The drive towards a full transition to electric vehicles is omnipresent. This is highlighted by the recent announcement by General Motors, the world’s largest car producer, to transition to a full production line of electric vehicles by 2035 and become a carbon neutral company by 2040. In the UK, the government previously stated that after…
Indfør zoner med forskellig arkitektur, lav mere inddragende borgerhøringer og øg fleksibiliteten for brug af ejendomme i bymidten. Det er opskriften på stærkere lokalplaner, skriver byplanlægger Ian Livingstone. De mange debatindlæg i Byrummonitors serie ’Svære lokalplaner’ giver interessante bud på, hvordan man forbedrer indretningen af vores byer. Flere af dem synes dog fokuserede på at…
Read more Indfør arkitekturzoner i stedet for at stille flere krav i lokalplanerne
If Local Area Plans require more architecture, they also need more flexibility in use: The Planning Act can enable this. Link to Byrum Article here. Design Guides? Firstly, it is my feeling that rather than incorporating greater architectural detail and requirements into Local Area Plans, consideration should be given to the designation of architectural character…
The experiences of the last few months has undoubtedly resulted in more people actively connecting (or reconnecting) with their local area. This is set to continue due to the extent of home working. With more people than ever before likely interested in their surrounding environment, this should be an obvious and opportune time for planning…
It is clear that the current health pandemic will have a significant lasting effect on the way we live in the future. It will be important that towns and cities adapt to the conditions under which the population is operating, in order to protect ourselves as well as each other, until a vaccine is developed…
Read more Garden City principles already inform the Danish ‘Finger Plan’
A decision by the England Planning Inspectorate regarding the continued use of a launderette in Notting Hill, West London, shows significant weight assigned to assets of community and social value. The owner of the launderette had applied for a change of use from the existing launderette, to a dentist surgery, another community use in its…
The new Copenhagen Municipal Plan ‘World City with Responsibility’ was adopted on Thursday 27th February and will come into effect from April. This sets the plans and policies for the development of the city in the period to 2031. The draft plan was subject to a number of significant changes which were adopted within the…
As the desire to transition to a more sustainable urban society, the Paris Mayor has set out an ambition of a ’15 minute city’ in the central area of capital’s 20 arrondissements. This will include all facilities which are typically expected to be needed by urban dwellers, to be found within a 15 minute walking…
Read more The 15 minute city – moving towards a universal ‘mixed-use’ zoning future?
The meteoric rise of Airbnb has been well publicised over the last 5 or more years across the world. It is now that Governments are reacting to the presence of short term let properties and introducing legislation to deal with them appropriately. This is to ensure an adequate stock of available homes on a long…
Vattenfall recently announced its first floating solar farm in the Netherlands. The 1.2 MW floating farm will help to power 50% of the ongoing mining and extraction works at a site in Gendringen. This is a practice which should be widely promoted on a global scale, where achievable. Man made lakes and those which arise…
The developing technological world is inevitably having an impact on working lifestyles and facilitating an ever more mobile world. There are obvious advantages for employees, be it personnel with a lengthy commute working from home a number of days per week, a female employee returning from maternity leave or a consultant with a broad geographical…
I am pleased to announce that from 11th November, Livplan will be a resident of the urban environment working community operating from Bloxhub, at the Danish Architecture Centre in Copenhagen. Through this move I hope to contribute positively to the diversity of community and make new connections. Please come and find me if you are…
A global trend which emerged some years ago continues to flourish in towns and cities across the globe, transcending neighbourhoods and on the face of it, improving urban streetscapes. The health benefits of ‘getting one’s hands dirty’ is well documented and carrying out sporadic, but purposeful bouts of urban horticulture at street corners, junctions and…
The City Council of Minneaopolis, Minnesota, a city in the central-eastern American state has taken the decision to ban any future drive thru restaurants in the settlement. This is viewed as solution to the incidental occurrence of car accidents in proximity to these uses, as well as the contribution to air pollution by idling cars…
It has recently be discovered that urban planning in Jakarta has reached new levels, literally. Cosmos Park is an urban community of 78 dwellings, recreational facilities and infrastructure on top of an existing shopping mall in the Indonesian capital. It has existed for approximately 10 years and provides a safe and secluded way of life…
A recent conference in Dublin heard that school kids who cycled or walked to school displayed capabilities to ‘concentrate for longer and remember things more easily’. This is particularly topical at a time when Dublin is seeking to make significant infrastructural improvements to its transport network to enhance and promote sustainable forms of transport as…
Urban spaces as an individual entity are unique across the world. They each form a small piece of a wider, collective urban jigsaw and define the fabric of neighbourhoods and communities who use them. Their value is dictated through design and integration with the surrounding environment and how they are used socially. An early study…
An Bord Pleanála recently resolved to grant planning permission for an 88 metre tower at Tara Street. This contentious development had previously been rebutted by Dublin City Council and ABP and again at the second time of asking, the Planning Authority refused to support the amended proposal, citing ‘irrecoverable’ impacts upon the setting and character…
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/25/poverty-safari-orwell-books-prize-scottish-rapper-loki The book ‘Poverty Safari’, written by Scottish author and rapper Darren McGarvey, aka Loki, claimed the Orwell Prize 2018 for political writing. The book provides an autobiographical tale of the authors upbringing in Pollok, a high rise scheme in south Glasgow in the early 1990s. The author experienced first hand the impacts of a…
There is currently seemingly endless media and journalistic coverage in Ireland relative to homelessness and the ‘housing crisis’. Government planning policy and guidance is now geared towards rapid housing delivery through ‘fast-track’ planning applications and better use of land in urban areas to maximise densities and contribute to compact growth. Due to the housing market…
