Not with drawing up an urban design strategy or with commissioning an urban designer, but with asking some basic questions about how a place works. Robert Cowan, who devised the Placechecks methodology for UDAL, explains. Thousands of urban sites could be developed successfully and sustainably if local people had the tools to help them find out what urban design strategies they need. The potential for urban renaissance can be unlocked in even the most unpromising circumstances if there is a clear focus and a simple approach. UDAL hopes its Placecheck initiative will show how to provide both.
Urban design is more than a drawing board skill.
There are too many examples where a developer, development agency or local authority has commissioned a master plan for a site, but where this has not led to the hoped-for high standards of design, or even to any development at all. This is often due to a failure to put in place the process for facilitating and delivering such development. The key to urban design lies neither with any single profession, not with professions alone. Urban design is a process of collaboration, essential to reconcile conflicting interests. The process depends on the people who manage budgets, make policy, write briefs, set standards and shape expectations.