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News CONTENTS THE ASSOCIATION OF CONSERVATION OFFICERS (ACO) The f i r s t AGM o f newly f o rmed A s s o c i a t i o n o f O f f i c e r s was he ld l a s t November a t t h e C r a f t s Counci l and the f i r s t i s sue o f t h e i r n ew s l e t t e r , " C o n t e x t " was p u b l i s h e d i n F e b r u a r y . The A s s o c i a t i o n has been f o rm e d t o p r o m o t e t h e c on se r v a t i on o f the n a t i o n a l he r i t age ( i n c l u d i n g b u i l d i n g s , parks and ga rdens ) through the mutual exchange o f i n f o r m a t i o n , i d e a s , g u i d a n c e , and the combined e x p e r i e n c e o f i t s members . L i k e the UDG, the ACO is d iv ided i n t o r e g i o n s based on the RTPI g roup ing , each o f which i s , o r w i l l be, o r g an i s i ng i t s own programme of e ven t s .

Fu r the r i n f o rm a t i o n may be o b t a i n e d f r om John F i d l e r , 2 6 S i l v e r C r e s c e n t , L o n d o n , W4 6SE ( T e l : 01 731 55 )

Thinking about the Unth inkab le by I v o r Samuels page 3 An open l e t t e r to the S e c r e t a r y o f S t a t e f o r the Environment by John Minett 5 Resea rch : Func t i on and Problems by B r i an Goodey 6 Designing Responsive P l aces by I an Ben t l e y 8 Making the Best of What we've Got by P h i l i p Opher 12 Learn ing f rom Lagos by Geo f f Payne 14 Book Reviews 15 UDG D i a r y 16 Regiona l A c t i v i t i e s 16 Annual Genera l Meeting 16 UDG Committee 1982-83 16

From a Group Project for St. Clements, Oxford

Urban Design Quarterly May 1983 10

Thinking about the Unthinkable We were v e r y g r a t i f i e d when the Urban De s i gn Group i n v i t e d the J o i n t Centre f o r Urban Des i gn a t Oxford Po l y t e chn i c t o c on t r i b u t e an i s s u e o f the Qua r t e r l y because t h i s yea r marks t e n y e a r s o f t he C e n t r e ' s o p e r a t i o n . I n a c i t y wh i c h da tes i t s academic f o u nd a t i o n s b y c e n t u r i e s i t might be thought anomalous to c e l e b r a t e a decade but i n urban design educa t i on s u r v i v a l a t a l l i s s u f f i c i e n t r eason f o r modest c o n g r a t u l a t i o n .

I t i s a l s o however , a t ime t o t h i n k abou t t h e f u t u r e and tha t c e r t a i n l y l o o k s g l o omy . Urban des ign i s s t i l l p e r i p h e r a l both t o the p r o f e s s -i on s o f a r c h i t e c t u r e and p l a n n i n g and t o t h e v a r i o u s d i s c i p l i n e s o f s o c i a l s c i e n c e and eng inee r i ng . As i n s t i t u t i o n s c o n t r a c t t h e y do s o t owa rds the c e n t r e and t owa rd s the l a r g e , t r a d i t i o n a l d i s c i p l i n e s , s o i t i s i n e v i t a b l e t h a t t h e i r p e r i p h e r a l i n t e r e s t s l i k e u r b a n des ign a re the most v u l n e r a b l e . I t i s common knowledge tha t s p e c i a l i s t u r ban d e s i g n c o u r s e s a r e hard pressed as the f u nd i n g o f UK s t u d e n t s becomes more d i f f i c u l t . The r e s p o n s e t o t h i s s i t u a t i o n has va r i ed from the suspens ion of some courses t o the ope r a t i o n o f o t h e r s wi th p redom-i n a n t l y ove r seas i n t a k e s .

How a r e we at Oxford a f f e c t e d by these p r o b l ems and what would ou r response be to a d r o p in UK rec ru i tmen t ? The diagram shows the o r i g i n s o f our s tudents over the l a s t d e c ad e . Apa r t f r om the f i r s t two yea r s when the course was g e t t i n g o f f t he g round the o v e r a l l i n t a k e h a s been remarkab ly c o n s i s t e n t p e a k i ng a t o v e r 3 0 ( t o o many f o r a v a i l a b l e r e s ou r c e s ) in the t h r e e yea r s 1977 - 1980 . At the same time ove r seas p a r t i c i p a -t i o n has f l u c t u a t e d between 40? and 58? w i t h no no t i c e ab l e tendency t o i n c r e a s e .

This s o r t o f a l t e r a t i o n has i m p o r t a n t i m p l i c a -t i o n s f o r the way we r un the p rogramme. As a crude o v e r s i m p l i f i c a t i o n i t m igh t b e s a i d t h a t an urban des ign course c o n s i s t s o f making a r c h i -t e c t s aware o f p r o c e s s and p l a n n e r s aware o f p r oduc t . With a b a l a n c e d g r oup we can e xp e c t a g r ea t dea l o f peer group l e a r n i n g p a r t i c u l a r l y dur ing group p r o j e c t s . When the ba lance i s a l t -ered the teach ing input must r espond . R ecen t l y , f o r example, we have had to concen t r a t e more on the product o f urban des ign .

The ove rseas i n t a k e has been marked by a prepon-derance o f L a t i n American s t u d e n t s , i n p a r t i c -u l a r f r om Mex i c o . T h i s i s now s t a r t i n g t o dec l i n e and wh i l s t p a r t l y due no doubt to f i n a n -c i a l r easons i t may a l s o be t h a t the numerous Oxford t r a i n ed urban d e s i g n e r s now t e a c h i n g a t U n i v e r s i t i e s in Mexico, B r a z i l and e lsewhere a re now s a t i s f y i n g the demand l o c a l l y . A f r i c a n g raduates a r e now emerging as the s i n g l e b igges t g r oup among the o v e r s e a s i n t a k e and we w i l l c l e a r l y need to make some a d j u s t m e n t s to c a t e r f o r t h e i r s p e c i a l i n t e r e s t s . For i n s t a n c e t h ey a re much more f a m i l i a r wi th E r i t i s h a d m i n i s t r a -t i v e systems than La t i n American s t uden t s .

However i m p o r t a n t a c o n t r i b u t i o n o v e r s e a s s t u d en t s have made to the deve l opmen t o f the Centre and however t a l e n t e d t h ey have been as i n d i v i d u a l s w e wou l d b e v e r y r e l u c t a n t t o cont inue running a course tha t had a s u b s t a n t i a l m a j o r i t y o f ove r seas s t u d e n t s . The re a r e s e v -e r a l r easons f o r t h i s . As u rban d e s i g n e r s we a r e c on c e r n ed w i t h a n i n t i m a t e k n ow l e dg e o f p l aces and how they a re made. Our p r o j e c t s must t h e r e f o r e be i nvo l v ed wi th l o c a t i o n s tha t can be v i s i t e d d u r i n g t h e c o u r s e . Wha teve r d a t a i s

Diagram showing the origins of entrants to MA and Diploma courses at the Joint Centre for Urban Design

Of g r e a t e r s i g n i f i c a n c e have been the changes w i th in both the home and ove r seas c o h o r t s . The most obvious is the s h i f t in the UK i n t a k e f r om a preponderance o f a r c h i t e c t s to one o f p l anne r s . This may be due on one hand to r e c e n t p l a n n i n g g raduates p e r c e i v i n g an i n c r e a s e d demand f r om employers f o r j o b a pp l i c a n t s with an implementa-t i o n b i a s in t h e i r t r a i n i n g . On the o t h e r hand the re may be a r e l u c t a n c e f o r newly q u a l i f i e d a r c h i t e c t s t o p o s t p o n e t h e i r e n t r y i n t o a sh r i nk i ng j o b ma r ke t f o r the sake o f y e t more t r a i n i n g .

