shaping places 1 (autumn 2013)

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SHAPING

PLACES

AUTUMN2013

RESEARCH + ENGAGEMENT NEWS FROM THE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING + LANDSCAPE

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UN-HABITAT PROJECT: FOOD SECURITY/ GOSFORTH PARK NATURE RESERVE / CO-MOTION/WIDER MBARARA PROJECT/ NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING

shaping_places6.indd 1 26/07/2013 17:46:06


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WELCOMEto the first edition of Shaping Places: the

research and engagement newsletter of theSchool of Architecture, Planning and Landscape.

You will be familiar with the term research but

not, perhaps, the idea of engagement.

While research often arises from our own

intellectual curiosity and is shaped by funders

we believe that, often, the process of research

and certainly the outcomes may have broader

societal benefits. In this we play our part in

fulfilling the Universitys mission of Excellence

with a Purpose and are proud that our researchhas shaped the actions of government, industry,

and cultural life.

Engagement is research of a different kind. It

often develops out of established relationships

with community partners or from dialogue in

which we start trying to tease out a problem

together and to explore solutions by lateral and

creative thinking. So there may be differences

in scale, funding and starting point but the

end point is often the same desire to make a

difference.

As a professionally focused School, we are

in the business of exploring the relationshipbetween people, spaces and places to create

arenas for human flourishing. This depends on

an understanding of people and contemporary

society. Much of our teaching is directed toward

developing professionals who can contribute

to making places and buildings that enrich the

quality of our society. The practice and academic

strands are strongly intertwined with many

colleagues researching how our disciplines

develop effective ways of communicating with

multiple publics in their pursuit of physical and

built expressions of the good life.

This brochure aims to give a flavour of the type

of activities we undertake, diverse in scale and

geography as well as the issues they address.

We are always keen to hear about new initiatives

and ideas, to make new partnerships as well as

build on existing ones. If you feel that there are

questions we can explore together then get in

touch.

01/ UN-Habitat Project: Food Security02/ Gosforth Park Nature Reserve03/ Co-Motion:Exploring thecomplexity of mobility in later life04/ Wider Mbarara Project, Uganda

05/ Neighbourhood Planning06/ PhD Profile07/ PhD Successes08/ Book Publications

CONTENTS

Geoff Vigar, Director of Research

[email protected]

Rose Gilroy, Director of Engagement

[email protected]

Cover imageGreat North Build at the Great North Museum/ Newcastle University



3/16

Community model for a site for common field agriculture in an informal settlement in Peru

Dr Suzanne Speak, Director of Internationalisation

and Senior Lecturer in Planning, is co-ordinating

a multi-national research Hub around the theme

of food securityas part of UN-Habitat Partner

Universities Initiative (HPUI). Food Security is one

of five thematic hubs formed under the Initiative.

HPUI aims to strengthen cooperation between UN-

Habitat and universities, encouraging universities to

partner cities and engage in problem solving, closing

the gap between academics and practitioners.

Urban food security, as defined by the continuation

of affordable, appropriate, safe and accessible

supply, is probably the most critical issue facing the

urban poor in the Global South. The UN recently

raised concern over escalating world food prices.

However, work on urban food security has typically

been disconnected from other development agendas;

for example, spatial and urban development, housing

and settlements, water quality, health, sustainability

or urban governance. There is an urgent need to

bring these agendas together.

The research Hub will involve a collaboration of

academic and practice partners seeking to promote

urban food security through development of a range

of initiatives to assure a sustainable urban food

supply that reduces environmental impact, enhances

the food security and livelihoods of the urban poor

and protects public health and urban ecosystems.

UN-HABITAT Project

The Food Security research Hub involves partners

from USA, Nigeria, India, Netherlands and Peru,

co-ordinated by Dr Speak. There are also non-

committee members in Canada and Zambia and

potentially Indonesia.

01

FOOD SECURITY

Food security is one of the most important

issues facing lower income people

around the world yet it is often studied

and researched in isolation of the main

discipline areas, particularly urban

planning, that could really improve food

security. The hope is that this Hub will

have a real impact by increasing awareness

amongst urban planning and managementprofessionals of their role in helping to

ensure that food is available, affordable

and safe for lower income households and

that urban planning, modernisation and

change do not make poorer peoples hunger

worse. We hope to be a vehicle for making

the already considerable amount of work

being undertaken on food security more

easily accessible to those engaged with the

themes and work of Habitat.

