Urban Design Learning

On Wednesday, we went on our penultimate site visit of the 2024/25 programme year, exploring the Elizabeth Line from Canary Wharf to Hanwell via Bond Street and Paddington. It took in the boldly new and the undoubtedly historic, particularly in the form of the gloriously restored and deftly updated Grade II-listed Hanwell Station. Many thanks to our splendid guides along the way – Sophie Woronoff, Raffaella Rospo, Simon Bennett FCILT AMICE and Edmund Bird, and of course to everyone who was there. If you work for a UDL member, you can still join us for our final outing of the term – we're off to Oxford on 26th March.

What does 25/26 hold in store? I can’t even begin to guess where big world events are going, or what the weather will be like over the next 12 months. But I do know that UDL has a stonking new training and networking programme for the year. Our 20th annual programme includes 80 super topical and practical events across a wide range of built environment topics. Local authority members get unlimited use of the sessions for a set annual subscription. Most authorities book places from across their planning, highways, Placemaking etc departments and the average cost per place is £30. You can’t get better value high quality CPD. Membership also gives access to our searchable library of over 400 talks. So if you need help with a specific issue right now - search the library. And members can join Lisa Rasch ‘s excellent CLAW app to give searchable access to all planing appeal decisions at a very very reasonable price. Many thanks to all the local authorities and others who have already subscribed. I know how difficult budgets are at the moment and really appreciate your continuing support. If you want to subscribe but have budget issues please do let us know. No promises but we are looking at possible ways to help. If you have been involved with a UDL event in the past please do share, comment on or like this post to help spread the word. Email info@urbandesignlearning.com https://lnkd.in/exKZZuFS

lots to digest in todays Bill. but this bit caught the attention of the UDL team - haveing delivered trianing for mainly councillors last Friday. I do hope the mandatory trianing covers a broad range of issues and not just probity and legal issues. Councillors making decisions on planning applciations and plans need to understand place design, development viability, options to deliver housing targets spatially including their relationship to development densities, approaches to cardon reduction and climate resiliance, how to consider biodiversity issues and so much more. In the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, after section 319 insert— “England: training in the exercise of certain planning functions Training: local planning authorities in England The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision for and in connection with the training of members of local planning authorities in their exercise of such relevant planning functions as are prescribed. (2) Such regulations must provide for satisfactory completion of the training to be evidenced by a certificate valid for a prescribed period (a “certificate of completion”). (3) A member of a local planning authority who does not hold a valid certificate of completion is prohibited from— (a) exercising the prescribed relevant planning functions on behalf of a local planning authority, or (b) being involved in exercising the prescribed relevant planning functions on behalf of a local planning authority as a member of a committee or any other body. (4) Regulations under subsection (1) may, in particular— (a) provide for accreditation by the Secretary of State of (i) courses of training, and (ii) persons providing such courses; (b) impose requirements as to record-keeping, including by imposing such requirements on a training provider. (5) Regulations under subsection (1) must require a local planning authority to publish on their website which of their members hold valid certificates of completion.

We're excited that the Design Codes for Health and Wellbeing has been launched. We supported this project from the Quality of Life Foundation, Tibbalds, Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA), TRUUD (Tackling Root causes upstream of Unhealthy Urban Development) and Henley Business School, which provides clear, easy-to-follow guidance on how to make sure that health is factored into design codes. You can find the guidance at: https://lnkd.in/ecPT9vFH And there will be a free webinar about it on Tuesday 25th March at 1:30pm: https://lnkd.in/ew8BYvMh

Most of us seem to enjoy buildings that are now doing something different to what they were originally built for – the thrill of a warehouse converted into a home, for instance, or an art gallery housed in former office block. And we've all experienced buildings that manage a range of tasks well – for a random example, how about a vintage furniture fair held in a school dining hall? So we know buildings can be adaptable... but how do you design them so that they can change (and maybe change back) easily? That's what we were discussing in the session that today's Takeaway – our concise summaries of our events – comes from. The title was Designing Buildings that Can Change, and as well as some terrific case studies, the presentations looked the history of how specific financial contexts have led to changing approaches to building (and why what happened in the 20th century might well have been an exception rather than the norm) and radically different approaches from other countries. You can find this Takeaway in the article below, and the rest of our collection at: https://lnkd.in/eN-syqTP Massive thanks to our speakers – Tanushree Agarwal, Yolande Barnes, frances holliss, Alexis Kalli, Thom Brisco and Astrid Smitham – for some startling insights and inspiring examples.

Many thanks to all those who joined us yesterday afternoon on the Placemaking Impact Stage at Futurebuild! It was great to have such a variety of industry professionals in the audience to add to our discussion. A special thank you to TDAG - The Trees and Design Action Group Trust team for the invite – we very much look forward to more conversation and collaboration in this space.

An amazing talk online tomorrow morning - industry and emergency accommodation. https://lnkd.in/dAEAQQJ4 - its the first one on there at the moment This session is going to be rather special - two things I'm passionate about that don't get enough attention. Anke Boehme is going to talk about her work on industrial buildings in Hillingdon (this talk is super amazing, I've seen the slides), and then we're going to have Miranda MacLaren, Polina Pencheva and Russell Curtis talking about temporary and emergency accommodation (particularly on how planning can enable this type of housing). Do come, its going to be an extremely good one!

Do you believe that your project from the built environment enriches the lives of those who live and work in Camden? Then submit to the Camden Design Awards 2025 - we're looking to celebrate excellent design in our borough. We've extended the deadline for applications to Friday, March 7, so be sure to submit! More details here ▶ https://lnkd.in/euJw3nZg

A reminder that we'll be at Futurebuild tomorrow (5th March) – if you're there, do come along to our session. We'd love to see you.

Thanks to Urban Design Learning and London Borough of Hackney this morning for an interesting tour of some excellent buildings. Great to be a part of a group discussing the challenges of delivering high-quality homes for our residents and satisfying seeing examples of it done so well.