Goal: Streets as spaces designed for everyone where people can rest, gather, and socialise
p42.
Streets and spaces are the public face of our towns and villages where people walk, meet, rest, and interact. They are also often the most permanent features of our built environment. An attractive public realm enhances people’s quality of life and the perception of a place.
p43.
The quality of our streets and spaces can be undermined by overly engineered traffic calming measures such as speed humps and featureless build-outs such as chicanes. This type of traffic calming is unattractive and can be frustrating for all transport modes. Natural methods of traffic calming can include narrowing down the carriageway, use of planting and build outs to incorporate street trees, use of on-street parking, change of colour/materials, use of shared surfaces, varying the alignment of the vehicular route and use of tight junction radii while considering access for emergency services and refuse vehicles. When designing turning areas, think of imaginative solutions as they do not always need to be formal. Also remember that Sustainable Drainage Systems can be incorporated into street designs and used imaginatively to provide unique features that help identify a specific order of street or signal an important route through a site.
p44.
If you design for the elderly, children, women, parents or disabled people, you are designing for all. This is inclusive design. An inclusive street is the street that meets the needs of people from early to later life. Inclusive design covers age, ability, gender, race or income. Research has shown that sensory-rich environments are places that attract a diverse range of visitors and have benefits for disabled people - particularly those with sensory impairments such as visual impairment or learning disabilities. Provide a range of opportunities for people to engage with a place through their senses (e.g. visual, scent, touch and sound of street).
p45.
The design and location of street furniture needs to be considered as part of the early stages of the design process. It should also respond to the character of the area. Think carefully about the multifunctional role that street furniture can have and how it can enhance existing character and create new character.
p46.
Design with all users’ needs in mind. The regular spacing of street seating on pedestrian routes to facilities should be provided to allow all people the opportunity to rest (in particular, think about the elderly, pregnant women, and disabled people). To keep the amount of street furniture to a minimum the functions they perform can often be combined. For example, street trees can be protected by a circular bench.
Figure 18:
An attractive public realm enhances people’s quality of life and the perception of a place
Figure 18: An attractive public realm enhances people’s quality of life and the perception of a place.
Figure 19:
An attractive public realm enhances people’s quality of life and the perception of a place
Figure 19: An attractive public realm enhances people’s quality of life and the perception of a place.
Steps
Inform your design:
Assessment of street definition and enclosure in the local area; the measurement of building heights and street widths and the continuity of buildings along the streets (the gaps between buildings and their distance from the street edge).
Use your Movement Strategy to inform the detailed design of your streets. Make sure that the design of a street reflects its order in the street hierarchy;
Seek advice from appropriate professionals (landscape and tree specialists) who can provide advice on what species might be appropriate for your development.
Communicate your design:
Demonstrate how the definition and enclosure of the streets and spaces reflect that of the local area;
Prepare a plan showing the location of all active frontages, and key buildings;
Provide details of the boundary treatment to be used including the height;
Prepare a plan and sections showing the features of each street/order of street and how they work together to create different types of social spaces, including appropriate trees, soft landscaping and street furniture;
Explain how appropriate traffic speeds will be achieved and indicate where natural methods of traffic calming have been integrated into the street design, where needed.
Swale frontages as part of a street (Upton) Varying surface materials and landscaping, enhancing shared surfaces (Tadpole Garden Village) Landscaping to soften street scene (Didcot) Traffic calming and landscaping at a human scale (Upton)
Design principles - Streets as spaces
Ensure that streets as spaces are:
fronted by main entrances/front doors which provide direct access to the street or space known as ‘active frontage’;
providing ‘natural surveillance’ by incorporating ground and first floor habitable room windows overlooking the street;
defined by boundaries that reflect the character of the area and clearly differentiates public space from private space;
providing sufficient amounts of space between the public realm and adjacent/adjoining buildings, known as ‘semi-private’ space.
the amount of street furniture is kept to a minimum to: reduce street clutter, and simplify navigation. Furniture should be of high quality, well-designed, robust, and in keeping with its setting;
all users’ needs have been considered through inclusive design. Careful consideration is given to the safety and comfort of mobility and visually impaired people. Reflect upon the need for: shade and shelter, seating for rest stops, and consider gradients. Include wayfinding and signage installations, natural surveillance;
where they are required, the use of bollards is avoided in favour of other treatments, such as tree planting;
that lighting features follow the design approach used for other street furniture and avoid causing light pollution in sensitive/darker non-urban rural areas (consider, downward lighting and reduce LUX levels in these areas). Direct glare must be avoided, from any lighting scheme to neighbouring properties;
Note: All design principles are applicable to all scales of development unless otherwise specified; *minor applications, **major applications
