National ‘Best Practice’ Guidance.
By Design, authored by Urban Initiatives and published in 2000, was a huge influence on urban design in the UK. It brought urban design into the mainstream, introducing a new design language that was adopted as national policy and embraced by local authorities nationwide.
Commissioned by the DETR and CABE, By Design provided a best practice manual to promote and manage the design of better places and buildings. By Design formed the foundation for design policies in Local Plans and also promoted the use of design guides, development briefs and audits as a means of facilitating development control. By Design identified and advocated the use of forums, awards and advisory panels to improve design outcomes – things that are mainstream now but were highly influential at the time.
Urban Initiatives not only authored the manual but promoted its recommendations through our work as well as, in programmes of design training for CABE and Urban Design London to support local authority officers, Councillors and developers.
National guidance that became the standard urban design guide for Planning Authorities
