The last of four RICS evening lectures on sustainable urban regeneration took place on Tuesday 24 June 2008. After three lectures of looking at the urban centre, this debate focussed on suburbs.

Suburbs and sustainability seem a contradiction. Suburbs are often perceived to relate to sprawl, car-dependency and single-use neighbourhoods. Contradiction or not, suburbs are a reality and a huge part of the sustainable challenge lies there.

This lecture had two speakers. Stephen Hill MRICS, Director of C2O futureplanners, presented his project in the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham.

Indy Johar, Director of 00:/ architecture, shared his vision on how to make (suburban) communities work.

First, some figures that were presented on the UK situation.

• In UK definitions, suburban does not exist. A place is either urban or rural;
• Nevertheless, 84% of UK citizens call suburbia home;
• 1 in 10 British adult moves every year;
• 1/3 of UK citizens would not trust their neighbours with a key when away.

Case study - Barking

The London Borough of Barking & Dagenham could be described as having an ordinary town centre, well connected and close to, but not a part of, the centre of London.

Although attractively located, there are some design features that need attention, e.g.:

• There is loads of open space, but it is defined by fences and railings;
• Routes are about rushing to ones destination, not about meeting people.

The Barking project is large scale and long term. The final result being 20 years down the line, several questions have to be addressed:

• How do you manage the disruption of change?
• How do you create a structure that contains the knowledge?
• What is the likely impact on surrounding neighbourhoods?
• What should the place ‘feel’ like? (instead of thinking about what it should ‘look’ like)

Place Shaping 

The term used by Stephen Hill to regenerate Barking is Place Shaping, which could be described as ‘the creative use of powers and influence to promote the general well-being of a community and its citizens’.

Place Shaping includes the following components:

• Building and shaping local identity;
• Managing co-existence in a shared space;
• Representing the community;
• Maintaining the cohesiveness of the community and supporting debate within it;
• Working to make the local economy more successful while being sensitive to pressures on the environment;
• The public space (the ‘outside’) is important. The relation between the inside and the outside is crucial.
• Understanding local needs and preferences and making sure that the right services are provided to local people.

Talk of the town vs. living in reality

When regeneration occurs, discussions are often based around buildings, technology and density. The theory of the ‘walkable town’ is great, but often unattainable. The reality, according to Indy Johar, is that of ‘super sprawl’

The average commute in the UK is 8.1 miles, almost always by car. Unsustainable from an environmental viewpoint, and with the rising fuel prices more and more from an economic point of view.

Local amenities have disappeared over the years. This has happened due to economies of scale and increased mobility, but also because density has gone down. Density not meaning the amount of dwellings, but the number of persons per dwelling.

What we need to do, according to Indy, is to look at things differently. If you look at things differently, you will address them differently. This could mean:

• When looking at the utilisation of space, one should also consider the utilisation in time;
• Instead of looking at the energy used per square metre, one can look at the amount of energy used per person;

Without the community, there is nothing

Communication is key to a sustainable future. People no longer meet their neighbours, which is the biggest friction of re-building the local. Building relationships is a long term exercise, just like regeneration. The communication tools are out there. E-mail, for example, is a low-barrier means of communication which can result in real contacts.

Communications amongst residents and amongst professionals will result in trust. Trust will result in increased community cohesion. Without community cohesion urban regeneration will fail. Discussions on regeneration should therefore revolve around use and people.

The presentations are available for download on the right-hand side of the screen.

Also available is the initial part of an RICS/CABE study titled ‘sustaining our suburbs’, as well as more information about C2O Futureplanners and 00:/architecture.

For more information please contact Sander Scheurwater at sscheurwater@rics.org