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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
Earlier this week, I had the chance to join a guided tour of Cambridge’s first cohousing project. It has been developed on a greenfield in Orchard Park, an urban expansion in the north of Cambridge, since early 2000s. Originally named as K1, after its masterplan parcel name, it is now known as Marmalade lane. The […]