Nash Review 2017 by Nash Partnership

The nash partnership magazine 2017

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Introduction by Edward Nash

ur 2017 practice review illustrates the contemporary built environment elements and issues our multi-disciplinary team are exercising their skills and creativity on in their daily practice. Change is always at work in the built environment, both in patterns of economic life and health, in land use and in the bricks and mortar of what we see in our towns, cities and countryside. Megatrends are at work across countries, regions and neighbourhoods. Already in the UK, over 75% of our population live in towns or cities. Throughout the world, this figure is over 50% and is forecast to rise to an average of 80% by 2050. We see these trends at work as the fruits of change in our postindustrial cities now. These are evident where former industrial zones make places where new generations of householders have discovered the virtues of urban centre patterns of living and working. Reconnecting the living and working aspects of urban life like this is also changing patterns of connectivity. It’s putting more emphasis on the utility and qualities of the public realm, in pedestrian and cycle routes, green infrastructure, urban biodiversity and urban connectivity.

But against this megatrend, others have to be addressed, including the all too evident widening of social and economic inequalities shown by the Brexit decision and the forging of a new regional layer of governance in the Combined West of England Authority. All aspects of economic life are now impinged by the driver of climate change mitigation. These trends are connected and there are challenges to be addressed and opportunities to be seized, which will play out in what is expected of our built environments. Looked at through the lens of regionally devolved cities, a city’s struggling neighbourhoods and its areas of inefficient land use become zones of economic opportunity, where low carbon transport demands are increasing land -use efficiency. They are the places new dimensions of enterprise can be seeded, where human resource is locally available too. In places away from the value pressures of these hotspots, new models of housing delivery can be experimented with. In the same way, constraints on local authority budgets are driving such bodies to take long term and strategic views about

generating income and improved social equality through how they use their assets. They’re working to seek common cause with far-sighted pension funds and investors, to build value where – through well evidenced confident planning and stable corporate policy – this can be done. In this 2017 review we feature several commissions we are currently delivering for local authorities. We describe how far sighted development clients are unlocking the local character and lifestyle value potential of edge of urban centre sites. And we highlight some of our recent work for the charitable sector, building on the social and cultural capital of heritage and landscape assets, to create new assets of cultural and community life in their areas. It’s clear these feel like times of impending change. Even in housing where it often feels like the delivery models have long been a fixed part of the built environment universe there are now signs of many new bespoke and niche providers honing their products. Working for custom build developers, self-build enablers, new private and affordable commercial longterm rental models, even pro-

tem or “meanwhile” housing along with mobile reusable work hubs, are all seen as essential parts of making long range urban regeneration schemes work at all levels. As we approach our 30th anniversary in 2018, we see how the particular and unusual blend of built environment skills we have match the needs of the moment. Householders, developers, investors and public clients only commit to building projects when they feel they can see either their needs or their opportunities sufficiently far ahead to invest in confidence in the buildings architects create. We have found through our shared experience as architects, planners, historians, urban designers, regeneration strategists and urban research geographers, it is possible to really understand how built environment change happens. We unlock its processes and pressures and explore why we get the built environments we do. It has been and continues to be a lively, enjoyable and stimulating journey.

In This Issue... Introduction

Building Resilience

We share our thoughts on the critical elements needed to create opportunities in a constantly changing environment.

Urban Development

What do we need to change to the way we create spaces to meet the future needs of the way we now live and work?

Focus on Heritage

We talk about how weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re helping two museums achieve their vision for the future and share our KEY approach to complex heritage challenges.. 1 (Low) 2 (Medium) 3 (High)

Our Approach

Our writers share their experiences and highlight what is important for them in the work they do today.

Planning and Regeneration

Our mission is to enable places and communities to thrive through regeneration, planning and creative design. Here, we highlight how we are bringing energy, life and activity back to places. KEY

Skills and Technology

1 (Low)

2 (Medium)

Blending our skills with technologies that are continually evolving delivers greater value for our clients. 3 (High)

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Building Resilience Stronger cities – a bigger, bolder Bristol

ities grow around the benefits of agglomeration, proximity, interaction and transaction. As Edward Glaeser, Harvard professor of economics contends in his book, Triumph of the City states, ‘…cities magnify humanity’s strengths…’ They do this by bringing people together, enabling interaction, fostering ideas and innovation and creating conditions for economic and social mobility. However, many cities have experienced extensive suburbanisation, often supported by past public policy and investment, which has diluted urban vitality, productivity and quality of life.

Realising potential These challenges are evident in Bristol – a successful place as the only city outside London that makes a net contribution to the Treasury – but also a city of unrealised potential, significant inequality and environmental ordinariness across much of its outer area. Its centre and harbourside are thriving but close by there are large swathes of low-density industrial and storage sheds. Within these areas there are uses and activities that make important contributions to the local economy, but the locations are spatially advantaged to a degree which demands that they contribute much more to the city. The south of the city centre is dominated by post-war

suburban housing, while to the north there is a collection of very significant assets, including a Ministry of Defence establishment, the University of the West of England, Bristol Parkway Station and Bristol and Bath Science Park. These assets are however arranged as a pattern of uses, around major roads and do not

for Amsterdam most clearly resting on this concept. ‘Cities of Tomorrow’, by the European Commission Directorate for Regional Policy, sets out a vision for cities and identifies a range of challenges, including urban sprawl and the spread of low density, the impacts this has on sustainable development,

combine to create a sense of identity and urban scale. It has long been recognised that brownfield development is a key component of sustainable development. Now there is increasing recognition that bold approaches are needed to realise the potential of places like Bristol and to address contemporary needs and challenges and the legacy of the centre-suburbs model.

viability of public services and transport, over-reliance on cars and over-use of natural resources. A key principle for the future is a compact and polycentric urban structure with balanced growth. This analysis is very relevant to Bristol and both Bristol City Council and South Gloucestershire Council, within which much of the north and east of the urban area sits, are exploring potential for increasing density. It is important however that density is seen as what it is, a metric or tool for measuring the intensity of development and use of land.

City structures Research on European cities and policy at European level points to the merits of polycentric city structures. A research paper in the Belgian Journal of Geography (Towards Polycentric Cities) has, for example, found a picture of emerging polycentric spatial patterns with the planning framework

A bold approach The principle aim is the creation of high-quality, compact and well-connected neighbourhoods designed

by Mel Clinton

around the needs of people to create the setting for thriving communities and a thriving economy. Achieving this requires bold and positive planning, alongside delivery mechanisms tailored to the purpose and combining the powers, resources and expertise of the public and private sectors. It needs a clear policy commitment to a polycentric spatial structure based on a vibrant city centre surrounded by and connected to a network of outer centres to realise the benefits this can bring in terms of cohesion, identity, sustainability and economic performance. It needs also to consider policy measures and delivery mechanisms to enable relocation of low-density, land-hungry uses to more appropriate, less central locations. There is a need too for planning and design approaches that enable mixed-use that includes light industry, storage and research and development, including the accommodation of these uses in multi-storey buildings enabled raising development value through increased density.

Community involvement It is vital that communities are involved in a discussion about the cities of tomorrow, the challenges and opportunities facing society and how development can help address these to create flourishing places. Density and a need for taller buildings will emerge through this discussion but are not the starting points.

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Gloucester Monmouth

City region devolution

Stroud Cirencester

Chepstow

by Edward Nash

Swindon

Malmesbury

Newport

Cardiff

Chippenham

Bristol

Calne

Bath Weston-Super-Mare

Melksham Bradford-on-Avon

Devizes

Trowbridge Somer Valley

Westbury Frome

Wells Shepton Mallet

Warminster

Glastonbury Bridgwater

ince his election as mayor to of a new West of England (LEP region) Combined Authority in May 2017, Tim Bowles has been establishing his office team and getting out and about. I have heard him speak on several occasions and I find it refreshing that he has a longterm perspective, seeing the tests of the authority’s success more in how the region performs for all its residents in 20 years, than what it can do for next year. City region devolution brings to the mayoralty direct control of a £30m a year budget on which spending decisions were previously made solely by Whitehall. No doubt in the authority’s early years, most of these funds will be going into commencing a long existing pipeline of overdue transportation infrastructure projects conceived many years ago. But such a horizon

will allow further rounds of capital expenditure to be considered in the strategic interests of the whole city region. On housing, Mr Bowles has said that the past pattern of delivering housing growth only on greenfield sites is not sustainable and he has taken an interest in the work that Nash Partnership has been doing for South Gloucestershire on the mutability (capacity for change) of established suburban areas. The name West of England for the combined authority rather implies its reach extends to the counties of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. But its reach goes only as far as the governance boundaries of Bristol City, South Gloucestershire and B&NES councils. This area is, in our economic terms, remarkably self-contained with 90% of the area’s jobs held

by people living within that same area. I think this fact leads some in the LEP region to view it as almost completely self-contained in its economic activities. The whole strength of devolving power to such an authority should be to help them better understand the nature of the economic, social and cultural influence well beyond these boundaries of governance, arguably to the watersheds at which the influence and draw of other regionally-devolved cities, such as Oxford, Southampton or Cardiff becomes greater. For Greater Bristol, this reach should be at least an hour and a quarter’s travel time in all directions. We should be as interested in what Dyson is doing in Malmesbury, Renishaw at Wotton, Ecotricity in Stroud and Hinkley Point beyond Somerset Levels as we are in what is happening in Bristol or Bath.

Each of these substantial economic drivers and many thousands of much smaller businesses are contributing to the capacity and the capital assets of our city region, regardless of the enlarged governance boundaries. It is really important within this new context to make connections between our most headlined economic activities and our least championed. This is the only way to hold together an economy. But just as important is for us to know across our region where areas are falling behind in economic terms. Such areas are part of the economic capacity we have in this new world of regionally devolved cities. Only those that understand their capacity and grow it to the full will the win the prizes in this competitive world.

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How understanding a site’s future role can become a catalyst of change

by John Everett

ontextual urban intervention and its influence upon the local area is key when understanding a site’s development potential. Analysing a site’s current and potential future role within the local area can drive the architectural built form that is presented to stakeholders, council officers and the local community. In addition to this, an understanding of the locality of a site and what the site could offer is not only fundamental in creating new exciting urban developments but also plays a key part in the commercial delivery and aspirations of developers.

Architects have the ability to create new developments that strive to enrich and change their surroundings, however it is of equal importance that Architects work closely with and listen to developers in bringing forward solutions that ensure commercial viability and deliverability. The acute need for new housing within Bristol is high on the Council’s agenda with new Urban Living planning guidance being published early in 2018, focusing on densification and building heights. Within a low rise and low-density city, the promotion and encouragement from the Council to bring

forward developments that work commercially and provide new private and affordable housing that will stimulate further change within local areas is clear. With this positive proposition from the Mayor and his Council Officers, Architects have an important role to play in designing developments that reference their local context and avoid the risk of developers taking unnecessary risks when agreeing land purchases. Contextual design that looks to reflect the council’s urban deliverability aspirations in parallel with wearing a ‘commercial hat’ remains key.

The Old Brewery An opportunity to explore the above in practice was presented to Nash Partnership in 2016, when we won an architectural competition for a site on North Street within the Southville-Bedminster area of South West Bristol. The site is a former Brewery run by the Thomas Baynton family from the 1820s until 1933. A Brewery remains further along North Street in the form of the Bristol Beer Factory, with the site now being occupied by various short-term let offices, warehousing and workshop space. The northern

Entrance to the Old Brewery as seen from North Street

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The Old Brewery as seen from North Street

part of the site features a series of small buildings that date back to the Brewery’s use, including the Brewery Manager’s 1831 house. The site is surrounded by a mix of commercial industrial buildings with residential property nearby to the west, south and east. The principal road, North Street, which provides a hive of community activity including retail, leisure plus a café and bakery society, is central to the emergence of the Southville-Bedminster area as one of the most soughtafter places to live and work in Bristol.

Looking at the bigger picture Our competition entry focussed on a detailed analysis of Southville and Bedminster to establish what role the site currently plays. The use of our analysis to create a narrative and justification for what we perceived could be the ‘future role’ of the site, was key to presenting our vision. We showed how the development could ultimately

form a catalyst for further development and change to the surrounding area. Our competition entry also focussed on the commercial realities of the development, not only via creating high density residential living but also employment uses that would suit the character and commercial activity of Southville. With conventional speculative office space as seen in the heart of the city having minimal appeal, our focus turned to the local area providing opportunities for creative start-up businesses and co-working space as seen in the Tobacco Factory facility. Via our contact with a co-working operator, our scheme outlined the possibility of a high-density creative start up business commercial hub, together with an explanation of the potential income that the developer could consider and appraise. 2017 has been spent developing the designs closely with our client and Bristol City officers, with the design narrative for the scheme

firmly built upon our initial site analysis and architectural and commercial propositions. Both the client and the council have been supportive in developing this narrative, resulting in a development that looks to form a new southern gateway leading into the city, a role that historically exists via the 1820 Grade II listed city tollhouse building, located directly opposite the site on North Street. The development will feature a new employment hub consisting of co-working space plus retail, food and beverage space around a new public courtyard space to the north of the site, via the retention of the non-designated historic brewery buildings’ assets. It re-engages the site with the activity along North Street. The residential accommodation is located to the south of the site, set back from the main roads via two tall buildings with the designs responding to the industrial character of the area. A key part of this masterplan exercise was establishing the appropriate scale and built form for the

surrounding sites that not only supported the gateway’s tall building role for the site, but also reflected the urban scale of the local context. Due to these discussions, a further parcel of land to the south of the site was purchased by the developer, bringing forward a key part of the masterplan vision, thus strengthening the site’s concept and role for the future of the area. In addition to the 2,000m² of new commercial space, of which end users have been sought pre-planning, 148 residential units with onsite affordable housing have been proposed. The design development process undertaken during 2017 identified the importance of discussing a clear narrative for the development from ‘site analysis….to future role….to a catalyst of change’ and how this was critical in engaging with the local community and key stakeholders and their understanding of the benefits this new urban intervention will bring to Southville and the city.

