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Designing Places
management
Arrangements for management, aftercare and maintenance may be as important
as the actual design
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Willowbrae, Edinburgh
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Central Edinburgh
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The value of good design
Good design is a means of achieving aims and adding value:
- A well thought out design process, for example, with urban design frameworks
and development briefs, can provide a clear basis for communication and negotiation.
Developers benefit from a good degree of certainty about what is expected,
avoiding delay and saving abortive work and unnecessary expense. The design
process can resolve conflicts that might otherwise emerge, messily and expensively,
at a later stage.
- Good design adds value to the investment that any development scheme represents.
- Good design creates places that work. People will use and value such places,
supporting regeneration and bringing long term economic benefits. Well designed
places attract customers and their workplaces keep their staff.
- Good design can reduce the long term costs of energy, maintenance, management
and security.
- Well designed places establish and maintain a distinct identity, to the
benefit of users and investors.
- Well designed places are easy to get to and move around. The thought put
into connecting them into their surroundings pays off.
- Good design is a key to achieving social, economic and environmental goals
of public policy, as laid down by central and local government. It can bridge
the gap between aspirations and reality.
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