Design matters: major house builders and the design challenge of brownfield development contexts

The quality of contemporary residential development, and the associated design challenge for house builders, are important current policy issues in England. Until recently, better‐designed contemporary housing development was more frequently seen on smaller, more constrained urban or brownfield sites and more rarely on greenfield sites. Set against a significant shift in the prevailing planning regime during the 1990s (from greenfield development to an express policy emphasis on brownfield development), this paper attempts to explain this observation. Utilizing the concept of ‘opportunity space’, it develops a model of the role of design and the designer in the development process, which is then used to account for differences in the quality of development on greenfield and brownfield sites. It is suggested that the development of greenfield and brownfield sites displays significant contrasts and that, as a consequence, successful brownfield developers yield opportunity space in their business strategies to designers

Planners as market actors: rethinking state-market relations in land and property

This paper challenges the dichotomous distinction between planning and the market promoted by mainstream economists, by arguing that markets should be seen as socially constructed not given. Drawing on recent developments in institutional and behavioural economics, it contends that what is required is not for planners to become market actors, but rather to realise they are already “market actors” intricately involved in framing and re-framing property markets. By highlighting planners' potential to re-make, rather than merely accept, market conditions, the paper calls for state-market relations in land and property to be accorded a central place within the new spatial planning

Exploring the 'notional property developer' as a policy construct

This paper explores how far policy-makers understand the structure of the development industry, the perceived characteristics of developers and the extent to which such actors can be considered policy-responsive. If these matters are poorly understood, the effectiveness of planning policy may be undermined, especially where the private sector is responsible for undertaking most development. The paper is based upon empirical research on the Scottish Executive’s perceptions of, and policy stances towards developers between 1999 and 2007. It finds that the Executive appeared to have only limited understanding of what drives the development process or motivates individual developers and seemed unfamiliar with important differences within the industry, sectorally and geographically. Instead, ‘the notional property developer’ was incorrectly conceived as a malleable and potentially compliant partner with shared objectives to the State. The paper calls for a more thorough understanding of the development industry as a prerequisite to effective urban policy-making

Design codes, opportunity space and marketability of new housing

This paper is about state — market relations in speculative housebuilding, with specific reference to the means by which higher quality design can be achieved in new residential developments. Applying the concept of opportunity space, we investigate the extent to which form-based/design codes change developers' opportunity space both in absolute terms and vis-à-vis the opportunity space of designers. We interrogate this using evidence from a major design-coded residential development in the southeast of England, drawing on interviews with housebuilders. We conclude that design codes have the potential to transform the market context for new housebuilding, but that the typical housebuilder has yet to be convinced of their business advantages

Smart parcelization and place diversity: reconciling real estate and urban design priorities

This paper examines the meaning and significance of place diversity and explores how its achievement may well depend on specific institutional relations between different actors in the real estate development process. It calls for master developers to engage in the ‘smart parcelization’ of large development sites through design-sensitive subdivision, reflected in conditions attached to plot sales or leases. By looking at practical examples, it explores how this concept could refashion speculative housebuilding in the UK. The paper highlights the potential and limitations of ‘smart parcelization’, while emphasizing the need to link development and design considerations in future policy and research agendas

Brownfield development: A comparison of North American and British approaches

Over the past 30—40 years, urban change and deindustrialisation in advanced economies have created a legacy of vacant and derelict land that is increasingly seen as a development opportunity rather than planning problem. This paper investigates how the shared challenge of bringing such brownfield sites back into productive use has been interpreted differently in four countries: the US, Canada, Scotland and England. In each case, the particular policy environment has shaped the brownfield debate in distinctive ways, producing a different set of relations between the public and private sectors in brownfield redevelopment. Through this detailed comparison of the North American and British experience, the paper traces the maturity of policy and seeks to discover whether the main differences in understanding and tackling brownfield land can be attributed primarily to physical, cultural or institutional factors

Imitation and intangibility: postmodern perspectives on restoration and authenticity at the Hill House Box, Scotland

Restoration is often problematised within built heritage practice as an inauthentic activity of imitation. This is symptomatic of a Western focus on physical heritage sites, which is underpinned by an amalgam of scientific materialism and visual aesthetics. Situated within a postmodern conceptualisation of heritage as increasingly dynamic, social and intangible, this study suggests the relationship between restoration and authenticity is increasingly out of step with contemporary perspectives and would benefit from a critical gaze. Drawing on Baudrillard’s theory of ‘hyperreality’, this study makes space for two key concepts within the built heritage paradigm: authenticity as emergent and fluid; and the legitimisation of imitation as a valid activity. Together, these are explored in relation to the restoration of the Hill House, Scotland, and its encapsulation within the ‘Hill House Box’. From a postmodern, Baudrillardian outlook, the site becomes a dynamic performance between the restored building (a tangible ‘simulation’ of an idealised essence) and the users of the Hill House Box (an intangible, ritualised experience). Consequently, this demonstrates how the amalgamation of imitation and intangibility can overcome binary views of original/copy; authentic/inauthentic, resulting in the creation of emergent authenticity and aura that the Box both creates and is engulfed within