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Design and the Urban Environment

Summary of the impact

Since 2006 Professor Cooper has led interdisciplinary research to inform the design of the urban environment, especially in relation to creating sustainable places that support citizen wellbeing. Outcomes include a new model of design decision-making, a toolkit for urban design decisions, and collation of evidence on the impact of environment on mental health and wellbeing. Her work has been supported by EPSRC, over ninety companies, and six city councils. Impact has included tools to enable planners and developers to address issues such as density and wellbeing; informing government policy on mental health and the environment; raising the profile of design-led approaches to complex policy problems.

Submitting Institution

Lancaster University

Unit of Assessment

Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory

Summary Impact Type

Health

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Human Geography, Policy and Administration

A new approach to urban street planning and design

Summary of the impact

Peter Jones' research developed new principles for urban street planning and design, which have been incorporated into Department for Transport (DfT) and Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) national guidelines. The methodology has been used in the Mayor of London's Roads Task Force report; Transport for London (TfL) now requires boroughs to use the classification for all new submissions for funding for street schemes. It underpins the specification of an £650m PFI highway maintenance contract with LB Hounslow, and has been used by other UK local authorities. Internationally, the approach has been applied in Australia and included in draft regulations for urban planning in Beijing.

Submitting Institution

University College London

Unit of Assessment

Civil and Construction Engineering

Summary Impact Type

Political

Research Subject Area(s)

Engineering: Civil Engineering
Economics: Applied Economics

Shifts in the seating market for niche communities through design research integrating postural analysis, user needs and manufacturing technologies

Summary of the impact

Since 1989, Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BIAD) has spearheaded a comprehensive seating design research programme that has resulted in specific and recognisable outputs and impacts.

Key areas of knowledge have been developed through:

  • detailed studies of the operational needs of specific communities;
  • investigations into the postural requirements of user groups; and
  • exploring manufacturing technologies appropriate to the economic scale of production.

The research has resulted in multiple innovations demonstrated through registered designs. All designs have been licensed to UK companies for the purposes of manufacture and distribution. From January 2008 to end June 2013, sales have comprised more than 30,000 seating units across three continents.

Submitting Institution

Birmingham City University

Unit of Assessment

Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Engineering: Manufacturing Engineering
Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Built Environment and Design: Design Practice and Management

Kunsthaus, Graz: innovative museum design, cultural and urban regeneration

Summary of the impact

The Kunsthaus in Graz, Austria, which emerged from UCL research by Cook and Fournier, and opened in 2003, has had a substantial and sustained impact on the city. Indeed, it has become a key symbol in Graz and a major contributor to tourism and increased visitor figures due to its innovative and iconic design. It has led the regeneration of the once-depressed district it is located in — a fact the city then acknowledged in its successful application to become an UNESCO `City of Design' in 2011. The dramatic external form and spaces within the building have inspired groundbreaking new curatorial practices that have since been applied by its curators elsewhere.

Submitting Institution

University College London

Unit of Assessment

Architecture, Built Environment and Planning

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Engineering: Civil Engineering
Built Environment and Design: Building, Design Practice and Management

Facilitating culture change in perceptions of skateboarding

Summary of the impact

Borden's research into the history and contemporary urban practice of skateboarding, and particularly its role within cities and public spaces, has enhanced understanding of this global urban activity, leading to significant changes in how the public and media understand skateboarding culture in the UK and abroad. His work has also contributed to the campaign to save a historic skateboarding site at the Southbank Centre in London, and to moves to protect similar sites elsewhere. Finally, research by Borden has informed the design and development of some of the most influential skateboarding venues in the country.

Submitting Institution

University College London

Unit of Assessment

Architecture, Built Environment and Planning

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Built Environment and Design: Design Practice and Management
Studies In Creative Arts and Writing: Visual Arts and Crafts
Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies

Design governance in the built environment: Facilitating the use of design codes

Summary of the impact

Work by Carmona et al has supported the national drive for better design in the built environment, helping to mainstream ideas about the importance of urban design and develop tools for design governance. A major strand of this research has focused on the use and potential of design codes in England, and has been a major contributor to their widespread adoption. As a result, by 2012, some 45% of local authorities and 66% of urban design consultants had used design codes.