b rought o r s e n t f r om a r emo te s i t e i t c anno t r ep l a c e the cont inuous t e s t i n g o f c o n c ep t s and i d e a s t h r o u g h s i t e v i s i t s . W h i l e a L a t i n American s tudent preoccupied w i t h ' f a v e l a s ' o r ' r anchos ' can make p o i n t s o f c o n t a c t w i t h t h e problems o f , s a y , an E a s t e r h o u s e he needs h i s a t t e n t i o n drawn t o i s s u e s and ways o f d o i n g th ings which i n e v i t a b l y l i m i t e d s t a f f i n v o l v e -ment cannot p r o v i d e as e f f e c t i v e l y a s wo r k i ng with l o c a l s t u d e n t s . I f w e l o s e t h i s c o n c e r n f o r p l a c e s t hen we w i l l cease to be an u rban design cou r s e . And t he r e a r e o t h e r p l a c e s who a re much b e t t e r s e t up t o p r o v i d e c o u r s e s on development p l ann ing .

Urban Design Quarterly May 1983 10

I f the c u l t u r e gap o f a heterogenous group is to be br idged r a p i d l y at the commencement of what a r e a f t e r a l l v e r y s h o r t c o u r s e s i t n e e d s a B r i t i s h student ma j o r i t y i n e a r l y group p r o j e c t s . This can br ing the newcomer to a po in t of f am i l -i a r i t y with l o c a l c o n d i t i o n s , ways o f wo r k i ng and academic expec ta t i ons so t h a t he i s t h e r e -a f t e r a b l e t o o p e r a t e o n h i s own. O v e r s e a s s tudents who f o r one reason or ano the r have no t a c t i v e l y p a r t i c i p a t e d i n the e a r l y g roup work tend t o get i n t o d i f f i c u l t i e s when c o n f r o n t e d with t h e i r f i r s t i n d i v i d u a l p r o j e c t . We a l s o need home based s t u d e n t s , p a r t i c u l a r l y those with some p r ac t i c e expe r i ence , to ac t as a l i tmus paper f o r the r e l e v a n c e o f o u r c o u r s e s . They b r i n g to Ox f o r d a v a l u a b l e knowledge o f ou t s ide a t t i t u d e s and p r e o c c u p a t i o n s . We a r e obv ious l y very concerned w i t h what i s go ing on i n the wo r l d o f o p e r a t i o n a l u rban de s i gn and seek t o ma i n t a i n c o n t a c t i n d i f f e r e n t ways inc lud ing student p r o j e c t s f o r l o c a l a u t h o r i t i e s and s t a f f p r a c t i c e .

I t i s perhaps through these s o r t o f l i n k s w i t h p r ac t i c e tha t the f u t u r e l i e s f o r the d e v e l o p -ment of urban design educa t i on . I f the unth inkab le happens and our sources of UK s t u d e n t f u nd i n g d r y up , p o s t - g r a d u a t e u r b a n design educat ion might have to go unde rg round with p r ac t i c e s devot ing some r e s ou r c e s t o s t a f f t r a i n i n g and perhaps combining to run s em ina r s and br ing in v i s i t i n g speake r s . I t may need an Urban Design Educat ion Trus t (UDET) to o r g a n i s e t h i s - c ou l d i t be an o f f s p r i n g o f t he Urban Design Group? I f t h i s seems to hark back to the beginnings o f a r c h i t e c t u r a l e d u c a t i o n then i t might be a l l too app r op r i a t e in a s o c i e t y be ing p r ope l l ed towards V i c t o r i a n a t t i t u d e s i n g en -e r a l . T o b e l e s s p e s i m i s t i c , even i f we a l l s u r v i v e the c u r r e n t s t o r m i t may s t i l l b e worthwhi le pursuing t h i s i d e a .

Another r ou t e to the d i sseminat ion o f our i d e a s , a s we l l a s t o s u r v i v a l , i s through urban de s i gn t e a c h i n g i n u n d e r - g r a d u a t e c o u r s e s . I n t h e Po l y t echn ic t h i s i s a we l l e s t ab l i shed p r a c t i c e with a l l the s t a f f i n the Centre t each ing up to h a l f o f t h e i r time i n t h e i r p a r e n t d epa r tmen t s of a r c h i t e c t u r e and p l a nn i ng . We b e l i e v e t h a t these courses shou l d be i n f o rmed by an und e r -s t and ing o f u rban d e s i g n a t t i t u d e s and i t i s the o n l y way a c o n t i n u a l i n v o l v emen t o f n i ne l e c t u r e r s can be maintained in the pos t -g raduate urban design programme. The Centre a l s o forms a very important br idge between depar tments which a re o f t e n in my exper ience a t o t h e r p l a c e s , a t one anothers ' t h r o a t s . What i s c e r t a i n i s tha t a l l t h e s e s p e c u l a t i o n s a r e t a k i n g p l a c e amid a g r e a t l y i n c r e a s i n g adm in i s t r a t i v e work l o a d . I t i s l i k e be ing a t the bottom of a bu reauc ra t i c pyramid every upper eche lon of which s ep a r a t e l y demands tha t we con-s t a n t l y show how we keep o u r books s t r a i g h t , don ' t make te lephone c a l l s , demonstrate how we l l Qua l i f i ed our i n t ake i s ( b u t o n l y a c a d em i c a l l y - p r o f e s s i o n a l exper ience doesn ' t seeci to count ) and don ' t b r ing l e c t u r e r s f r om as f a r away as Scot land I Of course some of t h i s is l e g i t i m a t e f o r we should have to j u s t i f y o u r e x i s t e n c e to s o c i e t y . But i t i s a l l very enne rva t ing and we a r e i n dange r o f be ing unab l e t o d e v o t e any energy to c r e a t i v e thought about u rban d e s i g n . That we a r e s t i l l a b l e t o d o s o i s , I h ope demonst ra ted by my c o l l e a g u e s ' a r t i c l e s which f o l l ow .

I v o r Samuels J .C .U .D . Oxford Po l y t echn ic

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Bui ldings Bight open out onto HAITI SJCL03UU a t rear

PLACE SNAPS

Urban Design Quarterly May 1983 5 Open Letter to the Secretary of State for the Environment Rt. Hon. Tom King, MP, PC, Department of the Environment, Marsham Street, SW1.

Dear Mr. King,

Value for Money with Planning Applications

It is two years since your predecessor Mr. Heseltine introduced the charge for planning applications. I am writing this letter to urge that you should now insist that planning author-ities give applicants something for their money - that is over and above the satisfaction (?) that the ratepayers are not having to foot the bill for all the paper shuffling. I want to suggest that developers would feel a great deal more satisfaction with the planning system is they received some useful information from the planning authority, instead of meaningless generalisations which purport to be planning conditions or planning briefs.