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Changing Bath by Robert Locke

f you have not made a visit to the World Heritage city of Bath in recent years, be prepared; you’ll find a lot has changed. 2017 has been a record year for construction cranes on the city’s skyline. Bath residents have become used to the massive Western Riverside new residential quarter progressing steadily south of Victoria Park. But now on Bath’s main road approaches and throughout those parts of the city redeveloped in the post-war years, new redevelopment is underway. The principal approach from the west, Lower Bristol Road, now has a string of new student apartments, testimony to the growth of our two universities. Closer in, Nash Partnership’s large private rental apartments and a convenience store for L&G, initiated by developer Deeley Freed, are now on site. The city’s approach across the Lansdown plateau is also changing, dominated for decades by the MoD Ensleigh offices. Ensleigh has been one of three such MoD establishments to go for

housing. Nash Partnership began this scheme for Linden Homes and Bloor in 2013 and it is now well towards delivering its 300+ homes in the new Lansdown neighbourhood. Big changes are also apparent at the Mulberry Park neighbourhood by Curo on the old Fox Hill MoD site and similarly at Warminster Road, Bath’s approach from the south east. And all around in the fringes of the city, roman and medieval core post-war redeveloped sites are changing to new uses; apartments, houses, hotels, student rooms, university facilities and retirement accommodation. We have schemes currently on site at Walcot Street and Lower Borough Walls for Bath developers Kersfield and Acorn, high up on the slopes of Lansdown below Lansdown Crescent. Spatially it is the rediscovery of Bath’s former industrial river corridor that will be the most significant change in how this compact historic city will be seen. In the swathes of land between the

historic centre and Western Riverside, the flood mitigation works are central to allowing development along the east of the Lower Bristol Road. The Council has committed to plug the last gap in this floodwall, their South Quays site with a large speculative office development. This decision by B&NES council is illustrative of the next chapter in Bath’s evolving story. Good as it is to see so much confidence and investing in the city on the strengths of collateral its past has provided, apparently what has not so far been built is as important to think about as what has. Currently, despite the rapidly-growing resident population these developments will bring, in all some 10,000 residents, some of Bath’s traditional retail frontages east of Milsom Street, have unusually high voids. Restaurants continue to grow but so far there is little sign of new significant additions to Bath’s tourism, cultural, entertainment, sports and leisure offers. But such a rapid increase in population

should be expected to bring these. Confidence in creating new employment spaces, particularly offices remains slow, despite several grants for planning permission in recent years. Bath’s recent economic growth has been achieved through our universities. Looking ahead there will have to be a point where real connections can be seen between this strength, the opportunities it brings to Bath in stimulating new business research and other diverse economic activity. It remains a big question how, in such a compact city with only limited opportunities to regenerate as well as to expand, this can be achieved.

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1. Hope House. Images: Acorn Property Group 2. Ensleigh 3. Roseberry Place 4. Lower Borough Walls 5. Onega Place

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McArthurâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Yard as seen from Gas Ferry Road

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McArthur’s Yard: the next chapter by Mike Fox

he McArthur’s Yard site started life as a brewery at the heart of Bristol’s floating harbour during it’s heyday – at that time a veritable commercial cauldron, bubbling with endeavour and industrial activity. It stood as a bold and prominent landmark at the heart of Spike Island – an eight-storey building at its maximum, surrounded by twostorey industrial sheds, open yards, and docks from which masts pierced the skyline, signposting ships ready to set sail across the Atlantic and beyond.

During the post-war years it lost some of its grandeur, both literally and figuratively, with its closure as a brewery in the 1930s, followed by the loss of its roof to a fire in the 1940s. It was subsequently re-purposed as a metal merchants, resulting in its gradual decline, reflecting the diminished role of the harbour as the epicentre of goods transportation moved to alternative modes (road/air/rail) and geography (Avonmouth). It was briefly rejuvenated by the occupation of the building by Artspace from the 1970s, an artist’s collective looking for cheap studio space in the city. Following their move to the Brook Bond Tea building (Spike Island today) in the 1990s, the buildings on the site have largely lain vacant since.

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McArthur’s Yard as seen looking south along Gas Ferry Road Successive developers have sought to bring forward commercially viable schemes, but to no avail. During these years the harbour has been re-born as a place of residence and leisure, spurred on in the early days by the introduction of arts-based organisations such as the Arnolfini (1970s) and the Watershed Cinema (1980s). This has been reinforced by a significant expansion of the residential population through successive regeneration projects, such as Poole’s Wharf, Bathurst Basin, Baltic Wharf, Canon’s Marsh, The Point and most recently Wapping Wharf, bringing new life round-the-clock to the area. McArthur’s Yard, alongside Brandon Yard and Redcliffe Wharf, represents one of the last pieces in the Floating Harbour jigsaw puzzle. It is against this background that The Guinness Partnership Ltd. (TGPL) secured the site, subject to planning, in 2016 and appointed Nash Partnership as both planning consultant and

architect. Building on TGPL’s role as a social housing provider and strategic partner of the Council – and based on both sides’ recognition of the strategic importance of the site – they have sought to adopt a collaborative approach from the outset. TGPL’s ultimate objective is to deliver a market-led housing development to fund TGPL’s core purpose – the provision and management of affordable housing UK-wide. In so doing, their objective is to ensure that development is of sufficient quality to reflect the prominence of the site, forming the backdrop to the SS Great Britain, putting TGPL ‘on the map’ and setting new standards of design locally. As architects and planners, our role has been to provide strong leadership of a reputable design team, engaging all skillsets from the outset to ensure the design solution is robust and deliverable. The design responds to TGPL’s objectives, seeking to create something bold and

contemporary, yet sensitive to the historic surrounds of the harbour. The building forms draw upon the boatsheds and warehouses that remain within the locality, while providing a mix of uses that reflects the diversity of the surroundings – conventional office, workshops and a café, with modern apartments sitting above. To optimise the use of the site, the ground floor uses wrap-around-thesite frontages, bringing life and activity to the street, with parking and servicing to the rear. Above, sits a transfer slab, accommodating a podium courtyard for residents and allowing views across the Albion Dock and harbour to the north and west. The architectural approach transitions from the more historic approach of Great Western House to the north (Building A), with a more contemporary, ‘gritty urban’ approach to the south (Building B), to a quieter more functional aesthetic along the northern boundary (Building C). This will provide a valuable amenity

for future residents, while maximising the use of a scarce resource – land. Reflecting TGPL’s role and our ethos, we have adopted a collaborative approach with the Council from the outset. Guided by a comprehensive Planning Performance Agreement, TGPL and the Council’s respective design teams have sought to adopt shared responsibility to finding solutions to challenges. Starting in September 2016, the process so far has involved over ten meetings with the Council, meetings with multiple stakeholders, local community groups, prominent local organisations – including Aardman, SS Great Britain and Rolt’s Boatyard, together with two public engagement events. Applications were submitted in June 2017. Following discussions, the Council resolved to grant permission subject to concluding the discussions over the legal agreement, notably over affordable housing.

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Energy in the City by Mel Clinton

he Bedminster Green Regeneration Framework in Bristol was conceived by local development company Urbis Living Ltd. It covers an extensive area of underutilised land to the south of Bristol city centre and provides a framework for a range of developers and landowners in bringing forward proposals for mixed-use development that will create a new city quarter. This is likely to deliver in excess of 1,000 new homes, together with business and enterprise space, community facilities, local shops, cafes and related services. A key consideration is the provision of energy to meet the heat and power needs of the new development. The need to address climate change is a serious and urgent one. The Paris Agreement commits the UK and 195 other countries, albeit with the USA threatening to withdraw, to limiting the global rise in temperature to well below 2Â°celsius. In the UK, 17% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the heat and power used by buildings. The supply of heat and power to new development is a key consideration in minimising carbon emissions. In Bristol, planning policy sets a number of requirements, including the provision of infrastructure for decentralised energy supply. The question for Bedminster Green is how best to achieve this. Rather than dealing with energy requirements on a site by site basis, the most efficient approach is through an energy centre to serve new development on a variety of sites and potentially existing buildings, through a heat and power network.

We are working with South Bristol Energy Ltd, Low Carbon Ltd and Ener-G to provide planning and design services for the Bedminster Green Energy Centre. This will be gas-fired as this provides the most efficient feasible option in terms of energy use and carbon savings within such a built-up urban setting. It will provide both heat and power, with heat not used immediately retained in thermal stores to be drawn on according to demand. The engines are highly efficient and this, combined with large catalytic converters, results in emissions that will have a negligible impact on air quality. Bio-mass is often cited as an alternative but this would have the significant disadvantage, in such an urban setting, of generating particulate emissions. Acoustic containers within the building, combined with the fabric of the building structure and external cladding with ensure noise levels 5dBA below background levels. The energy centre will be a significant item of new infrastructure and as such it could be viewed in purely utilitarian terms. It will however be part of a new mixed-use urban quarter in Bristol and therefore has a role to play in setting a good standard of design. The building has been conceived as a simple contemporary form that expresses its function and sits as a distinct and complementary feature within the new mixeduse quarter. It uses timber, metal, living walls and a green roof to provide texture, elements of natural habitat and a metaphor for a forward looking and environmentally conscious new neighbourhood.

Proposed exterior of the Bedminster Energy Centre The energy centre will be a member of the Heat Trust run by Heat Consumer Protection Ltd, a not-for-profit company that sets common standards for service quality and protection for consumers. Linked to the development, a fund for investment in energy conservation and efficiency measures in local homes is proposed to reduce household bills, administered by a trust.

Bedminster Green Energy Centre will address the need for localised energy and heat supply in a way that is feasible now, resulting in a saving of 1,700 tons of CO2 pa. Looking to the longer term, it can form part of a de-carbonised gas network through use of biogas or hydrogen. It therefore has an important role to play in Bristolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ambition of becoming a carbon neutral city by 2050.

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Urban Development Understanding urban mutability

cross the built environment – of village, town or city – the built landscape is in a constant, if often slow, sometimes imperceptible, process of change. Land uses are altered as the economy demands new activities. Successful businesses grow, adapt and decline. The expectations of standards of living develop and new facilities are created to suit new lifestyles. In the last three decades it has been increasingly evident how many cities have forged new urban lifestyles around the ability to live in or close to their centres where their amenities, entertainment, education, social life and culture are easily available. They are offering easy access to traditional or new centres of employment or to public transport to reach places of work elsewhere. In many cities – London, Bristol, Manchester and Leeds in particular – it is very evident that these new city-based living and working options have – for those now in their 20s and 30s and it seems many in their 50s and 60s too – completely redefined their expectations of how households would like to work and live. Households for whom the suburban dream of the post-World War II era based on car ownership, no longer seems attractive. What is less widely appreciated is that these new lifestyles have only been possible because of the previous industrial economies of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Through decline, abundant former industrial land has been made available,

often including the large landuse requirements of earlier systems of transportation; the dockside and railway sidings of another age. Bristol is now a good illustrator of this urban phenomenon. The creation of a harbourside living and entertainment neighbourhood has stimulated new venues for business employment to the south and east of the city centre, extending towards Temple Meads station. Now recent generations of Bristol residents who have tasted city-centre and edge-of-centre living in their student or early adult lives, would not anymore see living in the further eastern reaches of Bristol’s suburbs as an attractive proposition. Beyond the governance boundary of Bristol, the city has spread north and east over the last 75 years so that now around a third of what, on a map, looks like Bristol is in fact in South Gloucestershire’s Council governance area. For the past year Nash Partnership have been studying the capacity of these large areas of urban development to accommodate future change in a commission awarded by South Gloucestershire Council in connection with the current Joint Strategic Plan across the four regional councils of the West of England Combined Authority. The area comprises nearly 50km². On one level, the study identifies the potential development sites principally for housing that the urban region could bring forward over the next 20 years. But

by Edward Nash

more significant than this is the identification of those parts of the urban region that are best placed to contribute to the densification of a multi-centric regenerative development of this zone of greater Bristol over the coming decades. This is important to discover; so much of urban South Gloucestershire is suburban, the product of 75 years of incremental, mostly speculative housebuilder development to a narrow set of predominantly semidetached housing models with little consideration of strategic infrastructure and community value amenities. Land ownerships in suburbs are highly fragmented and the development industry does not have regeneration models to submit such areas to physical change in the same way postindustrial sites in or near city centres can become suitable for viable redevelopment. So, it is only the limited area that is not suburban, along with a scattering of non-residential sites that represent the urban regions’ future capacity to change, to use development or redevelopment to redirect and stimulate new economic goals. These areas – expressed as a percentage of the whole – are the “mutability factor”. In many such cases our study shows that it’s important to the economic future of these areas to preserve these as places where particular kinds of urban change can happen. If their sites are only used to intensify the further fragmentation pattern of housing ownership,

such opportunity is lost for many generations to come. In this study, already established district centres such as Staple Hill, Kingswood and Warmley, and Yate stand out as zones with land-use capacity and need to be treated as regeneration zones. Here, work of urban densification can begin in mixed-use sites which will improve their economic and social identity, and their role as nodes in an expanding public transport system can be planned. The study also illustrates the future significance in urban regeneration terms of the recently designated New Neighbourhoods of urban South Gloucestershire at Cribbs Causeway and east of Harry Stoke. These have been promoted for development but mostly at conventional housebuilder densities. But served as they are with strategic movement corridors – M4, M5, M32, A4174, mainline railway stations and new public transport systems like Metrobus – and already the location of major employers and established housing, our study makes a very strong case their first development should be planned to bring their arc directly to urban centre or edge of centre densities. Doing this will create the kinds of proximate concentrated and well serviced living and working models the newly regeneration city centres are so popularly delivering.

