PLACE-MAKING THROUGH DENSITY,
DEMOCRACY AND DESIGN
Ciarán
Cuffe, September 2003
Background
to Ireland's approach on planning
In Ireland we like to tell
stories. It is often said that we do not have a visual culture, and that we use
stories, writing and music to explain, record and pass on our perception of the
world around us. Certainly there is a strong legacy of writing through writers
such as Joyce and Beckett, and more recently musicians such as the band U2 and
Sinead O'Connor bear testimony to our musical strengths. However I would also
argue that the visual has played an important part in our development. By visual
I refer not only to the work of artists but more specifically to the spatial,
that is the way in which we perceive, consider and design the spaces in which we
live.
In the Irish countryside small
groupings of houses were traditionally carefully arranged and landscaped. Clachán
is the Irish word given to a small group of houses built in proximity to each
other. In our towns and villages both planned and unplanned, buildings were of
similar size and built from similar materials. Streets were carefully
considered, and market places were at the heart of the community. Our Georgian
towns and cities were planned with a draftsman's hand, and also reflect common
concerns with form and place.
In more recent years, and more
particularly in the last ten years, we have gone through a period of spectacular
change. Our economy boomed, as a combination of demographics, education, and
financial support from the European Union fuelled a rapid increase in employment
and confidence. Fiscal incentives from central government encouraged the private
sector to build offices and apartments in the heart of our urban centres. Of
course there has been a downside to all of this. Dublin has grown rapidly at the
expense of the west of Ireland, and urban sprawl, traffic congestion and high
house prices have been much talked about in recent years.
In the countryside we have seen
a significant rise in the construction of one-off houses, and ribbon
development. While some argue that this is an aesthetic problem, I believe that
we should be much more concerned about the cost to the state of providing health
and transport services to people in these areas as they grow older. There are
also significant environmental concerns ranging from groundwater pollution to
transport-related carbon dioxide emissions.
In our towns and cities, local
communities are fearful of developers' overblown proposals, and in my own
inner city council constituency of Dublin, large banners proclaiming 'No High
Rise' echo the concerns of many. The tax-breaks on offer to developers led to
huge investment over a short space of time in the urban core, threatening
archaeology, heritage and communities. My Masters thesis in planning back in
1996 referring to the centre of Dublin asked the question 'Sustainable city of
town-cramming?' I concluded that we should be concentrating on quality as well
as quantity in development in Dublin.
As an architect and more
recently as a town planner I have spent much of my ten years as a city
councillor on Dublin City Council addressing planning concerns. Over the last
year I have been fortunate enough to address these concerns on the national
stage following on from my election to Dáil Éireann, the Irish national
parliament.
One of the more heartening
developments in recent years is the 'broadening of the bandwidth' of the
remit of planning in Southern Ireland. Traditionally planning was carried out at
the county and city level. Within the last three years we have seen new
legislation and strategies approved which have resulted in the adoption of a
National Spatial Strategy for the State, and the passing of legislation which
allows for the preparation of Local Area Plans at the community scale. Planning
now has the tools to address national and neighbourhood level. Perhaps the weak
spot in all of this is the political will to row behind this. There are
financial and other resource based issues involved
The
challenge of higher densities
For many years in the South new
development was planned at very low densities. This was partially due to a
natural antipathy towards higher densities, an attitude that had its roots in
the Garden City movement. The phrase 'nothing to be gained by overcrowding'
still strikes a chord amongst the more senior decision-makers. Government
guidance on new housing areas espoused the low-density suburb centred on the
semi-detached model up until the 1980's. The transport model was built up
around the private car, with buses for the less fortunate. Myles Wright, and
advisor to the Irish Government in the mid-1960's stated:
"Ireland
is coming late into the age of a car for most families. There is every sign that
Irishman, as sturdy individualists and democrats will wish to use their cars
fully. There is every reason why they should, ...where long stretches of trunk
road offer near-perfect motoring conditions, and will do so for long period
ahead."
Wright, Myles, The Dublin Region, Advisory
Regional Plan and Final Report Part One, 1966, Government of Ireland
However there has been a change
in policy in recent year. Residential Density Guidelines for Planning
Authorities were published in 1999, and this is leading to apartments being
built where once semi-detached houses might have been built. The UK
Government's 'Towards an Urban Renaissance' is having an influence in
Irish Planning Circles. Higher
densities can dramatically reduce transport demand, by allowing people to live
closer to where they live work and relax.
Following a Government policy
on urban renewal in the larger towns and cities in the 1990's that was based
on fiscal incentives, which allowed the developer to write off the capital costs
of building work against taxes over a ten-year period, incentives were applied
to smaller towns more recently. In order to qualify for the newer incentives
Integrated Area Plans had to be submitted by the local authorities concerned to
the Department of the Environment for approval. Such plans had to evaluate the
built fabric of the towns and make detailed proposals for their future
development. The complexity of this newer scheme may have contributed to its
more limited success, although I suspect that investment in smaller towns is
more based on the commitment of the local entrepreneur, rather than on seemingly
complex Government support.
Principles
for regulating development
Higher densities are working,
but without a commensurate increase in design input, there is a danger that
mediocre schemes will be built. Ten years ago as a wave of development commenced
adjacent to the quays along both sides of the River Liffey I suggested that
strong planning principles were needed to control development at these
densities.
I set out a list of planning
principles that included the following.
-Existing
buildings and facades should be retained or re-used, where possible.
