the
workshop process.
Pattern books and codes are key documents
produced by PFBE as part of their
masterplanning process. These help to
ensure that the visions produced during
the EbD workshops are delivered, and that
quality is not compromised.
A pattern book is an inventory of urban
and architectural forms that identify the
characteristics or ‘DNA’ of a place. Pattern
books demonstrate a whole set of urban
as well as built fabric patterns that impact
on local architectural form. They seek to
characterise key components of the urban
form ranging from the scale and character
of the various street and block typologies
down to details of buildings including
massing, scale, proportions and character.
Pattern book studies provide a useful
framework for subsequent planning
and design processes. They reinforce the
character of a town or, in the case of green
field development, deeply root a project in
its regional urban context.
A town code is a design tool that translates
the vision embodied in the town plan
into practical instructions for building. It
effectively sets out the design “language” of
a place. An agreed set of rules and guidelines
increases the certainty that the vision for the
community will be realised, with benefits
for all concerned.
The code spans town-wide issues such as
street design, landscape structure, building
height and land use, through to more
architectural elements such as the design of
individual buildings, their relationship to
the street and the way in which buildings
are grouped in blocks.
 Case Study 4 – “Placeplanning: setting the gold
standard for the planning and design process”
Presentation Summary
Rob Cowan is a director of the training
provider and consultant Urban Design
Skills (www.urbandesignskills.com).
He is the author of The Dictionary of
Urbanism, acclaimed as the definitive
reference on planning, urban design
and regeneration; and editor of Context,
the journal of the Institute of Historic
Building Conservation. His other
publications include The Connected City,
The Cities Design Forgot and Urban Design
Guidance. He was the joint author of Re:
urbanism and the CLG/CABE design
guidance By Design, and the author
of the Scottish equivalent (Designing
Places), and two design guides for the
Scottish Government (Housing Quality
and Masterplanning). He devised the
community audit method Placecheck and
the urban design skills appraisal method
Capacitycheck. He is an illustrator and
his weekly cartoon appeared in Planning
for 20 years.
Contact details: rob@urbandesignskills.com
(written by Rob Cowan)
http://www.urbandesignskills.com
Eighty-four per cent of masterplans are
completely useless. Theyfail to provide
the long-term guidance that those who
commissioned them had hoped for. This is
widely recognised, but the remedy is less well
understood.
The term ‘masterplan’ is currently applied
to anything from a single diagram of a
proposed development, on the one hand, to
a document describing a full masterplanning This approach has been driven by the
process, with its appraisals, principles and understandable desire to encourage
implementation plans, on the other. Current organisations involved in development to
guidance on masterplanning, such as the plan and design their schemes with a little
Scottish Government’s Planning Advice more care than they have in the past.
Note Masterplanning and CABE’s Creating
The time has come to set our sights
Successful Masterplans, is written so as to higher than that. In a recession it is more
encourage landowners, local authorities,
important than ever to ensure that we
development agencies and developers to create the maximum social, economic and
prepare
environmental value from development.
urban design At a time when action on climate change
frameworks
is urgent, we must make sure that every
for a wide development makes the best possible use of
range of
resources.
types of
development, We need a means of assessing the quality
and to of collaborative and multi-disciplinary
consider processes that formulate planning and design
these as principles for an area, and that show how
masterplans. those principles can be implemented. We
need a definition, criteria and standards by
13

