PASW Regional Newsletter: Spring 2002
Report on Regional Network Meeting, Weymouth 8th November 2001
'Towards a Strategy for Architecture & the Built Environment in the South West'
Maggie Bolt welcomed all to the meeting. This meeting, she said, would focus on an exciting piece of work, which PASW had been undertaking with regional and national partners, and the consultants Jon Rowland Urban Design, aimed at improving the quality of design in our environment.
She drew people's attention to the consultation document, entitled 'Designing our Environment - Towards a Strategy for Architecture and the Built Environment in the South West' - which outlined the aims of the work and the progress to date.
The purpose of the day's event was to share the methods and findings with the people present and stimulate discussion on how the emerging strategy could continue to be shaped and how best to implement the actions identified to date. She outlined the other contributions to the meeting; Weymouth and Portland Borough Council would be discussing the potential it sees for development within this context and the South West of England Regional Development Agency were presenting their Civic Pride Initiative - a key development aimed at stimulating better design.
Maggie stated that "for a project as extensive as this Strategy, it is vital that everyone involved in creating and changing our environment feels that the right issues have been identified, and that they have a stake in the work being proposed, are able to add to the debate and have a role to play in delivering the Action Plan and associated tasks. Achieving quality is a collaborative effort and we need and very much welcome your views, whether expressed today or at a later date".
Front Cover of Report
Maggie then quoted from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment:-
'good design is about much more than how things look. It is about uplifting communities and using resources effectively and imaginatively'.
She went on to say that most of us know what we would like to see being developed - but achieving it is much harder. Therefore through this work, we hope to investigate current processes and resources and look at what needs to be encouraged, changed and supported in order to achieve the places and spaces we want. A key element of this is to 'widen the team' and bring on board other professions and specialisms, which have a role to play but which are not currently utilised or consulted.
From a public art perspective, we would like to see real integration taking place with the artist being an expected member of the conceptualising design team; where their thought processes and particular skills with regard to creative and lateral thinking are important components and they are not just considered for the objects they might bring. She went on to quote from guidelines issued by Queensland Government about a scheme it introduced in 1999, called 'Art Built-in' - "Artists have the potential to enhance the ideas, skills, knowledge and experience of architectural design teams. Artists bring to the process a capacity to extend the concept of building function beyond its physical aspects to include regional, cultural and spiritual aspects through a process of collaboration with other professionals.
Architects through statutory regulations and professional responsibilities, are generally obligated to provide functional solutions and to lead the consultant team. They co-ordinate their work to ensure the building or place, notwithstanding aesthetic or artistic values, 'works' or meets the functional requirements. In contrast, the artist usually, but not always, is primarily concerned with the experiential nature, critical value or cultural or spiritual interpretation of a building or place and less with its physical function".
Maggie went on to say that through work like this Strategy we are able to publicly start discussing quality in all its manifestations and what it's components are and what roles artists and others can play. She then handed over to Lee Corner, the chair for the day, saying she looked forward to a stimulating and lively debate.
Lee Corner talked about how timely this meeting was as the issue of Architecture and the Built Environment was a topic currently under considerable discussion.
She drew people's attention to the paper disseminated at the meeting 'Designing our Environment - Towards an Architecture and the Built Environment Strategy in the South West '. The intention of this paper was, she said, to stimulate discussion as to how the Strategy can continue to be developed and subsequently implemented.
Lee introduced Jon Rowland, of Jon Rowland Urban Design Consultants, who started by showing a selection of slides illustrating how far behind in terms of models of good architectural and planning practice, in his view, the UK was in relation to other European countries. He highlighted the tendency for a blurring between the design disciplines within these models of good practice. Where we are now, he said, is no longer good enough, we need to change and hence the Strategy.
Jon went on to talk about the starting point for the Strategy; the consultation process that posed five questions relating to people's perceptions of architecture and the built environment. This initial stage resulted in the establishment of four cornerstones:
- vision 'how do we view the environment in the South West and how do we celebrate it?'
- communication 'once we have the vision how do we share it with others?'
