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The Building Homes Programme is the place to learn how to provide great places to live. This year our events include focus on the current drive to zero carbon, the use of masterplans and design codes and how new housing can respond to the pandemic.

Subscribe to our Building Homes Programme for access to a wide range of events that focus on all stages of the development process and help you overcome the barriers to delivering good quality housing. For more information please get in touch.

Past Event

Tue 11/04/23, 10am–12.30pm
Palestra

Working with Barratt homes to consider design approaches to meet new fire safety requirements for tall buildings.

This event will take place in-person.

Past Event

Thu 30/03/23, 9.30am–12.30pm
Zoom
Related Events: Building Homes

This session helps you draw lessons to feed into future development, evaluating both homes and the places they help create.

The agenda includes:

  • Understanding how work on lessons learned has developed in recent years and how integral it is to the housing development sector.
  • Exploring how to develop a strategy for gathering and embedding lessons learned.
  • Learning from case studies of how organisations have designed, gathered and evaluated housing development.
  • Understanding how we can make lessons learned count for our communites now and into the future.
Past Event

Tue 21/03/23, 9.30am–12.30pm
Zoom
Related Events: Urban Futures

Why it is hard to change established approaches and suggestions on how best to move thinking along.

Past Event

Thu 02/03/23, 10am–12pm
Zoom

Outline planning permissions provide some certainty to developers, encouraging them to invest in the early work behind buildings being created.  But outline applications give very little certainty of the quality and impact of what will be built for communities and local authorities. In this roundtable session we will discuss the pros and cons of both types of application, current trends in their use and how best to handle them.

Past Event

Wed 22/02/23, 10am–12pm
Zoom
Related Events: Building Homes

Covering the practicalities of home delivery – reviewing design, setting up partnerships, procurement and managing relationships.

The agenda includes:

  • Learning about the key challenges for housing delivery with an overview of the tools and approaches which are used to bring development in within time, cost and quality requirements.
  • Understanding how and where the design is developed through the delivery process from inception to completion, learning about the key points where the design is influenced and changes can be made.
  • Using partnerships – exploring what to look out for, setting clear objectives for the scheme and evaluating your partners. Practical tips and pitfalls to avoid and support available to help.
  • Exploring how to get the best from procurement, the key points where the process needs to be shaped for both design consultants and contractors and how to do this.
  • Learning from the delivery journey using case studies, with particular focus on managing the relationships to achieve success.
Past Event

Thu 02/02/23, 10–11.30am
Site Visit
Related Events: UDL In-Person

This visit will explore Arup’s industry-first immersive facility. It is designed to change the way designers, clients and stakeholders can experience, test and improve their designs by allowing you to understand how decisions impact the experience of a place.

Agenda

10.00 Welcome with Arup, Susan May and David Edge

10.10 Divide into Group A and B tours (40mins each)

11:30 Q&A and Finish

Past Event

Tue 17/01/23, 10am–12pm
Zoom
Related Events: Building Homes

This session explores the practical experience of practitioners using design tools to help create great places - including design briefs, masterplans, design codes and design review.

Download Event Takeaways

Past Event

Wed 30/11/22, 10am–1pm
Zoom
Related Events: Building Homes

Looking at the different types of homes you may wish to see built, which are needed where and top design tips for each, including an update on small sites.

The agenda includes:

  • Understanding why the right type of housing matters, learning what we mean by ‘type’ and form of development.
  • Exploring the relationship between housing type and the site and wider context.
  • Learning about the relationship between housing type and client groups.
  • A focus on small sites and how they can provide a vital contribution to appropriate housing types and meeting the needs of a range of client groups.

Download Event Takeaways

Past Event

Thu 06/10/22, 9.45am–12.40pm
Zoom
Related Events: Building Homes

Considering how to achieve outcome focussed design that will help you deliver homes, including working with the community through co-design and community design panels.

The agenda includes:

  • Why working with residents is so central to enabling sustainable long-term communities.
  • How residents can shape development through the various stages from planning to inception to post-handover.
  • Understanding practical ways of working with residents and where to get help, learning from case studies.
  • How you can overcome barriers including funding, resource and cultural barriers to achieve better places for the long term.