A vision for Neilston, the first Scottish Renaissance Town
Drawing by Richard Carman for Urban Design Skills and
which we can measure excellence. We should
Renfrewshire District Council
achieve that by setting a precisely defined
gold standard for this type of process, and
coining a new term to describe it.
People are welcome to apply the terms
‘masterplan’ and ‘masterplanning’ to
whatever documents and processes they like.
But we will insist on the highest standards
of excellence for any process that aspires
to the name of (as we propose to call it)
placeplanning.
At the same time we hope that the
placeplanning assessment criteria will also be
used in cases where it might not be possible
to meet the placeplanning standard, but
where the use of the criteria by those who
commission, prepare or assess masterplans
will lead to higher standards than would
otherwise be achieved.
14
This means that the placeplanning method
should be of interest to anyone who is
concerned with the quality of development,
including communities, development
agencies, built environment professionals and
politicians.
A five-step programme
We need a five-step programme for
developing placeplanning:
1. Identify criteria against which the
quality of successful placeplanning and
masterplanning will be assessed.
2. Establish the assessment method that will
lead to the award of placeplanning status
and, where that can not be achieved, to
higher standards of masterplanning.
3. Identify examples of masterplans (as
existing examples are likely to be called) that
successfully meet the placeplanning criteria.
4. Publicise successful placeplanning
processes.
5. Provide guidance, training and enabling in
placeplanning.
Definitions
We can adopt the following definitions:
placeplanning The collaborative and multi-
disciplinary process of formulating planning
and design principles (relating to the
environmental, social and economic impact
of development, and to three-dimensional
physical form) for an area (which could be
one plot or site, but usually encompasses
several), and showing how those principles
can be implemented. Whether a process
has achieved the status of placeplanning is
assessed according to a set of agreed criteria.
placeplan A strategic, spatial guidance
document that records the placeplanning
process.
masterplanning A similar process of
formulating planning and design principles,
but one that does not meet all the
placeplanning criteria sufficiently to be
awarded placeplanning status.
masterplan A strategic, spatial guidance
document that records the masterplanning
process, but is not of high enough standard
to be awarded placeplanning status. (The
term is also used, and will no doubt continue
to be, for a wide range of other things as
well, such as layout diagrams for schemes
that have not been subject to any meaningful
masterplanning process).
Ten essentials of placeplanning
The following principles will be the basis for
the criteria by which placeplanning will be
assessed:
1. The placeplanning process leads from
initiation to appraisal, through to conceiving
a vision, formulating principles, selecting
options, and planning for delivery.
2. The placeplanning process is carefully
recorded and well illustrated.
3. The placeplanning process is fully
collaborative. It involves a range of
stakeholders, including people who live
or work in the area, or who represent it
politically, who provide services, who
are likely to carry out development
there, or who otherwise have an interest
in it. Placeplanning embodies a vision
that can be shared by government
bodies, development agencies, local
communities, landowners, developers
and financiers.
4. The placeplanning process is multi-
disciplinary, involving a range of
specialists working closely together, with
effective leadership.
5. Placeplanning is a creative process,
involving skilled and talented designers.
6. The principles developed
through placeplanning will relate to
environmental, social and economic
matters. In each case the principles
will help to minimise the use of scarce
resources, reduce carbon emissions and
protect endangered species (not just here
and now, but regionally and globally, and
for future generations), helping to tackle
climate change and mitigate its impacts.
7. The principles should guide the
future three-dimensional physical form
of development and how it may change
through time.
8. Placeplanning provides guidance for
an area or site that is to be changed or
developed, rather than for a wider area
over which no landowner or agency has
control. The analysis must relate to the
site’s wider context, though, and the
planning and design principles must
show how the development will connect
to and enhance the wider area.
9. Placeplanning should be based on a
sound appreciation of existing conditions
and potential future circumstances,
both locally and regionally. Its principles
should aim to achieve the qualities of
successful places that are set out in best
practice guidance.
10. Placeplanning should show how its
principles can be implemented, describing
the proposed phasing, timing, financing and
delivery mechanisms. It is unlikely to be able
to do this unless the process is commissioned
by an organisation that is in a position
actually to carry out the development, or to
guide its development closely.
Scotland’s Renaissance Towns
Neilston, an East Renfrewshire village 15
miles south-west of Glasgow, has been
chosen as Scotland’s first Renaissance Town.
Its experience stands as an example of the
placeplanning approach. Urban Design
Skills’ role is as lead consultant for the
Neilston Renaissance Town Charter, working
to a consortium led by East Renfrewshire
District Council.
Neilston Village Regeneration Group,
consisting of community organisations,
public and private sector agencies and
elected representatives, has responded to a
grassroots campaign for a village plan. It was
this that led to the designation of Neilston as
Scotland’s first pilot Renaissance Town.
Involved in this initiative is a wide coalition
of expertise from the Mackintosh School of
Architecture’s Urban Lab, Architecture and
Design Scotland, the Development Trusts
Association Scotland, and the Lighthouse
(Scotland’s centre for architecture, design and
the city). These organisations have worked
with local people to create a new vision of
Neilston and to plan for its delivery.
The Neilston
Renaissance Town
Charter has been
created by the
people of the village
to illustrate their 20-
year vision for the
village. That vision
has been achieved
through a process
of community
participation,
consensus building,
skills transfer,
capacity building
and design awareness training. The
process is led by a town team made up
of community members, stakeholders,
businesses, agencies and civic leaders.
Working with facilitators, the town team
has developed its ideas through public
debate, brainstorming sessions, workshops
and a workshop weekend.
The team and the consortium are now
planning a series of short-, medium- and
long-term projects aimed at creating a
sustainable, economically robust, well-
planned and well-connected small town.
The hope is that this will be the first of
several pilot Scottish renaissance towns,
and a model for action in villages and
small towns throughout Scotland.
It is masterplanning, but not as we know
it. Placeplanning starts here.
15
 Case Study 5 – “Urban Design Policy-Strategies for
success in Scotland”
Presentation Summary
Mr. Robert Huxford is director of the Urban
Design Group and co-founder of the Public
Realm Information & Advice Network
(PRIAN).  He is co-editor of the UK Guide
on Highway Risk & Liability and author
of numerous other publications on urban
design, transportation, public realm and urban
watercourse restoration.
http://www.udg.org.uk/, http://www.publicrealm.info/
16
(written by Robert Huxford)
Introduction
Scotland faces a century of uncertainty.
There are exacting climate change targets
to meet, energy prices that look set to rise
as reserves of oil decline and there is the
challenge of foreseeing the impact changes
in society and the economy that will be
brought by the spread of information and
communication technologies. It is surely the
Scottish cities who are in the front line in
rising to these challenges. The Scottish kings
who established the first Royal Burghs 800
years ago created them to catalyse trade and
wealth generation, giving them the role and
powers needed to fulfil the role. Today the
cities remain the key to ensuring that the
economy flourishes.
Changing technology
The extent to which new technology can
change society is well demonstrated by
the arrival of the motorcar over a century
ago, the impacts of which are still working
through the system. Over the past century:
• Main streets changed from being amongst
the most desirable of residential locations
to being the least: plagued by noise and air
pollution, with street severed by the weight
of traffic. This has often led to a knock
on effect of falling property values and a
downward spiral of neglected maintenance
and decay.
• The design and location of new
settlements has changed as people have
taken advantage of the increased mobility
offered by the motorcar; some settlements
now depend on their continued use depends
on the continued affordability of vehicle use.
Over the past thirty years:
• Most villages within one hour’s drive
of a city have ceased to provide balanced
economies and instead have become
dormitories .
• Pedestrianisation schemes have been
introduced into many city and town centres
• Offices have migrated out of city centres
to business parks on the periphery
• Retail has changed from small local
facilities to major out of town or edge of
town retail parks and super-stores. Some
town centre shops have closed, and some
villages have lost their shops outright.
• Front gardens have been adapted for use
as hard standing for cars, and for storage of
the increased volumes of waste generated
through the supermarket retail system.
• Few younger children now walk or cycle
to school independently owing to parental
fear for the safety of their child. Their
freedoms to use the public realm on their
own have been effectively ended.
• Society has changed: families and
friends have become increasingly dispersed.
Networks of local friends who look after one
another have declined, with more of the role
shifting onto social services.
Few of these changes were anticipated when
the motorcar first was introduced, or in the
subsequent decades. It is fair to say that the
problems and opportunities brought by the
motor vehicle were reacted to rather than
anticipated. And even now, over 110 years
on, the transition of society from being
localised and based largely on walking, to
one that makes full use of the independent
mobility offered by the motor vehicle is by
no means complete.
In the 21st century even greater changes
could occur through the expansion
of information and communications
technology, including mobile phones, social
networking sites, email, internet retail and
search engines. Unfortunately society’s
interest has been little more than a short
term fascination for the latest gadgets. There
has been little main-stream consideration
of the long-term impact on society or the
economy, and that which has taken place
has tended to be sidelined, the future is, after
all, something we can deal with later. But it
is not. Something innocuous such as email
and electronic cash transfers has undermined
the economics of the post office system, and
with post office closures goes one of the key
components of a community. We need to
face the change.
Certainly there has been talk of the
importance and opportunity offered by
the uncharted territory of globalistion and
an era of flourishing knowledge economy.
But Scotland has been part of a global
economy for a good while. One thinks of
the 13th century with skilled craftsmen from
Flanders invited into the newly established
Scottish burghs, or Glasgow’s trading links
with the Americas. Scotland led the world
and profited greatly. It does not follow
that the 21st century global economy will
be so advantageous. Eastern Europe, Asia,
Africa and South America are all capable
Poverty of expectation… citizens, land-owners, leaders – there is
a systemic failure in aspiration and expectation. Scotland needs to
lay the foundations for a dazzling future. It should not settle for
poor quality maintenance either in the public or the private realm.
Neither should it settle for the poor quality design
of providing educated workforces at
internationally competitive rates. It may be
possible for Scotland to export knowledge
services into the global economy only if they
are of the very highest order. Scottish call
centres, IT, design, financial services, and
media may all be vulnerable.
British cities long since ceased to be places
of manufacture, and now their other roles as
centres for financial services, trade and retail
can be undertaken anywhere. The search-
engines and electronic market places that the
internet provides are ideal means through
which to conduct these activities.
Domestic retail is increasingly being
captured by internet based traders. Surveys
in 2008 suggested that 17 percent of
retail purchases were now on-line – up 38
percent on the previous year. And a recent
IMRG CapgeminiUK report has predicted
that that between 30 per cent and 50 per
cent of all retail will be online in the next
five years. It is pertinent to ask whether
traditional town centre retail has a long-
term future, or for that matter out of town
retail, which could be just, or even more
vulnerable. One extreme would see out of
town stores becoming distribution depots
for goods bought over the internet. It seems
most likely that that the place-based retail
that survives provide a combination of
convenience and leisure. It does mean that
traditional retail areas will need to smarten
up their act and this may not be easy if they
have already lost half their turnover.
The growth and development of ICT also
raises the question as to the very reason for
existence of cities: for once the economic
role is gone or at least greatly diminished,
what is there left? A legacy of buildings: of
homes, of civic offices, art galleries, libraries,
theatres, pubs, café’s and restaurants, a
cultural memory? A tradition? No one has
formally proposed the abandonment of
existing towns and cities, but has not this
been the trend during the post war period
as green field development has taken place
and commuting distances have increased?
It would be quite possible to envisage a
settlement pattern of knowledge workers
in expanding villages located in Scotland’s
most desirable landscapes, served by fleets
of white vans providing goods purchased
over the internet. However this pattern of
lifestyle is highly dependent on car use and
low fuel costs and brings with it substantially
increased carbon dioxide emissions. There
are legally binding targets to cut carbon
dioxide emissions in 2050 by 80 percent
and an interim target in 2020. Future
increases in fuel costs seem inevitable as
global demand for oil increases and reserves
begin to decline. Car-based lifestyles and
developments will be under-threat, and may
become unviable. A future for Scotland
based on a dispersed car-dependent society,
and a knowledge economy seems a high risk
strategy, and yet it is a path down which
we are unwittingly travelling, driven on by
short-term market forces.
The first call that this paper makes is
therefore for a realistic awareness of the
substantial impact of Information and
Communication Systems on cities, lifestyles
and development: that the potential will be
anticipated and exploited and any problems
foreseen and avoided.
17
 The second call is to improve the condition of radial routes and
city and town centres, to ensure they perform the role they were
designed for: as centres for the local community that show the city
off at its very best. This is vital to attract tourists, new business and
inward investment.
Roughly ten percent of the population live on main routes. They
are where secondary shopping centres are to be found, along
with hospitals, schools, community centres
and kirks. They have a major influence
in forming the impression we have of the
towns and cities we visit. While some of the
roads that were laid out in the 1920s were
planned with vehicle use in mind, some
as boulevards, with generous widths and
integral landscaping, the majority of radial
routes date back to the first half of the 19th
century and earlier. They were never created
with heavy flows of fast-moving traffic in
mind. They have tended to be neglected, and
One of the main routes into Edinburgh. What does this say
about the city, its sense of pride and its destiny? We should aim not only are they failing to function in their
to phase out the use of roller shutters by 2011, unless there is intended role, their appearance is damaging
a genuine crime problem. Road clutter, poorly maintained
buildings, and the impact of traffic need to be tackled too. onto the status and prestige of towns and cities
the streets? and of Scotland itself.
Many towns in Europe and a few in the UK
are realising that techniques are available to
enable cars and people to coexist. European
street design practice now includes shared use
junctions, shared use streets, and in particular
there is introduction of central medians,
which channelize the traffic and encourage
drivers to drive more carefully and more
slowly; and also enable pedestrians to cross in
safety at any point along the road, having to
deal with but one stream of traffic at a time.
Glasgow a world class city, and in this instance a near
world-class floorscape barring one defect. Waste management There have been claims that restricting traffic
undermines the quality of experience of all of the cities in to 20mph leads to increase fuel consumption
Scotland. There are practical and unobtrusive underground
storage systems in widespread use in European cities. We should by 10 percent and a commensurate increase
aim to phase out these shameful types of collection systems by in carbon dioxide emissions. These claims
2015
18
are fallacious, based on comparisons of 17.3 mph in Glasgow according to
fuel consumption at constant speed. The Trafficmaster data.
progress of a car along a main street is not
Electronic based systems for managing traffic
one of constant speed, but a repeated,
are currently on trial in London. It seems
wasteful cycle of waiting at traffic lights,
likely that electronic traffic calming, variable
accelerating to 30 mph or more, and then
speed limits, adaptive routing of traffic,
braking to meet the queue of traffic waiting
absolute enforcement of lorry bans and so
at the next junction. With this pattern of
on, could be accomplished using these new
driving, capping vehicle speeds to 20mphs
systems, and without the need to clutter
will reduce fuel consumption and carbon
streets with humps, lines or signs.
dioxide emissions by over 10 percent.
Steadier traffic flows, lower noise levels,
Impact on journey time is another argument
and reduced severance will transform the
made against lower speed levels. If it were
environment along main routes, bringing
possible to drive at the speed limit for the
the regeneration of retail and residential use.
entire journey from suburb to centre, the
difference between 30mph and 20mph Councils should ensure landlords who
is a minute per mile, even for the longest stand to gain through the uplift in value
journey the difference would be amount of property and in rentals play their part
to no more than 3-6 minutes. In fact that by keeping their property in good repair.
actual impact in journey times would be Councils have powers to deal with neglected
marginal. It is not the maximum speed property which should be used rigorously.
permitted on the route that dictates journey There is no excuse for neglect and no
times, but the
amount of time
spent waiting at
junctions. There
is the possibility
that the network
would operate
more efficiently
owing to the
more fluid
operation of
junctions. Actual
average speeds in
urban areas are
generally below
20mph, for
example Princes Street, by reputation a prestigious and popular street, let down by the quality of the public realm
reasonable objection to repairs: cutting
maintenance leads to damage that costs
more to put right in the longer term. And
in the time that passes the good name of an
area will suffer.
Other changes are needed ranging from
tackling parades of shops with roller shutters,
to seizing opportunities such as using the
latest public lighting technologies to create a
stunning night scene. There are two nagging
problems that need to be tackled. Firstly
the present system of waste management
results in the permanent presence of bins
on the street, much to the detriment of
the street scene. The underground cassette
systems used extensively in Europe should
be introduced into Scottish towns, and
the old system phased out. Secondly is the
problem of utilities. The space under streets
is filled with a web of pipes and cables, and
the introduction of district heating systems
will add further to the complexity. The need
to periodically repair or renew underground
services not only disrupts traffic flows, but
militates against the use of high quality
surfaces that go with improving the look
of a town, and leads to the early failure
of conventional road surfaces. In more
progressive European towns the problem is
addressed by grouping the utilities in a single
combined utilities duct. This approach
should be deployed in Scotland, and order
brought to the subterranean street.
In short, there is the technology and
knowledge to turn potholed, polluted main
routes, flanked with decaying buildings
into is a chain of vibrant local centres that
provides an attractive route into town for
pedestrians, cyclists, commuters and tourists
alike, and that reflects well on the city. This
is an important foundation for the Scottish
city in the 21st century.
It goes without saying that the centre of
the city must present a high quality, well
maintained and safe environment. Over
the past 20 years there has been much good
work done, but challenges still remain.
Traffic is of great importance, but in the
city centre it is place that should be given
priority. City centres should not look like
trunk roads.
Need for Leadership – City Governance
Modern media thrives on short-term
controversy, and this can be hugely
damaging to long-term leadership. Local
newspapers and radio could make a huge
difference to Scotland’s future by taking
a lead in developing both aspirations and
expectations, fostering an image of the city
as progressive and dynamic, and encouraging
citizens to share in meeting the challenges.
They have a key role to play in encouraging
civic leaders to act entrepreneurially, and to
take the risks that arise with any innovative
course of action.
It is down to civic leaders to manage the
balance between movement and place in city
centres and radial routes. The publication of
Designing Streets gives local authorities an
opportunity to demonstrate bold leadership.
It is not something that can be left to free-
market forces.
Leaders should think carefully about
the future of retail in the face of on-line
shopping and move immediately to support
existing town and city centres before they
are damaged beyond repair. A five year delay
may mean that action comes far too late.
They should also beware being beguiled by
the promise of job creation from further
large retail facilities. Retail jobs are created
by increasing people’s disposable income,
not by building new shops. This leads
on to a task of ensuring the economy is
soundly based and a remembrance of the
role intended by the Scottish Kings for the
Royal burghs: as the power-house of the
Scottish economy.
The task requires immediacy of action and
true leadership. It has become standard
practice in recent decades to run in to
cycles of assessments, strategies, plans,
masterplans, action plans, programmes and
so forth: amounting together to thousands
of pages, and yet collectively failing to
articulate a vision for the city that people
can genuinely remember or believe, or
that necessarily leads to action. Sir Patrick
Geddes himself warned about “dreaming
dreams and getting nothing done”, rather,
he advocated learning by doing. Let us
follow this advice and set to the task.
20th century waste management equipment
complements the sophisticated classical facade. Is this
any better than the days of the medieval toun when
refuse and sewage was thrown out
19
Case Study 6 – “Learning from other examples:
Bilbao, Sheffield, and Belfast”
Presentation Summary
(written by Alona Martinez-Perez)
Alona Martinez Perez is a Spanish
architect and urban designer. She
qualified as an architect at Sheffield
University, and received her masters
and postgraduate diploma in urbanism
at Edinburgh College of Art. Over
the past few years she has worked in
practice in the North of England and
Scotland. Her work has been shortlisted
in competitions, and she has lectured
on urban design and architecture both
in the UK and Spain, and spoken at
International Conferences. She has
published articles in journals on urban
design issues, and has been visiting tutor
at the ETSAB (School of Architecture
Barcelona). She is a design studio tutor at
the School of Architecture, University of
Dundee, where she is Research Director
for the Task Force Project for the Geddes
Institute. She is the regional Convenor for
the Urban Design Group in Scotland.
llllhttp://www.dundee.ac.uk/geddesinstitute/
http://www.architecture.dundee.ac.uk/
20
This presentation is structured in three
parts:
1 What is place-making?
2 Cases Studies-Learning from other
examples:
Bilbao
Sheffield
Belfast
3 Conclusions
1 What is place-making?
Objectives of Urban Design
(By Design, Urban design in the planning
system: towards better practice CABE
DETR)
“Character: A place with its own identity
Continuity and enclosure: A place where
public and private spaces are clearly
distinguished
Quality of the public realm: A place with
attractive and successful outdoor areas
Ease of movement: A place that is easy to get
to and move through
Legibility: A place that has a clear image and
is easy to understand
Adaptability: A place that can change easily
Diversity: A place with variety and choice”
Place-making
(By Design, Urban design in the planning
system: towards better practice CABE
DETR)
“Successful urban design requires a full
understanding of the conditions under
which decisions are made and development
is delivered. Many factors determine or
influence the outcome of the design process
and the sort of places we make. Success,
nowadays, rarely happens by chance. It
depends on:
1. A clear framework provided by
development plans and supplementary
guidance delivered consistently,
including thorough development
control;
2. A sensitive response to the local context;
3. Judgements of what is feasible in terms
of economic and market conditions;
4. An imaginative and appropriate
design approach by those who design
development and the people who
manage the planning process.
The principles of urban design can be
incorporated in the planning process for
successful place-making. Place-making
therefore is an essential component on
regenerating cities”.
2 City Studies – Learning from other
examples, Bilbao, Sheffield & Belfast
Why is regeneration required?
“The idea of Weak Market Cities was
born at the second UK Government
conference on Urban Renaissance, hosted
in Manchester in 2002. City leaders from
Europe and the US debated the changing
fortunes and prospects of former industrial
cities. The pressures for growth and sprawl
were counterbalanced with inner urban
depopulation and decay. Cities now host
the majority and fastest growing share of
the world’s population, and they are on
a treadmill of physical pressure, social,
disorder and economic insecurity”.
These cases studies have been chosen to
highlight cities that have been successful in
overcoming specific problems. These cities
have incorporated place-making and good
urban design for their regeneration. This
will help to establish common lessons that
might be more widely applicable. The cities
are Bilbao (Spain), Sheffield (England, UK)
and Belfast (Northern Ireland, UK).
These cities have four major common
characteristics:
Major industrial and manufacturing history.
Severe loss of these industries and related
jobs.
A crisis of leadership.
Issues regarding economic viability, and
inward investment.
City Study 1 – Bilbao
Facts
Location: Northern Spain (Basque Country).
Population (2005): 350,000 inhabitants
(city) 900,000 (Metropolitan Area, Greater
Bilbao).
Languages: Spanish, Basque.
Economy: Most important city in the
Basque Country, sixth largest metropolitan
area in Spain, and largest agglomeration
on Spain’s Atlantic Coast. Port activities,
including steel and shipbuilding industries in
the past.
Density: 8,733 inhabitants per square
kilometer
New Riverfront Promenade Area, Bilbao
Catalyst for change
1980’s – visible outcomes of urban decline
due to a steep rise in unemployment
because of the collapse of large industrial
companies (steel and shipbuilding), intense
physical decay, and social problems.
Outburst of violent labour conflict, and
political violence in the Basque Country.
Population loss not only in the city of
Bilbao, but also in the regional areas (10-
20%). This lead to a growing trend of
suburbanisation and dispersal.
Sub-standard housing stock and negative
image of the city.
Serious environmental degradation:
pollution of water, river ecologically dead
and 340 hectares of obsolete wasteland.
Brownfield sites left with disused
infrastructure, derelict buildings and soil
contamination.
Bilbao’s regeneration process was complex
and multi-faceted involving a wide range of
actors and interests.
The recognition of the urgency of the
immediate situation of Bilbao provoked
debates about the best strategy and actions
for recovery.
Interaction of political actors from all levels
of government, and cross cutting political
consensus on the need for action drove a
strong regeneration strategy.
This involved specific tools and programmes
and the formation of agencies to deliver
them.
Place making solutions for the
regeneration of Bilbao.
All tiers of government – central, regional,
provincial and city-recognised that action
had to be taken to reverse the negative
impacts of decline in Bilbao. Only strategies
unifying of all tiers of government would be
effective.
In 1991 ‘The Strategic Plan for the
Revitalisation of Metropolitan Bilbao’. A
dedicated agency, ‘Bilbao Metropoli 30’ was
founded as a facilitator for the regeneration
Public Art in the regenerated old Docks area, Bilbao
21
 and to promote the objectives set out in the
plan. The document identified four fields of
action:
1. Formation of a knowledge based high-
tech sector.
2. Inner city urban renewal (especially in
the Old Quarter).
3. Environmental intervention: river
cleaning, recycling.
4. Strengthening cultural identity through
culture led regeneration.
A territorial plan for Bilbao was created in
1989 and extended to the Metropolitan
area in 1994. The main point was to
establish Bilbao as a key node on the
European Atlantic axis, implying a more
ambitious and self-confident approach.
New Tram Line, Bilbao
The plan identified four so-called areas for
regeneration, and also created a plan for the
new-forward image of the city.
Major Infrastructure Projects: New
Airport Terminal (Calatrava), new tube
system (Foster), new tram across the city’s
waterfront and bus terminal (Grimshaw)
and a new port facility. All the new
transport facilities were interlinked.
Environmental clean up of the river/
References
Ploger, Jorg, (2007)’Bilbao City Report’ Case Report 43 Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion LSE.
15 años reinventando la metropolis (2006) Bilbao Ria 2000
Leira, Eduardo (1994). ‘Bilbao a new linear city along the river’, Casabella, 622, pp 20-33, 68-69
Ramirez, Juan Antonio (1997). ‘La explosion congelada Bilbao-Babel’, Arquitectura Viva, 55, pp 48-55
Mozas, Javier (1997). ‘Collage metropolitano’, Arquitectura Viva, 55, pp 24-31
Munford, Lewis (1979), The city in history, 2nd ed. Buenos Aires, Editorial Infinito.
Ramirez, Juan Antonio (1997). ‘La explosion congelada Bilbao-Babel’, Arquitectura Viva, 55, pp 48-55
Rajchman, Jhon (Dec/Jan 1999- 2000). ‘Bilbao a new linear city along the river’, Casabella, 673/674, pp 164-165
Roman, Antonio (1997). ‘Pasos del Nervión ’, Arquitectura Viva, 55, pp 66-69.
http:// www.bilbaoria2000.org/
22
waterfront area and improvements to allow
regeneration of the ’ opportunity areas’.
Four new pedestrian bridges.
Creation of an agency ‘Bilbao River 2000’
with the authority to deliver the major
regeneration of the ‘opportunity areas’ in
Bilbao, and the Metropolitan areas across
the river and the Brownfield waste land.
Vision: Improvements to the image of
the city by using well known architects
on major projects and creation of iconic
buildings (Guggenheim Museum) to
create a culture identity of the city.
With the profit from the interventions
major improvements on the city centre
deprived areas was carried out.
Place-making at the heart of the
regeneration of the waterfront and all the
industrial areas.
Creation of new train stations in each new
area. Re-routing of the existing railway
line to open up the river waterfront and
cover up of the railway line underground
to create new areas for public realm and
improve connections between districts.”
Urban Developments Agencies for
delivery.
The agency for regeneration is Bilbao Ria
2000. Its main aim is to manage large-scale
revitalisation of abandoned land formerly
occupied by harbours and industry or by
obsolete transport infrastructure.
Financing and Structure of Bilbao Ria
2000.
Its aim is ‘producing new opportunities
from old problems,’ and its objectives
are to recover, communicate, transform
facilitate and improve.
The agency is a public limited company
in which local and regional institutions
and the Central government each have a
50% share. The mayor of Bilbao chairs
the company, while its deputy chair is the
Secretary of State for Infrastructures and
Planning of the Ministry of Development.
The partners allocate land to the company
to be redeveloped. The company is an NPO
(Non Profit Organisation) and any financial
gains are re-invested in the areas themselves
or other town planning activities.
City Study 2 – Sheffield
Facts
Location: Northern England UK (South
Yorkshire).
Population (2001): 513,234 inhabitants
(city) 1,285,600 (Metropolitan Area
comprising Sheffield, Rotherham,
Doncaster and Barnsley).
Languages: English.
Economy: Steel making industry, important
centre in the industrial revolution, coal
mining in the metropolitan area.
Density: 1,395 inhabitants per square
kilometre.
Catalyst for change.
Mid 1980’s: privatisation of key national
industries steel and coal and closure leads
to high unemployment, violent strikes and
economic decline.
In 1988 the Sheffield development
corporation was formed to take in and of
the city’s industrial heartland. Also in 1986
the creation of the Sheffield Economic
Regeneration Committee promotes city-led
regeneration projects like the tram.
In 1997 the city council’s new chief executive
Bob Kerlaske had a role as a unifying force
in the city, and he was critical to galvanising
recovery action and funding local actors
involved in the regeneration process2.
Place making solutions for the
regeneration of Sheffield.
Lobbying initiatives to drive urban policy
development: the core cities network which
is a lobbying group of the eight major
English Cities facing serious economic
restructuring and regeneration needs.
This new core cities network allowed
renewal of housing, growth strategies,
new funding mechanisms, and new city
regeneration companies such as Creative
Sheffield
The establishment of a central government-
mandated urban regeneration company
in 2001, Sheffield One, which produced a
masterplan covering seven areas of its city
centre.
Place-making key projects for regeneration
were:
Heart of the city project, public realm
projects like Peace Gardens and Millennium
Galleries.
New retail quarter re-vamping retail in the
city centre.
Sheffield Gateway Station: improving the
look and access to the main station.
City hall and Barkers Pool, refurbishing
the old City Hall to create a cultural and
conference with a mixed use area.
Castlegate, mixed used development in the
city’s historic gatway.
New campus for Sheffield Hallam
University.
Creating user-friendly public transport (new
tram).
New neighbourhood strategies to improve
the city’s neighbourhoods.
Urban Developments Agencies for
delivery.
Sheffield One, the agency created for
delivery was independent from the Council
and this was a crucial factor in its success,
insulating it from political pressures that
might have limited its progress.
Backed by Private and Public funding, the
company adopted four objectives:
1. Building the city centre’s economic role.
2. Creating a centre recognised as a place
for learning, culture, retail leisure and living.
Public Realm, Sheffield Station Gateway
3. Making the centre more
accessible.
4. Bringing high quality spaces to all
parts of the city centre.
City Study 3 – Belfast
Facts
Location: Northern Ireland UK.
Population (2005): 269,000
inhabitants (city) 645,000
(Metropolitan Area).
Languages: English.
Economy: Belfast is the capital of Northern
Ireland and in population, functions and
economy, it is the region’s most important
city. Industrialisation of linen production in Sheffield Winter Gardens
the 19th Century, shipbuilding industry and
engineering in the 20th century.
Catalyst for change.
Mid 1980’s: urban crisis due to
deindustrialisation, violent conflict, and
high unemployment.
Suburbanisation and sprawl: between 1951
and 1991 the city of Belfast lost 205,000
inhabitants, while the adjacent suburban
counties grew by 237,000. (Jorg 2007 p16).
1980’s: physical regeneration: Belfast
Urban Area Plan, ‘Making Belfast Work
Programme’.
References
1989: creation of Laganside Corporation,
an Urban Development Corporation to Winkler, Astrid, (2007) ‘Sheffield City Report’ Case Report
45 Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion LSE.
implement regeneration of waterfront.
http://www.creativesheffield.co.uk
http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/planning-and-city-development
2003-04: ‘Belfast: State of the City Initiative
and Masterplan. 23
Place making solutions for the regeneration of Belfast.
The peace process was a key catalyst for change in Belfast,
activating a whole range of recovery projects and initiatives. But it
is also important to highlight all the work carried out in the 1980s
and early 1990s.
Improvements to quality of public housing carried out by the
Northern Ireland Housing Executive.
Major infrastructure improvements in roads, railways, energy
supplies, energy supplies and telecommunications.
Major regeneration of the Port
of Belfast by the Belfast Harbour
Commissioners.
Large scale of the Lagan riverside.
On-going regeneration of the
city centre.
These developments create new
Belfast’s Waterfront Regeneration forms of partnership and break
down barriers through the
creation of ‘neutral’ zones in the city centre.
The Belfast Urban Area Plan adopted in 1990 (developed by the
Department of Environment) laid out the major lines for future
policy makers, identifying three major tasks for recovery actions in
Belfast:
1. Strengthen the city’s role as a regional centre for Northern
Ireland.
2. Create a physical environment and framework for social and
economic activity which will enhance the quality of urban living.
3. Facilitate an efficient, economic and orderly pattern of
development.
Urban Developments Agencies for delivery.
The Laganside Corporation, and Urban Development Corporation
(UDC) was set up as a private-public partnership with major British
Government funding in 1989 to manage and implement the
redevelopment of the derelict area and to rename it Laganside.
24
However the UDC was not given additional
powers over planning, public housing or
building control, all of which remained
under control of the central government.
Government and EU money were used to
attract private sector investment.
3 Conclusions.
To conclude, the principles of urban design
can be incorporated in the planning process
for successful place-making. Place-making
is an essential component of regenerating
these three cities. These are the common
characteristics of place making in the
regeneration of Bilbao, Sheffield and Bilbao
that could be applied to other cities:
The places created in these examples embody
the principles of good urban design.
Major transport and infrastructure
improvements have been created to improve
connectivity between the city and all its
districts, and to increase the use of public
transport.
Environmental measures were incorporated
to improve the development of the river,
and to improve the environmental quality
of the industrial and Brownfield sites to
allow regeneration.
In these examples of on-going regeneration
of city centres, re-use of brownfield
areas, and incorporation of mix use, have
brought life back to these city centres and
re-established them as places in the public
realm. This has enhanced urban living.
Creation of urban agencies for delivering
regeneration and place making and clear
leadership and consensus between local,
regional and central government in the
decision and funding process is an essential
element for success.
A clear framework provided by
development plans has to be delivered
consistently through the development
process.
These examples deliver places that create
social, environmental and economic value.
The image of all the cities has shifted
from places with industrial decay and
unemployment, to vibrant new destinations
to visit and live.
References
Ploger, Jorg, (2007) ‘Belfast City Report’ Case Report 44
Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion LSE.
Belfast City Council, ‘Becoming a better place, A vision for a
new Belfast, 2015’
 Summary of presentations (AMP)
Geddes said ‘act local think global’. There are
two requisites for effective action: we must
have our feet firmly grounded, we must
know where we are; and we must bring to
bear on our site specific actions, the insights
and lessons of elsewhere. It is important
to learn from the work of outsiders. Our
speakers have added their insight to the
questions facing Scotland today.
Mr. Rob Burns Urban Design Manager
at Liverpool City Council reviewed the
recent history of Liverpool Regeneration.
From becoming a World Heritage City he
showed how contemporary architecture
and urbanism can fit into an existing
historic city and this can be a catalyst for
change. Liverpool since then has become
the European City of Culture in 2008, and
projects like Liverpool 1, Ropewalks and the
Waterfront, and the public Arts strategies
across the city show us how we can learn to
be adventurous and successful in a world
heritage setting. However these plans are
still on going and in order to succeed we
have to be able to have long terms strategies
and produce like Liverpool an architecture
today that can be tomorrow’s heritage and
that draws from a deep understanding
of the city’s history and heritage with a
contemporary response.
Ms. Ariadna Perich-Capdeferro, lecturer
at the ETSAB (Barcelona School of
Architecture), reviewed urban planning
policy in Catalonia. Two thirds of the
Catalan population are centred in
Barcelona, which was completely redesigned
for the XXV Olympiad; now the Catalan
government is looking at ways of improving
its cities and regions by creating new
regional centres outside Barcelona. Rather
than policies that encourage people to live
and work in Barcelona, there is a shift to
create new housing and settlements in other
parts of Catalonia. Unlike most policy
and planning documents, the Catalonia
documents are plan and map based. The
main axes for development in Catalonia are
the following:
1. Sustainable urban development
Rational use of the land
Respect for the environment
Social housing policy: instruments for
building more social housing.
2. Urban planning competences for
the councils
3. Simplification of the procedures:
with efficiency and agility in the
acquisition of urban land.
She concluded her presentation with a quote
by Wim Wenders
“That’s what I want from a city, that it
excites me. Every kind of urban planning,
by definition, tends to some kind of
homogeneity. The city contradicts that. The
city defines itself through oppositions, it
wants to explode.”
Mr Rob Cowan described the work he has
carried out with his practice Urban Design
Skills in Neilston, Scotland, one of the new
Renaissance Towns. He emphasized the
importance of placeplanning in Neilston and the importance of
using methods such as Placecheck and Capacitycheck to assess
places. Cowan’s work has been fundamental in Scotland. He is the
author of Designing Places, the new PAN in master planning,
and he trains planners and other professionals on urban design
issues. He is the author of the Dictionary of Urbanism which is
essential reading for urban designers.
Mr Robert Huxford, Director of the Urban Design Group in the
UK said that the car dominates the city’s public realm. Radial
routes should be the best our cities can offer, not the worst. He
explained that we should incorporate the car into design instead of
fighting against it.
Ms Lita Khazaka (Senior Urban Designer at the Prince’s
Foundation, London) explained the tools the Prince’s Trust uses
for planning and design: Enquiry by Design, design coding
and pattern books. The principles of traditional architecture
have been tested and shown to work, so we
should change them with caution. It is about
evolving what we have to suit the conditions of
today. Lita showed examples like Poundbury
in Dorchester, where these principles apply.
Poundbury is put forward as an exemplar of
sustainable urbanism, because of its simple and
successful placemaking.
Ms. Alona Martinez-Perez (Geddes Institute,
School of Architecture Dundee) explained
what we understand by placemaking in
regenerating cities by focusing on the examples
of successful placemaking in Bilbao, Sheffield,
and Belfast. It was clear that joined-up thinking
and clear leadership is essential in facilitating
placemaking. Also, it is important for delivery
to create regeneration agencies, to focus on the
integration of land use and infrastructure, and
not leave the important decisions to one party
in the development process.
25
Three questionnaires This section summarises and discusses the
31 questionnaires returned to us in advance
from overseas of the symposium. We have included 3 in
full because we felt that their overseas origin
lent them the essential perspective of the
outsider: Mr.Juan A. Alayo, Development
Planning Director BILBAO Ría 2000;
Ms. Ariadna Perich Capdeferro, Lecturer at
ETSAB and Architect in private practice;
and Professor Christian Hermansen,
Head of Urban Design, Oslo School of
Architecture and Design.
QUESTIONNAIRE 1 A VIEW FROM
BILBAO – Mr.Juan A. Alayo,
Development Planning Director, BILBAO Ría 2000;
http://www.bilbaoria2000.org/
Juan Alvaro Alayo studied Architecture and
Urbanism at the School of Architecture
University of Navarra, Pamplona, and at the
Bartlett, University College, London.
The company BILBAO Ría 2000 was
created on 19 November 1992 with the
intention of recovering former industrial
space around the city. It is a non-profit
making entity, the product of a cooperative
commitment on the part of all public
authorities to the common task of
transforming the metropolitan region of
Bilbao. BILBAO Ría 2000 coordinates
and executes projects in relation to
town planning, transportation and the
environment. These are carried out with
a global approach focusing on the urban
directives drawn up by the planning
authorities. BILBAO Ría 2000 has won
numerous awards including: Special
Venice Biennial Jury Award for Riverside
26
Regeneration “Industrial Margins – Urban
Margins”: “brilliant articulation of progress
and upgrading of the riverside” and “proper
definition and fulfilment of the objectives
of each phase of the project, resulting in
high-quality upgrading of former industrial
areas”. The V EUROPEAN URBAN AND
REGIONAL PLANNING AWARDS,
presented by the European Council of
Urban Planners. Prize for the OAVS
Operation (Abandoibarra, Ametzola,
and southern Bilbao rail routing) in the
Local Urban Regeneration Section, for
the “exceptional strategy of this complex
transformation” and for “the method of
execution, an example for many other
European transformation projects”.
What are the issues and questions facing
regional cities today?
1. Sustainable Development & Energy
• The need to develop workable measures
(mixture of municipal regulations and
valid business models) to implement
energy saving measures to the existing
building stock.
Public Realm by the river in Bilbao
La Vieja, Bilbao
• Th
 e need to consider cities in a systemic
way (inputs, outputs and flows) and
identify potential efficiencies.
• C
 lear policies for new developments
encompassing the issues above.
• T
 o consider the urban model in terms
of compactness, mix of uses and
implications in mobility generated and
social integration or segregation.
2. The Economy & Economic
Competitiveness
• The role of universities in attracting
young people and the relation between
universities and other economic (and
public) agents in creating employment
opportunities for students to stay.
• A
 n attractive and inviting urban
environment with good leisure and
cultural provision.
3. Social Justice
From an urban design/planning angle,
the creation of an integrated urban
system, avoiding segregated pockets or
neighbourhoods where social deprivation
can easily develop.
 4. Environmental Quality, including
resource and waste management
As per point 1 above, considering cities
as ecosystems in their totality with the
potential for synergies between different
activities.
5. Design
The size of the city (containing sprawl),
the degree of compactness, the appropriate
o mix of land uses and densities, the adequate
treatment of the street as the central stage
of city life (rather than a desolate space or a
parking lot).
6. Transport and Infrastructure Networks
Caution with the Public Transport trap. PT
is a complementary mode of transport but
cannot have too many hopes pinned on it,
it’s not “The Solution”. Walking and cycling
most likely account for more journeys
than PT and should be nurtured. The
private vehicle has its place but needs strict
management.
7. Policy and Legislation
The policy framework has to reflect urban
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
principles (density, mix of uses, etc). My
particular view is that accessibility could
become an all-encompassing principle
whereby developments in an urban
context should ensure minimum levels of
accessibility to its residents or users (i.e. for
any new dwelling the need to have within
X hundred metres a minimum mix of other
land uses and activities).
8. Integration of city planning, local
ecology, and livelihood
Covered in the various topics above.
9. Other
How does one define quality of life in
a city? I guess that as a mix of the issues
above, and may be more. But each city
needs to ask itself this question – Why
would anyone want to live here? How can
this city improve?.
QUESTIONNAIRE 2 A VIEW FROM
BARCELONA – Ms. Ariadna Perich
Capdeferro,
Lecturer ETSAB (School of Architecture,
Barcelona)
Ariadna Perich Capdeferro studied
Architecture and Urbanism at the
School of Architecture of Barcelona
(ETSAB-UPC). She has finished
two post-graduate programmes,
one from the Design Department
in the ETSAB called “Teoria i
Pràctica del Projecte d’Arquitectura”
where she developed a Master
Thesis about Antoni Gaudí and the
second at the “Sert” school from
the Catalan College of Architects
called “Intensificació en la Pràctica del
Planejament Urbanístic” related to
planning practice in Catalonia.
During her studies she participated
in several workshops throughout
Europe, one of which was the
“International Laboratory of Urban
Design” (ILA&UD) in Venice,
founded by Giancarlo De Carlo and
Peter Smithson. She followed the
Erasmus programme at Edinburgh
College of Art in 2000-01, working
on design projects based on “The
Union Canal”. This experience lead
to her graduation project called
“The secret garden”, which was a
museum for the Union Canal at
the Edinburgh basin that become
the “gatehouse” of the linear park Barcelona
that she understood that was the canal space for the city. The project
won the “Honour Award 2005” from the School of Architecture in
Barcelona and later the “Dragados Award” for final project, and has
been published in the magazine “Visions”.
During her time in Scotland in 2000, she worked for the award
winning practice Oliver Chapman Architects.
She has been a design studio tutor at the School of Architecture,
Barcelona, since 2005, currently works as an architect in Barcelona,
and is involved in various architectural publications.
What are the issues and questions facing regional cities today?
1. Sustainable Development & Energy
The instruments of the urban planning are the ones who have to
integrate in their policies the concept of sustainability. That means:
1. Relate the growing necessities of any town or village with the
27
 natural resources, landscape, 5. Design first policy to introduce the gender like a
archaeological, historical and cultural A quality design is the key to achieve all urban parameter, in attention to promote
values, to guarantee a better quality the new requirements of sustainability and the gender balance in the use of public
of life. economy. The actual crisis should represent space and public buildings. These rule, has
a moment for re-think (without hurries…) reactivated a lot of investigations relating
2. Promote the concentration to
which and how is the model of sustainable woman and cities, using their experience
make reliable any operation,
urban development that we have to apply to make better designs, with more dialog,
3. Configurate models of land to our cities and which are the more diversity and less discrimination.
occupation that avoid de according building typologies. In that case, Of course, policies and legislations have to
dispersion within the territory and is a good moment to investigate more become actions, and involve the citizens on
contemplate the rehabilitation of (depending which country of course) and them.
the existing tissues as a sustainable maybe start changing the inertia of a bad
inner development and growing. practice. Dialog between all the agents is 8. Integration of city planning, local
Finally, necessary as well as the public participation. ecology, and livelihood
4. To encourage the social cohesion Public participation! People have to be
and agreement. 6. Transport and Infrastructure Networks
involved in city planning. Transversal
The mobility has to be diversified and not relations between technicians, politics and
2. The Economy & Economic obligated. Promote the public transport. citizens. Openness and transparency versus
Competitiveness When the critic mass is enough, to isolation and opacity.
Especially in periods of good encourage certain infrastructures should
economy and optimism, it’s be essential, if not the economical and
important to have a close and demographical growing of some territories
Barcelona delicate control of the quality of the becomes blocked. We can no longer rely
QUESTIONNAIRE 3 A VIEW FROM
developments, in terms of design and on private cars. If we built more compact,
OSLO – Professor Christian Hermansen,
execution. What we have now, in times of together with a good mobility plan the city
Head of Urban Design, Oslo School of Architecture and
recession, is a big amount of housing projects increases their urban quality. Design.
that were fast built with the consequent poor
design and material quality. Totally a miss 7. Policy and Legislation Christian Hermansen Cordua studied
opportunity to do it, and do it well. Policy sometimes is the detonator of a new architecture in Santiago, Chile, followed
conscious, and of course, when government by a one year post-graduate programme
3. Social Justice legislates some issues, it means subventions in Urban Studies with a Ford Foundation
Any urban planning proposal has to generate and economical impulse on them. For Fellowship. He joined the faculty at the
a social balance, incorporating social example, a policy in Catalunya called School of Architecture, Catholic University
housing in private developments, preventing “Llei de millora de barris, areas urbanes I of Chile, Santiago, and went on to do
the formation of ghettos or marginal viles que requereixen una atenció especial” post- graduate studies at Washington
neighbourhoods. As well as provide the new (policy to renovate neighbourhoods, urban University, U.S.A. 1973 – 1974 on a
urban area with mixture of uses and public areas and towns with the need of special Fulbright Fellowship. From 1974 – 76
facilities if is necessary. The quality of the attention) from 26 May 2004, was the he worked with Environmental Design
design will be and important issue in order to
achieve such purposes.
28
Associates, U.S.A. He moved to London in
1976 where he taught at Kingston School of
Architecture and did research at the Bartlett,
University College London. He moved
to Scotland in 1980 where he taught at
Strathclyde University until 1984.
In that year he started work with both the
Mackintosh School of Architecture Glasgow
School of Art from 1984 to 2002 where he
was Director of Post Graduate Studies, and
for Elder and Cannon Architects. The work
with Elder and Cannon won numerous
awards such as The Royal Scottish Academy
Gold Medal for Architecture, RIBA
Awards, GIA Awards, Civic Trust Awards,
The Regeneration Scotland Prize, Europa
Nostra Award, Eternit Prize for British
Architecture, etc. In 2002 he moved to
Oslo, Norway to work on the translation
of Ildefonso Cerda’s Teoría General de la
Urbanización (1867) and in 2004 became
Professor of Architecture and Head of the
Department of Architecture, a position he
held until 2009. In addition to the activities
described above he lectured in America,
Europe and Asia, has been Visiting Professor
at The Central European University,
Department of History and Philosophy of
Art and Architecture, Prague; Washington
University School of Architecture, St. Louis,
USA; and Universidad del Desarrollo,
Santiago, Chile. He has published several
books and contributed to journals, books
and exhibitions in Europe and America. He
is currently part of two EU funded research
projects: the ENHSA Latin America
Project, and e – archidoct.
What are the issues and questions facing
regional cities today?
1. Sustainable Development & Energy
The whole discourse on sustainability has
taken the wrong turn. It is based on the
assumption that the prime objective of
sustainability is to preserve our current
levels of consumption undisturbed. As the
recent economic crash has demonstrated,
to operate under the expectations of
ever increasing abundance is illusory.
Sustainability should start from the
acceptance of scarcity.
2. The Economy & Economic
Competitiveness
The old mechanisms that enabled our
way of life have been broken by the recent
economic crash, especially the unlimited
access to cheap credit for households,
businesses, banks, and governments, which
sustained economic growth and abundance
in the last decades, has come to and end
and should not be revived as a basis for a
sustainable economic system.
In this context, the current attempts at re-
starting revolving debt consumerism are an
exercise in futility. We’ve reached the limit
of being able to sustain additional debt at
any level without causing further damage
and distortions.
4. Environmental Quality, including
resource and waste management
In spite of globalisation, the competitive
advantage of the world’s most successful
city-regions seems to be growing, not
shrinking. People are crowding into a
discrete number of mega-regions, systems
of multiple cities and their surrounding
suburban rings. The world’s 40 largest
mega-regions, which are home to some 18
percent of the world’s population, produce
two-thirds of global economic output and
nearly 9 in 10 new patented innovations.
Along with the rise of mega-regions, a
second phenomenon is also reshaping the
economic geography of the world. The
ability of different cities and regions to
attract highly educated people, or human
capital, is crucial to economic success.
Nobel laureate Robert Lucas argues that
the economic effects of knowledge that
result from talent-clustering are the main
cause of economic growth. Well-educated
professionals and creative workers who live
together in dense ecosystems, interacting
directly, generate ideas and turn them into
products and services faster than talented
people in other places can.
5. Design
If we accept that the main challenge of a
successful economy is to promote dense
urban clusters capable of attracting highly
educated people, providing a high quality
living environment is an important part of
the equation.
7. Policy and Legislation
If the analysis described above holds, it
would follow that Scotland would have
to concentrate its resources in developing
what is at present it’s most successful urban
‘knowledge cluster’, rather than dispersing
scarce resources throughout the country.
This applies to the investments required by
the issues raised in questions 5, 6, and 8.
29
Questionnaire selection (LH & AMP)
We have included an anonymous selection
of questionnaire responses, organised
by category, and then summarised.
Responses were selected either because
they represented a unique point of view
or because they represented a convergence
or consensus of opinion. In the latter case,
we sought to indicate the frequency of
converging opinions.
1. Sustainable Development & Energy
The current energy situation (oil, gas,
electricity, water, food) is predominantly
trans-national. In current models, supply
is perceived as limitless, despite collective
knowledge of resource limitations. The
pressures on particular resources have
consequences with differentiated urban
impact depending on context: water to
southern Spain; oil to the industrial north;
gas to Eastern Europe.
School of Architecture, University of Edinburgh/
Practicing Architect, UK
Addressing the climate change agenda
is now a top priority for cities across the
world, including Scotland. Policy responses
such as Eco-towns in England and the
Scottish Sustainable Communities Initiative
are good first steps but more needs to be
done.
Town and Regional Planning, University of Dundee
Transport is at the heart of the sustainable
development debate.
Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Aberdeen
30
It’s easier to address environmental
sustainability through box ticking
and policy rather than tackle social
sustainability, which involves dealing with
a range of policy issues (transportation,
housing, etc).
London City Council
The whole discourse on sustainability has
taken the wrong turn. It is based on the
assumption that the prime objective of
sustainability is to preserve our current
levels of consumption.
Professor of Urban Design, Oslo
[Development led by commercial interests]
has become the norm, and this position
is becoming increasingly more difficult to
retract from, given the entrenchment of
commercial positions.
Scottish Government
Seen as too complex, too expensive,
too risky in terms of finance v results.
Patronised by platitudes and short-term
fixes, seen as someone else’s problem.
Design Manager, City Council, England
Reinvigorate local ownership of public
space as a cultural domain.
Director, Local Authority funded Arts Organisation
2. The Economy & Economic
Competitiveness
Irreversible decline of town centres resulting
from injudicious approval given to out of
town retail development.
Urban Design Group
Out of town shopping developments have
severely affected the success of most High
Streets. This in turn affects how successful
a neighbourhood can be in providing its
residents with their daily needs.
Foundation for Built Environment, UK
Increasing centralisation toward centres of
economic activity (London and Edinburgh)
to the detriment of other towns and cities.
City Council, Design Advisor/Planner Architect UK
Scotland must develop a high quality, low
carbon economic brand by developing
sustainable communities. The development
plan process will be the key to this rather
than laissez faire development.
Conservation Body, Scotland
Economic development vs. design quality.
Local authorities have so many policies
emphasising design quality but… it all goes
out of the window when faced with a high
profile scheme from a vociferous developer
that will create a number of jobs.
London City Council
The current attempts at re-starting revolving
debt consumerism are an exercise in futility.
Professor of Urban Design, Oslo
Economy fixed in market-driven and
monetarist cyclical movement.
Design Manager, City Council, England
We should be looking at ways of managing
contraction – thinking about the agendas
that can reinforce people’s attachment to
a place and not damaging that which is
precious in an attempt to deliver short-
term economic gain. Weighing up the love
against the cash.
Director, Local Authority funded Arts Organisation
How [do] cities and regions in Scotland need
to adapt to such changes [i.e., changes in
capitalist modes of production] to remain
economically competitive, promote innovation
and to generate jobs. How might the planning
system intervene…? What might be the role of
universities…?
Town and Regional Planning, University of Dundee
3. Social Justice
The city and town should be accessible to
the entire society and not just a few. This
can be achieved in our towns and cities
by mixing tenures in a traditional urban
framework, providing a range of public
open spaces, and community buildings.
Foundation for Built Environment, UK
Do current models and methods of
urbanism really ever promote diversity
or accept slowness as a way of being in a
forward-looking city?
University of Edinburgh
Making the ‘polluter pays’ principle stick.
Professor of Civil Engineering,
University of Dundee
Sustainability is – in economic terms
– linked to specialist, traditional trade
development.
School of Architecture, University of Edinburgh
Social segregation is not lessening. The
affluent move away from areas where there
are people with problematic lifestyles, the
poor cannot.
Concentration on wealth creation and
monetary value has… created ghettos in
urban contexts. The new agenda of control
and surveillance in the hands of government
and financial institutions… threatens to
subsume basic rights of free movement.
Design Manager, City Council, England
Putting ‘communities in control’, but the
reality doesn’t seem to match the rhetoric.
Town and Regional Planning, University of Dundee
4. Environmental Quality, including
resource and waste management
The high value of developable land over
recent years has led many local authorities,
and others, to maximise income by
permitting/encouraging over-development.
Land has become too expensive just to
be ‘land’. (Although the valuable work
undertaken by the Scottish Banks to
destroy the world economy may provide an
opportunity to re-assess the true value of
land as a resource for communities and not
merely a source of profit to a few.)
Director, UK Housing Association
How can British cities turn the twin issues
of climate change and growing populations
to their advantage?
The Lighthouse
To throw away is not tenable anymore; the
Earth is the planet which we all occupy,
we need to develop a different attitude to
environmental quality, an understanding of
Earth time is critical.
City Design Leader, Scotland
Why have ‘eco towns’ failed to capture
the public attention? Professor of Civil
Engineering,
University of Aberdeen
In spite of globalisation, the competitive
advantage of the world’s most successful
city-regions seems to be growing, not
shrinking. People are crowding into a discrete
number of mega-regions….Nobel laureate
Robert Lucas argues that the economic
effects of knowledge that result from talent-
clustering are the main cause of economic
growth. Well-educated professionals and
creative workers who live together in dense
ecosystems… generate ideas… faster than
talented people in other places.
Professor of Urbanism, Oslo
Make recycling bins into meeting points.
Director, Local Authority funded Arts Organisation
Promote… shared streets rather than
segregate pedestrian/vehicles.
Anonymous architect
‘cradle to cradle’ approach to all areas of
production and resource management
Heriot-Watt University, ‘by leaves we live’ +
‘sympathy, synthesis, synergy’: …the human
ecology of cities, … what we value most
about our built and unbuilt environment…
Architect, Glasgow
31