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Opinion

Setting the sustainability standard

Paul Miller calls on developers and architects to raise the standards of sustainable building and challenges the Nationally Described Space Standard

ith the demise of the Code for Sustainable Homes and no regulation to replace it, the push to construct environmentally better houses has been lost. The BRE have tried to fill the gap with their Home Quality Mark, but this is intended to be driven by customer demand rather than developer led. Frequently the customer comes to a project too late to provide input that could have a significant impact on a building’s environmental performance and call on the Home Quality Mark’s standards. I would suggest that not many customers or even developers know about it anyway. The future for environmentally better houses and the opportunity for reducing carbon in buildings does not look great. It seems to have

to rely on the next round of beefed up Building Regulations or more enlightened legislation filtering down from London to the regions. On the ground, the reality is that utility costs are rising and will continue to until more sustainable methods of electricity generation are commonplace. This has brought an awareness of operating costs to the consumer and is a general concern for potential house buyers, but the lack of housing supply – and choice – does not help. It is left to the developer and architect to raise the standard. For the developer, more research needs to be shared on how much of a sales premium can be achieved on environmentally conscious developments, to encourage consideration of

sustainable measures at the outset – and before it is too late. The consumer is now versed in the concept of a payback period – photovoltaics are now common place – and developers should be considering the lifecycle costs of buildings and taking the opportunity to improve thermal performance with only a small increase in cost. As for the architect, they should be setting the standard through good design, passive techniques, avoiding the perceived eco bling of stick on technologies and gently and persistently persuading the developer that an extra 25mm of insulation here and there will help improve the carbon footprint – and ultimately increase profit.

When is it right to break the Nationally Described Space Standard?

on’t get me wrong – I think the Nationally Described Space Standards (NDSS) are a fantastic thing, and now that most Local Authorities are adopting them, it will no doubt result in better homes for everybody. However, we need to consider the occasions where they should be broken either as reduced areas or when larger units may be appropriate. The Government planned Local Housing Allowance cap for under-35s on housing benefit and with no dependent children (which has now been scrapped), would have meant that they would only have been entitled to the ‘shared

rate’. Because this was much lower than the current housing benefit, some people would have had no choice but to move into a shared house, move back in with parents or worse, rather than have their own home. This did prompt consideration and planning by some affordable housing providers to look at building homes that were smaller than NDSS requirements, costing less to build and so correspondingly less to rent. Although the cap will now not be enforced it will be interesting to see if these providers continue with their plans and build smaller homes as part of their offer. Another example of where the NDSS could be set aside

and a sensible approach taken is in areas where the house prices exceed the national average. Do the younger generation accept that they will not own their home and rent for the rest of their life? Or do we build smaller homes which pro rata should cost less to buy? The rise of ‘micro flats’ in London is a good example of where this has happened to respond to a need. In contrast, the NDSS should not also be taken as maximum sizes and there are times where they should be encouraged to be exceeded. In the spirit of Lifetimes Homes, now side-lined by Part M of the Building Regulations,

our housing also needs to be flexible to accommodate changing circumstances. This is particularly appropriate at the smaller end of the spectrum ie. one bedroom flats. Moving house, selling or buying, or both, is one of the most stressful times of life. Flexibility of size could mean that a onebedroom flat could easily be adapted to become a one-anda-half-bedroom flat or a onebed and part workspace flat. A flexible Local Authority planning department who are realistic and pragmatic, will help ensure that people who may previously have been overlooked, can continue living the life in an undisturbed way.

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Creating happier, healthier, more harmonious cities

by Mike Fox

appiness is defined as ‘subjective wellbeing’ or life satisfaction, with mental health being the most important determinant of individual happiness1. In the world of international development, ‘development’ is concerned with enhancing the capacity of people to enjoy ‘that which they have reason to value’. There are multiple indices for assessing levels of development the world over, from the Gross National Happiness Index in Bhutan, the Indices of Multiple Deprivation of the UN, the Better Life Index published by the OECD, to the ‘livability’ indices for cities published by the Economist and Monocle magazines. Ultimately, these measures are useful in moving beyond the ultimately simplistic and narrow GDP method of measuring progress. Here we consider how planning and urban design can, in a time of global uncertainty and tension, help to create happier and more harmonious cities. It draws upon presentations from the Urban Design Group’s recent conference in Manchester. In the UK, the problem stems from the way in which the planning system and development industry deliver development. The prevailing model, helped in no small part by the thrust of

the National Planning Policy large-scale urban extensions Framework (and the weighting on the urban fringe. These given to economic issues), is are generally characterised by the piecemeal, incremental car-dominated environments, spread of generic, low-density, without adequate supporting car oriented development on infrastructure, with poorlythe fringes of our cities. These defined green space lacking a tend to be governed as much clear purpose, a lack of spatial by business models – house integration with the main types in the case of housing settlement and an absence development; low-density, of public transport links, or segregated business parks planned links that never arrive. and ‘shed-land’ industrial This begs the questions: parks – as by the needs of Where will people interact, a city and its inhabitants. In meet different people and build this process, planning still a sense of community? Where plays too much of a processwill they exercise? Where will oriented role in regulating children play and learn? These development ie. saying what are all ingredients necessary it doesn’t want, rather than for building greater health and pro-actively moulding the way happiness within our cities and our cities grow and function ie. all should be possible within shaping what it does. a single journey from home to The Forum for Integrated work or the shops and back. Transport is currently The solutions, in short, undertaking study on the are human-scaled urban situation, looking at environments of density, new developments with attractive public across the UK and realm conducive some overseas. to walking and The study has cycling, and particularly Self focused on the legacy Actualisation being left by

Esteem Love / Belonging Safety Psychological Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

where civic engagement is encouraged. Good examples often hail from continental Europe, with cities such as Freiburg often held up as the pinnacle of the Healthy, Happy, Harmonious (HHH) city, although there are increasingly examples from elsewhere. Putting aside the cultural differences, there are nevertheless many principles from other countries we can learn from and much research has been done to illustrate their value. Physical environments can play an active role in shaping physical activity – essential in increasing life expectancy, something which has recently peaked in the UK. According to International Physical Activity and the Environment Network (IPEN) studies, the key variables in creating more ‘walkable’ urban environments are the density of development, the number of public transport stops and the number of parks within an area2. The NHS are in the process of creating ten Healthy New Towns, where they are offering financial and technical support to create healthier places3. Key characteristics of a healthy place include familiarity, legibility (ease of navigation), distinctiveness, accessibility (for all via non-car transport modes), comfort and safety.

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Human scale ‘Spaces before buildings’

Mix of uses

Vital and viable

Familiar

Safe

Easy to navigate

Compact and walkable

Easy to use Distinctive

Social return on investment

Comfortable

Accessable (by non-car means)

Inclusive

Open and transparent government

Ultimately, these broadly reflect sound urban design principles, espousing the creation of compact, walkable communities accommodating a mix of uses and facilities (local shops, social infrastructure, parks and open spaces, civic facilities), accessible by foot and public transport and linked by lively streets and spaces. Central to the concept is creating attractive routes to encourage vigorous exercise as part of people’s daily routine. Shaping higher-density development (particularly on brownfield land) has to be central to this approach. Hugh Barton of UWE highlights the importance of

Promotion of civic engagement

putting people at the centre of planning to create more harmonious places. He emphasises the importance of a collaborative approach to planning, to ensure multiple needs are met. This needs to bring all parties round the table to develop a shared vision that is genuinely inclusive and has buy-in from all stakeholders. It is a point reiterated by Professor Jim Whiteless in promoting the Vision Zero framework; the central tenet of which is to create pedestrianfriendly environments in which no person is killed by a car. Key measures include 20mph zones and car-free developments, such as Freiburg. This has been

recently adopted by the Mayor of London and even the US Federal Government, while Bristol has been moving in this direction also. Means of measuring wellbeing are also being increasingly adopted within the built environment sector. This offers a means of recognising social value as well as more easily quantifiable outcomes, such as GDP and GVA. This is known as Social return on Investment (SROI) and has been used in the more corporate arena for some time. Ultimately, these principles – higher density, mixed-use development with attractive public realm conducive to walking and cycling, human

scale, and where civic engagement is encouraged – are essential to meet our ‘hierarchy of needs’ (Maslow, cited by Colin James, WYG) and create stronger feelings of human warmth, trust, openness, belonging, selfesteem and ultimately, selfactualisation. This should be at the heart of the manifesto for the happy, healthy and harmonious city.

References 1 Hugh Barton, 2017 2 Andrew Raven, Savills 3 Marcus Wilshere, IBI Group

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Focus on Heritage The New American Garden

nstitutions that are based in historic buildings or estates frequently face planning process challenges in responding to their need for change. Often the building that houses an institution, such as The British Museum, is completely synonymous with the institution’s identity. But what happens when that building, and the statutory planning process that controls it, starts constraining what the institution needs to do either to survive or to meet its essential developmental needs? It’s a strange thing, but whilst the Civic Amenities Act created the legislative framework for conservation areas and listed building planning policy, our institutions have no such formal protection. How our art galleries and museums manage their collections is determined only by their trustees, staff and public opinion. Their guardianship of our country’s social and cultural history, so important to our national identity, is managed without the kind of policy framework we are used to in the statutory planning process.

This kind of challenge faced the American Museum in Britain for whom we acted as heritage and planning consultants in procuring the planning permission necessary for the new American Gardens. The museum’s home, Claverton Manor, is an exemplary classical country house of the early 19th century Greek revival era, whose refined neo-classical interiors are unusually hidden from view by the early American room sets that frame their collection of largely post-Independence domestic American life. For much of its life since it was first occupied in 1820, the Manor has been in institutional or other tenanted occupations. This meant before the Museum arrived 50 years ago, its grounds were only lightly managed, leaving the Manor largely surrounded by finemowed lawns, rather than an intimate planted garden setting. To protect long-term revenues, the trustees wish to expand the Manor’s gardens over several acres to the east and south and for the first time create better access for the disabled, both from the visitor car park and the gardens, which are on the

by Edward Nash

Historic England Register of Parks and Gardens. They concluded that getting this New American Garden to tell the story of America’s flora is important, adding a layer of visitor interest through the changing seasons of the year. Its spectacular setting could potentially create a country estate garden which would achieve international status. The proposal involves recontouring the ground around the Manor and planting that affects the setting of the listed building which requires planning permission. Early discussions with the local planning authority demonstrated concern from the conservation and landscape officers that the gardens of a quintessentially English country house should be English in character which here (in the Capability Brown manner) could be only fine-mown grass. Our planning case recorded and evidenced the development history of the grounds, proving that the Manor post-dated the Capability Brown era. It showed how benign and positive the Museum’s management, care and development of the garden and grounds had been over 50 years and that they add value to the building assets. It also presented evidence on the

sensitivity of the Museum’s visitor income and assessed the boost in numbers the proposal should bring. We questioned whether the proposal would cause harm to the setting and character of Claverton Manor. Insofar as it might be considered to do so, we articulated the case through the important role the Museum plays in building the educational, social and cultural capital of the region. We assisted the Museum in winning support for this case. This argument was ultimately accepted and the application was positively determined. The New Garden will surround the Manor to the south east with a richlycoloured and textured new landscape context. The masterplan has been designed and specified by famous US landscape architects, Oehme van Sweden, using the mixed natural flora and grasslands of the North American continent. It will change the immediate context that has existed at Claverton Manor throughout the last half century. Combined with the Manor’s remarkable setting high above the Avon Valley, this new landscape will secure the Museum’s role as a regional and national institution for many decades to come.

Photo: Mark Ashbee

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Museum of Bath at Work by Kevin Balch

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he Museum of Bath at Work is located on the lower slopes of Lansdown just above Julian Road. It is housed in a former real tennis court dating from 1777 and clues to its former use still exist if you know where to look. Nash Partnership is pleased to be working with the Museum to assist with the development of its facilities, artefacts and accessibility. In its later years the tennis court became the engineering and soft drinks factory of Victorian businessman J. B. Bowler and a large part of the museum exhibit focuses

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on this. In other areas you will find a car manufactured in 1914 by the Horstmann Car Company of Bath and a reconstructed Bath Stone mine complete with dripping water! The Museum holds large historic collections of film, photographs, documents, sound recordings and objects relating to the manufacturing history of the city including over 40,000 glass plate negatives from the local engineering firm of Stothert & Pitt. The museum is currently exhibiting a reconstruction of the original bedroom Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed

for Bath businessman Sidney Horstmann, on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The existing buildings sits at the top of a large sweep of steps and is approached after glimpses of the massive tennis court’s external walls with high level windows from Julian Road. Whilst fascinating, this presents many real practical problems for the Museum, notably limited level access, a thin linear plan and limited daylighting which we hope to address. We are currently working on understanding what the

museum needs to do now and where they want to be in ten years’ time. This will be captured in a vision plan to include a review of what they should conserve and interpret; how their vast Archive can be made more accessible; its research capabilities; archive storage; and most importantly perhaps the role of the museum in the internet age. How does one elicit an emotional response (and personal interaction) with our past and future and make the link between how Bath’s residents once worked and how they are employed now?

