Designing town centres for walking and belonging

GUEST POST: Agata Szacilowska, Landscape Architect with the Greenspace Development Environmental Services team at North Lanarkshire Council (NLC), describes the design and regeneration of Motherwell’s historic town centre.

In Motherwell Town Centre, NLC aimed to improve the quality, function and appearance of the streets and public areas.

The design was developed through internal and external consultation, and was presented for comments during public displays, on hand delivered leaflets and on the council’s website.

The resulting project involved realigning and resurfacing footways and roads, and installing new street furniture, lighting, street trees and public art.

But its overarching themes were sensitivity to the town’s historic buildings and the movement of people around the public space.

Traffic management and reinventing wheels

Commentators

At Ecobuild Michael Sorkin talked about designing new cities in the US and in China, where walking radiuses of 10 minutes were being used as a defining characteristic of a healthy and sustainable neighbourhoods.

Elsewhere, Will Self keeps up his ‘psychogeography’ campaign, extolling the benefits and radicalism of travelling by foot:

We understand that to walk the city and its environs is, in a very powerful sense, to use it. The contemporary flâneur is by nature and inclination a democratising force who seeks equality of access, freedom of movement and the dissolution of corporate and state control.

Meanwhile, the economics of having to transport people and goods, and the small matter of pedestrian safety keep other discussions down to earth.

Legislators

Somewhere in the middle, Manual for Streets 2 (MfS2) and the concept of shared spaces keeps both viewpoints in focus for designers and planners – and for product manufacturers and technological innovators – all of whom are involved in squaring the circle, and trying to create better environments for living.

Pedestrians

In theory, barriers, bollards and strict demarcation are against the spirit of shared spaces. But the reality is that sympathetic and thoughtful design can mean that low key safety features are less intrusive.

There’s also the school of thought that says we can revel in street furniture elements as individual features in their own right. Note the popularity of the Bollards of London blog.

‘Smart’ traffic management technologies are also being more closely integrated into realtime traffic control and pedestrian movement.

The thinking behind ‘puffin crossings’ (‘pedestrian user-friendly intelligent crossings’), for example, is to make traffic signal and pedestrian crossing control more contextual, while encouraging greater awareness of traffic by people crossing busy roads.

The ADEPT website (the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport) makes the same points:

ADEPT believes that seeing approaching traffic will reduce the risk of an accident should a driver fail to stop at a crossing. Pedestrian detection may be used to confirm the presence of a pedestrian waiting to cross, and to vary the duration of crossing time to more accurately reflect the time needed to cross the road. The crossing time can be extended for groups of pedestrians, and for mobility impaired users, or operate for a minimum time when a single pedestrian crosses quickly.

It’s not necessarily something that would float Will Self’s boat, but systems and software are being harnessed here to help pedestrians and drivers to co-exist. This summary from the Intelligent Transport Society talks about influencing driver awareness and behaviour:

ITS [intelligent transport systems] can be applied to road transport to improve efficiency and safety through the provision of on-line information to drivers in their vehicles and by equipping the vehicle with computerised systems which assist the driver (e.g. following and lane keeping).

It also improves the efficiency of transport by use of electronic systems to improve traffic control and enforcement of traffic regulations. Electronic motorway tolling and congestion charging are also ITS options.

Conclusion

For designers and for residents – whether commercial or private – there will, no doubt, be ‘robust exchanges of views’ as the realities of shared spaces, town planning and traffic management are hammered out. But that’s shared spaces for you, be they residential car parks, market town centres, or historic ‘debatable lands’:

In 1551 the Crown officers of England and Wales, in an attempt to clear out the trouble makers, declared that ‘All Englishmen and Scottishmen, after this proclamation made, are and shall be free to rob, burn, spoil, slay, murder and destroy all and every such persons, their bodies, buildings, goods and cattle as do remain or shall inhabit upon any part of the said Debatable Land without any redress to be made for the same.’

Ecobuild 2012 – External Works notes

As the dust settles after the 2012 Ecobuild event, here are few observations, in brief, from the External Works corner.

1) Landscape Institute sessions

• Launch of Landscape Architecture – A guide for clients; vision – the power to transform places.
• Case studies Q&A with Ian Houlston of LDA Design (Cotswolds AONB), Jon Berry of Tyler Grange (East Float Wirral Waters), and Duncan Ecob of Devereux (Prince Bishops Park, Bishop Auckland).
• The theme of sustainable communities, including consultative planning and design, development of shared spaces, green infrastructure, and the importance of play and healthy lifestyles and behaviour.
• Working with product manufacturers 1: the usefulness of landscape architects and manufacturers cooperating from the earliest stages of projects.
• Working with product manufacturers 2: the value of innovation, and the critical role of manufacturers in communicating, educating and championing new technologies and techniques.