Submitting Institution

University College London

Unit of Assessment

Architecture, Built Environment and Planning

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services

Constructed Landform – A Design Vocabulary for New Rural Architecture

Summary of the impact

This impact relates to a body of practice-based research undertaken by Professor Graeme Hutton (since 2000) and centres on a single output, `The Shed' (2009), a 500m2 constructed residence and studio in rural Perthshire. The research has contributed to an advancement of thought and refinement of rural design practice internationally and locally. It has:

A. Informed a critical direction for professionals in architectural design relating to designing for predominantly landscape contexts

B. Informed wider society of the critical debate surrounding appropriate architectural designs for rural contexts

C. Established benchmark references for guiding planning and design judgements for sensitive rural locations

D. Transcribed this rural design research into the broader debate about architecture in the rural and urban built environment.

Submitting Institution

University of Dundee

Unit of Assessment

Architecture, Built Environment and Planning

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Built Environment and Design: Architecture, Design Practice and Management

Le Petit Bayle

Summary of the impact

Le Petit Bayle is a house in France that was designed by Jef Smith, a member of Kent School of Architecture's Centre for Architecture and Sustainable Environment, as co-designer with Victoria Thornton, completed in 2008, and which is Smith's output JS1. The range and significance of this impact is demonstrated through its dissemination to a broad and international audience of architects; architecture students in general; and architectural technicians / other building and design practitioners through a range of media. Wide coverage of the project already demonstrates impact on the primary dissemination media for architects. In addition, the house has been used as an exemplar project by L'Espace Info Énergie du Conseil d'Architecture d'Urbanisme et de l'Environnement de Midi-Pyrénées (EIE / CAUE) in France which has included study visits and public exhibitions, reaching a wide and international variety of readers and viewers from those with a general interest to specialists working in related fields. The continuing research project consists not only of the design of the house and its execution, but also of observation, post-occupancy assessment, and the formulation for new research and design principles.

Le Petit Bayle has been chosen as a case study by Dr Avi Friedman of the McGill School of Architecture to feature in his forthcoming book Sustainable Dwellings.

Submitting Institution

University of Kent

Unit of Assessment

Architecture, Built Environment and Planning

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Built Environment and Design: Building, Design Practice and Management

V&A Dundee-Design, Industry and the Cultural Economy

Summary of the impact

Professor Follett's research in craft, design and business, developed through the AHRC-funded Past-Present-Future-Craft-Practice project[2,7], has identified the need for a national design centre. This research has led to the development of the V&A Dundee concept, a £45m centre for design opening 2016/17.

Follett established Design-in-Action, Knowledge Exchange Hub delivering an innovation network, with 450 SMEs and six new products by September 2013, creating a sustainable investment portfolio and "a model of innovation for the sector" — quote by the AHRC.

Impacts of this research consist of:

  • the conceptualisation, fundraising and establishment of a major new cultural centre for design;
  • increased public engagement with design;
  • innovative forms of assistance to SMEs.

Submitting Institution

University of Dundee

Unit of Assessment

Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration
Studies In Creative Arts and Writing: Film, Television and Digital Media

Space Syntax: improving national and international urban environments

Summary of the impact

This case study describes impacts arising from pioneering UCL space syntax research by Hillier, Penn et al, funded principally by the EPSRC. Impacts have been achieved particularly through the establishment and subsequent activities of a technology transfer spin-out company, Space Syntax Limited (SSLtd), which works closely with UCL researchers to provide strategic, evidence-based consulting services in architectural and urban design, planning, transport and property development. Since 2008, SSLtd has informed the development of 147 projects in the UK and 73 projects abroad. The impacts of these projects, along with over 400 others undertaken before 2008, include significant and measurable economic, social and environmental improvement to urban environments in the UK and internationally, with important follow-on impacts on the quality of citizens' lives.

Submitting Institution

University College London

Unit of Assessment

Architecture, Built Environment and Planning

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Human Geography

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