2014 Yearbook

R E V I E W 25 PLACE-SHAPING BARRY SELLERS The plight of the UK’s town centres has been highlighted in a number of recent studies including The Portas Review (2011); The Grimsey Review: An Alternative Future for the High Street (2013) and Beyond Retail: Redefining the Shape and Purpose of Town Centres (2013). The latter is a report by The Distressed Town Centre Property Taskforce (set up in the wake of The Portas Review ). One of its main recommendations is for ‘long term master planning to strengthen the retail core, reconfigure town centre space and reuse obsolete areas by defining new uses’. A key recommendation of The Grimsey Review was to build a 20-year vision for each town. A master plan, as defined by Robert Cowan, ‘explains how a site or a series of sites will be developed. It will describe how the proposal will be implemented, and set out the costs, phasing and timing of development… The purpose of a master plan is to set out principles on matters of importance, not to prescribe in detail how development should be designed’ ( The Dictionary of Urbanism , 2005). Commissioning a master plan is one of the options available to local authorities looking to provide a rational basis for decision-making to underpin the process of regeneration. To establish whether master planning is an appropriate tool for this purpose it is useful to look back and consider its track record. MASTER PLANS AND UDFS Master plans date back at least as far as 1851 with Ildefons Cerda’s plan for extending the city of Barcelona, although of course plans were drawn up for ancient and medieval cities too. However, it is only since the second world war that master plans have become popular in the UK, partly as a response to the bomb damage and the need to plan for the rebuilding of towns and cities. The early master plans were criticised for their deterministic approach, often with a concentration on rigid land-use zoning which led to mixed fortunes. As a result, they largely faded from use. Their rebirth came with the Thatcherite policy that established development corporations in the 1990s and master plans were used as a tool to promote growth. These master plans were often three- dimensional, giving a more detailed and realistic vision of places in contrast to the early two-dimensional land-use plans. By Design: Urban Design in the Planning System , published in 2000, preferred the term ‘urban design framework’ (UDF) – no doubt recalling the association of the early master plans with an overly prescriptive approach – and sought to set out a more flexible approach to the process of guiding development. Over the past 14 years master plans and UDFs have become popular tools for managing change in our towns and cities. They are supplemented by ‘public realm strategies’, which set out a vision for public spaces. However, critics of master plans claim that many are still too prescriptive, sometimes failing to keep pace with changing fashions. They can also lack flexibility when the ownership of a site changes and the new owner wants to modify the plan in the light of changed circumstances. Critics argue that the master planning process should be more robust and adaptable. The process should be capable of producing viable places and of ensuring that the economic, social and cultural viability of existing places is realised. While the early master plans were prepared with little or no involvement of those affected by the proposals, a fundamental tenet of modern urban design is the involvement of people. Urban design is about understanding how people use towns and cities, their buildings and spaces and the interface between them. The master planning process needs to engage with the stakeholders and understand and interpret their aspirations. COMMISSIONING Master plans and UDFs can be prepared for entire historic towns or cities or even single large historic buildings. Master plans are normally commissioned either by land owners or local authorities, although the latter will normally prepare a brief for consultants as they invariably lack the necessary in-house expertise. The brief for consultants is an important The art of master planning: improvements to Leicester Square and the surrounding area have created more spaces for sitting and al-fresco eating, making it easier for visitors to appreciate the historic surroundings. (Photo: Claudia Viridiana, UDL)