News From Creating Excellence: Better Design, Better Places

Marking the second anniversary of the South West Design Review Panel, ‘Better design, Better places' brings together the findings from 70 schemes reviewed since its inception.  It is a valuable resource for everyone involved in major development projects and provides essential insight for anyone currently conceiving or working on a significant or sensitive scheme.  It also outlines how the South West Design Review Panel operates, details who can benefit from its advice and includes case studies showing how the Panel's guidance has worked in practice and what those taking part in the process thought about it. 

The main aim of ‘Better design, Better places' is to increase understanding of what makes a well designed development.  It includes an essential checklist of 10 key points that the South West Design Review Panel has identified through its first two years of work and deems critical to the success of projects.  In summary, these are:

1. Public Realm: think through spaces between buildings
2. Transport: don't leave strategy to others when every scheme can play a part
3. Precedents: questionable examples will not impress
4. Context: show the scheme in its vicinity and community
5. Scale: explain the relationship of the buildings to the surrounding built environment and the human scale
6. Identity: iconic or modest, a building needs a clear identity
7. Sustainability: it's time for fundamental commitment to the environment, not vague aspiration
8. Materials: don't overdo it, less can be more
9. Robustness: make your scheme future-proof
10. Ambition: go on - be creative, take risks, raise the game

See here for the full pdf of Better Design, Better Places.