Dr Suzanne Speak



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EDUCATION/ Development of curriculum and

teaching materials on food security for relevant

university level programmes, both for in-house

and distance delivery, aiming to fill gaps in existing

provision and embed the issue of food security within

a broad range of disciplines

RESEARCH/Two initial areas of research will be

addressed:

a. Research into the drivers and barriers tosecuring a healthy and sustainable urban foodsupply

b. Develop a shared language and methodologicalapproach to research to ensure the work of theHub is truly multi- and trans-disciplinary

Further areas of research will then be developed.

UN-Habitat partnerswill engage infive main areas ofactivity:

Food queue in Bolivia/Suzanne Speak



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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT/The Hub provides

a unique opportunity to bring together those working

directly with low-income urban communities, a wide

range of professionals (including nutritionists, spatial

and urban planners and community development

experts), local functionaries and politicians as well

as local producers in order to share and disseminateknowledge and tools. Ultimately a resource and

training guide for 3rd sector organisations will be

produced, so they can build capacity in local producers

and communities and disseminate good practices from

around the world on how to undertake programmes to

assure a secure and healthy urban food supply in a safe

and sustainable way.

POLICY ADVICE/ Through a broad study of global

practices the Hub will gather and disseminate

information on the wide range of urban food security

policies at the international, national and local levels.

It will place particular emphasis on urban food

security policies affecting the poor.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT/The Hub will engage in

outreach activities to major stakeholders, including

public and private decision-makers, to bring to their

attention the full range of critical issues in securing a

healthy and sustainable urban food supply.



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Gosforth Park

Nature Reserve

Temporary learning space in the reserve

Armelle Tardiveau



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EDUCATIONAL FACILITY WITH NATURALHISTORY SOCIETY OF NORTHUMBRIA

them the outstanding potential of the site for outdoor

learning. The project team is expecting to learn

from science teachers about their requirements for

curriculum teaching outdoors. Of vital importance

to the success of the facility is the participatory

engagement of science teachers in helping the

design proposal for a future teaching facility at the

Reserve; learning about how they could use the

Reserve as a resource and what they would like to

see to encourage and enable them to bring school

groups.

James Littlewood, Director of the Natural History

Society of Northumbria:

The Natural History Society of Northumbria (NHSN)

works to encourage young people to explore and

learn about the natural world in the North East. The

Society manages Gosforth Park Nature Reserve, in

the north of Newcastle upon Tyne, where they are

looking to develop facilities that will encourage and

enable school groups to visit and study. The NHSN

approached Armelle Tardiveau and Daniel Mallo,

architects and lecturers in the School, to help with

this project because of their experience in engaging

local communities in design projects. The overallaim of the project is to develop a new education and

research facility, housed within the Reserve through

reciprocal learning with young people and their

teachers.

The first phase of the project involved Armelle

and Daniel, working together with students on

the Master of Architecture course, carrying out a

series of workshops with pupils from a year 7 STEM

(Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Club

at Longbenton Community College. The workshops

helped understand how the children engaged with

natural sciences in an outdoor environment andaimed to start generating an architectural brief for

a new education and research facility in this unique

natural resource in Newcastle.

The second phase is ongoing and focuses on primary

and secondary school teachers and their teaching

practices. The aim is to enable new approaches to

outdoor teaching and learning that will be supported

by the nature reserve. Part of the workshop will be a

guided tour of the Reserve with the teachers to show

Engagement with children and youngpeople, as well as their teachers,generated an architectural brief fora new education and research facilityin this unique natural resource inNewcastle.

02

The Natural History Society of Northumbriais a small local charity with limited resourcesto take forwards its plans. We rely heavilyon volunteers to help us achieve our aims.The work that the students and staff (fromthe School of Architecture, Planning and

Landscape) have carried out to understandthe learning needs of pupils from LongbentonSchool in relation to future education facilitiesas Gosforth Park Nature Reserve has beeninvaluable to us. Their work has enabled theproject to move forwards and we hope it willalso enable us to secure funding for futurecapital works.



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Rose Gilroy, Director of Engagement and Senior

Lecturer in Planning, is part of an interdisciplinary

research team investigating mobility in later life, an

issue of national importance to an ageing society.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics

forecast a 50% rise in the number of over-65s and a

doubling in over-85s between 2010 and 2030. This

rapid demographic change presents a number of

challenges to, as well as opportunities for, society.