To explain my case further I would refer you first to a short article I wrote ten years ago in what was then the Town Planning Institute Journal (May 1973). Entitled 'A Positive Approach to Development Control*, I urged that development control should aim to provide developers with positive guidance. Instead of pretending that development control was primarily concerned with implementing develop-ment plans (which if they existed were often out of date), it should be taken more seriously as a separate arm of the planning system requiring its own methodology. Whereas the development plan synthesised the factors in an area which was important to the planners, development control was concerned with synthesising the response of all sorts of bodies to a development initiative. As subsequent research that I have taken part in has shown, development control is a second planning process which defines impacts and decides the conditions which are required to mitigate and/or take advantage of the proposals. As such, it is an operation which is quite different from most planning systems in the world which depend on legally binding local plans. (See 'RleviMHtv and CfljaaltmgJlt jfl Planning' Martinus Nijhoff 1983). Treating 'each case on its merits' has the great poten-tial of linking planning controls to the dynamic of the development process, potentially to the advantage of all parties; but only if it is carried out positively and systematically.

For a period following the publication of the article, I stumped around the country urging the need for a systematic approach to development control involving a process of 'intrusion analy-sis' which was not unlike the Environmental Impact Analysis then being developed in the USA. (See PTRC Summer School Papers 1971). Similar approaches have since been enunciated in much greater detail, as for instance 'Design Briefing in Towns' (1978), and subsequently there have been a rash of design briefs, particularly for sensitive sites in historic towns.

But problems of development control continue and the reasons, I believe, are the same as those that have existed all along. Planners are not trained to analyse the environment, nor commun-icate clearly the issues that matter. For instance, their training emphasises aggregation as an analytical tool but aggregation works against variety which is the essential quality of most working environments. As the compara-tive research I mentioned showed, the British development control system works well, save for the crucial issue of environmental design. This is because planning officers do not recognise that they are part of the design team. Conse-quently the design briefs they produce are full of generalisations which are often meaning-less and sometimes contradictory. If planners wish to be helpful in improving the environment they must learn to communicate information which is useful to the design process; which means recognising how designers work.

I suggest that what the developer requires is a clearly stated package of information which he can rely on as being the factors that the planning authority wishes to see taken into account. Such a package should include:

1. An outline of the policies for the area as a whole which emphasise the factors which the planning authority considers important;

2. The important aspects of the locality, block, street, which are required to be retained or enhanced;

3. Information about local authority or other bodies' plans which will affect the area;

4. Specific details about access to the site, position of services, nature of the ground etc.

Unfortunately, as experience of the built envir-onment all too often shows, development control is rarely positive. Far too frequently 'prece-dent' is pleaded as an argument for decisions and as a substitute for imagination. Conse-quently control is stultified, resulting in a monotonous and standardised environment, much as that produced by legalistic planning.

In 1973 I argued that a fundamental problem was that planning officers appeared loathe to give clear guidance on their criteria for judging development before the developer started work. Instead of indicating what was required, they demanded more and more details with little or no indication of whether a permission would be forthcoming. As a means of overcoming what I considered an abrogation of responsibility, I urged the use of the outline application which could force the planning authority to clarify its control criteria in advance of the developer producing his detailed scheme. Unfortunately this approach was undermined by charging for planning permission, because double charging for outline and detailed applications has reduced the use of the former.

Presented succinctly, both the developer and the planner would know what was required as far as the public client is concerned; they would know what to argue or negotiate about. A great deal of time and money could be saved, but only if the information was received before detailed design work was commenced. Ideally, therefore, outline applications should be encouraged by only one charge, but that charge could be higher if it provided useful information.

I am quite sure that developers don't mind pay-ing for service and I am sure that planners really want to provide a service - if only they knew how.

Yours sincerely,

John Minett J .C .U .D . Oxford Polytechnic

Urban Design Quarter ly May 1983 13 Research: Function & Problems

' . . . the common p e o p l e e x p e c t t h e a c t i o n researcher t o f u l f i l l h i s r o l e o f r e s e a r c h e r we l l . They do not want the r e s e a r c h e r to ape and make a f a l s e and r i d i c u l o u s i n s e r t i o n in the a c tua l d a i l y work o f the p e o p l e to show tha t he belongs there . . . Some s p e c i a l i s a t i o n i n the pursu i t o f knowledge ( t e c h n i c a l e t c . ) becomes important and i n e v i t a b l e . The common people are ready to accept these d i f f e r e n c e s , so tha t the r e s e a r c h e r need no t appea r as a peasant o r f a c t o ry worker in order t o j u s t i f y h i s presence or show ca l l oused hands and l i v e in rags a s proof o f h i s commitment . . . S c i e n -t i s t s should be a u t h e n t i c i n t h e sense t h a t they present themselves as such to p e o p l e and a re ready t o l e a r n from the g e n e r a l e x p e r -i en ce , ready t o p a r t i c i p a t e i n the l o c a l a c t -i v i t i e s and w i l l i ng t o share t h e i r t e c h n i q u e s and knowledge. ' Orlando Fa ls Borda ( 1 9 8 1 )

T h i s q u o t a t i o n from the work o f a C o l omb i a n s o c i o l o g i s t , explor ing the p o t en t i a l o f ' a c t i o n r e s e a r c h ' , came to hand through the d r a f t of a monograph prepared by two s o c i o l o g i s t s , E n g l i s h and F i n n i s h , f o r a c o n c l u d i n g volume to t h e Counci l o f Europe p r o j e c t , ' Cu l t u r a l Development in Twenty-One Towns', which I have been d i r e c t -ing f o r the past three years . Although e v a l u a -t i on o f nominated p r o j e c t s was seen as c e n t r a l t o the i n i t i a l p r o j e c t b r i e f , few o f t he towns have been a b l e to s u s t a i n such an inves tmen t throughout t h e i r p r o j e c t s and these two a u t h o r s have explored the r e a s on why. The nub of t he ma t t e r i s e v i d en t i n B o r d a ' s comment - t h e researcher is l o ca ted in an awkward intermediary p o s i t i on between those s tudied and those who may need the r e s u l t s o f the s t udy . Even in a c t i o n r e s e a r c h where the r e s u l t s a r e , s o t o s p e a k , •ploughed back* i n t o the s tudy a r e a o r g r o u p , t he r o l e o f r e s e a r c h i s o f t e n d i f f i c u l t t o i d en t i f y or endorse .

Oxford and at the Open Un ive r s i t y ) and as r e a d -ing f o r the p r a c t i t i o n e r . E v o l u t i o n a r y c a s e -s t ud i e s , shar ing something of the mo r p h o l o g i c a l approach , someth ing o f P l a n n i n g ' s i n c r e a s i n g i n t e r e s t i n l o c a l au tho r i t y development c o n t r o l p r a c t i c e , and something of enqu i r i es i n t o design dec is ion-making, seem to be one of the c l e a r e s t avenues f o r r e s e a r c h d e v e l o p m e n t i n u r b a n des ign . The c o n t r i b u t i o n o f r e s e a r c h t o urban d e s i gn t e a c h i n g and p r a c t i c e i s a n a r ea o f c u r r e n t debate and i t i s worthwhile i d en t i f y ing some o f the elements of tha t d i s cu s s i on - a day seminar a t Oxfo rd s p o n s o r e d b y t h e S o c i a l S c i e n c e Research Counci l (December 1982) served to focus on severa l of these mat te rs . Urban des ign as a f o c u s f o r p r a c t i c e and d e v e l o pmen t i s n o t supported by a t r a d i t i o n of d i s c i p l i n ed academic work. At Oxford ou r inves tmen t in ' r e s e a r c h 1

