Creating Streets in Lewes: embracing the texture, variety and radical spirit of Lewes to create a new type of neighbourhood

Posted Posted in Case Studies, Guest Blog, News

The Phoenix, a low-car ‘gentle density’ development in East Sussex, presents a radical alternative to most development, but remains rooted in place, writes Human Nature’s Anthony Pearce At the pen of the visiting writer, places are often reduced to their most immediate and famous elements, creating imaginary neatness and homogeneity. In the case of Lewes, […]

Restiching Dresden: Coventry’s German twin city on the Elbe

Posted Posted in Case Studies, News

Leon Furkert of the Dresden Historical Society tells the story of Dresden’s renaissance At our recent Restitch conference in Coventry, Leon Furkert from the Dresden Historical Society, spoke movingly about ‘how the city was given its heart back’, about the citizen-led and locally popular rebuilding of Dresden’s Frauenkirche and old towns. An ‘optional extra’ during […]

Mansards in Tower Hamlets: an East End case study on the challenges and opportunities in densifying neighbourhoods

Posted Posted in Case Studies, Guest Blog, News

Tom Bage is a Bow resident. The inclusion of a paragraph on mansard roofs in the new NPPF is welcome news for the millions of people living in pre-1918 properties who would like a little more space or a greener home. I live in Bow, where different groups of residents have spent nearly a decade […]

What could Lambeth’s Kerbside Strategy look like in practice and how do we get there?

Posted Posted in Case Studies, sustainability

Councils nationwide have signed up to climate emergency charters. So far so good. Yet all too often we find that sustainability targets and ambitions to support active travel are undermined by a narrow traffic-oriented approach to design. Many designers are used to working in a world where streets are for vehicular movement and nothing else, […]

Streets to dream of in Toulouse…

Posted Posted in Case Studies

Have you ever heard of Toulouse as a city centre whose improved street design is revolutionising local prosperity, benefiting from and in turn further catalysing the region’s booming economy? Probably not. It is not normally lauded as a case study. But the quality of Toulouse’s street design is staggering. The results are stunning. Walking round […]