• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Previous Urban Animation Blogs - we welcome your comments or questions

23 June 2011

Empty Thoughts on a Half Filled Glass

I took the train to Perth for a meeting today. It was a slow but pleasant journey, ending at a grand station. This must once have been a bustling place, linking surrounding towns on lines which are now cycleways, or sparsely serviced provincial routes.

I walked up past the City Hall, where the outsized cherubs have chained themselves to the building to prevent imminent demolition and replacement by a public square. This could have been the Fair City’s Faneuil Hall if there hadn’t been too much out of town retail and too little commitment to save the building, the like of which will never again be built in this country.

After the meeting and a quick bowl of soup in a sparsely populated restaurant, I headed back to the station, only to miss my train by seconds: an hour’s wait for the next service to Scotland’s capital from our aspirant seventh city.

Heading over the Forth Bridge, there’s a stunning view up and down stream, with one or two small boats chugging along an enormous expanse of water. Back up the tracks at Newburgh on the Tay, there were once 40 fishing boats in that town alone, catching salmon and sprats.

At Haymarket in Edinburgh, there’s finally some bustle. Unfortunately it’s traffic chaos, rather than a vibrant street scene. There’s a handy short cut up to Bruntsfield, built recently at the mothballed Springside development, where entire blocks of flats have lain empty for months, victims of oversupply in a falling market.

The route heads over the Union Canal. I have a habit of counting the boats east towards the Lochrin Basin and west to Polwarth. Rarely less than nine, or more than eleven.

Back in the office, I contemplate responses to various Main Issues Reports and Local Development Plans, which set out growth strategies for new housing, retail, employment and transport infrastructure.

Ahead of those deadlines I ponder upon an overdue blog. My mind runs back to an earlier effort applauding the entrepreneurial spirit of Edinburgh in festival season. The city wakes for a four week bloom, cramming people, events, food, drink, bed spaces and those guys with the pan pipes, into streets and buildings which are otherwise modestly used.

I’m not suggesting Edinburgh could cope with that intensity of activity and habitation year round. I’m also not suggesting we should pine for the sprat fishing industry: seek its reinstatement through restocking of the seas and the opening of a Tayside Fisherman’s College, teaching rope knots to commuters from Newburgh.

I’m just pointing out that Scotland has under-utilised capacity in its towns, villages and cities. In its transportation infrastructure. In its landscape and rural areas.

Times are tough - that might have something to do with the lack of activity on our streets. We need to use and support our assets and resources more effectively - including buildings, town centres, public transport, libraries, streets. We need to nurture what we already have.

Do we need more Tescos and ASDAs? Scotland already has nine out of ten of the UK’s postcode areas with the highest saturation of supermarket floorspace - and a rash of new stores to come. Who now believes there is an under supply of convenience shopping? Time for a moratorium.

If we change the VAT regime to stop favouring new build against refurbishment of older buildings, will we bring empty floorspace back into use? 16,852 new houses were built in Scotland last year. The Empty Homes Partnership estimates there are 25,000 empty houses across the country. That’s a year and a half of our current national housing supply with no-one living in it.

The Centre for Scottish Public Policy hosted the Six Cities Policy Challenge Dinner in Edinburgh last night. There was much talk of the creativity which is spawned by complex social, cultural and economic interaction in busy urban centres. If we dilute our towns and cities much further, run them below their inherent capacity, continue building lower density sprawl, will we erode even further our weak level of entrepreneurial activity and economic output in Scotland?

“Some people think of the glass as half full. Some people think of the glass as half empty. I think of the glass as too big”. George Carlin, Comedian (1937-2008).

18 May 2011

Evolution and the Culture Changeosaurus

We live in interesting times. Scotland’s political wheel has cranked, easing us towards a new reality, still under construction.

Dramatic change is often stressful and uncertain, yet this time, there’s no sign of looting in Scotland’s retail parks. No calumny in the culs-de-sac. Life goes on. Just not quite as we’ve known it. An impossible yet paradoxically inevitable change in culture.

Culture change in planning seems an equally impossible goal. An idea ahead of its time. Clearly it takes more than a software change to break hard-wired habits.

For example, it would be all too easy to criticise Councils for kicking off our new era with bland Main Issues Reports which fail to engage real people and do little more than pose a series of obvious questions with obvious answers. So I won’t.

It would be just as easy to accuse our dinosaur development industry, investors and funders of singularly failing to grasp the full implications of the inevitable economic meltdown and respond creatively with new models, new ideas and new corporate responsibility. So I won’t.

These are positive times. We all need to blog optimistically. So I will.

Our new-found constructive mood is not merely a backlash against an unscheduled stop in a franchised sandwich shop. Recently, I’ve seen hardcore objectors fall under the humanising spell of a cup of Scottish Blend. Landowner and developer clients have peeked beyond their red line boundary. Some have enjoyed the view. Council Planners, starved of meaningful liaisons, have tentatively edged from their burrows to fraternise ravenously in pre-application conspiracy. Occasionally.