h a s , u n t i l r e c e n t l y , been a ma t t e r o f s t a f f maintaining t h e i r l i nk s wi th p r a c t i c e ( t h r o u g h ' a c t i o n ' r e s e a r c h ) , s u p p o r t i n g s t u d en t t h e s i s enqu i r y , o r p u r s u i ng ma t t e r s which have been n e g l e c t . . w i th in the d i s c i p l i n a r y c o n t e x t s o f a r c h i t e c t u r e and planning. There has , t o o , been remedial work in terms of t r a n s l a t i o n and the l i n k i n g o f i d e a s - t r a n s l a t i o n from I t a l i a n , French and South American developments in morph-o l o g i c a l th ink ing , and l i nk ing between e x p l o r a -t i on i n t o urban evo l u t i on in geography, h i s t o r y and urban des ign . This l a t t e r was the s u b j e c t o f a very s t i m u l a t i n g seminar o r g an i s e d w i t h the Urban Geography group o f the I n s t i t u t e o f B r i t i s h Geographers in J u l y 1 9 8 2 . A d e t a i l e d l i s t i n g o f c u r r e n t r e s e a r c h a c t i v i t y i n t h e Centre i s ava i l a b l e on a p p l i c a t i o n and t h i s i s not the place to i t em i z e c u r r e n t p r o j e c t s and pub l i c a t i on s .

The academic community i d e n t i f i e s t h e o r y - b u i l d -ing and empi r i ca l t e s t i ng as the corners tones of r e s e a r c h a c t i v i t y , w o r t h y o f s u p p o r t f r om l im i t ed government funds . I f t h i s l i n e i s to be fo l l owed , then data a v a i l a b i l i t y becomes one of the c e n t r a l i s s u e s , f o r i f t h e urban d e s i g n researcher i s to o f f e r a ' s p e c i a l i s a t i o n ' in the pur su i t of knowledge' it must be an und e r s t a nd -ing o f the development process as i t r e l a t e s t o the designed and b u i l t product , an area in which a l l p r a c t i t i o n e r s admit a f a r f r om p e r f e c t knowledge. Data on development f i n a n c i n g and the cover t in f luence which i t br ings to bear on the emerging environment i s o f g r e a t i n t e r e s t , but q u an t i t a t i v e i n f o rm a t i o n i s imp o s s i b l e t o ob ta in in a compet i t ive wor ld . Emp i r i c a l t e s t -ing mus t , however , f o c u s on u s e r and c l i e n t response to environments. The methods of s t u d y are ava i l ab l e but previous s t u d i e s , e s p e c i a l l y those invo lv ing externa l space , are inconc lus ive and tend to lead back to the black - money - box. The research r equ i r ement s o f p r a c t i c e tend t o focus on secondary source s t u d i e s which r e v e a l ideas or innovat ions which w i l l p lace a p a r t i c u -l a r proposa l ahead o f i t s r i v a l s ; summaries o f ove r seas e x p e r i e n c e and i n c i s i v e a n a l y s e s o f l o c a l a u t h o r i t y p r a c t i c e a r e p o pu l a r i n t h i s regard . Case - s tud ies o f p r e v i o u s deve l opments are a l s o in demand, but i t i s un l i k e l y t h a t t he researcher w i l l be able to p e n e t r a t e d e c i s i o n s which have not a lready been e x p l o r e d in a f t e r -dinner conversa t i on . Never the less , the c a se - s t udy app r o a ch i s v a l u -a b l e i n r e v e a l i n g t h e c omp l e x i t y and m u l t i -p r o f e s s i ona l nature of the urban des ign p r o c e s s and s t u d en t s t u d i e s of New Ash G r e en , S o u t h Woodham Ferrers and of Span deve l opments have proved u s e f u l bo th a s t e a c h i n g m a t e r i a l s ( a t

•) The Block aa meana of q r o u t h .

Typology no c eaae r l l y kaopa • t i g h t r e l a t i o n wi th morpho-logy e i t h e r In a a j o r un l t a encloa lng t h e i r 0Mn apace or in a ee r l ee o f i nd i v i du a l b u l l -a lna euoport lng each o the r*

. . . Ttw r e l e t ) on of the B lock " " t o l nd l » l " u r l p roper ty l a aado

( 1 3 ) Group f o r * n i l o a owor Ind iv idua l f o n b y e a t a h l l e h l n g b loaanta o f lntordepqndencvi contlnuoua f r g ada a , c v a w i ' • I d a wa l l a and r ounde t l ono . In t e rna l epaco , c oman e c c e e e ,

0 6 9 ® Spac le l typaa r e l a t e d

pub l i c uaaa tend to concert t r a t a a r owd c an t r a a . ( a )

By the nr tu re of i n f r a -s t ru c tu re ( c on t lnuoue , r i g i d , o a t ena l v a ) , I t can only p » r -t l e l l y adapt t o t h l e network.

The l a ck o f r e c a p t l b l l l t y t o lnfrgAtr trnturo a a r l o u a l y

i t l x a t s f r l l l t y end growth " e l o f the a t r u c t u r e .

(19) Public space la not for-malized In ahape, bacwM It la defined by prlvata apace.

The few l a r g e r pub l i c a p s e i a are s p e c i a l fpa tu ree o f Intense u s e .

Typological Studies from Diploma dissertation 'A Language for Community'. Carlos Tejeda

Urban Design Quarterly May 1983 14 Rather should we return to the central issue of the nature of research in urban design; with ten post-graduate research students in post some collective consciousness should be emerging. Our first realisation, or acceptance, is that urban design research inevitably occupies a set of intermediate zones - between social science and design, between the interests of planning, architecture (and possible landscape architec-ture) and, most important, between the interests of the research and academic communities, and those of practice. Whilst the other dichotomies may be reconciled with effort, this last poses considerable problems.

In a teaching unit which aims to cover the wide no-man's-land between Architecture and Planning programmes it is essential that most staff, and post-graduate, research feeds directly into the graduate programme and seldom do we have the luxury of identifying a clear research direction for the Joint Centre which can be pursued through funded projects. What we have been for-tunate in obtaining are nominated projects from local authorities and practices, where their 'need to know' can be linked to both research training and to the gradual development of a

programme of publications and research. Explain-ing the urban design process in the British con-text is our central concern and increasingly work is being co-ordinated toward this end, most notably in the monitoring of live projects undertaken by Ian Bentley and Paul Murrain. Borda's comment at the beginning of this article seems increasingly appropriate insofar as our work is concerned, though pursuit of his impli-cit goals makes reconciliation with the academic traditions of natural science maintained, to some degree at least, by the Social Science Research Council, difficult to sustain. It is a great pity that the extensive discussion of applied design in the late 1930's and 1940's bore no fruit in this regard.

Three brochures from the Joint Centre detail the comments above. Write for 2 . s . t a f f ; R e s e a r c h End Pw f r l A c a t i p n s ; 7. Research Training and Opportunities; 8 . E u b l i c a t l o n s and A c t i v i t i e s if you are interested.

Brian Goodey J.C.U.D. Oxford Polytechnic

'Yfcj/r r° '

Urban Design Quar ter ly May 1983 8

Designing Responsive Places The purpose of these notes is to discuss urban quality from the point of view of the 'inter-actionist' view of man which underlies much recent thinking in fields as diverse as politi-cal theory and architectural psychology: people as exploratory beings, participating actively in determining the circumstances of their own lives, rather than passively consuming a world provided for them by others.

Environmental qualities: an overview

The taking of an interactionist stance requires us to promote designs which offer the maximum scope for people to participate actively in determining the circumstances of their own lives Let us call this general quality Responsiveness.

