RIBA

ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN: THE FOUNDATION FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES

When the government first embarked on its urban regeneration agenda, ministers chose an architect, Lord Rogers, to spearhead the review of its 'urban renaissance' policy. His ambitious 'Urban Task Force' report explored issues such as tenure, management and maintenance as critical components of the intended urban renaissance. That was a welcome move, as architectural success depends on a wider range of issues than just design.

The apparent resurgence of faith and interest in building, town and city design is most encouraging, following a decade or so during which design was undervalued or simply not on the agenda. In a wide range of building types, it is now being acknowledged that design not only enriches but also can and does produce measurable, beneficial outcomes.

For example, Roger Ullricht's research on medical buildings demonstrates that clear improvements in medical outcomes can be directly related to design and are measurable in terms of recovery rates, reduced accidents and the reduced number of relapses and return hospital visits in the recovery period. This is obviously good news in terms of producing evidence-based research into the value of designs and, in many senses, architects are now 'pushing at an open door': good design is routinely expected by government, and the complexity of the urban-design agenda has been reflected in recent government statements on sustainable communities. We have indeed come a long way since Michael Heseltine began to focus attention on the links between employment, poverty and design in the context of inner-city decline. John Gummer also deserves much praise and recognition for his work: he showed an acute understanding of urban-design issues. He also gave substantial encouragement to those pursuing the sustainability agenda - and rightly so. Buildings account for a staggering 50 per cent of carbon-dioxide emissions (transport accounts for 30 per cent and manufacturing/agriculture for the remaining 20 per cent). Since 1997, ministers such as Mark Fisher, Chris Smith, Michael Meacher and Brian Wilson have continued with even greater vigour the good work of their predecessors.

More than shelter
What the government has come to recognise is a simple truth: architecture and design are key to delivering good-quality urban environments. Architecture is both part of the construction industry and a creative discipline. It contributes to domestic economic success - and often reflects it - and is also a key contributor to the balance of payments as an export. Architecture is 'functional', for example, in providing necessary shelter but, equally importantly, it can also 'lift the spirit'.

The three drivers of change in recent years, which have permitted the construction sector to expand, are: first, the long period of stable economic growth; second, the National Lottery; and, finally, the government's capital-investment programme. Indeed, for schools alone the budget has increased from £860mn in 1996/97 to £3bn in 2002/03 and is set to rise still further to £5.1bn in 2005/06. With that scale of investment, this generation can potentially leave behind a real legacy of achievement: sustainable design producing high-quality learning environments.

And the government is showing a genuine commitment to securing that legacy. It was my particular privilege recently to be a member of a panel charged by David Miliband, Minister for Schools, to develop a series of school design 'exemplar' projects, with at least one of the schemes focusing on design in the inner-city environment. In addition, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has commissioned PricewaterhouseCooper to research the link between the increased school capital investment and the quality of the educational outcome. Through such informed political engagement, we can look forward to an enlightened electorate who will be better able to make real choices about where they live and work. This is why we must ensure that the government's ambitious sustainable communities plan really does deliver a durable solution to the problems of the housing shortage in the south-east of England and the lack of affordable homes for key-sector employees.

So, much good progress has been made in recent years and, as an architect and planner, I can say that the increasingly evident interest in design issues - both at the larger scale of urban design and master planning and within individual buildings - is most welcome. But the territory of urban design, planning and architecture is a horribly complex one for the politician. In a few short paragraphs this article has already outlined a wide panorama of issues.

At one extreme lies ecologically sustainable design: this subject alone ranges in scope from the reconciliation of land-use transport issues to individual building design and the provision of renewable energy sources for our buildings. At the other extreme lie employment and the economy - the design and location of commercial and industrial buildings must support a successful and competitive society: economic efficiency cannot be achieved through outdated and inappropriately located buildings. And in between these extremes are issues such as conservation and heritage, health and safety, crime prevention, access for the disabled and social equity. The architect and planner must always work to reconcile these often very conflicting agendas and in setting policy and framing legislation, our political leaders must endeavour to produce conditions within which good design can succeed.

Time of change
We live in a time of extraordinary change - this nation is exploring new forms of procurement (PFI/framework agreements, etc) and we face enormous challenges in the use of new technologies, both in terms of building systems and materials and in the very way we create and issue our information. Indeed, the communication revolution itself has caused a complete review of people-people, people-place, place-place relationships in physical terms, which in turn has profound implications for architecture and planning.

Offices can now disperse their activities - departments no longer need physical proximity, as electronic contact can suffice. People can frequently work from home or, indeed, with their laptop from anywhere! Surgeons can even operate from remote locations. UK company payrolls can be processed in Bangalore in India, whilst a routine enquiry about airline timetables may be answered by staff in another continent!

Yet, despite these extraordinary achievements, we live in cities where the water is increasingly undrinkable, the air unbreathable, and the waste unmanageable. The challenge is to achieve progress and an improved quality of life through technology, not the reverse.

The future so often looks bleak and we do face immense problems with respect to the built environment both here and abroad. But politics is, as they say, 'the art of the possible'. It offers the possibility of furthering the conversation between my Institute and many of the politicians who will help shape the context in which our industry will deliver architecture that must be functionally effective as well as delightful. In short, our industry must deliver an architecture that simultaneously expresses the values of our society and the richness of our heritage, whilst exploring the diversity within our dynamic and increasingly cosmopolitan culture.

It has been a privilege over the last two years to work so closely with ministers, MPs and civil servants and, hopefully, to have contributed something useful to their work.

Supplied by courtesy of Paul Hyett, President (2001-03), Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)