-Developments
that respect the existing plot sizes and block pattern shall be encouraged.
-Pastiche
or mock period facades should be avoided.
- To
encourage on-street activity throughout the day a mixture of uses shall be
sought in all blocks, and within individual buildings. To this end, entrances to
upper floors from the quayside shall be encouraged.
-The
street frontage of new buildings should respect the 'foot-print' of
pre-existing buildings on the site, and shall avoid chamfered or rounded street
corners.
-Appropriate
public space shall be provided, relative to the size of the proposed
development.
I would suggest that these
guidelines are still appropriate today in setting out broad place-making
principles for development. The Quays along the river Liffey in Dublin have
undergone massive development over the last decade, with mixed results. Critics
would point to the over-emphasis on pastiche at the expense of good
architecture. Why build massive chimneys, when there are no fireplaces in the
entire building? The scheme at a prominent site at Bachelors Walk adjacent to
O'Connell Street was designed without the assistance of an architect. An
attractive infill development at Ormond Quay in Dublin retained a three-storey
seventeenth century building and was designed by Patrick Shaffrey.
There is a dangerous middle
ground visible in some recent developments that are built at higher densities.
If local authorities insist on a large amount of parking and if there is not a
requirement to place the bulk of the parking underground, then the outside
spaces can be dominated by the needs of the car. The traffic engineers must be
kept under control. The middle ground between making blocks of relatively high
density and making single buildings that are unattached or semi-detached is
fraught with danger. The design of outside areas and the relationship between
buildings is crucial to creating good places.
Ildefons Cerda, in his plans
for Barcelona in the nineteenth century was clear in his defence of the block,
and his high-density solutions have stood the test of time. In his initial
plans, the interior of the blocks were left free for communal gardens, but
development pressures led to their utilisation for factories and other uses.
Ensuring
democratic input into development
Increasing the input of
communities into the planning process can be a worthy exercise. It is however
difficult to get the balance right, and it is always important that the
designer's vision does not get submerged in a sea of consultation. All too
often we get bogged down in the degrees of tokenism that exist in the middle
ground between citizen power and non-participation.
In 1971 the sociologist
Arnstein published 'Eight rungs of citizen participation. It still provides a
good shorthand test of whether we are engaged in tokenism.
Two years ago I undertook the
negotiating of the form and activities that would take place in a proposed
centre in a community of 5,000 people in a disadvantage suburb of Dublin. It was
useful to make a model of the entire neighbourhood. Each of the two storey
terraced houses within the district was photographed, and then photocopied onto
a block model so that people could recognise their home by seeing their net
curtains or car on the large model.
Simple block models of the
components of the proposed centre were given to people at community meetings.
These ranged from a terrace of apartments over shops, a medical centre and a
pub, and participants at this 'planning for real' workshop could decide what
to include, and to arrange the individual uses as they saw fit. The meetings
were heated, but physically handling the model provided a good opportunity for a
wide variety of opinions to be voiced.
The importance of design
In the United States recent
years have seen the growth of the 'New Urbanism' movement. This movement
encourages high densities, a careful analysis of typology, and strives to create
mixed-use walkable neighbourhoods. Alexander Duany, one of the founders of that
movement suggests that there is no need to reinvent the wheel, and that good
place making in America can be traced back to early settlements a hundred years
ago.
I feel the same is true in
Ireland or England. Our forefathers excelled in creating streets, squares, parks
and playgrounds that were high on design and diversity. In Ireland in the
1940's the State built villages for the workers who harvested peat or turf.
A plan for two storey-terraced housing in the midlands of Ireland by
Frank Gibney addresses the public road, and creates an organic green at the
centre of the development. These settlements planned and built in the 1940's
and fifties were probably Ireland's answer to the Garden city movement.
Plans for a new mixed-use
settlement at the northwestern edge of Dublin City were sketched by Jim Pike and
include a town square adjacent to a commuter rail station.
Temple Bar in the heart of
Dublin is well know to many, although I suspect not necessarily by virtue of its
planning principles. A broad-brush Action Plan had existed for the area for many
years. However a competition was run by the State company Temple Bar Properties
for an architectural framework plan. The competition was won by 'Group 91',
which comprised of several young architectural firms well known for their design
skills that came together to plan this city quarter. The winning masterplan was
characterised by architectural conservation, and the making of clear urban
squares. The area is a success, but the rapid expansion of licensed premises can
detract or add to the experience, depending on your perspective.
A quayside scheme in Temple bar
designed by Gilroy McMahon sits comfortably alongside a curious older Lever
Brothers building. Both buildings enhance this stretch of the river, and at
night the apartment dwellers can be seen in their kitchens through the modern
glazing, adding to the vibrancy of this bustling neighbourhood.
More recently the Dublin Spire
designed by Ian Ritchie was erected at the former site of Nelson's pillar on
O'Connell Street in Dublin's city centre. The IRA blew up the original
pillar in 1966, leaving a visual and real gap in Dubliners' perception of
their city. This slim 120 metre high and 3 metre wide stainless steel needle
sits comfortably one of Dublin's wider thoroughfares, and shows us that
place-making is not confined to the making of streets and buildings.
Making good places is the art
of the possible. It requires density, democracy and design. As competition
between cities and regions intensifies in northern Europe, places that are
characterised by a good 'quality of life' are becoming the winners. I am
convinced that the making of good places can contribute substantially to
improving the quality of everyone's lives.
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