A year-long public review of architecture and the built environment, led by architect Sir Terry Farrell and a panel of architects and designers, published its findings this week. The review makes over 60 recommendations to improve the quality of architecture and the built environment in the UK. The review addresses five themes: Education, outreach and skills; Design quality; Cultural heritage; Economic benefits; Built environment policy.

Some of the key recommendations chime closely with the early findings of the research from CPRE London’s Campaign for a Liveable London. In particular they call for a shift from conduct ‘Design review panels’ to assess the quality of new developments towards ‘PLACE review panels’. The proposal talks about better integration across professions: Planning, Landscape, Architecture, Conservation and Engineering. This is very welcome and understands that buildings don’t work in isolation but interrelate with the surrounding neighbourhood, services, infrastructure, heritage and environment.

“Having worked on major landscape projects like the Royal Parks and the Thames Gateway, it has become clear to me that the design and stewardship of landscape is valued as much as, if not more than, buildings. In towns and cities throughout the country, it is the streets and pavements that are most highly valued and the ground floors of buildings that are most important to the majority of people. These priorities are often completely the reverse for the development community and built environment professionals” Sir Terry Farrell

The report calls for interactive online forums to involve the public in larger scale developments, as well as PLACE review of both new and existing developments. Place-making has to be for and include the people who use and interface with it. CPRE London feels the Farrell review could have taken this further such as by proposing to include local residents in review panels, as well through better recognition of the growing field of co-design as well as the tools that can help people to influence design, not just online but critically out on the street.

At the report launch (NLA, 3 April) Hank Dittmer (Prince’s Foundation) said local authorities are crucial champions to plan for the public good. He said they needed a more pro-active and positive approach to planning, which listens to communities and values what they have to say to improve an area. Dittmer said authorities needed to be braver in addressing the ‘worse than mediocre’ small to medium developments visible on any street corner across the country, through better procurement and better resourced planning departments.

Lucy Musgrove (Publica) noted a recent survey which showed that 80% of people thought there was a housing crisis, in terms of undersupply but also in quality. Professor Peter Bishop (UCL) said that residential associations and societies successfully push for better design in their neighbourhoods – but that this leads to ‘patches of good design’ and what we need is to build a public that can better articulate and demand good design everywhere. The review panel talked about the need to enhancing ‘design literacy’ in the build environment, not just for students of architecture and design but also for local authorities, planners and the wider public. They also called for more 'Urban Rooms', like The Building Centre, to support learning and dialogue.

Alison Brooks (Alison Brooks Architects Ltd) commented that Design quality needs to be better factored into site valuation, to address the ‘moral hazard’ in the construction process where design review is one of the first activities to be lost in the pressure to make cost-savings. She argued that focusing on the longer term economic benefits of design quality was crucial, such as the uplift in property values and increased footfall for local businesses resulting from more attractive and better designed places.

In summing up Sir Terry suggested that the review’s recommendations couldn’t be delivered by the government alone but was dependent on everyone acting like ‘mad nutters’ to work together towards bringing about change. He said there was no single silver bullet but through a raft of measures we could see a cumulative culture shift in the way we design and build urban places in the future.

The full Farrell Review can be found online here.