2) Conference session: Michael Sorkin on ‘The City After Now’

• Wrong slides to start with – maybe a bit of performance theatre to set up the idea of disruption.
• Crisis, the Gini coefficient, and the Occupy movement.
• Reflections on ecological footprints, responsibility, modesty, consumption and ‘good lives’.
• Terreform ONE (Open Network Ecology): non-profit design group promoting green design in cities.
• Design actions: planning and designing compact cities; limiting scale and boundaries.
• Applying patterns from Fez and Prague, Islamic and Medieval cities: plazas, streets and the chance to have ‘encounters’.
• Venice, and the way that cars are parked outside.
• Planning based on neighbourhoods with walking radiuses of 10 minutes.
• Setting high bars: carbon neutrality in designed cities; 100% green cover (green roofs).
• Increased urban autonomy, based on more agricultural self-sufficiency.

3)  Conference session: London 2012: the greenest Olympics ever

• Collaboration between client, consultants and contractors – with Sir John Armitt (ODA), Jim Heverin, Zaha Hadid Architects (Aquatics Centre), Mike Taylor, Hopkins Architects Partnership (Velodrome), and Tom Jones, Populous Architects (Olympic Stadium).
• Critically, clarity and consistency of objectives – including sustainability as a measure of success.
• Innovation, from ground remediation processes to recycled aggregate constituency of concrete in the Velodrome.
• Integrating landscapes: the unifying role of the river; parks, locks and habitats.
• Urban parkland in the south; pastoral parkland in the north.
• Landscape ties masterplan and unique building together.
• Glass, rooflights and building envelopes connect insides and outsides.

4) Seminar: Delivering sustainable concrete on the Olympic Park

• Kirsten Henson, Director, KLH Sustainability.
• A good example of the expertise, subtlety, diplomacy – and passion – involved in materials procurement.
• Materials management and the influence of the ‘balanced scorecard’.
• ‘If you don’t ask, you don’t get’ approach with manufacturers and materials suppliers.
• The complexity of sustainable materials – sometimes recycled aggregate substitution, or PFA cement replacement, or local sourcing is the answer. But not a straightforward template or cure-all.
• Resource: Learning Legacy website.

Natural stone surfacing: balancing acts

The palette of materials for hard surfacing spawns more and more options as construction technologies develop, not least with emerging concrete paving and bound surfacing products. Progress marches on.

But the appeal and effectiveness of natural stone in landscape architecture and construction – hardwearing Yorkstone, sympathetic limestone, fine-grained slate, solid granite – still stand, complemented as well by similar advances in stone manufacturing processes.

One reason for the persistent role of stone is the way that it allows designers, specifiers and contractors to balance competing priorities in projects: the authenticity of heritage styles versus the dynamism of contemporary accents; standing out in new build projects versus blending into restoration work; the civic benefits of pedestrianisation versus the commercial importance of traffic management.

Heritage vs contemporary

The authenticity of heritage styles versus the dynamism of contemporary accents.

Natural stone draws out the authenticity of surrounding architecture, while, at the same time, capturing the qualities of contemporary design: simplicity, solidity, natural luminosity.

Liverpool’s award-winning Canal Link and Pier Head Public Realm project, which won Stone Federation awards, is a good example. Natural stone materials were used to satisfy the competing requirements of a high-performance, high-quality, modern public space, and a landscape architecture scheme that had to be anchored firmly in the location’s heritage.

In the same way, natural stone allows for a balance of functional performance with aesthetic or decorative qualities.

New build vs restoration

Standing out in new build projects versus blending into restoration work.

Natural stone materials have a close association with prestige buildings and aspirational projects. Hence the excitement in the stone industry at the prospect of the Olympics: ‘Significant market opportunities exist through the construction impetus generated by the London 2012 Olympic Games,’ says the Natural Stone Show.

At the same time, in conservation, restoration and regeneration projects, stone integrates well with existing materials and elements, and grafts in as it weathers.

In the Slough High Street improvement scheme, Pomery Natural Stone Ltd was able to work with landscape architects and artists to design and install a creative stone floorscape – and integrate it with bespoke granite benches, new lighting, artwork and semi-mature tree planting.

Pedestrians vs traffic

The civic benefits of pedestrianisation versus the commercial importance of traffic management.

While urban planners wrestle with the pros and cons of shared surfaces, stone paving has the potential to accommodate all kinds of footfall and traffic use.

In the Southend Shared Space project, CED Ltd provided granite paving for the areas around the station. The space was designed for use by pedestrians‚ cyclists, buses and taxis, and to provide disabled access. Stone cubes were used to give discreet demarcation signals, extra long setts to avoid too many small elements, and specific mortars and detailing to provide the necessary lateral support.