Agenda

10.00 Welcome and Introduction – What is outcome focused design and how does it relate to residents? Katie Lea (Place Studio) & Sarah Jones-Morris (Landsmith Associates)

10.30 Shaping the approach and Q&A - Exploring how residents can shape development through the various stages from planning to inception to post-handover.

  • Planning perspective, Laura Alvarez (Nottingham City Council)
  • Project perspective, Tom Mitchell (Metropolitan Workshop) & Mary Hutchison (PRP)

11.00 Comfort break

11.10 Working with residents – Understanding practical ways of working with residents and where to get help, learning from case studies including co- design and community design panels.

  • Different approaches and help available – Perspective from The Glasshouse Community-Led Design, Sophia de Sousa (The Glass-House Community Led Design)
  • Community design panels case study – Dacorum Borough Council, Tony Burton (Consultant)

Comfort Break

  • Working with residents at Thamesmead, Nicola Murphy-Evans (GLA) and Kate Batchelor (Peabody)
  • Co-design toolbox, Mellis Haward (Archio)

12.15 Overcoming the barriers - What can stand in the way of working with residents to achieve great long-term outcomes? How you can overcome barriers including funding, resource and cultural barriers to achieve better places for the long term.

  • Catherine Greig (Make:Good)
  • Delegate exercise on Menti led by UDL – what are you seeing?
  • Speaker and delegate discussion

12.40 Wrap up & Close

Download Event Takeaways

Past Event

Mon 26/09/22, 11am–12pm
Site Visit

Join us on our tour of UCL’s Person Environment Activity Research Laboratory. PEARL is a unique facility to explore the ways in which people interact with their environment. It is a massive space in which researchers can create life-sized environments – a railway station, high street, town square – under controlled conditions, to examine how people interact with the environment and each other.

This event is in-person, please remember to keep us updated if your plans change, to help us plan catering or allow fellow members to take your place.

Past Event

Mon 23/05/22, 11am
Palestra
Related Events: UDL In-Person

We are delighted to offer this site visit kindly hosted by LB Camden and Architects Hawkins\Brown. The scheme has an innovative mix of both retrofit and newbuild and is the largest Passivhaus scheme in the UK. We will hear about the vision underpinning the scheme and discuss the placemaking, building design and energy performance.

To reserve your place, please email us at info@urbandesignlondon.com

Past Event

Tue 17/05/22, 9.30am–12.30pm
Zoom
Related Events: Building Homes

An all-round introduction to housing design, from how a development links to the wider community through to how a home is designed.

Agenda

09.45 Registration

10.00 Welcome & Overview – Why does housing design matter?

  • Understand the importance of home design and how it fits into good placemaking. Setting home design in context, looking at challenges and trends, Tom Copley (GLA)

Key characteristics of good housing design - Exploring the three key levels of housing development – relationship to the wider neighbourhood, the parts of a development and the design of the home.

10.15 Wider – Relating a development to the neighbourhood knitting the development into the wider physical, social and economic context, Esther Kurland (UDL)

  • Case Study – Wider Level: Hackney Gardens, LB Hackney, Charles Jabre (DLA Architecture)
  • Q&A

Comfort break

10.45 Site – How can the parts of a development work together well? Looning at types and tenures, outside and inside spaces focussing on design for people, recycling and waste, Kruti Patel (Metropolitan Workshop)

  • Case Study – Site level: Beechwood Mews, LB Barnet, Phil Hamilton (Peter Barber Architects)
  • Q&A

11.10 Home – Understanding aspects of good design in the home environment, Mellis Haward (Archio Ltd.)

  • Case Study – Home level: Sutherland Road, Walthamstow, Kim Walker (Levitt Bernstein)
  • Q&A

Comfort break

11.40 Annotation Exercise

  • Practical exercise in breakout groups annotating drawings to explore learning on the three levels of design, feeding back to the wider group.

12.20 Bringing design to life

  • Understand how the principles are used in practice within policy and guidance to deliver homes and places fit for London, and how these are being embedded in projects funded by the GLA, Elliot Kemp (GLA) & Alison Mayer (GLA)
  • Q&A

12.45 Wrap up & Close

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Urban Design London events are free to attend for all of our subscribing members. Please use your organisation email to proceed.

If you are interested in learning more about our membership options, or if you experience any problems with this booking form, please contact info@urbandesignlondon.com.

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