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Resolving the challenge of Victoria Pier by Edward Nash

he management of historic building assets is generally focussed on ensuring their continued use and making a financial case for keeping them in good repair. But sometimes, the planning issues around historic asset conservation are a lot more complicated than this. When this happens, exploring the technical and planning policy questions raised by a challenging asset becomes very important. The late 19th century and the Edwardian years of the early 20th century were the heyday of seaside piers. The manufacturing economy of the British Empire brought about high levels of employment, whereas the industrial age created the means to both construct these pleasure palaces for the employed masses, and the railways and

steamers to get them to the popular coastal resorts. Along the coasts of North Wales these years saw several holiday towns spring into existence â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Llandudno, Rhyl and Colwyn Bay. Colwyn Bay came late to this status and first developed as an upmarket home from home for families whose wealth was made in the industrial cities of the Midlands and the North of England. This wealth generated fine architecture of the Arts and Crafts era, many independent schools and the last of the seaside piers of the Welsh coast, first opened in 1900. Housing an auditorium for 2500 holidaymakers, Colwyn Bay pier was always immensely over ambitious. The pier has always been invisible from the town from which it is separated by a high railway embankment and a considerable distance. Two

extensions to the pier were built in the Victorian years to seek to improve its visitor draw. Within 10 years, the first pavilion was destroyed by fire and in the early 1930s so was the second. The pier survived in use, but the growth in foreign travel in the 1970s put paid to mass beach holidaymaking that had prevailed to this point. Keeping such a structure viable led to a succession of owners, with Conwy County Borough Council acquiring the pier when its last private owner went into receivership. Over the last 10 years, a major regeneration strategy has been progressed for the tourist economy of North Wales, building up its assets and reputation as a venue for open-air sports, fitness and leisure opportunities. Utilising its mountains, hills, woods, lakes, former industrial sites

and its coast, significant investment has gone into restoring the flagship seaside town of Llandudno. Colwyn Bay has received a rugby academy and a new coastal water sports centre, alongside the complete and costly reconstruction of much of its magnificent beach washed away in storms. The restoration of the pier was built into this coastal townâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s regeneration strategy but could not be its centrepiece as something much more comprehensive in ambition and outcome was needed. Nevertheless, the Council developed a reconstruction strategy and won first round HLF funding to develop a restoration scheme further. In 2014, they concluded that whatever the study might yield they could not, as a Council, make the case for investing several

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million pounds of further funding into the pier’s restoration themselves when they had so many other priorities. Nash Partnership were commissioned to explore and test the planning case for the partial or complete removal of the pier against the benefits this option could bring to the town in other ways. By this time the pier was in a very unstable condition and in early 2017 started collapsing into the sea. With a construction full of asbestos, the risks of such a collapse progressing had already led to the closure of a large swathe of the restored beach. A further complication has been the fact that much of the 1934 Pavilion had been decorated with murals by the mid-20th century romantic artists Eric Ravilious and Mary Adshead, so special consideration needed to be

given to the prospects for such work to be salvaged and restored. Our work for Conwy County Borough Council placed the surviving Victoria Pier both in a UK national and a Welsh coastal heritage context. Our first set of applications proposed the retention only of those elements of the Pier’s fabric that had survived from its 1900 origins, principally the highly ornamented cast iron columns, which are objects of considerable beauty and character. This scheme secured planning permission, but not the necessary Listed Building Consent from the Welsh Government Minister on the grounds that further options intermediate between this and partial retention, should be further restored. Working closely with local engineers, Datrys, a range of partial retention schemes

were examined and illustrated, using 3D modelling. These showed that by the time all unsound elements had been removed, the quantum of temporary elements needed to stabilise the structure would leave the historic ‘legibility’ of the pier very unclear. Using the evidence gained from these studies and the reality of the collapse in early 2017 has led to a consensus in the town that now the optimum solution is the complete dismantling of the entire structure with those elements worthy of re-use in a potential future restoration, being set aside for the long term. For many years, a locally -based Trust has sought to progress a restoration and this dismantling option now has their support. Planning Permission has been granted accordingly and the grant of Listed Building Consent decision from the Welsh

Ministers endorsed this in October 2017. For Conwy County Borough Council this would be a sensible, pragmatic outcome. The whole of Colwyn Bay’s magnificent beach can be put back into full utilisation, free of the risk of asbestos debris. A short, truncated pier will be built using salvaged elements to act as a platform for historic interpretation of the pier’s interesting history and for the future ambitions of the Trust to build a more ambitious project. The maximum usable historic fabric can be salvaged from the risk of further collapse, the murals can be further examined and recorded under the protection the appropriate planning conditions. All of this will enable Colwyn Bay to celebrate the many virtues of its magnificent early 21st century renaissance.

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Enthusiasm is not the same as knowledge Bruce Clark provides advice for clients.

nless a building is listed, or is located within a conservation area, there is little protection to how works are carried out, particularly to the interior. Witness the recent destruction of a Jacobean ceiling dated to the 1620s in Small Street, Bristol. Even when a building is protected by listed status, in our experience, the humbler a building’s origin, particularly where it is not obviously attractive, the more likely owners are to ignore the requirements of conservation legislation. There are particular challenges for community projects. People apply higher standards when they are not responsible for a building. How many Victorian buildings of status once at the heart of the community have fallen into disrepair and frequently out of use; churches, church halls, schools and public houses, because they are now un-economic or do not meet modern requirements? An exterior in apparent good order can mask a lot of issues, the severity of which is often overlooked by those without a financial stake. Peoples’ laudable wish to ‘conserve’ the building, and return it to community use often leads them to ignore its condition, side step or re-interpret the level of protection offered to listed buildings, the application, consultation and approvals process in the belief that it doesn’t apply (or sometimes the belief it shouldn’t) to the works they intend to undertake. There is also the surprisingly common belief that the recent focus on localism gives a community

the power to overlook national legislation. Yet communities and individuals express horror at proposals by private developers for works to buildings carried out in a manner similar to that they often propose for their own project where the focus is on conserving the social status of the building rather than the very building fabric which led to it being considered worthy of statutory protection in the first place. Conservation legislation must be applied fairly and in an equitable manner to all. A project for a community, or for a client with limited resources should not expect preferential treatment, and for national and local authority requirements to be waived or reduced.

Common Misconceptions There are a number of common misconceptions regarding listed buildings, the purpose of the official listing description and the level of protection offered: That protection only applies to the exterior That protection only applies to elements specifically noted in the listing description That protection only applies to the ‘original’ parts of the building fabric. That different levels of protection apply to different grades of listing. The official listing description is not meant to be all encompassing, but sufficient to enable Local Authority, Historic England and Amenity Society officers to

locate and identify the building. Typically, the descriptions only include the external fabric, because at the date of listing the officers had no access to the interior. Usually only the larger, higher grade buildings have any significant detail, with the building’s history or interior noted. There are sometimes errors made in listing descriptions, and it is not unknown for buildings that have been demolished to still be listed. Hence the importance of the Heritage Statement, that should accompany any Listed Building application, being based on evidence rather just opinion. The level of protection offered by listing to all grades of listed building is the same. The grade is an indicator of the building’s, gardens’ or monument’s sensitivity and to a degree, its social status. The rarer (often older) and more complete a historic asset is, the higher its significance is likely to be. What is often now misunderstood is that previously common types of or elements of buildings are now increasingly rare so that once, and sometimes still, overlooked buildings or parts of a building have a historic significance far greater than previously ie. eighteenth century lead rainwater goods are now rare even in a Georgian city like Bath, so should be retained as long as they can be repaired. Listed protection applies to all elements of the buildings, so that the unfashionable ‘apricot’ coloured bathroom suite, unhygienic 1960s kitchen units or damaged boarded doors are as protected as elements of the main elevation. Listing also applies to every structure

that was within the curtilage of the building at the date of listing, even if the site has been subsequently sub-divided and the boundaries legally altered. Many people see the conservation legislation as a barrier, not safeguard against inappropriate alteration. This tendency to ignore the requirements of the legislation is even more marked where works are internal (in the belief no one will know or mind) particularly when people are looking to modernise buildings to meet fashionable expectations. Common examples include creating en-suite bathrooms, re-fitting kitchens, often relocating them and converting former storage areas (typically in basements) into habitable accommodation. The damage done by inappropriate work in the past is the reason that the Listed Building applications now require more exhaustive information, and even ‘common’ elements that are to be removed or altered must be recorded. Solicitors acting for mortgage companies increasingly require vendors to provide proof that alterations have been carried out with and in accordance to approvals. If proof is not found, vendors are having to indemnify the purchaser against possible enforcement action. Vendors can be held to task upon selling their property years later to prove they have made no unauthorised alterations and secure historic building consent retrospectively. With community projects, the risks are further escalated because there are a multiplicity of views about what or how to do something,

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often a constrained budget, the wish to make use of volunteers and the temptation to ‘get on’ whilst people’s enthusiasm can be harnessed. Decisions taken at the outset, often based on sketchy or perhaps inappropriate or inappropriately applied advice often means these types of projects start off with decisions based on misconceptions. These projects require a strong principled lead, who understands the processes and approvals required, willing to control how and what works are carried out. Planning and Listed Building consents are not the same. Listed building applications require a greater level of documentation than Planning Applications with the authorities usually requiring additional drawings including large scale details of the existing building fabric (typically joinery) and proposed repairs. Taken with the misconceptions about how the Listing status works it means that historic fabric is frequently ripped out or demolished before it is recorded, analysed or properly understood. Fabric that has real significance for the building is often removed because it looks dirty or is

damaged ie. floorboards and partition walls. In this climate, it is understandable that overworked Conservation Officers expect to receive Heritage Statements setting out the buildings history with properly argued statements of justification for any proposed changes, drawings recording the detail of the building and information about how the work will be carried out. They are not the ‘enemy’, but have the difficult task of reconciling owners’ wishes and the conservation requirements.

Analysis and experience Our good record of obtaining approvals for clients on often difficult sites or for what in normal circumstances would be controversial applications, is based on analysis. A Listed Building application is a legal process that cannot be circumvented without risk at some stage of affecting future transactions. As conservation architects and planners our job is to use our experience and understanding to support our client’s proposals, in conservation terms where possible. But the case must be based on more than opinion to carry any real weight and must be backed up by real

evidence. We have used paint analysis proving that what were thought to be Edwardian interiors are in fact Georgian, to win approval for works. In other circumstances, we have used analysis of drawings and maps to prove that parts of a Georgian town house had been re-ordered in the twentieth century with kitchens being relocated. We cannot lie or make knowing misstatements to improve the justification for the client. Listed Building approval is rarely the end of the process, it is usually the start of the second phase. Many, indeed most have conditions attached requiring additional information to be submitted and approved in writing before works start in order to ensure that the construction details and specifications are suitable for a historic building. These types of conditions have been bought in because many buildings have been irreparably damaged by inappropriately using modern materials (such as modern tanking systems and gypsum plasters) that do not ‘breathe’ and trap moisture leading to the historic fabric breaking down and in time requiring replacement. People are sometimes willing to spend a lot of

money to address a visual or decorative problem when analysis often points to a simpler, less invasive solution that will take longer to complete but is both kinder to the building, and the wallet; for example, tanking damp walls before re-decorating, rather than fixing the leaking guttering that causes the damp. On one project, the owners allowed a rubble wall, sodden by decades of leaking gutters, to dry out slowly and as a result saved a large part of a seventeenth century roof, the timber hardening as it dried out. People misunderstand the importance of historic details, materials and craftsmanship, for example, by replacing lead or cast-iron rainwater goods with modern UPVC, frequently on cost grounds. Yet, if the church authorities suggested using UPVC gutters on Salisbury Cathedral, there would be an outcry. But many believe that new work must be better than repaired work, often in ignorance of the visual impact and effect on significance when carrying out work on their own house, ignoring many of the reasons people value heritage assets: the sense of permanence, timelessness, history and aesthetics.

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Our Approach Design management

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Preliminary design

Kevin Balch talks about the role of the architect in championing design quality.

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ost projects start with a vision, but how is that defined and who is responsible for it? For a long time, design leadership was the sole remit of the architect. With more and more diverse forms of procurement and increasing specialisation within the design process, this role has been diluted. But the need for effective listening and collaboration between the team has never been greater. Architects should champion design quality and lead its ambitions. It always was and still is their greatest skill. Design Management is a term we use for how we manage the process of delivering complex briefs with large consultant teams. It’s all about understanding

Detailedy design

Detailed design

Construction documents

what is required and making it happen, and a key part of this process is the requirement of defining the client’s values and then assembling the project team to deliver them. All too often the responsibility matrix is prepared before the lead designer is appointed, but clearly all disciplines need to contribute on who does what at each stage of the project. Whilst the notion of value certainly starts with the client, it is the project’s designers that understand what that means and can deliver it. This might relate to design quality, fitness for purpose or whole life costs as much as capital cost and timeframe. The design delivery stages, technical, regulatory and commercial pressures all put pressure on the successful delivery of the Vision. The holy grail of BIM promises better collaboration between the design team, but

Construction

the increasing specialisation and marginalisation of each discipline fragments ownership and risks gaps at overlaps. The use of a responsibility matrix in the appointment documents is the industry response to defining who does what, but without proper ownership, clear process management and a truly collaborative approach it can’t deliver a successful project. It’s about bringing creativity, insight and leadership to a process that can all too often be driven by the constraints of a cost-driven world. Getting this balance right in the first instance is key if we are to deliver value to clients and quality in our buildings. This absolutely gets back to what the core skills of an Architect are, that of problem solving. Getting design to match the budget is just one of those problems.

