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Designing Places

Using the toolkit

Among the most effective tools for planning and urban design guidance are urban design frameworks (for areas of change), development briefs (for significant sites), master plans (for sites where a degree of certainty is possible), design guides (for sensitive areas or on specific topics) and design codes (where a degree of prescription is appropriate). As people use a variety of different and inconsistent terms for such documents, it is wise always to explain what is intended in a particular case.

Different types of guidance are often closely linked. An urban design framework for an area may be elaborated by development briefs or master plans for several specific sites. A development brief may be expanded into a master plan by an organisation, such as a developer or partnership, that owns the site or controls the development process. A design code is likely to be part of, or associated with, a development brief or a master plan which sets out the design principles that the code elaborates.

Urban design frameworks

Detailed thinking about urban design begins with areas where there is a particular need to control, guide and promote change. Documents called urban design frameworks show how planning and design policies should be implemented, and what principles should be followed by developers and their designers.

Granton and Granton Master Plan, Edinburgh

Development briefs

Guidance on how planning and design policies should be implemented on a specific site of significant size or sensitivity is set out in a development brief (combining what used to be described as design briefs and planning briefs). Development briefs should be widely used, with as much or little detail as is appropriate in view of the nature of the site and the likely uses. Every development brief will set out the main planning and design principles on which development of the site will be based. In some cases it will be appropriate to go into more detail.

Master plans

A master plan is a document that usually comes later in the development process than either an urban design framework or development brief. A master plan explains how a site or a series of sites will be developed, describing and illustrating the proposed urban form in three dimensions. It should explain how that form will achieve the intended vision for the place, describing how the proposal will be implemented, and setting out the costs, phasing and timing of development. A master plan will usually be prepared by or on behalf of an organisation that owns the site or controls the development process.

Design guides

A design guide provides guidance on how development can be carried out in accordance with the development plan, or sometimes with the planning and design policies of some other organisation. A local authority design guide will often relate to a specific topic such as conservation areas, shopfronts or house extensions.

master plan

Master plan is the most commonly used term for design and planning guidance. Master plans can give coherence and a strong sense of place to an unpromising brownfield site

Graham Square, Glasgow

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