Meeting Discussion (in the picture Graham Ross
and Diarmaid Lawlor) 06 of April 2009
5. Design
The role of the architect and architectural
design is to contribute creative solutions as
to what it is to dwell well, and to investigate
iterations of this which contribute to
dwelling well together in cities and urban
situations.
School of Architecture, University of Edinburgh
The EPSRC SOLUTIONS project has
been modelling options such as compact
cities (with strong emphasis on public
transport) and a highways expansion
option promoting the development of new
settlements or the linking of established
outer settlements.
Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Aberdeen
It is difficult to legislate for design. Design
involves complex processes that are not
readily understood by non-designers.
School of Architecture, University of Edinburgh
32
The design issues facing regional cities today
traverse rethinking the presence/absence
of infrastructures; inclusions/exclusions
of the ‘public’ realm – what do we now
understand as ‘the right to the city’?
School of Architecture, University of Edinburgh
Basic lack of understanding of place-making
at senior… level, too much emphasis on
economic development and acceptance of
poor design in the name of regeneration.
Design Manager, City Council, England
Lack of understanding of Scottish
vernacular either in buildings or street
layout. Risk of copying Poundbury/Essex
design guide rather than setting out with
similar objectives and coming up with a
strongly Scottish solution.
Urban Design Group
Low density sprawl [is] promoted.
Architect, Edinburgh
6. Transport and Infrastructure Networks
Travel must be kept to a minimum. Where
it is necessary to promote development,
potential travel should be factored into
planning applications and presented as part
of the carbon ‘cost’ of a project.
Conservation Body, Scotland
There cannot be transportation projects;
movement issues are and should be
intrinsically linked to PLACE MAKING.
Design City Leader
Too much emphasis is placed on fast
economic practices. Slow economy projects
need to be considered alongside fast
economy projects. Transport Scotland; for
example, are far too detached from design
in any form other than technical and cost
engineering.
School of Architecture, University of Edinburgh
‘Default setting’ of car use for transport.
Scottish Government
How to address the ‘by-pass’ issue? Every
town/city appears to want a ‘by-pass’
if they don’t have one already, as they
perceive traffic congestion to be a blight
and a nuisance without fully grasping the
opportunities that traffic and passing traffic
possess for shops and services.
Urban Design, Strathclyde University
[The government’s claims to want to] to
lessen the impact of cars at metropolitan
centres [is] not supported by [its] increased
investment in road building.
Design Manager, City Council, England
Mass public transport systems. Green
infrastructure.
RTPI
7. Policy and Legislation
The main elements of the new 2006
Planning etc Scotland Act come into force
this year including the creation of Strategic
Development Planning Authorities for
Scotland’s 4 main cities. There is a huge
opportunity, as a result, to develop policy
relevant research which helps these new
bodies to operate and deliver effectively.
Town and Regional Planning, University of Dundee
It is Secondary.
Professor of Architecture, Strathclyde University
‘Joined up thinking’ is important. Most
cities have large journey-to-work areas
which cross local authority boundaries.
Urban (and rural) policies should therefore
identify and respond to issues of rural-urban
interaction.
Professor of Civil Engineer, Aberdeen
Scotland would have to concentrate its
resources in developing what is at present
it’s most successful urban ‘knowledge
cluster’, rather than dispersing scarce
resources throughout the country.
Professor of Urbanism, Oslo
Also, there is a vast quantity of good
guidance in place, perhaps certain
‘guidance’ should be strengthened, e.g.
what will happen if Designing Streets is
given guidance only status and not policy
status?
Urban Design, Strathclyde University
8. Integration of city planning, local
ecology, and livelihood
The most interesting towns and cities seem
to be the ones that embrace and found
themselves upon their natural ecology and
landscape to create a place that is entirely
unique.
Foundation for Built Environment, UK
Task Force Members
Meeting 06 of April 2009
The separation of, for instance, food supply
from our individual and collective eating, is
endemic of a politically laissez-faire attitude
to resource management. Understanding
reconnections between food and place
(Steel, 2008), particularly at the median
scale, is a fundamental issue which needs to
be addressed by regional cities today.
School of Architecture, University of Edinburgh/
Practicing Architect UK
In recent years the Royal Town Planning
Institute (RTPI) has promoted a move
to ‘spatial planning’ rather than town
planning. Spatial planning is a European
concept, which according to the 1983
European Conference of Ministers ‘gives
geographical expression to the economic,
social, cultural and ecological policies of
society’.
Town and Regional Planning, University of Dundee
Too frequently those who administer the
systems for looking after cities have little
understanding of their city. Regional and
local plans tend not to operate from region/
city/place/design principles. They tend to be
too diagrammatic and very un-architectural.
University of Edinburgh
9. Other
Need to recognise that the system is not
working.
Design City Leader, Scotland
We need more positive consultation between
Scottish Government and LAs and the
community. Communities can offer valuable
views when asked but if they are not
approached, and then development becomes
one-sided – usually from the ‘outside’.
Private Architectural Practice, Architect & Community
Councillor Scotland 33

