What are the key principles of sustainable urban design that P&DG follows?

What are the key principles of sustainable urban design that P&DG follows?

Sustainability is a key consideration in all our planning and urban design projects at P&DG. Planning together with good urban design have an important role to play in incorporating various sustainability aspects and delivering communities which are attractive and successful. During the design and masterplanning process, our urban designers adopt a holistic approach considering a wide range of topics, not only environmental, with the aim to deliver a sustainable layout or masterplan.

Model reference from https://www.communityfirstoxon.org/

Pedestrian and cycle friendly masterplans – Our layouts aim to provide a safe and accessible development that encourages walking and cycling with a people-friendly transport network. We focus on reducing car dependency where possible and creating a network of attractive routes within the proposed development and to surrounding areas.

Provision of services and facilities which are carefully located to be accessible by all and reflect the local need. For P&DG, it is important our proposed developments are connected to a range of new and existing services that support the local community.

High quality open spaces that are welcoming, attractive and safe to encourage local residents to use them. Working with other consultants, our urban designers also support the provision and/or enhancement of wildlife habitats and biodiversity as an important aspect of a sustainable community.

Socially inclusive community: it is important to create a community that is inclusive and caters for all social groups, reflecting local need. As part of planning applications and in conjunction with masterplans, our urban designers often prepare Design and Access Statements and Design Codes to support the appropriate housing mix for the proposed development and local area, promote high quality affordable housing and suggest open spaces that are welcoming and can be used as social spaces by all.

Our residential and mixed use masterplans will aim to support the local economy, with the provision and diversification of services that benefit the local area. Access to existing services and facilities from the proposed development is also carefully considered, ensuring new residents will support the existing local economy.

Full understanding of the site, its opportunities and constraints, and the local wider area is important to deliver a development that has a sense of place, with local distinctiveness and enhances an area. A high quality fully integrated built and natural environment, with appropriate built form and scale, balanced development use and housing mix and accessible and integrated open space provision provides the development framework to encourage a healthy and sustainable local community. At P&DG, we produce design guidance and plans such as DAS, Design Codes and Parameter Plans that can complement our development proposals.

By adopting the concepts above, our urban designers aim to create a development with a sense of community identity and belonging which is socially inclusive, where people of all ages and backgrounds feel respected and welcomed. It will also inspire friendly, cooperative behaviour between residents and assist in maintaining low levels of crime and anti-social behaviour.

Our team at P&DG are highly experienced in organising public consultations and events with stakeholders. We encourage active participation by individuals, other organisations and consultants from the early design and planning stage, with our masterplans and design guidance evolving to reflect discussions and comments received.

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