Introduction to the Towards Successful Suburban Town Centres Project at UCL
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This presentation opened the workshop organised by the SSTC project team the London Buildings centre on April 23rd, 2009
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Introduction to the Towards Successful Suburban Town Centres Project at UCL
- 1. Sustainability as adaptability Towards Successful Suburban Town Centres Presented by Dr Laura Vaughan
- 3. London’s centres and spatial accessibility Camden Town Angel Archway Hampstead Crouch End Muswell Hill Stratford Greenwich Brixton Plumstead New Cross Leyton East Ham
- 5. Key discovery #1 Spatial accessibility shapes movement Research shows that 60-80% of movement flows are due to the structure of the network, measured by spatial accessibility. More accessible places get more movement This does not mean that space determines individual movement. It means that human movement follows predictable patterns. Space Syntax © 2008 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 y = .784x + 2.147, R-squared: .589 Spatial accessibility Pedestrian movement Spatial accessibility -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 y = 1.235x + 1.048, R-squared: .702 Vehicle movement
- 6. Key discovery #2 Spatial accessibility shapes land use As cities evolve, land uses exploit spatial accessibility . Movement-sensitive land uses locate on movement-rich streets. Less movement-sensitive uses locate around the corner . In this way, historic cities organise themselves, mixing land uses in a natural way that people understand intuitively. They also adapt themselves to social and economic change through time. Space Syntax © 2008
- 10. Continuity in road-network structures: Bexleyheath c.1800
- 11. Continuity in road-network structures: Bexleyheath c.1890
- 12. Continuity in road-network structures: Bexleyheath c.1950
- 13. Continuity in road-network structures: Bexleyheath c.2000 © Google Earth 2009
- 15. Theme 3: Not just retail: the high street as a generator of socio-economic diversity
- 22. To think about suburban form and function you need to consider the whole city Space syntax analysis computes all the roads in a street network according to how they interconnect at different geographical scales. These accessibility measures are then used to describe how far particular streets and areas are integrated or segregated in relation to their surroundings. The extent of segregation and integration is scale sensitive . A given street or area may be locally integrated at a local scale but relatively segregated at a larger scale. Streets or areas which are integrated at many different scales are likely to be foci of activity such as high streets and town centres.
Editor's Notes
- Within the next 20 years, most housing growth in England and Wales is predicted to occur in suburban settlements. This development is expected to be sustainable economically and environmentally, which means that the suburb is required to provide local economic activities in order to minimise travel and to support cohesive and vibrant communities. The Towards Successful Suburban Town Centres (SSTC) research project at University College London is investigating the strategic contribution of Greater London’s smaller and district centres to the sustainability of the metropolitan region. We interpret ‘sustainability’ as referring to those conditions that are favourable to local concentrations of socioeconomic and cultural activity that persist over time. The research has found that the widespread perception of suburbia as synonymous with social and architectural homogeneity belies its spatial, social, ethnic and economic diversity. With pressure to build large numbers of new homes increasing, there is a real danger that such perceptions become self-fulfilling. The project has developed space syntax methodology in a geographical information system to enable land use data to be mapped and analysed in relation to space syntax measures of network accessibility. This has enabled a novel understanding of the relationship between urban form and patterns of land use activity to arise. Initial findings suggest that the success of local centres is dependent on the ability of their built environments to adapt to social and economic change by facilitating pedestrian movement around an extended central area and accessibility to vehicular and public transport at larger scales of movement. We believe that adaptability is important as it can help small centres support a wider and more robust range of locally generated activity than is the case in a retail monoculture. Adaptability is key to economic sustainability and it is this potential in the suburban built environment that needs to be more widely understood. We have found that where the town centre supports a diverse range of activities it benefits from increased by-product movement, where people do more than the things they came deliberately to do during their visit to the centre. This is not purely an economic benefit. More time spent locally leads to a more vibrant mix of people on the streets and helps enliven the town centre throughout the day. We suggest that this street network potential is a critical element for sustaining the vitality of suburban and small town centres. The extensive and varied activity in areas with such characteristics enables periodic daily and weekly movement as it furthers the engagement of individuals with their locality.