Plot 08 at Convoys Wharf has received outline planning permission and an application has been submitted for full permission. The current application deals with ‘reserved matters‘, which normally include the five points listed below. Objectors should address these issues rather…
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Posts on Urban Design (+ see introduction to urban design)
Objecting to Convoys Wharf Planning Application – Plot 08 Reserved Matters
Posted in skyline policy, urban design
Convoys Wharf planning application for Plot 08
In 2011, I reviewed the Hutchison Whampoa Master Plan for Convoys wharf. A modified version of the plan, scarcely improved, received planning permission in 2014 and an application for the first phase has now been submitted. My reasons for urging Lewisham…
Edward Hutchison watercolours
Following his brilliant book on Drawing for Landscape Architecture: Sketch to Screen to Site, Edward Hutchison has opened an even more dazzling exhibition of watercolour painting – at Bankside Gallery 48 Hopton Street London SE1 9JH, by Tate Modern Exhibition 4th –…
Posted in skyline policy, urban design
Desire lines are a key principle in landscape architecture
‘Desire line’ is one of landscape architecture’s most useful concepts. Less romantically, Wikipedia calls it a ‘desire path’ and explains the idea as ‘ the shortest or most easily navigated route between an origin and destination’. OK, but as everyone…
Posted in urban design
The brilliant landscape architecture of Edinburgh New Town
Was Edinburgh’s new town planned by a landscape architect? Yes. One could argue that the term ‘landscape architect’ was not invented until 1828 and could not apply to a competition design submitted in 1766. But the term ‘architect’ did not…
The landscape architecture of healthy cities
Great to hear a landscape architect speaking about health, urban design, ecology and new towns. Graham Marshall sees essential connections between people & places are bonded mental health & physical health are inter-dependent He rightly criticises James Stirling’s now-demolished Southgate Estate…
Posted in landscape architecture, urban design
The attrition of vehicles by cities is good for cyclists and pedestrians
With surpassing brilliance Jane Jacobs advocated ‘the attrition of automobiles’ in cities ‘by making conditions less convenient for cars’. I write this as a London car driver (and cyclist).
Posted in cycleways, urban design
Public Open Space parks, squares, landscape character assessment
PPS.org has identified 10 Principles for Successful Squares. Though sensible they remind me of 10 Qualities That Make Him A Perfect Husband or ten qualities to make a Good Wife ‘smart, wise, beautiful, compassionate, funny, hard-working, aesthetically inspired, spiritual, passionately desirous‘. The…
Posted in urban design, urban squares
Prof Richard Sennett attacks a basic principle of landscape architecture
‘Consult the Genius of the Place’, now expressed as ‘design with sensitivity to context’ is the Single Agreed Law of landscape design. It embodies the conviction that we should, as NT Newton put it in the title of a book on the history…
Assessment of public open space POS squares piazzas parks SUPOS
Public open space needs to be assessed as a routine aspect of its planning, design and management. But how should it be done? This was the question Dr Ying Li took for her PhD research at the University of Greenwich…
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