Outcome from the public meeting from the 12th of January - Design principles developed by Duncan, Ross, and Shaeron

In order to move towards a design solution that represents the community’s wishes, it is desirable to reflect on the suggestions made at the January 2010 public meeting.It is suggested that the next steps take the following sequence:

• Review of Gallery of Ideas People’s Outcomes to establish key issues
• Organise and consolidate issues into Design Principles (design brief)
• Application of principles to site and evolution of Concept Design (options)
• Three-dimensional contraplan proposal

Each step in the development of principles, brief, concept and proposals needs to ensure that the community’s wishes and reaction are accommodated, so that the final outcomes can be embraced as representing the preferred development pattern. This can also be ‘reality checked’ to anticipate any response from the Council, other interested parties, and the developer.

These are intended to reflect the residents’ wishes for the design of the development. These do not incorporate other strategies, including ideas for acquiring an interest in the site, lobbying or publicity, which are areas outside the scope of the design.

There appear to be a number of categories that can be extracted from the list of issues, and to ensure that a broad range of principles are addressed, these have been assembled to reflect the concerns raised at the January public meeting. There are many detailed comments that do not necessarily fall into these categories, and some issues seem to require to be transferred from one category to another; others entail opposing views, although it may be possible for the development to cater for a range of approaches that provide choice. Issues that do not appear in detail in the consolidated principles will be retained for use as part of a checklist during the formulation of more detailed proposals.

It is intended that these principles can be reviewed and modified to form the basis of a development brief for the contraplan. 10 is always a convenient number but the issues should not be shoehorned into this number if it needs to be larger or smaller.

The principal issue types can be summarized as encompassing:

• Built Form
• Movement
• Use and Activity
• Open Space
• Sustainability

The hierarchy of these issues can also be discussed and modified as required.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES

1. The development should reflect the existing residential buildings in scale and height and should provide variety and interest, as well as reflecting its specific context, and may propose innovative solutions to address parking and level change issues.
   
2. Materials should be of high quality and relevant for their location, with stone/masonry construction and punched windows being considered, as well as appropriate contemporary design approaches and materials where these assist the overall composition.
3. Some re-use of the existing biscuit factory should be reviewed as an option, although this will be likely to require modification to ensure compatibility of use and scale.
   
4. Access to the site needs to be able to achieved without compromising the existing circulation arrangement, although connections between the existing terraces and between the development and the railway route should be considered.
5. Parking will not always be accommodated immediately next to houses and open spaces to ensure the availability of vehicle-free areas, and could be treated in different ways throughout the site to provide a range of provision according to location.
6. A range of accommodation types, including family homes, should be considered (as well as affordable housing), with the emphasis on longer-term residency; student accommodation, if present, should be dispersed.
7. Other complementary secondary uses within the site may be proposed, which could include café, retail, food, gallery/office use, sheltered accommodation.
8. There should be a legible and accessible flow of green public and private spaces and gardens which can be used by the community, that reflects the scale and orientation of their surroundings, and provides a neighbourhood asset to complement the existing and new homes and any ancillary uses.
9. Spaces can be enhanced by the provision of mature or dense planting in areas, other areas given over to a flexibility of use for different activities and events, and lighting and artwork could be used to improve security, interest and legibility of routes, which also need to be considered in the context of their built form edges.
10. A sustainable approach should inform every aspect of the development, from orientation, energy consumption (before, during and after construction), local produce initiatives including livestock and allotments, encouraging accessible public transport and bicycle use, pooled cars, and facilitating community initiatives.