IntegreatPLUS is helping to support Yorkshire Forward’s Renaissance design legacy...
The Renaissance programme within Yorkshire Forward ultimately focused on the delivery of the ‘great places’ that until recently sat within Yorkshire’s Regional Economic Strategy. The programme was driven by a 10-stage process that was split into four concepts:
Thinking Places – culminates in the production of a strategic development framework for each town. Ensuring that the proposals take into account the views of local people and have a firm economic foundation.
Designing Places – well designed places have an economic impact and good design within schemes is promoted through a small team of architects and urbanists – this team began as a separate YF wide team in 2007 within the Environment Directorate.
Making Places – is the delivery of physical developments and change.
Learning and Growing Places – ensures that the proposals and the interventions that follow are inclusive and sustainable.
Why Design?
Design continues to be a crucial element throughout the process, and the Yorkshire Forward’s Designing Places Team played a key role in terms of championing excellence in design across the Towns and Cities programme. Their role was even more important with the on-going demise of many of the architecture/urban design teams within councils. However, their legacy is being safeguarded by IntegreatPLUS work as a Centre for Regeneration, Renaissance and Place making skills
Designing Places sought to ‘raise the bar’ in terms of the design. Inspiration for new developments was provided through precedent studies and identifying relevant international examples of excellence in design. They often remained involved throughout the life of a project, retaining a commitment to a quality of design and materials that raised standards and was fit for the long-term. This sometimes meant that agendas may differ and that discussions could be intense but it also meant that more options could be explored and often re-inforced the view that good design does not need to be expensive design. At the core of the drive to push up design standards lies the knowledge that quality place-making has a direct relationship with improving rural capitals , communities, towns’ and cities’ economies.
Design – its importance and the process
The Renaissance programme brought with it an unerring focus on the quality of design. In promoting the principles and supporting the practice of good design, standards have been improved and this has helped to raise design quality across many of our communities, towns and cities. However, the process has not been an easy one:
• There has been a need to challenge and overcome the view that good-design is merely an optional add-on rather than a fundamental element of a successful project. it has been important to communicate the process constantly with all partners, and to incorporate good design in the process from the outset and throughout the process – there is a need for continual persistence and application in this regard –from inception through to completion. Maximum effect is often achieved incrementally. There is also a need for more design awareness and championing by others generally, and the understanding of the value of good design amongst the many Local Authorities communities, and politicians of our region’s towns, cities and rural communities.
• There has also been a need to dispel ingrained thinking that design is of a subjective nature and counteract this by providing objective design criteria and assessment and independent review.
• It needs to be recognised that the impact of bad design and even mediocre and careless design is long lasting and significant, not just to itself but to the wider context.
• Focus on the components of design has helped to improve the quality of design and placed it at the core of strategies and proposals within the local authorities planning frameworks.
• There is an increasing evidence base of the economic impact and value of good design - this remains an on-going process and still needs to be built on, and monitored over the next few decades to establish the final results within the region’s towns and cities. This is critical to persuading the more cynical and delivery focussed pragmatists of the real value of promoting quality.
The following is a brief summary of the early findings relating to the economic value of quality design from the findings from a very recent study commissioned by Yorkshire Forward in 2010:-
As the report is yet to be made publicly available the specific place and locational details have been omitted.
Quality and Economy Summary
Yorkshire Forward’s Renaissance Programme and ‘Great Places’ approach was directed at delivering great places in order to improve economies, delivering more competitive locations, celebrating uniqueness, attracting people, businesses and visitors, empowering people and raising their levels of aspiration and ambition.
Previous studies elsewhere have provided more empirically based evidence which indicated quality public realm spaces provide 20-40% increase in retail footfall, 10-25% increase in retail turnover, 10-30% increase in retail rents, and 15-35% increase in office rents. (Whitehead, Simmonds and Preston – 2006).
Ecotec’s review on behalf of EMDA (2007) concluded that a good quality natural environment can increase land values to around 17% and property prices by an average of 15%.
The 2008/09 national review of RDA interventions provides additional evidence. Across all RDAs investments had delivered a GVA to investment ration of 1:8:1 on a culmulative basis with an estimated future potential impact of 8:7:1. Impacts are of course long term, and their final assessments may take another 10 years to fully realise.
The City study 2010/11 aimed to bring together all this previous evidence and to take this further by focusing on six particular economic benefit streams:-
• Attracting business
• Increasing land/property values
• Attracting visitors
• Increasing tourism
• Improving productivity
• Enhancing image
This study looked at several key but contrasting public realm areas within the city.
To summarise in brief – the study estimated the total number of net additional jobs attributable to the key public realm investment, as between 320 and 508 net jobs (after applying appropriate additionality factors). (Between 40 – 60%). Rental uplift and yield 40-60% increase. 20-44% increase in footfall. 7% additional expenditure per shopping and per leisure visit.
The City’s strategic decision to invest in a quality public realm began in the mid 90’s, and is still underway. It has now set a precedent and benchmark for quality public realm, nationally and internationally. Analysis of headline economic statistics show that pre 1996 Sheffield’s economy grew at just 2.9% per annum, post 2000 growth rates show up to 6.08% increases per annum, (5.4% average), overtaking the regional averages for the first part of 2000.
Key property market fundamentals show a 32% increase in prime office rental levels, coupled with a 2.5% yield improvement.
It is important that all of these factors continue to be monitored over time but these results are already impressive and show how the City has been transformed from a city in severe economic decline to a dynamic, modern city. Obviously these results have been modified as not all of the improvements are realistically entirely contributable to investment in quality in public realm and architecture, but this has been a significant factor. Other factors were identified as being Strong City Leadership/A deliverable and believable masterplan/ and enlightened strategic thinking and highway design and maintenance policies which encouraged new innovative thinking and design. This research also revealed a significant improvement in wider, non-quantifiable benefits – better quality of life, more enjoyable city centre, feeling safer, visiting more often, staying longer”. The particular towns within the Renaissance Programme which displayed both investment in quality place-making and included the other factors above such as Scarborough and Barnsley, appear to be leading the way with improving their economies currently (and despite the flat - lining recovery).
The Designing Places have produced their Portfolio that aims to give a snapshot of the width, breadth and scope of the team’s work over the last 5 years, and the impact, processes and tools that they used to fulfil their work.
It is really only a glimpse into the world of Designing Places and its role in supporting YF’s Renaissance programme, is intended to provide a modest legacy and to complement the continuing design excellence work being progressed through the work of IntegreatPLUS who will be working with many Local Authority partners and community organisation across Yorkshire to embed design at the heart of quality places. This active legacy and the core values of the designing places and renaissance project will be at the heart of this future work.
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