To be useful in design this global notion must be broken down into its component parts: a set of specific qualities which support it. In understanding these qualities,it is helpful to consider the implications of Responsiveness at each of the levels at which people interact with their environment. Three of these can usefully be distinguished. - people MAKE their environment - people USE their environment - people CONSTRUE their environment

Responsiveness has practical implications at each of these levels.

Let us consider the case of owner-occupied single family housing, which is probably the easiest context in which to develop a partici-patory approach to design. In Britain, for example, houses are currently designed with a life expectancy of at least sixty years. With the current world economic recession, and increasing energy shortages, this period is likely to increase rather than decrease. But we know that British owner-occupier families move house, on the average, once every six or seven years. This means that every house is likely to be lived in by about ten different families; ninety percent of which, no matter what, can have no say about their house's original form.

Clearly, this problem is even more marked in the case of city centre commercial buildings. It is quite insurmountable in the case of the public spaces of the city, whose forms long out live those of the buildings which surround them.

Piazza Navona, Rome : still the same plan as when it was the Stadium of Domitian.

MAKING the Environment: A Responsive PROCESS

Naples : Gi"?el: city plan and air view : a 2600 year old layout (Kevin Lynch).

Most designers who have tried to e n c o u r a g e Responsiveness have concentrated their efforts on the MAKING level, notably in the movement for 'public participation' in planning. Public participation is clearly a powerful tool for promoting responsiveness, but there are dangers in regarding it as sufficient in itself: an exclusive concentration on the production pro-cess loses sight of the permanence which is so characteristic of most built environments.

Urban Design Quarterly May 1983 16

This is not to deny the value of a participatory approach to the processes by which buildings and urban places are developed. But even the most participatory process is no panacea, for the built environment as product goes on supporting certain kinds of activities and values, and con-straining others, long after the people involved in its original production are dead. It oper-ates, in other words, as a political system in its own right, as distinct from the processes which produced it.

So the achievement of responsiveness requires designers to think through its implications in terms of the urban fabric itself. This by no means implies a retreat from political awareness on the contrary, it represents a willingness to engage the political dimension with our own unique skills and responsibilities as designers. To do this, we must become aware of the detailed qualities of built form which directly affect Responsiveness, at the levels of USING and CONSTRUING the environment.

USING and CONSTRUING the Environment: a .responsive PRODUCT

In the broadest terms, responsiveness is best served by environments which offer their users the widest possible range of experimental choice But only those elements in the environment which are accessible to people can increase their range of choice. The quality of oerneabilitv -a measure of people's freedom of access through the environment - is therefore crucial in terms of supporting responsiveness.

But permeability, by itself, is only a beginning the extent to which people can take advantage of a highly permeable environment, using it to sup-port their own personal development, depends a great deal on how easily and effectively they can grasp its layout. The leEibilitv of the environment is the quality which enables people to grasp it.

In turn, permeability and legibility are of little use by themselves. Being able to get to places, no matter how legible, is irrelevant unless the places themselves offer experiential choice: variety, therefore, is the third key quality. The qualities so far discussed all support responsiveness at any given moment. But build-ings and urban places last a long time. During this period, an environment which could only accommodate new uses through considerable physical alteration would tend to inhibit the activities of the people who use it: if they wanted to do something else with it, they couldn't. To avoid this we require the further quality of robustness: the ability of the environment to accommodate alternative patterns of use without major physical alteration. But an important factor determining whether robust-ness will actually be used, is the image of the building or space concerned. If this is seen as inappropriate to a potential alternative use, then the change is less likely to take place without major alteration.

Permeability : the upper layout offers a great choice of ways through, whilst the lower one does not.

A robust plan which can easily be used by different people in different ways. (Andreio Rabaneck)

Urban Design Quarter ly May 1983 2 This suggests one reason for valuing environ-ments which are multivalent: which can be understood in different ways, rather than having only one unambiguous meaning. In addition, there are further reasons for wanting multi-valence. Firstly, in a pluralist society, where codes of meaning vary from group to group, legibility may itself depend on the environ-ment's multivalence; its ability to synthesise several different codes so as to communicate appropriately to people of different backgrounds Secondly, and more generally, multivalence is a further way of offering people choice. It is the counterpart of variety; but at the level of meaning, rather than that of use.

Lest this seem an arty avant-garde concept, it is useful to remember that it was once a per-fectly normal way of conceiving buildings. Con-sider this comment about the 'Queen Anne' style of the late nineteenth century, by the painter Moyr Smith:

One loved her for her homeliness, another for her dignity and picturesque grace; this admired her because she was so domestic and unpretending that other because she was so rich and so queenly. She was pure English, pure Flemish, pure Italian .... She spoke now in soft bastard Latin, now in French, now in Dutch, and now in pure Anglo-Saxon.

Gables, Fitzjohn's Avenue : a house by Norman Shaw of the sort Moyr Smith had in mind.

The potential which multivalence offers for people to build an image of their environment which is both appropriate and their own is fur-ther supported by richness: variety writ small. Richness ensures a varied menu of small scale design elements, from which people can construct their own idiosyncratic images of place.

Finally, because most people have to live and work in environments designed by others, oppor-tunities for personalisation are particularly important.

This list of qualities - permeability, legibil-ity, variety, robustness, richness and personal-isation - is far from exhaustive. But it is useful on the drawing-board: it gap be used to structure a design approach which is central on achieving responsiveness. Whilst it would be easy to add other qualities, to make our view of responsiveness more sophisticated, the extra complexity involved would certainly reduce the usefulness of the concepts on the drawing board.

A Step-by-Step Design Approach

Permeability is the most basic of all the quali-ties affecting environmental responsiveness: since any place which is not in some way access-ible to a person can offer him nothing, perme-ability is the pre-condition without which all other qualities are irrelevant. it must be considered early in design, by thinking through the issue of public linkage to and through a site. The designer must decide how many routes there should be, how they should link together, where they should go and - as the other side of the coin - how to establish rough boundaries for blocks of developable land within the site as a whole.

block structure

structure of linkage

The second step covers the topic of legibility: how to make the arrangment of the project 'graspable'. The tentative linkage network established in step 1 now takes on three-dimen-sional form. The elements which give perceptual structure to a place are brought into the process of design. As part of this process, routes and their junctions are differentiated from one another by designing them with differ-ing degrees of spatial enclosure. By this stage, therefore, the designer is involved in making tentative decisions about the volumes of the buildings which enclose the public spaces.

>c The third step introduces the concept of variety particularly concentrating on the crucial issue of how to maximise the variety of uses in the project. Now we must assess the levels of demand for different types of uses on the site, and establish how wide a mix of uses it is economically and functionally feasible to have. In the light of these decisions, the tentative building volumes established as spatially desirable in the previous steps are now tested for their ability to house the desired mix of uses whilst maintaining economic feasibility: the design is further developed as necessary.

Urban Design Quarter ly May 1983 3 With the fourth step the process of design changes gear. From now on, attention shifts from the relationships between buildings and their spatial and economic contexts, towards a concentration on the detailed design of the buildings and outdoor places themselves.

a n

CJ CI

Step six involves the concept of designing buildings and public spaces with appropriate levels of experiential variety.

' r l '

m J • • •

The fourth step itself is concerned with robust-ness ; ways in which buildings and spaces can be planned so as to place as few constraints as possible on their users' activities. Step five handles multivalence: the ways in which mean-ings can be handled to achieve the same end and - more generally - how architectural codes can be synthesised so as to produce an environment whose meanings are appropriate to a variety of people from different backgrounds.