Operation

Whilst some projects will be driven by technical compliance and others by conceptual ideas, it can be a slippery slope to split these too apart. The reliance on specialist design managers is regrettable. Time and time again, we hear the phrase ‘Design and Dump’ used by contractors for the Design & Build process. This is not helpful and a clear indication that the leadership of a project has been lost somewhere down the line. The architect is often best placed to champion and balance the aspirations of the project and to this end we are always very keen that the project management and cost consultants understand what value really means for the client and the project. Only then can they really make an informed judgement about cost and time issues.

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Opinion

Partner Daniel Lugsden explains why it is important “to take a moment”, and explores how brand should influence design.

Let’s run hard, in the right direction I can pretty much find out anything I want to find out at the touch of a button – and I can do that now, in an instant. I can find out what the latest reality TV person had for lunch (if you’re that way inclined); I can check live scores of a rugby match I already have on record at home, but can’t wait to see the latest score; or maybe the size of a specific piece of furniture as I’m planning out some apartments that are a bit of a squeeze. We live in a world where we demand to know, now. It seems that applying immediacy to what we do on a daily basis is just the way it is now. But if we are so immediate about things, have we considered them

well enough? Isn’t life about balance – and doesn’t balance sometimes need a bit more consideration? Doesn’t balance get us the best result in the end? It also probably means it’s been a more enjoyable process to get there too! We ask ourselves these questions as we professionally go about our work. The speed at which life happens now is incredible. The pace at which projects develop is getting more and more efficient and requires quick advice. Time is money they say, and we get that. However, speed shouldn’t be at the sacrifice of diligence, or a bit of a sense of knowing when to take that moment to enable a balanced view. Our teams at Nash Partnership

are efficient, committed, but more so, have an ability to know when to take a moment to truly understand what the actual requirement is before they answer. We can all shift an email from our red flag list to somebody else’s at the push of a button, but our goal is to try and remove the red flag by taking a moment when the time is right on something. This is not just at the start of a project, but from conception to completion. We take time to understand the project, so decisions can be made quickly and as we are used to being lead designers help to form when those moments of review should be. Let’s all run hard, in the right direction.

“A particular type or kind of something” I sn’t that just wonderfully beautifully open and vague, but still to the point. During my recent obsession with understanding brand and brand development, I came across this and thought it captured a particular moment for me. I had applied the term ‘brand’ to the hotel and leisure work we have done and are doing on some great projects. Those sorts of projects where we are lucky enough to be part of a one-off, or a new hotel, or spa, that has required us

to really understand what the essence of the offer is going to be. Projects such as The Lee Bay Hotel and Spa, or Monkey Island in Bray. What is the ‘money shot’ – as it was described to me; is it a middle-age couple snuggling up on a sofa, next to a roaring fire, in a wonderful drawing room, with more lavish off-whites than the senses can handle; or is it a younger couple skipping through the fields on their way to the steaming outdoor hot

tub, while the sun sets in a haze. OK, I’m embellishing, but these things are tested to ensure the way a design comes forward to suit its target audience. It is successful and a whole lot of fun too. If you can describe something in one image, or only a few words, you’ll do well. It means you are closer to understanding it, as you have stripped it back. I find this isn’t unique or even limited to just the hotel work we are doing. Making sure we understand what sort

of ‘a particular type or kind of something’ a project is, means you will get closer to designing something successful but also get a buy-in from the team in what is trying to be achieved. The world is full of brand and perhaps that puts pressure on most things to put themselves in a box. But maybe the door of opportunity is a bit freer than that, and we should take the time to consider what sort of something we are trying to achieve, as each project is unique.

Hotel and Spa

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Island travels Architect Chris Hall tells his story about the transition from the academic to the professional realm.

was studying at Strathclyde University and due to graduate in the summer of 2009. We were at the height of the most recent financial crisis, which had badly affected the construction industry. Like many others, I had been building toward this point in my career for six years, but was faced with the prospect of unemployment – frustrating at best and terrifying at worst, with our first child on the horizon. I was then offered the opportunity of extending my period of study over the summer. At the beginning of the year my tutor had commented that ‘times of financial stress are wonderful opportunities for young architects’. At the time, I had not fully

understood what he meant – and even considered it an insensitive remark – it was alright for him to say that after all, he had a job! But I came to realise that what he meant was that in times of hardship, one has to think differently and be resourceful in order to succeed. We were – in effect – the latest would-be architects off the production line and in the best position to do this and potentially offer an outlook and skillset that no other architect could. So, I knew that I had to look upon the situation positively and take confidence from what I had learned to try and take control of my destiny. A colleague of mine was of a similar mindset, so we teamed up and instead of working on a

detailed building design in the University studio, we decided to set up a hypothetical business as our final student project. Either it would fail spectacularly, which would lead to interesting academic conclusions, or it would succeed and upon graduating we would have something to build on. My colleague was from the Isle of Tiree – a small island in the Inner Hebrides about 25 miles off the west coast of Scotland – and a place with many conditions that we believed suited our purpose. It was a small community of only 650 people, but because of its aging building stock and growing population, there was a continued demand for building work, sustained

through several small onisland scale contractors and sub-contractors. We found however that there was a culture of ‘that will do’ or of providing a quick fix to a long-term problem. Design ambition was often limited and projects were based on a handshake rather than a formal mechanism. As a result, there were issues with the quality, cost and duration of building projects, which the community were becoming frustrated with. Further to our advantage, planning policy was not overly restrictive and in being remote from the central belt, the island was under-served by professional architectural design services. Overall, it seemed the perfect setting in which to practice.

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The Archivan concept The Glebe Field, Isle of Iona We knew however that these were not normal times. We were both settled in Edinburgh and unable relocate to Tiree. With this in mind, we conceived the ‘Archivan’ concept. We would use a renovated VW camper van as a mobile architectural office (and sometime home for the night!) to travel to the island on a regular series of intensive 3-4 day long tours, focused mainly on the procurement of work and spending the rest of our time working from home to deliver what was required. It was a method we knew would require a lot of planning and discipline, with the tours themselves involving periods of research, meeting local people and hosting of exhibitions, design surgeries, workshops and talks. Generally, it was a way of spending time in the place so as to better understand it and to make ourselves available to the public. We felt it was a modern approach but also one that tapped into a traditional way of working in rural areas where people travel from community to community to sell their wares or provide skilled trades. It would also allow us to combine business with pleasure, as no trip was complete without the bikes and surfboards. This also showed that we were not adhering to the public’s traditional view of the architect ie. the Saab driving, black polo neck wearing, academic (apologies if that describes any readers!). We gave ourselves three months to see what we could do. A key part of our approach were community events, as these would be the best way to meet members of the public. We would hire a community space for a day and endeavour to get as many

people through the door as we could, by putting on an event that we hoped would interest them. Fortunately, my colleague’s father was the island’s doctor, so he knew everyone – including the island’s postman – and we were able to print a flier for each dwelling on the island and have them delivered for free. For our first trip we fundraised, curated and hosted a public exhibition that examined how the physical and cultural landscape of the island would change if the proposed off-shore Argyll Array wind-farm went ahead – a subject of intense debate within the community at the time. On other occasions, we exhibited the work of recent university graduates from built-environment courses and obtained funding from SUST to complete a study of rural house types to examine ways they could be altered, renovated and extended, and be improved in terms of their environmental performance. We had 300 visitors turn up at our first event – most popped in for something to do, but some wanted to meet us and engage in the process. And so we spent our masters in this way; visiting, learning, meeting, and working up design solutions

to the briefs presented to us. We could draw on some experience from our limited time in practice and university but it was mostly all new and so a whirlwind period. It was very hard work, but I would be lying if I did not say it was also a lot of fun. For me, it was a bit of an adventure too. The highlands and islands of Scotland still held some mystique as wild places and different to the plains of Cheshire and even the fells of the Lake District where I grew up.

Inspiration and creativity It was also an incredibly creative time. Spending time in an unfamiliar place broadened my perception of architecture and myself as an architect. Away from the constraints of the university studio we were able to express ourselves more freely. Indeed, we were aware that if we did speak to people we needed to inspire them and capture the possibilities of their project with our initial proposals. Deriving designs from a journal or a foreign place (even an adjacent island) would not work and what we created had to be suited to the place and be of its time in an aesthetic and performance sense. The Archivan helped

us in this respect as in driving around from place to place, we naturally absorbed the particular character of the place – its people, landscape and climate. A documentary of our project was commissioned by Architecture & Design Scotland (a creative wing of the Scottish government) and served as our Masters submission. Upon graduating we set up practice to deliver the private commissions we had received and more generally offer professional design and project management services to isolated communities in rural Scotland. We went on to win awards for design and entrepreneurship and made the top 25 of influential practices in Scotland within three years. All this derived from a situation somewhat forced upon us, but one we turned to our advantage. It was certainly daunting, but the exposure to real projects and clients – and the need to back up what you promise – compelled us to raise our game and meet that challenge. It also demonstrated just how capable young architectural students can be.

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Identifying value in place communal values that we all – however old or young – draw on. Within each of us are the emotive and signified values “Place is at the heart not only of who we are, but also attached to places we have 16053 South Gloucestershire Council of the culture in which we find ourselves” (Trigg, 2012) connected with; iterating the High Street Densification: A Typical Approach to Redevelopment importance emotion and N/A LM/EN 22 March of 2017 16053_IM_038 of Deep Plan Sites with High Street Frontage alue can be a key For those using value as To quantify how value can community being part of who analytical tool by which an an analytical tool, it is the be read as an analytical tool, informs changes to place. This assessment of quality beyond scalability of the measurements it is important to understand awareness of our surroundings single objective attributes of value that allows us to how value relates to place. and eventuality of our can be made. In its simplest understand the rise and fall Our regeneration and heritage experience of places become KEY denomination, it is the principle in a place’s success and expertise may initially conjured memories. 1 (Low) by which we regard importance. indeed an ability to which steer us towards guidance 2 (Medium) But delving deeper into its we can contribute to them. from UNESCO, ICOMOS The benefit of communal 3 (High) meaning and role for actors Applying a methodology to and Historic England. The memories and involvement within the built environment, it quantify the identifiable value ‘Conservation Principles, recapitulates the collective is clear that value incorporates in place, is not simply a binary Policies and Guidance’ cultural nature of value. With more than just importance. It measure (place has value or publication from the latter, a holistic perspective that is a diverse balance amongst not). The measure of value is notes four types of value; puts place identity at the a collective cultural contextual instead part of a continuum of evidential, historical, aesthetic forefront of effective analytics understanding that embodies categories which acknowledge and communal. Yet do these in participatory planning economic outputs, through its varying nature and the classifications of value have a processes, we are able to add to the social, health, political, subjective influence we give role in places where heritage value to the neighbourhoods educational and environmental to value. This approach to is not significantly apparent and towns that form the factors that influence a value was used as part of or deemed important? Yes, common ground upon which development’s yield. the high street analysis in the in part they do. It is the more we live our daily lives. Laura Mitchell asks how should value be identified in determining who, what, when, where and how regeneration and development occurs?

‘review of the potential’ for South Gloucestershire Council. Identifying which areas may benefit from regeneration to raise its value and importance as a locality centre. Scale

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Planning and Regeneration Living in the Cotswolds

â&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve often found myself reflecting on how well the Cotswolds region of England shapes the reality of cyclical regional regeneration. These largely upland landscapes had poor soils before modern agriculture but with abundant rainfall proved excellent grazing for sheep. Their abundant springs and steep valleys created the motive power to spin, weave and process woollen cloth, which became the mainstay of the English economy for centuries. The strength of their economy led to extensive but well scattered settlements for which construction material could be found readily to hand below the surface of the ground. So, began a tradition of vernacular stone building, harnessing a social and economic diversity of built

dwellings, that now add so much to the variety of these Cotswolds settlements today. As, very gradually, the economy based on wool declined, the convenient central location of the Cotswolds in England proved to be attractive as a place to live in and a haven from the towns and cities then at the heart of economic vigour. New sources of wealth were invested here in romanticising the vernacular traditions and by degrees the Cotswolds we now know was created, for many a home from home somewhere else. This long experience in valuing, caring for and romanticising the Cotswolds has continued and today very few new developments are built that fall below an acceptable standard of design and construction

by Edward Nash

delivery in light of its highly valued traditions. Nash Partnership have been pleased to be responsible for a new chapter in the life of one of the Cotswolds towns, now well evidenced on site on the fringe of Northleach, close to Stow-on-the-Wold. Here forty new houses are under construction for housebuilder Freeman Homes, to our designs in pursuit of a planning application we secured. Their site is on the north-eastern fringe of the town overlooking an attractive shallow valley with open views to south, east and north. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve worked together to identify a wide range of local and regional housing need typologies including a 50% quota of social rental and shared equity dwellings. To

reflect the diversity of form, size and character so evident in the Cotswolds, the scheme has 20 bespoke house types. These are laid out to reflect the way Cotswolds settlements typically evolved with higher more urban densities at their centre and a lower looser, more open character at the periphery, allowing all residents to be aware of the siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attractive setting. All the houses utilise the steep roof pitches, roof spans, materials and construction details of the Cotswolds vernacular. The scheme is being built out to particularly high standards of construction craftsmanship and we hope it will play its part well in perpetuating the Cotswolds vernacular traditions that teach architects so much about design and harmony in the landscape.