Charles Darwin pointed out that “in the long history of humankind, and animal kind too, those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” If we are to work together, we’ll need to be clear on goals. I suspect Scotland’s people are ahead of its politicians, planners and developers on this.

Darwin also warned that “If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.” It turns out that neither the economic crisis nor the 2007 Scottish Government election result are the blips some of our public and private institutions counted on. They must now adapt to survive.

The key to culture change lies in this interface between the two - people and institutions. Our institutions should be structured to serve our needs. That is their purpose. The notion that we have no option but to bend to the forces of globalisation and free markets is, in the words of Christine Hamilton (and Jeremy Bentham), nonsense on stilts. Public institutions which serve their own ends, rather than ours, are equally absurd.

“How”, you ask, “will our institutions lead us towards culture change”?

“Wrong question”, is my reply. (Have you not been following this.....?) Our institutions don’t lead us, we lead them.

We’ve taken the first step already.

“Man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits.” Charles Darwin, Naturalist (1809-1882)

“This unusual and highly successful species spends a great deal of time examining his higher motives and an equal amount of time ignoring his fundamental ones.” Desmond Morris, Anthropologist and Surrealist Painter (Born 1928)

3 March 2011

A Centralmental Journey?

Only 70% of Scots live in the Central Belt. That’s 3.65 million people. The others live somewhere else. In a midge-infested glen? Too far from a macchiato?

I’m one of the 3.65 million. Work has opened my eyes to northern Scotland, Argyll and the Islands. I once believed the action was found around Scotland’s narrow, overweight waist: pity our upper torso and far-flung limbs, withering away. I was wrong: it’s the waist that’s turned to waste.

In their 1999 book, ‘Clone City‘, Miles Glendinning and David Page presented a pleonastic and periphrastic demolition of the Central Belt. Since then, the bland sprawl has only spread. Where are central Scotland’s distinctive, civilised places?

Our misplaced Central Belt pride is compounded by the fact that many of us barely know our own country. Yet, we still sneer at those on the periphery. Even our third city is not immune. Life and business thrive in Aberdeen and its Shire, but the M8 barbell media can’t lift its eyes above the Campsies and Ochils.

In our minds’ eye, we gaze upon mountains and glens. In reality, we see the shallow peaks of retail-shed roofs facing seas of cars. Scotland’s landscape and coastline is the Central Belt’s new Riviera. We walk, climb and sail our way back to Monday morning.

And the good news? Firstly, some of our remote places have escaped the worst excesses of late 20th and early 21st Century development. At a recent Argyll & Bute Council consultation, mid Argyll’s consultees bemoaned the historically slow growth rate in their towns. Only a reciprocal failure amongst Argyll residents to visit the Central Belt could account for this misconception that the grass is greener over here.

Secondly, the Central Belt we see today is only one frame in a slow motion movie. Once, comprehensive redevelopment and poorly conceived high rise blocks gave way to conservation and heritage. Urban livestock market sites bred Tesco and ASDA stores. Banks are coffee houses and bars.

Despite this, our plans are still like still life paintings. We make jigsaws, not realising we can never find the last piece of an ever changing picture.

In the modern era, our overheated economy glowed majestically. Growth was our right: a booming Berlin Wall that could never be breached. That also changed.

There is one part of our Central Belt fabric that has become so distended, ubiquitous and gluttonous that it’s approaching its inevitable tipping point. Even in our darkest days of fiscal restraint, economic meltdown and constrained lending, this ravenous sector is piling on weight fast. It can’t last.

Some day soon, our supermarkets will eat each other alive. When they do, we might use their sites to make our Central Belt towns better places.

22 November 2010

We Must Shape the Future of Our Towns

(Article published in The Scotsman, 17 November 2010)

For decades, we’ve been fiddling while our towns burn. Suburban sprawl, out of town retail parks and supermarket chains are draining away local identity. As Gertrude Stein once said, "when you get there, there's no there there". Now, with the investment and construction industry hamstrung, the rate of development has been reined back. We have an opportunity to take stock. What kind of towns do we want?

Writing in The Scotman recently, award-winning architect Malcolm Fraser and Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce Ron Hewitt offered polar perspectives in response to Murray Estates’ proposed ‘Garden District’ to the west of Edinburgh.

Fraser sees a cuckoo development fooling the planning system into accepting dispersed growth of the city. He celebrates urban living and the vibrant, civilised culture that Edinburgh so vividly epitomises. He sees abundant opportunity within the city boundary.

In contrast, Hewitt embraces the prospect of counter-recessionary investment and construction. He sees bricks, mortar and jobs on green belt land. The market doesn’t want brown field urban sites, he argues, so we must strike out west across the frontier of the City by-pass.

It’s a spat between high ideals and the bottom line. In this fight between Malcolm Fraser and Ron Hewitt, who will win?