Wellbeing in later life is linked to the maintenance

of independence, physical mobility itself and the

sense of being able to get about. Mobility is vital

for accessing services, resources and facilities, for

participation in communities and society, and for

avoiding loneliness. So mobility might be described

as a form of engagement with the world. As

researchers concerned with the built environment

we know that its design can enable or frustrate that

engagement.

However, because our needs are so varied, our

attempts at adaptations to improve some peoples

mobility causes problems for others: blister

pavement that promotes safe movement for visually

impaired people makes life difficult for those

using mobility scooters. There may also be conflict

between agendas: do we smooth out the paths or

do we preserve a historic landscape with cobbled

lanes? Our desire to reduce carbon emissions may

lead to limiting the hours of street lighting but has a

negative impact for people with a visual impairment.

Not only are our mobility needs and aspirations

different but over the life course we may experience

key transitions that impact on our mobility and

therefore our wellbeing. Time turns most drivers

into pedestrians; death may take the only driver in

a household; sensory loss may make a confident

independent person into someone who has to re-

learn how to get around; poor health may exclude

previously used transport modes or route ways.

The research team, led by York University, will work

closely with a large and diverse group of older people

and stakeholders from different areas of the UK.

Rose Gilroywill lead the work in the Northumberland

market town of Hexham. It will involve working

intensively with local policy actors, stakeholders and

a group of older people to not only identify problems

but also solutions. The research has a number of

strands ranging from app development to possiblere-design of mobility scooters and will employ a

range of methods from interviews, guided walks;

creative workshops, crowd sourcing, participatory

Geographic Information Systems and testing of

product design.

Co-Motion is funded by the EPSRC under its call on

Ageing and Mobility. The work will be carried out

over a three year period.

Co-Motion:EXPLORING THE COMPLEXITYOF MOBILITY IN LATER LIFE

Slow down young manLowri Bond, Northern Architecture

Above/right: Quality of Life PartnershipNewcastle University



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Co-Motion focuses onalternatives to physicaldesign or re-design of thebuilt environment whichcan be personalised to theindividuals needs.

03



10/16

Wider Mbarara Project



11/16

The House of Love Orphanageprovides a home for the mostdeprived orphans in theKichwamba area.

The Wider Mbarara Project(WMP) is an established

programme which, since 2004, has endeavoured

to provide resources previously unavailable to

communities in and around Mbarara, Uganda.

The Project is organised annually by students in

Newcastle Universitys Schools of Architecture,

Planning and Landscape (APL) and Civil Engineering

and Geosciences (CEG).

Since 2009 WMP have been involved in the

construction of a shelter for children orphaned

by AIDS called the House of Love, in the village of

Kichwamba. The project relies on 12 volunteers

raising 12000, designing the building and travelling

to Uganda to assist local labourers with the

construction.

On land donated by a local family, WMP has created

a central living building, eating area, learning centre

and dormitory block as part of a five year plan to

expand the capacity of the orphanage.

The students undertake design work through a

dialogue with local people and the money they raise

through fundraising pays for materials and local

labour. All the members are volunteers and pay

for their own travel and living expenses whilst onexpeditions.

In summer 2013 the group completed the master

plan and constructed a second dormitory, allowing

the orphanage to take in more children. The students

also undertook feasibility work on future projects in

the area which will continue to make a difference to

the lives of others.

This project allows students to gain hands on

construction skills while living within the local

community. Students have the opportunity to travel

within East Africa, and experience a variety of

cultures, people and places while making a positive

contribution.

Mbarara, Ugandawww.widermbararaproject.btck.co.uk 04

Wider Mbarara team working with local labourers on construction/

Wider Mbarara team



12/16

Neighbourhood Planning

Professor Geoff Vigar, Dr Zan Gunn and Dr

Elizabeth Brookshave conducted a research study

on Neighbourhood Development Plans (NDPs), a

new mechanism introduced in the 2011 Localism

Actwhich enables communities to draw up a plan for

their area. NDPs aim to give communities more of a

say in local development. The study looked broadly

at how such plans were developing and where, whilealso conducting detailed research in Allendalein

south west Northumberland, one of the 17 first

wave projects initiated as part of the Governments

Neighbourhood Planning Front Runner programme.

The research team were evaluating the

neighbourhood plan process, but they also

contributed to the development of the plan and

provided advice to the community where relevant.

Cuts in local government funding worsen this

situation with local authorities unable to commit

resources to groups without all the necessary

skills, which are considerable, to prepare a plan

themselves.

