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May 07

Design Coding in

the UK

Hank DittmarChief Executive

The Princes Foundation

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The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment is

an educational charity founded by HRH The Prince ofWales to improve the quality of peoples lives by

teaching and practising timeless and ecological ways

of planning, designing and building. We are one of 16

charities for which the Prince of Wales is President,

together we comprise the largest multi-causecharitable enterprise in the United Kingdom.

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Is Coding an American Idea?

Communities & Local Government,The Future

for Design Codes, Dec 2005: Although

sparingly used in this country for many

decades, design coding is actually a very old

technique. It is the basis for much Georgian,

Victorian and Edwardian town building, for

example the much admired Letchworth Garden

City.

Daily Telegraph, January 2005:

Gideon Amos, the director of the Town and

Country Planning Association, said he believed

that America had little to teach Britain. "The

challenge is not to foist on England a new US

brand of chocolate box urbanism but to make

the places people live - villages, suburbs,towns and cities - enhance their natural

environments and reduce their carbon

emissions.

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1948 Abercrombie Plan of London: planning by blob

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Abercrombie Plan: London Zoning Map

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UK Planning Context

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Where CodesApply:

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Design Coding and Planning

Dept. of Communities and Local Government, The

Future for Design Codes, December 2005:The new Local Development Framework (LDF)

offers a range of tools to support codes indifferent circumstances through the plan-ledapproach. All local authorities would need tostart by setting out in their LDF their intention to

achieve high quality design, through forexample, the production of a design code for aparticular site. The following approaches areavailable under the new planning framework:

! Area Action Plans (AAPs)

! Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs)

! Conditions to planning permissions

! Local Development Orders (LDOs)

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Ministerial Foreword:

We need to take steps toimprove the way we build

sustainable communities

for our future generations. I

am confident that design

codes have the potential toplay a key role in this

process, and aid the

delivery of high quality

development that meets

local needs.June 2006

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Improving the Quality of House Building

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UK Design Coding Pilots

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Design coding and its

relationship to the

development processin England

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PPS 3 (Housing) and DesignCoding, 2006:

Detailed design guidance

such as urban designguidelines, design codes,detailed masterplans or sitebriefs can help to improve thequality and value ofresidential development and,once in place, can acceleratethe development controlprocess. A design code maybe developed for specificallocated sites or areas

indicated for development inthe core strategy.

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Upton Design Code: English Partnerships, The

Princes Foundation, EDAW

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Rotherham Design Code: Roger Evans

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Winchelstowe Design Code: John Simpson

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Summary

Form based coding has been endorsed as part of the

UK planning system, on an optional basis, primarily forthe delivery of large sites.

The government sees design codes as a way toimprove quality and certainty. Quality of house buildingis a major concern!

Most often, it is used to guarantee delivery of masterplans on complex sites over a long time frame.

Most codes are typological, but are not based on thetransect -- often using character areas instead.

The challenge in the UK is to produce large numbers tomeet housing demand, while coding for the complexityfound in places that have evolved over centuries.