It’s important to understand that development of our towns is driven by both the public and private sectors. Most new development is undertaken by the private sector: house builders, retailers, property investment companies. Government and the public sector act primarily through policy, regulation and service provision.

So, our towns are public-private hybrids. Are they failing because of private sector actions, public interventions, or both? The profit motive will always drive large commercial enterprises. We need to accept this and target our interventions to guide the market, instead of tailing along after it, cleaning up the mess. The starting point is value judgement.

For example, supermarkets like Tesco and ASDA justify new stores by proving that trade is leaking away to surrounding towns which have better retail provision. Often it is their own aggressive expansion programmes which have created this imbalance.

Typically, local businesses will object, realising their survival is at stake. The new supermarket is inevitably built, often out of town. As trade is sucked out from the centre and local businesses fail, we belatedly divert public funds towards cosmetic town centre improvements. Our hanging baskets and benches rarely regain the footfall that is lost.

We treat local businesses worse than red squirrels! This well-protected species is typically driven out by its dominant grey cousin. We value the reds, therefore we cull the greys. Somehow, we got things back to front with supermarkets and small businesses.

During the Thatcher era, the ‘right to develop’ emerged as a slogan of unbridled capitalism. Regulation was relaxed as the planning system adopted a presumption in favour of development. There was, according to Thatcher, “no such thing as society”. The bland and soulless expansion of our towns gained momentum.

Today, the Scottish Government has higher ideals, expressed through an over-riding ambition for sustainable economic growth: a mantra now also adopted by the UK coalition Government. That’s subtly different to a ‘right to develop’. More accurately, it is the right to undertake the right kind of development.

The Scottish Government has also established mechanisms to guide public policy and investment through Single Outcome Agreements, National Outcomes and the National Planning Framework. So far, so good. Now, we need to apply these ambitious goals more widely. Why shouldn’t we demand that private development contributes more directly to a civilised society? Our towns mirror our society. What came first, sedentary lifestyles or an expanding road network? Did price-conscious mass consumerism drive the growth of supermarkets, or is it the consequence? The truth is that our dumbed down society has built dumbed down towns.

In asking what kind of towns we want, we should first consider what kind of society we want. The Scottish Government’s ambitions are a good start. If we choose to pursue a distinctive, outward-looking and expressive culture, we might achieve a suitably distinguished urban form. Our market interventions should be driven by our bright new aspirations.

Market intervention is an emotive term. For some years it has been portrayed as a threat to freedom. The market is sacrosanct: state and public sector dabbling is a dangerous game. Not everyone agrees.

In ‘Freefall’, the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz picks over the bones of the global financial collapse. One of the few prominent experts to predict the economic meltdown and now a Scottish Government advisor, he is crystal clear on the cause; unregulated markets are inherently unstable and will always fail; they are unable to provide beneficial outcomes for society as a whole. This applies equally to our financial markets and our towns.

We should never forget that Scotland has a rich tradition of urban living. We still have some vibrant, attractive and successful towns, such as Inveraray, St. Andrews, Haddington, Dornoch and Edinburgh. In reality, much of their continuing appeal is the result of intervention to protect their impressive historic buildings, streets and centres.

The danger is that mediocre development around the town edge ultimately dilutes and undermines the quality of the centre. Inverness is the obvious example of this phenomenon. It’s no coincidence that it’s been one of Scotland’s fastest growing towns in recent decades and is known disparagingly as ‘Tescotown’.

Ron Hewitt insists Edinburgh has no option but to expand into the green belt. How else can we accommodate all those new homes we need over the next 20 years? First, we must consider the extent to which housing ‘need’ actually means housing ‘want’. There is certainly a need for affordable housing but the volume builders have proven incapable of meeting this demand. More market failure. Releasing green belt land will not solve that problem.

Instead, it will serve bulk builders like Redrow Homes, which stated it will return to the ‘old model‘ of housing delivery as soon as possible. Boom and bust are two sides of the same coin: Redrow’s share price grinds along at 15% of it’s overheated peak. Even now, the deluded still think ‘heads’ will come up every time.

A new era needs a new response. Some are forging ahead. Writing in The Scotsman in June, Lesley Riddoch applauded the progress made by development trusts set up by local people to take control of diverse assets including community orchards, lochs, pubs, libraries, bridges and wind turbines. There are already 4-500 trusts in place.

The Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition’s most recent estimate suggests Scotland’s 3000 social enterprises have a £2.5bn turnover. That’s twice the budget of our largest city. Today’s Scottish Government budget statement ought to build the momentum by cultivating this maturing sector.

Recent changes to the planning system give people and communities a hand in shaping their towns. The Garden District debate stems from this process. Unfortunately, many developers still see consultation as interference.

It’s equally sad that, aside from the usual motivated suspects and NIMBYs, too many people still believe participation is futile. High profile cases like the Beauly-Denny power line, the Trump debacle and Aberdeen’s Union Terrace Gardens haven’t helped. Like low turnouts at elections, it’s another example of a dispirited society giving up on itself.

