Urban Design Governance

Soft powers and the European experience

Matthew Carmona, João Bento, and Tommaso Gabrieli

ISBN: 9781800084254

Publication: April 17, 2023

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What is this?

Urban Design Governance takes a deep dive into the governance of urban design around Europe. It examines interventions in the means and processes of designing the built environment as devised by public authorities and other stakeholders across the continent. In particular, the focus is on the use of soft powers and allied financial mechanisms to influence design quality in the public interest. In doing so, the book traces the scope, use and effectiveness of the range of informal (non-regulatory) urban design governance tools that governments, municipalities and others have at their disposal.
Developed from the Urban Maestro project, a joint initiative of the United Nations Human Settlement programme (UN-Habitat), UCL and the Brussels Bouwmeester Maître Architecte (BMA), Urban Design Governance offers the first panorama of informal urban design governance tools from across Europe, and places the tools within a theoretical and analytical framework with the potential to be applied locally and internationally. Last, the book discusses and reveals the essential pre-requisites for the effective governance of urban design.

Governments everywhere are increasingly seeing these sorts of tools as part of a necessary investment in delivering the high-quality built environments that their residents, businesses and investors demand. This book shows how.

Praise for Urban Design Governance

'Illustrating the Urban Maestro method, many case studies report on both the formal and informal tools. going beyond the traditional ways to explore the topics with schemes, photographs, innovative aspects and relevant bibliography, and of interest to all who work in urban design policy-making and governance.'
Urban Design Journal

Matthew Carmona is Professor of Planning and Urban Design at The Bartlett, UCL.

João Bento is Honorary Research Fellow at The Bartlett School of Planning, UCL.

Tommaso Gabrieli is Associate Professor at The Bartlett School of Planning, UCL.

List of figures
Acknowledgements
Preface

1 Urban design governance in Europe
2 Exploring European urban design governance
3 A European typology of tools
4 Understanding the informal tools
5 The financial dimension
6 Interrogating the tools
7 Landscapes, tools and fundamentals for delivery

References
Index

‘Urban Design Governance gives a truly fascinating insight into the sophisticated tools and process deployed in development today, and the importance of soft powers across Europe in placeshaping.’
David Chapman, University of Stavanger

Format: Open Access PDF

126 colour illustrations

ISBN: 9781800084254

Publication: April 17, 2023