DESIGN REVIEW PANELS – The Property Chronicle
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DESIGN REVIEW PANELS

The Architect

Amidst the clamour for local authorities to give planning permission for new homes more easily and more speedily, there is thankfully a mechanism for upholding the quality of new dwellings and their associated public realm: Design Review.

The most enlightened developers employ clever designers to unlock the potential from unpromising sites. The solutions are often innovative by necessity, setting welcome new standards in the design and construction industry.  Volume house builders, by contrast, are often accused of holding back difficult sites and pushing forward with easier ones where they can apply their formulaic roll-outs.  Not only does this result in cookie-cutter ‘anywhere architecture’, it also often involves loss of green. As I wrote in a previous article for Property Chronicle (‘Fields of Least Resistance’), ‘brownfield’ redevelopment sites often involve removal of previous structures, or are contaminated from previous use, which adds costs for the developer. This is why our fields are being turned to brick and tarmac (if they are not already covered in solar panels). 

Local authority planning officers are increasingly under pressure, either from a pile-up of applications, lack of resource, lack of expert knowledge – or all three. Add to that the departure of in-house design officers and we are in a bad place. So, the idea of out-sourcing qualitative design assessment for large, complex or counter-policy applications has led to a relative new industry.

Design review panels already existed inside a few forward-thinking authorities and agencies in the 1990’s, but the format was introduced in a widespread way in 1999 with the formation of CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment). CABE has been regarded as a successor to The Royal Fine Art Commission, but it was born more directly out of the government’s Urban Task Force, founded in 1998 and chaired by Sir Richard Rogers. Defined as ‘The government’s advisor on architecture, urban design and public space in England’, CABE’s role was “…to influence and inspire the people making decisions about the built environment’. It championed well-designed buildings, spaces and places, ran public campaigns and provided expert advice. Initially funded by both the Departure for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Communities and Local Government, CABE covered a lot of interests and had sixteen Commissioners. 






The Architect

About Richard Rose-Casemore

Richard Rose-Casemore

Richard Rose-Casemore is a practitioner and an academic. Having worked for some of the leading practices in the UK, he co-founded Design Engine Architects in 2000, and enjoys working in all sectors and at all scales, from masterplanning to interior design, with architecture at the centre. He has been the recipient of numerous national and international awards during 25 years of practice, and received the Stephen Lawrence Prize for his own house. Richard has travelled widely in his teaching and practice, and worked in South Africa for a year as an undergraduate. He has a particular passion for teaching and led a Masters studio at Oxford Brookes University School of Architecture between 1995 and 2010. He continues to act as a visiting critic and external examiner at various UK Schools. Richard is currently a Fellow of Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of Oxford Brookes University, an Academician of Urbanism, a Member of the Chartered Society of Designers, and sits on the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Validation Board. He was a CABE Representative for five years and now chairs or sits on various Design Review Panels and the Higher Education Design Quality Forum (HEDQF).

Articles by Richard Rose-Casemore

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