We need to re-energise our efforts our shape our towns by becoming shareholders in their future development. That way, we may appreciate the need to nurture our inheritance by demanding that development is both commercially viable and socially beneficial. Blaming the Government, the Council or the market is no longer good enough.

Richard Heggie

24 September 2010

Orkney : 5000 Years of Vernacular Economy

Scotland on Sunday recently ran a story announcing that JD Wetherspoon has expansion plans which could spread it's bar and restaurant brand further across Scotland, as far north as Orkney.

Wetherspoon’s has a turnover approaching £1bn and is second in line to McDonald's and Starbucks in UK breakfast and coffee sales. It has grown its market share on the back of heavily discounted menus. Presumably this has been possible through an acquisitive strategy, economies of scale, product standardisation and low margins at point of sale and in the supply chain.

In the same issue of Scotland on Sunday - on the same page - Executive Editor Bill Jamieson rightly bemoans the persistently low rate of business start ups in Scotland. The figure is down 8% in the second quarter compared with a year ago, according to the Committee of Scottish Clearing Bankers.

Could these two stories be the opposite sides of the same coin?

I’m just back from a trip to Orkney. It has some of the best preserved prehistoric sites in Europe and Historic Scotland has done an excellent job presenting those it has fully excavated. The best example is Skara Brae: almost a neolithic Brookside (although no human remains were found under what is perhaps the earliest known stone patio).

Skara Brae, is a small community of identical houses, all directly connected by partly covered passageways. It was built 5000 years ago and is older than the Giza Pyramid and Stonehenge. The site sits above a stunning beach where flat stone slabs were split from rocky sheets and dragged up the dunes for use in walls and ceilings. Archaeologists have pieced together how the inhabitants might have lived. This is made easier by the fact that they relied almost entirely upon the resources available locally. It’s a microcosm of vernacular in its true essence.

Even now, Orkney makes good use of its resources, with an excellent range of locally produced food and drink available through shops, bars and restaurants, many of them independently owned. The use of local stone in new buildings has predictably diminished and most modern buildings are drawn from the unimaginative pages of the kit manufacturer’s brochure. Equally, the narrow streets and alleys which respond so well to the micro-climate at Orkney’s main towns of Kirkwall, Stromness and St Margaret’s Hope are not replicated in the suburban edge developments of recent times. Nothing new there.

Heading back through Edinburgh Airport, I found myself strolling past the Sir Walter Scott restaurant. This is one of Wetherspoon’s typically engorged establishments, themed in some intangible inbred style sired by largely-mythical Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian ancestors. A pub chain established in 1979, occupying space in a 21st Century airport terminal, presenting a hybrid 18th-20th Century facade. If our world really is fashioned in our own image then it’s time we paused to reflect upon ourselves.

The last thing Orkney needs is JD Wetherspoon’s. This voracious new arrival would squeeze the life out of local businesses, dumbing down the unique identity of the place by creating a grotesque Stone Age-themed cavern. That said, some of the local pubs and restaurants might want to raise their game as a means of defending their territory. Understanding the enemy might be a good place to start.

Richard Heggie

26 August 2010

The Streets Are Alive....

How can we invigorate towns and cities in the face of economic misery? It’s a huge challenge but spend some time in Edinburgh during August and you might just see how it can be done.

The Edinburgh International Festival was founded in 1947, with the lofty aim of providing a 'platform for the flowering of the human spirit' in the aftermath of WWII. The larger Fringe Festival was a reaction to its official counterpart, with people power driving an exponential conglomeration of events. Other distinct festivals were added, showcasing art, jazz & blues, TV and books, alongside the Military Tattoo and the Mela.

This is easily the largest arts festival on the globe. It’s said that the 480,000 population of Edinburgh more than doubles during the festival period. The Fringe alone has 2453 productions with 40,245 performances this year. Ticket sales last year came close to 2 million and this year looks busier still. In typical Scots fashion, this success is quietly downplayed and even derided by some miserable souls. Meanwhile, TV companies are too full of home makeover and ‘C’ list celebrity tosh to give Edinburgh the coverage it deserves.

I’m a resident of Edinburgh. I like the fact that the city offers a wide range of entertainment, arts and cultural events and attracts visitors year round. It a vibrant place in winter, let alone during peak festival season. So how does Edinburgh find the capacity to squeeze in all this extra activity?

The answer should be important to all who provide services, own and manage property or run businesses. In fact, the city simply uses the assets it already has more effectively. Occupancy rates peak in hotels and B&Bs and residents take in family, friends or lodgers. Restaurants add outdoor seating, quick menu options and longer opening hours. Temporary bars and cafes open in courtyards and spaces around venues. Buildings which lie dormant most hours of each day, most weeks of the year, are transformed into hives of activity.

I’m not suggesting this can be sustained over the entire year. However, it does suggest that with a flexible and open minded approach to the use of buildings, spaces and human resources, the towns and cities we all inhabit could operate at a significantly higher capacity without loss of amenity.

