Part of what I do for a job is to push developers and local authorities into working together in an attempt to focus mix use development's around existing transport hubs creating high density car-less sustainable communities with a focus on walkability.

The concept is called Transport Orientated Developments (TODs) and it's pretty prevalent in Canada plus some areas of the developing world where they have large scale blank canvases and corrupt govenments looking to blow cash.

Pretty difficult to implement in most cities in the UK though with too many different landowners pulling in different directions but I do think its one way out of the retail focussed CBDs we have at the moment.

That's it Pop.

Agree with the issues relating to mixed use and is why we need local government public monies to be used which can provide rolling short term leases that give start ups and indies a helping hand. The benefits of this I see reviving lots of failing highstreets but alas, our current government dont like investing in spreading the wealth.

I think a lot of the thinking being applied to city centres right now, in an attempt to quickly save the high street, would have been better applied to residential areas (the so-called ‘inner cities’) three or four decades ago.

If we’d built affordable commercial units and community resources into all those ill-fated high density housing estates from the start, we might have developed sustainable communities on the fringes of our city centres instead of unloved slums. Those communities could have been working, shopping and socialising on our high streets, providing footfall that didn’t depend on commuting office workers and weekend-only shoppers.

Pops your talking total sense, but how do we get to that point when we still have developers buying up land and proposing unsuitable developments (that still meet local plan requirements) purely to maximise profits.

The planning system has a part to play in this but I think the key to unlocking this in the UK is land ownership. There needs to either be a mass compulsory purchase of privately owned land which I appreciate is totally unsustainable/unviable or working with a local authorities that still owns lots of land (Wigan MBC owns huge swathes of prime city centre development land for example) that can act as national pilots for this.

Yeah, there are always great plans for utopian reimagining of the the city etc. Milton Keynes, new towns, and so on. None of them have worked out well, so far. It’s not for the lack of trying. I read glorious studies from brilliant architects every couple of years that theorise on how to improve urban centres, but it’s rare for them to be implemented.

I don’t have the answer, but it’s always nice to see smart people engaging with the problem.

City Councils do have huge power in all these things, as the primary landowners pretty much everywhere urban. But they also have severely limited budgets. I dunno how to square that circle. My brain jumps to financial incentives for private investors to work within mandated council guidelines – carrot rather than stick – but I’m pretty sure that’s already been tried.

I’m working on this sort of thing from the cultural angle in a couple of places, but unless you join that up with community investment as well, you’re just using cultural assets to helicopter in visitors and not addressing the needs of the locals. Building a museum is great, but it doesn’t help the kids down the scheme if you don’t also lay on free buses to get to it and affordable meals in the cafés down the street. And that’s before you look into how you raise the general standard of living to a point where ‘leisure time’ even becomes an option.

I guess the major difference is that in those examples whether success or failure there was at least an attempt at it unlike what is being built today.

The new Tory plan of removing the constraints of planning permission on most housing is going to make things a hell of a lot worse.

That John Lewis was a massive mistake.
Full on ego project by Andy Street.

Is Affleck’s Palace still open?

Glad to hear it. The equivalents in most cities are long gone. I think the web did them in, basically. Anything serving niche markets or subcultures struggles to keep a physical shop open now that you can access anything, anytime on t’Internet.

These empty department stores would make amazing laser quests.

poprock wrote:

The new Tory plan of removing the constraints of planning permission on most housing is going to make things a hell of a lot worse.

Do you think we might reach a point where developers realise that building something nicer / more forward-looking might (a) not cost that much more and (b) be worth more, hence ??? profit?  Or is that naive?

But couldn't they make a bigger quick buck? Or at least, building stuff that won't suit the new world could be money down the drain if they're not careful??

acemuzzy wrote:

But couldn't they make a bigger quick buck? Or at least, building stuff that won't suit the new world could be money down the drain if they're not careful??

You make more money by squeezing more people into smaller spaces, sadly. Look at the boom in student residences.

acemuzzy wrote:

You have to hold that something will come back and take advantage of that space. Of that means smaller Indies, cafes etc, still with local flexible workforce and without (generalizing somewhat) corporate tax dodgers creaming off profit and lowering quality, then it could have positives... But obviously that won't happen overnight, and is little solace to those affected by today's news.

I'm sure Green will top up the pension pot at least tho, right??

Arcades!