It is a creative time. Yesterday Parliament's Communities and Local Government Committee launched an inquiry into the government's plans for localism and we have all got every excited and immediately begun preparing our evidence.
In the same hour I learnt that my very good friend, Trevor Nicholson at CB Richard Ellis is launching a splendid new initiative. It is a new consultancy called "CBRE Placemaking".
His blurb reads "Our Research-based Placemaking proposition is that we aim to improve values, particularly in less expensive areas, by helping...... to make a place where people really want to live".
He goes on to cite the "top ten" essential placement elements from Number one: Vision through to Number 10: Sustainability, with all necessary points covered along the way, to create a place that is successful on all measures.
Well! You have to admire our man's timing. Talk about finger on the pulse! It is zeitgeist stuff, Trevor.
Given where he comes from (CBRE is the biggest real estate consultancy in the world, after all), he necessarily started with new settlements; he has commenced his evidence base with a study of non-urban new villages of 1,000 dwellings or more.
But your Poundburys and your Kings Hills don't pop up every week and I can see how, with but a small shimmy, he could get into the serious business of advising communities forming Local Housing Trusts under the Coalition Government's Community Right to Build initiative, to embark on small scale community-led regeneration projects that will add real value (social as well as financial) to any village.
Local residents can decide what they want but they will need guidance to get all the benefits that could be on offer. CBRE Placemaking could help them to balance the level of density required to deliver their objectives against what they consider to be acceptable.
Obviously, the higher the density, the greater the value that can be extracted to benefit new and surrounding communities (and Trevor would know where the optimum ceiling would be).
Local Housing Trusts will need to work out what is the minimum level of development required to meet and pay for their needs. Placemaking would add so much value to this process.
It isn't enough to have a do-it-yourself master planning book at your side, the juxtaposition of elements within any plan for the built environment is crucial, to meet the needs of the community, as well as get the optimum design and commercial outcome.
And this comes with experience. The essence of Trevor's work is that the whole can be so much greater than the sum of the parts. Trevor and his team can advise on market match, commercial and community provision, phasing, public realm, parking, spatial design and a whole host of other nuances which will help a village community meet its own needs, whilst - and this will be very important if we are to avoid the pitfalls of the French experience (see my blog entry on July 27) - enhancing the look and feel of the place in the process.
If Big Society means that local communities will decide what density and mix of development is in their best interests, they will need expert advice. Trevor really knows what he is doing and he could be the People's Friend, big style. I'm not saying he's old, but he's certainly a wise head.
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