Highland Council is facing up to reality in Inverness and Dingwall, which are currently infested by 42 separate Council office and service centres. They aim to have just one or two offices in each location within 5 years, taking a chunk out of planned budget savings of £18.6m before April 2012. The obvious question is ‘how did this inefficient rash spread in the first place?’, but let’s not dwell on that.

A range of interesting development opportunities should soon hit the market, as the Council vacates palatial Victorian edifices and decrepit 1960s shells. Might this help stem the flow of the greenfield suburban tide that is inundating the southern shores of Inverness? Could it produce a more efficient urban form?

Urban intensification has been adopted in cities such as Stockholm, where the City Plan 99 promoted a Green Compact City concept. We’ve flirted with the approach here but inevitably pander to the ingrained business models of the volume house builders.

So all we need is higher density living? No. We need to invest in public transport and open spaces as we build inwards instead of outwards. Critically, we need to realise the greatest resource we have is not buildings but people - and their ability to adapt, create, innovate and perform. Which leads us back to the Edinburgh festivals and the entrepreneurial spirit that makes it all possible. George W. Bush must now know that the French DO have a word for ‘entrepreneur’ and I’m using it here in the sense of generating cultural and social capital, as well as financial reward.

Anyway, must go.....off to see another Fringe performance.

“It is not by augmenting the capital of the country, but by rendering a greater part of that capital active and productive than would otherwise be so, that the most judicious operations of banking can increase the industry of the country.” Adam Smith (1723-1790)

Richard Heggie

5 August 2010

Expo Chaos Breeds Civilisation

No-one’s denying that the recent opening of Scotland’s first Housing Expo near Inverness has been mired in chaos - least of all the backers, Highland Council and the Highland Housing Alliance, a group bringing together five local housing associations.

Credit crunched, frozen solid over the winter and working to a protean brief, the event has opened with most of the 50+ houses unfinished, some barely started and much of the site looking like a builders yard. It’s all fairly shambolic, too much of the workmanship is shoddy and the whole affair sits comfortably in the Scottish Construction Projects Hall of Fame : a junior partner to the Scottish Parliament and the Edinburgh Trams Project.

Having said all that, the positive side far outweighs the failings, many of which were beyond control. There are some well designed houses, slotting into Cadell2’s rightly ambitious master plan. Skye based Rural Design have placed a vernacular scottish highland cottage on top of a confident and contemporary larger structure, blessed with local materials and a welcoming layout. It’s an act of immaculate balance - which is just as well in the circumstances.

Malcolm Fraser’s detached and semis sit side by side, offering a neat frontage to the street, unpretentious detailing and a rare moment of unity on the Expo site. Above all, they’re ‘house’ shaped and offer a glimpse of how aspirants might slip from soulless volume builder coop to distinctive, dignified living in one easy step.

There are also some stinkers, but with the exception of Richard Murphy’s bannister detailing (which merits a special mention), let’s not dwell on those.

Neil Sutherland and myself co-presented a session at the Expo attended by numerous RIAS delegates. Johnny Cadell explained the master plan’s effort to create a distinct ‘place’, then some of the Expo architects described their houses. The two of us then moved on to the issue of how architecture might contribute more broadly to the kind of places and lifestyles we want to encourage.

What are these places and lifestyles? We already have a guide in the Scottish Government’s National Outcomes - a 15 point template for a more civilised, cultured and healthy society. These Outcomes inform Community Planning Partnerships in local authority areas, where public agencies (Council, health, police, fire etc) co-operate with SNH, SEPA and others on service provision. The Single Outcome Agreement arising from this process in turn informs the Development Plan.

This prodigious effort to focus local public sector activity on national aims is laudable. It does beg one question - what role does the private sector have in fulfilling broader objectives? Actually two questions - how many of us know or are even aware of our National Outcomes?

In seeking a more considered approach from the development industry in delivering architecture and places, we need to actively promote and apply the grander civic objectives which sit behind policy. Why shouldn’t we demand that private development contributes more directly to a more civilised society? The ‘right to develop’ took prominence in the Thatcher era, when ‘society’ was seen as the enemy of unbridled capitalism. Look where that got us.

Perched above the National Objectives, the Scottish Government’s over riding (and again entirely laudable) aim is to achieve sustainable economic growth. That’s subtly different to a ‘right to develop’. What we need is a right to develop the right kind of development.

The Housing Expo is a focus for this debate. What kind of houses can we build? Can we recapture local identity and understand the factors that are shaping our contemporary Scottish and regional vernacular? Can we reconnect architecture with people, place, culture and society? I don’t have all the answers and neither does the Expo. But in merely raising these questions, it achieves success. We should learn from the current experience and do it all again sometime soon.

“There are three classes of people: those who see; those who see when they are shown; those who do not see.” Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519).