Sustainability was understood in a number
of ways in the questionnaires, including:
the development of towns and cities in
ways that minimise climate change;
the development of sustainable energy
sources;
development that prevents damage to
the environment and natural ecologies;
and
development whose design sustains
communities and their many and varied
cultures, identities, and heritages.
There was frequent criticism of the out
of town housing development, which
increasingly is favoured by developers for
financial reasons. Sustainable development
is not only about designing and
manufacturing ‘green’ building components
and designing ‘green’ housing units. It
is also – and perhaps more importantly
– about sustainable planning which involves
the coordination of, e.g., new housing
schemes with transport planning, resource
management, amenities, etc.
The economy elicited the most conflicted
responses. Developing the economy was
linked to the strengthening of town centres
and of regions; at the same time, the fact
that land and development is exclusively
profit driven, was criticised as one of the
most corrosive effects on the public realm.
34
Summary and Discussion (LH)
Social justice was understood in terms of
the provision of shared space and pollution-
free environments, and the re-instatement of
value systems other than the money system.
[A favourable reference to the guild system
was presumably about creating an electorate
comprising multiple elites rather than the
overriding and unitary money elite.] Forces
against social justice included competitive
forms of wealth creation, and the erosion of
privacy by surveillance regimes.
The continuing and increasing threat to the
quality of the environment, both natural
and man-made, was linked to problems of
overdevelopment, which was linked to the
way the market system overvalues land and
distorts land values. It was also linked to
population growth and climate change.
Good design was difficult to achieve when
development decisions were market driven.
Given current financing arrangements, low
density sprawl was simply too attractive to
the developer. There was concern that the
ecotown was another name for low density
newtown. Design has to be place-based
because it is about making or extending
places, and places have particular – not
universal or general – characters and values.
Design is not only about solutions to
problems, but about showing us how to live
(i.e. visualising scenarios).
It was recognised that it is not possible to
divorce transport planning from place-
making, that transport planning (and
resource management) raises region-wide
issues; suggested the necessity of factoring
the cost of road and infrastructure in
development. Almost without exception,
responses focused on the corrosive effects
of the car on the natural and street
environment, and on social life.
Policy changes – including the creation
of the Strategic Development Planning
Authorities – were seen as opportunities
for greater regional-city collaborations
and coordination. Such collaboration was
regarded as highly desirable. There is a need
for a genuine consultation process that allows
the electorate a strategic role in planning,
and not merely in choosing alternatives that
have already been decided upon.
In summary, the overriding concern
expressed in most categories of the
questionnaires was with the environment;
in particular with environmental change
and with the effects of policy, development,
and lifestyle, upon the environment. This is
not new. Rising global average temperature
is the current indicator used to measure the
degradation of the environment, but we
have been concerned about pollution for
more than a generation (Greenpeace was
founded in 1971).
A secondary and closely linked concern was
the economy, but not the current economic
downturn. This was barely mentioned.
Rather, concern with our particular forms
of economy: the particular ways that
land acquisition and development are
financed as (public or private) investment
opportunities. The deleterious effects
that the market system has had on the
quality of public space and planning, on
the environment, on social justice, on
transport policy, was mentioned in almost
all categories. The market system was
singled out repeated as the single biggest
impediment to achieving sustainable
development in terms of community and
the natural environment. Repeatedly the
responses noted the conflict between the
value of, e.g., places and their diversity
(local topography, climate, and history), and
the effects of the market, which reduces all
value to the single value system of capital.
Of equal concern was the corrosive effect
of the car and car use on the environment,
social life and public space, and the
cohesion of cities. The car should be a
recreation not a necessity. This is related
to the critique of the way the market
is structured, which makes car-based
developments the most financially attractive
investment opportunity.
It cannot be emphasised enough that these
three concerns – and only these three – were
mentioned by every respondent, in at least
one, if not more than one category, in each
questionnaire: environmental change, the
market, and the car.
Sub-group workshops (AMP)
The Task Force divided into 3 subgroups 5. Design; 6. Transport and Infrastructure
to discuss the questionnaire categories. The networks.
subgroup discussions are summarised below.
How is regional sustainability defined?
Group A: 1. Sustainable Development &
If sustainability = self-sufficiency, how do
Energy; 2. The Economy and Economic
you define as the boundary within which
Competitiveness; 3. Social Justice.
sustainability occurs?
Treating these as separate issues was a
Is it possible to influence behaviour through
mistake; they need to work together.
design.
There is no understanding of what
Community peer pressure, recycling is the
sustainability is, or what a sustainable city is.
thing to do.
Inverness is about creating a city that serves
How do you create a legitimate engagement
the Highlands.
with the community?
The question is how we criticise places, even
Sustainability is a problem of educating
as we go on use them? – i.e: shopping malls,
people.
Victoria Arcades.
How do we create mechanisms for
We want beautiful places, but this is not
engagement?
the main thing we aspire to. We want
interesting rather than beautiful places. Most planning processes do not use viable
mechanisms of engagement so people feel they
Exchange is about consuming culture. How
own the place where they live.
is the quality of that exchange?.
Group C: 7. Policy and Legislation; 8.
Cities are places where creative minds come
Integration of city planning, local ecology and
together.
livelihood.
Re-balance the cities that are of balance.
The group imagined that Scotland was a city
Ricky Burdett’s Map of Global Cities.
of 5 Million inhabitants: what problems and
How to imagine a self-sufficient Scotland? opportunities become apparent?
Regions should be independent and self- Reframing and remapping the country
sufficient. boundaries, economy and politics.
Group B: 4. Environmental Quality, Mapping knowledge industries, commerce.
including resource and waste management; Look at the map of where activities take place.
35
Connectivity and flows of art practice.
Richard Florida’s criterion should be applied to Scotland.
We should improve the high speed railway for cities and
regions and create a transport system between the 6 node
points.
And post-group discussion…
There are too many reports that no one reads, not
enough action.
Put imagination and craft at the heart of place-making.
Support the creative industries (design, making,
craft, and construction) too. Take politics and value-
engineering out of place-making.
More joined up thinking: develop spatial, economic,
transport, resource strategies in which cities and regions
work together; and in which regions and regions work
together, rather than in competition. Since there is only
a finite amount of money, this means that we need to
develop other economic models so that economic growth
in one area does not drain capital from another.
Develop the financing and executive structures that
make good design possible and bad design difficult. This
requires development corporations with the necessary
political and economic power, and the necessary
leadership, and imagination.
Change the market conditions so that good design is
possible and bad design is difficult.
The government is committed to wealth creation.
It seems that most developers do not love the place they
develop, but only regard it as an investment opportunity.
Use design to expand the horizons of the possible: use
design to imagine new lifestyles, new forms of living,
new relationships to the land and its resources, new
relations between city and region.
36
Conclusions (LH & AMP)
It is important to understand the concept
of the city-region in its European and
Scottish context. According to Edward
Soja (Professor at UCLA), “a regional
urbanisation process is replacing old ideas
that cities are not simply growing through
suburbanisation and sprawl but in a very
different way. They are hiving off new cities.
We get multicentric, polycentric, networked
city-regions forming, and so Mexico City
region is the one that is 37 million”.
It is predicted that by 2050, 75% of
the world’s population will be living in
cities. This phenomenon is not dissimilar
in Scotland. Such growth is already
taking place in the Central Belt, Fife and
Inverness. According to Guy Battle “it is
clear that any future new urban model
must be sustainable at heart. However,
we can establish that our present models
are flawed. The new model must find a
balance between the needs of individuals,
society, the economy and the environment”.
Whatever growth or urban models we apply
to cities and regions in Scotland, they will
have to be sustainable, and this is the great
challenge ahead.
Joan Clos (Mayor of Barcelona between
1997 and 2006) in his essay ‘The European
City Model’ defines 4 types of European
City: Anglo-Saxon, Central European,
Nordic and Mediterranean. These models
have common characteristics; they have
tight urban centres and close relations to
their regions:
“The normative European city is a dense,
compact area grouped around a core rather than
sprawling like American Cities; this preserves
the integrity and coherence of its open spaces.
When dense enough it favours mobility on foot
and public transport and its able to avoid and
excessive level of Greenfield development. In
such a city a host of various activities occur in
the same place, combining residence, work and
leisure to create, a diverse and complex lifestyle.
It is home to people from a substantial mix
of social backgrounds, reducing the tendency
towards ghettos caused by income, origin
or race and encouraging social integration.
Public areas are places of peaceful enriching
coexistence. The mobility of its residents is not
entirely dependant on cars, and public transport
plays a major role. Public transport needs a
high concentration of people, and public areas
call for a variety of uses. All these features and
characteristics are interdependent, and all play a
part in shaping the city”.
Shifts (exhibition and subsequent
publication, the Lighthouse, 2007) looks
at future projections into the Central
Belt. In Shifts, Nick Barley (Director of
the Lighthouse) indicts the city-region
in Scotland. “Real Scotland, the country
we engage on a daily basis, does not often
look like the photo library pictures. The
two biggest Scottish cities are so close that
their tongues almost touch when they stick
them out at each other across the central
belt, but for thousands of people that travel
regularly between them, the snapshot from
a train or car window won’t be found in any
photo library. It is more likely to feature