Stone products and projects on ESI.info

As well as being particularly hard-wearing, stone pavements draw on a palette of organic colours, can reflect the tones and textures of local geology and materials, and are equally sympathetic to heritage and modern architecture… more

Securing perimeters: 7 links on designing for security

 

1. Free download from the Design Council: Designing out crime: a designers’ guide.
2. Ecobuild conference, Architects, planners and the post riot city, Thu 22 March, 11:15–12:15.
3. Secured by Design 3D toolkit including dwelling boundaries, landscape planting and street lighting scenarios.
4. Landscape Institute urban green space case study: Angell Town Estate, Brixton.
5. An article on The Dirt about bomb-sniffing borders and thorny hedges: ‘Plants Go on High Alert’.
6. This Big City with a US perspective on residential security: Can Gated Communities be Considered Socially Sustainable?
7. Related External Works blog post: “Designing out crime”, street furniture and soft landscaping.

Boundaries, fencing and connected landscapes

The relationship between fences, walls and barriers in public and private landscapes, and the need to design for ‘openness’, is not necessarily shot through with compromise.

Green infrastructure and crossing boundaries

The Landscape Institute’s Green Infrastructure position statement sets out a view on planning, design and management that takes into account ‘serious environmental, social and economical challenges’, and that recommends treating natural and built environments as ‘multifunctional’ and interconnected.

Shared spaces and smart surfacing

“Shared space” is an urban design concept championing multipurpose public areas that are safe, walkable, human-scale and economically vibrant, in which cars, buses, bikes, commuters, shoppers, residents and flaneurs co-exist in perfect harmony. Or at least in a kind of self-organising, flocking order. It throws up some interesting ideas and stimulating puzzles, not only for landscape architects but also for the manufacturers of construction products.

Shared roads and cycle tracks

The New York City based Urban Omnibus website features a rich and detailed article, “Cycle Tracks and the Evolving American Streetscape”. It’s written by David Vega-Barachowitz, Sustainable Initiatives Program Manager at the National Association of City Transportation Officials and coordinator for its Cities for Cycling project.

In the article he charts the history of designated bike lanes. They range from early experiments like the California Cycleway, an elevated toll road built in 1900 just for bikes, through to NYC’s 2007 Ninth Avenue protected bike lane, a figurehead pilot project.

What makes a road?

There are vast differences in types of road – a hairpin bend on an alpine pass is (literally) a long way from a cobbled lane in an English country village. The materials and design vary widely, of course, depending on what is appropriate for the application.

Tarmac and asphalt
There’s an interesting look at the idea of the road itself on cycling blog the Inner Ring. From the earliest history of roads to today’s asphalt, there are several eye-catching points, including the comparison of $25,000 per mile “chip seal” or “tar and chip” method of construction with the $350,000 per mile cost of asphalt.

And the impact of the seasons is as keenly felt in Europe as it is in the UK:

Other parts of Europe see winter damage and subsidence. Some Alpine roads get smashed by coachloads of tourists and subzero temperatures, they are relaid every year. But away from the resorts the frost is left to crack and shatter the road.

Stelvio Pass by Damian Morys Foto, on Flickr

Aggregates
There are also some diverting thoughts out there on unpaved or unsealed surfaces. Where a road experiences low volumes of traffic, it has been found that maintenance costs for gravel roads often exceed the maintenance costs for paved or surface treated roads when traffic volumes exceed 200 vehicles per day.

Landscape architects: is Building Information Modelling (BIM) improving your business?

More than just a buzzword in 2011, Building Information Modelling or BIM took centre stage last year when Paul Morrell, Chief Construction Adviser, announced government plans to have all public projects operating under a BIM framework by 2016.

Following that announcement, BIM has rarely been out of the trade press as more and more companies quickly move to adopt it as a key strategy to win business and improve working practices.

What was noticeable, however, was a lack of coverage and contribution from the perspective of landscape architects.

So it’s good to hear that the BIM Academy at the University of Northumbria are looking to speak with landscape architects who have experience of integrating BIM into their own practice.

They are specifically looking to get a better understanding of the potential requirements of the profession to improve workflows and support greater efficiency and collaboration within the BIM framework.

If you are a landscape architect and would like to contribute to this research, please contact:

Nahim Iqbal, BIM Development Leader, BIM Academy
Email: nahim.iqbal@bimacademy.ac.uk
Tel: 0191 227 4533

The BIM Academy are leading the field in developing research, courses and guidance to support the construction industry in adopting BIM. For further details about the BIM Academy and their work, visit the website: www.bimacademy.ac.uk

Designing swales

Swales are incorporated into sustainable drainage systems for small developments or in rural locations, to provide a limited amount of stormwater or run-off storage. They are typically grassed, or can be vegetated with reeds or other aquatic plants that will absorb or treat contaminated water before discharge to a watercourse.

Lake Superior Stream.org, a resource from Duluth, Minnesota, offers a swales toolkit that covers this drainage feature in some detail.