Richard Heggie

7 May 2010

Doughnuts

Scotland’s rich urban tradition is still abundantly evident in our towns and cities. Unfortunately, most of our best places are now the jam inside a sprawling suburban doughnut. This is confirmed by two new studies published jointly by Strathclyde University and Architecture + Design Scotland (‘A+DS - Scotland's national champion for good architecture, design and planning’).

‘An Comann’ compares 50 towns over a 150 year period, judging success against debatable socio-economic criteria. Are high house prices a true guide to successful townscape and function? Is high employment amongst residents of commuter towns a plus? Don’t they all jump in private cars, taking the prospect of fully developed local services with them, as they funnel into our cities?

‘Under the Microscope‘ zooms in on 20 of these towns, assessing block and plot size over the same period. Again, there’s some suspect analysis. Is it any surprise small towns have fewer flats than our tenemented cities? Does low public transport use really point to poor services, or is it inevitable given higher car ownership and pedestrian trips in small towns?

These studies provide useful base information and a starting point for more rigorous research but their conclusions are not unexpected :

- Our towns have expanded rapidly since the mid 20th Century;
- The suburban housing cul-de-sac has become the dominant typology;
- Much new development lacks a sense of place and is poorly related to the settlement core.

How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Inevitably it’s a complex story. Ironically, it coincided with the emergence of the modern planning system, post WWII - zoning policy, roads standards, open space ratios, low density development, car dominated approaches, out of town retail, standard house types, design and build......

So, if our planning and development system helped create this mess, can it now clean it up? These two reports are another small step forward but we need to turn up the heat. The Scottish Government issued guidance on Design Statements as far back as 2003 and from August last year they have been mandatory for major applications. That doesn’t stop developers submitting inept box-ticking documents. A current example on the eastern edge of Forres springs to mind.

A sound design policy is worthless unless it’s fully implemented. Let’s see Council Planning Departments raise the bar and force design averse developers to jump higher - it’s no longer an optional add on but a basic requirement. Let’s see the Scottish Government calling Councils to task where policy is inadequately applied (word has it this is beginning to happen). And let’s see more developers promoting good design as a selling point.

The urban heritage in our towns is now well protected by Listed Buildings and Conservation Area controls and planning policies. Why shouldn’t we apply the same degree of care to new development? I‘d vote tactically to keep out pastiche and I support the use of ‘historicism‘ as an insult. However, is it really beyond our capability to embrace local context and past success, yet design something functional, attractive and contemporary? I’m off to check......

According to an urban legend, John F Kennedy made an embarrassing grammatical error in his famous 1963 speech by saying "Ich bin ein Berliner," referring to himself not as a citizen of Berlin, but as a popular local jammy doughnut, the Berliner. Although incorrect, the legend has been repeated by reputable media including the BBC, The Guardian, MSNBC, CNN, Time magazine and The New York Times.

Richard Heggie

7 February 2010

Small Steps and Giant Leaps

Fear of change can breed concern over development proposals but it may be the KIND of change, rather than the AMOUNT that is the real demon. Sadly, Planners are still blamed for 1960s tower block disasters, although the majority of us weren’t even on solids then. Creating a climate of confidence amongst communities is a challenge for us all.

It’s not just end users who need coaxing towards a new culture in planning. Our local authority colleagues are central players but find themselves mired in tight budgets, reduced income from planning fees and constrained private investment failing to deliver infrastructure and affordable homes. Now another challenge....

The new Scottish Planning Policy is the Scottish Government’s simplified statement on core planning objectives. It replaces a stack of unwieldy documents with a concise collection of aims any citizen can understand. That alone should be commended, as it immediately puts professionals on the back foot. Emphasis on the enabling role of planning is also welcome but it’s a subtle change in tone that local authorities must grasp quickly. How can they respond?  

When Toyota introduced the fuel efficient Prius hybrid, it didn’t start from scratch. Toyota is famed for its ‘kaizen‘ strategy of continual improvement and the Prius was a logical evolution. With positive reviews and a popular model, Toyota put its foot on the accelerator. Unfortunately, the pedal stuck. We now know the brakes don’t work either. Presumably, kaizen is well and truly strapped in the back seat while Toyota pray the steering column isn’t next to fail. An unprecedented response was essential, hence the recall of millions of vehicles.

So, it may not be enough for Councils to roll slowly forward. Kaizen should be a constant companion for us all, but sometimes there’s a place for rapid transformation - the giant leap. Local authorities that fail to embrace change will find themselves squeezed from every direction - the Scottish Government, the private sector and ultimately their electorate.

We all need to play a part - including those in the development industry whose own acceleration saw them hit the wall so spectacularly. Last week, volume house builder Redrow stated with stubborn stupidity, “we will be returning to the old model as soon as possible”, which might be paraphrased as ‘we have learnt nothing and have no new ideas’. Redrow’s share price scrapes along at just 18% of its peak value over 3 years ago. What their shareholders make of this blunt and blinkered strategy is anyone’s guess. Meanwhile RMJM have taken on Fred Goodwin as a business advisor. It’s like Airbus asking Eddie the Eagle to design their next aircraft. 