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Making planning relevant to urban Africa by Mike Fox

or those that venture to the ‘international’ pages of broadsheet newspapers, property magazines or trade publications, some will be more familiar with the realities of urban life in Africa. These articles often fall into two categories: those that focus on the often complex and multilayered challenges, relating to a lack of infrastructure provision, inequality and health deprivation; and those that focus on the opportunities – particularly in relation to investment, natural resources and the dynamism of a young and growing population. Both the challenges – and the opportunities – are worthy of discussion. However, the latter all too frequently do not respond to or address the former. In fact, the development ie. property industry and the professions that inform it – planning, engineering, architecture and urban design – all too often exacerbate and entrench the existing issues, rather than providing the antidote. Here we consider the context, the changing global agenda, the challenges faced and some of the solutions emerging to addressing these problems.

The context Demographic growth in Africa is either a blessing or a curse, depending on how you look at it. Either way, it is dramatic. Its population will have doubled from 1 billion in 2010 to 2 billion in 2040, while the number of people in cities will increase five-fold by 2050. The

proportion of people living in ‘informal’ areas is significant – as high as 70% (or more) in many countries – meaning they often lack access to basic water and sanitation, roads and social infrastructure, such as schools and clinics. Crosscutting issues such as gender inequality, prevalence of HIV/ AIDs and a lack of youth empowerment exacerbate the situation. Governments are often poorly equipped to deal with these challenges, lacking the capacity or the resources to do so, while grappling with out-dated legal systems and planning approaches overall. As a result, urban authorities almost uniformly fail to deliver on their mandate.

Changing global agenda The UN Sustainable Development Goals set the global agenda for managing change up to 2030. The Goals set the framework for aid and global cooperation between governments. This includes one (Goal 11) focused on cities. Despite the recent slide into parochialism, embodied within the Brexit vote, unless the global economy completely unravels and climate change goes into reverse, these issues will not go away and need to be tackled in unison. In response to the growing recognition of the importance of cities in addressing the challenges facing those in the world’s poorest countries (overwhelmingly in Africa), donors such as the UK’s Department of International Development (DFID) have launched a new programme placing cities at the heart of the development

agenda. This includes the recently tendered Cities and Infrastructure for Growth programme, launched across seven developing countries across Africa and Asia.

Systemic failings There are fundamental flaws with the planning system and the way it presently operates in Africa. In terms of their foundations, present systems are inherited from colonial administrations for whom it was deployed as a method of retaining the status quo. Since that time, systems and planning education have not been substantially reformed to address the unique planning challenges facing African cities. Planners within Government all too often see planning as a means of control – bringing sanity to the city – often directed against vulnerable groups. Meanwhile most people continue to build in parallel with formal land allocations, as they are unable to afford to secure land via official routes. Land that is planned through formal process is a scarce commodity, which keeps prices high and inaccessible to the majority, exacerbating the situation. In parallel, elites generally develop as they please, free from the encumbrances of a transparent, accountable and democratic urban management process. In addition, the traditional masterplans produced are not based on any form of analysis and are founded on the principle of low-density, car-oriented development, zoning based

on compartmentalisation of land uses and segregation of income groups. They also give no thought for public spaces or infrastructure delivery and largely ignore the informal settlements that make up most of the community.

Erroneous solutions Attempts to deliver a new urban future for Africa have come in different shapes and sizes. A common trend emerging is for the African ‘mega project’. Built on models of development now prevalent in Asia and the Middle-East, this often involves the creation of ‘economic zones’ where a parallel planning system is established or an ‘end-state’ masterplan devised, based on international models. These are often planned by high profile international architects and engineering firms procured by government in partnership with businesses or foreign governments. They generally adopt European and north American urban design approaches, with visualisations showing shiny glass and steel towers, expressways and a western lifestyle. Significant doubts persist as to how this will benefit most of the population and indeed, whether this will in fact be deliverable, given the paucity of infrastructure available. Even where provided, the question is raised as to how local people will benefit. This cannot be a sustainable solution. In parallel, bottom-up solutions can also have their failings. For my own part, as a foreign planner working with the Zambian

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government through VSO, I found it particularly challenging marrying my UK experience with the unique challenges facing the Zambian planners. The draft Integrated Development Plans we produced together, through representing a progression on current practice, on further reflection are likely to be too complex for the local officers to replicate and implement alone. This is a criticism that could almost certainly be levelled at efforts by other international organisations operating in the same space, such as JICA’s masterplan for the capital Lusaka. However, it has established some key principles that can be built upon in future.

Moving forward – some key principles Personal experience and prevailing thought within the sector suggests several key principles are required to

make planning effective in the African context. Given that most of the urban population live in informal settlements, engaging with informality is critical to making planning a relevant exercise. Plans therefore need to recognise existing informal settlements and develop plans for their incremental upgrading, including granting formal title and delivering basic infrastructure provision. In parallel, plans need to anticipate future population growth and plan for the delivery of sufficient serviced plots – for housing and commercial uses – and the delivery of infrastructure. Participation and engagement needs to be central to any approach. This needs to include engagement

with all sectors of society, including the poorest, facilitated through civil society organisations, local business and traditional (ie. tribal) leadership. These plans need to be cross-cutting, with the upfront involvement across government – currently all too rare. Plans need to be practical and deliverable. Focus should be more on minimum standards, rather than trying to be overly prescriptive and focusing on relative luxuries, such as design quality and materials, while emphasis should be placed on the provision of infrastructure and serviced plots in the right location to guide sustainable patterns of growth. And finally, a point particularly pertinent to my own experience – to

ensure they are adopted by resource-hungry planning departments, they should also be short and quick to prepare. Examples of where such principles are ingrained include the new Urban and Regional Planning Act in Zambia and a pilot masters in Spatial Planning at University of Zambia in Lusaka.

Final thoughts So, the issues facing African cities are significant and overcoming them will be one of the great challenges of the 21st century. However, there is growing global consensus that these problems cannot be ignored. Pioneering work in countries such as Zambia is critical and needs to be continued to develop truly sustainable solutions to Africa’s urban problems. We hope to be a part of that process.

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Creating vibrant and sustainable communities Amanda Taylor takes a closer look at estate regeneration.

“For too long a number of housing estates across the country have been areas characterised by low-quality homes and high social deprivation and the government is determined to have a housing market that works for everyone. That’s why we’re turbocharging the regeneration of these rundown estates, so they can thrive as communities.” – Communities Secretary Sajid Javid

n March 2017 the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) announced that a £32 million Estate Regeneration Fund would be distributed to housing associations and local authorities across England to speed up the building of thousands of new homes. In total, 105 estates would benefit from the funding, which was to be used to support regeneration schemes in their early stages. To qualify for the funding councils had to demonstrate that the estate regeneration projects were locally led. The goal of the initiative was to breathe new life into existing neighbourhoods, provide betterquality homes and to help more ordinary working people have the security of a decent place to live. This funding was also aimed at providing thousands of new homes through the carefully planned redesign of existing estates.

Regeneration strategy Nash Partnership are currently working on two projects which secured DCLG funding of this type that involve working with existing tenants to consider the regeneration of their neighbourhoods. The two projects, in Taunton and Cheltenham, are of different scales but both use the

same engagement method, exhibiting the best practice set out in the DCLG’s Estate Regeneration Strategy document. Our approach to each project has been adapted to suit the context of the site, the needs of the local community and the specific requirements of the client. Our planning and Urban Design teams have wide experience of these sorts of projects and are well practiced at working with residents and stakeholders for public sector clients. We have a unique skill set which includes geographers, planners, urban designers and architects with a portfolio of socio-economic and regeneration projects. Our research capacity enables us to evidence the case for regeneration alongside having an understanding of the physical requirements of a site. We map all the baseline data in GIS. For both current projects we are the lead consultants, working alongside engineers and quantity surveyors. It is our role to formulate and lead the resident and stakeholder engagement process and manage the project programme to a strict DCLG deadline. One of our most successful regeneration projects in recent years was at St Paul’s in Cheltenham, an area

An overview of the Cheltenham West Regeneration Project

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not just about buildings and identifying sites for interventions but also about capacity building within the local community, setting up links between organisations and identifying routes to funding.

Proactive engagement

which had high levels of social deprivation and crime. Cheltenham Borough Homes demolished a central area of the site and we were employed to work with local stakeholders to determine what should be put back. Our proposal radically changed the former street layout to address some of the crime and antisocial behaviour issues and provided 48 mixed-tenure dwellings. We also refurbished 98 existing homes to unite the new build properties with the existing housing. Effective engagement at St Paulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ensured that the project went to committee with no objections and received

unanimous approval. Once the project was completed we carried out analysis to see if the process of regeneration and urban design had improved the neighbourhood. Evidence showed that crime rates went down, values increased, and other forms of tenure such as shared ownership were successful. The proposals also included community space which provided additional support in the neighbourhood. More recently we have been working with Blaenau Gwent Council to produce regeneration strategies for five valley town centres. These projects are

Common to all these commissions is that weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve actively engaged with residents throughout the process using a range of techniques and activities. We have listened to their views and requirements and these have genuinely influenced the proposals. The challenge is to balance this process against the long-term priorities of the client and stakeholders. Our project in North Taunton involves 215 existing Woolaway properties. Built in the 1950s, these homes provided much needed housing after the war. They were constructed using concrete beams and columns infilled with concrete panels. In the 1980s the Government declared this form of construction defective and that no more should be built due to structural issues caused by water ingress. At the time, Taunton Deane Borough Council undertook a programme of adding to their Woolaway properties

external wall insulation and over cladding to protect the structure from further weathering. Elsewhere in Taunton, the Council recently demolished some Woolaway properties which gave them the opportunity to investigate the structural issues without disturbing any occupants. The results, recorded as video evidence, showed that the over cladding had slowed down the structural issues, however the structure had continued to decay quicker than expected. The steel reinforcement had rusted causing the concrete to crack. With this evidence, Taunton Deane Council decided they needed to look at the long-term future of the rest of their Woolaway Stock and in particular focus on the Priorswood area where their highest concentration of Woolaway homes exists. Our appointment is to carry out community engagement at Priorswood, co-ordinate the supporting consultants and submit planning application for the refurbishment or redevelopment of the site to accommodate the existing and additional residents. We briefed stakeholders and supporting organisations on the project in the lead up to the first public consultation meeting. We are now working with a panel of residents in a year long design process to determine the most viable and appropriate solution for the neighbourhood. This includes the formation of a Residents Charter document which clarifies how we will work together and the clients commitments to the existing residents affected by the regeneration proposals.

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The Cheltenham West Regeneration Project was commissioned by Cheltenham Borough Homes, (an ALMO of Cheltenham Borough Council), as part of the HCA development framework. West Cheltenham is home to a large concentration of affordable homes, many of which are one to three bedroom flats. Our site is focused along the radial route around town called Princes Elizabeth Way. Two large scale urban extensions are planned to the west of Cheltenham. These will deliver 4,800 new dwellings and 23 hectares of employment in the form of a new cyber park next to GCHQ. One of the considerations for the Cheltenham West regeneration project is the impact and benefits these urban extensions and new jobs could have on the area, which has several struggling and void shops, a

library and public space which could be improved. Nash Partnership is working in collaboration with WSP on this year long engagement, masterplanning and viability assessment that will lead to a pre-application submission in July 2018. Both the Cheltenham and Taunton projects have a clear strategy for community engagement, learning from best practice and our experience at St Paulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. Stakeholders have been identified, prioritised, briefed and a series of structure meetings established. A residentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s design group has been formed to work with residents that are the most interested, energetic and sometimes the most sceptical. They have described them as the eyes and ears of the community and the resident champions of the

development. From experience we know residents often care intensely about their homes, their community and their neighbours. Our role is to explain the process and bring them along on the journey of redevelopment, enabling them to have their say, keep a check on our language and approach and manage their expectations alongside the needs of the client and viability of the project. These projects will span many years and this will enable us to form bonds with the residents which we hope will be based on honesty and trust. Our project management role in all of this is key. It is a bit like steering a ship through the design and consultation process. We need to be flexible, provide options and choices and consider the proposal within a wider neighbourhood or town context.

Shaping future places For Nash Partnership, taking part in regeneration projects such as Taunton and Cheltenham has rewards on many levels. It not only provides us with the opportunity to shape the future of a place, both physically and socially, but it also enables us to meet the people for which having safe, comfortable and affordable homes is vital. Creating vibrant, sustainable communities is at the heart of placemaking. These projects often involve a significant investment of time and emotion but the sense of responsibility and satisfaction and often the long-term friendships that come from them, means that we love working on them.

