Demos LSE presentation - Nature of The Suburbs
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This document summarizes the key research questions and findings from a study on the nature and adaptability of suburbs over time. The study examines how suburban design contributes to success, how adaptability sustains suburbs, and the influence of social interactions and movement on economic vitality. It finds that suburbs have a long history and are dynamic places that function at multiple scales. Movement modeling shows some streets experience more through-traffic and are more accessible. Land use varies by location and scale, with some areas being local centers but relatively isolated at larger scales. The research uses mixed methods including space syntax, business ethnography, qualitative GIS, and urban history to understand suburban change and impact policy, analytics, and organizations.
Demos LSE presentation - Nature of The Suburbs
- 1. The nature of suburbia - change and continuity Adaptable Suburbs: a study of the relationship between networks of human activity and the changing form of urban and suburban centres through time
- 2. Background The UK‟s suburbs are overlooked and poorly understood. The word „suburb‟ betrays their perceived status as places that are subordinate to the centre. Urban policy has tended to treat them simply as extensions of towns and cities and as places where nothing changes, rather than as separate entities we can learn from, with their own particular characteristics.
- 3. Key research questions • How does the urban design of suburbs contribute to their success? • Is the adaptability of these places contributing to their sustaining over time? • What is the influence of social interactions and spatial movement on the economic vitality and adaptability of places?
- 5. Defining suburbs • The suburbs are not a recent innovation. • The stone carving of the ancient Persian city of Madaktu shows suburban domiciles situated among the palm trees outside the city walls. • Peter Ackroyd has also commented of London‟s suburbs that they are “as old as the city itself” (London: The Relief of the Elamite city of Madaktu, Persia. The town Biography , 2000, 727). itself, with its towered walls and its suburbs in which every house is sheltered by a date tree, is figured in the centre (668-627 BCE). Source: The Project Gutenberg EBook of „A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria‟, v. 1, by Georges Perrot and Charles Chipiez, page 332 5
- 6. Towards Successful Suburban Town Centres Project: www.sstc.ucl.ac.uk kilometres
- 7. The suburban environment: sprawl?
- 8. Or town centres with residential hinterlands? Wealdstone Harrow
- 9. Photograph of High Road, Wealdstone c.1900 The suburban environment as sprawl? Or as a place – generator of activity – that has been sustained over time. 9
- 10. Conventional image 4: The suburban high The suburban environment as street as a sprawl? Or • No generator this slide: photograph of busy high place – text on of activity – that is street more than just retail 10
- 11. 2. KEY FINDINGS FROM PREVIOUS RESEARCH
- 12. 2. KEY FINDINGS FROM PREVIOUS PROJECT Multi-scale movement and activity Borehamwood is functioning simultaneously as local centre, commuter route and dormitory suburban town centre This is an outcome of its multi-scale properties Borehamwood, High Street
- 13. 2. KEY FINDINGS FROM PREVIOUS PROJECT Long tail of activity 900000 113 outer London town centres ordered by commercial floorspace Croydon 800000 700000 600000 Approx. top 15 centres 500000 Flr_Space_Sqm account for 50% of 400000 Watford 300000 commercial floorspace; 200000 Uxbridge approx. 100 account for 100000 the other 50% 0 Smaller centres -100000 Observations contribute to sustainable 113 outer London town centres ordered by commercial floorspace (excluding Croydon, Kingston, Watford, Bromley and Ealing) urban life by supporting 300000 Romford socio-economic and 250000 Uxbridge cultural diversity across 200000 a wide range of activities Flr_Space_Sqm 150000 Brent and nurturing them at 100000 Cross the local scale. Essential 50000 Surbiton Chipping Barnet South links in the chain 0 Norwood -50000 Observations
- 14. Cities are very complex systems, but they grow from a simple idea: they are large dense aggregates of buildings linked by space. The space takes the form of a linear network, which we call a town plan or street network. It’s what we see when we look down from above.
- 15. It is over 20 years since space syntax suggested this network might be of interest in itself for understanding cities, by showing that the network had certain potentials which could shape how cities worked. Here we see a network model that calculates all potential movement to central London.
