CABE to design review proposed eco-towns

CABE has announced today (10 November 2009) that a special design review panel has been set up to provide expert advice on the quality of designs for the government’s proposed eco-towns.

Working with Communities and Local Government (CLG) and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), CABE has set up a dedicated eco-towns review panel to review the proposals for the four designated eco-towns: Whitehill-Bordon in Hampshire; Rackheath in Norfolk; North-West Bicester in Oxfordshire; and St Austell in Cornwall. CABE will provide design advice to the relevant local authority.

The specialist panel brings together a vast wealth of expertise and experience.  It will be chaired by Sunand Prasad, former RIBA president, with CABE commissioner Richard Cass as vice chair. Other members include: Chris Twinn, director at Arup and co-founder of the company’s sustainability group in building engineering; Bill Gething of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios; Peter Studdert, director of joint planning at South Cambridgeshire District Council; masterplanner and urban designer Jon Rowland; and architect Gerard Maccreanor of Maccreanor Lavington.

Sunand Prasad, chair of the panel, comments: “The eco-town programme is all about learning by trying out sustainable, low carbon planning and design solutions that are more difficult and time consuming to try out in heavily constrained existing settlements. However, the ultimate point of this learning is to find solutions that we can apply widely. A successful eco-town will be a place where people want to live, not just one that ticks the boxes.”

Other panel members have been drawn from the Eco-towns Challenge Panel and include Sir Peter Hall, president of the Town and Country Planning Association, and Sue Riddlestone, director of BioRegional Development Group. Members bring broad expertise including on: landscape; green energy; transport; biodiversity; sustainability; planning; urban design; masterplanning; and architecture.  

The reviews will be part of CABE’s national design review programme, but form part of a specially designated eco-town panel which will comment on the specific issues involved in eco-town designs. The panel will apply its specialist knowledge to examine the urban developments in a broad way; they will be looking for schemes that demonstrate that the towns will be coherent, enduring and high-quality places to live, while also achieving exemplary standards of sustainability and environmental responsiveness.

Diane Haigh, director of design review at CABE, said: “We look forward to seeing design proposals that give form to the whole proposition of an eco-town in the UK context. It is in the public interest that these schemes should be reviewed by CABE’s independent panel - if they can convince this array of experts, they should stand every chance of achieving their aims when finally developed.”

The panel’s first review will be on 2 December 2009.

CABE and BioRegional produced joint guidance in September last year. What makes an eco-town? was inspired by the Challenge Panel and sets out the principles for the agencies involved in developing proposals.

Notes to editors

• A full list of all the panel members is below. For more detailed biographies, please use this link: http://www.cabe.org.uk/people/eco-towns-panel
• Chris Baines is a horticulturalist and landscape architect. 
• Patrick Bellew is a founding director of Atelier Ten.
• Richard Cass (vice chair) founded Cass Associates in 1983.
• Andrew Cromer is a director of Buro Happold Limited.
• Christophe Egret set up Studio Egret West with David West.
• Roger Evans is principal of studio | REAL.
• Bill Gething is a partner of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios.
• Prof. Sir Peter Hall is Bartlett Professor of Planning and Regeneration at the Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning, University College London.
• John Hopkins is project sponsor for the Olympic parklands and public realm at the Olympic Delivery Authority.
• Robin Hickman is an associate transport and urban planner at Halcrow.  
• Gerard Maccreanor is the director in charge of Maccreanor Lavington’s Rotterdam office.
• Brian Mark is Director of Sustainability at Fulcrum.
• Robin Nicholson is a senior director of Edward Cullinan Architects.
• Dr Duncan Painter established his ecological consultancy Applied Ecology Ltd in 2005. 
• Sunand Prasad (chair) is co-founder of Penoyre-Prasad, one of the founding commissioners of CABE, and former RIBA president.  
• Sue Riddlestone is co-founder and director of BioRegional Development Group.
• Jon Rowland is director of the urban design practice JRUD.
• Peter Studdert is director of joint planning for Cambridge’s growth areas, based at South Cambridgeshire District Council.
• Chris Twinn is a Director of the Building Engineering Sustainability Group at Arup.
• Joanna Yarrow is a writer, broadcaster and consultant specialising in sustainable lifestyles. She is also a founder of Blue Living.
• CABE is the government’s advisor on architecture, urban design and public space. As a public body, we encourage policymakers to create places that work for people. We help local planners apply national design policy and offer expert advice to developers and architects. We show public sector clients how to commission buildings that meet the needs of their users. And we seek to inspire the public to demand more from their buildings and spaces. Advising, influencing and inspiring, we work to create well-designed, welcoming places. www.cabe.org.uk