Group A (in the picture Alona Martinez, Husam Al Waer, Rob Cowan, Suzanne Ewing
a light industrial building, a slap heap,
a characterless housing state or a battery
chicken farm”. He goes on to describe the
unplanned mix of landmark buildings,
heavy traffic, and dreary retail/office.
If we want to preserve the European model
for the development of our cities and their
regions, we need to change these current
growth patterns. Among the points that
emerged from the Task Force we note the
following:
• In view of the paramount importance
of the market in shaping decisions relating
to design, planning, and development,
there is a need to study: how the market
shapes urban and rural form; how the
market can be turned to the advantage
of sustainability and design in cases
where it currently seems to work
against them; how the market can be
altered to make good development
possible and bad development difficult.
There are new economic models being
developed, including so-called zero
growth economies (cf. New Scientist 18
October 08), and it would be interesting
to see what forms of urban and regional
development these entail. In a world
with finite resources and a finite capacity
to absorb waste, sustainable economic
growth is an oxymoron. At some point
we have to contemplate zero growth and
the idea of making things better without
making them bigger.
• Exploring ways of intervening in
the market forces is critical to evolving
socially, economically and environmentally
sustainable development. This may include
alternative models of public private
partnership, alternative forms of building
financing and procurement.
• The formation of regeneration agencies
(Bilbao Ria 2000, Sheffield One) is vital
for success as a facilitator for regeneration
and also to promote the objectives set out
in local/regional/city plans. This helps
unify all tiers of government and can act
independently of political and private
interests.
• The structuring and financing of regional
agencies is key to their success. For example,
Bilbao Ria 2000 is a limited company, in
which local and central government each
have a 50% share. The city allocates land
to the company for development and the
financial gains are re-invested in the area.
• It is important to have a vision and
improve the image of cities and regions
(Bilbao, Liverpool). A vision needs to be
clearly expressed and communicated.
• It is important to apply environmental
measures to industrial areas, and to
promote the re-use of brownfield sites for
regeneration and new housing, rather than
Greenfield areas.
• Look after heritage – but not as an end
itself. Heritage must work for its living. As a
37

