New English planning rules insist upon Gentle Density in brownfield sites & within 800m of well connected train stations. But what does that mean? And how do you make it?

"Poundbury is exceptional. It also has faults. Of course it does. It is made by humans, after all." “It is a town, not a housing estate. This distinguishes Poundbury from any other development of the last 80 years...

New English planning rules insist upon Gentle Density in brownfield sites & within 800m of well connected train stations. But what does that mean? And how do you make it?

New social housing in Islington from around 2010 (yes, really).

We can design, we can afford & we can create beautiful new streets & places. Observe how some gable ends, properly detailed windows & a brick floor make all the difference here. Little things. Modest costs. And yet they transform the loveless into the lovely.

🚨Tomorrow. Hackney’s Planning Committee faces a choice that matters well beyond Shoreditch. Supporting Shoreditch Works would signal that London backs good growth in the right places, growth that strengthens streets, supports jobs and contributes to the long-term health of the city.

How did we ban beauty by mistake? You can read our latest report Banning Beauty featured prominently in the @telegraph.co.uk

What a happy looking home and garden. Observe the details & coherence which lifts the house from a wall with nine holes to something worth looking at.

As the days begin to get longer, the countdown to the Create Streets Foundation Urban Design and Architecture Summer School begins! Will you be joining us? ➡️https://createstreetsfoundation.org.uk/creating-places-academy/summer-school/ #summerschool #urbandesign #architecture

We're growing the team! Are you passionate about designing streets and places that people actually want to live in? We're looking for talented people who care about creating beautiful, human-scale urban environments:

These are both train stations.

Trinity House, Trinity Square. 1941 and today. What is unmade may be remade.

Trinity House, Trinity Square. 1941 and today. What is unmade may be remade.

Check out our director Nicholas Boys Smith MBE on The Critic Show last week talking about the construction and restoration of the Palace of Westminster. You can watch it here www.outpoststudios.net/p/the-palace...

The best streets have enclosure & variety in a pattern.

Struggling to think of a Christmas present for the urbanists & artists in your life? Check out the upcoming Create Streets Foundation short courses! Gentle Density Masterclass - www.createstreetsfoundation.org.uk/creating_gen... Dare to Draw - www.createstreetsfoundation.org.uk/dare-to-draw/

This slice of Paris is new. Every mote of it. New homes & places don't need to be loveless. We chose to create ugly places because we don't ask: is this humane? Is this lovely? Is this kind? But we can afford to. If we dare to slip the surly bonds. Read more - www.createstreets.com/projects/com...

CAMBRIDGE: New data. Clear preferences. The public want buildings that fit in, not stick out. A new poll by DeltapollUK Create Streets finds 71% of Britons prefer a traditional alternative to the current design for the Christ’s College library.

Is this best news for city creation for over a century? In Solano County, California (California Forever) is attempting something fascinating: a unified-landowner model to build what might become “the finest piece of urbanism at that scale” for over 100 years .... 🧵

What a joy to behold. Gloucester's 26 Westgate ('Old Judges House'), and England's largest timber-framed townhouse has been repaired thanks to a grant from Historic England. Approaching 500 years old, it's now home to the Gloucester Antiques Centre. Long may she thrive...

Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it. But, what was destroyed may be reforged as our friends in glorious Dresden are demonstrating. This is new. Every gold stone of it.

Have just seen this great little article on German trams by @robertkwolek.bsky.social of @createstreets.bsky.social www.createstreets.com/the-country-...

Our generation’s gift to London. YES, YES, YES to new homes but this is not loving or respectful to places or their people. Meanwhile, less manacled by group think, Paris in the same decade is building…

Many of Britain’s 6,116 villages and small communities have an A-Road running through them. Fast roads like these are slicing British villages in two, creating Highway Halves. So, how do we fix it?

Northdown Road, Islington, 2008 to 2019.

New Gentle Density emerging in London. A lot is admirable here. Curves. Arches. Texture. Reeding. Implied pilasters. Slowly, pace by pace we are winning.

Great to be included among many other informative and transformative groups and people in the urban design sphere!

If you seek hope, looks at some of the marvellous Gentle Density happening in Britain right now. From the always marvellous work of Ollier Smurthwaite in Altrincham to....

🚨NEW BLOG How can rail contribute to a more prosperous, better connected and more equitable Britain? Find out in our latest blog: bettertransport.org.uk/blog/making-...

If you are in Liverpool for this year's Labour Conference, come along and join the conversation (outside the secure zone!) #LPC25

The Road to a Proportionate System report, released today by Pocket Living, highlights both the challenges and opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in housebuilding. These small builders once delivered 40% of new homes, but now build barely 12%...

Got an idea for a sustainable transport project? We work with governments, businesses & non profits on bespoke projects & reports, having recently worked with @unisontheunion.bsky.social & @createstreets.bsky.social to name just two. Get in touch to find out more: bettertransport.org.uk/contact-us.

If you want some hope for the future have a look at the proposals to restitch the ancient English town of Newbury. They're probably the best town centre development being proposed in Britain today, quite inspiring: a perfect example of three core concepts....

Amazingly, this is new. The spell of faceless traffic modernism is breaking.

Want to hear more about our work and research, then we can ever post here? Then do sign up to our newsletter. It only takes 30 seconds. a43cbf12.sibforms.com/serve/MUIFAA...

New regeneration near Paris: helping the virtuous circle of place spin after 80 years of failed traffic-modernism ✅Gentle Density ✅Popular ✅Beautiful ✅Street trees ✅Equal quantum of social housing ✅Supports trams, bikes, walking ✅Higher land values ✅Homes, shops, offices 📍Les Plessis-Robinson

As Sadiq Khan gets the green light to (finally) move Oxford Street towards pedestrianisation, with a new Mayoral Development Corporation to help make it happen, Nicholas Boys Smith and Eleanor Broad reflect on Exhibition Road’s transformation some 20 years ago...

'There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man,’ said Samuel Johnson, ‘by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.’

Glasgow’s late C19th & early C20th architecture is inspiring, traditional forms & patterns applied with confident aplomb to new commercial requirements, as banks...

Everywhere people are rejecting places that are heartless, ugly and soulless. Find out where, how and why... We were delighted to work with our good friend The Aesthetic City voyaging around the urban renaissance now underway. Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn9V...

Nearly everything we’ve done to our towns and cities for the last century has heated them up. That might be good in the winter. But it’s definitely bad in the summer. We’ve cut down street trees to let the cars drive faster, and to make the lives of highways officials easier.

Kentlands in Maryland, the first non-resort, new urban development in America, is 35 years old. It is the age at which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart & Marilyn Monroe died & the ‘danger zone’ for many modish new developments.....

East to west, south to north a quiet revolution is underway. We're escaping the errors of traffic modernism. We're daring, again, to create new places or re-stitch old ones to be beautiful, durable, happy & humane...

Want to learn to create places people are proud of? At the Create Streets Foundation Summer School, we explore how to design towns and neighbourhoods that are beautiful, sociable, sustainable and loved. With leading tutors including from ADAM Architecture and beyond...

📊 Only 2% of British adults trust developers to improve places. But what if... a development made a street more attractive, not less? 🧵A critical friend review of Shoreditch Works & how we can build a better London for everyone.

Bathos (noun) An effect of anticlimax created by a lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous.

Why do some places stall while others thrive? Because a vague guide delays. A good design code speeds up good development - by being crystal clear about what’s allowed and de-risking the right homes in the right places. www.createstreets.com/five-ingredi...

Is anything as joyful as Dutch cities? Gentle Density with canals, bikes & audible birdsong

Greening up the streets in the office today....