At a more detailed level, Neighbourhood Plans

are useful in bringing a community together to

decide what they want their place to look like in

the future. But projects of this kind are likely to

encounter hurdles: inevitably, a local community is

anything but a homogeneous entity and resources,

both human and financial, are finite, while many

potential participants do not wish to enter potentiallycontentious debates about allocating land with their

neighbours in fear of damaging personal relations.

The study further concluded that there are wider

questions about the effectiveness of Neighbourhood

Plans, even in the areas where it is happening.

Some communities have identified priorities and

sites, for affordable housing for instance, but most

communities are getting very little out of what is

typically a two year commitment to get a plan to

adoption. Project leader Professor Geoff Vigar

commented, giving neighbourhoods genuine

power and resources to determine their futures

would undoubtedly be a good thing. However,

Neighbourhood Planning as currently set out

gives very little authority to communities and at

a time of austerity for local government there

are few resources to be had more generally.

Communities in the North are especially poorly

provided for as most of the financial mechanisms

proposed in Neighbourhood Planning and associated

mechanisms are aimed at providing for unmet

housing needs in the greater South East of England.

Conclusions from the broaderresearch study suggest thatneighbourhood plans are morelikely to emerge in wealthierareas, potentially exacerbatingexisting inequalities.



13/16

Area of Allendale, Northumberland/Googlemaps

05



14/16

PHD Profle 06

Islam Abohela received a scholarship from

the School of Architecture, Planning and

Landscape to undergo his PhD research,

focusing on maximising the energy yield of

urban wind turbines, in September 2009.

Islam submitted his thesis The Effect of Roof

Shape, Wind Direction, Building Height and

Urban Configuration on the Energy Yield and

Positioning of Roof Mounted Wind Turbines

in September 2012 and passed his viva voce

with minor corrections in November 2012.

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was

implemented to simulate wind flow around

the investigated cases and for validation

purposes the simulation results were

compared to wind tunnel tests results. After

finishing his PhD, Dr Abohela joined the

staff of the School of Architecture, Planning

and Landscape as a Research Associate

working on the eViz research project Energy

Visualisation for Carbon Reduction in

Buildings. The project is an EPSRC-funded

study investigating how to reduce energy

demand in buildings by transforming peoples

understanding and behaviour through

novel energy visualisations using personal

pervasive digital technologies. It is a 1.5

million project which is being carried out

by four universities: Newcastle University,

Plymouth University, University of Bath and

University of Birmingham. Other research DrAbohela is involved in focuses on investigating

the significance of visionary architecture in

science fiction films, which was the topic of

his Masters research in architecture from the

Architectural Engineering Department in Ain

Shams University, Cairo, Egypt where he also

got his degree in architecture.

DR ISLAM ABOHELA

REHAM MAHMOUD AHMED ABDELATIFDesign Reviews at a Distance: A Qualitative

Analysis of Mediated Interaction in 3D Real

Time Virtual Environments

AHMED MOHAMED ALY ABDELREHIM

Development of Decision Support System

for Resolving Conflicts in Environmentally

Sensitive Areas

FAZIAWATI ABDUL-AZIZ

The Investigation of the Implications

of Squatter Relocations in High-Risk

Neighbourhoods in Malaysia

PHD Successes 07ISLAM MOHAMED MAHMOUD MOHAMED

ABOHELA

Effect of Roof Shape, Wind Direction,

Building Height and Urban Configuration

on the Energy Yield and Positioning of Roof

Mounted Wind Turbines

KYUNGJIN AN

Implementation of Computer Visualisation in

UK Planning

ZURAINI ANANG

Assessing the Effective Demand for Improved

Water Supply Service in Malaysia: Focusing

on Johor Water Company

NELLY JOHN BABERE

Struggle for Space: Appropriation and

Regulation of Prime Locations in Sustaining

Informal Livelihoods in Dar Es Salaam City,

Tanzania

AMINA BATAGARAWA

Assessing the Thermal Performance of

Phase Change Materials in Composite HotHumid/Hot Dry Climates: An Examination of

Office Buildings in Abuja, Nigeria

PAUL JOHN COWIE

In-migrant Networks and Knowledge

Economies in the Rural North East of

England

BAHRAM ENAYATI

Connecting Urban Planning, Management

and Open Space in Seismic Zone

GHOLAM HOSSEIN KARBASCHI

The Role of Decision Making Processes in

Urban Management Systems: Case Study of

Tehran

SUNGNAM PARK

The Social Dimension of Urban Design

as a Means of Engendering Community

Engagement in Urban Regeneration

HALIMA SANI-KATSINA

The Transformation of Dwellings in

Settlements around Kaduna Oil Refinery:

Understanding the Effect on the Quality of

Life in Processes, Practices and Outcomes

on Households and Neighbourhoods

Congratulations to thefollowing people, whosuccessfully passedtheir PhD Viva Voce in2012-13:



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Book Publications 08

DEMOLISHING WHITEHALL: LESLIEMARTIN, HAROLD WILSON AND THEARCHITECTURE OF WHITE HEATAdam Sharr, Newcastle University, and

Stephen Thornton, Cardiff University

London: Ashgate, 2013

This book is about a lost world, albeit one less

than 50 years old. It is the story of a grand

plan to demolish most of Whitehall, Londons

historic government district, and replace it

with a ziggurat-section megastructure built in

concrete.

In 1965 the architect Leslie Martin submitted

a proposal to Charles Pannell, Minister of

Public Building and Works in Harold Wilsons

Labour government, for the wholesale

reconstruction of Londons Government

Centre. Still reeling from war damage, its

eighteenth- and nineteenth-century palaces

stood as the patched-up headquarters of

an imperial bureaucracy which had once

dominated the globe. Martins plan - by no

means modest in conception, scope or scale

- proposed their replacement with a complex

that would span the roads into Parliament

Square, reframing the Houses of Parliament

and Westminster Abbey. The project was not

executed in the manner envisaged by Martin

THE COLLABORATING PLANNER?PRACTITIONERS IN THENEOLIBERAL AGEMark Tewdwr-Jones, Newcastle University,

and Ben Clifford, University College London

Bristol: Policy Press, 2013

Since the turn of the 21st century, there has

been a greater pace of reform to planning

in Britain than at any other time. As a public

sector activity, planning has also been

impacted heavily by the wider changes in the

way we are governed. Yet whilst such reform

has been extensively commented upon within

academia, few have empirically explored how

these changes are manifesting themselves

in planning practice. This new book aims to

understand how both specific planning and

broader public sector reforms have been

experienced and understood by chartered

and his associates, although a surprising

number of its proposals were implemented.

But the un-built architecture is examined

here for its insights into a distinctive moment

in British history, when a purposefultechnological future seemed not just possible

but imminent, apparently sweeping away an

anachronistic Edwardian establishment to

be replaced with a new meritocracy forged in

the white heat of technology.

The Whitehall plan had implications well

beyond its specific site. It was imagined by

its architects as a scientific investigation

into ideal building forms for the future, an

important development in their project to

unify science and art. For the political actors,

it represented a tussle between government

departments, between those who believed

that Britain needed to discard much of itsVictorian and Edwardian decoration in the

name of professionalisation and those

who sought to preserve its ornate finery.

Demolishing Whitehall investigates these

tensions between ideas of technology and

history, science and art, socialism and

elitism. It presents a compelling case study

of the relationship between architecture and

power.

town planners working in local authorities

across Great Britain. After setting out the

reform context, successive chapters then

map responses across the profession to

the implementation of spatial planning,

to targets, to public participation and to

the idea of a customer-focused planning,

and to attempts to change the culture of

planning. Each chapter outlines the reaction

by the profession to reforms promoted by

successive central and devolved governments

over the last decade, before considering the

broader issues of what this tells us about

how modernisation is rolled-out by frontline

public servants. This accessible book fills agap in the market and makes ideal reading

for students and researchers interested in

the UK planning system.



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The School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape

runs a public lecture series, inviting speakers ofinternational, national and local acclaim currently

writing, researching and practising in the built

environment and related fields.

Lectures are free and open to all and our aim is to

welcome people onto campus to inform, stimulate and

engage them in current thinking on issues of societal

and global concern.

PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES

CONTACT

follow us on twitter @NewcastleSAPL

Lectures are advertised on our website and details

sent out via our mailing list. If you would like to joinplease contact [email protected]

Previous lectures are also available to watch via the

Schools youtube channel:

NewcastleSAPL

Kim McCartney

Research & Consultancy Manager

[email protected]

Anne Fry

Events & Engagement Manager

[email protected] www.ncl.ac.uk/apl

shaping places 1 (autumn 2013)

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