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Offsite manufacture is the future, but local character of a place must not be lost by Paul Miller

t is easy to see how the rise of offsite manufacturing in the construction industry is inevitable. There are numerous benefits to this construction method, including: Cost benefits of mass production, rather than bespoke production Speed of construction Quality of finished product Better control over the airtightness performance of the fabric A reduced time on site, meaning less opportunity for accidents and minimised disruption to neighbours through noise and dust

No dependency on fair weather The use of less trained workers Factory controlled environments Offshore labour and imported components More opportunity for the use of renewable materials Most developers have moved away from their traditional construction mentality and are starting to embrace offsite manufacturer systems. However, there are also a plethora of companies in the market offering volumetric systems, modular

systems, panelised systems, bathroom pods, balconies, and prefabricated foundation systems. Not many of those however, have delivered them on site. Those that have are leading the field and all Local Authorities, Housing Associations and even developers are queuing up to work with and adopt their standardised systems and house plans. But, with the standardisation (and possibly simplification) of these systems, there may be a reluctance to vary from the original product for fear that a change may disrupt the system through delays or costs. This

could result in a standardised product being ‘rolled out’ nationwide and with that, there is a real danger of losing the local character of a place. Each town, village, hamlet has a distinct sense of place and it is the role of the designer to research, analyse and understand this. It must not be lost, or else we will sanitise our places and lose their uniqueness. Offsite manufacturing is the future, but this does mean that there is a need for standard kit or parts. We, as architects and designers must ensure that its power is used in the right way, appropriate for each and every site.

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A strategy for thriving town centres in South Wales by Mel Clinton

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own centres across the UK are facing significant challenges as the result of accumulated out of town development, online retailing and services, and stagnating income levels. These challenges are heightened where geographic disparities in economic prosperity further reduce available levels of expenditure. This is the case in the Sirhowy, Ebbw and Ebbw Fach Valleys in South Wales where, following the loss of coal mining and steel making, communities are seeking to move from an era of low wages towards a new and more prosperous future. In these valley communities, we have been working with Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council and stakeholders to develop a strategy for the five town centres of Tredegar, Ebbw Vale, Brynmawr, Blaina and Abertillery. Like all towns, they are shaped to a great degree by the context within which they operate, in particular the relatively low levels of disposable income. Here, the Council with its partners, including the Welsh Government and its Taskforce for the Valleys, has delivered a range of major infrastructure investments, include upgrading the A465 Heads of the Valleys Road, extending the Newport-Cardiff rail line to Ebbw Vale, public realm enhancements in the town centres and a new Learning Campus, sports facilities and hospital on the site of the former Ebbw Vale steelworks. However, there is recognition that change also needs to be built from the bottom up. We have teamed up with Gavin Eddy of Forward Space and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;guerrilla communicationsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; specialists Oggadoon and our work has involved extensive engagement with a wide range

of people and organisations to help identify the assets in each town and the sources of community and entrepreneurial energy. This has included one-to-one discussions, a day spent talking with young people at Coleg Gwent and open workshops in each of the town centres. From this, it is apparent that whilst the challenges are very real, the area has some significant assets to provide a basis for evolution of the town centres as thriving focal points for their communities. The friendliness, warmth and the sense of community in these valley towns is a striking characteristic of the area. So too is its landscape. The story of the area is a remarkable one, with Ebbw Vale, for example, once home to the largest steelworks in Europe and the template for the National Health Service being established in Tredegar. Today, there are beacons of community and entrepreneurial activity, including Green Valley Films, the associated community film and media initiative, Made in Tredegar, a Coleg Gwent project to build a car and an aeroplane and, in Brynmawr, the Market Hall Cinema, the oldest in Wales and run as a social enterprise. These are things to celebrate, nurture and build upon. In a strategic sense, the area has good quality of life potential around the assets described above and its location, on the edge of the Brecon Beacons, with Cardiff and Newport to the south and Bristol to the east, connected by improved road and rail infrastructure. In this respect, its place within the Cardiff Capital City Region: City Deal is significant and the town centres have an important

role to play within the wider strategy for enhancing economic performance and wellbeing across the area. This in turn links to high level requirements for diversifying the housing offer, articulation of the compelling history and identity of the area, which give it significance on the national and international stage, and positive communication of the attributes and innovative things that are happening. It is important that issues such as skills and qualifications are tackled directly and there is much work underway in these areas. However, it is also important that the towns and their communities are not defined by a narrative of deprivation. A central theme of the emerging strategy for the town centres is therefore one of looking up, forward and outwards to help realise local potential and build confidence. This includes building up the strength of partnership working; nurturing and developing existing beacons of excellence and innovation; collaborating with landlords and involving local people to encourage enterprise and experimentation in bringing vacant premises back into use; and creating environments that enable the town centres to function as places of social, business and cultural interaction, as well as hubs for shopping and other services. The emphasis is therefore not on major investment in physical development and improvement. Partly this is because there has already been significant investment in the public realm and new buildings, but also because the need is for a process of social reconstruction based on the concept of using local energy and social capital

to bring change, pride and confidence. Funding in the current climate of budget cuts cannot be expected to be primarily top down. There is therefore a role for entrepreneurial social models of delivery, such as community interest companies, to raise funding through events, crowd-funding initiatives, business sponsorship, grant applications and revenue generation etc. Such an approach does need to be supported by appropriate development and investment in the built environment. However, it can be that case that where potential development sites exist, it is better, at least in the short term, to use them to provide amenity, recreation and social space to make town centres different and attract more people, without a need to spend money but on the basis that, once in the centre, many will. In the longer term, this bottom-up approach can change perceptions and enhance values to create conditions for good quality development that supports and enhances the existing assets of the towns. The town centres of Abertillery, Blaina, Brynmawr, Ebbw Vale and Tredegar face significant challenges. However, they and the wider area within which they sit have many attributes, not least the warm and engaging welcome offered by local people and businesses. These communities deserve support and recognition, so do visit and spread positive messages if you can.

Image: Tylerian3, creative commons

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Making the planning case through precision and evidence Planner Alice Nunn looks at some examples of projects where precise and clear judgements have been central to influencing planning decisions.

Monkey Island

eaching a planning judgement is rarely a straightforward matter, whereby policy simply translates to a decision in a black and white way. In most cases there are a number of considerations to be weighed in coming to a decision on whether or not permission should be granted. It can be the case, for example, that whilst policy might initially suggest development would be resisted, there is a justification to be made, on the grounds of overall planning benefit. This was the situation for our project at Monkey Island at Bray near Maidenhead. Here there is an existing vacant and run-down hotel located on an island in the River Thames, built around two 18th century Grade I listed buildings and situated within

the Green Belt. Working for Monkey Island Properties Ltd, part of YTL Hotels and Properties (Europe), our brief was to lead on planning and design to achieve a viable and high-quality development for revitalising and reopening the hotel in this unique location. This required significant remodelling of the existing hotel, along with new-build elements on parts of the site. The development proposal, considered necessary for long-term viability, resulted in an increase in built volume for a type of development that policy views as inappropriate in the Green Belt. The issue of inappropriate Green Belt development was highlighted through the preapplication process. However, there were significant planning benefits to be achieved by the development and we therefore

set out a case of very special circumstances for development in the Green Belt. Very special circumstances as justification for development in the Green Belt is not a concept defined in policy or guidance. It does however set a high bar and establishing whether very special circumstances exist requires a clear articulation of the planning benefits to be achieved, and a weighing of these against the purpose of including land within the Green Belt. To demonstrate very special circumstances our case set out the areas and volumes of all existing and proposed structures and buildings. Those to be removed were also identified and the resulting benefit to Green Belt openness in the most visible and sensitive parts of the site were set

out. This demonstrated a benefit that could be accorded moderate weight in the decision-making process. Linked to this were benefits in terms of conserving heritage assets to be achieved through establishing a long-term viable use of the Grade I listed building, to which significant weight could be attached. By clearly setting out the planning benefits of the scheme, and weighing them against the impacts on Green Belt openness, a clear justification for the proposal at Monkey Island was established and planning permission was secured, alongside a parallel listed building consent and permission for a new footbridge. Following subsequent discharge of planning conditions, development is now underway.

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Walcot Yard

National Policy advocates a process of dialogue in seeking to achieve a positive resolution of planning applications. This requires issues raised by the local planning authority to be acknowledged and fully considered, with responses or rebuttals supported by evidence. The North Range at Walcot Yard, for example, is a vacant warehouse building in Bath, which has been largely unoccupied for over seven years. The proposed redevelopment of the site for seven dwellings did not initially receive support from the planning authority, due to concerns over the loss of the building, as a non-designated heritage asset, and loss of the existing commercial use at the site.

In response, a clear set of evidence was collated, which considered the heritage value of the building in detail, options for its retention from a structural viewpoint, and viability considerations relating to each option. Together with assurance that the replacement residential building was of a high-quality design which reinforced the artisan character of the area, the Local Planning Authority agreed that, on balance, the proposal was justified and as a result, planning permission was granted. This development is also underway. Our focus is always on seeking to reach a position where planning permission is granted. However, proposals occasionally face a refusal and, in such circumstances,

it is important to consider the reasonableness of the refusal grounds given. Reasons for refusal need to be clear and precise. However, it is not uncommon for them to be expressed in broad terms and sometimes contrary to officer advice. For example, a proposal for a new dwelling on garden land in Bath was refused by the planning committee on the grounds of overdevelopment and harm to neighbouring occupiers through loss of privacy. Overdevelopment is a frequently used term but needs to be evidenced through planning impacts, which might include inadequate parking, amenity space or overshadowing of a neighbouring property. In this case, through the appeal

process, we assessed each of the potential causes of harm that might arise from overdevelopment and demonstrated that this reason for refusal was not supported by any significant planning impacts. Similarly, we demonstrated that there would be no significant impacts in terms of loss of privacy for neighbouring dwellings. On this basis, the appeal was allowed. These examples highlight the importance of precision and evidence in presenting a planning case and seeking to navigate a development proposal through the planning system. We therefore apply the simple principle of ensuring that the planning case we advance in support of development proposals is clear and supported by evidence.

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Understanding the mega-trends by Mel Clinton

lanning, regeneration and development is routinely informed by socio-economic analysis on, for example, housing need and mix. Less often attention is paid to the broad, sustained trends that impact on society, the environment, economy and culture – referred to as the mega-trends. They are often expressed at a global level, but can have significant effects regionally and locally. That is why, in our work, particularly at the strategic level of whole settlements and neighbourhoods, we identify the relevant mega-trends, the implications they may have for these places and the regeneration, planning and design approaches that addressing them and capitalising on related opportunities requires. The development process has a tendency to look backwards and to repeat what is considered to have

worked before. However, if we are to create places within which communities can flourish for future generations, it is important to identify and consider the mega-trends. Some are well known and do inform policy and investment decisions, although not always to the degree that is needed. These include the ageing nature of the population and the threat to health presented by prevailing lifestyles.

surely be the case that it is the number one issue to consider when planning and implementing the future shape and nature of our built environment. Buildings and domestic transport contribute over 40% of CO2 emissions. This mega-trend is therefore telling us that much bolder and more ambitious spatial planning, infrastructure investment and design solutions are needed.

Climate

Economy

Climate change is clearly a mega-trend and its importance is reflected in the Paris Climate Agreement and the central place held by sustainable development in planning policy. However, climate change is only one of a variety of considerations in relation to sustainable development within the planning system. Given the scientific evidence and risk posed to humanity, it must

The approaches that are needed to address climate change also align with requirements to address other mega-trends. One that appears to be an emerging trend is the formulation of a different approach to economic development. The prevailing economic model, for over 70 years, has been one based on growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a primary measure of progress. This

approach, whilst remaining prevalent, is however being questioned. Whilst it cannot, at present, be defined as a fully established mega-trend, concern over pursuit of this model is becoming more widespread. This concern is focused on the desirability, feasibility and sustainability of economic policies pursing a narrow measure of progress in a complex world, namely growth, on an apparently indefinite basis. Economist Kate Raworth has, for example, postulated a new economic model for the 21st century based on achieving a “safe and just space for humanity” that sits between a social foundation inner ring – within which the basic needs of all are met – and an ecological ceiling outer ring, beyond which there are impacts that damage the natural environment upon which people, society and the economy depend.

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Within the safe and just space between these rings sits a regenerative and distributive economy. It is not simply a theoretical view but is, for example, an approach put into practice at the level of business operation and through wider dissemination by Sacha Ramanovitch, Chief Executive of Grant Thornton. It aims for a thriving economy that brings wellbeing to all parts of the community and one of its implications is a built environment that enables a diverse flourishing of enterprise at the local level. It links to other the megatrends including growing inequality and continued advances in digital technology and feeds through into how we plan, design and provide to ensure an ecology of business premises, that include new models such as co-working spaces and mixed research, testing and collaboration spaces for science industries.

Movement The development and growth of digital technology is a particularly significant megatrend that combines with and impacts upon others, from the design of homes and workspaces to infrastructure and transport provision. The latter has attracted a great deal of attention with automated vehicles, and related technology, such as digital communication between vehicles to manage traffic flows, subject to major research and development investment and trials. It is an area of great complexity but one element that has clear potential in the shorter term is the opportunity for small driverless public transport vehicles to operate within residential neighbourhoods, serving to connect them to main routes. Such services are often currently not viable because

of the costs of staffing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; an overhead that would be greatly reduced by use of automated vehicles. Potentially of as much significance is the emerging concept of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Mobility as a Serviceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (MaaS). This describes a shift away from personally owned modes of transport to an integrated offer that provides a range of options in a unified service that is enabled by mobile digital technology.

Urban Living Ultimately, the top order mega-trends of climate change and an emerging redefinition of the economic model, upon which society rests, heighten the central importance of the quality, diversity and adaptability of the built environments we create and the quality of life these help create. Good quality urban living provides proximity to services and amenities with a consequent minimised need to

travel, good quality low-carbon transport for when journeys are needed, decentralised and low carbon energy supply, buildings with low running costs and green infrastructure that provides frequently encountered contact with nature. These are all things that help to reduce C02 emissions and address climate change. Importantly also, places offering a good quality of life retain and attract people and people are the source of innovation and enterprise. These are key reasons why people are at the heart of the work we do. We are creating habitats for humans and doing this well is good for our planet and for a thriving economy, both things that ultimately we are dependent on.

