World Class Urban Place Making in the Thames Estuary

The inspiration for writing the article in Planning in London 91/2014 on socio-cultural and economic innovative urban place making, is a recent Centre for London publications on the Thames Estuary, Go East. Some of Southern England’s most innovative and prosperous cities, such as Bristol, Cambridge, Exeter and Oxford, have qualities that are very much sought after, qualities that need to be addressed if the Thames Estuary is to be an urban metropolitan success story. Being close to daily activities add to the attraction of inner urban living, particularly in towns with a dense centre, excellent public and private realm and dense medium-rise quality housing.

This article sets out nine principles for world class urban place making in the Thames Estuary. The principles draw particularly on innovative and prosperous dense metropolitan areas in southern England, Scotland, Scandinavia and continental western Europe, a handful of city centres in Australia, Canada and the US, as well as the One Mile Garden City.

A post-car metropolitan urban era?
Urban living is increasingly popular and high densities and compactness offer possibilities that can only be found in dense urban environments. Being close to all daily activities add to the attraction of urban living, particularly in towns and cities with a dense centre and dense medium-rise urban housing.

Building an entire new town or a major extension to an existing town is complex, not least because people's aspirations and preferences differ and change with time, because people and users of a place change with time, and because the economy, culture, religion, ecology, technology, ethnicity, education and the health of a town all evolve and change with time. In other words, building a town is not like building an aircraft carrier, space station, nuclear submarine, four runway airport, nuclear power station or delivering an Olympic game or a football world cup.

For urban place making within the Thames Estuary to be world class, perceptions of what is urban and what is socio-culturally and economic innovative must evolve and change. Investors, developers, decision makers, consultants and academics that are holding on to twentieth century solutions should take a giant step into the twenty-first century and embrace the post-car metropolitan urban era for the Thames Estuary to be a world class urban success story.

• PIL91/2014
• World Class Urban Place Making Thames Estuary 3-page article PDF  
• Extended 5-page article with precedents PDF