Group B (in the picture Malcom Horner, Ariadna
Perich, Maarten Neering, Lorens Holm, Cristina
Gonzalez & Robert Huxford)
38
nation, we are deeply conservative and this
can be used to our advantage. Heritage is
not a constraint, but an opportunity.
• It is essential to link regeneration
with issues of design quality – we are all
competing globally and trying to attract
the same investors. Design quality based
on place-making and context is not a
luxury but an imperative and should
be used as the major instrument of the
regeneration tool-kit.
• Sustainable urbanism should be
considered not just at a local level but at
the regional level. Regional strategies for • It is essential for the 6 cities and regions
transport, jobs and economics, education to work together and not separately, and
and health can be developed so that towns for regional and local governments and
and settlements work in harmony with each authorities to have common objectives
other. in their local plans and frameworks. For
example Glasgow/Edinburgh, Perth/
• There are tools to deliver sustainable
Dundee, Inverness/Aberdeen and the
places such as the Enquiry by Design
regions in between.
Process (EbD, developed by the Princes
Foundation), pattern books and design • It is essential to link land use with public
codes. The EbD masterplanning process transport and infrastructure both in regional
brings key stakeholders together, to assess a and local plans to achieve sustainability.
complex range of design requirements for
• It is important to work on a European
the development site, with every issue tested
City-Regional model that promotes
by being drawn.
compactness and uses public transport
• Main streets need to offer attractive systems, and avoids sprawl and car use.
survivable, environments – not places
where people are afraid to go out. There
is incontrovertible evidence relating
traffic speed to accident causation and
injury severity. Shared surface can allow
pedestrians and cars to co-exist.
• Need for Leadership – City Governance
The poor quality of the experience offered
along the major routes into towns and
cities is clear evidence of funds not being
allocated either by private or public sectors,
and an absence of any understanding of
the importance of these routes as places, or References
of any vision that they could be of much Nick Barley, Shifts: Projections into the Future of the Central
greater value to the surrounding community Belt (The Lighthouse 2007) pp. 11-12.
and the city as a whole. R. Burdett & D. Sudjic, The Endless City: the Urban Age
Project by the London School of Economics and Deutsche Bank’s
Alfred Herrhausen Society (Phaidon 2007).
 Ways forward (LH)
The purpose of the Task Force is to identify
problems and opportunities confronting
development in Scotland and in Europe
today, and to form research collaborations
to pursue them. The Task Force is essentially
an open network of researchers, whose
active membership – like that of the Geddes
Institute - is defined by collaboration
on projects. [diagram 1] Given the size,
disciplinary spread, and demographics of
the group, we expect each collaboration to
be different.
1.0 Expertise: the Task Force as it was
convened in April has a multidisciplinary
approach and expertise with a strong
background in planning and architectural
design and problem solving at both
academic and local authority levels, which
puts it in a position to develop research
partnerships that address a broad range of
cultural and environmental issues. We have
significant participation from two other
essential quarters: from civil engineering
with research track records in infrastructure
and resources management, and from
urbanist from European universities,
and from UK local authorities, Scottish
Government, and public and professional
bodies. The task now is to develop different
scales of partnership and different scales of
funding to support this collective expertise.
2.0 University Partnerships:
2.1 The Task Force is aligned with a
Sustainable Housing Unit currently begin
developed in the School of Architecture,
with a research remit in sustainable housing
design and technology. There is a logic of
scale to this collaboration. It’s remit begins
with the site and works down to the design
of building components; the Task Force’s
remit begins with the site and works up to
regional planning.
2.2 There are opportunities to contribute
to EPSRC (Environment and Physical
Sciences Research Council) teams
– primarily based in Civil Engineering
– engaged in research in infrastructure
and resource management at the regional
level. The EPSRC recognises the need
for contributions to their teams from the
humanities and social sciences in cases
where their research has bearing on lifestyle,
local culture, and heritage.
Diagram 2: Task Force Grant Strategy
3.0 UK Partnerships: research partnerships
with UK Higher Education Institutions
(HEI’s), UK stakeholders (public and semi-
public bodies, including local authorities,
Scottish Government, and government
advisory groups), and UK industries, in
particular developers. A research team
comprising stakeholders and industry
is essential for addressing questions of
planning policy and market forces, both
of which emerged as critical areas in group
discussions and/or the questionnaires.
[diagram 2]
4.0 European Partnerships with European
HEI’s to broaden the research and
knowledge base beyond Scotland, to
establish comparators for best practice, and
to establish a network of regional centres
of planning and design expertise. [diagram Diagram 1: Geddes Institute Disciplinary Homes
(Architecture, Geography, Planning) and Projects
3, item 6.2] In particular, a research
partnership with our participants from
Oslo, Bilbao, Barcelona, and Liverpool has
a geographic logic:
2 island sites + 3
continental sites
3 northern sites + 2
southern sites, all of
them slightly ‘edgey’.
39
 5.0 In-house resources upon which we can
draw for project planning and feasibility
include:
Masters and PhD-level Architecture and
Urban Design students, and summer
student internships, whose work can
become the basis for preliminary research
and background information gathering.
The City Think Tank (CTT) seminar
series for convening project collaborators
and project advisory boards.
A research and development office (RIS)
with expertise in developing research
proposals, in particular, in partnership
with industry.
A website supported by the Department of
Town & Regional Planning,
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/geddesinstitute/.
Administrative support through the
School of Architecture.
Diagram 3: Geddes Institute EU Grant Strategy
40
6.0 There are at least two Funding
strategies:
6.1 Task Force project funding (as item
7.1) – funding opportunities include
Research Council (RC) Network grants,
and Technology Strategy Board (TSB)
and Knowledge Transfer Partnership
(KTP) funding calls. (Current TSB and
KTP calls are not in Task Force areas, but
new calls are announced regularly.) These
funding mechanisms involve primarily
UK academic, stakeholder, and industry
partners [diagram 2].
6.2 Geddes Institute: Revenue funding to
build research capacity, drawing on the Task
Force academic collaborators in Oslo and
Spain. We are working towards European
Union grants that would fund a European-
wide partnership. Typically this funding
includes for PhD and Senior Research
Fellowships in each centre, thus constituting
a network of research centres on cities and
their regions. This funding would create a
research ‘home’ for the Task Force, but it
is intended to have a broader disciplinary
remit than the Sustainable Development
project (below), to include the culture of
cities and their regions, in its myriad forms.
[diagram 3]
7.0 Current projects
7.1 The Task Force is beginning a
Sustainable Development project with
our stakeholder partners, that looks at
design models for in-town densification,
edge-of-town expansion, and out-of-town/
new-town development, under different
conditions of local context, culture,
finance, and brief, across Scotland. This
involves graphic methods similar to those
described in the Barcelona presentation.
This project is in the feasibility/project
planning stage. It will be the basis for a
funded research proposal at national or
European level, which aims to develop
regional level sustainable urban design
and planning models that address bio and
cultural diversity across regions, and address
strategically the relationship of cities to their
regions.
7.2 Additionally, the Geddes Institute is
preparing two AHRC grant proposals that
would expand the research context within
which the Task Force operates. [diagram 1]
These include: Acknowledgements
7.2.1 Remixing the City aims to develop
a model for bringing place-based and
internet-based communities (i.e., the
The formation of the Task Force would not of School for his support and the support
neighbourhood and the chatroom)
have been possible without the support of the School, and Susannah Kett, the
together in order to explore the degree
of the School of Architecture, its staff, Geddes Institute administrator, without
to which the latter can stake a claim on
students, and administration; and the whose labour and continued diligence
civic life (project partners include Dundee
Geddes Institute and its three directors. this event and publication would not
industry and local authority).
The School of Architecture hosted the have been possible. Also we would like to
7.2.2 Landworkers looks at social April symposium and has generously thank our 5 speakers (Rob Cowan, Lita
formations and their relation to the natural supported this publication. Richard White Khazaka, Robert Huxford, Rob Burns &
environment through a series of artist- prepared the maps; Hugh Campbell Ariadna Perich) who wrote the summaries
architect collaborations in the landscape provided IT support; Esme Fieldhouse & of their presentations and provided the
(exhibition and conference co-sponsored Stephen Mackie kept the machine well- images, for inclusion in this report. Finally
by the RIAS, May 2009). oiled on the day; Tracey Dixon maintains Koldo Ocejo, who designed and produced
8.0 Advocacy: finally, with respect to the website. In particular we would like to this publication.
policy issues that necessarily have a political thank Graeme Hutton, Dean and Head
dimension, the Task Force might also be
effective as an advocacy group. Greenpeace
Group C (in the picture John Deffenbaugh,
and many medical charities fund research Graeme Hutton & Lita Khazaka)
and advocacy.
Transport is as much a political problem as
a technical one, because it depends upon
the lifestyle choices of the electorate, and
because any change in car use has to be
national policy, not regional (if Dundee
were to choke car use, development would
simply go elsewhere).
Any major changes to planning policy
intended to address the way land and
development are financed, is as much a
problem of advocacy as it is a problem
of knowledge that could be solved by
research. Everybody - including developers
and policy-makers - knows that sprawl
is destroying our countryscapes and
cityscapes but we are bound by the market
system that encourages it.
41
 Geddes Institute for Urban Research
Directors:
Dr. Lorens Holm (Architecture).
Professor Nicholas Fyfe (Geography).
Ms. Barbara Illsley (Town & Regional Planning).
Staff:
Ms. Alona Martinez-Perez, Researcher, Project
Manager (Architecture).
Ms. Tracey Dixon, Website (Town & Regional
Planning).
Ms. Susannah Kett, Geddes Administrator
(Architecture).
Management Board:
The Directors, plus
Dr. Neil Burford, Architecture.
Michael Spens, Architecture.
Professor Kathryn Findlay, Architecture.
Dr. Catriona MacAuley (Interactive Media
Design).
Professor Jim Tomlinson (History, College Head
of Research).
42
International Advisory Committee Appendixes
David Grahame Shane Professor of Architecture 1. Draft invitation letter.
and Urbanism, Columbia University. 2. Program Agenda Monday 06 April 2009.
David Lyon Professor of Sociology, Queens 3. Questionnaire.
University, Ontario.
4. List of Questionnaire respondents.
Lance Strate Professor of Communication
5. Meeting minutes (Esme Fieldhouse &
and Media Studies, Fordham University, New
Stephen Mackie).
York City; and President of the Media Ecology
Association. 6. List of Attendees on Monday 06 April 09.
Leon van Schaik Professor of Architecture 7. References List.
(Innovation Chair), Royal Melbourne Institute
of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.
Paul Guzzardo St. Louis and Buenos Aires,
lawyer, media activist, and director of MediaArts
Alliance.
Richard LeGates Professor of Urban Studies, San
Francisco State University.
1. Invitation letter 2. Program Agenda Monday 06 April 2009
The Geddes Task Force on Cities & their Regions The Geddes Task Force on Cities & their Regions
Aberdeen Dundee Edinburgh Glasgow Inverness Stirling Aberdeen Dundee Edinburgh Glasgow Inverness Stirling

