Beyond design review: collaborating to create well-designed places in Scotland

Abstract

This paper reflects on the national design advice service in Scotland operated by Architecture & Design Scotland (A&DS) since 2005. It describes how design review in Scotland has evolved from a traditional panel model operating alongside a range of training and skills development functions into a more holistic and dynamic design advice service. The paper argues that the evolution of design review in Scotland signifies an innovative shift away from the combative setting of a design panel, where the force of an argument wins the day, towards a more measured and collaborative process of enabling well-designed buildings and places.

Conceptualising ‘street-level’ urban design governance in Scotland

“…The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), the former national design champion in England, operated a high-profile design review panel which helped embed design review within planning processes across the United Kingdom (Black, 2019). CABE's Scottish equivalent, Architecture and Design Scotland (A&DS), continues to run its own similar process (White and Chapple, 2019).…”

“…Design review is an increasingly common intervention, and exemplifies the collaborative imperatives of design governance. Design review is a widely-used tool for the peer review of the design of built environment projects, usually conducted by a panel of external experts – typically experienced built environment professionals including architects and urban designers – on behalf of a governing authority (Carmona, 2019b; White and Chapple, 2019). The traditional street-level bureaucrat in this context, a public authority planner, has additional discretion to manage a network of reviewers, while parts of the authority’s street-level design function, in steering development proposals in line with policy aims, are executed informally by an external stakeholder group.…”

“…The existence of a design review panel can set clear pre-application expectations to developers (Punter, 2011), but the impact derives largely from the soft power of peer review which encourages developers to present their best work, similarly to the design crit model used by architecture schools (White and Chapple, 2019). The discretion exercised by design review panel members is therefore critical to the process, but has received limited academic attention.…”

Design Governance, Austerity and the Public Interest: Planning and the Delivery of ‘Well-Designed Places’ in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland

“…It was launched in August 2017 alongside the recruitment of a full-time design officer who is tasked with running the panel and providing both strategic and case-specific advice to planning officers (West Dunbartonshire Council, 2017b). Design review panels usually involve a group of experienced professionals providing 'peer-to-peer' advice on planning proposals in parallel to the standard application process (White & Chapple, 2018). Before setting up its panel, West Dunbartonshire Council gathered existing research on design review panels, including guidance produced in the 2000s by CABE, and the 2010s by its successor, the Design Council (West Dunbartonshire Council, 2019a).…”

“…As the property market boomed during the early 2000s, significant investment was targeted towards design-led urban regeneration schemes. The advocacy of design literate planning was widely supported and well-funded, particularly by the newlyestablished Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) in England (Carmona et al, 2016;Punter, 2011), by Architecture and Design Scotland, the Design Commission for Wales, and the Ministerial Advisory Group for Architecture and the Built Environment in Northern Ireland in the recently devolved nations (Carmona, 2019a; Ministerial Advisory Group for Architecture and the Built Environment, 2017; Punter, 2010aPunter, , 2010bWhite & Chapple, 2018).…”