Different -people's images of Newcastle as a basis for design : housing scheme, Quayside, Bentley, Campbell, Hunt, Murrain (drawn by Stef Campbell and Graham Smith).

Step seven develops the theme of variety a stage further, relating it to the direct involvement of the people who use the environment. This involves developing the design to give the maxi-mum encouragement for users to make their own design contribution through

Conclusion

Of course, in practice things are never as simple as this step-by-step approach implies. Nevertheless, the experience of those cf us who have used this approach leads us to prefer a design approach with a strong 'sense of direc-tion1 - one can always divert as circumstances demand - rather than the unstructured series of 'factors to be taken into account' which is usually all that drawing board advice has to offer.

Even so, it is wise to respect the element of uniqueness present in all design problems: the ideas put forward in these notes can rarely be used as literal recipes. They must be used creatively, as springboards for design, rather than as straightjackets. The intention is to suggest how to design for responsive environ-ments, rather than dictating what to design.

Ian Eer.tley

J.C.U.D. Oxford Polytechnic

Footnotes 1) The interactionist - or relational - model

of mar. is contrasted with others in Stringer, P., 'Models of Kan in Casterbridge and Milton Keynes' in Mikellides, B. (ed.) Architecture for people;, exploration In a new humane environment, London: Studio Vista 1980. Its historical origins are discussed by Shotter, J., Images of man in psychologi-cal research, London: Methuen, 1575. The increasing inability of the modern city to support the interactionist perspective is argued in Sennett, R., The Fall of Public Man, Cambridge: C.U.P., 197^.

2) The practical implications of this topic will be discussed in Bentley, I. (ed.) Designing Resppn.siy.e Places .-. .a. prac-kiaal handbook, London: Architectural Press, to be published Spring 1984.

3) Moyr Smith, J., Ornamental Interiors Ancient and Modern, London, 1887, p.68.

Urban Design Quarterly May 1983 4 Making the best of what we've got Urban Design as it developed during the late sixties drew support and inspiration from the growing interest in conservation of the historic environment.

That the advocates of conservation were the first to make a co-ordinated and successful stand against powerful profit inspired property developers and bureaucratic comprehensive deve-lopment now seems inevitable history. That the often emotional and nostalgic views of the pro-pertied middle class were transformed into a much wider concern for the proper use of the whole of that built environment with the sudden end of the post-war development boom in the early seventies also seen inevitable.

In addition a growing understanding of the deep rooted resentment of people to change forced onto them by re-development, a greater realiza-tion of the importance of the process by which existing environments are modified and a belief that this process and its results have to be interpreted to those affected by them has resulted in the emergence of a rounded urban design view of the existing built environment.

The Joint Centre, within the Polytechnic Faculty of Planning, Architecture & Estate Management has played a central role in establishing an option field, Built Resources Management, which draws together uniquely in the faculty, students and staff from all the departments to study both area and individual building re-use.

The central part of this option are two series of weekly seminars given by staff or visiting specialists. One series concentrates on the evolution and implementation of Area policies, whilst the other is more concerned with existing individual buildings and in particular with elements of their construction and ways of arriving at proposals for re-use. Topics discussed recently in these seminars include: techniques of survey and analysis, housing re-habilitation, proposals for improving high rise housing built in the Sixties, the work of the special projects section of the Merseyside Improved Housing Association, the establishment of a trust to develop workshops and recreational facilities below Westway and the issues raised by the Covent Garden Renaissance.

Students who participate in the seminars can also work on individual and group projects of varied duration and complexity.

Typical of early projects was one for the cen-tral area of the market town of Witney. This resulted in the production of proposal for con-servation and infill which generated consider-able interest when exhibited in the town. How-ever, this project suffered like most early conservation studies, from a lack of rigorous methodology and evaluation techniques. Support-ing my colleague, David Whitham's aphorism that "conservation is a soft option for weak minded students".

Lectures and seminars, particularly those from John l-.'or thingtcn and his colleagues in DEGW helped to develop a methodology tested first in a very small way in a project for the revitali-zatior. of Charterville, a 19th century settle-ment of small holdings in Oxfordshire.

A much bigger and rather alarming opportunity for a full test came with an invitation from the Patrimoine Historique et Aristique de la France to carry out work ir. the medium sized French provincial town of Provins.

A small group of staff ar.d students with only a three week Easter vacation available decided to concentrate on a pilot study of a band taken across a typical part of the town. Within this band we were able to carry out a detailed com-prehensive survey of the use, condition, his-toric and architectural quality and development potential of all buildings and spaces. For the survey we need a standard "fiche" sheet devised so as to achieve a high level of accuracy and compatability from observers with a limited knowledge of French vernacular building cons-truction and with only a brief training in survey techniques. The Provins fiche was developed from one evolved by architects working on housing surveys for the Scottish Development Department (see Surveying Built Resources, by David Whitham in UD Forum 2).

When the results of the surveys were transferred onto base maps groups or areas of building of different ages, conditions, architectural quali-ties and over or under use could be identified. This data, (r.ow lodged in the Mayor's office as source material for other projects) allowed us to focus our design work intc areas with the most problems or potential.

The Provins technique, including the fiche was modifea and developed in several other projects in Britian, notably in a study of Bloomsbury, carried out by Architecture students under Jim Monahan and a rehabilitation study for the old railway village of Vulcan (near Warrington) carried out by Urban Design students.

In a joint project a team from the Polytechnic and Cambridge University undertook a study of Salvitelle, an Italian village hit by the earth-quake of 1981. Here the technique was adapted to the problem of assessing the gravity of damage to the building fabric with the end of establish ing priorities for repair and reconstruction.

A parallel line of interest has been a series of projects in Glasgow (with the support of the local Housing Department) and Liverpool which suggested solutions to the problem of poor environment and hard to let housing built in the last twenty years.

Since a significant number of our students come from outside Europe we must be concerned about the relevance of British experience to the prob-lems they will have to face back home. It was encouraging therefore to find on a recent teach-ing exchange in Mexico, that the students who participated in a short Urban Design Course there were interested in our approach and applied it in a project for a run down central area of Guadalajara.

In addition to the studies, and many others, mentioned above, which are mainly concerned with area redevelopment, other students within "Built Resources" have worked on proposals for the re-use of individual buildings - some of which have been initiated by request for feasibility studies from local agencies. In an attempt to find a theoretical basis, or at least a method-ology for this work, which is usually seen as an adhoc response to such individual buildings, Ivor Samuels and I have recently been able to look comprehensively at the way many old build-ings in and around Oxford have been used for community and cultural purposes in a Council of Europe sponsored study. (New use for old Stones, Council of Europe, 1982).

Urban Design Quarter ly May 1983 5 Even the most imaginative proposals, based on all the best techniques and methodologies, are useless if they are not followed through by recommendation on how they can be organised, promoted and paid for.

Most of the case studies discussed in seminars emphasise the complex process of actually achieving even quite modest proposals. Often the energy and enthusiasm of community or amen-ity groups, and the rules and requirements of the funding agencies and the complexities and uncertainties of job creation contracts have to be reconciled.

In student projects process is hard to simulate. However projects which do not at least discuss funding, current conversion costs, possible rents and development evaluation are not accept-able.

Recent dissertation work has resulted in one student being given a bursary by Glasgow District Council to investigate the funding and setting up of a trust for the improvement of an area of tenemented housing.