Monday 06 April 2009, 10:00-5:00pm, Crawford Boardroom

The Crawford Boardroom is located on the ground floor of the Crawford Building, Duncan of
Date Jordanstone College of Art and Design, 13 Perth Road Dundee. 10 minute walk west from the train
station. Any questions and problems, please contact Lynn Alexander 01382 385 260 or
l.alexander@dundee.ac.uk

Dear Sir/Madam, 9:30 Morning coffee begins

Morning Session-Selected Speakers

The Geddes Institute for Urban Research would like to invite you to
join a ‘boardroom’ of key people from government, local authority,
urban design practice, and academe to develop an urban design agenda
for Scottish Cities and their regions. The boardroom will meet in
Dundee but its reach is intended to extend across Scotland. Its
purpose is to agree a position statement addressing the issues and
problems facing Scottish cities, with a view to focusing funded
research in urbanism. We intend to present this statement at the RIAS
convention in Dundee in May of this year.
We would like to begin by asking you to fill out a short answer
questionnaire (enclosed) which will form the basis for the meeting.
Please return this questionnaire to Alona Martinez-Perez at
a.martinezperez@dundee.ac.uk by Friday 06 March. We intend to convene
the boardroom towards the end of March at the University of Dundee.
This will be an all day event, involving speakers and a discussion of
the tabulated questionnaire answers (date and program to be confirmed
next week).
The Geddes Institute is an interdisciplinary research group at the
University of Dundee with members drawn from across the arts and
social sciences, including architecture geography planning history
economics design computing fine art and new media. For more
information, please check: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/geddesinstitute/
10:00 Introduction: Lorens Holm + Alona Martinez
10:15 Speaker 1
Ms. Ariadna Perich Capdeferro Lecturer ETSAB (School of Architecture
Barcelona): the relation of Barcelona to its regions.
10:45 Speaker 2
Mr. Rob Burns Liverpool City Council Lead Urban Designer: the regeneration
of Liverpool.
11:15 Speakers 3&4
Mr. Rob Cowan Urban Design Skills (Designing Places author) +
Mr. Robert Huxford (Urban Design Group Director UK): planning policy UK.
11:45 Speaker 5
Lita Khazaka, Architect and Urban Designer with the Prince’s Foundation:
traditional urbanism.
12:15 The Geddes Task Force on Cities and their Regions- Presentation of
questionnaire findings.
Dr. Lorens Holm, Director Geddes Institute (Architecture).
Ms. Alona Martinez-Perez, Regional Convenor, Urban Design Group Scotland.
1:00 Lunch
2:00 Afternoon Working Sessions:
Master of Ceremonies
John Deffenbaugh, City of London Project Manager (Public Realm).

We hope you will agree to join us, Sub-Groups

1. Sustainable Development & Energy
2. The Economy and Economic Competitiveness
Signed, 3. Social Justice
4. Environmental Quality, including resource and waste management
5. Design of cities and city spaces and city region networks
6. Transport and other Infrastructure Networks
7. Policy and Legislation
8. Integration of city planning, local ecology, and livelihood

Dr. Lorens Holm, Director, Geddes Institute, and Reader, Dundee
School of Architecture
Ms. Alona Martinez-Perez, Research Director, Geddes Task Force on
Cities Regional, and Regional Convenor, Urban Design Group
cc. Professor Nicholas Fyfe
cc. Ms. Barbara Illsely
Followed by general Round Table Discussion and presentations by Sub-Groups
+ Tea Coffee Cookies
4:00 The way forward: future meetings, the report, research grants.
Discussion led by Lorens Holm + Alona Martinez
5:00 close

43
3. Questionnaire 4. List of Questionnaire respondents
The Geddes Task Force on Cities & their Regions The Geddes Task Force on Cities & their Regions
Aberdeen Dundee Edinburgh Glasgow Inverness Stirling Aberdeen Dundee Edinburgh Glasgow Inverness Stirling

Patrick Geddes, Think globally act locally.

31 Questionnaires
QUESTIONNAIRE Alastair Keyte.doc
Archie Clark.doc
What are the issues and questions facing regional cities today? Ariadna Perich Capdeferro.doc
Barbara Illsley.doc
Although it is our intention to bring your observations to bear on Scottish Charles McKean.doc
cities and their regions, arguably regional cities across Europe share Christian Hermansen.doc
characteristics and problems, in terms of identity, sustainability, resource
management, relations to their regions, and the like. Please answer this Clive Gilman.doc
question under the following categories using short paragraph format. You may Cristina Gonzalez-Longo.doc
want to focus on your areas of expertise, or answer in as many categories as Deepak Gopinath.doc
you have knowledge. We will collate them anonymously for presentation at the Dorian Wiszniewski.doc
boardroom meeting, where they will be used as the basis for action. We will Graham Ross.doc
shortly email you an electronic version of this questionnaire. Thank you.
Gordon Murray.doc
Harry Smith.doc
1 Sustainable Development & Energy John Deffenbaugh.doc
John Nelson.doc
Juan Alayo.doc
2 The Economy & Economic Competitiveness Karen Stevenson.doc
Lita Khazaka.doc
Malcolm Horner.doc
3 Social Justice Nick Barley.doc
Ombretta Romice.doc
Ranald Macinnes.doc
4 Environmental Quality, including resource and waste management
Riccardo Marini.doc
Rob Burns.doc
5 Design Rob Cowan.doc
Rob Joiner.doc
Robert Huxford.doc
6 Transport and Infrastructure Networks Robin Harper.doc
Sandy Robinson.doc
Suzzane Ewing.doc
7 Policy and Legislation Veronica Burbridge.doc

8 Integration of city planning, local ecology, and livelihood

9 Other

Area(s) of expertise:

Name and affiliation (optional):

Note: categories 1-6 are taken from Scottish Planning Policy 1, planning system
(SPP1, 2002). Categories 7&8 reflect the interests of Patrick Geddes.

Please return this questionnaire by email to Alona Martinez-Perez at

a.martinezperez@dundee.ac.uk by Friday 06 March 2009.