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Fire and the history of building legislation by Bruce Clark

eople usually buy historic properties for what are ultimately aesthetic reasons, whether it is the sense of permanence bought about by the patina of ages, refined design, a sense of belonging to place, or sense of permanence that is deemed to be provided by traditional construction materials and methods. Yet all buildings require maintenance. JJ Stevenson – one of the founders on the conservation movement in response to Ruskin’s over romantic view of the past – set out in Volume 1 of his book ‘House Architecture’ to demonstrate how ‘traditional’ style was a result of more than utilitarian concerns, responding to politics, materials, accident (the great fire of London), socio-economics, fashion and changing legislation. People understandably have greater expectations

for living standards than those historic buildings were designed to meet. Any historic building will have been adapted and updated, likely several times, to meet changing expectations and legislation. History, often far more recent than people acknowledge, teaches us that elements that improve living standards, once confined to a fortunate few, in time trickle down to become the ‘norm’. Minimum space standards, running water, electric lighting, central heating, indoor toilets, bathrooms, showers are obvious examples. Despite legislation controlling works to Listed Buildings every year thousands carry out unrecorded and un-approved changes seeing the legislation as being controlling and invasive. the Grenfell Tower fire bought into sharp focus the issues of adapting

buildings to meet modern expectations and of poor standards of specification and/ or construction. For a short time, the media focussed on Building Regulations, reflecting historic concerns that occur after major disasters, notably the fire of London in 1666, but dating back to at least the late 12th Century. The big difference is that, historically, regulations controlling construction standards were local. In 1212 after a major fire thatch was banned in London, The Assizes of Nuisance was set up to settle complaints between neighbours, advised by masons and carpenters appointed as ‘viewers’ (an early form of building or party wall inspector) with their reports surviving from the 16h Century. Worcester’s ordinances from 1467 illustrate that the concern with the danger of fire is not new, with

thatching and timber chimneys banned within the city walls. Although stone, brick (far rarer than now) and tiles were known to be safer, timber framing remained the common form of construction in many cities and despite regulations against encroachment, city streets were overhung by tall buildings with multiple jetties, increasing the risk. The 1666 fire that famously wiped out the old city of London, led to the London Building Act of 1667, providing surveyors (as enforcement officers) to ensure all new buildings were of brick or stone, controlling the number of storeys, the width of walls and streets, improving structural and fire safety (Parts A & B under the modern Building Regulations). Acts in 1707 and 1709 extended the control beyond the city and also required parapet walls to rise 1,375mm above the garret floor, further

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improving fire safety and making roof access safer. The 1774 act enforced by District Surveyors had more detailed regulations including a requirement that windows and doors were to be set back 105mm from the face of the building. All these regulations affected how buildings looked. Major fires were not uncommon with Dorchester alone suffering fires in 1613 (destroying most of the town), 1622, 1725, 1737 and in 1775. Thatch was only banned here in 1776, 564 years after London and with the London Building Acts provided a model that many towns and cities followed. The risks arising from adaptation only come to public notice when there is a major disaster, usually to public accessible great houses; Uppark in 2013, Clanden Park in 2015 and Parnham House earlier this year, leading to the loss of large parts of

significant high profile buildings. The focus is usually on the immediate cause, be it arson, smoking, hot works on site or electrical failure. What is often not highlighted is the impact that individually small services alterations have on the building fabric, breaching fire compartmentation and allowing fire spread through hidden voids. When it is oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own home, most concentrate on the immediate issue (keeping warm, better sanitary accommodation etc.) and forget the very real risk to life that can arise, usually on the basis that it happens to others or that regulations are over restrictive (closers in fire doors). Ignoring or seeking to sidestep what are held to be restrictive rules and regulations is sometimes held as part of the English tradition, part of the character of the nation, seeking to defy authority. The reasons behind

some regulations are forgotten until there is a disaster. The window tax of 1696 (updated 1709, 1747, 1758, 1766, 1778, 1825) is remembered by many for the visual effect on many properties with replacement blind windows. It is forgotten that the poor where exempt and that on some buildings blinds were always intended as an architectural device to create a fashionable balanced elevation that does not reflect the plan behind. The brick tax that led to the harmonisation of brick sizes that arguably had a greater visually impact is less commonly remembered, as are the Glass (1746), Wallpaper (1712) and Hearth Taxes (circa 14th Century), likely because the evidence on site has been lost. We also see the effect of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;regulationsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; on the way cities are laid out, notably in London after the Great Fire. The broad

boulevards we so admire in Paris where laid out by Baron Haussmann, clearing out large sections of the old city, to help control disease and future rebellion, making streets harder to barricade by allowing free movement of cavalry, or traffic in modern parlance. Whereas people are happy to accept regulations controlling design (particularly of others property), happy to suggest that the complex classical rules of proportion are more likely to lead to beautiful buildings as exemplified by Bath, but the lessons of history with regard to safety seem to have to be continually relearnt.

Images Left: Contemporaneous painting of the Great Fire of London, artist unknown. Right: 1677 map showing the remains of the city after the fire

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Skills and Technology How often does a map change the world? Laura Mitchell explains how we’re taking our GIS skills one step further.

eographical Information System (GIS) is a key priority for us at Nash Partnership, showing not only a commitment to improving our skills in contextual understanding to inform and identify (re)development potential and research-focused services we offer our clients. It allows us to explore beyond the physical constraints of the sites we consider for regeneration or development. As a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyse and manage spatial data. It gives us the ability to review a multitude of indices in a single view. It allows us to drill down, track patterns and interpolate data, synthesising local information in one place, reducing a need for multiple maps and files on different topics. We are not only improving our skills in the practice of GIS, but are going one step further to ensure the wealth of knowledge that the practice has accumulated, is incorporated in our contextual analytics. Our studies in spatial economics have shown that the built environment is not just limited to physical attributes. By using GIS to map data, it allows us to consider cultural, social, health, political, educational, economic and sustainable influences of our environment. You may be thinking how can a map capture nonphysical attributes? In 1854, Dr John Snow mapped outbreaks of Cholera. Snow’s

analysis demonstrates how spatial mapping can be used as a problem solving tool, in identifying a link between Cholera cases and water sources. Other well documented examples include Charles Booth’s Inquiry into Life and Labour in London (1886-1903); a social cartography of coloured streets to indicate the income and social class of its inhabitants. The clarity in colour categorisation both visualises Booth’s findings and makes them accessible. Spatial tendencies and geographic distribution of these non-physical attributes, gives us insight into how places are performing. Implementation analysis has allowed our study – a review of the potential for South Gloucestershire Council – to explore spatial means of optimisation for its urban localities. Working alongside the council’s aspiration of high performing urban areas that both enable local communities to enjoy a good quality of life and to contribute to the wider prosperity and sustainability of the West of England. Comprehending these localities as a part of a multicentral model, built around a network of centres. Identifying strategic land and considering how these can grow into polycentric neighbourhoods. Promoting mixed-use densities with proximity to good employment, housing, and exceptional transportation networks.

The broad scope and potential of GIS, is of great benefit to both us and clients in allowing us to focus on the purpose and value of the data we show. So what benefits will GIS offer our clients? 1 More efficiency in the understanding contextual information. 2 Better decision making through layering complex data.

3 Improved communication, through maps and visualisations that greatly assist in understanding situations, storytelling, and making the data accessible. 4 Managing geographic distributions and spatial tendencies to inform policy and development strategies.

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Seeing the world with new eyes Tom Metcalf explains how augmented reality is changing practice.

here is now not a single top 10 architecture practice within the UK that does not have its own software development department. And this is not a BIM department, relegated to the mundane matters of Revit or the best way to digitally model a tree. These are people dedicated to developing bespoke software and tools that reduce labour, improve design quality and meet the needs of the modern construction industry. It is part of a wider movement that has seen technological advancement in the industry jump by an order of magnitude. At the forefront of this is ‘augmented reality’ (AR), a term that will, within two years, become as commonplace as the mention of email or YouTube.

It is not hyperbole to say that AR will change our way of living as dramatically as the advent of the internet. AR is the missing link between the real and the virtual worlds. It allows you to see virtual objects and information superimposed on – or replacing – the real world around you. This can be any information; your route plan projected onto the road ahead of you, an arrow marking your friend in a crowd, or for our purposes, proposed buildings or masterplans taking the physical place of their existing iterations. For a person standing on a hill overlooking a town, a dilapidated industrial centre becomes the masterplanned vision of the future. Currently, this practice is linked to existing devices. On a construction site today, you

have inspections conducted which look at the proposed construction superimposed over the currently-built; all you need is a cameraequipped device. The placement of steels, walls or any other element can be visually checked, meanwhile the device also scans the environment for later processing into a digital model of its own. Whilst the software to achieve this is now basic and freely available, the skills are not. At Nash Partnership, we now have the capability to fully model a historic building, including every rusty doorknob and bit of lichen, within a day. This is inside and out, to millimetre accuracy, with everything brought directly into our architectural software for

design and development. Compared to previous decades of incomplete surveys and line drawings that only contain the most basic information, this is a sea change. If required, we can map out the exact dimensions of every building element months before it arrives on site, no matter the complexity or history of the existing environment. And months before you need to make any purchasing decisions, you can look around your new home, see the fittings and furnishings, make decisions on every aspect of what will be built. Planners of the future won’t consult drawings to judge what we propose, they’ll see it in the world around them.

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Contributors

Edward Nash Senior Partner Edward Nash founded Nash Partnership in 1988 with a focus on projects involving historic buildings and sites that acknowledge heritage sensitivities. He has steered the gradual expansion of the skills of the practice to create a multi-disciplinary team with an unusually diverse understanding of how change happens in all aspects of the built environment.

Mel Clinton Director of Planning and Regeneration Mel is a planner and regeneration practitioner with extensive public, private and third sector experience. He believes that planning must be a tool for delivery and brings an understanding of the nuts and bolts of the planning process set within a broader appreciation of the factors that shape the built environment and the wellbeing of communities.

John Everett Bristol Studio Design Director John joined Nash Partnership in March 2010 as a Senior Architect and moved across to the new Bristol office in June 2015 as an Associate. He has been a key member of the team focused on growing the range and scale of projects in Bristol.

Robert Locke Partner and Technical Director Drawing on more than 20 years of experience in the construction industry, Robert is responsible for developing the skills and knowledge of the practice to ensure projects meet the highest standards. Robert also offers our clients specialised services covering contractual advice, CDM Principal Designer and party wall surveyor services.

Mike Fox Director of Planning Mike leads the Planning Team with Mel Clinton. He manages and delivers large-scale urban development schemes, while expanding the range of projects in the UK and abroad. He is an urban design-trained planner with more than 15 years of experience in handling complex planning and regeneration projects.

Paul Miller Associate Architect Paul works within our Urban Design team and has an interest in passive environmental design. His career spans working on building sites, detailing and designing individual buildings with an emphasis on sustainable design, contract administration and developing visions and masterplans. He has also worked on hotels, listed buildings, community and public buildings.

Kevin Balch Project Design Director Kevin acts as a project lead on a range of projects â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from small design-led listed building extensions to large multiconsultant teams. Because of the bespoke design nature of most commissions, many of Kevinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s projects involve the full RIBA workstages from inception to completion, where clients particularly value the quality of the built design, and of good lead skills and design management.

Bruce Clark Conservation Architect Head of Heritage Assets Consultancy Bruce leads our Conservation Team and has a background in Listed Buildings and public sector projects. He is an advocate of learning from the millenniaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worth of building experience that history provides. This is reflected in his work with re-using historic buildings and developing new uses for existing structures.

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Daniel Lugsden Partner and Design Director Daniel brings an attitude of â&#x20AC;&#x153;whatever you do, you do it wellâ&#x20AC;?. This is evident in all of his work. Having lived in areas of beauty all his life, he developed an interest in contextually and culturally-driven design and a passion for engagement in the process from all those involved or affected.

Chris Hall Architect Chris is driven by an ambition to open up the processes behind the conception and delivery of building projects, partly by increasing the involvement of the public and students of the built environment. The movements of sustainability, well-being and mindfulness are a growing influence on the projects he is involved with.

Laura Mitchell Architectural Assistant Laura is a member of both our Urban Design and Conservation team and has project experience from design inception, heritage assessment of significance and architectural value, heritage impact of proposed interventions, masterplan development and the planning application process through public consultations.

Amanda Taylor Urban Design Director Amanda has a strong background in the design of urban regeneration, masterplanning and housing schemes. She has wide ranging experience in creating schemes for clients that range in scale from 20 to 11,000 dwellings and has worked for clients across the marketplace including housing associations, private developers, local authorities and clients overseas.

Alice Nunn Planner Alice is a planner at the coalface of many projects. She steers a wide range of applications through the planning process including planning, listed building, prior approval and condition discharge submissions. Her experience reflects the range of projects we undertake, including sensitive heritage restoration, greenfield, bespoke housing, commercial, retail, leisure and business premises projects.

Tom Metcalf Architectural Assistant Tom is an architectural assistant, currently engaged on the Hope House project in Bath. He joined the architectural profession having run an online marketing business in the South West. He is chair of the Bath Architectsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Group (RIBA) and brings new technology integration insight into many of our projects.

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