As a teaching establishment we are only able to carry out projects if our students can gain insights and develop methodologies from them which will be useful in their professional life. To be relevant these live projects, have to be of a research nature, the budget for which, if any, can only pay a fraction of the cost which would be involved if consultants were employed. Our role is to try to reveal interests and potentials at the frontiers of the subject, leaving the firm ground to the practitioner.

Future trends are never easy to spot. However, it seems probable that the most dynamic change (if there is any dynamic at all) will come about in the run down areas of inner cities developed or redeveloped during this century. Here rela-tively sound buildings stand in an awful social and economic environment. It may well be that experience with a method which releases imagina-tive skill in adapting these, cheap redundant buildings for current needs and improving their environment coupled with the rarer skill of organising the financial and contractural aspects of these developments will help our students find useful urban design jobs on graduation.

Philip Opher J.C.U.D. Oxford Polytechnic

Illustration from Provins Town Trail. Olga Samuels

Urban Design Quarterly May 1983 6 14 Learning from Lagos Anyone who has t r a v e l l e d or worked in deve lop ing c o u n t r i e s w i l l b e w e l l aware o f the enormous d i f f e r e n c e s between t h e i r u rban p r ob l ems and r e sou r ce s and those o f i n d u s t r i a l i s e d c o u n t r i e s such a s B r i t a i n . D e s p i t e t h e s e d i f f e r e n c e s , howeve r , many T h i r d Wo r l d c o u n t r i e s r e g a r d B r i t i s h p r o f e s s i o n a l s k i l l s h i gh l y and c o n t i n u e to send s tuden ts t o our U n i v e r s i t i e s and P o l y -t e chn i c s , d e sp i t e r i s i n g c o s t s .

I n t he p a s t , B r i t i s h e x p e r t i s e was s o u g h t because i t was assumed t h a t the e x p e r i e n c e o f managing our own urban development had equ ipped us with the necessa ry body o f t h e o r y and p r a c -t i c e t c b e e f f e c t i v e i n c u r r e n t l y u r b a n i s i n g c o un t r i e s . In t h i s way, the ideas o f the modern movement, t o g e t h e r w i t h new t owns , new t echno l o g i e s and a s sump t i on s r e g a r d i n g the r o l e s o f p r o f e s s i o n a l s , were expor ted a r ound the w o r l d . Giver, the c o n d i t i o n s p r e v a i l i n g t o d a y , i t was not long, b e f o r e the l i m i t a t i o n s o f those app r o a che s we r e e x p o s e d . Ov e r t h e y e a r s , B r i o t i s h p r o f e s s i o n a l s wo r k i n g o v e r s e a s have t h e r e f o r e e v o l v e d new i d e a s and p r a c t i c e s t o response more e f f e c t i v e l y t o l o c a l n e e d s . I n pa r t t h i s has been a ch i e v ed by l e a r n i n g f r om l o c a l peop l e , p a r t i c u l a r l y the poor who have, in f a c t , l a r g e l y b u i l t the expanding c i t i e s .

I t i s t h i s new gene r a t i on o f p r o f e s s i o n a l s which p r o v i d e s the model f o r g o v e r n m e n t s s e n d i n g s tudents t o B r i t a i n . This o f course r a i s e s t h e i s sue of how to equip such s t u d e n t s to make an e f f e c t i v e c o n t r i b u t i o n o n t h e i r r e t u r n home. For i n s t i t u t i o n s dea l i ng e x c l u s i v e l y w i t h o v e r -seas s tuden ts t h i s i s not r e a l l y a major problem but f o r those l i k e t he J o i n t C e n t r e f o r Urban Design a t O x f o r d P o l y t e c h n i c , where h a l f t he s t u d e n t s a r e f r om o v e r s e a s and the r e s t a r e B r i t i s h o r Eu r o p e an , i t r a i s e s a number o f i s sues r ega rd ing the degree o f u n i v e r s a l i t y o f theory arid methods, the type o f p r o j e c t s which s tudents under take anc the r e l a t i o n s h i p between the two student g r o u p s . E x p e r i e n c e has shown t h a t the most e f f e c t i v e s o l u t i o n i s f o r a l l s t uden t s t o u n d e r t a k e a ' c o r e ' o f t h e o r y and methods r e l a t i n g to urban d e s i g n as a d i s t i n c t d i s c i p l i n e , but then to s e l e c t two o p t i o n s ( o u t o f f i v e ) on which to p repare v a r i ou s p ape r s and design p r o j e c t s . I n t h i s way gene ra l i d e a s a r e tes ted in s p e c i f i c c u l t u r a l and economic c on t e x t s , s o t h a t the s t u d e n t a s s i m i l a t e s t he m i x t u r e most s u i t e d t o h i s o r h e r n e ed s . By op t ing t o do bo th o p t i o n s on o v e r s e a s t o p i c s (Housing and Loca l Development or New D e v e l o p -ments and Tour ism) ove r seas s tudents can e f f e c -t i v e l y s p e c i a l i s e w i t h o u t l o s i n g c o n t a c t w i t h the B r i t i s h s t ud en t s . They a l s o have the chance

o f under tak ing a s h o r t o v e r s e a s s t u d y v i s i t t o c a r r y out f i e l d s t ud i e s as a b a s i s f o r a g r o up design p r o j e c t . Recen t s u b j e c t s have i n c l u d e d t h e Gecekondus o f A n k a r a , c o n s e r v a t i o n and s i t e s and s e r v i c e s in Tunis and new hou s i ng in Khartoum, Na i rob i and Aba ( N i g e r i a ) . A f u r t h e r s tudy v i s i t i s planned to Po r tuga l in May 1983 .

The main emphasis of c u r r e n t work by o v e r s e a s s tudents i s t o d e v e l o p p r o p o s a l s which a r e a s economica l l y r i g o r o u s as a n y t h i n g a ch i e v ed by the World Bank or o the r agenc ies , but which a r e s p e c i f i c a l l y des igned t o s u i t l o c a l c u l t u r a l , s o c i a l and c l ima t i c c o n d i t i o n s . A n a l y s i s s ug -ges t s tha t many Bank p r o j e c t s de s i gned so f a r a r e based upon a narrow, t e c h n o l o g i c a l view of economics and tha t the ways peop le a c t u a l l y use pub l i c and p r i v a t e a reas need t o i n f l u e n c e l a y out des igns .

A l l these a c t i v i t e s a r e intended t o c r e a t e urban d e s i g n e r s who can r e l a t e e c o n o m i c , s o c i a l , t e chn i c a l and env i ronmenta l a s p e c t s and d e t a i l the most a p p r o p r i a t e s o l u t i o n t o any g i v e n s i t u a t i o n . I n a d d i t i o n , emphasis i s p laced upon i n i t i a t i n g a process o f l o c a l l y - b a s e d c on s o l i d a -t i o n r a t h e r than c o n t r o l l i n g deve l opmen t f r om day one and t h e r eby e n a b l i n g d e s i g n s k i l l s t o b e n e f i t a g r e a t e r number o f p e o p l e t h a n i s p o s s i b l e a t p r e s en t .