44
5. Meeting minutes
The Geddes Task Force on Cities & their Regions
Aberdeen Dundee Edinburgh Glasgow Inverness Stirling
Monday 06 April 2009, 10:00-5:00pm, Crawford Boardroom
Meeting Notes (Esme Fieldhouse & Stephen Mackie)
Introductions Lorens Holm
Speaker 1 Ariadna Perich Capdeferro – Barcelona
Legislation – rational way of occupying building territory
- relate to what nature requires, environmental memory
- social needs (housing)
Partial plans within city master plans. A hierarchy of rules and
scales.
Identifying growth, strategic positions for places that can and cannot
grow.
Half of housing that is build must be social housing and 10% of
profits go straight back to Catalan government.
‘That’s what I want from a city, that it excites me. Every kind of
urban planning by definition tends to some homogeneity. The city
contradicts that, the city defines itself through oppositions. It
wants to explode’ Wim Wenders
Questions
Diarmaid Lawlor - Are there political tensions between cities and its
regions?
Ariadna Perich Capdeferro – Important for local to promote other
centres away from Barcelona to strengthen relationships between them.
E.g. Ryan air flights to Gerona airport.
Speaker 2 Rob Burns – Liverpool
When approaching regeneration question why does a city end up looking
the way it does?
Heritage - make it work for its money.
Re-engage the city with the waterfront and celebrate a city of
movement and transition.
When an area is redeveloped it acts as a catalyst for other
developments within the city.
Questions
John Deffenbaugh – How do you achieve so much from low ebb?
Rob Burns – Establish a quality agenda. Only accept the highest
quality design led projects funded from the private sector.
Speaker 3 Robert Cowan, Urban Design Skills
1. Place planning (not master planning)
• Design assessment, a system to help planners that lack skills to
assess and check the quality of a design.
1 2
2. Place check
• Basic questions that need to be asked
• What do you like?
• What don’t you like?
• What needs to be improved?
• What do you want this place to become?
3. Capacity check
• Monitoring the skills of those making the decisions.
• Case study, Neilstown
Speaker 4 Robert Huxford, planning policy UK
Transport.
Car dominates the city public realm.
Radial routes should be the best our cities can offer, not the worst.
Incorporate the car into design instead of fighting against it.
Travel choreography.
Speaker 5 Lita Khazaka, Traditional Urbanism
Tools for planning building and design:
Enquiry by design
Design coding
Pattern books
Stigma attached to traditional architecture. It is something that has
been tested and has worked so why change it and create something new.
It is about evolving what we have to suit today.
Questions
Alona Martinez-Perez - How would Princes Foundation approach
Brownfield sites?
Lita Khazaka – Key to sustainability, avoid demolition.
John Deffenbaugh – How does the PF deal with tension between
traditional and contemporary urbanism?
Lita Khazaka – You would choose the traditional over the contemporary
as the traditional has been tested and has ‘wisdom’.
Lunch
Key points brought up in reference to questionnaire
Diarmaid Lawlor – Profit should be at the point of design not at the
end of the process. Profit is something that motivates but it should
takes place within a framework that we understand.
Alona Martinez-Perez – Developers have models to predict areas that
can make them money in the future. In the UK councillors make planning
decisions and are at the heart of the design process instead of
trained professionals.
John Deffenbaugh – Lack of certainty in the planning process that
affects the quality of the design.
45
Meeting minutes (continued)
Graeme Hutton – Countries like France have a qualitative approach to
development models.
What is causing growth and depopulation of cities?
Ric Russell – Rather than latching growth onto suburbia and existing
infrastructure. Build new towns with the amenities and infrastructure
that can support new housing.
Robert Huxford – Housing based regeneration is not sustainable.
Diarmaid Lawlor – what are causing these transitions? There is going
to be growth where there is space. Perth, regional objective to
increase population by 28% (to live, not work) research by Experian
and Scottish enterprise.
Alona Martinez-Perez – Instead of competition between cities, they
should overlap and work together.
Suzanne Ewing - who is taking the profit? Supermarkets are driving new
developments. They can have unprecedented control. They supply and
give the demand. How do we not let them do whatever they want. How can
supermarkets know who their ‘citizens’ are but cities don’t.
John Deffenbaugh – relationship between public and private sector out
of balance. Private sector is building everything.
Lorens Holm – This country needs private development with public
interests. Like Bilbao where a portion of profit goes back to
infrastructure.
Graeme Hutton – Need a level of ambition to replace profit.
Malcolm Horner – It is a stereotypical perspective to presume local
authorities don’t have a big say on urban regeneration. How to
regenerate in the event of market failure that is economically
sustainable.
Group discussions
The Last hour
Lorens Holm – interesting that one group was discussing how regions
can become self sufficient and independent and another group talked
about how the regions could be more joined up.
Diarmaid Lawlor – A policy that is from the design angle within the
strategic development plan. Conceptualising a system that can bring
about a useful outcome.
Defining what the regions want and what the regions need.
Alona Martinez-Perez – Look at case studies because there are similar
46
3
issues.
Graham Ross – Identify which broader theoretical global issues apply
to the Scottish context.
Wider inter-city and inter-regional regional relationships. Collective
power of working together. Don’t look at it on a region to region
basis.
Ric Russell – Housing, it is an issue that has already been
identified. Find out what work and research is already happening to
avoid repetition.
Even though architects have identified flaws in urban sprawl. The
public still demands it. Interesting that the theory and vision
perceived by architects is far removed from the deliverability.
Lorens Holm – Issue of taste?
Diarmaid Lawlor – Absence of choice let alone taste.
Need a framework that defines who owns the public space, streets,
infrastructure and where they should go. Scotland could construct a
different model as apposed to one that Barcelona has used. It is how
you deliver the choice
Ric Russell – Poor urban design is creating a lack of sustainability.
If you present a more exciting model to developers, then as long as it
makes them money, then they will go for it. Rather than having an
architectural model there would be a social and economical model.
Diarmaid Lawlor – Public sector needs to reclaim the public realm and
learn from how developers manage to deliver outcome and vision.
Graeme Hutton – research by design. Demonstrating ideas through design
as architects and designers. Policies and mechanisms will follow this.
Ranald McInnes – Area for research, volume house developments. Where
it has been successful and where it hasn’t.
Diarmaid Lawlor – what quality of spaces do we want to create, most
Scottish cities are low density. Less rules but better quality of
rules. Remove contradictions in rules.
Ric Russell – Rules could impose particular outcomes. E.g. A
development must be of a certain size, thus generating schools,
community facilities and infrastructure to support it.
Architects and designers need to understand the values that the public
have and incorporate them into a model.
Lorens Holm – A focus on housing in Scotland. Research by design.
4
6. List of Attendees on Monday 06 April 09
The Geddes Task Force on Cities & their Regions
Aberdeen Dundee Edinburgh Glasgow Inverness Stirling
Monday 06 April 2009, 10:00-5:00pm, Crawford Boardroom
28 Attendees
Alona Martinez-Perez, Geddes Institute, Dundee School of Architecture
Lorens Holm, Geddes Institute, Dundee School of Architecture
Koldo Ocejo, Graphic Designer, Photographer
Ariadna Perich Capdeferro, Lecturer ETSAB (School of Architecture,
Barcelona)
Arthur Watson, Secretary, Royal Scottish Academy, University of Dundee
Cristina Gonzalez Longo, Architect-Lecturer
Deepak Gopinath, Town & Regional Planning, University of Dundee
Diarmaid Lawlor, Head of Urbanism, Architecture+Design Scotland
Graeme Hutton, Dean of School, Dundee School of Architecture
Graham Ross, Director, Austin-Smith:Lord LLP
Husam Al Waer, Dundee School of Architecture
John Deffenbaugh, City of London Project Manager (Public Realm)
John Nelson, Professor of Transport Studies, College of Physical
Sciences, University of Aberdeen
Lita Khazaka, Senior Urban Designer, The Prince’s Foundation
Malcolm Horner, Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Dundee
Maarten Neering, Architect, Holland and Barcelona
Dr. Neil Burford, Dundee School of Architecture
Paul Guzzardo, Media Arts, St. Louis and Buenos Aires
Ranald McInnes, Principal Inspector, Historic Scotland
Ric Russell, Partner, Nicoll Russell Studios, Dundee
Riccardo Marini, Design Leader, The City of Edinburgh Council
Rob Burns, Liverpool City Council Lead Urban Designer
Robert Cowan, Director, Urban Design Skills
Robert Huxford, Director, Urban Design Group UK
Rob Joiner, Director, Reidvale and Molendinar Housing Associations,
Glasgow
Robert Sharpe, RIS, University of Dundee
Sandy Robinson, Urban Designer, Scottish Government.
Suzanne Ewing, Senior Lecturer in Architectural Design and Theory,
Edinburgh University
Veronica Burbridge, National Director, Royal Town Planning Institute,
Scotland
30 Apologies
Alastair Keyte, Associate Director, 3D Reid
Archie Clark, Reiach and Hall Architects
Barbara Illsley, Head of Town & Regional Planning, University of Dundee
and Director, Geddes Institute
Beatriz Plaza Inchausti, Department of Applied Economics, University of
the Basque Country
Charles McKean, Professor of Scottish Architectural History, University
of Dundee
Christian Hermansen Professor of Architecture, Oslo School of
Architecture and Design
Clive Gillman, Director, Dundee Contemporary Art (DCA)
David Porter, Professor and Head of School, Mackintosh School of
Architecture, Glasgow School of Art
Dorian Wiszniewski Senior Lecturer in Architectural Design and Theory,
Edinburgh University
Ewan Anderson, Partner, 7N Architects, Edinburgh
Gerry Grams, Design City Leader Glasgow City Council
Gordon Murray, Professor, Department of Architecture, Strathclyde
University, and Director, gm+ad Architects, Glasgow
Graham McKee, Director of Strategic Planning, Principal’s Office,
University of Dundee
Gordon Reid, City of Dundee
Harry Smith, Lecturer, School of the Built Environment, Heriot Watt
University, Edinburgh
Jim Mackinnon, Chief Planner, Directorate for the Built Environment,
Scottish Government
Juan Alayo, Director of Development Planning, Bilbao Ria 2000
Julia Radcliffe, Mackintosh School of Architecture
Karen Stevenson, City Development Department, Edinburgh Council
Kirsten Maguire, Dundee School of Architecture
Leslie Forsyth, Head of School of Architecture, Edinburgh College of
Art
Michael Spens, Dundee School of Architecture
Mike Galloway, Director of Transport and Planning, Dundee City Council
Neil Baxter, Secretary and Treasurer, the Royal Incorporation of
Architects in Scotland, Edinburgh
Nicholas Fyfe, Professor of Geography, University of Dundee and
Director, Geddes Institute
Nick Barley, Director, The Lighthouse, Scotland’s Centre for
Architecture Design and the City, Glasgow
Ombretta Romice Senior Lecturer, Department of Architecture,
Strathclyde University.
Riccardo Marini, Design City Leader, City of Edinburgh Council
Robin Harper, Member of Scottish Parliament for the Lothians
Sebastian Tombs, Director, A+DS
Stewart Murdoch, Director of Leisure and Communities, Dundee City
Council
47
7. References List
The Geddes Task Force on Cities & their Regions
Aberdeen Dundee Edinburgh Glasgow Inverness Stirling

READING LIST
Urbanism doesn’t exist; it is only an ideology in Marx’s sense of the word. Architecture does really
exist, like Coca-Cola: though coated with ideology, it is a real production, falsely satisfying a
falsified need. Urbanism is comparable to the advertising propagated around Coca-Coal – pure
spectacular ideology. Modern capitalism, which organised the reduction of all social life to a
spectacle, is incapable of presenting any spectacle other than that of our own alienation. Its
urbanistic dream is its masterpiece.

Entry for ‘Urbanism’, in Rem Koolhaas’ dictionary in S,M,L,XL

BOOKS & ARTICLES

Ian H. Adams, The Making of Urban Scotland (1978)

Marc Auge, Non-Places: Introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity (1995)
Ian Bentley, et al., Responsive Environments: a manual for designers (1985)
Gordon Cullen, Townscape (Architectural Press 1961)
Guy Debord, The Society of Spectacle (1970).
Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class: And How it's Transforming Work,
Leisure, Community and Everyday Life (Basic Books 2004)
Patrick Geddes, Cities In Evolution: An Introduction To The Town Planning
Movement And To The Study Of Civics (Williams And Norgate 1915)
Jan Gehl, Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space (1987)
Felix Guattari, The Three Ecologies (1989)
Jane Jacobs, Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961)
Rem Koolhas, ‘Whatever happened to urbanism’ pp 958-71, ‘Surrender: Ville
Nouvelle Melun-Senart, France, 1987’ pp 972-89, and ‘The Generic City’ pp
1238-67 in Rem Koolhaas and Bruce Mau, S,M,L,XL (1995). ‘Generic…’ also @
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.07/koolhaas.html
Rem Koolhaas, ‘Junkspace’ in October: Obsolescence, Special Issue 100 (Spring
2002). Also @ http://www.arkitekturskolan.se/servlet/GetDoc?meta_id=1646
Florian Kossak, ed., Shifts: projections into the future of the central belt
(2007)
Leon Krier, The Architecture of Community (Island Press 2009).
Le Corbusier, The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning (1924/1929)
Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City (1960)
Richard Rogers, Cities for a Small Planet: The Reith Lectures (1995)
Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City (The MIT Press 1984)
Robert Venturi, Learning from Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of
Architectural Form (MIT Press 1972)

REPORTS
By Design urban design in the planning system towards better practice
http://www.cabe.org.uk/publications/by-design

Designing Places A Policy Statement for Scotland

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/planning/dpps-00.asp

A Policy on Architecture for Scotland: Public Consultation: Review of Policy

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/05/03152513/0

Valuing Sustainable Urbanism: The princess Foundation for the Built Environment
http://www.princes-foundation.org/index.php?id=41
http://www.princes-foundation.org/files/0707vsuoverview.pdf

Rogers, Richard ‘Towards a stronger urban renaissance’

http://www.urbantaskforce.org/UTF_final_report.pdf

Urban Design Compendiums 1&2

http://www.urbandesigncompendium.co.uk/

Ecosistemas Urbanos, Madrid

http://ecosistemaurbano.org/

48
Image Credits
• Adam Oakley, page: 27 (right) and 28.
• Alona Martinez Perez, pages: 4, 8 (left), 9 (left + bottom), 12, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26 and 27 (left).
• ANNEX INSTRUMENTAL per a la redacció dels Plans Directors i les Àrees Residencials
Estratègiques (Jornet-Llop-Pastor arquitectes, 30 d’abril de 2009), pages: 6 (left).
• Antonio Font Arellano, Sílvia Mas Artigas, Lorena Maristany Jackson, Josep Ma.
Carreras Quilis i Jordi Valls Alseda (2005).
TRANSFORMACIONS URBANITZADORES 1977-2000- ÀREA METROPOLITANA
I REGIÓ URBANA DE BARCELONA. Barcelona: Mancomunitat de Municipis de l’Àrea
Metropolitana de Barcelona. 164 p. ISBN: 84-930080-8-7, pages: 5 (middle).
• Koldo Ocejo, pages: 7 (top), 16, 20, 32, 33, 37, 38 and 41.
• Ornance Survey, pages: 1, 2 and 3.
• Richard Carman for Urban Design Skills and East -Renfrewshire District Council, pages: 12
• Rob Cowan, pages: 13 (top), 14 and 15.
• Rob Burns, pages: 7 ( bottom) and 8 ( right).
• Robert Huxford, pages: 17, 18 and 19.
• The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment, pages: 9 (top), 11.
• web DEPARTAMENT DE POLÍTICA TERRITORIAL I OBRES PÚBLIQUES
Generalitat de Catalunya – http://www.gencat.cat
http://www10.gencat.net/ptop/AppJava/cat/
http://www10.gencat.net/ptop/AppJava/cat/, pages: 5 ( top and bottom) and 6 (right).
• Lorens Holm, page: 39 and 40.

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 Published by:
The Geddes Institute for Urban Research
University of Dundee
Matthew Building
13 Perth Road
Dundee
DD1 4HT

The Geddes Institute for Urban Research, Dundee

ISBN 978-0-9562949
Copyright for the text- the authors. This report has been written by Dr. Lorens Holm & Alona
Martinez-Perez with contributions from Robert Burns, Rob Cowan, Robert Huxford, Lita Khazaka,
Ariadna Perich Capdeferro, Esme Fieldhouse & Stephen Mackie.
Copyright for images-the listed bodies and photographers
Copyright for publication – the publishers
Copyright 2009©
Graphic Design – Mr. Koldo Ocejo and Mr Travis Mcleod

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without
prior permission in writing from The Geddes Institute for Urban Research.

Photography
The publishers would like to thank the individuals and institutions for
giving permission to reproduce photography. We have made every effort
to receive copyright and acknowledgement for all images.
We wish to thank in advance anyone we have inadvertently omitted.
The Geddes Institute for Urban Research would like to thank all
partners individuals and related organisations forcontributing their
invaluable experiences and learning to produce this report.

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“By creating we think, by living we learn”
Patrick Geddes

Geddes Institute paper number 1

Geddes Institute for Urban Research
University of Dundee 52