- process 'giving rise to new ways of doing things'
- skills 'the skills to enable the process to succeed'
From these cornerstones the following recommendations for short term actions were made :
Vision
- Regional Design Forum
- a Regional Design Charter
- promoting good design principles
- Good practice guides on procurement & commissioning
- local involvement
- a design Champion
Communication
- develop a media strategy
- an interactive web site
- increased cultural programmes
- a regional award strategy
Process
- Civic Pride
- raise quality
Skills
- enabling design review
- training needs assessment
- targeted skills improvement
- interdisciplinary courses and professional collaboration
- programmes for schools
- involving communities
In terms of delivering the Strategy :
- the development of a Regional Centre of Excellence
- creation of an interim Strategy Board
- identification of key players
Jon finished by outlining what he wanted us to do, reiterating the vision that we can do better!
Lee thanked Jon for his presentation and invited comments from the audience. The comments focused around the following areas :
- the constraints of the planning process.
- the need to highlight examples of good practice in the UK.
- the need to get more architecture / design involvement in the planning process.
- communication between the design disciplines.
- the importance of the selection process; getting the right people for the job and involving the community.
- that collaboration is fundamental to creativity.
Lee went on to introduce Claire Gibson, Planning & Transport Manager, South West of England Regional Development Agency. Claire talked about the role of SWRDA, it's Regional Strategy, new Regeneration initiatives and the Civic Pride Initiative.
The New Regeneration initiatives included :
- market and coastal towns
- rural Renaissance
- building communities
- spatial priority areas
- strategic sites
The Civic Pride initiative aims to :
- address the public realm
- promote good design
- facilitate new ways of working
- spread good practice
Its objectives being to :
- support urban & rural renaissance
- increase access to public spaces
- create local distinctiveness
- promote accessibility
- encourage good management
- address crime and anti social behaviour
- promote good design
Claire talked about the benefits of funding within the Civic Pride initiative; economic, social and environmental. Projects, she said, must add value.
She went onto outline the successful ingredients of any scheme :
- good quality design
- funding
- land ownership
- public art
- urban design framework
- quality not quantity
- stake holders
- regeneration strategy
- design team
- management
Claire finished by talking about how to apply and the stages of application. Finally she said that the desired result would be public realm projects all over the region that we could be proud of.
Lee extended her thanks to Claire, on behalf of the meeting, and asked people for comments. A couple of points were made by the audience; firstly the issue of ownership of public space and secondly the need to quantify the benefits in order to attract European monies.
After a break for tea, Lee opened up the plenary session by posing the following questions :
Do we need any more design champions ?
Where is best practice ?
Why are we not successful in getting our message across as to examples of good practice ?
Is there a need to have our eyes reopened in order that we can engage with the issues ?
A lively and stimulating debate took place which raised the need to:
- educate and involve the public.
- educate the people who are driving the development.
- integrate design policies into local plans.
- raise peoples' awareness of quality / good design.
- raise peoples' level of expectation.
- involve stakeholders in any design process.
- get the brief right in the first place.
- address peoples' skills.
- place more attention on the supplementary planning guidance as the value of the local plan is limited.
- assess whether local distinctiveness is something to be highlighted.
- recognise the importance of the development stage of the scheme.
- teach planners to be more design aware.
- instil rigour and pragmatism into the project briefs.
Lee thanked everyone for their thoughts, saying that we needed to be conduits of this development, to be inspired to change things at the grass roots. On this note she introduced the last speaker of the afternoon, Steve Young, Arts & Pavilion Manager, Weymouth & Portland Borough Council. Steve talked about the distinctiveness of the area and the need for a plan of action to be developed around public art. He said that he saw the role of the local authority as being to bring people together, to act as the visionaries and to engender true participation within the process so ensuring a real sense of ownership at all levels.
Following Steve's presentation, the meeting pulled together an extensive list of issues which needed to addressed and which should inform the ongoing development of the Strategy.
Lee finished by giving everyone three items of "homework":-
- For everyone to make it their personal responsibility to engage in dialogue with another design professional they work close to.
- To take a digital camera out and record an example of good practice in terms of architecture and the built environment, including a description of why you think it is an e.g. and then to e.mail it to PASW.
- To take some risks within our working practice.
Maggie closed the meeting by asking people to send in their comments on the Strategy Development paper by 10th December. She said that the next stage was to pull together an implementation group and urged people to use the document to contextualise their work. She thanked all the speakers, the Steering Committee, Lee Corner for her invaluable chairing and Weymouth & Portland Borough Council for their support in hosting the meeting.
Lisa Harty
Network Co-ordinator, on behalf of PASW