07967 638 786
dharmista@designmidlands.org
Session will look at design solutions for climate emergency and how landscape, ecology and drainage should underpin design - making a genuine positive contribution towards nature recovery and to help address the climate emergency in the process.
Wednesday 24th April, 12-1pm - 1 hour only.
Hosted on Big Marker
12.00 - 12.10 - Welcome, introduction, housekeeping and subject overview
12.10 - 12.25 - Speaker Professor Alexander Wright - Design solutions for a climate emergency.
12.25 - 12.40 - Speakers Catherine Philips and Alison Caldwell - focus on landscape, ecology and drainage making a genuine positive contribution towards nature recovery and to help address the climate emergency.
12.40 - 1.00 - Q&A and round up
A joint RTPI East Midlands and RTPI West Midlands event, the first in a series of 3 webinars in partnership with Design:Midlands
A recording of the first of a 3 part series of webinars exploring Design in the Build Environment. Brought to you by RTPI Midlands - a collaboration between RTPI East Midlands and RTPI West Midlands - this Design Webinar Series will be delivered by Dharmista Patel and Jo Widdecombe from Design: Midlands.
In this first 1.5 hour webinar session they will ask the question What’s ‘design’ got to do with it?
What is good design? Achieving good design through:
With Chairs - Steve Kemp, OpenPlan and Dharmista Patel from Design : Midland and guest speakers Angela Reeve, Senior Director, Turley & Roisin Barrett, Planning Inspector.
As part of Homes England's Winter Learning Programme, Julie Tanner of Design Midlands took part in a special webinar in February 2023 covering the Practical implementation of BHL.
A recording of the webinar can be seen by clicking the watch now button above:
East Midlands Councils ran a webinar on Paragraph 80 Houses Demystified as part of their Low Cost CPD Programme for Planners which has been put together by Design Midlands. The webinar covered different aspects of Paragraph 80 houses from the perspective of a designer/reviewer, policy application, a case study and PINS. A copy of the programme can be found here.
A recording of the webinar can be seen by clicking the watch now button above:
Our speakers and audience representing a diverse cohort involved in design and place making drew upon their experience to critique and provide some really useful insights on how Design Codes can and should work in practice:
Our final session as thought provocative as the ones that came before. It is striking how the differing themes discussed over these past few weeks all draw the same conclusions:
• There is a need for community engagement and involvement;
• Front loading design is essential;
• Use the tools available to you; and
• People need to work together to deliver a common vision.
In terms of this week’s topic – trees, streets and spaces, a really useful discussion around the:
• Need to capture community involvement to secure delivery and retention of trees within streets
• Barriers to to delivery – services and fears over their management below the ground and under trees
• There needs to be a change in attitude to street adoption and trees
• We need to look proactively and innovatively at opportunities and solutions
• It’s not always about the number of trees
• Biodiversity Net Gain is an important driver to deliver trees in streets and in multifunctional spaces
• Please refer to ‘Tree Design and Action Group – Trees in the townscape. A guide for decision makers’.
Key messages:
The National Design Guide (NDG) suggests looking beyond the 'redline’ of planning applications: design teams need to look at the space between buildings and establish that the life of the street is dependent on movement between destinations.
The NDG suggests good places should offer a choice of transport. Planning for peak traffic and commuting - are streets currently over-designed? How do we promote healthier and more sustainable modes of transport?
COVID 19, human behaviour has changed so quickly – in future there will be demand for more walking and cycling; willingness to experiment e.g. pop-up one-way systems; an agile mindset to accept that approaches might not work, review and try something else.
Tools are available to consider movement, particularly the interrelationship of social movement, health and play. Urban modelling systems and digital platforms are emerging: STRAVA, Streetmap, Open Space Syntax Model, 'citizen-led' appropriation of spaces e.g. Playing Out.
The social dimension of movement is fundamental, Red Infrastructure (the lifeblood of the place). COVID 19 will prompt the need for community infrastructure planning in placemaking.
The NDG mentions doorstep play, the ability for play is a measure of place quality. Traffic speed reductions from 30 to 20mph will also emerge.
Highway authorities need to adapt to consider functional movement not only of people but of nature, to address the bigger issues of biodiversity and the climate emergency. 'Building for a Healthy Life' considers these points.
Shaping Streets Design Review will broaden discussions around movement. Using the 'Seven Ls' as a prompt to establish permeability:
Location (where are the schools, facilities etc);
Linkage points (exist and create);
Layout (designed around location and linkage);
Land use (dispersal of uses across the site);
Landscape (character and quality);
Lining (how buildings reach/meet the streets); and,
Longevity (high quality materials to last and management of a place)
Language is essential - think streets not roads, mobility not transport, and consider the qualitative experience of a good journey.