E x p e r i e n c e i n t e a c h i n g s u c h a p p r o a c h e s h a s prompted the thought tha t in add i t i o n t o c l a i m -ing a n a b i l i t y t o he lp d e v e l o p i n g c o u n t r i e s i t may w e l l be t h a t we can l e a r n s ome th i ng f r om them. This i s not t o advocate s qua t t e r s e t t l e -ments a s the a l t e r n a t i v e t o p u b l i c and p r i v a t e s e c t o r i nves tmen t . I t d oe s s u g g e s t , h oweve r , t ha t a r e - examina t i on o f t h e r o l e o f the u r ban d e s i g n e r in ou r d e c a y i n g c o n u r b a t i o n s may be j u s t i f i e d , and t h a t more f l e x i b l e , communi ty -based i n i t i a t i v e s a r e needed. The new commun-i t i e s p r o j e c t c u r r e n t l y being spon - so r ed by the TCPA and the T e l f o r d Development C o r p o r a t i o n is a welcome move in t h i s d i r e c t i o n . The T h i r d World has had more e x p e r i e n c e than we have of pu t t i ng every penny and e v e r y s q u a r e me t r e t o the most e f f e c t i v e use and in the present r e c e s -s i o n we cannot a f f o r d wasted r e s ou r c e s any more than they can . A l l i n a l l , these i s s u e s p rov ide f o r a s t imu l a t i n g i n t e l l e c t u a l environment - out o f which w i l l h o p e f u l l y come an e q u a l l y s t i m u l -a t i ng urban envi ronment!

Geo f f Payne J . C . U . D . Oxford Po l y t e chn i c

Aerial view from MA dissertation 'Processes of Change in Small Mexican Towns '. Salvdaor de Alba

Urban Design Quarter ly May 1983 7

Book Reviews "CITY LANDSCAPE" Edited by A B Grove and R W Cresswell. Published by Butterworths 19 83, 196 pages, Hard cover £25. ISBN 408011653

This attractive, well illustrated new book in culled from the proceedings of the City Land-cape Conference held in Bath in 1981. The Conference was one of the UK's contributions to the Council of Europe's European Campaign for Urban Renaissance and was organised in assoc-iation with the Civic Trust, the Landscape Institute, the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Society of Industrial Artists and Designers - the sort of multi-professional alliance of which the Urban Design Group strongly approves: indeed it is gratifying to see that a fair number of the participants are UDG members.

The book is in four parts. The first is a historical review of the changes in urban landscape that have taken place and highlights the need to develop new opportunities. The second deals with aesthetics, nature and con-servation and urban woodlands. Part Three focuesses on urban design techniques, methods and practice. In Part Four education, manage-ment and participation aspects are covered. Case studies are drawn not only from Europe, but also places like Savannah, Northlands Detroit, Peking, Seattle.

This is a meaty tome, recording what was clearly a very successful and instructive Conference. John Collins, in his Conclusion, has some apposite comments for the design professions:

"I believe that there are far too few designers actually designing in the planning world today. So many of the schemes discussed and illustrated here are fascinating examples of designers actually designing better quality landscape, and detailing what should go into the spaces between buildings. It disturbs me that throughout Britain there is evidence of far too little professional design input going into the whole planning process Bringing quality into our environment is what it is all about."

The UDG agrees with you John - even more than you do!

FT

NEW GUIDE HIGHLIGHTS THE DANGER OF STRAP POINTING

The Burnley Borough Council have recently published a new illustrated leaflet highlighting the danger to stone buildings of strap or ribbon pointing. It asks anyone who is thinking of repointing his building to beware of this technique.

In 1980 the attention of the Borough's Conserva-tion Architect was drawn to damage being done by this pointing on the millstone grid buildings of Saddleworth. In the following months Burnley's buildings of architectural and or historial importance were examined and was found that a lot of damaged stonework in the Borough was not simply due to the poor quality of the stone. In almost all cases some of the stone had at some time been strap pointed or pointed with water-proof material and this had started the trouble.

In June 1982 the Borough Planning and Estates Officer, and the Borough Surveyor, jointly reported the matter to the Council who resolved to ban strap pointing on all its own properties and to publish a leaflet which would draw the attention of private owners to the danger.

Copies can be obtained free of charge from the Council offices of the Planning and Estates Officers, The Building Surveyors and the Housing Grants Office. Anyone living outside the Borough can obtain a copy by request if they send a cheque or postal order for 25p with their request. This should be addressed to the Borough Planning and Estates Officer, 6 Elizabeth Street, Burnley, BB11 2ER.

Watershot joints

Flush faced joints

Strap pointed joints

Urban Design Quarterly May 1983 8

UDG DIARY DIARY

May 10, 1983 Annual General Meeting and dis-cussion led by Professor Richard MacCormack, John Ratcliffe and David Cadman on "Financing Qual-ity in Urban Design".

June 07, 1983 "MENDING THE CITY" A one day Conference sponsored by the Urban Design Group and supported by the RTPI, RICS, LI and RIBA at the at the Polytechnic of Central London, Marylebone Road, NW1 . Places restricted to c70 dele-gates at a cost of £12.50 per person (inclusive) of lunch). Full details will be published in late April, but reservations can be made to Arnold Linden c/o PCL, School of the Environment.

All meetings will be held at the Polytechnic of Central London, 35 Marylebone Road, London, NW1. Full details and reminders will be separately published in the UDG Quarterly and the professional press.

Annual General Meeting TAKE NOTICE THAT the fourth Annual General Meeting of the Urban Design Group will take place on Tuesday, May 10, 1983, at 6.00 pm in Room 604/605 at the Polytechnic of Central London, 35 Marylebone Road, London, NW1.

AGENDA: 1. Apologies for Absence 2. Chairman's Report 3. Treasurer's Report 4. Election of President 5. Election of Committee and Officers 6. Any Other Business

Notice of other matters to be raised and nom-inations of people wishing to serve on the Committee as Ordinary Members or in the posi-tion of Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary or Treasurer, for the 1983/84 session, should be sent to the present Chairman, prior to the Meeting (c/o Tibbalds Partnerships, 39 Charing Cross Road, London, Wc2H OAW).

Following the AGM, Professor Richard MacCormack and John Ratcliffe will discuss "Financing Quality in Urban Design" under the chairmanship of David Cadman.

REGIONAL ACTIVITIES UDG Committee 1982-3 The Regional contacts are as follows:

Scotland Mike Galloway Glasgow City Planning Department

North East Bob Jarvis Tyne and Wear County Planning Department

North West Kevin Eastham Assistant County Planning Officer Lancashire County East Cliff Preston

West Joe Holyoak Midlands School of Architecture

Birmingham Polytechnic

041 221 9855

0632 816144

0772 54668

021 356 6911

East Anglia Alan Stones 0245 67222 Planning Department Ext 2545 Essex County Council

John Billingham (Regional Affairs) Philip Cave Richard Ellis John Evans Keith Ingham Arnold Linden Alexandra Marmot Robert Meadows Tony Meats John Peverley (Hon Treasurer) Alan Rowley Peter Studdert Francis Tibbalds (Chairman) Tony Tugnutt (Committee Secretary)

CORRESPONDENCE AND MATERIAL FOR REVIEW AND/OR PUBLICATION SHOULD BE ADDRESSED TO:

The Editors URBAN DESIGN GROUP QUARTERLY c/o Tibbalds Partnership 39 Charing Cross Road London WC2H OAW

West David King 1 Clifton Wood Road Clifton Bristol

0272 279978 Telephone: 01 734 3935

Printed by the Polytechnic of Central London Published by the Urban Design Group

ALL MEMBERSHIP AND SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES:

John Peverley Hon Treasurer 31 Onslow Gardens London N10

This issue has been edited at Oxford Polytechnic by Ivor Samuels, typed by Julia McKendry and Gill Long, with Graphics by Jon Davison.