We need a leap into a new era of positive visions, responsive plans and sustainable change. Thankfully, some are already airborne. Others might need a leg up.
    
“Because I was born and raised in Ohio, about 60 miles north of Dayton, the legends of the Wrights have been in my memories as long as I can remember.” (First powered flight, 17 December 1903)

“Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed.” (First manned Moon landing, July 20th, 1969)

“We had hundreds of thousands of people all dedicated to doing the perfect job, and I think they did about as well as anyone could ever have expected.” 

Neil Armstrong, Astronaut.

Richard Heggie

10 December 2009

Human Being Meets Vitruvian Man

Thanks to recent changes in the Scottish Planning System, us planners, urban designers and architects are desperately seeking public consultation experience to pack into our CVs. Evidence from a recent RTPI Urban Design Forum event in Edinburgh suggests best practice is still evolving!

Spare a thought for the victims of our efforts to persuade, cajole and inform - local people, or ‘stakeholders’ as they are now known. The term brings to mind a mob of raging peasants with sharpened sticks, spiking the souls out of the vampiric demons who would suck their blood dry. On reflection, that sounds like some of the consultation events I’ve attended....

Hopefully our efforts can create enough local warmth to allow us to take off our anoraks. The nerdy professional catchwords I fall back upon include -

Settlement - your home town or village;
Units - homes for people to live in;
Building Typology - what your house looks like;
Cul de Sac - where your house is (but don’t expect more culs de sac);
Development Plan - the “Da Vinci Code” with the story removed.

Let’s set Dan Brown to one side but stick with his muse. Da Vinci illuminated the ideas of Vitruvius through his iconic 1487 sketch ‘Vitruvian Man’, uniting geometric and human proportion. This concept, along with others like the ’golden section’ studied by our old school friend Pythagoras, underlies the design of many of our buildings and places - at least the traditional ones.

Anyone can appreciate the Vitruvian Man because he’s a human being and we all understand squares and circles. The trouble is, when we unleash our lovingly nurtured plans, sections and axonometrics upon the public, they may have little understanding of the three dimensional implications. Let’s face it, even as professionals we’re still surprised at the physical consequences of our visions. Sometimes even pleasantly surprised.

Da Vinci wrestled with upright human proportion and the translation of its geometric beauty into movement and perspective. He sought to resolve this in his sketches and paintings. Unlike the rest of us, he was a genius. How can we explain our own illustrations to local people, so they grasp the nature of the question they are being asked? If we allow our proposals to grow from their local context, that might give us a head start in explaining where we are and where we’re heading. You might call that ‘townscape analysis and design philosophy’ at your next consultation event.

“The story we tell is loaded with all sorts of hooey and fun kind of scavenger-hunt-type nonsense.” Tom Hanks, promoting ‘The Da Vinci Code‘ movie, 2006.

Richard Heggie

29th October 2009

Island Hopping

Lanzarote may not seem an obvious spiritual companion for the Hebridean Isle of Islay. One is known for harsh volcanic landscapes bathed in year round sun, the other for windswept northern beauty and distinctive whiskies. Ending a week in Lanzarote on Sunday, I was on Islay by Monday, working on our master plan for extending the original planned village at Bowmore. However, Urban Animation isn’t the only connection between these two distant places.

Both are remotely located and depend on strategic transport links. Both have visitor economies, driven by climate in Lanzarote, distilleries and ornithology in Islay (booze ‘n’ birds to our tabloid readers). Both have a preponderance of whitewashed buildings reflecting vernacular style to varying degrees. Both have developed under the influence of innovative planning regimes.

Local artist and designer Cesar Manrique is credited with thwarting the worst tourist excesses by promoting a low rise development policy and design code in Lanzarote. Building form, finish and colour display an unusual unity. But it’s not all good news. The boom is well and truly bust and large scale development has exposed terminal flaws in the code.

The result is a suburban wasteland of vacant villas with the odd expat leading an isolated existence in the relentless sunshine. The uninhabitable black lava fields are a backdrop to uninhabited rows of whitewashed holiday homes. Both are equally lifeless. In these bleak circumstances, the lesson that traditional coastal and rural villages are not characterised simply by their architecture, but by the manner in which their buildings relate to one another and the uses they host, seems almost secondary.

Islay has not experienced the same boom yet faces its own issues, including population decline, housing need and constrained transport links. Partly as a result of these stifling factors, the villages and landscape retain much of their unique identity - most of the Islay villages are original planned settlements with a distinctive building typology and urban form. This slower rate of change on Islay has fostered indigenous growth, where people and places adapt to changing circumstances over a period of time.

We hope to provide a framework within which organic and sustainable growth can flourish at Bowmore. We also hope the sun shines while we’re doing it.

