planningarchitecture
Written 101 posts
Lessons learned from the Aussie housing challenge.
14th December 2015
Ian Gilzean is Chief Architect within Planning & Architecture Division. In December last year Ian flew out to begin a three-month secondment with Melbourne University and guest blogs to share his experience of working in Australia. In the past 18 months Planning and Architecture Division has seen a great deal of collaboration with the city…
Place standard Launch
10th December 2015
The new Place Standard tool for Scotland was launched today. Designed to support communities, public, private and third sectors, to work efficiently together, the Place Standard provides a framework to assess the quality of a place. Place Standard has been tested with stakeholders and piloted in communities across Scotland in 2015 and has been developed…
Planning Delivery Advice – Housing and Infrastructure
1st December 2015
Feedback on Stakeholder Workshops In June 2015 Alex Neil MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Communities and Pensioners’ Rights, announced that new advice to improve planning for infrastructure and housing would be published towards the end of the year. http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Scottish-Government-signals-planning-modernisation-19c7.aspx The purpose of the advice is to support the more effective delivery of housing and…
National Development Management Forum
25th November 2015
Building networks, engaging with others, and sharing good practice were key themes at this year’s National Development Management Forum, which took place yesterday 24th November, 2015 at Scottish Government’s office Victoria Quay, Edinburgh. The event brought together 100 delegates from planning authorities, the private sector, the Agencies and central Government, to discuss and share ideas…
Scotland’s Towns Week…Celebrating Scotland’s towns
18th November 2015
This week marks Scotland towns week #STW15 – a celebration of Scottish towns centres and the people who work hard to protect them. And this month marks the second anniversary of the Town Centre Action Plan, the plan the Scottish Government published following the year long national review of town centres that concluded in…
Scottish Coal Task Force
17th November 2015
Surface coal mining is a significant and extensive land use across Scottish coalfields which extend from Fife in the east across the Lothians, North and South Lanarkshire to East Ayrshire in the south west. In 2013 when Scottish Coal and ATH folded, it soon became clear that there was insufficient bond money to restore many…
SAQP Awards 2015 … and the winner is
11th November 2015
Following welcoming remarks from John McNairney, Scottish Governments Chief Planner, Susie Stirling presented the certificates for the Government’s Designing Places Student Competition. The main part of the evening was the presentation of the record number of Awards and Commendations for 2015. Projects ranging from development on the ground through to good practice in planning enforcement were highlighted. …
Heat: Our biggest element of energy use
5th November 2015
Heat is at the core of Scotland’s energy system. It is the biggest element of our energy use (over 55%), and the largest source of our emissions (47%). The Scottish Government is committed to largely decarbonising our energy system by 2050, at an affordable price to consumers through maintaining and developing secure supplies of energy….
Drawing Places
29th October 2015
Pens were at the ready on 14th October for this year’s Drawing Places skills symposium. This was organised in advance of the Architecture and Design Scotland’s Place Challenge (Arbroath) which is being held this week to identify the issues challenging the role of town centres as sustainable places. The event was held at the Lighthouse,…
Independent Review of Planning – meet the Secretariat
28th October 2015
The independent panel appointed to undertake the review of Scottish planning met for the first time on 13 October 2015. Planning and Architecture Division are providing support to the panel throughout the process, and there was much for the Secretariat to prepare in advance of the panel meeting. The Secretariat comprises myself and Suzanne Stephen,…