- 16. Holloway Road Stoke Newington Road Oxford Street King’s Road Our research shows if people moved from everywhere to everywhere else by simplest routes, then some streets would get more movement through them than others. With high speed computers, this through movement potential of streets can be calculated mathematically. Integration 16 (segment global)
- 17. Holloway Road Stoke Newington Road Oxford Street King’s Road Some streets are also much easier to get to than others. It’s a question of the complexity of routes from each street to all others. These different degrees of accessibility for to- movement can also be measured mathematically. Some streets are also much easier to get to than others. It‟s a question of the complexity of routes from each street to all others. These different degrees of accessibility for to-movement can also be measured mathematically. Choice 17 (segment global)
- 18. Through-movement potential at smaller scale highlights persistence of activity beyond reaches of official town centre Residents Segment Log Choice 800m 2000m Non Residents 18
- 19. Land-use and choice Small-scale spatial model reveals long-tail of activity, longevity of non-residential presence in the area Choice radius 400
- 20. Land-use and choice Distribution of uses varies across location and scale of potential journey. Choice radius 800
- 21. Land-use and choice A given street or area may be central at a local scale but relatively segregated at a larger scale. Choice radius 1600
- 22. Adaptable suburbs 2010-14 3. RESEARCH PROGRAMME:
- 23. Research programme: Space Syntax Residents 74% (n=69); Median route length: 982m Segment Log 2000m Choice 800m Non Residents 26% (n=24); Median route length: 389m
- 24. Research programme: Business ethnography
- 25. Research programme: qualitative GIS
- 26. Research programme: quantitative GIS
- 27. Research programme: urban history High Barnet 1913 High Barnet 1965
- 28. 4. RESEARCH IMPACT (KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER)
- 29. 4. RESEARCH IMPACT 4. Research Impact (Knowledge Transfer) • Inform social-economic policy • Advance analytic and modelling capabilities • Benefit government agencies, civic society and the third sector • Raise the profile of suburbs as having a role to play in the future of urban sustainability
- 30. Further information: http://www.sstc.ucl.ac.uk Blog: http://uclsstc.wordpress.com/ Twitter: @AdaptableSuburb 5. QUESTIONS
Editor's Notes
- #4: The research made it clear that often ignored places can be models of flexible form, sustaining successful spatial networks over centuries, and basing their success on ‘invisible’ spaces, such as garages and backlands and ‘invisible’ uses such as small business, workshops and offices.UCL developed tools for planners to help them apply this knowledge to decisions about their places. Now a 3½ year successor project is underway, building on these findings to investigate how the shape of suburbs contributes to their success. Adaptable Suburbs is seeking to understand why the networks of street and spaces in 20 of the London suburbs already studied work well. Extensive, multi-disciplinary analysis will be used to explore the influence of social interactions and spatial movement on the economic vitality and adaptability of places. Key techniques will include space syntax analysis of street network accessibility; historical analysis of change over time; street-level ethnography, interviewing the people who use and trade in each centre and mapping their perceptions of their spatial networks; and detailed town centre analysis using socio-economic data. Local workshops will inform the development of a practical model for use by planners. In tough economic times, the era of large-scale, all-encompassing regeneration projects is probably over. Instead growth and positive change will come from small-scale, incremental change specific to each place, builds directly on individual strengths and assets. Adaptable Suburbs will make small suburban neighbourhoods visible to policymakers; provide new information and understanding on how to make place work better; and make this knowledge available to local authority planners so it can be applied and used where it is needed.
- #19: Second, local shopping street to the east, Ewell Road, used by residents. Non resident shopping routes are very limited.Shoppers: 29 (85.3%) residents (1061m); 5 (14.7%) non residents (916m)Non-shoppers: 36 (70.6%) residents (906); 15 (29.4%) non residents (487m)
- #23: UCL’s EPSRC-funded Towards Successful Suburban Town Centres project challenged policy assumptions about suburbs, revealing that they have a great deal to teach us. Looking at 26 suburban centres in outer London – places such as Barnet and Bexleyheath, South Norwood and South Harrow, Wallington and Whetstone, seen as both unfashionable and unremarkable – the research team delivered new findings about the extent of their adaptability and resilience. The research made it clear that often ignored places can be models of flexible form, sustaining successful spatial networks over centuries, and basing their success on ‘invisible’ spaces, such as garages and backlands and ‘invisible’ uses such as small business, workshops and offices.UCL developed tools for planners to help them apply this knowledge to decisions about their places. Now a 3½ year successor project is underway, building on these findings to investigate how the shape of suburbs contributes to their success. Adaptable Suburbs is seeking to understand why the networks of street and spaces in 20 of the London suburbs already studied work well. Extensive, multi-disciplinary analysis will be used to explore the influence of social interactions and spatial movement on the economic vitality and adaptability of places. Key techniques will include space syntax analysis of street network accessibility; historical analysis of change over time; street-level ethnography, interviewing the people who use and trade in each centre and mapping their perceptions of their spatial networks; and detailed town centre analysis using socio-economic data. Local workshops will inform the development of a practical model for use by planners. In tough economic times, the era of large-scale, all-encompassing regeneration projects is probably over. Instead growth and positive change will come from small-scale, incremental change specific to each place, builds directly on individual strengths and assets. Adaptable Suburbs will make small suburban neighbourhoods visible to policymakers; provide new information and understanding on how to make place work better; and make this knowledge available to local authority planners so it can be applied and used where it is needed.
