Is grass the great disruptor?
Grass has a power. Feel its softness underfoot and all we want to do is stretch back, play games, relax. Does it belong in our hard-paved city centres? Cannon Ivers thinks it does.
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Breaking with ‘town and gown’
Are we all expecting too much of our University Estates? For centuries we have been happy to let them focus on ‘gown’ and now we want them to drive social and urban change in the ‘town’.
Dreaming Thamesmead
Thamesmead was designed to be an utterly distinctive new place. It failed to live up to that early promise, Neil Mattinson explains how a new strategy seeks to forge a brighter future.
Building community while building tall
Tall buildings change the look of low-rise neighbourhoods, but Andrew Harland argues that this visibility dominates the planning process to the exclusion of something more important – how a place feels and works.
Greening the West End
London’s population is rising by around 100,000 a year. Public realm is the antidote to the city growing denser, hotter and more congested. All eyes are on Camden Council as it rolls out an ambitious programme to make the centre greener, cleaner and safer.
Why landscape-led masterplanning makes sense
Journalist Hattie Hartman posed an important question in the Architects’ Journal: should all masterplans be landscape-led? We believe the answer is yes. Here’s why.