"This island is almost made of coal and surrounded by fish. Only an organising genius could produce a shortage of coal and fish in Great Britain at the same time." Aneurin Bevan, 18 May 1945

Richard Heggie

Lanzarote

Islay

21st September 2009

Quality and/or Authenticity?

Most of us have come to expect certain standards these days. Unfortunately, common denominators often produce bland outcomes. This applies in all walks of life, but for now I’m interested in roadside catering and visitor attractions.

The Carse of Gowrie lies between Perth and Dundee on an alluvial plain by the River Tay. It’s an area famed for soft fruits and largely responsible for one of Dundee’s famous “J’s” - jute, jam and journalism. The polytunnels are everywhere, ensuring Scottish raspberries are available in supermarkets even in late September. On a fact finding tour around the Carse last week, I made my first visit to two well known local attractions.

The first is The Horn roadside cafe off the A90. It’s impossible to miss - a building with a rounded front, in a sea of caravans, with a dairy cow perched on the roof. This is no chain-owned motorway service stop! The decor is dated, the layout is cramped and you won’t find games arcades, burger chains or a 24 pump filling station. However, the gargantuan bacon rolls are legendary for their ability to satisfy the most demanding trucker, whilst maintaining Scotland’s proud position as world leaders in heart disease. They also sell traditional cakes which look more like the pies the Dundonians are famous for.

A few miles down the Carse lies the Cairn O’Mohr Winery (try saying it out loud). There are a number of Scottish wineries, but this one is unique. If Ben & Jerry’s had set up shop in Christiania instead of Vermont, their visitor centre might have looked something like this. Surrounded by giant heads carved with chainsaws from whole tree trunks, this Easter Island of the north uses reverse psychology and guerrilla marketing to sell drinkable wine made from those same local soft fruits. When you buy a bottle, it comes with a free slice of Cairn O’Mohr attitude.

Neither establishment conforms with the modern formula but that’s exactly why they should be treasured. They are Carse institutions. If you visit them with an open mind and take the rough with the smooth, maybe you’ll agree. Otherwise, enjoy your Starbucks coffee, wherever you are.........

Richard Heggie

1st September 2009

Can Councillors Give Us A Fairy Tale Ending?

We’ve been working with TPS Planning and Brodies, helping Scottish Councillors come to terms with Local Review Bodies. It’s a town planning fairy tale - everything looks Grimm at first but our ugly ducklings ultimately emerge as swans, gliding gracefully through a murky pond of development plans and material considerations. If LRB don’t work, it won’t be down to lack of effort from our finest local representatives, who generally seem willing to meet this new challenge head on.

Change is at the heart of planning and urban design - but we need to see the issues of the day in the wider context and offer flexible solutions. We also need to realise some concepts are no longer valid. Zoning policy in the 1960s removed ‘bad neighbour‘ industrial uses from residential areas. Do we really think 21st Century office jobs are incompatible with homes? Are we building real communities or 
Levittowns?

We’re encouraging Councillors to see the Local Development Plan as an embodiment of their vision and an instrument for change. They seem to like that idea. Many of them have a surprising appreciation of the benefits of ‘urbanism‘ over ‘suburbanism’. Some are exploring place making in conjunction with the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment, enabled by the Scottish Government. Planning departments may need to modernise their outlook, or our newly empowered Councillors could find themselves ahead of the game.

Ultimately, we might well end up back where we started, with homes next to jobs and services, walkable neighbourhoods and compact towns and villages. A happy ending?

Richard Heggie

18 May 2011

A new look Website - the Opening Blog....

It’s the opening blog and it reflects our belief here that simplicity is a virtue! Nothing too profound or controversial, just an intro to the new website and an update on projects.

With community consultation now central to the planning process in Scotland, the website will be a contact point for meaningful dialogue on our planning applications and projects. Press adverts and consultation events will point towards the site. We’ll be encouraging Clients to embrace the new culture and seek to build community support. It’s just possible local residents might want to buy a house or start a business in our developments - they are potential customers and neighbours - not just stereotypical NIMBYs. Is it possible local people might even have useful ideas on what will work in their neighbourhood?!

At Culcairn, Evanton, we’re creating a mixed use development, with local employment to counteract the growth in commuter traffic heading to Inverness. Local community activist Janey Clarke told us her own street used to house loads of self employed people - many of whom would have provided local services and helped support other businesses in the village. We need to generate local interest and provide the kind of housing, business or live/work spaces people need. Is there a better way to determine local need than asking people face to face? Who do we expect to occupy the buildings we are spending so much time designing and laying out?

Other new projects open for feedback include our emerging proposals for an extension to Bowmore on Islay, various developments within our master plan for Tomatin in the Highlands and a forthcoming planning application for quarrying of sand and gravel at Altyre Estate, Forres. There’s information on Culcairn, Bowmore and Tomatin on our Projects page - contact us if you need more. You should also be able to find more on Culcairn and Bowmore at www.neilsutherlandarchitects.com in due course - Neil is partnering us on these projects.

Richard Heggie