- #25: Chipping Barnet market - March 2011
- #29: UCL’s EPSRC-funded Towards Successful Suburban Town Centres project challenged policy assumptions about suburbs, revealing that they have a great deal to teach us. Looking at 26 suburban centres in outer London – places such as Barnet and Bexleyheath, South Norwood and South Harrow, Wallington and Whetstone, seen as both unfashionable and unremarkable – the research team delivered new findings about the extent of their adaptability and resilience. The research made it clear that often ignored places can be models of flexible form, sustaining successful spatial networks over centuries, and basing their success on ‘invisible’ spaces, such as garages and backlands and ‘invisible’ uses such as small business, workshops and offices.UCL developed tools for planners to help them apply this knowledge to decisions about their places. Now a 3½ year successor project is underway, building on these findings to investigate how the shape of suburbs contributes to their success. Adaptable Suburbs is seeking to understand why the networks of street and spaces in 20 of the London suburbs already studied work well. Extensive, multi-disciplinary analysis will be used to explore the influence of social interactions and spatial movement on the economic vitality and adaptability of places. Key techniques will include space syntax analysis of street network accessibility; historical analysis of change over time; street-level ethnography, interviewing the people who use and trade in each centre and mapping their perceptions of their spatial networks; and detailed town centre analysis using socio-economic data. Local workshops will inform the development of a practical model for use by planners. In tough economic times, the era of large-scale, all-encompassing regeneration projects is probably over. Instead growth and positive change will come from small-scale, incremental change specific to each place, builds directly on individual strengths and assets. Adaptable Suburbs will make small suburban neighbourhoods visible to policymakers; provide new information and understanding on how to make place work better; and make this knowledge available to local authority planners so it can be applied and used where it is needed.
- #31: UCL’s EPSRC-funded Towards Successful Suburban Town Centres project challenged policy assumptions about suburbs, revealing that they have a great deal to teach us. Looking at 26 suburban centres in outer London – places such as Barnet and Bexleyheath, South Norwood and South Harrow, Wallington and Whetstone, seen as both unfashionable and unremarkable – the research team delivered new findings about the extent of their adaptability and resilience. The research made it clear that often ignored places can be models of flexible form, sustaining successful spatial networks over centuries, and basing their success on ‘invisible’ spaces, such as garages and backlands and ‘invisible’ uses such as small business, workshops and offices.UCL developed tools for planners to help them apply this knowledge to decisions about their places. Now a 3½ year successor project is underway, building on these findings to investigate how the shape of suburbs contributes to their success. Adaptable Suburbs is seeking to understand why the networks of street and spaces in 20 of the London suburbs already studied work well. Extensive, multi-disciplinary analysis will be used to explore the influence of social interactions and spatial movement on the economic vitality and adaptability of places. Key techniques will include space syntax analysis of street network accessibility; historical analysis of change over time; street-level ethnography, interviewing the people who use and trade in each centre and mapping their perceptions of their spatial networks; and detailed town centre analysis using socio-economic data. Local workshops will inform the development of a practical model for use by planners. In tough economic times, the era of large-scale, all-encompassing regeneration projects is probably over. Instead growth and positive change will come from small-scale, incremental change specific to each place, builds directly on individual strengths and assets. Adaptable Suburbs will make small suburban neighbourhoods visible to policymakers; provide new information and understanding on how to make place work better; and make this knowledge available to local authority planners so it can be applied and used where it is needed.